Season of Science Fiction

 Over the past few months, I've been on a science fiction reading kick. Here's most of what I read, leaving out only a few classic short stories from pulp magazines:

The Demon Princes. I listened to the first 2 of Vance's Demon Princes series as audiobooks: The Star King and The Killing Machine. They concern Kirth Gersen and his efforts to bring justice one by one, to the cadre of infamous criminals (The Demon Princes) that massacred his people. These are probably not Vance's best, but middling Vance is still very good. They would have made a very good late 60s-70s sci-fi TV series, I think.

The Sun Eater. This is a multivolume space opera by Christopher Ruocchio. The conceit of the series is a fallen hero, who caused the deaths of billions in destroying a sun to genocide an implacable alien species is relating his life story and how he came to the decision he made. The setting is Dune-esque for the most part but updated to include some more modern post-cyberpunk and transhuman elements. The first novel, Empire of Silence, details Hadrian Marlowe's escape from the future his father has planned and his various travails until he winds up being sent on a mission to find the homeworld of the Cielcin species in hopes of ending their war with humankind.

Howling Dark, the second book in the series, takes Marlowe and his companions out of the worlds of the Empire and into the posthuman societies of the Extrasolarians beyond on a searched for the fabled world of Vorgossos. There they encounter an undying, posthuman king, a character out of their legends, and even greater mysteries.

After that, I checked out some of the short stories he's written in the same setting in the collection Tales of the Sun Eater, Vol. 1, and the novella Queen Amid Ashes from the Sword & Planet. More on that one below.

Sword & Planet. A collection edited by Ruocchio. I haven't read all of it, but most of the stories I have read don't particularly strike me as Sword & Planet--either they are Space Opera and/or Science Fantasy, but I guess they do have swords and planets. Anyway, there is a prequel to Simon Green's Deathstalker series that reminded me of the sometimes goofy but breakneck paced thrills of those books, but DJ Butler's "Power and Prestige" is my favorite. It's a humorous, sort of Vancian Dying Earthish, short dungeoncrawl starring mercenaries Indrajit and Fix.

The Pride of Chanur. I read at least part of this as a kid, but I don't recall if I completed it. In any case, I'm glad I checked it out again. This is the first of group of related novels by Cherryh set in a multi-species Compact and is reportedly part of her large Alliance-Union universe. It concerns the disruption to the political balance of the Compact and to the planetary society of leonine hani after a hani captain, Pyanfar Chanur rescues a member of an unknown species: a human. Cherryh's xenospecies may veer a bit to the anthropomorphic and perhaps monocultural, but their psychologies and cultures are well thought out and interesting and their precarious, barter-based Compact feels much more realistic than any number of feudal kingdoms in space or single galactic governments.

Tar-Aiym Krang. I listened to this as an audiobook and it has the same narrator as the Demon Princes books I listened to, Stefan Rudnicki. It's billed as the second of Alan Dean Foster's novels of Flinx (a young man with psychic abilities) and pet Pip (a poisonous, winged serpent), but it was the 1st actually published. It's part of his larger Humanx Commonwealth universe. Flinx and Pip wind up part of an expedition that takes them off their homeworld of Moth to the ruined world of a long-dead alien species on a search for an ancient artifact. It's short by modern standards, ending pretty much might where a modern novel would be getting started, but there is a sort of naive charm to Foster's world and characters I found appealing.

Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1983 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of January 13, 1983. 

Batman #358:  Conway is joined by Swan this issue, who is certainly an interesting choice for this sort of material. It mostly works, though Croc looks a bit more like Cactus than might be ideal. Killer Croc visits the Tobacconists' Club and tells them he's taking over Gotham. They decide to test him out by having him break into STAR Labs. Meanwhile, Batman and Gordon are tracing the bullet (and the rifle) he used to kill Squid. Robin also learns that Croc is behind the protection racket leaning on the Circus.

Ultimately, Batman finds Croc's home and waits for him there. We get an odd confrontation where Croc seems enraged primarily that the sanctity and solitude of his home has been violated. Croc destroys the building and flees to the river below, losing Batman in the process.

Flash #320: Bates and Infantino/Rodriquez bring the Eradicator story to its conclusion. The Eradicator nearly disintegrates the Mirror Master, but through the trick mirrors the Flash is able to track the Eradicator to the old windmill (for some reason) where he's holding Fiona. The vigilante and the Flash do battle, and it seems like the Flash is going to be killed, but he moves the battle to the cemetery where conveniently the Eradicator's victims are buried close together.  Shocked by the graves, Philips wrests control from the Eradicator personality and turns the power on himself. Miles away, some farmers find Tomar-Re in a field after he was knocked down by a swarm of yellow meteorites and recognize him as a Green Lantern, though not the one they know. Maybe we'll find out about this Green Lantern business next issue?

Anyway, this ends okay, but it was some odd storytelling, almost like an alternate comics evolution. It is Silver Agey (or at least early Bronze) in some ways, but modern in others. I guess it's like some Gerber stories in 70s Marvel (I'm thinking of the Foolkiller stuff, who's a similar villain) but without the indication that it is kind of tongue in cheek. Well, there is Captain Invincible...Maybe it is just more 1976 than 1983?

I confess the noirish Creeper backup is hard for me to follow. The short segments are a part, but it just hasn't engaged me either. Anyway, we finally get something more in the realm of Creeperish doings this issue when the nephew of a doctor involved in these goings on transforms into some sort of monster, and so does Jamie, Ryder's editor's son, who is in jail who was in possession of the fraudulent prescription last issue.

 

G.I. Combat #252: The first Haunted Tank story has the crew in North Africa and forced to work with a similarly situated Wehrmacht tank crew to stay alive under assault by bandits at a poisoned oasis. The second story is a more original one, at least, with an Italian grandfather vowing to name his soon to be born grandson after one of the crew, but when he's injured and near death he can see and hear the ghostly J.E.B. Stuart, so names the kid Giacomo Stuardo.

The O.S.S. story with Kana feels like a complete repeat. At least it's made of repeated elements from other Kanigher yarns. Kana is forced to work with a racist G.I. who doesn't trust him. There's a white guy from a Pacific Island who turns out to be a German working with the Japanese, but the G.I. doesn't want to believe it at first.  

The other tales are by Kashdan with Matucenio and Zamora. In the first, a doll looted from Italy is the death of one G.I. but the savior of another.  In the second, a "Women at War" installment, a woman judo instructor is sent on a mission to Germany to still some plans.

Omega Men #1: After the teasing this issue last month, and months of various writers trying to get fans interested in them, the Omega Men debut in their own series, courtesy of Silfer, Giffen, and DeCarlo. This is a direct sale only title on nicer paper like Camelot 3000. It starts in media res, so if you didn't already know the Omega Men, I could see you being a little lost. For those who do know about the Omega Men and their war with the Citadel, the new thing here is that it appears we'll get some focus and background on the individual members. 

After taking a Citadelian base, the team heads for Changralyn, Broot's native world. They hope to recruit more fighters as strong as him, but Broot tries to warn them his people won't be of much help. When they arrive they find out he was right. The Changralynians are devoted pacifists and refuse use violence, even in self-defense. Further, the Changralynian elders reveal that they have a pact with the Citadel who provides "protection" in exchange for a number of babies given over to them. When they see this transfer in action, Broot becomes enraged and attacks the Gordanians handling it. In retaliation, the Citadel orders a Branx ship to drop a nuke-bomb on a district of one of Changralyn's cities. 

 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #12: Pasko and Yeates continue Swampy's fight with the Golem from last issue. Swamp Thing manages to deactivate it by erasing one of the Hebrew letters inscribed on its forehead, changing the word from "life" to "death." Karen telepathically sends Kripptmann and crew a message challenging them to confront her at a synagogue where Kripptmann once worshipped. Wanting to avoid the golem attacking from wrong foe like last time, They then put Karen's locket on the golem before the re-activate it.

Meanwhile in Munich, Grasp forces his way into the hotel room where Dennis Barclay and Liz Tremayne are doing the "will they, won't they?" and threatens them to learn Kripptmann's whereabouts. Dennis and Liz manage to slug Grasp and escape, but that was Grasp's plan. Now they'll lead him to Kripptmann and the others.

At the synagogue, Swamp Thing, the golem, and the psychics almost kill Karen, but the evil inside her manages to escape the dying vessel. After briefly possessing Liz, it attempts to take control of the Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing's tremendous willpower drives the thing out. 

Grasp gets in a position with a rifle to snipe at the group, and a computer monitor in Sunderland suggests interestingly that his code number is "666." There's a bright flash of light, the evil entity transports Swamp Thing, Liz, Dennis, Kripptmann, Grasp and the golem to a huge metal fortress where they are about to meet Satan.

In the Cuti/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, an 18 year-old with progeria so that he looks more like his late 60s dreams of being an astronaut and he's also in love with a young woman who thinks he's an old man. An experimental medical treatment cures him, and he gets both of these dreams. As he's preparing to take his first spaceflight, the Phantom Stranger warns him not to go. He does and comes through one of those time warps astronauts occasionally fall into and returns to Earth decades later, though he hasn't aged. He returns to his home to be great by his girl, also apparently unaged, but the Phantom Stranger reveals to the audience that it's really her daughter.

New Teen Titans #30: While Kid Flash is still histrionic over Raven being evil, The Brotherhood of Evil gets the jump on him, and Speedy and Frances Kane. At the same time, Robin and Starfire accompany Adrian Chase to see Bethany Snow, who offers them information on Brother Blood in return for protection--but really, she's working at Blood's orders. Meanwhile, in what seems an unheralded turn from last issue, Terra gets a new costume and decides to join the Teen Titans. Cyborg meets a co-worker of Sarah Simms's who claims to be her fiancé, making him feel foolish for thinking there might be something between them. Raven resurfaces at the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square and the Brotherhood is there, too. The Titans and allies confront them but when Phobia turns the crowd against them, they're unable to prevent Raven's abduction.  Elsewhere, Terry Long proposes to Donna.

Kid Flash's whining aside, this is a solid issue that well mixes the character subplots and the various villain related threads. It makes me a bit wistful for the time when so much would happen in one issue. 

Superman #382: Bates and Swan/Hunt get to the end of the Superman/Superboy switch and finish the Euphor business. Superman/Boy manages to defeat the Euphor-empowered Lois with a nerve pinch and brings her to the Fortress of Solitude where he reveals what's been going on, which makes relieves Lois as now she realizes why he's been so distant and had eyes for Lana. When Superman/Boy realizes that recreating the accident is the only way to reverse things, she reminds him Superboy/Man in the past has probably already had this thought and is likely waiting on him in the timestream. Makes sense, I guess.

Anyway, that works out and Superman then rushes to confront Euphor who after revealing his origin on TV has taken over Metropolis. Superman can't defeat Euphor directly but tricks him into following him through time (despite the other dilemma is this storyline showing the dangers of time travel!) to the destruction of Krypton. Witnessing it triggers his super-grief (my term, not the issues) that causes Euhpor's power to overload when he tries to absorb it. Everybody in Metropolis gets their negative emotions back. Yay.

Journey to the Center of the Mind

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with a quest in the role of Zabra Kadabra (the pre-gen enchantress from Mortzengersturm). 

Viola, the Clockwork Princess, needs a suit of armor called the Quicksilver Panoply as some sort of control mechanism for the metal giant she plans to unearth to overthrow the Wizard of Azurth. This armor hasn't been made but has been conceived of in the mind of Gob, the giant, crystalline gnome who was the co-creator or constructor of the Land of Azurth.

She wants the party to use a backdoor she had previously placed into the dreaming or meditating mind of Gob as he sits quiescent in the center of the Earth. Easy enough, she says.

The party is dubious, but she gives them a cubic device for making entry and tells them about the basic inhabitants of Gob's mind. There are the friendly, glittering and birdlike Fantsies, and the malevolent, noxious Phanfasms. She also tells them in thumbnail sketch what they need to know to collect the armor pieces.

Off they go. They discover the crystalline recesses of the mind to also be inhabited by other creatures. Some are dreams or thoughts of Gob, but there are goblins who were smuggled in by the Phanfasms, and they have formed too factions. Some are soldiers of the Phanfasms in areas they seldom go themselves. The others are rebels, mentored by a Kobold druid, seeking liberation from Phanfasm control.

The party manages to get on friendly terms with the rebel goblins, but has to almost immediately slaughter a group of Phanfasm soldiers.

Avoiding fighting with most dream creatures, the part comes to a dining hall where High Elven warriors in finery are supping. The elves refused to speak with the party, and their snoody air is irritating to the group. Things seem about to come to a head when the party is determined to cross through their hall, no matter what.

This adventure is an adaptation of the Role Aids adventure, Swordthrust. It's one I've long wanted to reskin for Azurth, and I'm glad I finally got the chance

Two Species, Two Systems

For comparison, here are two of my Strange Stars setting sophont species in both Black Star and Star Scoundrels terms. Both are pretty simple! For Black Star, species just provides innate traits as listed. In Star Scoundrels the species is a Trademark which is sort of described by the words in parentheses after it. Those words might also suggest Edges that could be selected.

Follow the links with the names to get more background on the species.

HWURU

In Black Star:

Traits: Claws, Tough.

In Star Scoundrels:

Hwuru (Strong, Climb, Forest Survival, Claws, Intimidate)

BOMOTH

In Black Star:

Traits: Extra Limbs, Acute Hearing.

In Star Scoundrels:

Bomoth (Enhanced Hearing, Extra Manipulators, Music, Slang, Philosophical, Unflappable)

Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1983 (week 1)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of January 6, 1983. 

Blackhawk #257: We get a Chaykin cover on this issue. He'll go on to do some good stuff with the Blackhawks later in the decade. For now, Evanier and Spiegle are continuing the story from the last couple of issues. The Blackhawks manage to track Merson to Zurich and strongarm him into creating an antidote for the Ubermeister transformation. Four Blackhawks fly to Paris to get von Tepp. Chop Chop is guarding Merson but gets ambushed and outfought by Domino.

In Paris, Blackhawk is captured by von Tepp and his monster. Von Tepp steals Blackhawk medallion as a trophy. He doesn't know it's the nightmare medallion, and his will being somewhat less than our hero's, is overwhelmed and he dies of psychic distress. Blackhawk shoots the monster with von Tepp's luger not knowing it is his friend Stanilaus. It's not too late to save him though. as the rest of the Blackhawks show up, and they administer the antidote to Stanislaus, who (in the following few days or weeks) recovers.

 

DC Comics Presents #56: The most notable thing about this issue is the cover by Kane that prefigures the iconic cover to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. The story by Kupperberg and Swan is less memorable. Superman and Power Girl are teleported to another universe that is ruled by some be-permed jerk named Maaldor, who forces them to compete in gladiatorial games or see the people of that universe destroyed. The Swan's art renders a story staid that in the hands of a Marvel artist of this era would have at least been dynamic. I do kind of like the usual Bronze Age Superman ending where Supes has to kind of trick the badguy rather than beat him up.

Fury of Firestorm #11: The Hyena bugs me because her/his (there are two now) whole deal is really just a werewolf schtick and Broderick draws the creature as a wolf person not a hyena person and the colorist goes along with it. We learn Summer infected her Arizona doctor with the Hyena curse, and Ronnie is apparently also infected but holding it at bay with Firestorm powers, I guess. There's a fight atop the World Trade Center, where Firestorm blasts the Summer hyena, sending her falling presumably to her death, but it's continued next issue. Also, Stein's ex ostensibly enlists Ronnie's help to try to convince Martin to get back together with her. 

Justice League #213: After a lackluster arc the last two issues, Conway and now Heck/Tanghal bring something that starts out a bit more interesting. In fact, it's very Marvel-y, like a combination of Hank Pym's recent (in 1982) woes and weirdly, Ant-Mam & Wasp: Quantumania. Due to some career setbacks, Ray Palmer suffers a nervous breakdown and, when his wife Jean and Hawkman attempt to help him, he rebuffs them and vanishes into an unexplored, sub-atomic world--the Microcosmos. Using one of Ray's inventions, the Justice League follows him, but they lose their memories in the process. They encounter a mysterious woman called Wanderer and have to fight reptilian humanoids she calls Devil Guards, minions of Goltha, the micro-world's tyrant whose symbol is curiously like the Atom's. The heroes go with her to the capital city, unaware that the Atom, now a comparative giant, is a captive there, Gulliver-and-the-Lilliputians style, just behind a castle's walls.

Wonder Woman #302: Mishkin and Colan bring the Artemis story to a close. Wonder Woman spends much of the issue chained in a dungeon which provides plenty of time for flashbacks to tell Artemis' origin story: how she was Hippolyta's best friend and the first chosen "Wonder Woman" emissary, but then was corrupted by Man's World and defied Athena's will. The skeletal Artemis is out to kill Hippolyta, but Diana manages to escape just in time to stop her. In one-on-one combat, she defeats the original Wonder Woman by stealing her sword, the source of her unlife. Artemis's skeleton crumbles to dust. Elsewhere, Circe, the sorceress responsible for reviving Artemis, watches and vows revenge.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and DeCarlo/DeZuniga Helena thwarts a D-grade villain called Pat Pending whose gimmick he uses a lot of novelty gadget inspired stuff, but he uses a drug to (I guess) slow his respiration and heart to fake his death--and sets Huntress up to look like a murderer. How he wakes up and escapes before an autopsy is performed, I hope gets explained next issue, but I'm not holding my breath.

Arak Son of Thunder #20: It seems like the Thomases and Gonzales/Alcala are sort of padding out the issue count on this journey to White Cathay. This issue, as Arak and his companions cross a vast desert led by the priest Johannes we get fantasy desert danger buffet including a sandstorm, sinkholes, a giant antlion, and undead warriors. Meanwhile, the sorceress Angelica watches it all, and it gives her a chance to fill Malagigi in on the history of her land. The city is currently besieged by tartars, and Angelica seeks the answer to a riddle which will bring a powerful demon to her side. Malagigi, knows the answer, but refuses to tell lest it lead to harm for his approaching friends.

In the Valda backup, Valda is on the hunt for Pip, the son of Carolus Magnus that got disowned last issue. She has to fend off a pack of wolves, but eventually she finds the hunchback prince hiding in a graveyard. She gets him to shelter, then she hears a ghostly evil voice...

Star Scoundrels

 

I mentioned Black Star from LakeSide Games a few weeks ago, but since I've discovered another neat, rules lite, space opera game, Star Scoundrels is from Peril Planet. It's another game clearly intended to play Star Wars without obviously violating the IP and mentioning that. It uses the Action Tales system I've appreciated in the cyberpunk game Neon City Overdrive, which is also pretty much the same system as the fantasy game Dungeon Crawlers and the author's game Hard City for Osprey.

The basic mechanic is a d6 dice pool of Action Die and Danger Die, with graduated success from complete failure to complete success. Dice are added to the pool based on player traits, Threat (enemy) traits, and situational modifiers. All rolls are done by the players. 

Each Danger Die can cancel out a matching result on an Action Die, and uncancelled 6s on Danger Die accumulating Pressure. Pressure gives the GM the ability to make things more difficult for the players when it reaches a certain level. It's like Threat in 2d20 games in that regard but isn't near as much of an economy around it nor as many rules relating to it.

PCs are described by Trademarks (sort of a basic concept, role, profession, and alien species), Edges (specializations or talents linked to a Trademark), Flaws (disadvantages or troubles), gear, Grit (hit points), and Flow (the Force stand-in). Flow can be used to increase the success of roles or use a second Trademark die in a check.

Starships are statted similar to Threats. There are some fairly simple rules given for space battles and a table of random space travel encounters.

There are also random tables for adventure generation, planets, and names.

All and all, it offers the barest bit more crunch (but in places that flesh out a character a bit more) than Black Star while remaining very rules light. Either would be a great choice for a Star Wars pickup game or one shot.

Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1983 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we look at the comics hitting the newsstand on December 30, 1982.

Detective Comics #524: Conway and Newton get to the end of this Squid interlude and the point of this 2-parter: namely to build up Conway's next big villain, Croc. Batman, though injured, manages to escape the Squid's deathtrap. After some ranting, Squid sends the assembled thugs out to search for him, but one, Croc refuses, calling Squid a loser. Squid accosts him and we see Croc's reptilian visage revealed for the first time. 

Batman makes it home where Dick Grayson is holding a reception for the circus folk, including the Flying Todds. While Alfred is bandaging Bruce and the two are talking with Dick, Trina Todd blunders in. Dick is sure she now knows Bruce is Batman.

Elsewhere, Squid is still ranting about how he's going to overcome this setback. Suddenly, a window breaks and there's a shot. Squid sees Batman arrive and after a melee shoots and kills him, yelling in triumph... Except none of that happened. There was a shot through the window, but it hit Squid and he dies there on the warehouse floor, experiencing one last grandiose fantasy. The shot was fired from a neighboring roof by Croc, avenging the insult from earlier.

In the Green Arrow backup, Ollie defeats Executrix with reflector-signal arrows and grills her for information about Machiavelli. In the meantime, Machiavelli has convinced the Wall Street Irregulars that criminals can run Star City better than its elected officials. Later, he crashes a town hall on the anti-strike proposal and gives a speech that is greeted with cries of "Mac for mayor!" Green Arrow starts to intervene, but one of the villain's goons gets the jump on him.

Weird War Tales #121: We get it already, Bob Kanigher, people are horrified and repelled by the Creature Commandos, and they are unjustly ostracized! The last 3 issues, at least, have had the Commandos in Allied control territory where they can be mocked and ridiculed before they head out to some ridiculous but uninteresting mission. Where are the robot Aztecs/Lemurians and such of early in his run? So here, the Commandos anger the carnival freakshow performers because customers would rather gawk and ridicule them for free instead of paying. Then, they head to Holland where 3 beautiful Dutch Freedom fighters show an interest in Shrieve, Velcro, and Griffith. They turn out to be robots. There's also a windmill firing rockets. This later stuff is crazy enough to work, but it's thin.

In the second story, German spies steal the U.S. Navy zeppelin LZS-6, but they didn't reckon with Gremlins, and they all meet their doom.

Action Comics #541: Wolfman and Kane bring us to the finally of the Satanis storyline, and it's pretty much one long fight. It's sort of modern (or Marvel) feeling in that regard, and it's all Gil Kane art, but in the end, there aren't really any twists or surprises sufficiently surprising to make it not feel perfunctory. It's well enough executed, but not really memorable. Meanwhile, in the Daily Planet, Lois seems to be getting a bit jealous of Lana in regard to her relationship with Clark, and a mysterious "Mr. Moore" (whose face, in soap opera style, we aren't shown) arrives at the office.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #5: I hadn't noticed last issue, but Moench took over as writer after #3. That explains the degree to which the origin given in the past two issues doesn't seem to entire jibe with what we were told before. Anyway, the tale of Arion's origin continues, this time revealing how he met Chian and Wyynde. Arion breaks free and also frees his friends. Danuuth is defeated and routed (but not killed), though at the cost of the life of Calculha.

All-Star Squadron #19: Thomas and Ordway have the Squadron, responding to Brain Wave's challenge, fight their way into the Perisphere on the grounds of the '39 New York World's Fair and find members of the Justice Society unconscious and captive, forced to dream of making a bloody assault on the Japanese, and being killed in the process...which will eventually kill them in the real world. Brain Wave taunts the Squadron and they are pretty much powerless this issue to do anything but watch this happen. Far be it from me to tell a guy with a career as long as Thomas' how to right funny books, but devoting whole issues to the exploits of others while your ostensible protagonists set on the sidelines seems a questionable approach, at least.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #13: Shaw and Goldberg/Gordon have Southern Califurnia beset with a snowstorm thanks the the villainous Cold Turkey and his minions. The Zoo Crew tracks him down before he can muscle his way into part ownership of a rich gold mine. There are also extended (and unfunny) Bob Hope and Marx Brothers gags, would no doubt lost on the titles presumed readership even in 1982.

Jonah Hex #70: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga start with Jonah dumping White Claw in a grave before he and Emmy head out to steal his Colt dragoons back from the Shoshone. Meanwhile, Ernest Daniels, the last man involved in the robbery which led to the death of Hex's fiancee those years ago has made a better man of himself over the years but feels that isn't enough and sets out with one of his sons to find Hex and try to make amends. His other son, Jason, has an alternate plan, hoping to kill his father and his brother and inherit his father's fortune.

Ernest and his good son wind up with Jonah and Emmy in the hands of a cult leader nut who calls himself the Manitou and plans to blow a damn, flooding a town, and have it planned on the local Indian tribe to start a war. After Manitou leads his men out, they manage to escape but run right into the hands of Jason and his thugs.

New Adventures of Superboy #39: Kupperberg and Schaffenberger take a break from the Freaky Friday storyline for a holiday themed issue. When Flash Thompson Bash Bashford gets all cynical about Christmas, Superboy takes him to a post-apocalyptic Smallville on an alternate Earth where there is no Christmas, and amazingly, that works to cheer him up. 

In the Dial H backup by Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Adkins the Chris and Vicki dial up the heroes Rock and Roll (heroes again created by their friend Nick Stevens) to deal with an emergency. Meanwhile, the police are flummoxed on a case, which is just what the Master wants--and somehow, he has Greg King, Chris' father, doing his bidding.

World's Finest Comics #289: Third Gil Kane cover this week. Moench takes over writing duties, but the approach is so consistent with the previous arc I feel like the editor Wolfman is has a strong hand in it. While I think the emphasis on the bromance between Batman and Superman is an interesting element, it seems a bit overdone. I wonder if it's this series that perhaps suggested the romantic pairing of Batman and Superman stand-ins in The Authority? Anyway, Batman is unable to prevent the death of a mugging victim and that triggers his childhood trauma. Meanwhile, Superman, a Kryptonian orphan among mortals, is feeling isolated and melancholy, and the two get together for some friend therapy and the Fortress of Solitude. Then there's some business with a meteor that contains these worm-like, living alien probes. After first, the probes are making weapons in the Fortress go haywire, but they eventually calm down and talk to our heroes.

The probes say that they were created by the Kryll, a race which had lost emotion in their quest for immortality and sent these probes out to find it. After coming to Earth, the probes have discovered through the mopiness of Superman and Batman that emotion requires death, and so the probes sacrifice their own lives and transmit this message to their makers. 

Holiday Viewing

Got some time over the holidays? Over at the Flashback Universe Blog, Jason Sholtis and I have been watching selected episodes of old TV shows available on streaming and reviewing them. Something here is bound to be what you are looking for!

Mr. Lucky (1959)

Gigantor (1964)

Barbary Coast (1975)

Raumpatrouille Orion (1966)

M Squad (1957)

Riverboat (1959)

The Renegades (1983)

Space: 1999 (1975)

Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982)

Yancy Derringer (1958)

Blackstar (1981)

Miami Vice (1984)

Blake's 7 (1978)

Peter Gunn (1958)

Cliffhangers (1979)

Dragnet (1951)

On The Frontier

My recent readings in science fiction have had me thinking about Star Frontiers. The setting more than the game mechanics. I've done various riffs on the species and things before, but I don't think I've ever really thought about how I'd run it "straight"--at least not since I ran it in middle school. Here are some bullet points of things I've thought of:

Managed Tech

"We of the Institute receive an intensive historical inculcation; we know the men of the past, and we have projected dozens of possible future variations, which, without exception, are repulsive. Man, as he exists now, with all his faults and vices, a thousand gloriously irrational compromises between two thousand sterile absolutes – is optimal. Or so it seems to us who are men."

- Jack Vance, The Killing Machine

Technology marches on and Star Frontiers is very much retrotech, which I would mostly keep, I think, but rather than just pretend technology never advanced in some areas, I like I would lampshade it with the existence of something like the Institute in Vance's Demon Princes novels that limits the available technology. Perhaps they do so because of the excesses of the past? Maybe AI or transhumanism or both drove humanity to Frontier Space from their homeworld?

We're Pan-Galactic

The pervasive Pan-Galactic Corporation could drive things in a cyberpunkian direction, but I think I would want to wink at the dystopian potential of this rather than making it the primary theme. Corporate futures aren't uncommon in science fiction pre-cyberpunk (it shows up in the 70s comic Star Hunters, for instance) but I'd think I'd want to take a sort of American Flagg! or 2000AD satirical nod to it rather than make everything about fighting the system.

Rockets

Star Frontiers doesn't mention any sort of gravity generating tech and Knight Hawks has ship decks aligned like floors in a skyscraper. I'd retain that hard(er) science fiction approach.

Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around December 23, 1983.

Night Force #8: I got this issue in a comics collector set when I was a kid. The Night Force is back from Russia, but all of them have changed. Caine realizes he was wrong to have attempted to use Vanessa to help make a weapon. He lost an arm and a leg and his wife for his crimes, but now he intends to be a better father to his son. Gold is forced by fear of unleashing her demons again (which is not a concern, but Jack doesn't know that) to play the dutiful lover to Vanessa. There are wedding plans. Vanessa doesn't really deserve to be stuck with him, but she's out of the psychiatric hospital where she's spent most of her life and no longer tormented by demons, so improvement. Meanwhile, a woman comes to the Baron for help. An alien horror is holding the residents captive within a Manhattan brownstone. The Baron somehow contrives to send a criminal on the run, Paul Brooks, into the building to investigate.

Sgt. Rock #374: This is a goof one from Kanigher and Redondo present a much better main story than last issue. Afte Easy finds paratroopers strung up, Rock heads out on solo recon to locate the SS murder squad responsible. First he finds a boy missing a leg, an escapee from a death camp. After an encounter with a tank they make it to a village with a doctor who will treat the sick boy. There are some tense moments where it appears the doctor and his wife may betray them. Rock finds a picture that shows their now-dead son was in the SS. But in the end, the scissors the wife had been holding behind her back so ominously the whole time get buried in the back of a Nazi soldier that discovers them. Rock believes he can leave the boy with them, and they promise to keep him safe. Later, Easy ambushes the SS murder squad and gets retribution for the paratroopers' deaths.

Then there are two shorts. The first involves a sailor who can't manage to roll a 7 in craps. Then when he's trapped in the sinking carrier, his luck turns around. The last story is short of pointless, being an extended joke (I guess) about the driving skills of New York cabbies as one distinguishes himself as a tanker in the War.

Brave & the Bold #196: Kanigher and Aparo team Batman up with Ragman, and it's an okay basic story of a kidnapping of a young woman by a terrorist group, inspired by Patty Hearst, but it's standard team-up book story is made silly by two costume switcheroos where Ragman plays Batman for a while, then Batman plays Ragman. Ragman gives me feel early 80s Moon Knight vibes here, but the thing that stands out the most about him in this issue to me, is how tall Aparo draws his hood. It looks silly, like he has a conehead, and I can't imagine what Aparo thought was going on under they to make it stand up so high.

Camelot 3000 #4: We're still in the "getting the band together" phase as Arthur assembles his knights as the new round table, but now the governments of Earth (their leaders burlesqued as an American president in a sort of futuristic star-spangled cowboy suit, a Soviet dictator, and an African military strongman) are nervous about the popularity of this King Arthur. Lucky for them the U.N. security director has got the problem sorted as he sends a team lead by the guy Tristram jilted at the altar to attack them. Tristram puts a shot through his head, and the knights defeat his troops. Not much to warrant a whole issue here, but it looks good.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #5: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner continue her conflict with the Gang, who have kidnapped her acquaintance, John Ostrander so he will give them the money they are owed. Supergirl's parents clue her in that she was only hallucinating when she thought her secret identity was revealed. The Gang forces John Ostrander to take them to the theater where he was auditioning and apparently left their payment. While there, Ms. Mesmer gets shot by a security guard. Supergirl, still fighting Mesmer's hypnosis, shows up to fight the Gang, and captures all of them but Brains. She also gets Ms. Mesmer to release her from her hypnotic suggestion in return for a quick flight to the hospital.

In the Lois Lane backup by O'Flynn and Oksner, Jimmy's precognition is revealed to be a side-effect of Brainstorm's previous influence on him. He' s nabbed by some of Brainstorm's former gang, who hope to force him to use that power to their advantage. The power has worn off, though. and Lois makes an attempt to rescue Jimmy.

Green Lantern #162: Barr and Pollard/Hoberg have Jordan take the liberated people of Garon to the planet Aoran (which Evil Star had wiped of life) to settle on, with Dorine as their new leader. When Hal and Dorine go to his space cruiser so Hal can recharge his ring, he finds his power battery gone. They find a kid running around, but he doesn't have anything to do with it. It turns out the ship's artificial intelligence has gone roque. So roque, that when the kid innocently enters an airlock, he sends him into space, killing him! In anger, Jordan smashes one of the ship's viewscreens, but then the ship sends food shooting out at them in the galley.

Meanwhile on Earth, a guy finds a crystal on the street and, when he picks it up, the mineral starts growing up his arm. On Oa, the Guardians see this, but they note the Guardian of Earth is in exile.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Snyder and Gibbons, Harvid, a retired Green Lantern is tending his garden as a storm approaches, when he gets a surprise visit from his brother. A brother he sent to 100 years of solitary confinement during his time of service. The two old men begin to fight while around them the storm gathers strength. When the storm causes the dam to break, neither man has the strength to fix it alone, forcing them to work together. In the end, the exhausted brothers make peace and head to Harvid's house for some wine.

House of Mystery #314: In "I...Vampire" Mishkin and Sutton have Deborah and Dimitri captured with a vampire named Edward Trane with a grudge against. Bennett. It seems Trane was a former human ally of Bennett's, but when they both were captured by the Blood Red Moon, a ravenous Bennett drank his blood then abandoned him. Trane has hungered for revenge against the man that made him a monster ever since. Bennett falls into his trap, and Trane plans to hold Bennett until he is so hungry he attacks Deborah. Bennett tricks him and escapes, and Deborah stakes Trane. Bennett reveals to his former ally that it was a vampire of the Blood Red Moon that turned him, and they made Bennett believe Trane had died.

That's followed by an update to Hansel & Gretel by Rosenberg and Janes where children are lured to their doom by a magical fast food joint in the woods. The last story by Mishkin and Trinidad is a Twilight Zone-esque yarn about a couple who narrowly avoid a head-on collision with a semi to wind up on a strange highway with vintage cars, pursued by a white sedan (which is actually colored purple). The woman steals a map from a gas station and they manage to make their way out of this limbo back into the land of the living.

Legion of Super-Heroes #297: Following last issue, Levitz and Giffen/Mahlstedt focus on Cosmic Boy. With his mother dead and his father and brother injured, He's struggling with a desire for revenge. The first time he attempts it, the Legion sort of stands back to "let him make the choice" which doesn't really seem like the best play, however, after reviewing his origin, he goes back again and comes close to killing the terrorists before backing off. This issue has a rather Marvel feel, particularly with the "we never knew he was so powerful until he cut loose in anger" angle.

Warlord #67: I reviewed the story in this issue here. The Barren Earth backup returns. Jinal and her new companion make it Skinner make it to Skinner's city after an encounter with a giant, mutant honey badger. Jinal finds the city folk primitive and unprepared for a Qlov invasion, but there is more pressing concern as folk from the desert attack.

A Meeting with the Compulsor

 

Parth Trantlor

Our Gnydrion game in Grok?! continued last night. The party on hand:

• Jerfus Grek (Jason) - A Vagabond with the item everyone wants, but no clear idea how to make it pay.
• Nortin Tauss (Aaron) - An arcane dabbler who doesn't want to be tracked by telesthetic hounds.
• Yzma Vekna (Andrea) - A grubby teamster who wonders how she got into this mess.

Jerfus Grek watched the events of the previous adventure unfold from a dark alley across the street from the Shreev's office and with the mysterious item secreted under his colorful cloak. In the morning when his confederates emerge, he accosted then and learned of the compulsion the Eminent Compulsor had put them under. 

There followed much discussion of just what to do. Jerfus argued for carefully consideration of all options: Perhaps they could yet turn this to their advantage? Yzma, mindful of the invisible brand on her hand, argued for immediate surrender of the item to the Shreev so they could be done with this. Given there was the shop of a purveyor of talismans and other magics nearby, Jerfus prevailed on the other two to at least inquire there first for possible magical remedies.

The talisman merchant was an unctuous individual named Parth Trantlor. He said he could acquire an obscuring enchantment which would theoretically keep one from the senses of a telesthetic hound, but it would cost a smaragdine scintilla--a price considerably more than any of them possessed. They also tried to surreptitiously inquire about the mirror. Trantlor hadn't heard of such a device and after consulting a tome proclaimed it must be an artifact of some sort, worth at least a purpure scintilla.

After leaving the talisman shop, Nortin examined the container tube using his arcane-honed senses. He "detected magic," to use the vernacular. Nortin and Yzma were firm it must be given to the Compulsor. Seeing the way of things, Jerfus agreed with the provision that he would be able to present it to the Compulsor along with his narrative of events. The two agreed.

At the Compulsor's office, Jerfus related to his Eminence and the Shreev that he had only taken the item with the safety of the populace in mind, and when he had learned of the items potential power, he had sought to put it in the rightful hands. 

Compulsor Wungar commended Jerfus' civic-mindedness and suggested there was a way he and his friends could be of service to the Panarch as they were obviously people of principle. He conscripted them on the spot and charged them with going undercover to meet the person Kreik was to take the tube to. When the individual was identified, they were to summon the authorities.

Sensing no way out, the group acquiesced, only arguing for some sort of stipend. The Compulsor agreed to provisioning, and allowed there might be some reward in the future. Not as hopeful an answer as they miight of wished, but it was something. They left with the Shreev to prepare. 

An Alternate Star Wars

 

As the Republic spread throughout the galaxy, encompassing over a million worlds, the GREAT SENATE grew to such overwhelming proportions that it no longer responded to the needs of its citizens. After a series of assassinations and elaborately rigged elections, the Great Senate became secretly controlled by the Power and Transport guilds. When the Jedi discovered the conspiracy and attempted to purge the Senate, they were denounced as traitors. Several Jedi allowed themselves to be tried and executed, but most of them fled into the Outland systems and tried to tell people of the conspiracy. But the elders chose to remain behind, and the Great Senate diverted them by creating civil disorder. The Senate secretly instigated race wars, and aided anti-government terrorists. They slowed down the system of justice, which caused the crime rate to rise to the point where a totally controlled and oppressive police state was welcomed by the systems. The Empire was born. 

- Adventures of the Starkiller (2nd Draft), George Lucas 

Reading Christopher Ruocchio's Sun Eater series and having the internet offer me trailers for Rebel Moon and Andor Season 2, I've been thinking about space opera, and had a Star Wars (or maybe it would be better for Star Wars-inspired) idea. Readers of this blog are aware that I'm a fan of the pulp aspects of Star Wars, but in recent years my favorite SW media has been the stuff with a grittier, more realistic take like Rogue One, Andor, or some episodes of Tales of the Jedi. 

This sort of thing isn't really new. It shows up in earlier drafts of Lucas' Star Wars script:and of course, political maneuvers and the fate of the Republic are at the heart of the prequel trilogy. But it could be emphasized more and handled better.

The idea, in brief: Take the political maneuvering, grittiness, and shades of gray of these latter-day Star Wars works but strip the mythos back to the earliest stages, maybe taking inspiration from the best of everything that came after.

The jedi would still be fairly central to the whole thing, but as a sort of Lensmen or Green Lantern Corps adhering to a philosophy generally based around nonaction and stillness, they are ill-equipped to deal with a failing, corrupt Republic. This leads to fracturing and internal conflict. The separatists have a point, but separatism is also a way for megacorporations and commercial concerns to gain power and freedom from governmental restraint.

I suppose Palpatine is still a Sith lord, but if the conflict were ever just with him, the problem could be solved. The real danger is the systematic issues for which the Empire is a seductive solution.

A couple of things I would change that aren't essential to the premise, but I might as well change them while I'm changing stuff. The Clone Wars are a series of conficts fought with clones, but that's not why they are called that. Rather, the ethical issue raised by the clones' existence and the appearance of government cover-up are the "straw that breaks the tauntauns back" for many. The clones' conscription is an act of desperation on the part of the Republic. Or cynical maneuvering by a Sith Lord.

While I'm at it, I would certainly ignore things that definitively position droids as sophont or sentient beings such as Jabba's use of torture and the ridiculous droid bar from Mandalorian. I think the possibility that droids are fully sophont should exist--and the people of the Republic are generally blind to it--but they shouldn't be treating them as if they already know they are.

As an aside, I think the origins of droids and clones can easily point to the Republic being a purposely limited technological region not unlike the Empire in Dune or in the Sun Eater series. Canon sort of supports this by the droid foundries of Genosis or the Kamino clone facilities as being on the periphery of galactic civilization. I would suspect must of the high tech industry is on the Rim where the restrictions of the Republic are weaker.

Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1983 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of December 16, 1982. 

Batman #357:  Conway and Newton bring back a minor villain they introduced back in Detective Comics #497, the Squid. Batman is looking for the associates of the crimelord Tony Falco, who is already in custody. He learns that most of them are being recruited by the Squid, a former spy turned would-be kingpin. The Squid is trying to take out all the competition and become the crimelord of Gotham.

The Squid snatches Falco from a prison transport, but it's really Batman in disguise. In his abandoned aquarium hideout, Squid reveals that he knows about the deception. Batman fights Squid's henchmen, but he's outnumbered. The Squid has Batman thrown inside a tank where his giant squid will devour the Dark Knight.

Meanwhile, Dick Grayson goes to a circus in New Jersey, where his friend Waldo the Clown introduces him to the Todds, the circus' trapeze artists. At the same time, Mr. Sloan, the circus owner, is being shaken down by the goons of the mysterious Croc for protection money.

Flash #319: We open where we left off last issue with Flash and Captain Invincible plunging to their deaths from Creed's highrise apartment. Bates and Infantino do one of those ridiculous comic book things were the fall, which would be maybe 10 seconds in the real world, is long enough for cops on the ground to have a brief conversation about the fall, Captain Invincible to try the rouse Flash first with words and then a series of slaps, and Flash to save them both. 

The issue stays ridiculous, really. Invincible goes after Eradicator over the Flash's protests. He is almost disintegrated too, but the Flash snatches him out of his clothes at the last second to save him. 

In the Creeper backup from Gafford and Gibbons. The Creeper hauls himself out of the river, his bullet wounds already healing thanks to his healing factor. It appears a corrupt doctor is tied to both Tamblin and the crimelord Winterborn. And Jack Ryder's new boss' son is a drug addict connected to the doctor. All this crime drama seems more suited to 80s Daredevil or Vigilante than Creeper, really.

 

G.I. Combat #251: This first Haunted Tank story is the sort of thing you'd get in TV dramas of the era, but its done in a kid's comic in 15 pages, so it doesn't work as well as it might have. Sgt. Craig's estranged son joins the tank crew, which leads to a bit of a reconciliation between father and son before the son is shipped off to another crew, likely never to be mentioned again. The second story involves the crew each looking to get a souvenir to take home from the war, but the fortunes of combat continuously thwarting their efforts.

The Mercenaries are back and in Central America where a General Ramos hires them to "liberate" his country from the Juanistas who apparently gained power through popular support but are now oppressing the people (according to the general). The trio are to swim to the island and take out the guns on Fortress Fuego so the General's force can make a beachhead. They've got two problems: Their path is littered with underwater mines, and the General betrays them and sends divers to kill them. They prevail of course, and lure the General in to be destroyed under the Fortress' guns.

The non-series tales by Kashdan with Catan and Talaoc aren't bad. In the first, a G.I. teased for his belief that the message on a pinup of Betty Grable he received was a personal one, goes AWOL to meet the actress, but winds up foiling a German attack (which he can't mention because he was AWOL at the time) and getting Grable's monogrammed handkerchief to shut up the other dogfaces. In the second, the German's still a map cannister from two couriers only to find it's a dummy that has been boobytrapped. 

 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #11: Pasko and Yeates reveal that Kripptman (Kay) was a Jewish kapo at Dachau. Barclay sneers at him as a collaborator. Feldner for his part reveals that Karen Clancy is the herald of the Beast, the "antichrist" foretold in the Book of Revelation. To stop her, Kay and his aide Alan reconstruct the Golem, but it senses Casey's presence in the locket on Swamp Thing's body and attacks him! 

In the Levitz/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, The Phantom Stranger makes the case for an advanced healthcare directive as Millicent Bedford wishes to help her aged, comatose mother by disconnecting her from a life-support system. But the Phantom Stranger shows her the fate that might await both of them if her mother dies.

New Teen Titans #29: Brother Blood continues to be a villain I don't really get, but at least he's involved here in an interesting villain-on-villain clash with the Brotherhood of Evil who just struck Zandia. The Brotherhood heads to New York to kidnap Raven, whom the Brain believes is the key to overcoming Blood. Back at Titans HQ, Dick is still being a mood,  angry jerk for no good reason, which worries Kory and Donna. Wally and Raven talk about how they can't have a relationship. Changeling keeps trying to make Terra his personal project. The visiting Speedy is mused by all of this. Frances Kane, again dealing with unwanted magnetic powers, comes to Titans Tower to see Kid Flash. When the Brotherhood of Evil attacks, Speedy and Frances manage to stop them, but not before Phobia causes Raven to attack and almost kill Kid Flash, who decides he isn't so into the Goth chick after all.

Superman #381: Bates and Swan continue the Superman/Superboy Freaky Friday mix up. A by-product of the self-contained stories of the era: every issue of this crossover must spend pages retreading how it happened. They can't seem to just recap it in a caption. Superboy in 1982 is kind of making a mess of thing. He does manage to defeat three Superman-hating cranks empowered by emotion-siphoning baddie Euphor, but he snubs Lois so badly she becomes Euphor's next anti-Superman soldier, and makes a pass at Lana who slaps him and sends him away.