War of Kings

Wrath of Serra

2009-08-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Star Trek!

2009-05-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Finally saw Star Trek. It was awesome. And I only call something awesome if it fills me with awe. It was, in fact, the best Star Trek movie I have ever seen. And I have seen all of them except Wrath of Khan. Kirk was awesome. Spock was awesome. Old Spock was awesome. Sulu was awesome. Chekov was awesome. McCoy and Scotty were good, but not awesome. Uhura was passable. It was nice that she had a slightly better role than 'chick who presses button so Kirk can talk to other ship', and my sister certainly enjoyed the xenolinguisitics angle. But unfortunately I still think the Uhura character is past redemption. Oh, and Captain Pike? He was awesome. It is nice, for the first time ever, to see Pike actually do cool stuff instead of hearing about how cool he was before he became wheelchair-bound. I'm not sure I can do an actual review of it that doesn't sound like fanboy gushing.

My sister loved it. She's always been more of a Star Wars fan, but she really enjoyed it. When I asked, she wouldn't say it was better than Wrath of Khan (which she has seen) or Nemesis, but she said it was up there with the best.

My dad also really liked it, and he actually watched the original tv series beck when it came out. if anyone was going to complain about them changing the way the Enterprise looked, or how they destroyed the entire Star Trek timeline, it would have been him. But he liked it.

Though Star Treek 11 is called it Star Trek without a subtitle, it is actually new name, as the first movie was called Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Which shows you how old Trek actually is. If they can make a Star Trek 12 as good as 11 was, they may be able to rescue this series.

By the way: Beam me up, Chekov.

Fantasy Twist - Dark Elves

2009-05-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Because May is Magic Month, I'm going to look at a couple of staple fantasy races that the Warcraft franchise, especially Warcraft 3, managed to twist in a new direction. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of the online game World of Warcraft, having played Iron Realm MUDs like Achaea and Lusternia combined with a vivid imagination means that I find WoW boring. But I did enjoy the strategy games and books. So, first up, elves.

I already mentioned in my review of Lorwyn that Magic: the Gathering took elves back to their roots by portraying them as dangerous creatures who are likely to kill you on sight. But on further thought I realised that this isn't as unique as I thought. There is a version of elves like this that has become a fantasy staple - dark elves. Sometimes they are called drow. Their exact nature differs from place to place, but they are generally blue- or purple-skinned and evil. In fact, the makers of Warcraft 3 decided that they were such a fantasy staple that they could twist the entire concept and surprise the players of the game.

If you play through the campaign, your first encounter with Warcraft's dark elves happens whilst leading Grom Hellscream's orcish clan, the Warsong, into Ashenvale Forest. Due to Hellscream's insubordination and battlelust, Warchief Thrall has sent him and his clan to collect lumber to build a large warcamp. As soon as you enter the firest, some of the orcs get nervous and complain that it feels like they're being watched. This should be an indicator that something is badly wrong - these are orcs. They do not jump at shadows. But Hellscream laughs it off and tells them to get back to work. Do not believe him. Build up your defenses. Build a second base. Or you will, like I did, get annihilated by the dark elves.

If you carry on, you will manage to defeat the dark elves, who are called night elves, and kill their leader, the demigod Cenarius. But then comes the night elf campaign. As you continue playing them you discover that they are not, in fact evil. After all, when you were playing orcs, you did try to cut down their forest. What did you think they would do? And as you carry on, you realise that the night elves are not only nice people, but that they defeated the Burning Legion thousands of years ago. In fact, they are probably the only people who can stop them this time. Except, you killed their demigod. Oops.

Book Review: Lorwyn

2009-05-12T00:39:00.000-07:00

Lorwyn (Book one of the Lorwyn cycle) by Cory J. Henderson and Scott McGough

Reece is a rather popular name in South Africa. Most people spell it the way I just have. In fact, I know only one person who spells it the old way - Rhys. Why am I telling you this? Because an elf named Rhys is the main character in Lorwyn, and in my experience, when most people see 'Rhys' they don't know what to dow ith it. Perhaps that is why so many people use the new age spelling.
We all know what elves are. Professor Tolkien told us, and we all believed him. But his version of elves is not quite what the ancient Teutons and Celts believed in. Sure elves were elegant, beautiful beings. But they were also capricious and fickle. They were often selfish. And sometimes they were downright murderous. The came from the otherworld, and our rules and morals did not apply to them. This is the inspiration for the elves of Lorwyn. And the faeries (fey, by the way, means the same thing as capricious). And, to a lesser degree, the boggarts, who here are a species of goblin.

But there is another difference. The elves in Lorwyn have hooves and horns. Yes, they look like fauns. Think Mr Tumnus from Narnia.

And the final piece of the puzzle is the obsession of todays society with evolutio. survival of the fittest. Lorwyn is all about survival of the fittest, with one difference. The elves decide who is fit to survive. Yes, the capricious, fickle elves. And you think your government is opressive.

So, cool setting. The characters are cool too. There's even a cool overarching storyline about why the world never has night (which I assumed is resolved in the third book, Eventide). but what about this book? Well, it doesn't quite live up to expectations. I'm beginning to suspect this is a trend in Magic books - cool setting, characters and storyline, but the book doesn't quite live up to the rest of it.

Don't get me wrong, I really really enjoyed the book, and Rhys and Ashling, the other major character, are written well. I love how the flavour of Welsh mythology shines through. But it meanders a bit in the middle, as if they're treading water, trying to streach out a one- or two-book storyline into a trilogy. And so many mysteries are set up, but not one of them is resolved here. Sure, I'm all for keeping secrets for the next book, but Lorwyn treads dangerously close to incomprehensiblity, which I'm certain will scare people off. It's good, but it has the potential to be so much better.

Where did all the columns go?

2009-05-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

By now I'm sure you have noticed my new header and colour scheme. This marks a new direction for my blog. Actually its not a new direction, its more of a formalisation of the direction I'm going already going in.

When I started this blog I had the idea that I would do regular columns. That is a pipe dream - partly because the method in which I obtain comics means that thier arrival is highly erratic, and partly because I am highly erratic. Its just the way I am. So no more columns. And no more fancy warlike titles of posts. Whilst fun, it is difficult for me to kee the names both clever and consistant, so from now on my posts will be titled according to what they are about. if it is, for example, a review of the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it will be titled Movie Review - X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

So these are the kind of posts I will be making in no specific oder or time schedule:

Comic Book Reviews - See the list on the right for the comics I am buying. Marvel has recently upped the price of many of these comics - but the Rand/Dollar excange rate is the best it has been in the while, so I'm not sure if I'll have to drop any or not.
Book Reviews - I've been pretty bad with this, having read a lot of books recently, but not having reviewed any. I hope to do some of these.
Movie Reviews - I don't watch a lot of movies, but ever so often a whole slew of ones I want to watch come out. I saw Wolverine and Fireproof last week, I'm hoping to see Coraline (in 3D) this week, and I'll be watching Star Trek (does it really not have a subtitle or number?) sometime on the weekend. My sister wants me to watch Angels and Demons with her when it comes out, but I'm not too sure about it.
Magic: the Gathering - Not too sure if i'll do anything about my latest addiction. I have an idea though, I'll see how it pans out.
DotA Allstars - I'll write reviews when important updates occur to DotA, though at the moment i only get to play against AI.
Op/Ed - ever so often i'll feel like saying something about an issue or topic. I belive this is what you call those.
Theme Months - Also ever so often I'll do a theme moth where most of the posts for that month will have to do with a central theme or topic. May is Magic Month. No, not just the game. I'm writing a review of Warcraft: the Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb, which I finally got around to reading, and which features Medivh, the most powerful sorcerer Azeroth has ever seen. I'm also going to write an Op/Ed on the portrayal of magic as a corruptive force, which Warcraft has always done rather well.

So thats it for now.

Movie Review - X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-05-07T02:30:00.000-07:00

No new comics yet, but I did get to see Wolverine on Monday evening with two friends who don't read comics. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING, but you've already seen the movie, right?

I have to start by admitting that I enjoyed all three of the X-Men movies. I'm not so worried about them changing stuff - the way I see it, there are already a number of alternate universes in the comics, so this is nothing more than another one. Besides, I've never been a big fan of Wolverine, so when they change stuff about him, it doesn't affect me.

I really enjoyed Wolverine too. In fact, I would go as far as saying it does a better job with Wolverine's origins than the comics do. No Romulus conspiricy here.

I have two major complaints. One is about the part where Gambit attacks Wolverine, whist Wolverine is fighting Creed, thus allowing Creed to escape. Surely Gambit knows who Creed is? They hint as much when Wolverine mentions him and Gambit stops dealing cards for a moment. I don't know much about Gambit, but I'm assuming he has a decent amount of intelligence. The second is that Wade is killed (or at least incapacitated) off screen. After his scene in africa, I don't buy that anyone could take him down.

So...I'll do this character by character

Hugh Jackman is still good as Wolverine. I don't know what more I can really say. I really liked how the ethos of "I'm good at killing people, but that doesn't mean I like it" came through. (If you've read my bog at all you will know I have issues with superheroes killing people.)

Liev Shreiber does a really good job of showing us a Victor Creed who is one step away from being an animal. I generally dislike it when thay change actors for a character, but towards the end Shreiber really looked as if a few more years would easily turn him into Tyler Mane (though I'm not quite sure if Creed is meant to be the Sabretooth in X2). Initially I was going to say I would have preferred it if the fight against Weapon XI had been a team-up withh Gambit instead of Creed, but I've changed my mind. Their teamwork was a good moment that reflected the intro sequence (wars through time) and showed that they were still brothers. Oh -the brother thing. As far as I know Sabretooth was always meant to be Logan's brother in the comics, but at the last moment they changed it, deciding that would be too corny. I think that was a mistake. Regardless, we knew from the beginning of the movie that they were brothers, so there was never any question of having a corny reaveal.

I didn't like Danny Hudson's Stryker, but I think that was due to my dislike of actor-changing rather than any fault of the actors.

Daniel Henney's Agent Zero was pure badass, and even his subservience to Stryker added more to the character than it took away. Zero was awesome.

will.i.am's John Wraith seemed incongrous at first - because he was the only black member of the team, and he wore a cowboy hat. And he didn't do much in the scences of the team fighting. But the fact that he decided to go with Wolverine to confront Gambit, and his short but cool battle with Creed won me over, and I was actually sad he died.

I was worried about Freddie Dukes being in the movie, as I was worried they'd play him a a comic character rather than the very credible threat he actually is (really, he is). It threw me when he first appeared, as he was not fat. An un-fat Blob? But I think it was a good idea to only make him fat later in the movie. Make tank blow itself up? Check. Blob is dangerous.

Taylor Kitch's Gambit was really good too. I got a kick out of the fact that if you go back to X2 and watch the scene where Mystique hacks into Stryker's files in the island facility, the name Remy LeBeau pops up, so his presence here makes a lot of sense. I just wish they had found something better for his second appearence than saving Wolverine from being crushed. Being crushed is not a credible threat to Wolverine, so this moment was not as good as it could have been. I am beginning to see why people like Gambit. But I still don't like Rogue.

I didn't think Ryan Reynolds was a good choice for Deadpool - until I watched the movie and saw him play him so well. Deadpool was awesome - until they made him into the X-Men Super-Skrull. The Weapon XI fight was good, but I hope they will be able to return him more to his original form in the Deadpool movie.

The wierd thing is that my three favourite scenes in the movie have nothing to do with the main storyline - Cyclops blasting through multiple floors of his school, Emma turning to diamond, and the Prof rocking up to rescue the kids. Yeah - not a Wolverine fan.

The female member of our group said the ending was so sad. Well, I must say I was expecting it. This is the drawback of sequels - I expected Silverfox to die, and Logan to loose his memories. Thats why the twist reveal of Silverfox being alive was so unexpected, and so good. Though, I knew she would have to die again when she told Logan she loved him the whole time.

Verdict: if you're not a major Wolverine fan, but you like comics, go watch it.

War Correspondence: Retracing the Steps

2009-04-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

Today's post is about me, and what I have been up to recently. Because, if I am starved of my comics, I must turn elsewhere for entertainment, right? And I couldn’t go to Yu-Gi-Oh, as I have stopped playing it since the contract for Europe and the USA (and cause we get our stuff from one of those two places, South Africa) was ripped away from Upper Deck Entertainment. That is not the only reason I stopped playing, but it is a big part of it. Sure, if one of my friends pops over with a deck, I'll play against them, but I'm not buying any more cards. But despite all my good intentions, the universe wasn't going to let me escape from card games. Oh no.

About halfway through last year I bought (on impulse) the Duel Decks:Elves vs Goblins set from Magic: the Gathering. Unfortunately, I discovered that it was not beginner-friendly. And I couldn't pop around to the nearest Friday Night Magic event, because we don't have that in South Africa. And besides, I help out with Junior Youth at the church on Fridays (that is relavent, as you will see later). So the elves and goblins sat in my cupboard for a couple of months.

On my last visit to the Stable's Market, former home of Kick Ass Komix, I found an old tattered copy of a book calle Saviours of Kamigawa. It had fox-people in it. At one stage, the main character in the book I am writing, was a were-fox. So I bought the book for R10, mainly for research purposes, as I knew little about Japanese mythical fox-people, or how they are portrayed in modern fantasy novels. I then discovered that it was a novel set in the world (or rather, multiverse) of Magic: the Gathering. Imagine my surprise. They wrote books set in the worlds the cards came from? The books were good?

I had looked at the cards that I had bought, of course, and couldn't help noticing that many of the elves had horns (pretty deer or antler horns, that is, rather than the other kind). I eventually discovered that many of the elf cards came from a world called Lorwyn, based on Welsh Mythology. I also discovered that there were books about Lorwyn. So I ordered them from the nearest bookshop. After all, if I was stealing so extensively from Welsh mythology for my book, surely I would find these books useful. After all, I'm already stealing ideas from many other books I've read. (Though, hopefully, I'm doing it in a way that won't have people suing me.)

And then one of the other guys who helps at Junior Youth rocked up wearing a Lorwyn T-Shirt. I discovered he was a judge, and suddenly I've found myself meeting at Westville Library every Saturday to play Magic with a group of other guys (including guys I knew from the comic shop). And I'm actually enjoying it, so much so that I'm waiting eagerly for the novel Alara Unbroken (by Doug Beyer) to be published.

Apparently, some people play Magic to win. Others play it for many different reasons. Me, I like the stories. I've always been addicted to stories with a sci-fi or fantasy bent. I now read and enjoy Doug Beyer's weekly column about the stories of Magic (and how fantasy stories are written in general) . I even wrote him an e-mail in which I disagreed with him on how one of the lesser game mechanics (called retrace) should be seen. I knew it was presumptuous of me, having only played the game for a short time, and expected either no reply, or one explaining how I was wrong. So, imagine may surprise again, when he published the entire (rather lengthy) email in its entirety at the end of his column this week, and said he enjoyed it. So I'm gonna do a shameless self-plug and provide the link to it here.

So where to from here? I'll try to do a Quartermaster with the rest of Marvel's solicits soon. If I have time, I'd like to post some reviews of a number of novels I've read recently (I haven't only been playing and reading Magic). And I shall reveal a bit of stuff about my book. In fact, I shall go write something about why elven knights ride cats. I do not know if anyone cares, but I shall do it anyway.

From the Front - Uncanny #506 - 507

2009-04-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

I shall now attempt to review comics which appear to contain payoffs to storylines I have not read. Because of this, I won't put a 'victory or loss' line at the end, like I normally do.

Some scenes of Colossus and Emma Frost kicking the Russian mob around. I expect that if I had read Lovelorn, in which Colossus moped around feeling sorry for himself (I'm guessing this), seeing him cracks some skulls would have been rather more awesome. The theme here seems to be 'big guy with steel skin that can feel no physical pain who has a big heart and therefore feels intense emotional pain'. He doesn't know how to deal with physical pain, cause he usually just goes steel (hence the tattoo subplot) and so he has a really hard time dealing with his pain over the loss of Kitty. I think this is a continuation of a general theme surrounding Colossus, dealing with the feelings of a guy who can't feel anything. I think it is a good bit of character work.

I am liking Emma's story too. Issue #506 begins with a nightmare about her costume transforming from white into black. This is obviously linked to her deal with Osborne, and also the recent mini in Divided we Stand where she questions whether she has truly become good, or if there will always be a part of herself that is evil. Some people have complained about the recent trend showing her self-doubt, as she has always been full of self-confidence, to a fault, and they think this detracts from her character. I disagree - it has made me more sympathetic towards her. After all, some people seem to have hard exteriors but have lots of hidden feeling on the inside. Hmm, this sounds strangely familiar. Maybe she should go diamond, and join Colossus in cracking some skulls. Oh, wait, she does. I just hope that Emma and Scott don't split over the secrets they've been keeping from each other. Here's hoping to what doesn't break them makes them stronger…

As for Beast and Angel's team…um…why didn't Beast contact these people in Endangered Species? I thought that storyline was to show he had done everything he possibly could and there was absolutely no way to undo M-Day. I'm not so keen on this storyline.

I am more happy about getting this series now, last year I found myself constantly having to justify getting it.

As for Guardians #12, I'm still a bit lost. I'll try to work it out and put up a review soon.

Quartermaster - The X-Men in July

2009-04-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

I have written reviews of the comics i recived, but they are sitting at home. Oh well. Elections tomorrow. The ANC will, of course, win, and Jacob Zuma will, of course, become our next president. The only question is: will COPE and the DA have managed to pull enough voters away from the ANC to prevent them from retaining their two-thirds majority in parliment (and thus, be able to block the ANC from making changes to the constitution)? We shall see.

For now, I shall talk about July's X-Men solicitations. Spoilers. Unless they're misdirections.

Uncanny #513 and Dark: X-Men: the Beginning #1 & 2 (of 3)
Ah, the famous Dark X-Men cover, featuring the black-costume Emma Frost from her recent nightmare. The guy who looks like Angel has a reason for it. He is Mimic, and the first person to join the original five X-Men as a new member, though it was shortlived. He's not really a shapeshifter, he just gains the same mutations as nearby mutants. The guy in black with an X on his collar I initally thought was Moebius, but apprently he is Cloak, meaning the girl in white is Dagger. Namor on an X-Men team? Not as strange as you would think - both Prof X and Magneto tried to recruit him in the early days. Emma Frost betraying the X-Men? I think there's a lot more than meets the eye here, especially if Professor X is here too. With Cyclop's dodgy dealings of late, I think we shall discover that Emma and the Prof have very, very good reasons for their presence here, and that not all is what it seems. Then there's Dark Beast -not seen on either cover, but mentioned in the solicits. We last saw him in Endangered Species. Dark Wolverine, as we know, is Daken. Which leaves us with the question - who is Weapon X? The only other person on the cover is Michael Pointer, known varously as the Collective, Guardian, and Weapon Omega. But the Weapon X program was always Canadian, so maybe he's going by Weapon X these days. Just to confuse things. Will I get Dark X-Men: the Beginning? Well, while I usually get the X-Men 'event anthologies', and have found some of them entertaining, I don't think I'll get this one. I will, however, be getting the Utopia crossover.

X-Men: Legacy #226
Mike Carey is a good writer. I enjoyed the issues of Legacy that I've read. but I have some sort of mental block when it comes to Rogue. Fors some reason I don't like her, or understand why people thinks she is cool. So part of me wants to get this, and the other part doesn't.

New Mutants #3
Yeah, I never got why people think the New Mutants are cool either. And do we really need to bring back Legion? This doesn't interest me much.

Dark Wolverine #76
Marvel's latest policy seems to be 'when in doubt, make them fight the Fantastic Four'. I may be a FF fan, but this sort of thing does not impress me.

Cable #16 and X-Force #17
Very little about the concusion of Messiah War can be worked out from these, except that Wolfsbane come out of it alive. Nothing of real importance seems to have happened - if it did, wouldn't we would be able to work it out from the solicits, and they'd have to classify them?

X-Factor #46
Two words: Ruby Summers.

The Return

2009-04-17T02:54:00.000-07:00

I know i haven't poseted anything for over a month. I thought of posting something a few times, but I coudn't think of anything to say besides 'still no comics', and i was getting tired of that. And commenting on comic news was just too depressing as it only reminded me how out of it I was becoming.

But at last, the drought is over. I have three comics - Uncanny #506 and #507 and Guardians of the Galaxy #12. I don't have any reviews for you yet, because I do not quite understand them. I think this is because I have missed the last six issues of each, rather than because they are incomprehesible. I may have to head over to UXM.com and see if they have any transcripts of the ones I missed. Or....perhaps if I go read them again they will make more sense...

Kirk mentioned on his blog Weekly Crisis that X-Factor is good again. Yay. I'm also happy that Psylocke is returning to Uncanny, in her orginal body. I've always been a fan of her. Never been a fan of Northstar though. If the X-Men needs speed, why not bring in Surge? She's not nearly as inexperienced as Fraction says she is. He's going to have to write Northstar really well to get me to like him.

Silence

2009-03-13T01:08:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't said much lately, but that's becuase I haven't heard much from Kick Ass Komix. They've been getting shipments, but every time I ask if they have anything for me yet, the answer is no. And the worst part is, I have only a really vague idea of what I've missed in X-Factor so far because no one's posting spoilers, cause Peter David asked them not to, in order to push up sales. It seems to be working, but it doesn't help me much.

On the other hand, I have better access to the internet now, so I don't feel as cut off from the other titles I'm supposed to be getting, as I can get info on them quite easily.

War Correspondence: Solomon Kane and the Priests of Bast

2009-02-06T10:20:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the Central Lending Library in Durban to look at a book that is a collection of Robert E. Howard stories about Solomon Kane. You will recognise Howard as the creator of Conan, which led to stuff like Red Sonja and chainmail bikinis. I wanted to see what Howard had to say about the Staff of Solomon, as the Wikipedia article is…strange, and the rest of the internet appears to be silent on the matter. Yes, I did not think that was possible either, but it is.

When Solomon Kane was in Africa, he was given a cat-headed staff by the juju man N'Longa. A juju man is a highly racist version of a witchdoctor, but I won't blame Howard for that. Even H. Rider Haggard was guilty of that sort of thing. It’s a product of the times they lived in. Kane, being a Puritan, suspects that the staff is an Object of Dark Magic, but for some reason, he finds himself unwilling to get rid of it. This is fortunate, as it helps him fight of evil sorcerers and monsters. This reinforces Kane's suspicion that its is an Object of Dark Magic. But then he is captured by Arab slave traders, and is told by an elderly Arab named Yussef that it is the Staff of Solmon. King Solomon of Israel.

The staff has an incredible history - being first wielded by people who's kingdoms now lie under the sea, then by the Priests of Bast in Egypt, then by Moses, and the by King David and Solomon. In all cases it was used to fight of evil creatures and perform miraculous wonders. Then they run across some ancient ruins with a sealed door. Yussef warns his leader not to open the door, as this is likely a prison built by King Solomon to house an evil creature. (Because, of course, all ancient ruins in Africa were built by the Egyptians, Atlanteans or King Solomon.) But the Arab leader thinks that there is a great treasue behind the door. He orders his men to open it, and they do. Out rushes a demonic creature, who attacks and kills the Arab leader, and the rest of them flee, leaving behind Kane and the staff. Kane breaks his bonds, grabs the staff, and uses it to kill the creature. Looking at the staff, he realises that it is not a Object of Dark Magic, but an Object of Light.

I thought Howard invented the staff, but apparently does actually exist in legends. Unless the writer of the Wikipedia article on the Staff of Solomon is making things up. That is possible, as the article lists only one source, which is a description of the adaze(s) of Wepwawet being used in the opening of the mouth ceremony, part of the burial of a Pharaoh. The article claims that the staff is one of these objects. Wepwawet is a wolf-headed god often confused with Anubis - both were said to lead the dead into the underworld. Try as I might, I cannot find a link between Wepwawet and Bast. But apparently the makers of Age of Mythology could, as if you choose to follow Bast, you gain a technology called Adaze of Wepwawet which allows you to cut down trees faster.

Bast is, unfortunately, a very misunderstood goddess. The same can be said about Horus, Osiris, Isis, Set… well, just about any of the Egyptian gods. This problem stems partly from the fact that Ancient Egypt spanned a period of about 3000 years, and over time their beliefs about various gods changed drastically. They also had a habit of combining two gods into one. A further complication is added by the Greeks, who had an annoying habit of taking the gods of other cultures and identifying them with their own gods, and then projecting aspects of their own gods back onto the other gods, and then telling us about those attributes, despite the fact that the other gods never had them to begin with. Confusing enough? Bast was originally a solar lion goddess. Over time, Bast became associated with cats. But she was not the goddess of cats. She was a goddess with a cat head, who sometimes appeared in the form of a cat. She was regarded as a goddess of protection - but she would probably agree the best way to protect yourself is to go out and disembowel all of your enemies. It seems the Greeks decided she was like Artemis, and so told everyone she was a moon goddess. (By the way, the Panther God of Wakandia is apparently an aspect of Bast.)

There is one other problem with Howard's account - if you read Exodus you will notice that there are in fact two staves that perform miracles. At the burning bush Moses' shepherd staff turns into a serpent and back into a staff again, but when Moses and his brother Aaron appear before Pharaoh to demand the release of the Israelites, it is Aaron's staff that becomes a serpent. Aaron's staff turns the Nile to blood, and calls down plagues of frogs and insects. And then Moses' staff calls down hail and locusts. This does not make much sense - until you remember that God is performing the miracles, not Moses, Aaron or their staves.

Later Aaron's staff is put in the Ark of the Covenant, but Moses' one is not. So there may have been a tradition that Moses' staff was kept, and passed onto the Kings years later. But I can find no real evidence of this. This is an important issue, as I want to use the staff in my novel. But if Howard made it up, I don't think I can.

So I have two questions I still need to solve - did Howard make the staff up? And what do the makers of Age of Mythology know that I don't?

Spoils of War - Catching Up

2009-02-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

Right, so I've a) missed a few comics and b) missed most news since the beginning of the year due to two modems breaking one after the other. So, I've got catching up to do.
Remember the Secret Invasion playing cards? The thing where they identified every card with a superhero important to Secret Invasion? Thy did four once a week on CBR. They're doing a similar thing with War of Kings, Except this time its chess pieces. So far we have:
White King - Black Bolt
White Queen - Medusa
Black King - Vulcan
Black Queen - Deathbird

I expect Ronan, Triton, Crystal, Karnak and Gorgon to appear on the white side, and Gladiator to appear on the black side. I'm not sure what they'll do with the Guardians and former Guardians, the Starjammers, Nova and Darkhawk.

Its an interesting and cool idea, as long as we remember that this has nothing to do with the Hellfire Club. Or cult. Or whatever it is these days. Oh, and by the way, it seems that Black Bolt has conquered the Kree. I missed that somewhere. Probably SI: Inhumans. But it seems to be quite a pleasant conquest, Black Bolt regarding the Kree as distant family, and them regarding him with the respect due a great warrior.It seems that Young X-Men is now cancelled - it ends with issue #12. This is not surprising. YXM was strangely handled. I'm sure having Donald Pierce posing as Cyclops to pit the Young X-Men against the New Mutants seemed like a good idea at the time, bit it didn't work. People accused the writer of writing Cyclops badly, when he was actually writing Donald Pierce posing as Cyclops quite well, but nobody knew it. The whole 'someone will die!' plot probably would have worked if Kyle and Yost hadn't already been killing New X-Men with wanton abandon. It may even have worked if the mutant that was killed had been Anole, Rockslide or Dust (or here's an idea - Cannonball) instead of….Wolfcub. People certainly would have been upset, but probably upset in a way that made them buy the book. Instead everyone lost interest, including me, sales dropped, and now its cancelled.

Except, rumour has it that a New Mutants series is in the work. Leading me to suggest that Young X-Men hasn't actually been cancelled. I have the feeling that the stories that were going to be told in #13 onwards will now be told in New Mutants #1 onwards. Natrually the stories will be somewhat adjusted, but essentially the same. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I think it’s a good idea - they are giving the series a second chance at a start under a name guaranteed to sell a few copies. Now they just have to make sure the stories are good, and work in context with stuff going on around them.
And then there is something called Timestorm. I have a strange relationship with the 2099 line. When I was younger, I watched a Black Panther TV series that took place in the future. I can't remember if it was called Black Panther 2099, but that's basically what it was. I had never heard of the Panther before this, so I will always think of this hero of a dystopian future as the original Panther, meaning I think of the one that hangs around with Storm in the present day as low-tech copy of the original Panther. I know its weird, but that’s the way it is. I doubt I'll get Timestorm, though, as I doubt it will be anything like the TV series.Psylocke is returning to the X-Men soon, at least that's what Sword of the Braddocks seems to indicate. This makes me happy. I like Psylocke. She has a psi-sword. Its cool. Its like Pixie's souldagger. Yeah, I know they come from completely different sources, but lets face it, they're both sharp things that get pulled out of the air, and mess with magic or mental abilities (which are often similar).

Quartermaster - Restocking the Shelves

2009-02-01T06:40:00.000-08:00

Now that I have access to internet, and am not going on holiday or having any important events happening in the near future, I shall reinstate regular posts. I won't have any set weekly or monthly schedule though, as it appears I am unable to keep to something like that.

So, with the changes at Kick Ass Komix, who no longer have an actual store, though they do have a digital one, with me cancelling all my orders and then attempting to remember what I was ordering in order to restore them, and missing a month, I think I should have a run down exactly what I am now buying.

X-Factor
Still getting this, though by now I am missing quite a few of the odd-numbered issues - three or four I think. By now I'm sure you're tired of me talking about X-Factor, so I won't say any more about it here. I think the issue I get next is the gaspshockhorror baby one, so I'll let you know in a couple of weeks what I think.

Uncanny X-Men
I seriously considered dropping this, as the next issue I can get is #506, meaning I'm missing three whole issues in a row. But apparently I'll be able to get the Emma Frost-centric Annual #2, and I want to see how Fraction treats her character going forward. The Fringe Science stuff sounds like fun too, so Uncanny stays for now.

X-Infernus
I was excited to get this, but I missed the first two issues already, so I think I'll skip it for now, especially with Young X-Men being cancelled. But if I hear good things I'll pick up the trade.

Guardians of the Galaxy
I'll be getting these from #9, meaning I only missed one issue, #8. Unfortunatly it’s the one with Blastaar in it. Darn, I really wanted to see Blastaar after reading his first appearance (see Marvel Pocketbooks, below). Many of the best characters are just as ridiculous as Blaastar - Starlord, Rocket Racoon, Groot. Groot is even cooler in South Africa because groot is the Afrikaans word for big. I'm also excited about Guardians because it will be tying in to…

War of Kings
I missed Secret Invasion: War of Kings, SI: Inhumans, and the beginning of Kingbreaker. So I'm not off to a good start. But I'll definitely be getting War of Kings.

War of Kings: Darkhawk and War of Kings: Ascension
I think that the second mini is merely a continuation of the first. I wasn't sure if I was going to get these, as no one has made me care about Darkhawk yet, but apparently they involve the Negative Zone, which is both fun and appears to be relevant to Guardians. Who knows, I may end up being a Darkhawk fan.

Marvel Pocketbooks - Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
I am really enjoying these, which I get from CAN, a poular bookstore/newsagency/sationer. So far I have The Coming of Galactus!, Doomsday!, and Where Stalks the Sandman!. I saw The Flames of Battle! Is out, but haven't got it yet. They are reprints of the old FF comics, back when it was called the Worlds Greatest Comic Book Magazine! and every sentence ended with an exclamation mark or two. They are of course completely ridiculous and over the top, but quite enlightening. The Inhumans feature prominently, and people like the Silver Surfer, Black Panther, Blaastar and Ronan the Accuser put in first appearances. Various versions of the Negative Zone appear too. I'm afraid no one treats Susan as a serious superhero, though, because she's a woman.

So that’s it. Not a very large collection. Agents of Atlas (Namorita) and Mighty Avengers (Quicksilver and the Witch) are hovering around the edges trying to make it onto the list, but there are two problems - one is the rand/dollar exchange rate and the other is the slightly inflated price of event comics. This conspires to make the same amount of comics cost double what they cost me at the beginning of 2008. So I have to watch what I'm getting, and for now War of Kings trumps more team books.

Oh, and if it interests you I've almost finished writing chapter three of my novel.

The War Effort - Strategic Retreat

2009-01-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

Again I find myself apologising for lack of recent posts. I have no internet again. I got a new modem, and it is already not working.

There is some good news. The guys at Kick Ass Komix are not closing down completely after all. They will get comics sent to their shop from the Joburg shop - however they are only getting comics people have ordered, you can only order from the website, and you have to pay for them beforehand. Which is fine, just mans they won't have extra stuff on their shelves for you to buy. I'm not sure if they'll be working from their shop premises or if that will close and they'll work from Greg's house again.

Which means I'll probably start getting comics again late this month or early February. So the trade plan is no longer necessary. It also seems like it will be really hard to get back issues of comics, so I won't be getting the issues I've missed unless I buy the trades.

Hopefully by the end of the month I will have internet again so I can do reviews. Now I'll go check out Andrenn's solicit commentary and see if he put a link to the full solicits, which I haven't seen yet.

See you sometime.

War Effort: I am still writing, you just can't see me.

2009-01-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

So, it's official. I will be buying trades from kalahari.net. I probably should have said that a couple of days ago, but I've been really busy. With work I made for myself, so it’s no excuse. I've always wanted to write a novel (and I've had people telling me I should for years) so I sat down and started writing one. I've already got further than any other attempt, and it’s only been four days, so it’s highly likely I will actually finish it.

However, I am finding trying to write a fantasy novel set in the present day that won't get me sued by JK Rowling very hard work. For example, I have taken a lot of ideas from the blood elves of Warcraft. Inspired by the blood mage and dragonhawk rider I created the Knights of the Phoenix - only to realise that people will probably think I'm copying Rowling's Order of the Phoenix. Darn. Inspired by the enchantment skillset from the online text game Lusternia, I created a Lightning Wand for my main character. It is powered by the feather of a lightning phoenix, which I thought of whilst reading Brenda Rosen's Mythical Creature's Bible. Then I was reminded that Harry Potter's wand was powered by a phoenix feather - so, no lighting wand. In the present day, young children have to go to school - but any mention of a school where magic is taught will get accusations of copying Rowling. Which is only fair. But I don’t know how to get around it, even Terry Pratchett gets asked if the Unseen University is based on Hogwarts. (According to Pratchett, it is, though time machines are involved.) And I really want to include the Philosopher's Stone (a really cool item in history, and in Lusternia) but I guess you can see how that might be a problem. I've even resorted to renaming wizards sorcerers, and magic sorcery.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. My main character is female, partly elven and has neither glasses nor a scar. And my elves are obviously Tolkeinesque, rather than ugly creatures who do housework (those are cobolds). I can call female sorcerers by the awesome sounding name ‘sorceress’, and confuse people by having a male witch. I believe my version of gnomes is a unique creation (though admittedly it was my sister’s idea). I know Harry Potter has never met a werehyena. And I am fairly confident that the only other person ever to use the word Bism is Clive Staples Lewis.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a while, rest assured I am slaving away, still writing a book that in all likelihood will get me sued because I forgot someone had already published a similar story. And it’s hard to get excited about comic books I won’t be able to get for six or more months.

From the Front - Late for November

2008-12-25T09:12:00.001-08:00

This is probably my last 'From the Front' post, because it looks like I'll only be buying trades from now on, and trades are reviewed in 'From the Trenches'. You may be asking yourself what I am doing writing reviews on Christmas Day. I shall explain. My great-grandparents were Danish, and the Danish tradition was that you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. I have no idea if that’s what they actually do in Denmark these days, but that’s how our family does it. So we had all the eating and carolling and opening presents last night, and this morning we went to church, so there isn't really much to do on Christmas day except read our presents (because most of the presents we get seem to be ones that you read). I've been reading the Fantastic Four pocketbook I got. It has the first appearance of the Black Panther and Claw, some weirdness with Prestor John, Johnny Storm and Crystal pining after each other, and a storyline in which Dr Doom steals the Silver Surfer's powers and rides around on his surfboard. Yes, that was in the movie. But the FF pocketbooks are hard to read all in one go, so I'm taking a break. Spoilers abound.

X-Men: Pixies and Demons - Director's Cut
Which is a fancy way of saying 'We're re-publishing the FCBD story, but we need a way to justify it, so it gets a cardstock cover and the script added onto the end'. How can a comic book be a director's cut you ask? Comics don't have directors! Well, the name is justified because the script has directions from the writer to the artist as to haw the page should look. The story itself was ok, and could have easily been put in one of the Divided We Stand anthologies. Like some of those stories, it shows us what happened to one of the kids that got stuck out in the cold when Cyclops closed Xavier's. The kid being, of course, Megan Gwyn or Pixie. She went back to her small hometown in Wales, a town which is, according to all the other children there, very boring. Megan starts to suspect that something is very wrong when people start disappearing, but no one believes her - they think the people have just got fed up an left town. But then Pixie starts seeing demons that no one else can, demons called the N'Gari. I'm sure it would make a whole lot more sense to me if I had read any other stories involving these beings, but I'm not sure where to look for them. As far as I can tell, these beings feed on death. A mining accident which left a whole lot of people dead, including Megan's father, was what allowed them to appear in the town. Now they are abducting people to feed their leader, who is partially manifested at the scene of the mining accident. Poor Pixie is attempting to fight them all by her lonesome, with no idea whether any of her messages have got through to the X-Men. It is a bit too much like the other DWS stories, in that it shows us important things happening to an important character, yet it doesn't do it very well. Yes, Megan is important now. She's a main character in Uncanny. And this is how she got to be there. But there is only one moment that really shines - in the middles of a heated underground battle with the N'Gari, Pixie collapses the mine and teleports all the X-Men out, leaving them all standing around in heroic battle poses with nothing to fight. Nightcrawler is astounded by Pixie's teleportation abilities, and says she makes him feel old, which I assume has something to do with him quitting the X-Men next year. The script at the back is interesting, but it doesn't add anything new to the story.
Verdict: Minor Loss.

X-Factor #37
Yay, the X-Factor I know and love is back! Lots of harsh lighting and shadows, verbal sparring, real sparring, detective work, and evil dupes of Jamie doing nasty things. I hate saying it, but Longshot is proving a pretty good replacement for Layla, with his luck powers giving the team the same sort of edge (or X-Factor if you will) that Layla's precog powers did. And he's a lot less creepy than her. Oh, and now we have a new artist, he actually looks like Longshot, and when M gets luvy duvy with him, it actually makes sense. Anyway, whilst Val Cooper tries to convince Siryn and Rictor that she's only there to protect the baby, Madrox, Guido, M and Longshot arrive at the base of Mr. Manu looking for Darwin. I don't have the last issue, so I'm not entirely sure how found out who Mr Manu was (I'm guessing Longshot's object-memory power) but they manage to find Darwin. A whole lot of him actually. Either Manu has cloned him, or he's managed to give a whole lot of his lackeys adaptation powers. That would have been a pretty good cliffhanger, but the actual cliffhanger is Siryn's water breaking. There isn't a huge amount of storyline taking place here, but sometimes slowing down is good, especially after that sudden timeskip a few issues back. I've felt a bit disconnected from the characters since the timeskip, but this issue seems to give a glimpse at what each of the characters are thinking, and thus I feel a lot more connected to where the characters are. And - is it just me, or does Mr Manu's chin look a bit bumpy?
Verdict: Major Victory!

War Effort: Picking Up the Pieces

2008-12-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

The e-mail I got a while back announcing the closing of Kick Ass Komix also said to pick up all call orders before Saturday the 20th of December. It was my little sister's 21st party on the 19th however, so I phoned up Rudi and asked if I could pick my comics up on the 21st (the date, not the birthday party). Which is today. Also, to confuse matters, it is my sister's actual birthday today. She loves the hardcover copy of Marevl Illustrated: Treasure Island I got for her.

So anyway I went to pick up what is in all likelihood my last lot of comics from KA Komix, getting X-Men: Pixies and Demons (a reprint of the FCBD comic, and incidentally my first comic with a cardstock cover), X-Factor #37 and Guardians #7. I'll try post up reviews of them tomorrow or Tuesday. I also picked up X-Men: Legacy #215 & #216 and the trade of Paul Jenkin's 2000 Sentry miniseries off the shelves. Greg said that this was their last shipment, so I'm missing:
X-Factor #34
X-Factor #36,
She-Hulk's X-Factor tie in (I think it was #35)
Guardians #6,
Uncanny X-Men #204

Now: what to do about next year? The website of the Johannesburg shop isn't very good. There are rumors of a South African website that sells comic books with free shipping. But as I have yet to find said website, it seems that my best option is to buy my comics in trade form from kalahari.net. Of course, that means waiting a bit longer, and as patience is not one of my strong suits, it means I'll probably already know the story's broad outline before I get it. But, hey, trades do go on the shelf nicely and are easy to pull out and re-read. So I'll probably continue with X-Factor, Guardians and Uncanny X-Men trades and forget about the remainder of Civil War: HoM, Manifest Destiny, Solomon Kane and the one shots I was going to get. I can order the trades of X-Infernus and War of Kings when they appear.

War Effort: The Battle Plan

2008-12-08T01:47:00.000-08:00

They say things happen in threes. First, I got an e-mail form Kick-Ass Komix saying that they will be closing on the 31st of December. As in forever. This presents me with a large problem, as KAK was the only comic shop in Durban. Their closing means that the closest shop is now eight hours away from me in Jo'burg. I then went down to KAK to pick up my comics, only to find that their shipping orders had got messed up, and out of the whole of October and November, there was only one comic waiting for me. (This is on top of the missing ones from September.) And then my modem broke. Hence the lack of posts for the last couple of weeks, which I apologise for. I don’t even know how Secret Invasion ended. Though, it probably won't matter much seeing as how slim my chances of buying anything with 'Dark Reign' on the cover have suddenly become.

So I am cancelling all regular (hah) posts in order to focus on the Battle Plan:

THE BATTLE PLAN
Find a new way to get comics
Without:
A) Being killed by shipping rates or the petrol price
B) Ending up with comics that have been folded or have price tags stuck on their covers.

I'll let you know how I'm doing with posts entitled 'War Effort'. Cause even if I end up never getting War of Kings, I like my blog name.

And now I shall go find out what happened in Secret Invasion.

Quartermaster - Febuary 2009

2008-11-19T02:44:00.000-08:00

Green means I'm getting it. Red means I'm not. Blue means I'm still deciding. All cover images from Newsarama.

Dark Stuff
The dark section is a bit bigger this month. We have the usual suspects: Dark Avengers #2, New Avengers #50, Mighty Avengers #22, Avengers: The Initiative #21, Thunderbolts #129, Invincible Iron Man #10, War Machine #3, Ms. Marvel #36 and Deadpool #7. Added to this are Bendis & Hickman’s Secret Warriors #1, and Jeff Parker’s Agents of Atlas #1. These are as expected. We were also told Black Panther #1 had something to do with Dark Reign, so not much of a surprise. But Punisher #2 is here. Why is it classified when the spoliery #1 wasn’t? And then there’s Wolverine: Origins #33. Why on earth is this involved in Dark Reign? We’ll have to wait till December to find out. Agents of Atlas is tempting. I’ll probably get the first few issues at least. But I’ll wait for the declassified solicitations to come out before I decide on any of these.
Intelligence required.

Ultimate Stuff
So, Ultimate X-Men and Utimate FF are both being cancelled, while the beloved Ultimate Spidy carries on. I’m not really surprised. I’m pretty sure the remaining X-Men and FF members (if there are any) will end up in Ultimates or Ultimate Avengers. What’s interesting are the new printings of Ultimate Wolvrine vs Hulk #1 and #2. Does that mean they’re gonna finish it? Regardless, I’m still not gonna buy any Ultimate stuff. Its bad enough trying to keep up with stuff in the regular Marvel U.
Not in supply.

Astonishing Tales #1
The Marvel Universe is about to get even more astonishing with this anthology that delivers super-sized thrills every month! First up, fan-fave C.B. Cebulski and superstar Ken Roquefort (Madame Mirage) get gritty with a no-holds-barred Wolverine/Punisher tale you have to see to believe! You like Iron Man? GOOD! We’ve got a double dose of the Iron Avenger as Tony Stark and Arno Stark, Iron Man of the year 2020, headline two tales of corporate and high-tech intrigue. Finally, Cannonball and Sunspot of the New Mutants get sucked into the wildest adventure of their short lives when they spend their summer vacation in...MOJOWORLD!!
Hmm, this is interesting. Another anthology. We had Marvel Comics Presents for a year (it finished in August) and a couple of X-Men anthologies. Apparently they did well enough to merit a new Astonishing Tales series. The last time the name was used was in series that ran from 1970-1976. I’m not sure whether this new series is supposed to be in present day continuity or not. The appearance of Arno Stark and the refence to Cannonball and Sunspot being on summer vacation makes me think its not.
Not in supply.

Marvel: Your Universe #1
Get caught up on all the latest action going on in the Marvel Universe! First, it’s an action-packed Ms. Marvel story featuring Captain America and Jessica Jones. Then, he has near limitless power — now he must do all he can to bring punishment to the wicked, help to the oppressed, and justice for all! Exploding from the pages of ANNIHILATION, it’s Nova! Also, follow the adventures of Danny Rand in a history-spanning kung-fu epic that will shatter every perception of what it means to be the Immortal Iron Fist! Next, the final confrontation between Ghost Rider and Lucifer begins! Plus, the X-Men’s past becomes the present as Xavier fights the greatest battle of his life. With his mind hanging in the balance, one false move can cause irreversible damage. Collecting material from MS. MARVEL #1, NOVA #1, IMMORTAL IRON FIST #1, GHOST RIDER #14 & X-MEN: LEGACY #208.
I’m not entirely sure what this is supposed to be. We already have an anthology starting this mont. This seems to be a random collection of reprints that have nothing to do with each other. It’s not the latest action, and you would think stuff like Avengers and Iron Man are important for understanding the current Marvel U than these. Strange.
Not in supply.

Eternals #8
Guest-starring the X-Men! When colliding cousins Ikaris and Druig face-off at the feet of the Dreaming Celestial, do you think the astonishing mutants are going to let their new hometown be torn apart? Think again, Bub! They’ve united in the past to face a common foe, but can the X-Men and the Eternals stand together now?
I suspect that this purely an attempt to push up readership for eternals, and isn’t essential reading for X-Men fans. But the Celestial’s been in Uncanny twice now…
Not in supply…I think.

Fantastic Four #564
Dear Readers, you have our word that nothing this lame happens inside this very special Christmas issue. Yours sincerely, Mark and Bryan.
Christmas in February. This is what happens when comics are delayed
Not in supply.

Hulk #10
There was a time when the world's mightiest heroes got together to fight foes too great for them to handle all by themselves. No! Not the Avengers! The other guys: HULK! NAMOR! SILVER SURFER! DOC STRANGE! The original Defenders are back! But what terrible threat could bring them together again? How about THE OFFENDERS! RULK! TIGER SHARK! TERRAX! BARON MORDO! If you have to buy ONE comic this month -- be sure to by TWO copies of HULK!
One side of me says Loeb knows what he’s doing, the Defenders getting back together is the best thing ever, and I should buy this awesome book. My other side says that the Avengers can’t possibly get back together without ruining three plotlines, and this is a disaster in waiting which I should avoid at all costs.
Not in supply.

She-Hulk #38
She's been savage. She's been sensational. She's been an avenger. She's been a lawyer. She's been a bounty-hunter. But there's one thing She-Hulk has always been, in all of her many series... cancelled. But it hasn't stopped her yet! In this oversized final issue, Peter David brings his run on the Jade Giantess to a close... but can Jen use her last remaining pages to save her friends from a truly mammoth threat? Catch her now, before someone turns her red!
Well, I kept intending to try this, and in fact I’ve ordered the X-Factor tie-in (which I still haven’t got) and the Cosmic Collision one-shot. But seeing as its being cancelled, it doesn’t look like I’ll get to try it. Oh well.
Not in supply, series discontinued.

Incredible Hercules: Love and War HC
The Greek Goliath is looking for some R&R after the events of "Sacred Invasion," and hopes to find it in the arms of ex-Renegade NAMORA. But there's no rest for warriors when the AMAZONS declare war on Atlantis! And these ain't your mama's Amazons — is that why Amadeus Cho sides with them instead of Herc? Plus: ARES returns! Collecting INCREDIBLE HERCULES #121-125.
I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to get the hardcover, but if I don’t I’ll get the trade paperback.
In supply.

*DARK REIGN SPOILER ALERT*
Incredible Hercules #126
A special DOUBLE-SIZED issue that is the perfect jumping-on point for new readers! Proudly presenting, for the first time in Marvel continuity ... the ORIGIN OF HERCULES! How did the young man who becomes the Lion of Olympus learn of his divine heritage? In what battle did he earn the title "Prince of Power?" And, most importantly, why does the goddess HERA hate him so, now that her DARK REIGN begins to fall across New Olympus? PLUS: In the aftermath of the Skrull invasion, AMADEUS CHO goes on "The Quest for Kirby!"
Ok, so its not really much of a spoiler for Dark Reign. Either Hera’s working with Doom, or Van Lente and Pak are doing a parallel story that has nothing to do with the rest of Dark Reign, like their Sacred Invasion story. And, BTW, Hera hates Herc cause Zeus cheated on Hera with Herc’s mother. It’s not complicated. Now, I’m getting Love and War, so I might decide to start getting this. It depends on what’s happening in Dark Reign, where this story is going, and whether or not I decide to buy all my Herc comics in tpb or not.
Intelligence required.
*/SPOILER *

Models, Inc. #1 (of 4)
Fashion Week is always a hectic time for models, and this year is no exception. Between escaped wolves, robbery attempts, and overly friendly police officers, Mary Jane Watson, Patsy Walker, Jill Jerold, Chili Storm and Millicent (Millie the Model) Collins are testing the limits of their endurance. But when a brilliant young set designer is found murdered with three bullet holes in his back, and Millie proves to be the prime suspect, the models are forced to play detective in order to save one of their own!
When I first saw the cover I thought it said Hotels, that blonde was Emma, and that it was the cover of the next Uncanny. That would have been funny, but dude, this is hilarious. Mary Jane, Hellcat and Millie the Model. I laughed at every single headline on that cover. In fact, you know what? If it’s in continuity, I’m going to buy it. Because I can. If people at the comic store laugh at me, I can just say it’s for my sister.
Now in supply.

Nova #22
Join the Nova Corps...or suffer the consequences! Worldmind begins the mass transformation of human recruits to fill the ranks of his new Nova Corps--and brands anyone who stands against him a criminal! Richard Rider is powerless to stop the process...but he’s going to try anyway, even if it means fighting alone! New characters, razor-sharp plot twists, jaw-dropping cliffhangers...
I don’t think I’ll get Nova until War of Kings actually starts.
Not in supply.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #3 (of 4)
The fuse has been lit in the Shi'Ar Empire and an intergalactic powder keg is about to explode. After the shocking events of last issue, the rest of the universe just found out how dangerous Vulcan is... but right now Vulcan is more concerned with a now free HAVOK and POLARIS. And as the ruthless new Imperial Guard hunts down MARVEL GIRL, everything begins to converge. Will there be any X-Men left to fight the WAR OF KINGS?
Another awesome cover. I think I’ll make it into a new banner and turn the site green. Or perhaps green and red, and put some holly up too, for Christmas. Oh, right the comic. It sounds pretty good from the solicit, and I’m glad the entire series isn’t Vulcan torturing Havok and Polaris (I wouldn’t put it past Yost to do that) they actually escape and do things.
In supply.

Guardians of the Galaxy #10
The drums of battle thunder in the Negative Zone – building to WAR OF KINGS! Rocket Raccoon and the Guardians face down Blastaar’s barbarian horde as Star-Lord fights for his life in 42, the besieged Initiative prison! And if our cosmic misfits fall – Earth is next!
If this was any other book, bringing Blastaar back would be a bad idea. He is a completely ridiculous character. But this isn’t any book, its Guardians, and it is built on making ridiculous character awesome.
In supply.

War of Kings: Darkhawk #1 (of 2)
As WAR OF KINGS approaches, the ascension of Darkhawk begins! New Warrior...Avenger...Intergalactic destroyer?! Chris Powell has been many things over his young life, but now he’s stepping up with a new life on the East Coast and a serious job at Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. But when his past comes back to haunt him and new information about his amulet and its legacy are violently brought to light, Darkhawk realizes he may have to face a much darker destiny that he ever realized. All this, plus the return of the Loners...and a reprint of DARKHAWK #1! You know how ANNIHILATION made you look twice at Nova (now star of a critically acclaimed series)? This is where Darkhawk takes off!
Its no secret I’m a fan of C.B. Cebulski, so while I tend not to enjoy solo books, I’m going to try this. Especially as I’m not getting Nova, and it looks like PEGASUS might have something to do with the war. Its only two issues, and it ends at the same time as Kingbreaker, so the war starts in April?
Now in supply.

Uncanny X-Men #506
“Lovelorn”
Emma's bad dreams continue, and, man, when the White Queen has a long night, we ALL have long nights. Peter finds horror in the Port of Oakland. The assembly of the fringe science team continues with a big -- BIG -- discovery that will probably kill them all before they have a chance to fix that whole no-more-mutants thing. And with the Humanity NOW! Coalition stoking fires of anti-mutant hate, Cyclops implores his X-Men to keep a low profile... HA. Dummy. Part 3 (of 4)
It seems like I have to justify why I’m getting this every time I do Quartermaster, so I’m not going to try and justify it this time.
In supply.

X-Men: Legacy #221
“Salvage”
The desert ghost-town that was once the X-Men's HQ has been reborn as a city of the damned with only one inhabitant: Rogue. But as Professor X and Gambit struggle to reach her, they discover that sometimes one is a very large number... Part 2 (of 5)
Very good book. However, I don’t care about Rogue and I know nothing about the X-Men’s outback days..
Not in supply.

X-Infernus #3 (of 4)
The battle for Illyana Rasputin’s soul continues! Colossus leads the X-Men into Limbo, but does Illyana want them there?
They’ll find out that her soul isn’t the only one on the line. And who is the mysterious woman who is changing the landscape of reality?
Still know very little about this series, but it sounds like it will be good.
In supply.

Young X-Men #11
Dust is dying. Ever since she was turned to glass in YOUNG X-MEN #3, things haven’t been right, and they’re only getting worse. Why does she think that Donald Pierce may hold the answer?
I won’t get any YXM until after X-Infernus ends, then I’ll look at it again and decide.
Not in supply.

X-Factor #40
You remember John Maddox, right? He’s the one dupe that Jaime Madrox never reabsorbed. Family man. Pastor. All around decent guy. Well, he’s having a really really BAD day. And things are going to get worse when an armed Madrox comes knocking on his door. He’s looking for answers that only a man of the lord can provide and if Madrox doesn’t like what he hears, it may very well be the last sermon that John Maddox ever delivers…
Peter David likes doing this. Just when you’ve forgotten about that seemingly throwaway plot, it suddenly becomes important again. Meaning you can often go back an read old issues and notice things you didn’t see before. I think this solicit is a bit misleading though. Jamie wouldn’t even kill the Purifiers - he’s not gonna kill one of his dupes. However, last time Jamie visited Maddox, Jamie wanted to re-absorb him.
In supply.

X-Force #12
Cyclops and Wolverine struggle to deal the growing threats facing mutants while still keeping X-Force’s existence a secret from the X-Men. Warpath is out for vengeance, Wolfsbane is missing and X-23 keeps cutting off pieces of Vanisher. But worst of all? One mutant’s deadly actions will put mutantkind squarely back in the crosshairs of humanity. Things were bad before but they’re about to get a hell of lot worse.
I find myself wondering what pieces of Vanisher X-23 is cutting off. Anyway, I shall continue to ignore this book until the other X-Men find out about it.
Not in supply.

Cable #11
Deep in the future, Cable and the now seven-year-old mutant messiah find themselves in the middle of humanity’s last stand. And humanity loses! Cable is forced to timeslide into an uncertain future, hoping to find survivors, or food, or water... anything. But the longer Cable and the girl wander, the greater the devastation. As they fight to survive out in the barren wastelands, the girl starts to ask Cable the tough questions he’s been dreading—namely: who am I, and why do some people want me dead?
How to age a character without resorting to soapie-like age paradoxes. One begins to wonder how old Cable is and how much more devastation the earth can take, but at least they’re attempting to explain how all of this works.
Not in supply.

X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #1 (of 3)
By now you know that Lucas Bishop—former cop, renegade X-Man—refuses to rest until he's killed the so-called "mutant messiah." But do you know why? To answer that question you have to look into Bishop's past...which actually means jumping 50 years into the future, when his parents barely escaped a nuclear holocaust, only to land in the most brutal "mutant relocation" camp in the world. There, a young Bishop first heard the horror stories about the green-eyed monster that ushered in the the downfall of mutantkind, and swore vengeance -- embarking on a life-long, time-hopping mission that begins here, in this special three-part mini-series. You haven't heard the "Messiah Complex" story until you've heard Bishop's side of the story...
As I said, at least they’re trying to explain things now. I never much liked Bishop (perhaps this is likned to my lack of knowledge about the X-Men’s outback days), so I don’t really care why he wants to kill the baby. There’s an outside chance this will tie in to the Layla Miller one shot and the Summers Rebellion, so I’m not writing it off quite yet, but I highly doubt I’ll get it.
Not in supply.

Duel! - Thing's will never be the same again!

2008-11-18T23:18:00.000-08:00

From today, things will never be the same again. Comic book fans have heard this phrase so many times it is meaningless. But we’re not talking about comic books here, we’re talking about Yu-Gi-Oh. And when you hear people saying Crossroads of Chaos is going to change the card game forever, they mean it.

Firstly the promo card – which is possibly the card that made me want to go to the sneak preview, held in Chatsworth a few weeks ago. It’s Rose, Warrior of Revenge, and it’s a level 4 tuner. The first level 4 tuner to be released. Why is it so awesome? Because now level 8 synchros (like Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend) can be summoned with only two monsters. Previously you needed at least three monsters – either the tuner and two low level monsters, or the tuner, a high level monster, and a tribute.
Promo Card – Major Victory!

Along with this is the first level 7 synchro monster, Black Rose Dragon, and a variaity of level 6 synchros. Like increasing the tuner’s level, decreasing the syncro’s level makes synchro summoning a lot easier. Again, you only need two monsters – a level 3 tuner, and a level 3 or 4 monster. Black Rose Dragon may be geared towards plant decks (you need plant monsters to activate its second ability) but its still excellent in other decks, with its 2400 attack, and its field-clearing first ability. Its certainly in my deck. Did I mention I was one of only two players who got this card at the sneak preview? I was very happy, to say the least.
Cover Card – Major Victory!

The most obvious game-change that CSOC brings about is to plants. Previously plant decks were in the same boat as aqua, fish and sea serpent decks. They existed, but you couldn’t do anything with them. With one booster set plant decks are catapulted into the realm of warrior and dragon decks. They now have searchers, revivers beatsticks, tuners, synchros, control effects, lockdown effects, swarm effects…pretty much everything. And at the sneak preview, it showed – plant decks were the decks to beat, and they came away top.
Plants – Major Victory!

The other decks I came up against were, of cause, Morphatronic. They are machines with the gimmick of having a different effect depending on if they’re in attack or defense position. Visially they look like robuts that can change into gagets like radios, cellphones and flash drives. Think Soundwave from the Transformers movie. And while its an interesting idea, in practice they don’t really work – their attack and defense are too low.
Morphatronic – Minor Loss.

I played neither. Instead I built an Iron Chain deck, the only person who did. I kind of had to, seeing as how I got two Iron Chain Dragons and an Iron Chain Repairman, and it worked quite well with Black Rose. Somehow I netted a runner-up place and a Black Rose Dragon t-shirt. Granted, we were only playing 20-card decks, and it won’t be easy to make a 40-card Iron Chain deck work, but I still think IC has potential. A 2500 attack / level 6 synchro, and a 1600 def / level 3 tuner searchable with Giant Rat are not to be sniffed at. Now if only I had a deck with lots of level 3 special-summonable monsters in it. Oh, wait. I do.
Iron Chain – Minor Victory.

Despite the fact that only three types of deck were played at the sneak, there are some game-changing cards set to revitalise some other decks. First up – spellcaster. There were only two spellcaster monsters in the set, and both were highly sought after at the sneak. Night’s-End Sorcerer is a level 2 tuner. Tempest Magician is a level 6 synchro. That would be good just in itself, but both cards meld perfectly into general spellcaster strategy. Spellcasters have some of the best special summoning in the game – and if you special summon Night’s-End you can remove two card from your opponent’s graveyard. In this day and age, where people rely on having certain cards in their graveyard, this effect can be a game-winner. Secondly, spellcasters like putting spell counters on stuff. Temepest Magician likes putting even more spell counters on stuff, and it can remove all spell counters from the field to deal 500 damage for each one. There’s your win condition right there.
Spellcasters – Major Victory.

On the flip side, if your opponent has Hanewata, you won’t be throwing a spell tempest at them. Hanewata can be discarded to negate all effect damage for your turn. Bad for burn decks. But what if your opponent doesn’t have a burn deck? Then just summon it for a synchro – it’s a tuner. Although, it’s a level 1 tuner, so I’m not sure what you’re gonna summon with it. It might work in a Valhalla deck if you’re special summoning level 6 or 7 fairies a lot. Then there’s Plaguespreader Zombie. Everyone wanted it at the sneak. No one got it. Why is it so good? It’s a tuner you can bring back from the graveyard by adding a card from your hand to the top of your deck. There are so many ways to use this – but the most promising is in a Lightsworn deck. Lightsworn spends all its time sending cards to the graveyard, so it was hard for them to use tuners. Not anymore. Send that useless wulf in your hand to the top of your deck, special summon Plaguespreader. Then, in your end phase, Wulf goes to the graveyard, and is summoned by his effect. Sweet. Plaguespreader is, of course, Ultra Rare. And lastly there’s the White Stone of Legend. I myself have not heard of the legend about it, but it would seem it’s a pretty good legend. Its only a level 1 tuner again, but that’s hardly necessary. Cause when it is sent to the graveyard you can add Blue-Eyes White Dragon to your hand. It doesn’t specify how its sent to the graveyard, as long as its sent there. I’ll have to check up that it will actually work, but I’m thinking Foolish Burial…
Assorted Tuners – Major Victory!

There's a lot more card I haven't mentioned, but I think I've gone on long enough.

Best Card Name: Tytannial, Princess of Camellias
Best Card Artwork: Iron Chain Snake
Best Card: Black Rose Dragon

Salvo! - I (heart) Lara Croft

2008-11-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

Everyone who knows me well knows how much I love the Tomb Raider games. No, not because of Lara's assets. Its because I love archeology, mythology and brain-twisting puzzle solving. Nothing could be better than combining all three. No, wait, that's not quite true. Nothing could be better than combining norse archeology, norse mythology and brain-twisting puzzle solving. Wait, that's still not quite true. Nothing could be better than combining all three in a search for Thor's hammer. Yes, Tomb Raider: Underworld could quite possibly the worlds first game made entirely just for me.

Unfortunately I will have to steal a friend's computer to play it. But that's ok, I did that for Legend.

Oh, and if you want to know more about the game go to CBR. The gameplay is apprently a marked improvment over Legend and Anniversary (both of which had awesome gameplay). I especially like the ability you are given to decide whether you want a more combat orientated game, or a more puzzle-orientated game. Cause while I'm good at puzzles, I'm useless at combat. I won't feeel guilty about adjusting the game so enemies have extremely low health, allowing Lara to mow through them with her dual pistols. It's Lara Croft. She can do anything.

Salvo! - The Future is Dragons!

2008-11-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

Apologies about the lack of recent updates, things have been pretty hectic lately. I'm going to try to make it to the comic shop tomorrow, but I might not be able to. I've already put up this weeks Togs of War, and continuing the draconian theme, War Correspondence will look at some well known dragons from Yu-Gi-Oh. That'll be sometime later this month, when I've finished the article. But till then, here's some of the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh releases.

18 November - Crossroads of Chaos
With Black Rose Dragon as the cover card, this pack finally allows you to build plant decks that can actually win. Also features the Morphatronic (read Transformers, but they're not allowed to use the name) the Iron Chain monsters, and synchro/tuners for zombie and spellcaster decks. It offically comes out in a few weeks, but I got to go to the sneak preview last week, where I pulled a Black Rose Dragon and two Iron Chain Dragons. So I don't need any more of these.

November? - Collectible Tins 2008 Wave 2
These are the Black Rose Dragon and Turbo Warrior tins. I can't find out the exact date, but its probably around the 18th too. I already have my Black Rose, so not sure if I'll get a BR tin to mach my Stardust one.

November 21 - Dark Legends
A new reprint set. You buy two packs at once, with a promo card: Gorz, Emissary of Darkness. Everyone's falling over in excitement over Gorz for some reason I can't fathom. Maybe its because I dislike dark monsters, and they don't. Rest of the details are sketchy, but the pack artwork features Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Blizzard Dragon, and Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest. Gellenduo and DH - Malicious will also be in it. I'd like a Gellenduo and a Green Baboon, but they're ultra rare, so I doubt I'll buy this.

8 December - Anniversary Pack
Another reprint…but this one has a twist. To celebrate the card game's 10th anniversary, a special pack is being released in Japan featuring new (and really cool-looking) artwork versions of famous cards like Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Dragon, Celtic Guardian, Dark Magician Girl, and Jinzo. This appears to be the English version of the pack, though its not entirely certain. Will I get it? Depends on how rare the new Blue-Eyes and Jinzo cards are...and how much money I have left after buying Christmas presents.

9 December - Crossroads of Chaos - Special Edition
One of the Promo Cards is the gemini zombie Il Blud, who I could care less about. The other one, however, is Harvest Angel of Wisdom, which I really would like to get to fill out my Ragnarok deck, which is a bit light on good level 4 monsters.

Togs of War - Time for some Dragon Slaying!

2008-11-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Artix Entertainment have declared this month the 'Month of Dragons' in all their games, and they certainly seem to mean it. The next quest in the Dragesvard chain has been released, and so I'm off to find out how Aisha is controlling the dragons, and whether I can convince them to switch sides. Galanoth, of course, is highly doubtful anything good will come of this, however, my success so far seems to have impressed him enough that he'll play along…until he needs to rescue me, of course. The quest starts off with waves of Dravir, which is nothing new. However, once that is over there's some very interesting developments, revealing the Dragon/Elf alliance is not quite what it initially appeared to be. I must admit, it’s a twist I didn't see coming. And then it ends with a fight against two large ice dragons. At once. Without DragonRider armour. And honestly, Galanoth is pretty weak for the worlds most powerful DragonSlayer, so don't count on him to bail you out.

Meanwhile, a group of five dragons (of fire, water, lightning, wind and darkness types) are setting up a restaurant in Falconreach. That doesn't seem like a bad idea, until one realises that he menu will consist of the residents of Falconreach. So, that's five more dragons to take down, without DragonRider armour.

Fortunately, the DragonSlayer class has been released on the DA server for testing. And I have a Dragon Amulet. And it’s a really good class. Or, rather, it’s a 'meh' class that becomes really good if you're fighting dragons or dragonkin. It has two DoT abilities. Now DoT abilities are not particularly good in DF, unless you're fighting something with more health than you. Like dragons. Then they are really good. It has an ability that give opponents -10 to their boost (which is linked to accuracy in hitting you). That’s a bit meh. But if you use it on a dragon, it gives them -50 to their boost, which is indispensable when you're trying to avoid nasty dragonfire. It's one of the few armours that has a triple attack - but you an only use it against dragons. Its higest level skill is an ability that allows you to heal and attack at the same time. The only other armour that can do this is necromancer. Its not as powerful as the necro's version of this, but it doesn't require any setup, and has a 4-turn cooldown. Which is awesome. Oh, you can only use it against dragons. I don't quite understand why this class includes the Guardian clas'ss ability to summon the guardian dragon though. Why would the GD help a non-guardian, a DragonSlayer to boot?

It takes down dragons like nobody's business, but if you want to use it against a boss dragon, you'll have to be prepared to fight with a 'meh' class whilst you're getting to the boss. I think the class will get nerfed for the actual release - AE tend to underestimate how powerful the abilities they come up with actually are, which is why they get the paid-up players to test new classes before they are released. But regardless, this is the first class geared towards killing a specific type of enemy (hopefully they'll release classes like VampireSlayer in the future) and its been made really well.

Oh, I nearly forgot item drops. Nothing good I'm afraid. The restaurateur dragons drop element resiting necklaces, but you can only wear one necklace at a time, and the Defender's Necklace will always be first choice.

Verdict: Major Victory!

Togs of War - Halloween Special - Mogloween!

2008-10-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

When it comes to holiday events, DragonFable has done them a lot better than its predecessor (or successor if you manage to work out the internal timelines of the games) Adventure Quest. In AQ holiday events just happen. In DF, they mean something. Mogloween is a perfect example.

In Adventure Quest Mogloween consists of collecting candy from houses to unlock masks and other goodies. You need to wear the masks, otherwise whenever you meet a moglin (cute Pikachu-like creatures who function as healers in the game) it yells that you're not wearing a mask, turns into a giant moglinster and attacks you. Why does this happen? For not reason ther than that the game's anniversary coincides with Halloween in the real world.

Mogloween in DragonFable, on the other hand, starts with a moster we all love to kill - the yaga. The yaga is your typical hag-like witch - green skin, pinted nose, warts, large black hat. But last year, three young witches decided to go out and redeem the name of their class, which had been tarnished by the yaga. It helps that they are cute. They are the Cauldron Sisters - Bubble, Toil and Trouble, and together with their cat, also called Bubble, and their cauldron, named Myx, they decided to start a candy company and hand out candy to everyone. Because they are so nice. Unforunatly, it then emerged the Myx was in fact an evil doom cauldron, and together with some manipulation by the ebil necro-moglin Zorbak and the misuse of mog-nip, the candy was poisoned so that any moglin who ate it would turn into a ramapging moster on seeing a good person. Enter the hero, me (or you if you're playing the game). I saved DragonFable by donning a mask to make myself look evil, and set out to collect all the poisoned candy, every last piece of it. Along the way I unlocked some cool masks, became a level 14 Pumpkin Lord, and got some awesome nature-based pumpkin daggers. Yay.

But that is not the end. See, this year, the Cauldron Sister are back to ask for my help. Their latest candy shipment (now posion free) was stolen by the new ruler of the Necropolis, poisoned, and distributed to everyone. Including moglins. Yes, this year they have managed to integrate Mogloween even deeper into the DF mythology by making this years event a sequel not only to last years event, but also to the Necropolis section of the Orbs storyline, which is the game's main storyline. So its probably entirly my fault this has happened, considering that I defeated the old ruler of the Necropolis, paving the way for the new one. (Read: You can't play this years event until you have completed last years event and also completed the Necropolis quest chain.)

So now its off to find out who the new ruler is, collect up all the poisoned candy again, unlock new cooler masks, become a level 14 Evolved Pumpkin Lord, and get some awesome fire-based pumpkin daggers. Yay. But is it worth it?

Its not really worth unlocking all the masks - the bonus hey give to candy collection is offset by their huge cost. However, its entierly possible that you won't be able to play next years event until you unlock all of this years masks, so I did it anyway. (Plus, it was easy cause I cheated, but more on this later.)

The Evolved Pumpkin Armour looks pretty cool, and its stats are a little better than normal Pumpkin Armour. It has no effect on the skills of the Pumpkin Lord class, however. You need to unlock each skill again in this new armour, but their effects are exactly the same. Not that it matters - Pumpkin Lord always was a very good class, and is the only event-based class that I count as a real class. Especially now that you can use it outside of Mogloween if you have a Armour Closet. There's only two problems with this class - you need to pay real money for an Armour Closets, and its two healing skillsare basically disabled outside of Mogloween, as they require candy to use. Its not really worth unlocking unless you have a closet and think you'll be using this class - and again, you may want to just for next year. There is also the remote possibility they'll release an area with weakness against nature damage, in which case skills like vine whip, scythe, root and spikes will come in very handy.

The Reaper weapons? Well there's no doubt they're good. Their highest level is 45, which I haven't reached yet, so I can't quite tell whether they're better than the Amulet Weapons. Theinitial damage of the Reapers is certainly higher, but the Amulets do have a powerboost ability. Hmm.

Now, about the cheating thing. It was an accident - I discovered that if you lose the titan battle, and choose not to give it a second try when you are offered, your Dragon Rider armour does not uneqiup. This means you can go around collecting candy in Dragon Rider mode, oneshotting powerful monsters like werewolves and mummies with dragonfire. Your armour does get reset when you leave Mogloween though, and no, I haven't tried teleporting out to see if the armour stays. Using a bug to unlock Halloween masks is one thing, but using it to level up is not something I want to do.

Verdict: Major Victory!