Superhero Media: Trigun

So, like many angry young men, I went through the Anime phase in my teens, and though I got started with Pokemon and Dragonball Z, it was Trigun that had me badgering people to start watching Anime. Time went on, I grew up, did a Undergraduate Major in Film and Television, and  stepped my Anime intake down to things that appealed to my sensibilities rather than everything I could get my hands on. More than a decade since I last watched it, Trigun pops up on Netflix and I decide to give it a go again. In the distant future, the last survivors of humanity populate a beak, dry world, having regressed to a turn-of-the-century level of technology and lawlessness reminiscent of the Old West. The most notorious man in the world is Vash the Stampede, aka, The Humanoid Typhoon and the $$60Billion Man. Insurance agents, Meryl and Millie, are sent to find the elusive outlaw and follow him, keeping damage to a minimum. 

The main drive of the series revolves around the true nature of Vash and the gradual reveal of his history. Once all is revealed in a couple of flashback episodes, the slapstick backs off and the action ramps up as Vash battles his way to his nemesis, Knives. I'm torn between not wanting to spoil the twists for those who haven't seen them and discussing the more philosophical elements of the programme. So, spoiler warning, I guess? Vash the Stampede is a pacifist, he'll hurt people to stop them, but will never kill, because he carries the guilt of being forced to kill previously. So heavy is the weight of this guilt that Vash's body is covered in scars and he doesn't even fire his gun for the first six episodes. Seeing Vash outsmart and outplay his opponents is half the fun of the big fights and makes a nice change from typical anime fare. The villain team for the series, the Gung-ho Guns, are a nice mix of characters, featuring robots, samurai, snipers and assassins, and would make great antagonists for any superhero game or campaign. 

As Trigun is something of an "entry-level" anime for people of my generation, it tends to have fans so dedicated that to voice dissent is to invite online attacks in comments sections and on forums. However, Trigun is not perfect; the drastic change in tone between the first and second halves of the series can be jarring, the flashbacks come out of nowhere, and, not to be that guy but, Vash's English dub voice is terrible. Some of the transliteration versus translation of the dub is so poor as to seem almost random, I'd recommend the Japanese audio if you can handle the subtitles. The soundtrack is brilliant, especially "Perfect Night", I've used a lot of it to evoke moods in roleplaying, but I'm sorry, you'll have to pirate it, because it's impossible to buy outside of Japan. I don't love Trigun as much as I did, but it is still really good, and I'd love to get my hands on a 28mm Vash to join my other space heroes.

Home Town Advantage

I like running superhero RPG and miniature campaigns for people, but I often find myself running into problems around verisimilitude with the setting. It's not always an issue, for example, running an Avengers-themed game pretty much has to take place in New York City, and there are plenty of international or intergalactic teams to work with that make for a fun game. Where I find myself getting somewhat stuck is when I want to create a new "setting" or play around with original characters. My "Equalisers" Mutants and Masterminds game from years ago was set in Melbourne (where I live), which worked well, but I had to fill in a lot of details to make it interesting for heroes to run around in. 
There are a few elements that are important in a good "Super-city", not just the presence of heroes and villains, but also a decent reason for them to be there. Think Batman trying to save the city he grew up in, the Avengers operating out of NYC because that's where Tony Stark lives or Robocop being in the most crime-ridden city in the USA. When crafting an RPG, I also like to have interesting areas for players to explore in "downtime", or that provide origins for antagonists or henchmen. Anything that makes the city more interesting to game in and more "real" need to be considered. 
Naturally, building such a city "from scratch" is rather time-intensive and requires a great deal of explanation to players; but there is another option. Plenty of "Superhero Media" provides example cities and settings that are ripe for use, but also are 'open' enough to let game runners flesh out parts for themselves. I've been keeping track of a few of these, just in case I find myself in need of them, so I thought it would be of interest to some if I shared them here.

Neo Yokio (Neo Yokio)

I actually enjoyed this American Netflix anime, but I do get why it didn't have a broad appeal. Yes, the characters are annoying and their attitudes grate, but that's the point. People got that, right? That the viewer is meant to find the protagonist irritating? Anyway, the real star of the show is the city itself, a heady mix of New York, Kyoto and Vienna with plenty of Paris and Hong Kong thrown in for effect. The lives of the wealthy and poor are sharply divided in Neo Yokio, with palatial mansions and apartments kept separate from walled-off slums and ghettos, culture focuses on the "top end" of town, with media kept away from anything that will distract from the lives of the rich and famous the wealth divide is only felt more keenly by those on the wrong end.
There's plenty of scope for story in this city, even without the ghost and exorcist elements. What happens when a hero with a secret identity ends up on the Bachelor Board? Will a masked vigilante arise to combat the gangs in the slums only to find themselves in conflict with the police? I want to see what other stories there are to be found in Neo Yokio.

New Marais (inFamous 2) 

Essentially a post-Katrina New Orleans, New Marais is the setting of inFamous 2, a superhero video game that I really enjoyed. I was actually working on a supers campaign set in the city for an RPG, but the group broke up and the notes were lost. New Marais itself is a great place to set a game, with areas relatively untouched by the hurricane and some neighborhoods underwater. As well as survivors and rescuers, police trying to hold the city together, doomsday cultists and newly-minted super-humans stalk the streets, each following their own agenda. For a number of reasons, New Marais would make a great city to set a game in which super-humans are a new phenomenon, where players can decide who their own goals to work towards. Being a popular video game, there is plenty of information about New Marais online, including maps, pictures and descriptions of important locations and major NPCs.

 

Bludhaven  (DC) 

I spoke to someone once wanting to run a game set in Gotham City, but wondering how to get around the "Batman problem"; namely, why bother having any other superheroes in a city where Batman is running around? The solution to wanting to run a Batman style game without the presence of Batman is Bluhaven, Gotham's sister city, home of Nightwing and filled with just as many gangsters and mafioso's. Finding resources on Bludhaven can be a little tricky because the city has really gone through the wringer in the comics on occasion, even to the point of being destroyed by Chemo so that Intergang could access a secret government bunker beneath the city. That's a route you can go, if you like, but for me, the appeal of Bludhaven is having a city to run around in without all the established baggage of Gotham. Perhaps Nightwing is happy to have help where Batman would be antagonistic? Perhaps a major villain has just moved into town, thinking it may be easy pickings? Perhaps The Justice League has come recruiting and Nightwing needs someone to watch the city in his absence? Plenty of ideas that would work here.

San Fran Sokoyo (Big Hero 6) 

An alternate version of San Fransisco with a much heavier Japanese influence, San Fran Sokoyo is a great setting for supers gaming for many reasons beyond the visual element and fun nomenclature. The level of technology is such that people can build elaborate robots to fight in gambling dens, which helps facilitate super-powers a lot better than many real-world cities. Also, there is a problem with illegal gambling so bad the the police do regular raids, in a Disney film? Why does this never come up? There's your criminal underbelly right there, a character like Kingpin, Black Mask or Machine Head could rise out of that situation pretty easily. The history of the city could come into play, like how did the population react to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII? Presumably there was a large population of Japanese people in a city named San Fran Sokoyo. Real life San Fransisco can provide inspiration as well, with the tech sector, Spanish influence and liberal political leanings. Mexican emigre gang-bangers fighting in the poor districts saying "sayonara, ese" as they shoot someone is a pretty unique tableau. As with Neo Yokio above, there is plenty to explore here of genuine interest.

Metro City (Astro Boy 2009)  

Also interesting for the setting in which the city floats, a massive, airborne, futuristic Tokyo is always going to add a unique flavour to your superhero games. A post-needs society where most of the manual labor is handled by robots, ruled by a conservative elite that fearmongers to stay in power and develop unnecessary weapons to fight a group of scavengers in a wasteland. Man, I should have given this a better review on that basis alone. Even without the presence of Astro Boy, there is plenty of scope for heroes and adventures in Metro City, from renegade robots (shades of Magnus, robot fighter)to enslaved artificial intelligence struggling to be free (think Vision), throw in corrupt government and police and you have a great deal to work with. Are cyborgs a privileged elite, or a downtrodden underclass? You can decide, or let your players to see what happens. 

Hope there's some inspiration there for budding game masters or experienced ones to get your own games up and running. Remember, even if a piece of media isn't that great, it doesn't mean that you can't find some inspiration in it for your own tabletop adventures.

Superhero Media: Justice League (2001)

The follow-up to the highly successful Batman and Superman animated series, Justice League sees the coming together of legendary heroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Martian Manhunter, Flash and Hawkgirl to form the Justice League. Given the success of the solo cartoons, Justice League feels like the logical progression in the DCAU, but it's not quite as good as Justice League Unlimited would be later on. What lets the programme down is the writing, despite how good the previous DCAU efforts were, the team just seems to have made some poor decisions in constructing the episodes. The team admit this themselves in the DVD extras, not being used to writing for an ensemble cast, and doing things like making Superman less effective to try and make the team feel more justified. All that said, once the Second Season begins, the programme gets a lot better and there are genuine moments of greatness. 

The strength that Justice League has over the previous DCAU efforts is in how 'organic' the world-building feels, from the core team of seven heroes, characters like Etrigan, Supergirl and Kilowog are introduced, as well as villains ranging in power and influence from Cheetah through to Mongul. For me, this is really where the "Universe" part of the DC Animated Universe comes to the fore, yes we've seen other planets before, but now places like Oa are actual recurring locations, rather than offhand references. The majority of the episodes are two-parters as well, which helps build bigger stories and longer narratives, with 44-50 minutes to work with, each story could almost form the basis of a film. In fact, despite the stilted start, Justice League just serves to demonstrate that Bruce Timm and Paul Dini should be handed the reigns of the DC film franchises. In the first episodes, a disparate group of heroes come together to defeat an alien invasion. Only Superman and Batman have worked together in any significant way in the past, but they kind of know Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkgirl. Wonder Woman has just left Paradise Island, they rescue Martian Manhunter from the government and go defeat the bad guys. 

I'm not pointing any fingers here, but doesn't that sound a lot like the plot of The Avengers (2012), at least in the abstract? Like introducing the heroes and forming the group dynamic is more important than learning everyone's origins or building up a major villain who will never be seen again? It's far from perfect, but clever casting, a bigger budget and more passes at the script could turn 60+ minutes of cartoon into a decent live action JLA film. At least better than the one we got. Enemies like Doctor Destiny and Felix Faust prove to be way more interesting than world-conquering threats and the adaptation of "For the man who has everything" is actually pretty brilliant. If you've been wanting to learn more about the DC heroes, but don't feel like committing to a pile of comics, Justice League is a good place to start, despite the shaky first season. For me, the DCAU "Timmverse" is where my brain goes to when I think of the "iconic" versions of these characters, it's really that good. 

Miniatures Finished: 24/07/18

Winter is really quiet at my store, so plenty of painting is happening in my copious downtime.  Customers actually react really positively to seeing me do hobby work for the most part, many being familiar with some form of table top gaming or scale model building. The most amusing part is when I mention I'm painting superheroes and people get interested, but I'm no longer painting any heroes that most people would recognise. Sure, I love Calendar Man, but I have great taste and not everyone does.

Venom: I had a repainted and converted Venom from the Marvel Superheroes Heroscape set, but he was a little small, so I finally rebased this monster from Heroclix. 

Calendar Man: I was glad to find a Heroclix version of the Hush outfit for Calendar Man, but I decided to go with the traditional orange prison jumpsuit to tone in with other characters I've painted. 

Count Nefaria: Great villain, terrible colour scheme to paint. I'm actually more familiar with the character of Nefaria from the Bendis Moon Knight comics than classic Iron Man or X-Men, but I needed some more powerful villains. Heroclix.
 

Machine Man: Only three more members of Next Wave to paint! And now I have a Fin Fang Foom, I feel a scenario coming on. This Heroclix came badly bent, so I had to improvise with his arm, pretty happy with the result. 

Puar: Yes, after painting Super Sayian Goku, my next Dragon Ball miniature is naturally Puar. A friend picked up a few model kits of Dragon Dall vehicles, one of which featured Yamcha and Puar; Yamcha was partially molded into the seat, but Puar sits up by herself nicely. Ban Dai. 

Lizard: Sometimes I can't believe some of the characters I haven't gotten around to painting in all the years I've been doing this, Lizard being right up there with my being such a huge Spider-Man fan and all. Heroclix. 

Superhero Media: Gamera the Giant Monster (1965)

This one's going to be a bit quick, as Gamera the Giant Monster doesn't do much to make the titular Kaiju heroic, but in order to understand where the series goes, it is necessary to take a look at. When mysterious, high-tech jets drop nuclear bombs on the Antarctic, a prehistoric monster is unleashed and begins a rampage across the world. Much like many of the early Kaiju films, Gamera the Giant Monster is about governments and the military combating a monster and trying to minimise casualties and destruction. To a modern sensibility, the film is more than a little globalist in outlook, with international cooperation in the face of a global threat being a logical conclusion, rather than an exception to the norm. There's not even a scene where the Americans try and take control of everything only to stuff it up. Plans fail because the people involved don't know all the variables, so they regroup and try again, pretty inspiring stuff, in its own way. 

All of the essential elements of later Gamera films are here, he eats flames and radiation, flies by spinning and shooting flames from his shell and protects children. The character isn't quite the same as the one who will fight Jigger later on, but the obvious attempts to copy the successful Godzilla formula are to be expected. In hindsight, the flaws are fairly forgivable in the same manner as Golden and Silver Age comics recycling the same origins and story-beats over and over; it's just the way these stories were told at the time. If cliche and rubber monster costumes are too much of a boundary to your enjoyment, then this genre really isn't for you. That said, if you like scale models or model railways, the scenery in Gamera the Giant Monster is really well done and brilliantly precise. That's a trend for the entire Gamera series, but given the lack of cheap plastics and prefabricated kits at the time this film was made, the work is all the more impressive.

 

Due to trauma in my teens, I can't quite recall if it was Gamera the Giant Monster or Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) that was the first real kaiju film I saw, though I did have a poorly-dubbed copy of Gamera the Giant Monster on VHS. Gamera got me into Kaiju and has always been more interesting to me than the Godzilla franchise, specifically because Gamera is heroic in the later films. I have all of the Gamera films, other than Gamera the Brave on DVD, so expect to see the rest reviewed here in short order, as well as more kaiju-related games and supers. Giant monsters work perfectly with caped avengers, from the classic Marvel Godzilla comics to the failed Adam West Batman Meets Godzilla film, the two genres are practically made to share the spotlight. 

5 "Verses" Battles I'd like to see

After attacking the entirety of internet nerd culture in a previous entry, I decided I needed to flex my credentials a little. As mentioned in "Death Rattles", I am a big fan of theoretical superhero match-ups, dedicating quite a bit too much brain time for a man my age to thinking about these sort of things. My issue is that too many people are focused on how various powerful characters stack up as a bizarre matter of pride, rather than thinking out what would be fun, interesting and/or unique to see. 
To remedy that, here are five examples of crossover fights I'd like to see and how I think they'd go, just to prove I don't hate fun. If people even think that, I think I prop up the pursuit of fun in the Superhero genre quite a bit around here. I even enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows.

Ratchet (Insomniac) Vs Rocket (Marvel) 

(Looks like I'm not the first one to think of this) 

 

Two cute, furry, gun-toting mechanics with big histories as space adventurers and bigger weapons, Ratchet and Rocket feel like a match made in nerd heaven. As both of these characters are heroes, any crossover would have to follow the classic formula of "heroes meet, heroes fight each other, they make up, heroes fight the villain". Trust me, it's a cliche because it works. The scene in which each character pulls out a succession of bigger and bigger weapons, slowly blasting away wherever they're fighting, only to accidentally swap the RYNO for the Hadron Enforcer and hilarity ensues. I'd imagine that the finale of the crossover would feature both characters blasting away an entire space armada with hand-held weapons, or something equally as crazy.

Ronan the Accuser (Marvel) Vs Judge Fear (2000AD)

I'll start out by saying that I'm a big fan of both characters and have gamed this scenario out in my head a bunch of times. Ronan probably wins this one, he does hold the Universal Weapon, but the fight would be interesting nonetheless as Judge Fear is a supernatural opponent, something Ronan isn't used to fighting. Also, both of the two preen and posture, which is really important in a villain fight, which should be pretty damn camp if you're going to do it properly. And let's not forget the fun word-play that can be had with "Accuser" and "Judge".   

Doctor Dinosaur (Atomic Robo) Vs Calendar Man (DC)

 

Calendar Man is an awesome villain and I will fight you on that. I shouldn't need to convince you how awesome Doctor Dinosaur is, so here we go. I'm picturing this crossover working along the lines of both Calendar Man and Doctor Dinosaur are planning an elaborate plot at the same time and place and clash over who gets to pull their job. After arguing in each's typical faction for a while, the pair team up to use crystal-powered devices to kill people on Bastille Day (why not?). At the last minute, Batman and Atomic Robo swing in to save the day. This really doesn't need to be more than one issue of a comic, but I think it'd be a lot of fun; Batman needs more fun.

Battle Beast (Image) Vs Ares (Marvel Comics)

 

As much as I complain about the demand to see "powerful" characters fight each other, I'm not totally adverse to the concept, I'd just like to see it done with someone other than the usual suspects. Battle Beast is an alien warrior king driven insane by years of fighting, becoming a living engine of destruction. Ares is the God of War and a former Dark Avenger, with a thirst for battle that can never be quenched. Simply put, these two will wreck shit. You know those fights where the entire surrounding area gets destroyed? Yeah, this would be one of those, and it would be pretty awesome. There's a bonus here that may get some more attention for Invincible with having a character from that series in the same comic as a Marvel character.

Black Panther (Marvel) Vs The Phantom (King Features)

  (not surprised this time, this one's pretty obvious) 

 

I wonder why this one has never happened, not even in the heyday of Marvel U? I need to keep mentioning this, but The Phantom is still very popular in Commonwealth countries, with more than one series in print currently. Since the 2018 film, Black Panther is making mad bank for Marvel as well as a huge impact in black communities worldwide. So here's the pitch, Black Panther thinks Phantom is a colonialist whose "protection" is actually dictatorship and decides to go take him out for the good of Africa. After the two have fought and The Phantom is losing, his people come to his aid and Black Panther has to rethink his point of view. There's plenty of scope there for some great storytelling about race, colonialism and representation, which is exactly what a good Black Panther comic should do. 

Superhero Media: Batman the Movie (1966)

It's been said by better commentators than I that Batman the Movie functions as more of "highlight reel" of the television programme than a feature-length version of the same. Most of the main elements are there, fight scenes, gadgets, vehicles, colourful villains and unlikely escapes, but the wry humour and subtle social and political jabs are missing. The Caped Crusaders are called in to help when a cabal of villains, Penguin, the Joker, Catwoman and the Riddler, enact a complex plot to conquer the entire world. Over the next 105 minutes, we're treated to such memorable moments as the Bat-Shark Repellent, dehydrated UN delegates and a penguin-shaped submarine; it's pretty wonderful really, even if it's not quite as great as the series proper. 

If you've seen any Adam West Batman, it's likely that it was Batman the Movie, as it tends to get regular play on commercial television, usually mid-afternoon on school holidays. Even people that have never seen more than a clip compilation are aware of the Bat-Shark Repellent and classic lines like "that exploding shark was pulling my leg". Having recently finished the entire Batman series, I found that I missed little things like the sexual interplay between Batman and Catwoman and the villain plots often being more mundane than needing to conquer the world. Then again, more use of the Bat-Cycle and Bat-Copter than the budget of the average episode will allow is pretty cool and has me eyeing off some more die cast vehicles to add to my collection. Perhaps a Batcave with a motor pool? But where the hell would I store it? 

This one's a little brief because there's really not too much here to talk about. Batman the Movie is a fun romp, somehow even less serious than the series, but aside from a couple of key scenes, it's not terribly memorable. For me, Batman the Movie is a good "litmus test" for seeing if friends, loved ones or potential dates may be able to stomach watching more Adam West Batman. Although the series is a lot better than Batman the Movie would indicate, the film is about as bad as the series gets, so if you, or anyone else, can stomach the film, then the series is well within reach. Annoyingly, Batman the Movie is not included in the Batman boxed set, but it should prove easy enough to track down if you really feel like it. Still not the worst live-action Batman film by a mile.