From

I've recently started watching the Epix (now MGM+) TV series From on a free preview. It's the story of a family that find themselves stranded in a small town where no one can leave and they are beset each night by apparently supernatural creatures that appear human, but are not. As a setting and situation, it's the sort of thing I've called a mystery sandbox before--though there's always the chance it will be revealed to be more of a sort of mystery terrarium where the true mysteries are other than what they initially appear. I'm only 4 episodes in, so it's hard to say!

Reviews tend to compared it to Lost, which is not completely off-base, but  think it's a bit lazy and possibly inspired by the presence of Harold Perrineau as the town sheriff. More apt comparisons I think are in the works of Stephen King. You've got a family where the parents have some relationship stress, a kid who has supernatural insights, and an eclectic group of characters, some of whom are dangerous to the others. It's perhaps a bit less volatile than how King would mix those elements, because it's meant to potentially last longer. So maybe it's a mix of a Lost-type show and a King work--the second one of it's type, since King's book The Dome was stretched into that sort of show.

Anyway,  think this sort of thing would make an interesting sort of short to medium rpg campaign. I'm sort of surprised their isn't a Powered by the Apocalypse hack to do this sort of thing, though maybe their is and I just don't know it.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1982 (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 July 8, 1982. 

Batman #352: Kupperberg joins Conway on this one with Newton/Calnan on art. Gordon is in the hospital after being beat up by cops where he's visited by the new commissioner who tells him to stop investigating the electoral fraud. Batman shows up and warns them to stay away from James Gordon or else they would have him to deal with. When they're gone, Gordon asks Batman to continue the investigation on his behalf. Meanwhile, Vicki sees Thorne at her editors office, but then Morton commits suicide.

 Later, Vicki and Bruce are on a romantic cruise, and they see giant zeppelin appear and steal a nearby battleship with antigravity technology. Bruce pulls his disappearing act on Vicki to change into Batman. He uses his equipment to climb to the dirigible, but he doesn't do it unseen. Colonel Blimp commands his men to take care of Batman and a tussle with them leads to Bats being thrown off the zeppelin, though he leaves a bat-tracer behind.

Batman barely makes it back to the Batcave after the fall the zeppelin. The next day, he and Robin follow the tracking signal. Out in the woods, the Batmobile is wrecked by land mines. Only a few miles away, Colonel Blimp and his small army prepare their next attack.

Flash #314: Bates is back with Infantino. Barry has apparently lost Fiona to a relationship with her State Senator boss, Phillip Creed. There's also a new, deadly vigilante in town, the Eradicator, who with a touch dissolves criminals into a puddle of goo. I'm sure these things are totally unrelated, though!

G.I. Combat #246: 30th Anniversary issue where Kanigher and various artist pull one of those DC War Comic crossovers here. I always like these; they seldom produce the best stories in these comics, but they also aren't as boring as the mediocre ones. The concept here is that the Haunted Tank boys are on a suicide mission that involves taking the tank into the Lascaux Caves where there are Germans hiding. Glanzman handles the art on the Tank parts of the story. After a prologue, the narrative flashes back to Capt. Storm and the O.S.S. (art by E.R. Cruz) who discover a sub pen deep beneath the caves with experimental missiles that can destroy Allied cities. Control tasks the Haunted Tank with taking that base out. 

Next, Johnny Cloud ends some air support to the crew, and Easy shows up to help out. Cruz is up again, as the Losers and Kana take out a German U-boat with advanced missiles in the Pacific. Easy and the Tank crew have to dissemble and re-assemble the tank to carry it down some stairs before they can final complete their mission, in the final parts again drawn by Glanzman.

There's a text piece this issue where Robin Snyder the diegetic history of the Haunted Tanks service from landing in North Africa to Europe. I dig this stuff that strongly roots war comics (or any kind of comics really) in real history.

 

Jonah Hex #64: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga pour some more misery into Hex's backstory, as we find out in his days as a scout (prior to the Civil War) he was engaged to Cassie Wainwright, the daughter of the general he was working for. When a group of corrupt soldiers led by Walt Barstow contrive to steal money from the government, Cassie is an unfortunate casualty as they leave her at the mercy of Comanches. Hex hasn't though about Barstow and those guys in years, but trying to collect a bounty, he discovers Barstow is now a corrupt sheriff playing both sides in bandit predations on a town. So afraid Hex has come after then, Barstow forces a show down, which ends in his death. 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #6: Pasko and Yeates really serve up an odd title. It would have been at home at Vertigo if it just had a more 90s sensibility. This issue, we get more evidence that "Casey" (turns out, not her real name) the little girl Swampie is bent in trying to save ain't as innocent as she appears. Her dying mother asks someone to kill the girl to kill her, for one thing. And the formerly possessed child killer that supposedly kidnapped her, runs out to beg armed men to get him away from her. Then the girl blasts the guys with her power. Harry Kay (that guy just won't die) is flying around in a helicopter, trying to find the girl with a psychic. Meanwhile, Swamp Thing and his crew sneak onto a Sunderland luxury cruise, and Swamp Thing has to contend with some tentacled creature, then at a costume party, a bunch of guests unmasks to reveal their single, cyclops-like eyes. Sunderland is almost comically into weirdness every way you turn, it seems like.

New Teen Titans #24: Wolfman and Perez are still pushing the Omega Men and their Vega System deal. This issue follows their appearance in Action last month. Superman introduces them to the Titans, which is convenient because they can take the Titans with them on their return to their home system so the Titans can rescue Starfire. On the Citadel homeworld, Blackfire turns Starfire over to Lord Damyn, the none too bright Citadel chieftain, and learns of the Citadel's plan to kidnap the Vegans' living goddess, X'Hal. When the Citadel attacks Okaara, the Titans and the Omega Men aid in the planet's defense, while Changeling, disguised as a Gordanian, attempts to smuggle Robin and Cyborg into the enemy mother ship to rescue Starfire.

Superman #376: The Superman titles in this era often seem very retro with throwback Silver Age-y stories. It's not consistent, but it happens enough to make his two titles standout from DC's Bronze Age output (with 3 titles: Swamp Thing, New Teen Titans, and Legion of Super-Heroes perhaps harbingering something knew). Elliot S. Maggin takes over writing here, and his approach is definitely Silver Age (or perhaps Paleo-Neo-Silver Age). Here, Perry White is struck down by the super-villain Ozone-Master. As he's in the hospital in critical condition, he gets Superman to bring him one last cigar--one given to him by mutant children--gains super-powers, and team-ups with Superman in bringing their foe to justice.

Kupperberg/Infantio's Supergirl backup is mostly just advertising to Superman readers that she's go a new series coming up as most of this was implied by her last story in Superman Family. Linda gives notice on her soap opera job, then meets up with Superman in Kansas to inform him of her decision. He tries to talk her out of it, but Supergirl stands firm and tells him that she hasn't come to get his advice, only to tell him her decision. Superman accepts the fact that Kara is an adult now. She tells him (and the audience) that she is relocating to Chicago and flies off in that direction.

Creepy Spheroids and Mutant Manticores

Our 5e game continued last night with the part exploring the strange ruin with the dish on top. The first thing they discovered was a cell, and inside was someone they knew: the former Mayor Gladhand. They had last seen Gladhand in Rivertown after helping him acquire (well, steal it from the Raccoon Crime Family's vault) money to hire mercenaries to take back the town from Mayor Drumpf. Gladhand tells them he had come to Sang where the Clockwork Princess had agreed to help him, and he had been running errands for her, checking up on wayward "Looms." Looms, he says, are duplicates of Mirabiilis Lum the genius who built her, who is now in advanced state of senility. One of the wayward Looms is in league with the Shadow.

Gladhand was captured by one of the Junk City's gangs for some reason. They threw him in this cell, but then stopped coming a few days ago. The group sends Gladhand off to an end to meet up with him later. This proves to be a mistake.

Shortly before freeing Gladhand, they had encountered a folksy talking but very creepy spheroid being. He had asked to touch them with a sucker-ended tentacle. They had obviously declined. He disappeared. 

The group had explored much farther before they here Gladhand scream. They return to find unconscious but otherwise apparently unharmed. They assume it was the ball face, but the thing is nowhere to be seen.

They pick up Gladhand and carry him back to an inn. Looking to save time, they use a back alley. That's a mistake too, when a weird manticore flies down to attack. The creature is toxic and makes a few of the party sick before they are able to kill him.

Weird Revisited: High Flyin' Hawkman

This post originally appeared in 2018 and was a follow-up to this post.

HAWKMAN

STATISTICS
F                 EX   (20)
A                 RM  (30)
S                 GD  (10)
E                 EX   (20)
R                 RM (30)
I                   EX   (20)
P                  EX   (20)
Health: 80
Karma: 70
Resources: GD (10)
Popularity: 20

BACKGROUND
Real Name: Henry Carter Hall
Occupation: Inventor, adventurer
Identity: Secret
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record.
Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois
Marital Status: Married.
Known Relatives: Susan Sanders Hall (wife)
Base of Operations: New York City
Group Affiliation: Partner of Hawkwoman, Avengers

KNOWN POWERS
Winged Flight: His artificial wings and nth metal belt (Unearthly material) allow Hawkman to fly at Remarkable speed.
Avian Communication: Cybernetic circuitry incoporated into his cowl allow him to command birds at Remarkable ability.

TALENTS
Hawkman has Remarkable knowledge of aerial combat. He is a brillaint scientist skilled in Electronics, Physics, Biophysics. Orinthology, and Engineering. He also has the Repair/Tinkering talent, and is an armchair Egyptologist.

History: Henry "Hank" Hall, scientist and inventor, was experimenting with a metal of extraterrestrial origin that could be used to produced antigravity effects. He dubbed "nth metal" which had been recovered from a meteorite in Africa. He attended an exhibition of newly discovered artifacts at a local museum to investigate his theory that the  Ancient Egyptians had utilized nth metal in tools.

At the exhibition, Hall surreptitiously exposed a ceremonial dagger he suspected of being nth metal to high frequency sound waves. Energy emitted by the dagger caused Hall to experience a vision of the distant past that felt like he had lived it. He was an ancient Egyptian prince who was slain along with his betrothed by a treacherous and power-hungry high priest. Unknown to Hall, two others present experienced that same vision. Susan Sanders saw it through the eyes of the Prince's wife to be, and Anton Hastor, a Soviet agent who had been monitoring Hall's research, felt he had been the high priest.

The three left somewhat disoriented, but Hastor kidnapped Sanders on her way home, planning to use her to coerce Hall into turning over his nth metal research, then kill the both of them as he believed he had done in his previous life.

Hall agreed to meet Hastor and turn over his notes, but instead donned his experimental wings and nth metal lift belt, a cybernetic helmet he had been working on to communicate with birds, and a makeshift costume. He rescued Sanders in the guise of Hawkman.

Hall and Sanders instantly fell in love. She suggested he continued fighting crime as Hawkman and had him build fight gear for her so that she could assist him as Hawkgirl.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1982 (week 1)

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 July 1, 1982. 

Adventure Comics #492: The Adventure Comics digest is again mostly reprints, but there's the continuation of the Captain Marvel story by Bridwell and Newton. The Marvel Family and Kid Eternty must contend with "gods of evil"--Set, Cernabog, Ahriman, and Tezcatlipoca--summoned by Master Man. Kid Eternity offers to summon some "good gods" to help out, but the Marvels want to do it on their own. And they do! Kid Eternity gets into the act by defeating Ahriman by taking him back to the Big Bang.

Arak Son of Thunder #14: As we saw at the end of last issue, Arak finds a tapestry which depicts the story of his life in this eldritch cavern in Greece. Following the tapestry leads him to its weaver, the Fate Lachesis. She's taken with ol' Arak and we get a sexy interlude. After that business, Arak and Lachesis are greeting by the other fates Clotho and Atropos, who are none too happy. Atropos wants cut his thread and kill him, but Arak says they should at least allow him to die in battle. She summons the Ker, but Arak beats him. It's revealed that he is indeed the son of a god. He-No is of the same spirit as Zeus. Arak cuts his own life thread with the knife of Atropos to prove he controls his destiny. Clotho restores the thread, and two out of three Fates agree, Arak has earned the right to follow his own path. In a sign that he has now accepted his own Quontaukan heritage, Arak is given a mohawk, and he struts out of the cave with Satyricus.

In the Valda backup by the Thomases and Colon, after the Huns failure the assassinate Carolus Magnus, a battle breaks out between the forces. After the battle, Valda takes the opportunity to bathe in the River Istir. She sees a beautiful horse on the opposite bank and swims (in chain armor) to investigate. She finds the bodies of three scouts--and a group of man-eating horses! Valda kills one of them, but she falls and is knocked unconscious. A guy in a horse mask arrives on the scene and calls off the horses before they kill her.

Blackhawk #251: The Blackhawks are back and back in World War II after a modernizing revamp that ended in 1977. Evanier, the writer of this run, has admitted it was done for licensing purposes (Spielberg was rumored to be interested in doing a Blackhawks movie), but I've read most of the run before, and I think it's pretty good. Spiegle provides the interior art and Cockrum does this first cover. 

During the Nazi invasion of Holland, the Blackhawks try to help the people of a small town whom the Germans have forced to hold a plebiscite to determine whether the people will willing accept occupation. The vote is of course, a "no win" for the town: Should they vote for the Germans, the Nazis will use it for propaganda purposes, but should the town reject the occupation, the Germans will destroy them. The town leader is initially for playing along, despite Blackhawk's arguments.

Blackhawk is captured and questioned under hypnosis by his old nemesis, Von Tepp.  The other Blackhawks trick the Germans into revealing his location and stage rescue, but not before Blackhawk apparently gives  up resistance plans, as well as recapping his origin. Luckily,  he fed them false information.

When the Blackhawks get back to the Dutch village they find that it is partially destroyed. The town leader has changed his mind and chosen the path of resistance.

DC Comics Presents #50: Mishkin/Cohn and Swan spin an unusual yarn with the wayward Miracle Machine, that happens to be lodged on a meteor Superman is moving, secretly granting his subconscious wish to be split into two beings, Clark Kent and Superman. No one can figure out why Superman is so cold to his friends and just keeps flying around to natural disasters, until ace reporter Clark Kent solves the case. And just in time in time, too because the Atomic Skull is up to some nefarious plot. It's Clark that saves the day by getting Superman to pay attention and thwart the Skull, then he reminds Superman of his connection to the now deceased Kents to get him to realize his human side is important and unite with Clark again.

Fury of Firestorm #5: Conway and Broderick/Rodriquez have Ronnie feeling sorry for himself due to personal setbacks and deciding that Firestorm should take Lorraine Reilly, the Senator's daughter he rescue previously, up on her dinner offer. Afterwards, he returns to Bradley High School where he begs Coach Mason to allow him back onto the basketball team.

Meanwhile, Senator Reilly buys an ancient artifact, the Pipes of Pan. The Pied Piper is interested in getting his hands on those, so he invades the Senator's home. He steals the pipes then uses then to hypnotize all Manhattan. Firestorm flies into action. The Piper commands his legion of subservient citizens to attack Firestorm. Realizing that the hypnotized people are just innocent victims, Firestorm is reluctant to use his powers against them. As the Piper continues to play, New Yorkers swarm over Firestorm.

Justice League #207: It's time for a Crisis! No, not that one, one of the periodic crossovers between the JLA and JSA. Conway has already done one, but I guess he's hungry for more as he and Heck/Tanghal present, "Crisis on Earth-Prime!" Members of the JLA are preparing to receive guests from Earth-Two, but instead the transporter somehow brings them the Crime Syndicate from Earth-Three. The League is taken by surprise and defeated by the Syndicate who then steal an experimental space shuttle from the JLA's hangar and fly towards Earth-One, intent on establishing a foothold on the planet from which to stage their revenge against Per Degaton.

The JSA members, meanwhile, appear in the limbo between worlds and find the abandoned prison of the Syndicate. Green Lantern uses his ring to follow the Syndicates trail, and they arrive on Earth-Prime, but it has been devastated by a nuclear war years before. Dr. Fate picks up Per Degaton's psychic vibration all over this. 

The recovered JLA goes looking for the missing JSA and winds up on Earth-Two on October 2, 1982, but not one they recognize. It's a fascist state where 40s styles never went away. Escaping the cops, they decide the only way to solve this mystery is to head into the past, so they do. In January 1942, they go to the JSA headquarters, but instead of the JSA they know, they encounter the All-Star Squadron.

Warlord Annual #1: I reviewed this annual by Grell and Rodriquez here.

Wonder Woman #296: Thomas/Mishkin and Colan/McLaughlin conclude the Commander Video story. Wonder Woman, is captured by General Electric. He tries to brainwash her as he has the others, but she's more resistant, so he resorts to the psychic dual within the Commander Video game that ultimately gave him control over the others. Wonder Woman's will is too strong, and he decides his only recourse is to kill her. Wonder Woman beats him though and joins the counter-offensive by Etta Candy and Steve Trevor. Electric is defeated and his mental thralls are freed.

In the Huntress backup by Levitz and Staton/Ordway, the Huntress "status quo" is represented: her boss, her job, her boyfriend (though he's feeling the pressure of keeping her secret). She also does some musing over the advantages of her vigilantism over her legal work in dealing with crime. That's about it.

Swords Against Sorcery: On Wings of Night!

 

Last night, we continued the playtest of Swords Against Sorcery, the Bronze Age comic book Swords & Sorcery system I have been working on. Paul was out, but everyone else could make it, and we were joined by Tug from my Azurth group. The scroll of glory:

• Oriax the Red, Gladiator Champion (Aaron)
• Thunda, Barbarian Acolyte (Andrea)
• Korag, Primitive Warrior (Jason)
• Zanjar, Gallant Thief (Tug)

Having escaped Zaarzog the Demon and the imps of the tree with an armload of fruit, our heroes made it back through the portal to Yasheeng's sanctum. They give her the eye (as promised), and she tells them a bit more detail regarding their potential mounts. At the foot of the Vestari Hills there is a woodland of jagged karst formations, some of great size, known as the Nightfang Forest. Here dwell beast folk who make sacrifices to the giant bat-things that roost in the caves in the largest spires. 

The beast folk are generally known to be inimical to humans, but Korag has the Distinction "Raised by Beast Men," so he is feeling pretty prepared for this development.

Bats being nocturnal, our heroes waste no time in heading to the Nightfang Forest, only a short ride from the city's walls. They reach the edge of the forest as the moon is high in the sky. 

At the edge of the forest, they meet Zanjar who was contemplating entering himself. Zanjar is currently on the run, having robed a lackey of a certain wizard, earning him the wizard's enmity. He decides to join the party as the wizard threatening him is none other than Nazrnn Gath.

Making their way down the narrow trail, Korag's jungle-born senses detect that they are being observed. They also notice large shapes flying across the sky. Suddenly, there's a fearful human cry from the forest. Thunda is able to track it, and the group comes upon a bowl-shaped depression with a pole mounted in the middle. There, a fat merchant of Djadishar is tied as the beast folk, arrayed around the periphery, chant ominously. With a high-pitched cry, the bat creatures descend to take the sacrifice.

Korag speaks with the beast folk who are not of his tribe but speak the same prehuman tongue. The leader of the beast folk warns Korag not to interfere. Korag suggests the fruit will tempt the "bloodwings" as the beast folk call the bats. With a successful roll of Presence+Wild, the leader agrees to let him try.

With all eyes on Korag and the bats, Zanjar sidles up to the merchant and offers him his freedom for his gold. The blubbering merchant would agree to anything at this point. Zanjar deftly cuts the man's bonds and his purse with one stroke, catching a handful of gold in his palm.

Meanwhile, presenting the fruit and talking commandingly to the bats, proves to do the trick. After gorging on a fruit each, the bats allow the heroes to mount them. Korag with his rapport with beasts (Kinship with Beasts Talent, in fact) is able to guide his mount easier and the others merely follow is lead.

They fly over the hills and out into the desert of Urrd. Soon, the tower is in sight. It is an odd structure, with no decoration save that it is ringed at 3 places by a set of 3 evenly spaced, large eye reliefs. 

The group flew up close to the tower, looking for a way in. One of the rings with the eyes, began to turn, tracking them--and a last of energy came out of the eyes strafing them all! Most of the bats did evasive maneuvers to avoid it, but Zanjar wasn't so lucky and was forced to jump from his bat, aiming for Korag and his mount spiraling back. He succeeded (with some Momentum spent!) but the extra weight forced the two to jump for the angled roof of the tower.

Zanjar climbs down the closest ring to have a cautious look in one of the irises. It seems to have a window or lens. He shatters it with his dagger handle, and he and Korag tumble inside. The others follow them but have a bit more difficulty (losing some Luck in the process). 

They start down the central stairway, but at the next landing they discovered the Tower is no mundane structure:

On to Junk City

Our Land of Azurth game continued on Sunday with the party still in the midst of fighting the Wheeler marauders in an isolated Sang fort. They manage to capture the leader of the gang, Hatch-Head, and interrogate him a bit. Unfortunately, he doesn't know anything about the Princess. 

They also take a couple of things from him. A fist-sized metal ball and a glass vial of some substance.

Heading on into the city, they find it aptly named as the city is made from and built into caverns of junk. At the only entrance to the city, they are accosted by the formidable leader of the guards who sizes them up as "adventurers" and warn them against looking for gold and experience around here. They assure her that they will be on their best behavior.

And they promptly start looking for trouble to get into. Using Waylon' owl familiar Celestie as a scout, they identify areas of interest within the city. One of them is a weird, giant shallow bowl. They approach it and find several bodies lying outside. They decide to explore the interior.