Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on newsstands around September 22, 1983.

Power Lords #1: A tie-in with the short-lived toyline, written by Fleisher with art by Texiera and Dee. The cover completely sold me on this issue as a kid, and overall, Texiera does a good job working with the sometimes-challenging character designs by Wayne Barlowe. Shaya, trusted bodyguard for the Toranian royal family, flies to Earth purused by the forces of an alien alliance, to recover Adam Power, who is unaware he is actually a Toranian Power Lord. A jewel removes Adam's amnesia, and he remembers everything about himself, his family--and also remembers how his homeworld fell to dictator Arkus and his allies. Shaya and Adam are attacked by two of Arkus' henchmen, Raygoth and Ggriptogg. While Adam and Shaya defeat both those two, Arkus ambushes them.

Thriller #2: This issue drags out Dan Grove's introduction to the Seven Seconds so some background on those characters can be given to the reader. There are a number of things unexplained, including why there is a bank robber called "Molluskan" and Scabbard's girlfriend Mallochia seems to be Scotty Thriller's nanny under the name "Molly Lusk"--and what either of these people have to do with Edward Thriller's old colleague, Moses Lusk. Von Eeden's panel layouts are as difficult to follow as last issue. We do learn that, thanks to a lab accident during his attempts to harness the power of the so-called "rogue cell" lurking within every human, Edward Thriller and his wife Angeline got merged, so that Angeline exists a noncorporeal being tethered to Edward's body. Or something like that. We also so the fire that killed Angeline's father and blinded her mother--a fire her brother Tony accidentally started while playing with matches. I like the setting and characters, but there was probably a better way to go about this.

Supergirl #14: Indicia and cover title now agree that this is Supergirl. We pick up where last issue left off with Supergirl battling Blackstarr. Supergirl manages to hold her own, but eventually Blackstarr just decides to escape. Back at her building, Linda is talking with Mrs. Berkowitz, and they discover that Blackstarr looks uncannily like Rachel, Berkowitz's daughter who she believes died in the camps in 1941. 

That night, Blackstarr's followers fire-bomb a synagogue. Supergirl gets the rabbi out, but the old man dies of smoke inhalation. Angry, Supergirl takes to the skies and calls out Blackstarr. The villain shows and the fight is on. Blackstarr boasts she has comprehended Unified Field Theory which is the source of her powers.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Berkowitz heard about the fight on the radio and rushed to the scene. When she sees Blackstar she exclaims "Rachel!", and Blackstarr stammers out "M-momma?"

Batman and the Outsiders #5: Barr and Wolfman continue the story from last week's New Teen Titans, this time with Aparo on art. The two teams barely escape drowning in Gotham Harbor after Psimon destroyed the underwater base, but thanks to Terra they manage it, bringing Dr. Jace with them. Whiny Dr. Light is on the outs with the Fearsome Five, so Psimon sends the mudmen to get him, but he winds up captured by the heroes. This issue plays up the tension between Batman and Robin, and Batman assumes leadership and makes Robin feel like a junior partner. Robin eventually asserts himself, countermanding Batman on strategy, but when it works out, Batman commends his leadership and the part with mutual respect. It's interesting how aligned the Batman books, BatO and NTT are on the whole two potential Robins and Batman stuff. It does really feel as if these are all events happening at the same point in the characters' lives.

Here's the covers of the two-parter combined:

Green Lantern #171: Feels like another fill in issue while we're waiting for the new creative team house ads have been telling us about (Wein and Gibbons) to take over. We've got Alex Toth on pencils here, at least, and Austin on inks. The writer is "Noel Naive" which is a pen name and here apparently represents Giffen, Snyder, and Cavalieri. Jordan and Dorine visit desert world are are captured by the "Caretaker" of an alien race. He plans to siphon their life energy in an attempt to cure his people of their "sleep sickness," just like he's doing to his own wife. Jordan intervenes when the alien's wife cries out in pain, and destroys the machine, causing the Caretaker to die of shock. His sadden wife explains that their race was not sleeping, but already dead, and she only let her husband keep believing they could be saved because his struggle to find a cure was the only thing keeping him alive.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Klein and Gibbons, mustachioed GL Deeter, explains to a young boy how he too was given a hard time by a woman: a caustic princess whose rescue he botched by failing to understand the situation. In the end, he reveals he got his revenge by marrying her as the princess arrives on dragon back to pick him up after her errands.

Sgt. Rock #383: The main story by Kanigher and Redondo is a bit of a surprise in that idyllic, isolationist community Rock discovers in the Alps isn't destroyed or forced to accept the grim necessity of fighting the just war at the end of it. They stay hidden and Rock leaves, managing to catch so G.I.'s looking to loot some Nazi booty and defeat some German ski-troops on his way back to Easy. 

There are "Battle Album" entries on the F-14 and Cromwell's heavy cavalry, then a morality play by Harris/Lindsey about a German soldier on the Russian Front who murders a fellow soldier to get his fancy boots only to lose his feet to frostbite. 

Legion of Super-Heroes #306: While awaiting the returns in the election for Legion leader--one where Star Boy hopes his girlfriend Dream Girl loses--he passes the time by filling Wildfire in on his origin. Giffen draws the frame sequence, but the flashback is handled by Curt Swan and recaps incidents from recaps incidents from Adventure Comics #317, #342 and #350.

Warlord #76: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, something appears to be blocking the pipe taking water from the subterranean sea to their reservoir. Jinal dives down to take a look and finds an ancient, space battleship, which she manages to salvage but only after defeating some automated guardians.

Space: 1999 the Role-playing Game

I pre-ordered the Space: 1999 role-playing game coming from Modiphius not because I am a big fan of the show (the only complete episode I've seen as an adult I reviewed here) but I do like retro-sci-fi in general, and I am always at least curious about another instantiation of the 2d20 system, which I like a lot in Star Trek Adventures. With my pre-order I got the quickstart and with it a window into what the game is going to be like.

First off, they get the aesthetic right. There is a lot of beige and orange in this pdf. Unlike the Trek books, they use stills from the show in this one, though there is some original art.

Characters are defined by Skills and Attitudes. The Skills (Command, Flight, Medicine, Security, Technical) seem analogous to STA's Disciplines (Command, Conn, Medicine, Security, Science, Engineering), but they also serve an attribute function with the rules telling us Command has to do with "charm" and Flight with "athletics," for example. Attitudes (Bravery, Compassion, Dedication, Improvisation, Mystery, Perseverance) are essentially approaches as used in Fate and other games (the 2d20 Dishonored game calls them "Styles"), though they don't work as well conceptually for me because they seem to be a mix of character traits and traits and motivations, but they probably will work okay. One problem I forsee is that with approaches/styles doing things one way means you probably aren't doing it another way, e.g. if you are Quick you aren't Careful or Sneaky. It's less clear to me that the Attitudes have that sort of exclusivity.

Beyond Momentum and Threat, which are in most 2d20 games, Space: 1999 characters have Spirit which serves the functions of both Determination and Stress in STA.

There are some sample characters in the quickstart and a short adventure, but no real gear, aliens or monsters. Still, from what's shown it looks like a good 2d20 riff on the lower crunch side. I'm looking forward to seeing the full game.

Take Me to the Pilot!

I'm a bit behind in my session reports, so I've got two to cover from our 5e Land of Azurth campaign. The party has been making their way up the floors of the mechanical titan that the rebels against the Wizard hope to use against him, but at the moment it's in the hands of mercenaries who stole it to sell to the Wizard.

In the first session, the part reached the auxiliary control room in the solar plexus area of the construct. Erekose fell prey to a trap that dropped him into the trash furnace, then the party had to contend with a minotaur armed with a magic hammer.

In the second session, the party finished exploring the auxiliary control room level, then made a gnome technician call the elevator for them. The next level is a weird gallery with a dinosaur, an elf woman, a weirdly intense, muscular man, and a horrible mass of protoplasm held in some sort of stasis. A sneaky gnome tries to drop the stasis fields, but the party stops him. They do free the elf who reveals she was kidnapped for ransom.

There is a curving, steel staircase to the head and the next level. There is also a towering construct standing at the top of them. The party rushes into battle and manages to defeat it surprisingly handily. In the head, they find the actually control room and two spellcasters who are prepared for them. Glym, Bok's primary technical consultant, is a wizard, and there is also a sinister looking cleric.

These guys are no joke, but there's only two of them and there are 5 party members. In a few rounds they are down, though not before Erekose is banished to some nether realm. He comes back though when Glym goes down.

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1983 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I've looking at the comics released the week of September 15, 1983. 

Batman #366:  Great cover here by Simonson. Moench and Newton/Alcala continue the story from last issue. Despite the destruction of his site model and Batman's escape, the Joker moves ahead with his plans to foment even greater conflict between the rebels and the military. Batman is pretty much apolitical here. The rebels expect him to be against them, but it isn't, even after one of their number tries to kill him. His main goal seems to be preventing further violence by letting both sides know they are being played. It's shallow from a real-world political context, sure, but it's not really the Batman you would expect from social media discourse that paints him as an authoritarian figure. 

Somewhat unrealistically, Jason Todd manages to make it to Central America just in time to help defeat the Joker dressed as Robin. Given that the Robin identity isn't one Grayson has given up yet, Batman is angry about that.

New Teen Titans #37: Wolfman and Barr co-write this team-up between the Titans and the Outsiders. It starts when the Fearsome Five breakout of prison and go after Dr. Jace to get her to empower some minions for Psimon. The two hero teams initially start to fight, but it doesn't go on long enough to stretch credulity. Too much. The dynamic between Batman as leader and Robin as leader is interesting and not as forced to create tension as Wolfman has written the two in the past. Terra worries having to interact with her brother may reveal some of the lies she told the Titan, and Changeling at least does note some discrepancies. All in all, a solid team-up whose resolution will come in the Outsiders.

Superman #390: Bates is joined by new scripter Elliot S! Maggin. As seen last issue, Vartox is on his way. He was inside a comet but has no memory of how he got there. He's intent on resuming his relationship with Lana Lang, though he seems take it ok when he finds out she's seeing Clark Kent now. Well, except he keeps getting struck with these vivid, intrusive daydreams where he kills Superman. Meanwhile, Lana is dealing with a serious stalker. Like, when the guy surprises her, she accidentally kicks him off her balcony, yet he finds a way to survive but keeps on pursuing her serious.

Arak Son of Thunder #28: Riding animated statues supplied by the priestess Dyanna, Arak and Satyricus are spirited far away from Byzantium to the ruins of the Temple of Diana in Ephesus. Dyanna enters the forest and warns them not to follow but gives them a golden arrow for their trouble. While Arak uses the arrow to get them some horses (he plans to go to Baghdad to secure passage to the New World), Satyricus wonders off. Arak goes looking for him and winds up in the middle of a strange grove, where he's forced to kill a raving man protecting a golden bough. Turns out he was a priest, and according to the Amazons, Arak can't leave the sacred grove and must assume the priest's duties as protector.

In the Valda backup by the Thomases and Randall/Yeates, it turns out Creston was killed not by an archangel but by the evil wizard Baledor, who has taken over the monastery at Mount Saint Michael. Malgigi heads there to fight the wizard, sending Valda to report to Charlemagne. The King is too busy in war to listen, so Valda heads Mount St. Michael herself, but gets attacked by evil monks.

Omega Men #9: Slifer and Smith/DeCarlo lay bare the trouble with a lot of rebellions: the folks that are good fighters to overthrow a regime aren't always good at follow through. While the Omega Men try to get their individual lives back in order vulnerable worlds are again conquered or drawn under the influence of the resurgent Citadel masterminded by Harry Hokum. In the end, many Omega Men have been captured, and Primus' only recourse seems to be to make a deal with Lobo that may mean his death. 

Flash 328: Similar to last month's Swamp Thing, the story here gets dragged out--delaying Superman's response on the Flash's expulsion from the League--another month while the Flash has a flashback. Which means we get a reprint of Flash #165 by Broome and Infantino/Giella with a brief frame. The night before Barry is to marry Iris, he's transported to the 25th century by Professor Zoom. Zoom disguises himself with Barry and switches places to wed Iris. Meanwhile, the real Barry is in Zoom's cell in the future. Barry escapes, of course, and the Flash and Reverse Flash do battle, until the future law catches up with Zoom and takes him back to his own time.

G.I. Combat #260: The cover story (which is the second Haunted Tank story this issue), finally addresses the issue of Stuart's Raiders flying the Confederate Battle Flag. It's doesn't go anywhere satisfying, but some acknowledgement of the issue is, I guess, better than none. We finally get a window into the feelings of Gus, the only black member of the crew, about that flag. He isn't happy, and coincidently, neither is a visiting general who demands they remove it and destroy it. Stuart isn't happy about that particularly, but he's a soldier and will do as ordered. Gus volunteers to burn it, but before he can, the wind (actually J.E.B. Stuart's ghost) whisks the flag away. Later, the ghost drops the flag, so it obscures a Panzer gunner's vision, allowing the Haunted Tank to prevail in a firefight. After their victory, the general drops his objections to the flag and Gus isn't consulted but suggests it must be God's will or something. Of course, the reader knows it was the actions of a racist ghost so I don't know how Kanigher expects us to feel about all that. It feels like a lampshade of a story, but an ineffective one.

The other Haunted Tank story involves them loosing 2 commanding officers in a row to repetitive trauma as they crack having to send men to their deaths and write so many letters to families about it. Beyond that, there's one about a pacifist medic who saves a soldier by accidentally (and unknowingly) killing a German gunner, and one where a soldier from a future World War III helps his ancestor in World War II.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #18: Pasko and Bissette/Totleben provide a framing sequence where Swamp Thing, Matt, and Abby are overwhelmed by the monsters from Matt's brain and Arcane tells a captive Kripptman the story of his last encounter with Swamp Thing--which is a reprint of Swamp Thing #10 (1974) by Wein and Wrightson. That story involves the ghosts of mistreated slaves attacking Arcane and his Un-Men.

The Other "Good Lore"

There has been some discussion in various places over the last couple of weeks regarding "lore," which isn't a great term, maybe, but one we all understand to mean background, mostly nonmechanical elements of a setting in all their myriad forms. A lot of time is spent separating good lore from bad. Ben Laurence wrote this great post last week. I wrestled with the issue in regard to history, one of the most vexing parts of lore, here.

Anyway, I think what Ben says about "good" lore and its creation and use is smart, but there seems to me a missing category, which was the impetus for this post. One type of actionable lore that Ben neglects to mention is the sort of detail that aids the GM in conveying the world to the players at the table. This isn't "actionable intelligence" for the players particularly, but rather things that help set the scene and convey the subtle textures that might differentiate one world from another. Things that should appear in (or at least inform) the GM's description of the world, not facts to be memorized in anyway.

A good way to do this is sensory-impressionistic descriptions. Jack Shear of Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque presented a brief style of locale description that included as one of it's headings "A Taste, A Sound, an Image." I've borrowed this presentation myself, as has Miranda Elkins of In Places Deep. These sorts of details help set the mood both for the players and for the GM who must great more details and could use the imaginative springboard.

Note that these can be diegetic and nondiegetic, though going nondiegetic runs the risk of the reader not getting the "vibe" because they don't know the work referenced or took something else from it.

It might be fair to say, that's not really "lore," and I guess in the strictest since that's true, but I've got more! Ben mentions "banal facts about cuisine" as irrelevant lore, and I agree, but only in regard to the "banal" part. One of the things I did with my recent Gnydrion game was go out of my way to give a description of the meal being offered when the character's had a chance to eat. This isn't something I usually do, but Gnydrion is a very Vancian setting, so I wanted to lean into that. The players weren't expected to remember these meals; it was just a bit color, but I think it helped convey the feel of the setting. The players seemed to enjoy it in that spirit. All I had to do was make a list of like 10 dishes and I wasn't concerned if what I said in play was exactly what I wrote down.

I think these sorts of details like this can at least suggest actions. Knowing that bronze can be mined from the buried bones of dead Storm Gods could be something players do something with in Glorantha, but at the very least it sets Glorantha apart from say, the Forgotten Realms. 

At the end of the day, "good" lore is going to make your setting more memorable and interesting. This may be because the players can use that knowledge strategically, but it may also because it helps the world come alive for them.

When In Inaust

Gray, misty Inaust on Whulggan Sound is a place few choose to visit except on the most important of errands. If by some strange fortune you should find yourself in that city, here are several ways to pass the time:

• Enjoy a meal of grilled slug skewers with fermented fish sauce. We recommend the establishment Respa's Hearth as a superior venue for the dish. If your finances allow for such luxuries, the salt-cured glount roe makes a sublime antipasto. The glount roe trade can be cutthroat, and sabotage of a competitor or attempting to gain an advantage by substitution of roe of less desirable fish can occur. The glount themselves are edible, though it is considered lower class fare.
• Marvel at the spectacle and clamor of the mating combats of the morhuk on several sandbanks and islets.  The bellicose and lustful creatures pose a risk to navigation at such times, but the local nobility view them as totemic and forbid their harm under serious penalty. The fishers and boat operators are less favorably disposed toward the creatures and sometimes hire groups of ruffians to hunt the beasts with clubs under cover of night. 

• Acquire a coat, cape, or hat of fur and be the talk of the town in more Southron climes as you cut a figure of exotic, rustic fashion. Be sure to consult your furrier (we recommend Omer Zwirn & Sons) regarding the current status of sumptuary ordinance. The upper classes reserve some pelts for their own use, and the most prized varieties change frequently.

For those who arrive in Inaust in a state of embarrassment regarding their finances, we offer the following means of acquiring funds which are somewhat unique to the region:

• Compete in a birling contest. There are gambling establishment in the coarser areas of town where the woodsman's diversion of trying to stay standing upon a free-floating log while pushing an opponent from theirs. Entrants are paid a sum for competing and may win larger purses for performance. Would-be competitors are urged make every effort to discern the parameters of the any contest they may participate in, as some entrepreneurial-minded hosts have enhanced their offerings by pitting traditional contestants against wild beasts.
• Find employment as a boatman. No extensive knowledge of sea or maritime lore is necessary to serve as a cranksman or treadman on one of the many paddle wheel boats that ply the Sound. Stamina is the only prerequisite, though you would do well to pay the modest dues for membership in the Propellers Union, lest you face a beating and dunking from those toiling with you.

Wednesday Comics: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Volume 11 of the manga Frieren: Beyond Journey's End came out in English this week. I've mentioned the anime adaptation of this series before but I thought it was worth giving a shout out to the manga by writer Kanehito Yamada and artist Tsukasa Abe, which is ahead of the anime--and may forever be, given that the first "season" has completed and it's unclear if there will be more. The manga could be one's only chance to see the end of the story.

I'll try to be light on the spoilers for later events, but as I mentioned before, Frieren is a nigh immortal elf adventurer on a long, meandering journey to retrace the steps of her original party's journey into the demon-haunted North to find the place where the dead can speak to the living, so she can talk to one of her old party members. Her companions are her apprentice (a child adopted by her old party's cleric) and a warrior who was the protégé of another one of her former comrades.

This goal led to a storyline where Fern (the apprentice) and Frieren attempted to gain status in a wizard organization who controls access to the North. The current storyline involves some of the characters and situations from that one and centers around a town turned to gold by the actions of a demon, Macht, which the wizardly organization has been "containing" for decades.

Now, the containment has dropped and the diagoldze spell threatens to spread. Macht is being aided by another greater demon named Solitär. Several mages (including Fern) have already been defeated by them. Freiren arrives, but she's armed with the counterspell to diagoldze. Still, she has two powerful demons to defeat.

The manga, like the anime, finds its strength in its characters. In the somewhat alien outlooks of the demons and the extremely long-lived elves, it also considers human relationships and their meanings. It's an unsual series, and one I highly recommend.