Is the Fantastic Four...fantastic?

 Spoilers maybe potentially...

As a Marvel kid who from a very young age had comics in my collection from before my time, and a handful were very old (I had some issues that were between original FF issues 12-60...lotsa Wyatt Wingfoot, Diablo, and Dragon Man) and I really loved those. That eventually inspired me as a young adult in the 80's and early 90's to collect new issues for some years (until those fuckers started to cost like 250 or more a pop).

Loved those great Kirby touches. Like having
Namor take a big fish dump while watching TV

But so many of us who are not total seniors yet, we experienced Jack Kirby through reprints and graphic novels. That distinctive 60's futurepunk look for technology and outer space objects (often just a big wall made of abstract shapes and who the hell knows what it is kind of stuff). 

We don't really get it in its purest Kirby form in this new film, but it is there. That homage is what was making me hopeful about this. The Kirbyness was most present in Galactus scenes. 

First, the cast. Not bad. Pretty much unknowns except for very overexposed Pedro Pascal. He was fine as Richards, but he was a different Reed than I was familiar with. Quiet and moody. My Mr. F is a nerd, but also had a 60's manliness and a can-do attitude. 

and maybe a little rough when he is 
explaining to his wife how to listen

But I think my real problem is they got an overexposed guy to play him. I saw a commercial the other day for the FF appearing at Universal Citywalk or something, and that unknown Reed would have been better. For one thing, Mr. F and Sue Storm are kind of old for the parts. In the comics Reed is in his 40's and Sue in her 20's. A trophy wife deal. Vanessa Kirby is 37 and Pedro is 50. C'mon. 

There is some chemistry between the leads. Though at least Kirby is in a relationship with somebody else last I read, they had many instances of public affection at interviews. 

Yes, this blog is a gossip page now

But seriously, I'm pretty sure there is one main thing about him that would keep Pedro for pursuing his lovely lead...

not that there is anything wrong with that..

Ben Grimm was...ben Grimm. No cartoonish Bronx accept or way of talking. He sounds more like a college literature grad than the "Crips! Shut yer yap! Why I outta!" comic book Noo Yawk working stiff stuff. But ok. Johnny Storm is not as woke as I expected. I heard they were going to make him gay. But he is a bit of a hot shot, he liked to get sniz on the reg, but he is also often a voice of reason here, and I think also a bit of a scientist now. I think they all are. But yeah they keep the horndog aspect. He's hot for Silver Surfer, and she pretty much looks like the Oscars trophy. Really, Human Torch is the big standout in the film. Smart, funny, and fearless. He was the big suprise here. 

As far as FF films I still think ...

we all know what the best FF movie was

Some basic dislikes:

The eye candy was good, but it still moved too slow. The action was...not very actiony. Ben Grimms big display of power was running through some pillars to know a building down. 

I guess I mention Sue's age. She should be just out of college, not at an age where her biological clock is running out. 

Pedro again. Tired of his face. And his interview comments in the marketing leading up kind of made him the new Rachel Zegler (look her up). 

They are from the 60's but are coming to modern day. I feel like they will become about being time displaced. The 60's of their world has high tech thanks to Reed, but still they will be out of touch. How will they approach that. Constant Beetles references?

I heard Reed will be leading character in upcoming films, even leading the Avengers. So where does that leave the rest of the FF?

Some basic Likes:

Gratitude that Kang is no longer the threat (though I hear he will show up at some point). Should have been Doom all the way (though he might have been ruined in Ant Man 3).

Herbie. As a kid I hated that he was in the cartoon rather than Torch. But he works well here. 

The whole 60's vibe. Very Fallout..out of place tech.

The early montage where many FF classic villains were mentioned. Actual action against the Red Ghosts super apes and Mole Man...plus mentions of Diablo and Puppet Master. 

Cheers

Superman Review and yeah some spoilers

 

As a kid and into my teens Spider Man was my favorite superhero, the comic I collected the most of, and the collection I much later made a lot of money on in the early days of Ebay. I was a Marvel kid for sure, but at swap meets and thrift shops I encountered and took possession of a lot of DC. I would not actually collect DC until I was into my 20's, and those were very specific. Suicide Squad and Johan Hex were almost complete sets I had.

But the big three, you know, Superman, Batman, and even Wonder Woman were in my collection. At some point as a young man Superman became my favorite overall hero. Whether a big blue boy scout, or a troubled and alienated being, Supes in any flavor was OK by me. 

What we get in James Gunns Superman is a mildly flawed, kind of corny and loveable Man of Steel. He really comes off less like the 70's Reeves Superman, and more like that films goofy Clark Kent. This movies Clark actually seems cooler than his Superman identity. 

Superman starts the movie off all beat to shit, and his cousins dog Krypto drags him to the Fortress of Solitude where Supes assistant Robots put him on a gurney and expose him to magnified sunlight to bring him back near peak. Yes, if this all sounds very 50's and 60's Superman then you are on the nose. James Gunn is looking to vintage and kind of cartoony DC for his inspiration. Anyway, Supes is right back in action and back to getting his ass kicked. All up and down Metropolis. 

Nick Holt is a great Luthor. Both evilly funny and at times terrifying. Though he seems to be a good boss to his assistants. He doesn't hit anybody like you might expect from this Luthor. He just breaks a glass and tells them to clean it up. They hop right to it so they must be well paid. And the most abuse he heaps on his girlfriend Miss Teshmacher is throwing a pencil at her. But at some point he does jail her in his prison dimension where what appears to be another former gif is already imprisoned. So yeah, that seems kind of dark. 

So Luthors scheme is to out Superman as a fraud or something, and when he unscrambles the speech by Supes Krypton parents where it is heavily implied they sent him to rule (Gunn ripping off Invincible it seems) rather than protect. When humanity is supplied the scandalous info (confirmed to be genuine by Mr. Terrific) they turn on Superman. This rewriting of Supes parents is probably the most controversial addition by Gunn. But it sets up an incredible montage of how great Clarks Earth parents were to him growing up, and how they inspired him to be good, not some prince of aliens from an ice planet on the other side of the galaxy. I actually got misty at that point. Gunn got me. 

My toxic fandom cronies online are not going to like how much I like the movie. It is not as woke as I feared. Any political stuff is blurred enough that you can add what you like. The foreign war portrayed could be Israel, or it could be Ukraine. So pick your preferred flavor of global injustice. 

The back up cast is pretty good. They are all there. Lois, pal Jimmy (who it turns out is a dork who somehow gets unbelievable supermodel sniz on the reg)

 Perry White (who nowadays is ironical black), office slut Cat Grant, and others.

Of the other heroes Guy Gardner is good, Hawkgirl may as well not even be there (though she gets her own wicked moments on the battlefield), but Mr. Terrific is, well, Terrific. The most obscure of the bunch, I loved him in the comics. Worlds smartest man as well as super athlete. His abilities, and technology, and attitude are right out of the comics. He might be the most accurate portrayal of a comics hero ever. He needs his own movie. 

Everybody loves a nutty dog, but Krypto gets annoying at times. Cousin Supergirl, played by the chin girl from House of the Dragon, shows up for like a minute at the end to collect her dog, and is clearly drunk. When she leaves she calls Supe a bitch, which I thought was funny. She is a party girl. This is all a reference the Woman of Tomorrow graphic novel where Supergirl likes to go to yellow sun planets so she can actually get drunk, and a story that the upcoming movie will be based on. 

Superman starts and ends the movie beat to shit. There is a certain lack of the respect the character gets in other media. Authorities and other heroes treat him more like the popular high school quarterback than a demigod. And it's OK. This is Superman early in his career. There is room to grow. 

Oh yeah, some pretty good songs selected like James Gunn do. 

So yes, I do recommend it. It's a good time at the movies. 

Cheers.

Inuyasha - my latest Anime Obsession

 

Inuyasha is a manga and anime from the early 2000's. The manga was created by Rumiko Takahashi, the same lady who created one of my long-time guilty pleasures from way back, Ranma 1/2. Though Inuyasha has some familiar humor as found in Ranma, this work is far more dark in tone. 

I first noticed the anime years ago. It was on Fox Kids or Toonami or something. I just looked for a couple minutes, shrugged, and moved on. There were so many animes on in these TV blocks at the time; Yugi Oh, Pokemon, etc and most did not appeal to me on the surface. 

Then the same thing happed that happened to me with Lupin the Third and Sailor Moon the last two or three years: Pluto TV added a channel dedicated to Inuyasha. On Pluto you get commercials, but you also get uncut and uncensored original Japanese versions with subtitles. 

So I started watching. And it only took a couple of episodes to hook me in. Epic combat, an interesting backdrop, amusing humor, and cute female characters. It has been maybe three weeks, and just like those other anime properties I got to love through Pluto, I'm pretty much just watching episodes here and there more or less at random. The channel left on as I go about my day around the house. I'm fairly hip to the basic story and characters and am still learning. I may actually start watching from the beginning, I'm so into it at this point. I think it will appeal to DnD folk in large part because the battles seem like high level DnD...strong characters using abilities and powerful weapons. 

So the story is set against the Sengoku Period of Japan. This was a chaotic and violent time in the 1400's that went on for a long time. No central power and feudal warlords in endless battles against each other. You actually do not see a lot of that, the human factor mostly being encountered in small put upon villages or bandits in out of the way places. Farmers and such trying to get by during these troubled times.

During this time there is also the threat of demons, or more traditionally "Yokai" which is a term that encompasses a great range of supernatural entities which includes various spirit folk including ghosts and traditional Oni demons. The presence of a powerful wish granting item called the Shikon Jewel has masses of demons appearing to claim it. 

50 Years prior to the start of the main story, a half demon dog half human named Inuyasha and the human priestess he loves, Kikyo, are manipulated by the powerful spider demon Naraku into a confrontation over the jewel that ends up with Inuyasha being pinned to a tree by an arrow. He hangs there for 50 years. 

Kagome is a 14-year-old schoolgirl in our time period who lives at a shrine her family runs. 

She discovers a magical well on the property that is a gateway to the era of Inuyasha, and she also happens to be the reincarnation of Kikyo. Kagome enters the well and is transported, and almost instantly encounters Inuyasha on the tree. She frees him, and the half demon at first thinks it is Kikyo. The jewel ends up shattered into many pieces, and those shards are cast out across the lands. And there is your hook. 

Inuyasha and Kagome set out to find the shards, and at the same time Naraku the demon lord and pretty much every demon in the land go searching for the shards. Some already have pieces, and often gain great power from them. Kagome has the power to sense the shards, which makes things a little easier. 

 

One of Narakus many forms

Inuyasha and Kagome are of course the romantic leads. With Kagome being smart and pragmatic, and Inuyasha being a bit of a wild child prone to violence, they are often at odds. I'm not sure how yet, but Kagome early on is given the power to make Inuyasha faceplant to the ground when she utters the command "sit!" It happens a lot but is always funny. 

Miroku is a young Buddist monk and demon exorciser who joins the group first. He seem lecherous as he is always asking young women to bear his child. But it turns out he wants to continue his bloodline as he inherited a dimensional portal in his hand he calls his "wind tunnel" that can suck in hordes of demons but is also slowly killing him. 

A warrior from a tribe of demon killers names Sango joins up. She usually travels in traditional garb but puts on her cool ninja suit when combat is called for. 

Sango wield a large magical boomerang 
made out of demon bone

And of course there is Inuyasha himself. 

He is a half human, half dog demon who possesses great strength and speed, whose only real weakness is the night of the new moon when he becomes full human (with black hair). Oh, and the aforementioned face planting courtesy of Kagome.

One of Inuyashas ongoing enemies is his full demon Brother Sesshomaru, a yokai lord and one of the most powerful individuals in the series. Sess has a beef with Inu because of some inheritance issue from their late father having to do with twin swords. Sesshomaru thinks he should have gotten the powerful killing weapon Inuyasha has, whereas Sess is stuck with a sword that is not as good for fighting but can heal and resurrect individuals. Though the aloof Sesshomaru claims to not care about anybody and especially humans, he at one point uses the sword to resurrect a little village girl he takes pity on named Rin who was killed by wolves. The grateful girl follows him around for the rest of the series, and years later (in another series) he marries her and they have children. 

Sess is very protective of Rin
which ends up being his one 
true weakness. 

There are many demons to hunt and kill in the episodes, whether to collect Shikon shards or just to save a put upon village. But Naraku is the main villain throughout. Naraku, being made up of many demons (long story), he can produce offspring to serve him. My favorite I think is Kagura from the early seasons. Often called The Wind Sorceress, she can indeed control the wind and is very powerful. For whatever reason she takes the appearance of a barefoot dancing geisha girl.

She also possesses feather earrings that can turn into a giant feather she can fly around on.

Kagura is a very deep character. Though created out of Naraku's flesh, she is immediately fiercely independent of him. While carrying  out his schemes grudginly, she constantly schemes his downfall, even covertly assisting Inuyasha and company when she can. She has even outright attacked the demon lord out of anger. Kagura is enamored of Sesshomaru and believes he is the only one powerful enough to take on Naraku so also seeks his help.

There are several seasons of the show, and some years later there was a follow up a about the children of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha and Kagome.

I'm still exploring it, but its not bad. Too much of it takes place in the modern era (for some reason the kids were hidden in our time as infants and only went to the feudal era as teens). But characters from the previous series eventually pop up and these are the best bits. 

Pluto TV channels are free to watch online (with commercials but again, uncensored) so check them out. 

Cheers

Isle of Dread - Have you been to Sharks Bay?

 

Not far from the village of Tanaroa and the great wall there is a bay with narrow beaches that is inhabited by several especially aggressive Bull Sharks. I don't think it is named, but i always referred to it as Sharks Bay. 

When I was envisioning this campaign, I wanted to use that area as more than just "there are sharks." So I thought it might be a good place for a ruin of the ancient civilization, and that evolved a bit more into a temple of the shark god. It is a crumbling ruin inside a great boulder, and it is now used by a shark god Shaman and some weresharks. 

I had this particular part of the bay be mostly sea cliffs. Even with some rope it is a bit of a difficult climb to get down there.

The temple itself was about 60 feet or so from the cliff bottom water line. During high tide the water in between would be several feet deep. But at low time it is just a few inches of water, a tidal pool area, where you can actually walk across to the entrance. 

Inside the crumbling ruin some rays of light from cracks above showed that it was sort of an indoor tidal pool itself. Some giant crabs and "Ochre Pods" that were sort of mini ochre jellies (looking like large tadpoles). Minor annoyances compared to the Shark God shaman and weresharks that entered once the alter and its treasure goodies were tampered with. 

After a pretty big fight the Shaman escaped (raising the local water level as he did so the party had to scramble back to the cliff as the tidal pool water raised enough for sharks to come swimming at them). 

I'm hoping to tap into him again, and the shark god itself, before the party leaves the island. 

Isle of Dread - what color is your Axe Beak?

 The weekly Isle of Dread campaign continues. 

One thing I have been doing in most sessions is creating my own small random charts to use in that particular session. Early in the campaign while in the big city before the great ocean voyage, I was doing this. So like in the city I would have several things on a table like encounter a troublemaking gang, aggressive panhandlers, an already established enemy NPC, etc. 

So the other session I had one for the beach areas both on the village side of the great wall, and also for the Sharks Bay area on the other side of the wall not far away. I had giant crabs, lions, tiger, axe beaks, etc. On a grassy hill near the sea cliffs of Sharks Bay they randomly encountered some Axe Beaks.

For many years now Axe Beaks have been a staple for coastal areas for me. I don't really know why, But at some point I used them near a beach and this became the environment I liked to have them encountered. 

I actually have loved big flightless Terror Birds since the 2008 film 10000 BC..

Adding to the fun is that these scary carnivorous birds have actually existed, and not that long ago really. They stalked the earth at the same time as early man. 

Of course in DnD they have always been around, and the images have been almost countless..

I have probably used a different image in each encounter I use them in every few years. But when the party on the Island encountered some I did not have an image handy. So into The Google Machine I go. And pretty quick I find an image perfect for Isle of Dread Axe Beaks..

Polly want a human liver?

They made honking and "ookie Dookie" sounds, and the party dubbed them "Ookie Dookie" birds. Certainly not the hardest encounter they will have, but a nice basic fight to keep the blood flowing is good. But it was really fun to come up with a perfect image for an Isle of Dread Axe parrot-like Beak on the spot and hurl it at the characters. 

Cheers

Finally found my Supers RPG to run online?

 

I have posted in the past about my deep background with Supers RPG's (also here), going all the way back to childhood starting with the very first superhero game Superhero 2044. Then Supergame, then Villains and Vigilantes, and finally Champions/Hero System. That was my favorite, and using my futuristic hero setting Haven (based in part on Superhero 2044's Inguria Island) I turned many of my DnD groups on to it as an alternative. There would be resistance (most were not comic book fans) but they would eventually be requesting it. They loved it, despite the crunch of Champs. It was probably my favorite genre, in large part having grown up a comic book kid.

Now several years since the last time I ran a supers session, and also now that I essentially run all games online, I have been hankering to give it a go on Roll20. But the crunch of Champs would make it very hard. I considered Mutants and Masterminds which was fairly popular online, but it has its own high crunch it seems. I don't want to have to learn nor run another crunchy ruleset. 

Interesting note: when I first looked into this about
a year ago, the deluxe book (the most recommended 
as far as character creation choices) was out of print
and going for around 300 bucks where you could find 
it. But it is now apparently around 50 bucks and easily found. 

Last year for a couple session I played online in Kickstarted supers system I can't even remember what it was called. It was based on 5th ed DnD. It was kind of fun, but the guy kind of lost it mid-session and decided the system was no good for what he was doing. He declared he was probably going to try another system, but I passed. Put my search for a system on hold. 

But now in recent weeks I discovered Marvel Multiverse RPG, a fairly new system. I always rejected a licensed supers game, especially based on Marvel or DC, but the attractions of this was it was fairly rules light, and had excellent Roll20 support it seems. I immediately ordered the book off Amazon, and started watching Youtube videos about it. 

It has an odd, what I think is kind of clunky dice rolling system, but it is indeed simple. I can work with it I think. And it based around Marvel is OK. My Haven setting is more or less an alternate future version of the Mavel Universe (I always had it 20 years in the future of whenever I ran it) as a base, though having grown up on comics I was very familiar with Multiverses. I had Haven be a kitchen sink of genres, and other comic universe stuff could enter into it. Sci Fi in general really. I even had a Jedi show up in some old session. 

MM RPG has a rank system to determine your supers level, from street level like Daredevil all the way up to Galactus, and how that all works with the powers is something I need to research more of. Also it is all a little bit of an investment. The physical book was almost 40 bucks, and for Roll20 I will need to buy the in-platform version. For full functionality (sharing rules with players, a character sheet builder, etc) I think I need a subscription to something called Demiplane. But money is not really an object if I could get this off the ground with some decent players. 

I have plenty going on with my DnD right now. But I am around 30 sessions into the campaign and already past the point where I get a wander lust for other genres and systems. So as always it is sort of life raft building time. My research shall continue, but I am hopeful for supers action!

Cheers