Ultimate Alliance: Civil War - Part II

Did the second Little Wars play test last night at club. The table is looking good, I may actually have to get rid of even more scatter terrain, which (after years of playing Necromunda) just feels weird. The game played well, but there are a few tweaks to be done yet. 

Pro-Registration: Iron Man, She-Hulk, Atomic Robo, Leonardo, Nightwing and Blue Beetle 
Anti-Registration: Captain America, Luke Cage, The Question, Green Arrow, Invincible, Rafael 

Cap and his team had to rescue and escape from team Tony. Apologies for the quality of the pictures, my camera doesn't handle low-light too well.

The game seemed reasonably balanced. I'll be swapping out Invincible for someone else, so that the Anti-Reg heroes are a bit more at a power disadvantage, as their objective is far easier. Two more assignments and then I can jump back onto the project.

Superhero Media: Cyclops Odyssey

Get it, because he's called Cyclops? And there's a monster in The Odessey called the cyclops? It's clever, because it refrences something you don't expect! At least, I guess that's what's going on in the author's mind. Brian K. Vaughn is actually a pretty solid comic writer, so I'm not sure what was going on here, though "editorial mandates" does spring to mind. Our story is set during the "New X-Men" era of X-Men (the era when the team was attacked by Charles Xavier's evil twin sister - no, really) and focuses on Cyclops (the X-Man everyone loves to be bored by) taking a trip to "clear his head" because of events in another comic. Cyclops leaves the mansion on his motorcycle and drives to... Canada? It's not clear, and the art and storytelling does not help. When he arrives, Cyclops is attacked by Black Tom Cassidy and The Juggernaut. 

Somehow, Cyclops survives the encounter and follows a couple of the world's most fearsome mutants back to their spacecraft (because they have one) and learns that they are working for someone even more powerful than they. Think on that for a minute, more powerful than the fucking Juggernaut. Spoilers; it's just some cyborg guy who is (temporarily) defeated by falling rocks. The villain's name is Ulysses, to keep on with the whole Odyssey theme, he's a former solider whose men were killed in the crossfire of some X-Men/Evil Mutants fight and he became a cyborg to seek nonspecific revenge. There's something about some mutant-hate organisation and then Cyclops uses his excellent people-skills (no joke) to defeat Ulysses and goes back home without saying much about his adventure to anyone. 
 

Maybe I'm being unfair, because I'm not fond of X-Men or Cyclops to begin with, but I found this comic to be dull and silly. The story echos The Odyssey in only the broadest terms and the enemy is about as deep as a puddle. Why the hell are Black Tom and the freaking Juggernaut afraid of the guy? Juggernaut has fought gods and a crippled soldier with robot parts scares him? Possibly worth the time of a die hard Scott Summers fan, but I was glad to put it down and be done with it.

Alternate Supers: Monsters Vs Aliens

So I re-watched Monsters Versus Aliens recently, the "Superhero Media" will turn up at some point, but going through it a second time, with a gut full of bourbon, made me think a bit more about it. As well as being a fun family film with some kind of message about "being yourself", the references to classic Universal monster movies was pretty cool. I've always liked the idea of the American Government using the worst creatures and villains that they can find to defend their country when needed; like the Thunderbolts or Suicide Squad, but with monsters. So, taking that concept and playing with it a little, let's just see what we can come up with. 

Battalion 51 
Irradiated giant monsters have been a mainstay of American disasters since the 1950s. As far as the public is concerned, these creatures are quickly killed and life returns to normal. The truth, as is typical, is far stranger than fiction. In secret, the American Military has been capturing monsters for decades, keeping them "in-storage" for a more dire emergency. When threatened with a martian invasion, there was no choice but to release... Battalion 51! 

  If we're going to have Martian Invaders attacking '50s America, we're going to do it right! 

The Creature (The Missing Link) 

Captured near the Black Lagoon in the 1950s, The Creature is a strange hybrid between man and fish that has never been explained by modern science. It is stronger, faster and tougher than any human being and can swim quickly in salt or fresh water. The Creature possesses a reasonable level of intelligence and has been trained to attach mines to Communist Submersibles and chase down and devour beatniks. 

 

The 50 Foot Woman (Susan) 

When Nancy Archer was irradiated by unknown, alien, energies, she grew to a height of fifty feet and went on a rampage of revenge against her former lover. After a disturbing rampage, Nancy was captured and taken to Area 51 for study. Possessing incredible strength and an unbridled rage, "The 50 Foot Woman" is a dangerous foe for any enemy. 

 

The Blob (B.O.B.) 

An alien creature so fearsome that it cannot be stopped by conventional means, what madman would use such a thing as a weapon? Well, the military has experimented with with freezing the Blob, shattering "chunks" off and loading them into munitions. The deaths from these experiments are mounting, but some success has been gained. In the face of total alien invasion, the Blob may be the only hope for the human race. 

 

The Fly (Dr Cockroach) 

Professor Brundle's experiments ended in tragedy, but his work lived on. The brightest minds "rescued" from Nazi Germany quickly perfected the "Brundlefly" process, combining superhuman agility and senses with the most supreme intellects that could be found. At least, that was the plan. Unfortunately the Brundlefly process is degenerative and the volunteers only survive a few weeks, and the cost is so prohibitive that only one can be created at any time. Still, with an agile super-genius leading them, Battalion 51 are even more fearsome. 

 

Tarantula (Insectorsaurous) 

Created by ill-advised and unsupervised experiments in "gigantism", this 100-foot-tall arachnid is the ultimate weapon in the Battalion 51 arsenal. It is, frankly, surprising how few problems cannot be solved by sending a giant spider to attack something. Alien invasion? Giant Tarantula. Cuban Missile Crisis? Get a giant Tarantula to eat Castro. Debt crisis because some idiot though trickle-down economics was a real thing and deregulated the banks? Feed the Republican party to a giant Tarantula. 

 

Were I to undertake this team as a project (and I am tempted), I'd probably look at 15mm for my scale. All Quiet On the Martian Front miniatures and a couple of fantasy and horror monster minis for the "heroes". It would make one hell of a fun con-game and could easily be done with some clever tweaks of SS4. Oh well, off to the internet to browse minis again...

Superhero Media: Dragonball Z Resurrection 'F'

I really enjoyed this film at the cinema, I enjoyed it less the second time around, but I still feel that Resurrection 'F' is one of the best Dragonball Z films in the, very bloated, catalogue. The set up is pretty nifty, with their empire collapsing, the remains of the Frieza Force decide to risk a trip to Earth in order to use the Dragonballs to revive their fallen leader. The now child-aged Emperor Pilaf, Mai and Shou are bullied into helping Sorbet and a handful of Frieza soldiers collect the balls and bring the chunks of Cyborg Frieza (that Future Trunks left) back to life. Seeking revenge, Frieza trains himself to a level beyond anything the Z Warriors have seen before. Bringing his soldiers to Earth, Frieza keeps the Z Warriors (Gohan, Piccolo, Tien, Roshi and Krillin) battling his soldiers until Goku and Vegeta come back from training with Whis and beat the dictator down. Also there's some time travel and a space cop. 

Many of the elements that can be found in Resurrection 'F' are ones I like to see and, frankly, don't see enough in Dragonball; recurring villains, team fights and the action not being focused on how powerful Goku is are all good elements. Freiza has always been one of the best DB villains, he's no King Piccolo or Doctor Wheelo, but he's way better than any version of Buu and seeing him grandstand, plot and boast really makes him feel like a threat once again. Seeing the team of Z Warriors battle the soldiers is amazing, the fights move fluidly and each character gets to do their own thing. There are some fun pop culture references, like a Maximum the Hormone song and a cameo by one of Team Four Star (I forget which one). Once Goku goes "Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan" and "Golden Frieza" is revealed, the film goes downhill and I lose interest quickly.
 

There are problems with Resurrection 'F', the usual DBZ misogyny with Android 18 not getting to go to the fight, despite being stronger than Krillin, because she needs to stay at home and look after the kid. Gohan can longer go Ascended Super Saiyan and seems to have lost his Ultimate/Mystic power-up. Rebirth of Fusion, another good DBZ film, is clearly rendered non-canon, twice and Gotenks is not mentioned. There's a plot thread about Frieza looking for Future Trunks that goes nowhere and no one seems to remember that pretty much every member of the team is stronger than when they last fought Frieza. Maybe Krillin has some major PTSD, but it feels like a gap in the writing. Problems aside, Resurrection 'F' is a good take on DBZ and well worth a watch for the first half, improved animation and better voice work than most of the series got.

Miniatures Finished: Gothamites, Robot and U-Foe

Wow, actually have everything painted for Little Wars already, just a few terrain pieces and stat cards to do. I'm glad I put all that work in last year before I started studying, now I can get a game up and running pretty quick. 

 GI Robot, The Question II, Nightwing and Ironclad 

 GI Robot (scratch build) I touched it up a little because I was never happy with it, Ironclad of the U-Foes (Clix), just Vapor to paint now.

 New Nightwing (didn't like my old one) and Renee Montoya as The Question, both Clix. 

 

Superhero Media: One Punch Man

So this anime was memeing pretty hard and I figured I should probably check it out. Something about a guy who was so strong he could kill anything with only one punch. Given the tedium that overpowered anime and video game characters tends to inspire in me, I was reluctant to get started. What anyone failed to tell me was that the protagonist, Saitama, suffers from such a degree of existential ennui that he is occasionally unable to function and borders upon suicidal. No one mentioned that One Punch Man was a pastiche of exactly the kind of overused tropes and cliches that I'm growing sick of in comics, anime, films and video games and that there are some unique concepts explored very cleverly. Also, there's big fights and a really strong guy, that's what really counts, right? 

 

Of all the overpowered anime characters to grace the small screen, Saitama is by far the most humble and, frankly, the most reasonable I've ever come across; he just wants to help out. After rescuing a child from a massive crab monster, Saitama dedicates himself to training, with the aim of becoming the strongest hero in the world; he succeeds, but the credit always seems to go to someone else. Also of interest is the public registration, payment and ranking of heroes, in which heroes essentially become public servants or, at the top level, special forces. One of the "S-Class" heroes is actually a criminal, who spends most of his time in prison, either for rape or sexual assault, it's not clear, but he's powerful enough that he's pulled out for the biggest fights. Imagine the level of amoral bureaucracy that requires. It makes a great counterpoint to the whole "Civil War" thing.

For a more international take on the interaction between superheroes and governments, give One Punch Man a go, there's a lot there to explore in games. The fights are pretty spectacular and Saitama's struggle with motivation and mental health give it a bit more mileage than it might otherwise have. Despite my usual tendency to veer away from really powerful characters, I am a bit tempted to track down a 28mm Saitama, he's really strong, but he requires an activation roll to get up and going. In the next series, I'd like to see some more explanation of how the Hero Ranking system works and what the plan is for when the number of heroes grows too large, or someone really powerful goes rogue.

5 Online Superhero Comics worth checking out

Need a quick supers fix and don't like the attention that the latest issue of Atomic Robo brings you in the lunchroom? Well whip out your phone and give these a go. None of them are Watchmen, but you'll scratch that Supers itch just fine. 

The Gutters 
http://www.the-gutters.com/ 

(Completed) 
Actually a series about the comic book industry, The Gutters can require some "insider information" at times to enjoy the gags, but the jokes are clever enough that you'll get a snicker anyway. If you're the kind of comics fan that likes taking shots at Rob Lyfeld and the amount of times the Flash has died, this one is for you. 
 
The Specialists 
http://thespecialistscomic.com/ 

(Ongoing) 
A WWII superhero comic set in a world where German super-humans have kept the war ticking over through 1945. The line quality of the art and the broad Golden Age cliches belie a pretty interesting comic that delves as much into the social and racial issues of the time as it does the necessity to have super-humans wage a war that's spinning out of control. At one page per week, The Specialists may seem slow, but I know I'm hooked already. 
 
Dragonball Multiverse 
http://www.dragonball-multiverse.com/

(Ongoing) I've mentioned DBM before, but if you're like me (a DB fan sick of Goku power-creep), give it a go. The story is a tournament between all of the parallel universes of DB, but that's just a device to explore the possibilities of the universe, all the "what ifs?" (Yes, that's Videl doing a Kaioken and wielding the Z Sword!) The quality varies, but characters like The Namekian and Android Yamacha keep me coming back to check out the new story lines every couple of months. 
 
Bob & George 
http://www.bobandgeorge.com/

(Completed) 
Man, I used to read this in High School. So, the original idea behind this was a superhero comic, but the creator couldn't draw very well, so he did a Megaman sprite comic to fill in while he practiced. The fill-in became so popular that it took on a life of it's own and ran for years. It's silly, it's played for laughs, but in-between the jokes about Megaman being an idiot or industrial strength ice cream, there can be some pretty good action. Time travel, multiple dimensions and an apocalypse speak well to traditional supers tropes. 
 
Super Stupor! 

http://somethingpositive.net/#superstupor 
(On Hiatus) 
Created as a side project by Randy Millholland of Something*Positive, Super Stupor is another parody comic, this time focusing on the traditions and history of comics rather than the industry itself. Not it fails to take, well-deserved, shots at women in refrigerators and One More Day. Again, not much of it there to read, but worth your time.