Looking To The Stars - Matt's Mini-Series Monday!

BLACK CANARY #3
Company Name: DC Comics
Writer: Tony Bedard
Artists: Paulo Sequeira and Amilton Santos

THE STORY THUS FAR: Full-time superheroine Dinah Lance aka The Black Canary is trying to decide whether or not to accept the proposal of her long-time boyfriend Oliver Queen aka The Green Arrow, while trying to find a place for herself and Sin (her adopted Asian daughter who, like all Asian girls in comic books, is a deadly assassin in training) in this crazy, mixed-up world.

League of Assassins member, evil archer and all-around coward, bully, cad and thief Merlyn, in an effort to unite the various broken factions of the League of Assassins, has kidnapped Sin with the intent on turning her into their next Wunderkind.

THE GOOD PARTS

* Dinah gets some very good bad-ass moments here and a lot of "Bruce Willis" lines. My favorite?

MERLYN: (shooting two arrows at Dinah) Y'know, I beat your boyfriend single-handedly!
DINAH: (snatching one arrow in mid-air and holding it as the other arrow cuts into it and stops dead) So did I.

* Dinah is far from the helpless victim she was in the last Green Arrow arc. Indeed, she handly beats Merlyn and he escapes the fury of the Canary only because Dinah let's him go. Literally.

* The artwork is well-layed out and paced very well.

* The colorist rememebered that the arrow symbol on Speedy's chest is yellow, not flesh-tone, this time.

* Ollie is portayed as being a basically decent guy and a competent crime-fighter. I know I shouldn't have to make a big deal about this, but it's rare enough I think I have to... especially given that it looks like he perfectly executes a cunning plan in this issue.

THE BAD PARTS

* Dinah and Sin both making the porn-face on the cover.

* Mia's constantly calling Ollie "Boss". It makes her sound like Tatu from Fantasy Island.

* While the action is laid out well, some of the expressions are very strained. To give one example, Dinah looks WAY too panicky in the early scenes while talking to the police. It makes sense for her to be worried but her expressions make her look more hysterical than anything and it doesn't mesh well when she's angry and beating up Ollie a page later.

* One small logic problem: The League of Assassins planned to kill Dinah's ex. They know clearly, from Merlyn's security camera, that something went wrong with the plan when said ex shows up alive at Merlyn's office. So why do they allow Merlyn to go off on his own to investigate, especially when they know there's at least three, maybe more, superheroes in town trying to track them down? I'm just saying there's little point in being a master assassin if you don't send mooks out whenever you can.

* If it turns out Ollie DIDN'T plan out what happens in the last two pages... I will be very annoyed with DC Comics.


THE FINAL WORD: While I'm not Bedard's biggest fan, I must admit that he does seem to have a better handle on Black Canary and Green Arrow than anybody else at DC right now with the exception of Gail Simone. It's not perfect but it's pretty damn good.


Grade: B




HEWOES #1
Company Name: Parody Press
Writer: Bill Maus
Artist: Bill Maus

THE STORY THUS FAR: Do you remember the good ol' days when you used to pick up the new MAD Magazine from the grocery store magazine stand and read all the parodies of popular TV series and movies? The ones with the names changed around so that Sam Spade became Sham Spayed? The ones with cute little site-gags in the background like Beetlejuice standing in the background of the Batcave back in the Michael Keaton days?

Imagine one of those written with all of the jokes removed in favor of racism, pop-culture references for the sake of pop-culture references and puns too painful even for CRACKED! and you have a pretty good idea about what HEWOES is like.


THE GOOD PARTS

* Will make every MAD Magazine and CRACKED! your mom swore would rot your mind look like Mark Twain in comparison.

* Parody Press probably didn't spend much on this book, since one man did the writing, artwork and lettering.

* Rage inspired by the blatant racism of every scene with Hiro and Mohinder takes away from the pain of the unfunny jokes and sight-gags.


THE BAD PARTS

* Despite a wealth of material to mock, it spends most of its' time mocking the first episode.

* Most of the references are included for the sake of making a reference and have no relevance to anything. For instance, the scene where Claire drops her ring into a running garbage disposal is recreated - with Gollum on hand to shout about "The Precious" as we see that the ring, for some reason, is engraved with the wit and wisdom of Mr. T.

* Some gags, such as "Shave the Cheerleader, Shave The World" in order to stop the hair-cutting villain Stylar, are painful to read. And did I mention the racism with Hiro's Engrish chop-saki dialogue and Mohinder being featured as a 7-11 clerk on the cover?


THE FINAL WORD: Publisher Don Chin says it all on his website - "It's been about 8 years since the gang at Parody Press did anything new in comics and we have been just itching to get back in. If this book is anything like their previous work, I can see why it's been eight years since Parody Press printed anything. Don't quit your day-jobs.

Grade: F




SPIDER-MAN/RED SONJA #1
Company Name: Marvel Comics & Dynamite Entertainment
Writer: Michael Avon Oeming
Artist: Mel Rubi

THE STORY THUS FAR: Once upon a time, way back in Marvel Team Up #79, Chris Claremont and John Byrne thought it would be funny to team up Red Sonja and Spider-Man for a story. Many years passed and Tony Bedard used the villain of that piece, the evil wizard Kulan Gath, in an Exiles story where modern New York was changed into a Hyborian kingdom and all the heroes of that world along with it. Today, both stories are joined together in a union that may yet prove to be something more than a cheesy marketing gimmick for the nostalgia buffs.


THE GOOD PARTS

* The set-up is handeled smoothly and we're guaranteed at leat four issues of actual action from here on out.

* An nod to the original story, in how Kulan Gath describes his earlier defeat by Spider-Man

* What is more, Kulan Gath - defying every expectation of evil masterminds everywhere - actually admits to his past mistakes and enacts a plan to correct said mistake (i.e. keeping Spider-Man distracted by turning his ally in the last battle against him.)

* It takes place before Civil War. Depending on your feelings on Civil War, this may be a Bad Part.

* Peter is actually funny, heroic and... well, actually acting like Peter Parker for the first time in recent memory.


THE BAD PARTS

* Horrible Michael Turner cover... even for a Michael Turner cover.

* Despite appearing on the cover, Venom is not in this issue. This may be a Good Part given your feelings on Venom.

* Mel Rubi's no-ink art style just doesn't feel "right" for Spider-Man, somehow.

* I could be wrong and this is the Shakespeare fan in me talking, but somewhow... I don't remember any part of MacBeth where Lady MacBeth (who I assume MJ is playing) handles a sword.

* Am I alone in feeling disturbed by Peter talking about how much he liked when MJ came home in her costume dressed as a cat? Not because I find the idea of Peter having a furry fetish disturbing but... who was his last girlfriend before he and Mary Jane got married? Yeah... not something you want to go reminding your wife of Pete.


THE FINAL WORD: A solid opening. A bit light on the action, but given this is the exact same team that brought Sonja back to life in style, I expect we'll be seeing it soon enough.

Grade: C




SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST #1
Company Name: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Artist: Khari Evans

THE STORY THUS FAR: Shanna was an independently-minded red-haired doctor, who gave up life in the modern world to protect the environment. Eventually, she met a guy named Kevin Plunder who also liked living in the jungle, got married, had a kid and they all lived happily ever after except for the occasional disturbance whenever the X-Men came to visit.

And then came Frank Cho, who decided that feminist/environmentalist thing was boring, and proposed a series staring a bleached-blond, Nazi-engineered, super-strong and NAKED bimbo who never spoke, using the name of Shanna. Marvel wisely forced Cho to draw clothes on her and give her dialogue resulting in a seven-issue mini-series that was almost, but not quite, as pointless and offensive as the Roger Corman classic Dinosaur Island.

Now, presumably because two other companies are doing Jungle Girl books, Marvel has brought back Frank Cho's Shanna in a book that does not feature Frank Cho as a writer, artist, plotter, inker or anything. This might have been a good thing had they not decided to recycle the exact same plot from Frank Cho's mini-series, only with pirates being substituted for army grunts.


THE GOOD PARTS

* 100% Frank Cho free!

* Khari Evans' Shanna artwork not as offensive as her Daughters of the Dragon work.

* Highlights the infinite superiority of the Sheena mini-series by Devil's Due Press in every department.


THE BAD PARTS

* Is based off of Frank Cho's Shanna and not the true red-haired jungle-goddess of yore.

* Will probably sell better than the DDP Sheena series, despite it's inherit lack of quality.

* Series provides DC Fanboys little reason to go to the Marvel Comics section of the rack, when there are plenty of terrible Palmiotti & Gray comics they can read back home.


THE FINAL WORD: Cho fans will likely be disappointed that he has nothing to do with this series, based on his character. The rest of us will be disappointed that despite this, the writing is still sub-par and the artwork is nothing special.

Grade: D

Looking To The Stars: The Marvel/City of Heroes Lawsuit

There comes a time in a writer's life when he can no longer look the other way in regards to the inherit corruptness of that which lies before him. A time when he must, at the risk of loosing whatever image he has of himself, say that which needs to be said. A time when he must write the simple truth for Truth's sake. And if his writings sound like Lewis Black on his 32nd cup of coffee after three days without sleep and being forced to listen to the greatest hits of Olivia Newton John over and over and over again, then so be it.

You see, it's no shock to me the suggestion that Marvel has become obsessed with wringing as much money out of the hands of their fans as possible. They're a business first and foremost. It's what they do. Making money is the ultimate goal behind every decision that they make. So if they think printing three different variant covers for a new book, putting Wolverine in every single book and allowing Rob Liefeld to work for them, so be it. That's perfectly acceptable marketing practice in the comics world. What shouldn't be acceptable, however, is turning on the very same fans who pay your bills as Marvel has done recently regarding the on-line role-playing game, City of Heroes.

As originally told on Comicon's website, Marvel filed a suit against the makers of City of Heroes, claiming that the character creation engine used allows players to create virtual copies of characters owned by Marvel. They say that the game can allow a person to play a super-strong green-skinned giant like The Hulk as well as a mutant with claws and a healing factor like Wolverine.
The announcement of the lawsuit has lead to a whole lot of arguments on message boards over the evil corruptness of Marvel, the rights of copyright holders to protect their property under any circumstance and all manner of childish bickering. Well, as somebody who plays City of Heroes, I feel uniquely qualified to comment upon this. So, as a guy who has been a fan of Marvel Comics for a number of years and an active player on City of Heroes for nearly six months now, let me just address both parties here.


To Marvel Comics,

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MINDS? Good Lord, folks! I know you're worried that the big MMORPG you've been trying to get started for years is taking forever. I know that X-Men Legends wasn't nearly as big a success as you'd hoped for and that City of Heroes is probably partly responsible for that as it is a true superhero RPG and not the action-game-with-stats that Legends is and Freedom Force was before it. What you're doing isn't protecting your copyright rights at all and it's just making you look like jerks.

The big problem is this: Yes, the City of Heroes engine is VERY flexible. It does allow you to make giant characters of any skin color. It allows you to make martial artists with healing powers and claws on their wrists. It even allows you to make a guy who can fly and make fire just like The Human Torch. The problem is, you can't sue the guys who make City of Heroes over other people creating something based on your characters for two simple reasons.

1. I'll admit to not being an expert on Copyright law, but I believe the main reason behind it is to prevent one's creative property from being used by others to make a profit. None of the people creating these characters - these Incredible Sulks and Wolferines - are making any money off of what they are doing. You wanna sue somebody, sue the fans. Oh wait: the fans don't have money do they? And suing the fans will make you look like greedy, money-grubbing jerks - like record company executives or the guys who ran Enron.

2. The people who are making money while all this is going on: the guys who run City of Heroes? They have been going out of their way to make sure that this kind of thing DOESN'T happen. It's right there in the terms of service when you sign up for your account as well as EVERY TIME you log into the game. Sections 3e and 3f of the user agreement are quite clear about this point: create a character who has the name and appearance of a copyrighted character or create a supergroup with the name, motto, description or battle cry of an established group and it will be deleted. It is, as that great master of Legalese Willy Wonka said, "clear as crystal." And I know for a fact that that rule gets enforced: I lost two good comrades in arms who played as Arthur and The Tick and actually role-played the parts. We fought for only two sessions when I was level 2 as they were level 3, but what sessions they were!

So please, for your own sake if not my blood pressure, drop the suit. You're looking like idiots and no competent judge is going to believe for a moment that the CoH team has been encouraging people to use your characters. Worse, you're annoying the fans who ARE paying your salaries. I had a good customer drop his entire comics subscription this past Wednesday, because he's an avid City of Heroes player and he'd rather play his own heroes now than read about yours now.


And speaking of the players, now I'd like to address the players who have been making characters based on Marvel characters.


To all the City of Heroes players making characters based on Marvel Comic's characters,

WILL YOU PEOPLE SHOW SOME FREAKING INITIATIVE? Honestly! Here you have this whole new world! A world where you can be nearly any type of hero you want, create billions of different costumes, write your own background and make something truly unique. And what do you do? You make a Defender with force-field making, psychic blasting powers and name her Jane Gray.

Look, I'm the last person in the world to decry the idea of hero-worship. For crying out loud, my nickname comes from my favorite superhero of all time! And I'll cop to admitting to having tried to make a carbon copy of some of my favorite characters in the engine, just to see if I could. But I never played any of those characters. Not for any longer than an afternoon. Because it was all the more satisfying for me to run around the city as a shadow-controlling good guy than for me to be one more Colossus-clone. It was more fun to make a heroine based on my girlfriend and have "High Sierra" saving the city than making a picture-perfect Phoenix.

Thing is, you're doing yourself and the rest of the player's a disservice. If I had a dollar for every good idea for a new take on superheroes I've heard while working in a comic shop, I wouldn't have to work in a comic shop. The most interesting people I've met playing City of Heroes were the ones who put some effort into their characters, wrote up a good backstory for them and those rare few who actually try to role-play in what is meant to be a role-playing game.

So just try something new. If people laugh at your costume, so what? At least you're being original. And more importantly, you're safe from being sued if Marvel DOES decide to go after individual players.

The ranting booth is now closed. Thank you all for playing.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt Website.

Looking To The Stars: Quick Tales for 5/24/04

This last week saw me spending thirty dollars on comic books. And that was just what was in my regular subscription list. Throw in a spattering of new titles I just had to give a chance to, as well as some classics I had yet to discover and I’ve had a busy week of reading to attend to. What follows are my quick takes on some of last week’s books or books that I wanted to review in the past month, but didn’t get a chance to touch.

Amazing Spider-Man #507

Everything mystical gets explained away in part two of “The Book Of Ezekiel”. At least, we get an explanation as to why Peter lucked into his powers, that will likely upset all those Spider-Fans who aren’t fond of the idea of a mystic element to the Spider-Man mythos. But whether or not you like Straczynski’s writing, it cannot be denied that John Romita Jr’s art is particularly good in this issue. Such a shame that he’ll be leaving after the next issue. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed this “dream team” pairing since issue 30 as well as this storyline. Don’t expect me to reveal the shocking final-page secret! 7 Out Of 10.

Batman: Gotham Knights #53

Ignoring all issues of how easily master-plotter Prometheus is bested here and the out-of-character way in which Batman deals with Green Arrow (i.e. Not giving him full information on a case), when GA has always been one of the few vigilantes Batman can work with comfortably, let me ask one question. Why the blue blazing heck can’t Oliver Queen be written this well in his own title? Just for the Ollie we all know and love or love to hate from the Grell days, let’s give this 6 Out Of 10.

Birds of Prey #67

The cover says “Girls Rule & Boys Drool.” With Benes and Lei’s artwork fine as ever and a whole lot of wonderful heroines and villainesses to illustrate in this final part of “Sensei & Student”, there is indeed a lot for fans of cheesecake and good artwork to drool over. But we fans of good writings will also find our mouths watering at Gail Simone’s wonderful script. She handles a lot of characters here and all of them (even guest star Catwoman) seem perfectly in place and not the least bit untrue to their usual selves. It is particularly nice to see Simone finally do something with the potential tension between Black Canary and Cheshire that went ignored in the Dixon/Land run. The torch has officially been passed, folks. Simone, Benes and Lei are now officially the best team to work on this book. 10 Out Of 10.

City of Heroes #1

Based on the on-line RPG that has quickly built up quite a following among comic fans, this comic is rather flat stuff. Introduced to three heroes with only the quickest bit of explanation as to their powers and very little look at personality, this comic does capture the feel of the game perfectly. Three people meet randomly, discover a lead and go deal with some crime. A good demo for game players but not so good as a comic. Still, the art is nice. 4 Out Of 10.

Daredevil #60

After three years of taking his time with a story, Bendis switches to extremes and rushes us through a tale. Within the span of one year in comic time and three months real time, Matt Murdock became Kingpin, got married, went nuts, went sane, returned to his costumed roots and now finds his marriage on the rocks. It’s good to see Daredevil back in the pages of his own book… but, and I may kick myself for this one…

Brian? Slow down. It’s okay. We can wait. 6 Out Of 10.

Dork Tower #27

A must have issue if you are a fan of “Vampire: The Masquerade”, if only for the satirical “Clanbook: Mopey” supplement contained within. The comic is good too, centering upon Walden, a.k.a. Sith Bloodheart, leader of all the gamer Goths in the town of Mud Bay. This issue gives some much needed character to a background player who has done little but act as a foil to cheerful goth sister Gilly as well as being a laugh riot. John Kovlaic is a true treasure and the finest cartoonist to cover the subject of gamers and gaming. His artwork is refreshingly simple, bringing to mind the early works of Charles Schultz. 8 Out Of 10.

Dragonlance: The Legend of Huma #4

People pining the loss of CrossGen’s various fantasy titles would do well to check out this, the first in a new line of D&D comics by Devil’s Due Publishing. I never read any of the old Dragonlance fantasy novels, but I may have to go back and give the Legend of Huma series a look, for the story is excellent. While the books do have multiple illustrators, care has been taken to make the change unnoticeable. It is worth noting though, that the anatomy does look odd in a few choice panels… particularly on Gaz the minotaur, whose head keeps changing shape and size in proportion to its’ body. 5 out of 10.

Excalibur #1

Oh. Magneto’s not really dead. I’m so surprised. Really. 1 Out Of 10.

Fables #25

I came on to this title late and just recently caught up with the release of its’ third trade paperback. If you’re a fan of “The Sandman” or just the weird and esoteric, this is one bedtime story you shouldn’t feel ashamed to be caught reading. Not for kiddies or the fait of heart, this is easily one of the best Titles Vertigo has to offer. 9 Out Of 10.

Fantastic Four #513

Waid’s weakest story ever on the title and it stars my favorite Marvel superhero of all. How can you account for it? More, how can you account for me liking it anyway, even if it does play up the fickle nature of the Marvel Universe populace to unrealistic levels and fails to resolve the major issue at the center of it: i.e. How can Spider-Man teach Johnny Storm to deal with being a hero AND unpopular? The answer is that he doesn’t, and Waid simply gives us a throwback to the classic Human Torch/Spider-Man team-ups of the Stan Lee days where they fought each other as much as they did the supervillains. Sure, this comic is silly and lacks serious bones as much as guest-villain Hydroman lacks any bones. It is still a fun read. And those are preciously rare these days. 7 Out Of 10.

Hawkman #28

I’m more familiar with Jimmy Palmiotti as an artist and inker than a writer, but he does a decent job with the plot here. Decent, however, is far below what you get use to on a title written by Geoff Johns for two years. And Ryan Sook is no Rags Morales. Not that this story is bad, mind you. But it is like getting a good cheeseburger when you ordered the steak. And it doesn’t matter how good the cheeseburger is if you keep thinking about the steak. I’ll keep with it for another few issues at least. 5 Out Of 10.

JLA: Another Nail #1

GL/New Gods: Another Nail #1 might have been a more appropriate title for this book Nearly the first half of this book is devoted toward covering the epic battle between The Guardians/New Genesis and Darkseid which took place off-camera (until now) during the events of “JLA: The Nail.” A pity, because this turns out to be more interesting than the quick catch-up on what the JLA of this world has been doing in the time since the end of the first mini-series that takes up the rest of the issue. Still, this story does do a spin on Superman that is new, so I’ll probably keep reading it for that. 5 Out Of 10.

JSA #61

This just in. Hal Jordan screwed up being the Spectre. Again. Thankfully, Johns does some work here to explain why Hal has done such a half-assed job in his new role as the spirit or vengeance turned redemption. Namely, the Spectre is pissed at being turned into a New Testament power. Good read. Good art. But if you’re already reading it, you know that. And if you aren’t reading it, you should be. 8 Out Of 10.

Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated #34

What could make this unfunny book worse?

An entire issue written in rhyming verse.

Writing this way is a challenging chore.

And reading this mess is a frightening bore.

The story doth stink but the art is all right.

But I would still rather just read Everknights.

3 Out Of 10.

Knights of the Dinner Table: Everknights #12

Oh woe! Woe that this title is published only bi-monthly while the much inferior “Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated” is allowed to go out once monthly. This issue shows romantic strife among the various members of the Everknights adventuring group and how they settle it with respective boy’s and girl’s nights out. While there is plenty of humor to be found in the characters (especially Drow dominatrix Reniree’s treatment of her lapdancer), the real treat is a funny parody of the show “Insomniac”, with the bald and beardless wizard “O’Tell” showing us the nightlife of the village of Badger Falls. Truly a most underrated title. 7 Out Of 10.

Phantom Jack #2

This book has been disappearing off the shelves at my comic shop. Small wonder, as Epic’s loss is Image’s gain in this magical book about a reporter who can become invisible at will. Beautifully illustrated, with a topical story and a relatable hero, this is one to watch. 7 Out of 10.

Rose and Thorn #6

Can this be a regular series? Please? Can we at least have another mini-series? Please? Or at least a few appearances in the Superman books at some point in the future? 9.5 Out Of 10.

Seaguy #1

Take one no-powered superhero in a world of superheroes where there is no need for heroism. Add one smart-aleck, cigar-chomping, talking flying “chuna-fish” named Charlie. Throw in some living soda, Death as a color-blind gondolier, a moon crying for help in the form of flaming meteor tears and a bearded warrior woman who is saving herself for the first man who can prove his heroism to her and what do you get?

About thirty lawsuits in the making as well as Grant Morrison’s latest work. This is quite possibly the zaniest thing he’s ever written, and yes I am including the complete works of The Invisibles in that statement. Regardless, it is amusing and wonderfully illustrated by Cameron Stewart. Count me onboard for the long haul on this one! 8 Out Of 10.

Sore Thumbs ( http://www.sorethumbsonline.com )

Depending on whom you ask, this is either one of the funniest Manga satires being published on the web today or the worst propaganda comic ever. Like in most things, I’m somewhere in the middle on this. The artwork is good but nearly every character in this is an exaggerated stereotype, as is typical in Anime and Manga. The problem is that a lot of the political commentary falls flat and that few seem to realize that both sides of the fence are being heavily stereotyped here. The whiny liberal college student protestor protagonist is portrayed as being just as insane as the antagonist of the piece; her racist, homophobic, Bush-worshipping brother who runs the only game store in the country officially endorsed by Joseph Lieberman. (And if you get why that endorsement is funny, give yourself 5 geek points). Sore Thumbs has its moments, but fails to make any real statements of note. Then again, perhaps we should expect little more than big laughs from a comic where the sanest characters are a soldier who has his manhood cut off during the war in Iraq and his midget pet bear. 6.5 out of 10.

Spectacular Spider-Man #14

There seems to be an unwritten rule that there every writer who does Spider-Man must do at least one story where Spider-Man touches the life of either a child, someone who is handicapped or a handicapped child. Jenkins does the second of these stories and manages to pull off the story of a young Spider-Fan with cerebral palsy without it feeling the least bit exploitative or inappropriate. The painted art by Paolo Rivera only ads to the wonder of the story and makes this easily the best issue of the new Spectacular Series. Which is quite a feat considering how good the run has been so far. 10 Out Of 10.

Superman/Batman #10

I want to dislike this story just on the principal that it seems that the sole purpose of the plot is to allow Michael Turner the chance to draw numerous scantily armored amazons. And then we get the scenes with an army of badly-cloned Doomsday replicas attack Paradise island and Batman swinging a broadaxe and I realize that blatant sexism and pandering to the talents of the artist aside, this is one gorgeous book! Jeph Loeb is another writer who isn’t afraid to revel in the sheer silliness of an idea and as much as the idea of a horde of inefficient Doomsday clones might sound like that of Bill Watterson’s infamous “Dinosaurs in Airplanes!” comic, this manages to surpass its unlikely premise and actually deliver some good drama.

On that note, I didn’t know Harbinger was still alive. Oh well…. 6.5 Out Of 10.

Swamp Thing #3

The best take on Swamp Thing in quite some time. That, and it has bloody John Constantine in it. That’s all it takes to put this baby on my pull list. 7 Out Of 10.

Ultimate Spider-Man #59

A talking heads issue, but a very effective one. The Ultimate Gwen Stacy gets some major screen time and the issues of “Hollywood” are finally lain to rest. Good thing as the scenes with Peter crashing the film set of the unauthorized movie based on his life were the weakest part of this past story arc. 8 Out Of 10.

Y: The Last Man #22

If you read comics and aren’t reading this book, you had better be a minor or on a fixed income. It is THAT good! 10 Out Of 10.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars: City Of Heroes

It’s the dream of everyone who ever picked up a comic book to be a superhero themselves. To have powers far beyond those of mortal man… or mortal woman for that matter. To be able to throw on a costume and fly out the window. To be able to make things a little more right in this world with a wide smile and a one-two punch.

While it may not ever be possible for us to have these kinds of thrills in real life, a few million people this past week discovered a new way to play pretend; a new and exciting game called City of Heroes.

City of Heroes (henceforth referred to as CoH) is an on-line RPG, similar in scope to Everquest or Final Fantasy XI. Each player in the game creates their own superhero, who patrols the streets of Paragon City fighting crime in all its forms. Purse-snatchings, car-jackings, drug-deals, muggings and more are performed by all manner of grisly gangs.

This is brilliantly handled, the city full of all manner of NPC civilians walking around, enjoying their lives until they are terrorized by one of the NPC villains. It is then your job to step in and take a stand for justice. Rest assured though, that even if the civilian runs in terror when the thugs pull guns and start shooting at you, they will almost always run back to thank you for a job well done.

While it might be easy for whole areas of the map to get fished out this way, it very rarely happens. In two weeks of playing the game I have only ever had trouble finding crime to fight as I ran around the city “patrolling” once… and that was because I found out later I was following in the path of a team of six heroes who had teamed together.

Yes, in true Marvel fashion, you may join forces with any hero who you meet on the street. When “grouped” in such a fashion, everyone on the team shares experience points for every enemy defeated. While this does result in getting less experience than if you were fighting solo, there is a small experience point boost for being a member of a team. Coupled with the fact that you’ll plow through the enemies faster when you are working with another hero and the simple fact that it’s always good to have someone watching your back, there are no drawbacks to teaming up with other heroes.

At higher levels, a character may join a formal superhero team, which creates a group of heroes who can always stay in touch via a supergroup channel in the chat system. Heroes can also get “sidekicks”, granting less experience heroes a temporary boost in their level so that they can follow alongside their mentor into the heavy danger zones without fear of getting “the Bucky treatment.”

Character creation is simple. Players chose from one of five powers origins, which determine which hero organization they report to at the start as well as what criminal organizations you are most likely to face off against. Magical heroes, for example, are likely to spend their early missions facing off against the Circle of Thorns: a Lovecraftian cult that kidnaps people off the street for use in bizarre and twisted rituals. The five power origins are Magic, Science (like a lab accident), Mutant, Technology and Natural (i.e. the well-trained).

As you pick an origin, you must also pick a class. Classes determine what type of hero you are as well as what super power sets you may chose to start out with. The five classes are…

· Blaster- The ranged combat master. No slouch in up-close fighting either, but doesn’t have much in the way of defense or hit-points. Can chose from several forms of energy to “blast” with.

· Defender- The support master. Healing others, force-fields and weather control all fall within the realm of defender. Not always the most capable offensively, but there’s no one better at watching your back.

· Controller- The subtle combat masters. Gravity, illusions and the very elements are at the command of a Controller. Like defenders, they don’t do much offensively but are a bit more combat geared, using their powers on specific enemies rather than on allies or on general areas.

· Scrapper- The close combat master. They can dish it out, and they can take it to a degree. But they have trouble dealing with waves of enemies and lack any ranged attacks at all. Still, nobody can deal out the pain faster or more efficiently.

· Tanker- The damage absorbing master. High on defense and not too bad an attacker, Tankers suffer from not having any ranged attacks, like Scrappers. Unlike scrappers, Tankers are built to take abuse and can deal with large numbers of enemies surrounding them for a short time.

There are a wide variety of powers and it is possible to create a wide variety of characters. The game also allows for custom costume designs, but it is very important that you are happy with what you make during character creation. Once you are out of it, you can never redesign your costume without starting your character over. This makes little sense from the perspective of a comics fan. After all, how many superheroes changed their costumes over the years as they refined their armored suits or just got bored with the old design? I suspect this was done to prevent identity spoofing, but it this is one of the very few annoyances of the game.

Another one of the few complaints, and I know this is petty, but there are no capes in the game. That is, there is no way to design your costume with a cape at the present time. This is a minor thing, but nothing quite so symbolizes the idea of superheroes as the cape. So much so that one of the warnings street criminals will yell as they spot you is “Look out! There are capes coming!” Reportedly this will be fixed in the upcoming expansion along with the other major complaint about the game: a lack of certain powers.

While the game rules prohibit you from creating characters with the same name as a copyrighted character, the temptation is too great for some to attempt to recreate their favorite hero. If not in name, than at least in appearance or powers. In the past two weeks I have seen countless Hulks, Superman sans cape (and yes, it does look weird), Wonder Woman, Invisible Woman and even a few Ticks under various aliases. The problem comes when your favorite superhero’s powers are not easily replicated. Spider-Man, for example. There are no wall-crawling powers nor web-swinging. And while there is a “webbing” attack for subduing enemies, it comes in the form of a web grenade instead of a spray of webbing. There is also nothing akin to a sixth sense to warn you of enemies behind you.

Still, it seems silly to hold a game up for what it is not. And realistically, I can see that programming sixth senses and web-swinging is probably impossible within the game’s engine. Still, the Spidey-fan in me demands to be able to crawl walls and fight villains with robotic arms.

Speaking of fighting, the upcoming expansion City of Villains, promises players the chance to play as a super villain as well as engage in player duels. Thankfully, this will be completely voluntary and there is no way that supervillains will be allowed to wait for unsuspecting Level 1 heroes to come into the game and then performing the digital equivalent of beating up the first graders for your lunch money.

Still, the game is addicting. And for those of us with a streak of actor in our blood, it is a very easy game to role-play in. More, it is a very easy game to truly play the hero in. This past week, I saw a newbie blaster becoming overwhelmed by a thug. I jumped in with my Scrapper and gave Mr. Thug a large distraction in the form of a quick jab. This gave blaster boy enough time to step back, power up and throw an electrical blast that put the thug’s lights out long enough for him to be arrested. I stopped just long enough for a thank you before saying some words of encouragement and disappearing into the night from whence I’d come.

Yeah. I love this game. And if you ever put a towel around your neck as a kid and pretended to fly, you will too.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.