Reilly2040's Blog

A while back I blogged on the trailer for the upcoming Iron Man cartoon, basically saying it looked terrible.  Having now caught some of the episodes on Jetix though I feel an update is required.

Its not terrible.  In fact, I’m really quite enjoying it.

Obviously, the show plays really loose with the Iron Man mythos.   The key parts are still there, heavily influenced by the  movie.  However the key players are all now 16.  Obidiah Stane is one of the main recurring villains thanks to the movie, having taken over Stark Industries after Howard Stark dies and is turning all the Stark Tech into military hardware much to Tony’s disgust.  As he’s only 16 Tony’s can’t take control of the company until he’s legally an adult, so instead is forced out, living with his best friend James Rhodes while also using the Iron Man armour to try and dig up any dirt he can on Stane and expose him for the evil so-and-so he is.

Its interesting to see how Stane’s success in the movie has moved him firmly into the role previously occupied by Justin Hammer.  Its especially interesting given that Hammer himself is featuring in the next movie.

The other running villain is the Mandarin.  In something very similar to season 2 of the 90s cartoon, there’s a running plot through the series of the Mandarin trying to retrieve all his rings.  However in this series there’s only 5, hidden in various temples across the world, and all have a test that must be passed so the Mandarin can prove himself worthy of the ring.  These tests allow the writers to work other villains into the show.  For example the test for the third ring finds Iron Man and the Mandarin facing off against Ultimo.

The Mandarin however is quite different to his comics incarnation.  The rings project a suit of demonic-looking samurai armour that identifies the Mandarin, however under the armour is secretly a 16 year-old classmate of Tony’s, who is using Tony to try and locate the other rings  (Howard Stark had located the second ring and researching them was one of his passions).

Iron Man’s rogues gallery is pretty well served by this show, although again most of the characters can be quite different to their comics versions.  In the episodes I’ve seen, outside of Stane and the Mandarin, there’s also been appearances by the Crimson Dynamo, The Controller, AIM and Madame Masque.

If you’re a continuity fanatic then this isn’t the show for you, and to be honest, I really expected to hate it.  However, its sucked me in.  Yes, reimagining everyone as 16 years old takes some getting used to, but in general I think this is a pretty well-made cartoon, helped in part by the plot arc with the Mandarin, while also setting up other plots that come back in later episodes.  The only real complaint I’d make is that sometimes the CGI animation results in the characters looking quite plasticy.  In some lighting it doesn’t really render skin all that well, but most of the time its ok.

I got sent this by one of my friends on Twitter. Definitely appeals to a classic rock, tech-loving geek like me

So, for my sins, the last couple of days I’ve ended up in AE running farming missions.  I blame the relative lack of normal mission teams during weekdays (or if they’re out there, I haven’t found them yet).  I’ve played through the low and mid-level part of the game so much though, that outside of Task Forces, I’m more interested in getting my characters into the 40s, as I’ve not really seen as much of that end of the game in comparison, so I’m not hugely complaining about the level bump (although even then I only gained a couple of levels).

To be honest, I quite enjoy some of the farming missions.   Some of them are pretty evil, with powerful mobs and a tendancy to spawn ambushes that can really catch you out if you’re not on your toes.  Yes, the missions allow you to leap through levels in a way the game designers didn’t really intend, but with a good team I can still find a good farming mission fun.

Last night though, I ended up on a “Bubble Mission” team though.  I’d heard about Bubble missions from the ingame chat and forums, but I’d never actually seen one, so I must admit my curiousity got the better of me.

The basic structure remains the same as some of the farming missions.  Large groups of powerful, high-level mele mobs that you can pound into the dirt for quick XP gain.   However, unlike normal farming missions, these missions include various NPCs that assist the player team.  These NPCs all contain variations on defender forcefield powers, with the idea being to collect a load of them to run around with your team.   Your team then ends up surrounded by dozens of forcefield bubbles, which maxes out your defense, making you nigh-on unkillable as long as the team sticks with the bubbles.

Its hugely dull.   There’s zero threat to the team and you end up just sitting there cycling your main attack powers until either you fall asleep, quit the team, or you’ve killed everything in sight.

Its pretty much the opposite to the Task Forces.  Both give you a large amount of XP, but with Task Forces there’s a storyline to get your teeth into.  Heck, even in the farming missions, there’s still the risk of planting.  Granted, once you rez, you quickly wipe out any accumulated debt, but there’s still that element of needing a good team, and staying on your toes.

As a tin lid on things the other night, once the team leader had levelled in the mission, he quickly announced he was off and quit the team.  Of course, as the player who had amassed all the bubbles, they all went with him, and we all planted immediately.  The mission now unplayable, everyone quickly quit, and in my case resolved to put a “No Bubble Missions” comment in my team search box.

Its been a little while since Flash: Rebirth #3 hit the stands. Ending with the reveal of Professor Zoom being behind all Barry’s recent troubles, it was obvious that the series had hit a turning point.

There’s very obvious parallels with Green Lantern: Rebirth here.  In that series, Sinestro was revealed as the villain at the end of issue 3, who then spent issue 4 explaining the plot.  Much the same happens here, and like issue 4 of GL: Rebirth ended with Hal’s restoration, this issue similarly ends with Barry back and with a renewed sense of who he is.

Also like issue 4 of Rebirth, there’s retcons aplenty here.  The “giant yellow space bug” came under a lot of flack when Parallax’s true nature was revealed in Green Lantern, and while that change has since been accepted and become a major part of how the GL universe is shaped (with the emotional spectrum and its avatars) I must admit, I’m finding the revelations in this issue a little harder to swallow.  Barry as the source of the Speed Force just seems to open up questions and problems that previously didn’t exist.  If Barry powers the Speed Force, what powers Barry?  And what was powering it while he was dead?  If Barry’s accident created the Speed Force, and Zoom’s recreation of that accident created his, why doesn’t Wally have his own?  Unless that’s something that’ll be revealed in Flash #25…

The existance of the Negative Speed Force (surely that should be the Reverse Speed Force to keep the theme?) is something I’m torn on.  I could see it as a counterpoint to the Speed Force we’re familiar with.  A hell for Speedsters versus the heaven we’ve previously seen.   That could at least tie into Savitar being incredibly glad to be out of the Speed Force in issue 1.  However I can’t help but think that Zoom having his own evil speed force makes him a bit too much like Sinestro.  I’m also not keen on the changes to Barry’s return in Final Crisis or Barry’s turning into the Black Flash being a sign of the negative speed force’s infection.  Heck, if this was always the plan for Barry’s return, couldn’t the reasons for him coming back just have been left a mystery in Final Crisis?  It seems a bit strange that they’re already retconning a series less than a year later.

However, while I’m unsure about the retcons in this issue, I can still say I really enjoyed it.  There’s a load of great “Flash Family” moments here, and Professor Zoom is reestablished as a real threat, and a chilling villain.  The scene where he turns up at Wally’s house and threatens Linda and the kids was genuinely scary.  Which only made the appearance of Jay and Bart a real punch-the-air moment.

This is one area where Ethan’s art really excells in this issue.  Here he gets the chance to do some brilliant splash pages.  Be it Bart and Jay turning up to take on Zoom or Wally running into the Speed Force, determined to bring everyone back out of it, Ethan renders these moments beautifully.

And the return of Max.  What can I say?  A moment that had been well telegraphed from the first issue of this series, and a loose plot thread that had fans crying out for resolution.  Max has always been a really popular character.   I loved his use in Waid’s Flash run as the Zen Master of Speed, and this popularity was only reinforced when he became Bart’s mentor in the Impulse series.   The splash page when he returns to Earth, having been persuaded by Barry that he’s the closest thing Bart has to a father (especially powerful when you consider Barry is Bart’s actual grandfather) brought a huge grin to my face.

This issue was definitely a big improvement over the first three.  Although improvement is probably being a bit unfair in that I think the whole thing (like Final Crisis) will read better all together in trade form.  But as a standalone issue in a monthly series there was definitely a more satisfying read than the previous issues.  The series is probably still not up there with Green Lantern Rebirth for me, but its definitely starting to tick the right boxes, especially with the way the whole Flash family was showcased here.

Partly because I want to check the twitter updates, and partly because I’m on another late-night Youtube binge, here’s a fun Doctor Who music video I found focusing on the Doctor and Donna.  Worth a look

I’ve been playing City of Heroes for years now, having originally played on the US servers prior to the UK edition’s release, however one aspect of the game I always avoided was the Task Forces.

While I appreciated that a lot of the players would be really into the longer story lines, the idea of having to commit myself to 4 hours of play to complete one always put me off. However, recently, having joined a new Supergroup (The Power Corps), I’ve started joining in their Sunday night runs at Task Forces.

Doing them from within the framework of a Supergroup helps make things easier, at least in terms of the recruitment stage, as Task Forces need a minimum team size to start, and from experience, when putting together a large team, patience is a virtue as it can take the best part of an hour on a bad night.  Not to mention you’re more confident of getting a good team, rather than risking getting a bad Tank or Defender in a pickup group.

What has been nice, is that the Task Forces so far haven’t taken much longer than an hour or two to run.   It helps that we don’t seem to be running them at the maximum difficulty, but they’re very rewarding to run.  Not just in terms of XP gain (although they are), but also just in terms of game experience.   Big groups can always be a lot of fun, with different archetypes performing their own functions in the team, and there’s nothing quite as rewarding as being on a good team.

But they’re also rewarding in terms of the zones.  Some zones in the game seem specifically targetting towards their Task Forces.   This weekend for example, I ran one of the Striga Isle task forces.   Striga Isle is one of the main bases of a villain group known as the Council.  Its a great zone with lots of character.  As you get towards the main Island you find yourself under attack from guard posts and automated turrets.  Groups of Council baddies can be seen exercising on the grounds, and in the middle there’s a classic supervillain cliche, in the form of a volcano.

So, what of the Task Force?  Well, it allows you a tour of the zone, but also involves you in a main storyline linked to the zone.  In this case, you uncover a plot to launch a giant robot against Paragon City, which as it turns out, is being built inside the hollowed-out volcano.  Classic

I’m looking forward to running more such task forces with my Supergroup.  They provide a great chance to get involved in a more detailed storyline, get a feel for the varied zones in the game (the Imperious task force was another favourite.  Love the Roman theme), and encounter some of the Arch Villains that you hear about throughout the game’s mythology.   Granted, there are some which still have reputations for being quite long and difficult, but with an experienced Supergroup, the members should know which Task Forces will be most appropriate.

I’m aware I’m very late into these things. A lot of my CoH experience has been soloing sadly, but I’m very much enjoying this new aspect to the game, and its really opened up content and zones that previously I had little real use for beyond sight-seeing.

The previews for this week’s Green Lantern #45 and Blackest Night: Titans #1 have hit the web at IGN as usual.

The Green Lantern preview in particular contains some very interesting stuff.  The reveal of Xanshi (following on from the cliffhanger in GL #44) is huge.   Is the whole world a Black Lantern equivalent to Mogo?  And if so, does this presumably mean Xanshi was a sentient world like Mogo, or is the resurrection more symbolic than that?  Hopefully we’ll find out on Thursday.

Meanwhile there’s some interesting tidbits on Zamaron, with Carol leading the defense of the world against the Sinestro Corps, who’ve arrived to free their captured bretheren.  We learn that Carol is more resistant to the controling influence of the violet light than the other Star Sapphires due to her experience with them in the past, and there’s also the hint that the Zamarons will need her help with the Predator, which makes me wonder if they’re as in control of the violet light as they’d like others to believe.

There’s also the fact that the two skeletons that originally formed the Star Sapphire are human.   Who are they, and how did they end up on Zamaron?

All very intriguing stuff.  Can’t wait until Thursday to find out.

I must admit, Blackest Night: Titans was the only mini-series tie-in I’d really thought I’d skip from Blackest Night, but reading the preview has started to sway me.   I’ve never really followed Hawk and Dove as characters, but the way this series is picking up on the Don Hall moment from Blackest Night #2 has me intrigued.

I do like how this event is working so far, with some significant moments in the main series that are picked up on in the tie-ins and expanded on.  So far, its working very well, with those moments in the main series feeling very natural, as opposed to forced in order to support a tie-in.  Presumably these are events that will be picked up on later on (such as the Deadman stuff) however also lend themselves to further examination (e.g. Deadman going to Batman for help in the tie-in, while the spirit versus body resurrection element it introduced can be a plot point in the main series).

The trailer for season 3 of the Guild has just been posted on MSN. I really love this web series, so looking forward to it a lot. Sadly, no X-box here, so I’ll have to wait for the first episode.

Catch the previous episodes at http://www.watchtheguild.com

Video: Season 3 – Trailer

The latest of the Blackest Night tie-ins launched this week, with issue 1 of Blackest Night: Superman.

I think this is so far probably my favourite of the tie-ins.    James Robinson evokes a horror film vibe brilliantly in the opening pages, as the newly Black Lanterned Kal-L rises and starts working his way through Smallville, wiping out whole groups of people and causing the Black Lantern power reading to slowly work its way up.

Eddy Barrows also turns in some great art.  Can’t remember seeing his stuff before, but I was pretty impressed by it here.

I was especially drawn to the scenes with Ma Kent, Conner and Clark all together.  Realistically this family dynamic to the Kents is a new development, but still I really like how the three characters interact.  It feels quite natural to have them together, especially with Jonathan’s recent death in the series.   I’ve always liked comics that build up a family feel.  Something I’ve always been a fan of in Wally’s Flash series for example.

There were a few surprises here as well, including Black Lantern Zor-El and the return of Earth-2 Lois as a Black Lantern.  Granted, I’ve not really been reading the New Krypton stuff, but it’ll be interesting to see the impact Blackest Night has on a planet of Kryptonians and how well they hold their own.

I’m still interested in seeing what happens to the Earth-2 characters at the end of this storyline.  I’d still like to see E-2 Superman properly restored at somepoint, however despite my misgivings about using him in this way I must admit that James Robinson and Eddy Barrows turned in a cracking book that overcame any worries I had.

So far, Blackest Night is off to an incredibly strong start with its own first two issues, GL, GLC and the Batman and Superman tie-ins.  I’m still unsure if I’ll pickup the Titans tie-in, and may well end up skipping it, but if the other tie-ins are anything to go by, it should be well worth a read for any Titans fans.

So, the Assault on Black Reach, Warhammer 40K starter set finally arrived this week.

Containing all you need to get started with two reasonably-sized armies (Space Marines and Orks) this is a really nice kit, containing a mixture of units, rule books, dice and the like.

The units are simplified from the normal ones, the same as the basic Space Marines I started out with.   They consist of only a few pieces, and are designed to push together easily without the need for glue.  For example, most of the Space Marine tactical unit are three piece units, consisting of the main body of the marine, their backpack, and their weapon.

However, Games Workshop haven’t used this as an excuse to skimp on these units.  While you may not get to choose their weapons or poses, they’re still very nicely detailed miniatures.  The marines have a variety of backpacks and helmets rather than all looking the same.  One tacitcal marine boasts a rocket launcher, while another can have a flamer.  Even the heavy bolters are of a few different types, some plain, some with telescopic sights and others with carry straps attached.

Likewise the Orks, there’s a variety of appearances throughout the 20 Ork Boyz and 5 Ork Nobz and there’s a selection of arms in the sprues both straight and bent at the elbow to give you a little choice on how they’re posed.

So far, my only issue with the kit is that its a little overwhelming.  Its easy to know where to start with a five pack of Assault Marines, however this requires more time invested.  While some of the units can be put together and painted fairly trouble free later, I’m aware that getting in at the detail of some of them will be difficult once assembled.  For now, I’m painting up the tactical squad, to be sure of getting details like the chest insignia painted before their weapons are attached.  The Terminators aren’t as bad, but given their armour I really want to get the back of it painted before pushing their heads into place.

The only real units that have caused me a bit of hassle are the Ork Deffkoptas.  They’re really nice units, but don’t seem to want to push together properly, so will need their parts glued into place.  And just from looking I can see painting the pilot’s head would be a real pain if done after assembly, so I’ll need to get myself some paints for the Orks soon.   I’m trying to focus for now on painting those units that will really benefit from painting prior to assembly.  That way, other units like the Space Marine Captain I can probably paint later on, but still use them in a game just now.

I’ve attached some pictures of some of the assembled but unpainted units for those that are interested.