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kingandyTuesday was fun, despite the lack of alcohol. We actually stumbled across a random lich's phylactery, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
myki/Tegan got hit with stupidity gas. Luckily this had no impact on his sorcerous powers. Woodrun's animal companion (Uthgara the riding dog) died, which is annoying as it leaves him without a steed and thus unable to gallop around firing arrows - always fun. I think if I had to do the character over I would have gone towards the Halfling Outrider prestige class and taken all those drive-by shooting feats. Oh well, now that I'm above level 8 (giving me an effective Druid level higher than 4) I can call a new one fom the harder animals list ... Dire Badger sounds fun, or possibly one of the big cats (Cheetah/Leopard) since Woodrun is a follower of the Red Tiger totem/aspect of Uthgar. Though then it wouldn't have the Evasion feat. (DULL MECHANICS BIT: Taking an animal from this list applies a penalty of -3 to my effective druid level, and being a level 10 ranger this number is 5. 5-3=2, and you don't get Evasion for your animal companion until your Effective Druid Level is 3.)
I wonder if a Cheetah would let me ride it. Mmm, speedy.
Comics arrived yesterday from Travelling Man. Here is overanalysis.
JLA (2 issues): Not so hot as last month, but still better than Claremont. Yes, apparently the good Mr Kelly only popped back in to write one issue, to pimp his new JLE book (more on that below). The current arc - "PAIN OF THE GODS" - is all about how the league cannot save everybody and OMG how sad. I'm not sure that this theme will stretch comfortably over multiple individual-character-spotlight issues, it's already wearing a little thin after two. Still, it was funny to see the Flash run around the city fitting smoke alarms. Next month is apparently John Stewart's turn - it'll be interesting to see if they remember that he once let a planet blow up, and has since learned to deal with it and move on. It should take something sizeable to shake him. As I say, the book is not quite back up there, but at least it no longer makes me want to gouge my own eyes out, so I will stick with it for a while at least. Yes, I am a deluded fanboy. If I was picking my comics up myself I would probably give it a rest for a bit, but that's too much effort for me and my mail order.
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE: I enjoyed immensely. Not many writers would kill 50% of the team in the first issue. Of course they're not dead, that would be foolish, but still it was amusing. Kelly's going to have to write a lot harder now he's reminded us the Flash is on the team though, we will not be surprised by superspeed antics again! (Yes, he's fast enough to be on both teams.) Art by Mahnke and Nguyen is crisp and rounded, nicey-nice, and I'm liking Manitou Raven's special effects. Definitely a keeper.
THE LEGION (2 issues): An interesting new plot involving some sort of band of luddites disabling technology. I'm not sure how their power dampener is differentiating between advanced technology and primitive stuff - slugthrowers still seem to operate, for example, so chemical fuel still ignites, and several of the Legionnaires and villains are throwing exotic energy powers about - and the floating prison seems to have some kind of primitive backup floating power, though it's not showing any signs of rocket jets or whatever. I'm not sure if I care enough for it to be explained. though, since the power dampener is itself an organic superpower. I find it interesting that the whole team of villains seem to have taken their names from "colour-coded" heroes of the 20th century - Devil, Canary, Lantern and Arrow (being Blue, Black, Green and Green respectively). Brainiac 5 is going all crazy with his implants deactivated too ... it's wierd, since he actually got a bit more emotional when they appeared (following his plot-flange "upgrade" by a mysterious spacial anomoly). Maybe the anomoly gave him (or unlocked his) emotions but installed the implants to keep them in check. Or something. Anyway, I know he's used them in the past to generate his forcefield. I think those implants are going to be something that lots of writers are, in turn, going to invent functionality for. Sigh. Oh well. Am liking the sudden lethality of powerless 30th-century tech - "There hasn't been a human-performed operation in this hospital since it opened!" Chuckle. Jurgens art is better than I remember it. Still, all his characters have good strong jawlines, which is great on men but not so hot on women (like I would know).
GREEN LANTERN: Still no explanation as to how Major Force is back in the land of the living, or why Kyle has made this sudden resolution to "deal with him once and for all" (as I recall, last time Kyle refused to actually help with the dealing, but happily stood about five feet away while Guy Gardner sliced him up). I'm not quite sure how Kyle's planning to deal, either, since MF seems to be one of those villains who makes use of the revolving door they installed down in Hell. Maybe he'll shoot him into space, because that always works. Kyle's a little too quick to break into a fist-fight with John, though he has been under a lot of strain lately. And I'm not sure how he tracked down Force's offices. There's a small hint as to how Force got his own government agency to play with, at least - a photo of him shaking hands with (I believe) ex-President Luthor. I think I would be enjoying this storyline more if I didn't know it was Rayner's swan song. But then, I would be a lot more disappointed at the end. Oh well.
IDENTITY CRISIS: Enh. First issue was so good. Second issue not so much. I think I've mentioned this before, though, after readingbatelf's copy, so I'll just mention that it feels a little like the writer is trying too hard to shock and so forth. I am bored of talking about it.
ANOTHER NAIL: Not sure where they got the name from, aside from that they didn't want to call it "The Nail 2". See, the first one was based around the old poem that goes "For want of a nail..." and was basically "What If Superman had not been found by the Kents?" Of course even in the original story there wasn't just the one spark for the tale - the writer took advantage of the Elseworlds label to make lots of other variances from "Mainstream" DC and set up his own playground, and this is the universe in which this follow-up miniseries is set. There's a number of interesting touches, but a couple of the subplots go nowhere and do nothing, and you can tell the writer's hedging his bets for a further sequel because no major characters die and everything gets neatly resolved. In some ways it's very much like an ongoing series, which sort of goes against the point of Elseworlds.
What else? Oh yes, THE TEEN TITANS. Good to see a plot based around Beast Boy after so very long ... though they seem to be saying it's the disease he got as a child that gives you shape changing powers, and not the experimental cure they used to save him (which presumably just stops you dying of it). Interesting to see where it's going. Minor quibble: What tattooist would give an apparent 15-year-old a tattoo? (Though, of course, Bart's been apparently 15 for about a decade now. Give or take artists drawing him closer to the 12-year-old mark.) I am liking Tom Grummet's art, as always, and I sort of hope he's back for the long haul.
I think that's the whole pull this month. Peace out.
myki/Tegan got hit with stupidity gas. Luckily this had no impact on his sorcerous powers. Woodrun's animal companion (Uthgara the riding dog) died, which is annoying as it leaves him without a steed and thus unable to gallop around firing arrows - always fun. I think if I had to do the character over I would have gone towards the Halfling Outrider prestige class and taken all those drive-by shooting feats. Oh well, now that I'm above level 8 (giving me an effective Druid level higher than 4) I can call a new one fom the harder animals list ... Dire Badger sounds fun, or possibly one of the big cats (Cheetah/Leopard) since Woodrun is a follower of the Red Tiger totem/aspect of Uthgar. Though then it wouldn't have the Evasion feat. (DULL MECHANICS BIT: Taking an animal from this list applies a penalty of -3 to my effective druid level, and being a level 10 ranger this number is 5. 5-3=2, and you don't get Evasion for your animal companion until your Effective Druid Level is 3.)I wonder if a Cheetah would let me ride it. Mmm, speedy.
Comics arrived yesterday from Travelling Man. Here is overanalysis.
JLA (2 issues): Not so hot as last month, but still better than Claremont. Yes, apparently the good Mr Kelly only popped back in to write one issue, to pimp his new JLE book (more on that below). The current arc - "PAIN OF THE GODS" - is all about how the league cannot save everybody and OMG how sad. I'm not sure that this theme will stretch comfortably over multiple individual-character-spotlight issues, it's already wearing a little thin after two. Still, it was funny to see the Flash run around the city fitting smoke alarms. Next month is apparently John Stewart's turn - it'll be interesting to see if they remember that he once let a planet blow up, and has since learned to deal with it and move on. It should take something sizeable to shake him. As I say, the book is not quite back up there, but at least it no longer makes me want to gouge my own eyes out, so I will stick with it for a while at least. Yes, I am a deluded fanboy. If I was picking my comics up myself I would probably give it a rest for a bit, but that's too much effort for me and my mail order.
JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE: I enjoyed immensely. Not many writers would kill 50% of the team in the first issue. Of course they're not dead, that would be foolish, but still it was amusing. Kelly's going to have to write a lot harder now he's reminded us the Flash is on the team though, we will not be surprised by superspeed antics again! (Yes, he's fast enough to be on both teams.) Art by Mahnke and Nguyen is crisp and rounded, nicey-nice, and I'm liking Manitou Raven's special effects. Definitely a keeper.
THE LEGION (2 issues): An interesting new plot involving some sort of band of luddites disabling technology. I'm not sure how their power dampener is differentiating between advanced technology and primitive stuff - slugthrowers still seem to operate, for example, so chemical fuel still ignites, and several of the Legionnaires and villains are throwing exotic energy powers about - and the floating prison seems to have some kind of primitive backup floating power, though it's not showing any signs of rocket jets or whatever. I'm not sure if I care enough for it to be explained. though, since the power dampener is itself an organic superpower. I find it interesting that the whole team of villains seem to have taken their names from "colour-coded" heroes of the 20th century - Devil, Canary, Lantern and Arrow (being Blue, Black, Green and Green respectively). Brainiac 5 is going all crazy with his implants deactivated too ... it's wierd, since he actually got a bit more emotional when they appeared (following his plot-flange "upgrade" by a mysterious spacial anomoly). Maybe the anomoly gave him (or unlocked his) emotions but installed the implants to keep them in check. Or something. Anyway, I know he's used them in the past to generate his forcefield. I think those implants are going to be something that lots of writers are, in turn, going to invent functionality for. Sigh. Oh well. Am liking the sudden lethality of powerless 30th-century tech - "There hasn't been a human-performed operation in this hospital since it opened!" Chuckle. Jurgens art is better than I remember it. Still, all his characters have good strong jawlines, which is great on men but not so hot on women (like I would know).
GREEN LANTERN: Still no explanation as to how Major Force is back in the land of the living, or why Kyle has made this sudden resolution to "deal with him once and for all" (as I recall, last time Kyle refused to actually help with the dealing, but happily stood about five feet away while Guy Gardner sliced him up). I'm not quite sure how Kyle's planning to deal, either, since MF seems to be one of those villains who makes use of the revolving door they installed down in Hell. Maybe he'll shoot him into space, because that always works. Kyle's a little too quick to break into a fist-fight with John, though he has been under a lot of strain lately. And I'm not sure how he tracked down Force's offices. There's a small hint as to how Force got his own government agency to play with, at least - a photo of him shaking hands with (I believe) ex-President Luthor. I think I would be enjoying this storyline more if I didn't know it was Rayner's swan song. But then, I would be a lot more disappointed at the end. Oh well.
IDENTITY CRISIS: Enh. First issue was so good. Second issue not so much. I think I've mentioned this before, though, after reading
batelf's copy, so I'll just mention that it feels a little like the writer is trying too hard to shock and so forth. I am bored of talking about it.ANOTHER NAIL: Not sure where they got the name from, aside from that they didn't want to call it "The Nail 2". See, the first one was based around the old poem that goes "For want of a nail..." and was basically "What If Superman had not been found by the Kents?" Of course even in the original story there wasn't just the one spark for the tale - the writer took advantage of the Elseworlds label to make lots of other variances from "Mainstream" DC and set up his own playground, and this is the universe in which this follow-up miniseries is set. There's a number of interesting touches, but a couple of the subplots go nowhere and do nothing, and you can tell the writer's hedging his bets for a further sequel because no major characters die and everything gets neatly resolved. In some ways it's very much like an ongoing series, which sort of goes against the point of Elseworlds.
What else? Oh yes, THE TEEN TITANS. Good to see a plot based around Beast Boy after so very long ... though they seem to be saying it's the disease he got as a child that gives you shape changing powers, and not the experimental cure they used to save him (which presumably just stops you dying of it). Interesting to see where it's going. Minor quibble: What tattooist would give an apparent 15-year-old a tattoo? (Though, of course, Bart's been apparently 15 for about a decade now. Give or take artists drawing him closer to the 12-year-old mark.) I am liking Tom Grummet's art, as always, and I sort of hope he's back for the long haul.
I think that's the whole pull this month. Peace out.
