Creature Commandos

Long before rpgs got to the idea of making World War II a "weird war" (here and here) comics books had stormed that beach. There were Pacific islands of dinosaurs, G.I. robots, and whole platoons of ghosts and undead. The weirdest of the weird warriors may be relative latecomers to the game: the Creature Commandos, whose adventures are now helpfully available in a collection.

When writing Weird War Tales in the late seventies, J.M. DeMatteis took an idea to editor Len Wein that Wein reportedly though was "so silly" that it would work. That idea was a special forces unit comprised of characters resembling the Universal Monsters.

It's 1942: American scientists are delving into psychological warfare. They devise a program to realize certain cross-cultural archetypes of fear in the flesh. Thus, Project M (for Monster) is born Warren Griffith, a sufferer from clinical lycanthropy, is turned into a werewolf for real. Looking to avoid jail time, Vincent Velcro allows himself to be injected with some vampire bat derived chemicals and becomes a vampire. Marine "Lucky" Taylor just had to step on a landmine to get patched up by military surgeons into sort of a Frankensteinian monster.

I imagine Project M spawned a number of Congressional hearings and lawsuits, by the seventies. In 1942, the brass is utterly disgusted by the Creature Commandos, but sends them against Nazi Germany, anyway--and that's only the beginning. They drop in on Dinosaur Island, fight super-strong children (products of Nazi experiments), tangle with Atlantean survivors, and tussle with Inferna, daughter of Hades and Persephone. Along the way they team up with G.I. Robot J.A.K.E. (two models), and get a female team mate: Dr. Myrra Rhodes, who has snakes for hair thanks to inhaling strange fumes.

So, yeah. A lot of gaming inspiration to be had.

Warlord Wednesday: A Chronology

One minor element I liked about Warlord as conceived and written by Grell was that it progressed somewhat close to real-time. Sure, in the timeless world of Skartaris characters didn't age, but time went by in the outside world. Here's a timeline of dates given directly or easily inferred from the series:

1926, prior to April 15: Travis Morgan is born. [Warlord #6 gives the date as April 15, 1977, and Morgan bemoans that it means he is 51.]

1943: Time displaced, Morgan, Shakira, and Krystovar visit the U.S.S. Eldridge during the Philadelphia Experiment. [Warlord #79. This could be an alternate past, as it is related to an alternate future.]

1959, after June 16: Jennifer is born to Rachel and Travis Morgan. [In Warlord #38, Jennifer says a man arrived on her 10th birthday to tell her that her father had died, so it must have been shortly after his crash on June 16, 1969.]

1967: After the death of his wife, Travis Morgan sends Jennifer to live with her aunt. [According to Warlord #38, Jennifer is 8 at the time.]

June 16, 1969: Morgan is shot down and crashes his plane in Skartaris. [Date given in First Issue Special #8.]

1973: Danny Maddox is thrown in the gulag. [According to Secret Origins #16.]

April 15-16, 1977: Morgan returns to the surface world and meets Mariah at Macchu Picchu. [Date given in Warlord #6.]

1980: Jennifer Morgan arrives in Skartaris. [In Warlord #38, Jennifer says that she was told her father was a traitor "3 years ago" which would be after the government discovers that he's still alive in Warlord #6.]

1989, after June: Morgan visits the surface world and winds up meeting Green Arrow in Seattle. [In Green Arrow (vol. 2) #28, Morgan comments his flight was "over 20 years ago" after seeing the date on a newspaper.]

2009: Morgan encounters Ned Hawkins, the self-styled Golden God, and several other arrivals from the surface world. [Warlord (vol. 4) #4. Morgan says he's 82 when McBane tells him the year is 2009. Either Morgan somehow knows it's prior to his birthday, or he's off by a year. McBane continues to repeat this number throughout the next few issues. Given the timelessness of Skartaris, it's unclear how much time passes between this issue and Morgan's death, but since there seems to be very little time for breaks in the action, it's likely 2009-2010. If we go be publication date, it's 2010.]

Danny Maddox (a post-Grell creation) poses a few problems for the "publication year approximates year of occurrence" of the Grell years. He is the same age as Morgan, but he's spent most of his life on the surface. But Maddox doesn't seem to be in his 60s when Mariah meets him in the Russian gulag. Given that the Soviet's aren't surprised the Mariah hasn't aged either, it seems like it's the early 80s at the latest. Maddox still doesn't appear to be in his fifties either, and it's hard to square with the rest of the saga, but it's the only real explanation.

I also didn't include the two alternate futures in the above timeline. Neither is specifically dated, and they're just two of an infinite number of possibilities, in any case.

Smoke and Mirrors

Yesterday's Weird Adventures game found Rue, Jacques, Rob, and the Professor still exploring Urst's mansion. The party got separated last time by the biggest of separations: the divide between life and death. The gents (on the side of the living) had left Rue's body on the table in the refectory and taken their explorations upstairs. Meanwhile, Rue's spirit had moved downstairs looking for them.

The guys found several bedrooms. One of them had a sleeping, cross-dressing ogre. The ogre, scandalized at their intrusion chased them away. They were only happy to leave. The next bedroom was part of a suite. In the sitting room beyond they encountered a couple that seemed to be formed from smoke. These ghosts or spirits attacked, and they sucked enough life from Professor Pao to knock him unconscious.

Rob and Jacques took shots at them. The bullets perhaps dissipated them a bit, but it was going to be a slow way to take them down. Noticing the glass doors opening on to a balcony, Jacques got the idea to open them, maybe letting a wind in to blow the spirits away. But he and Rob manage to avoid getting hit and make it out the door. The wind (at least them wind they've got) isn't enough to disperse them, but they notice the spirits seem to shy away from the unfiltered sunlight.

They get the idea to break the glass doors and use pieces to try to reflect sunlight onto them. This helps hem the spirits in, and Rob is able to make dash to grab a mirror off the wall. He's able to focus the sunlight more directly and burn holes in the ghosts, finally dissipating them.

All this time, Rue is following--haunting, maybe--the woman, Camilla that dealt her the card. Camilla isn't sympathetic and finally runs away from her. Rue also finds her body where the guys left it and sees a cat-headed man in a fez inspecting it. She stays hidden, waiting for him to go away.

Then, she sees something really weird: Pao's spirit dangling from the ceiling by his silver cord. It allows her to find the rest of her gang, including the unconscious Pao, whose spirit is drifting a bit, but still firmly in place. They manage to bring him around, and he fixes up his only Yianese herbal healing remedy.

Rob is occupied by a lockbox he found in an alcove behind the mirror. It's got gold coins on the inside. Rue begins formulating a plan to get her spirit back in her body, while Jacques decides to make torches.

It's getting dark all of a sudden.

Captains of the Strange Stars

Given the myriad of worlds and vessels, it's no surprise spacecraft commanders are a varied lot. Here are three examples of those who make their living in space:

Art by Yuan Cui

This is Rhona Tam, privateer and custom enforcement contractor. She has letters of marque from several habitats, but her customs duties are concentrated in the system of Circus. She commands the cutter, Moral Hazard, most often transponder identified as registered in Interzone. Tam is shown dressed in nanoarmored clothing in the dark colors and stylings common to the "serious" space mariners (and poseurs) of Interzone's low port. Her braids, however, suggest her origins in the nobility of Hy Brasil habitat. The rings in her hair are actually devices: a data buffer and vigilance control for her brain backup, and a smart multi-tool in sleep mode. Her belt pouches hold mission-useful equipment and her current favored blend of local recreational drug powders.

Art by Moebius

Garn Singh Hardraker, captain of the Brave Ulysses, is an explorer who has led numerous expeditions to open up trade beyond newly re-discovered hyperspace network nodes and participated in several minor trade wars. He is dressed here in the ornate style popular among independent habitats in Alliance Space, recalling the courtly dress of the Belle Époque of the High Lonesome Confederation. He wears his hair and mustache long and carries a ritual short sword, suggesting an affinity for the ancient memeplex, Bushisikhism. What appears to be an old fashion peg-leg is actually programmable matter, capable of transforming into a more functional prosthetic when needed.

Prudence Myung-sun-115 pilots a combat drone swarm based on the carrier Clown in the Moonlight. Vis already heightened bioroid nervous system has been grafted to cybernetic enhancements, allowing multitasking capability far beyond that of the baseline neuroform. Sensor data from the drones are fed directly into sensory processing areas of vis brain by the control helmet. 

The Future of Wednesdays

I think once I finish my Warlord Wednesday run, my next comic series to review (unless I get a better idea between now and then) will be Jim Starlin's Metamorphosis Odyssey. It's a cosmic science fantasy tale that first appeared in serialized fashion in Epic Illustrated in early 80s. It also introduces Vanth Dreadstar who will go on to appear in his own series.

I'm still entertaining suggestions, though, if you've got 'em.

Android's Dungeon

I've been reading Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross, which takes place in a posthuman future where the civilization of humankind's android/bioroid creations have spread out into the stars. These beings can look pretty much human and act pretty much human--including eating and excreting biological material. The difference is that they are made of mechanocytes instead of biological cells that must "learn" to form organs and "tissue" types and their brains have soulchip backups they can be placed into a new body if their old ones are destroyed. Interestingly, priests (like those of the Church of the Fragile, who seek to disseminate old style "fragile" humanity in the galaxy) have "powers." Special structures and training that allow them to control the mechanocytes of others to heal or alter forms.

All of this sounded like a good way to in-setting rationalize traditional dungeoneering rpg tropes, if you're into that sort of thing. Imagine a future where humankind is extinct and its android descendants live in a pseudo-medieval society--except for things like soulchips (or something of that nature) and clerical healing. The androids (who would just think of themselves as "people," of course) would go down into the underground ruins of old humanity (who they probably wouldn't realize were any different than themselves) to wrest treasures from less socialized posthuman intelligences, i.e. monsters.

What would be the point? Well, it would be an interesting mystery to add in the background of a science fantasy sort of campaign (like a variant Anomalous Subsurface Environment, maybe). Also, the increased durability and easy resurrection of posthumans would explain some things about how D&D works as written, but could also be used to ramp up the carnage to Paranoia-type levels. Death wouldn't necessarily mean starting with a new character most of the time, it would just mean starting with the same character, poorer than before or owing a debt to somebody.

Warlord Wednesday: The Final Issue

My issue by issue examination of DC Comics' Warlord continues. The earlier installments can be found here...

"Storm Over Skartaris!"

Warlord (vol. 4) #16 (September 2010) Story & Art by Mike Grell.

Synopsis: Joshua and Alysha meet with Machiste to ask his help against the alien threat to all Skartaris. They must have convinced him, because we next see him helping McBane find Morgan's crashed SR-71. McBane finds something he thinks he can use.

In the Age of Wizard Kings, Mongo is teasing a shrunken Deimos by letting him jump at his magic mirror. He can't get through because the other side is broken. But in Shamballah, little Morgana is re-assembling Jennifer's broken  mirror...

Alysha's and Joshua's next stop is a tavern where they find the crew of the airship they took down last issue. They need the airship crew's help, but Captain Bloodhawke wants to fight Joshua to first blood for crashing her ship. He accommodates her:

McBane takes the radio from the plane wreckage. He plans to get it working so they maybe they can get a signal out and warn the surface world about what's coming. Tara oversees the removal of some the defensive guns from Shamballah. They plan to mount them on the airship. McBane asks how they plan to power them. Shakira replies they're going to use magic, just like Deimos.

Mariah and Machiste arrive to take over the defense of Shamballah. Mariah notes that even the Therans have joined them this time. Joshua and Alysha are astride the hippogriff and everyone else boards the airship.

On the surface world General Ketchum is pretty surprised to get a message coming in on a polar comsat from the SR-71 of Travis Morgan. McBane tells them about the coming alien invasion. His warning is soon confirmed by the "bogies" breaking through the missile defense. McBane tells the General to have his fighters hold outside the arctic circle. The ship of "the united people of Skartaris" will take care of things from there. The general demands to know what's going on; McBane promises to transmit a digital file that will explain.

Most of the airship crew gets off at the polar opening. Only Joshua and Shakira go on from there. The alien ships are heading toward Skartaris through the passage. When the airship is in position, Shakira places the last piece of glass in Jennifer's mirror. The conduit to Wizard World is re-opened!

Morgana and Jennifer channel the magical power to begin collapsing the passage. Joshua blasts the incoming aliens with the airship's weapons. Deimos, raging against the seed of Morgan, tries to get through the mirror, but Shakira keeps holding him back.

As the tunnel collapses, Joshua and Shakira escape the now-trapped airship leaving Deimos behind.

They ride away on the hippogriff. The polar opening to the outer world is seal and the aliens and Deimos are crushed in its collapse.

On the surface, the general and his staff begin watching the file they downloaded. Ewan McBane is reporting from Skartaris:

Things to Notice:

• This issue lampshades (finally) Morgan's ability to carry around enough ammo for his pistol despite never having any place to carry it.
• Joshua accomplishes what his father never did: uniting all the people of Skartaris (at least briefly).
• This issue is the very anti-thesis of decompression; There's enough incidents here for 6 issues, easy.

Commentary: 
Grell gives his series a decisive ending: closing off the polar opening that was Travis Morgan's entrance to Skartaris to begin with. Most of the Grell-era supporting cast winds up with at least a cameo in the final issue, too, though Ashir and Faaldren are absent, as they have been from this whole run.

Still, Grell leaves open the possibility of further adventures of the new Warlord. The story teases the possibility of a new setup for fantasy adventuring: a world where characters are actually trying to build a better society instead of just talking about it.