Superhero Challenges

Something I've noticed about comic book superhero storytelling over the years: often the solution to the obstacles faced don't have their solution in the direct application of the hero's most powerful trait. Superman, for example, may use his strength or other powers in overcoming the central problem in one of his stories, but the powers alone are seldom sufficient. It's not accident Superman foes are often smart/clever guys like Luthor, the Toyman, or Mister Mxyzptlk because they facilitate these kinds of stories. Even in clashes with villains that have vast powers like his own like Phantom Zone criminals, the key to his victory brains not superhuman brawn. Sure there's his tussles with Doomsday and maybe Mongul where this maybe isn't true or is less true, but I think those are the exceptions.

I feel like the same thing is true of other heroes like Spider-Man and the Flash. Again, their solutions to problems will include use of their powers, but its less often the obvious, most direct use of their powers. Spider-Man, known for his agility, maybe have to bring his intelligence or just brute strength to the table.

There are exceptions. Interestingly, I think this is not true of nonpowered/low powered heroes--or at least less true. It seems like Batman and Hawkeye generally achieve victory by just...doing their thing. The Hulk, though hardly low powered, may be another outlier, but I would need to read more Hulk comics to judge.

Does this have application to superhero gaming? It could, but it's obviously much harder to implement there. The game becomes unfun when it's about "guess what the GM is thinking" to accomplish your goal. Still, I think GMs could be mindful of this when playing adventures, making sure to introduce obstacles that might suggest out-of-the-box thinking and reliance on less used traits.

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1982 (week 3)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around May 20, 1982.

Brave & the Bold #189: Kanigher and Aparo continue Batman's team-up with Thorn. Sort of, because no matter how many times Thorn helps him out, the Dark Knight is determined to go it alone. He tracks the Nazis to a secret base in (of course) Brazil, but he walks into a trap. The Nazis have captured Rose Forrest, who is still looking for her father's corpse, which was stolen by them as a means of coercing her to giving them what they want. When she learns that the Nazis have dumped the corpse in the river, Rose runs into the jungle and disappears. Thorn appears out of nowhere to help Batman break free and together, they take down the Nazis and sink the cannister of Inferno to the bottom of the river. Batman is curious about Thorn's real identity so he uses hypnosis to try to get her to spill it, but even she doesn't know.

Legion of Super-Heroes #290: Levitz and Giffen/Mahlstedt kick off the Great Darkness Saga in earnest. The Legionaires fail to keep creatures serving the Darkness from stealing 3 mystical artifacts across the world. During this, drama ensues as Chameleon Boy faces fallout from his recklessness on Khundia, Lightning Lad suffers from a neurologic condition, Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf try to deny the unresolved tension between them, and the Legion prepares for elections, with multiple candidates throwing their hats into the ring.

Meanwhile, on a barren world, the Master of Darkness feeds off the magical artifacts, then decides it's time he move to draining the living.

Green Lantern #155: Barr and Staton/Smith have the Guardians condemn Dalor to a Ritual of Endurance, which will either clear him or kill. This strikes Hal Jordan as a primitive way for them to operate, but hey, the Guardians are the boss. Jordan is tasked with going to Dalor's home planet to break the news of his death to his wife and kid, as it is assumed he won't make it.

Upon arrival, Jordan discovers that its a pervasive cultural trait to show gratitude for others' good deeds in any situation with gold. Dalor was just following his customs. Jordan realizes he messed up and flies back to Oa, entering the test to save Dalor. He does, but appears to drain his ring, and Dalor returns the favor and rescue him.  After Dalor heads home, Hal reveals that he just faked running out of power to see if Dalor would rescue him. The Guardians commend Jordan for learning a lesson.

House of Mystery #307: Jones and Sutton have Mary show up in Maine, 1964, with Andrew still chasing her. He rescues a young girl, Deedee, from drowning, and then her really trusting parents pretty much trust him completely and let him stay at their house. That night Mary appears and threatens to kill the kid if he doesn't give up his time-traveling ring. She reveals that the child is a young Deborah Dancer. When Andrew gives up the ring, Mary tries to kill him anyway. Adult Deborah in the future looks back through time and is able to take control of her past self long enough to save Bennett from death, but he can't travel time anymore.

Next up, Kelley and Matucenio tell the story of a "mad bomber" who decides to go after the girl who rejected him in high school, only to be killed by his own device and a miscalculation.  The last story by Jones and Spiegle is an EC sort of riff and probably the best of the issue. A mobster trying to escape a hit has an associate fake his death while he hides out in a bomb shelter. When time passes and he hasn't heard anyone, he tries to leave, but finds he's been buried alive! Sure that he has been betrayed, he digs his way out to find that the city has been destroyed by nuclear war and he'll now join it in death since he left his shelter.

Night Force #1: Wolfman and Colan/Smith continue the story they started in the preview. At the Potomac Psychiatric Hospital, patient Vanessa van Helsing sees visions of demonic forces, calling to her to join them. Baron Winters grants an interview to Jack Gold and tells him about Vanessa.  At Georgetown College, Professor Caine continues his experiments in parapsychology. He discovers that his experiments are taking place at the same moment that Vanessa is experiencing her paranormal visitations. Baron Winters arranges to have Vanessa released into Caine's care, which seems really unorthodox psychiatric treatment to me, but hey, it was the 80s.

Meanwhile, strange supernatural occurrences begin taking place all over Georgetown.

Sgt. Rock #366: Kanigher and Redondo repetitively tell us what a badass soldier Rock is as he tries to make his way back to Easy after leaving the hospital and has a hard time, allowing him to prove himself an ace artillerist, skilled frogman, and decent glider pilot.

DeMulder gives us a sci-fi tale of how communication barriers and misunderstand leads to war between humans and aliens. Then there are two Battle Album features: one a topical rundown of the Ninja, and the other about a futuristic tank. Finally, Bisson and Hardin provide an unexpected gremlin story where the creatures actually save a bomber from bad weather in WWII.

Superman Family #221: I thought it was over last issue, but nope, Kupperberg and Mortimer think than can get at least another installment from this Master Jailer thing. Supergirl tracks down the villain, but he converts her into light-energy with another weapon he devised and sends her into space. Supergirl manages to alter her course, sending herself into a space-warp that returns her to normal. She returns to Earth and captures the Jailer. At last. Kupperberg/Delbo do better with Jimmy Olsen. I mean, the story has still been a bit padded, but the end is kind of clever if convoluted. Jimmy has revealed Clark as Superman realizing he was being manipulated, but not realizing Clark actually is Superman! He hoped to give Supes room to catch Brainstorm, which he does ultimately by cluing Clark in. He tricks Brainstorm when he thinks (correctly) that he has siphoned some of Superman's power into Jimmy, and the villain is defeated.

O'Flynn and Oskner continue to do good stuff with Lois Lane. I should clarify that to say, I don't know it will much appeal to the average reader of superhero comics now or then, but I think they are accomplishing what they set out to accomplish. This story ties back in to a 70s LL socially relevant yarn about tainted water in an inner city school, but now Lois and a photographer stumble onto a plot to cause fear flashbacks in those who ingested the tainted water by reactivating the chemical as a trial run for spreading it in the entire city's water supply.

In Mr. and Mrs, Superman, Bridwell and Novick bring back the Archer, another Golden Age baddie. On one hand, it's nice to see these historic Superman foes revived. On the other hand, most of them seem ill-conceived as Superman foes.

Warlord #60: I detailed the main story in this issue here. In the Kupperberg and Duursema Arion backup, Arion goes astral (I guess) himself to do battle with Daanuth, and proves himself more than a match for the evil sorcerer.

Revisiting Weird Krypton

This post originally appeared in June of 2015...

 

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,

But stranger still is

Lost Krypton.

Superman's home planet is pretty weird. Weird enough that it makes a good substitute for Carcosa in McKinney's supplement. You can keep the polychromatic humanity (that might explain the Krytonian flag). Then, check out the maps of Krypton for places to visit:

The highlights there ought to be pretty obvious, but let me fill in a couple of salient points of adventure and/or danger:

Jewel Mountains: Formed by the accumulated carcasses of prehistoric, giant crystal birds.
Gold Volcano: It should be mentioned that gold is so common on Krypton as to not be particularly valuable.
Fire Falls: A fall of a fiery fluid from the planets core, inhabited by mutant fish-snakes whose bite is poisonous.
Scarlet Jungle: An expanse of forest in red and purple, including huge maroon mushroom-like growth. It home to at least some disease-causing spores. Then,  of course, there's the herd migratory, vaguely humanoid-shaped plants.

Wheelers in Sang

After a bit of a hiatus, our Land of Azurth 5e game returned last Sunday with the party headed to Sang to find the Clockwork Princess in the mysterious Junk City. It seems that ability of the leaders of Yai to spy on people through Azurth fails in the vicinity of the Junk City. It's a blind spot. Still, they saw the Princess before she entered the blind spot.

Using the flying ship re-acquired last adventure and why super-fan Irwin-37 as the pilot, they plan on flying to Fort Daldon, a waystation not too far from the Junk City. The group wants to do reconnaissance on the city, but they have to abort when their ship mysteriously starts to lose power.

Instead, they land in the desert near the fort. Their landing apparently annoys some burrowing dragonish creature, and they have a fight on their hands. After killing the beast, they head to the fort. Black smoke rising from it is an ominous sign. Even more concerning are the weird, wheeled people they fight when they call out at the fort's portcullis.

Forced the climb over the gate, they find evidence of the slaughter (and possibly cannibalism) of a caravan and the burning of some of the buildings. Sneaking around, they find some people tied on in the base of a tower, then the marauders attack. They call themselves the Wheelers.

Caught off-guard by the speed and the ferocity of the assault, it takes the part a little while to rally, but when they do they triumph over the Wheelers. They still don't know what's going on, though.

TO BE CONTINUED

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1982 (week 2)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around May 13, 1982.

Batman #350: My brother had this issue, but I don't think we bought it off the stands when it came up. After the bite last issue, Robin is starting to not show up so well in mirrors. He heads home to the Batcave and invites Bruce and Alfred to a party at Dala's house. Bruce and Vicki go to the party at Dala's place, and Bruce notices that Dick is acting even more strange after last night. He follows Dick and Dala, trying to figure out what's going on. He loses track of them, but finds blood on the floor. Looking out the window of the room, Bruce spots Dala taking Dick downwards to the back of the house. Bruce keeps following, this time as Batman. He finds Dick's clothes on the ground and hears laughter, then the Monk lunges at him and bites his neck. Batman fights back, but it's already too late. 

In the Catwoman backup by Jones and DeZuniga, Selina wakes up next to a dead woman after her kidnapping in the previous installment. Selina impersonates the woman to find out why she was killed, leading her to have have to go on stage as a stripper in a club. When she sees one of the murders, she gives chase, following him onto the rooftops. When she doesn't quite make a jump, she's left vulnerable to the crooks attack.

Flash #312: Bates and Infantino have Flash investigating a series of crime that have the hallmarks of his enemy, Heat Wave. What's odd about that is that Heat Wave has apparently reformed and gotten a straight job. The Flash doesn't believe his old foe has really changed at first, but Heat Wave ultimately helps him stop the imposter.

In the Dr. Fate backup by Gerber/Pasko and Giffen, Fate manages to escape the Nihil-verse thanks to his link with Inza but in the process discovers her indiscretion with Copeland. Back in the Tower, Inza is angry that Kent won't share things with her. Kent claims not to remember a lot--but does remember seeing her with another man. The argument ends with Kent sleeping on the couch and waking up in the morning to find Inza gone. Worse yet, outside the Tower he finds the red gem from before the size of the sun and covering much of the sky. Vandaemon is back, and this is all thanks to the farmer from the first part, who is actually Ynar, a renegade Lord of Order.

G.I. Combat #243: In the first Haunted Tank tale, Kanigher and Glanzman kill off Slim, who at least in the last few years of his 21 years in this magazine, had always been the naysayer and complainer. Most of the issue is introducing his replacement Bill Craig, a 30-year veteran and cavalryman from WWI. He, of course, saves the crew here. Except for Slim. The second Haunted Tank tale finds Rick still dealing with Slim's death and blaming Bill. After Bill saves them again--riding a horse, no less--Rick accepts the new crewman.

Kashdan and Amongo give us a story told from the point of view of a bayonet used by a G.I. in the Pacific against the Japanese. There's an uncredited story about a heroic meterologist dying (but still succeeding) in an attempt to seed clouds the thwart the Germans with rain shortly after D-Day. Finally, the Mercenaries are back and in Sierra Verde fighting a Colonel Furioza and his bandits on behalf of some poor villagers. Again, they achieve the mission, but don't get paid. 

Jonah Hex #63: Fleisher really likes to pour the hardship on Hex! The offer of passage back to the States turns out to be ploy to shanghai Jonah. After a beating and some threats to Mei Ling, he goes to work. Then there's a cholera outbreak on the ship, and he gets sick and in delirium, hallucinates traumatic memories of his alcoholic and abusive father, He survives cholera (though the rest of the crew don't) and saves Me Ling from the cruel captain, but rashly throws him overboard, leaving only nonexperienced sailors on the ship. They drift for weeks until a storm wrecks the ship. Jonah and Mei Ling escape in a lifeboat but only after sharks kill the ship's doctor and Jonah get's bitten. His wound becomes infected, but they are rescued by a ship bound for San Francisco. Jonah recovers, but Mei Ling decides to leave him again when they reach port.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1: DC had an ad in last weeks comics saying annuals were returning, and here's the first one. Levtiz and Giffen/Patterson have Brainiac 5 trying to cure young Danielle Foccart of her intractable neurologic disorder. Unfortunately, it instead results in her being possessed by Computo who is out for revenge against the Legion. Most of the team is defeated and captured, but Danielle's brother, Jacques, becomes the new Invisible Kid and saves the day. Between this issue and the Dr. Fate backup in Flash, Giffen's art is really starting to take on his (earliest) distinctive style.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #4: Pasko's story in this issue is a wrongheaded to me in a couple of ways. First off, it's clearly inspired by the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-81 (and if the story alone didn't make you think of that, its last caption references them) so it's perhaps a little too soon to make flippant popular fiction about and a horrific event on the first anniversary of its ending. Second, the suggestion that somehow kids of the era were easy targets for murder due to being made too trusting by television promoting kindness and friendliness (presumably Mr. Rogers is his target here) somehow makes it even worse as it indicts positivity and sort of victim blames. Beyond that, the story about a demonically possessed children's tv host is pretty much par for the course for early 80s horror fare.

The Phantom Stranger backup by Barr and DeZuniga has the Stranger intervening to save a woman who has been turned into a mental zombie by a mystic incantation that saved her life, and finding himself in the clutches of his nemesis, Tannarak.

New Teen Titans #22: Wolfman and Perez have most of the Titans in a dire situation. Captives of Brother Blood, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Raven are thrown in a pit inhabited by a monstrous spider-like creature, as is Robin, but only after he's tortured by Brother Blood's Confessor for information. The remaining Titans attack the Church to rescue their teammates, but Brother Blood outplays them with the aid of Bethany Snow, a newscaster who is secretly a member of his cult, by making it appear that their attack is unprovoked and smearing them in the public's eyes. Cyborg causes tBlood's escaping airship to crash, but that was yet more manipulation and Blood is still very much alive, but the Titans are accused of trying to murder him.

Superman #373: Bates and Swan/Adkins continue the Vartox story. Vartox and Lana Lang continue their wedding plans, but Vartox's old flame, Syreena, mind controls Vartox into thinking Superman is trying to steal Lana away from him. Vartox heads off looking to kill his Kryptonian friend. We get Syreena's origin in this issue. It turns out she was a criminal who tried to seduce Vartox to manipulate him, but wound up falling for him. When he discovered the truth, he let her face justice, and he assumed she died later when their planet was destroyed.

The Rozakis/Schaffenberger "In-Between Years" story is even more pointless that usual. An ancient Inca crown is stolen from Prof. Lewis Lang, and Pete Ross (visiting Clark at college) and Superboy get it back for him. That synopsis makes the story sound like it could be more interesting than it is, but really it hinges on Pete knowing Clark is Superboy, but Superboy not knowing Pete knows for it's "drama."

Journal of Eternian Studies: The Search for Skeletor

Skeletor is the principle antagonist of the so-called Masters of the Universe myth and literary cycle. His inhuman physical appearance, magical power, and dedication to conquering Eternia through usurpation of the power of Castle Grayskull are consistent throughout the various stories, but other aspects of his character, including his origins and the seriousness of his menace, vary wildly.

It has long been the prevailing view among scholars that his depiction as blue skinned links him to the Gar people¹. The Gar civilization existed on the so-called Dark Hemisphere of Eternia, but came into conflict with groups on the Light Hemisphere in the islands of the Ocean of Gnarl and on the land bridge between the continents. By the time of the Randorian Renaissance, the Gar were a ethnic minority who suffered a good deal of prejudice owing to the belief that a Councilor of their ethnicity had betrayed and murdered the founding hero King Grayskull in the service of King Hiss of the Serpent Men².

Later stories explicitly make Skeletor King Randor's brother Keldor who was transformed by forbidden magic, in some versions specifically Hordak worship. While the identification is not without controversy, Keldor was depicted as Gar, or at least half-Gar. There are scholars that argue that Keldor himself is a fiction created for later anti-Gar polemics, but the more common view is the he was indeed Randor's half-brother, a perhaps the illegitimate offspring of Miro and a Gar woman. Keldor was, for a time, a serious rival to Randor's power owing in part to a strong powerbase among traditionalist Gar clans.

Skeletor, however, existed in myth and legend prior to his association with Keldor. He was depicted as an otherworldly or demonic entity who had arrived on Eternia through accident or intention, but now wished to re-open that portal to bring his people through to aid in his conquest.

What is likely the oldest known legend associating the two is curiously restrained regarding the specifics of their relationship. Keldor is shown as meddling in dangerous magic and disappearing after a mishap. Skeletor is depicted as attempting to thwart any investigation into Keldor's current whereabouts. The gaps n the narrative invite the audience to assume that Skeletor and Keldor one and the same, but do not make the link explicitly. It is argued that this structure is an indicator of the stories origins as Randorist propaganda either during the time when the throne was contested or shortly after Randor secured it. Further, the effectiveness of such propaganda would hinge on Skeletor as a character already known to the intended audience.

It could be that Skeletor's pre-existing Gar traits made this linkage with Keldor possible, but it is also possible that Skeletor's Gar coloration is a later addition. Certainly it is no accident that Skeletor's shade of blue has a long association with the supernatural in the Eternian mind. It has been suggested that both the Gar people and Skeletor are depicted as blue simply because of the rarity of the blue pigments in the Light Hemisphere used in art in the Gar ruins on Anwat Gar to depict rulers such as Shokoti and the persist association of the Gar with magic due to their status as diviners and purveyors of charms and curses.

Recently, archeological evidence of a skull faced god or demon that appears to have been the focus of ritual activity in the region around Castle Grayskull in the putative era of the first "He-man." Any correlation of this entity with Skeletor or the Gar is highly speculative.

______________________________________________

1. The Gar were typically depicted as blue-skinned. Whether they literally were, either naturally or as some form of body-adornment, or this depiction has symbolic significance is unknown.

2. If there is any truth to this allegation at all, it likely conveys persistent Serpos worship among the Gar during the period where Goddess worship was becoming dominant on the Light Hemisphere.

Toward a System for Four-Color Sword & Sorcery

I've been thinking about cobbling together a system for a Bronze Age of Comics Sword & Sorcery rpg, a rarefied genre, perhaps, but one I'm quite fond of. I figure it will be a Frankenstein's monster of ideas from Year Zero Engine games, Broken Compass, and a few things from 2d20, maybe. Like all of those games, I'm thinking its a d6 dice pool system. The base roll will be akin to the Attribute+Skill of those systems.

The attributes with the appropriate flavor came relatively easily:

• MIGHT: Force and physical power.
• DARING: quick motion and boldness of action.
• INTELLECT: Intelligence and reason.
• INSTINCT: Intuition and perception.
• CUNNING: Deception and manipulation.
• PRESENCE: Charisma and force of personality.

The skills though have been much harder. I was never able to get the list as comprehensive and right-sized as I wanted. Ultimately, I decided to go the direction of some of the 2d20 games and the Atomic Robo rpg (which uses a form of Fate) and go with something a bit broader than standard skills. I settled on calling them "Domains."

• SWORDS: The use of weapons and the general application and defense against violence. It also covers a practical knowledge of armor, weaponry, martial styles, tactics, and strategy. 
• DEEDS: Acting boldly and physically to alter or navigate the environment or withstand its rigors. It is used to climb or leap, push on despite exhaustion, or smash physical obstacles, but also to pass detected, hide, or hold one’s drink. 
• WILDS: Wisdom taught by the wilderness and living close to nature. It covers discerning the best way to move through difficult terrain, finding or building shelter, and tracking and reading sign, but also interacting with wild and domestic animals and knowledge of plants. 
• CITY: Knowledge born of the habitations of humans and their societies. It covers a character’s learning and ability to find and acquire new information, but also their sophistication in regard to social graces and etiquette. 
• WORDS: Relating to and communicating with others. It is used to influence, inspire or sway others through impassioned or reasoned arguments–or lies, or to discern the intent of others doing the same.
• SORCERY: Knowledge of the arcane or occult arts. It covers the reading of mystic tomes, the recalling of esoteric lore, the performance of spells or rituals, and sometimes resisting the effects of magic.

The astute reader will note they form pairs of sorts. I think 36 possible combinations of the Attributes and the Domains covers pretty well most relevant skill areas. Some are obvious like Might+Swords being used for melee attacks, but others are perhaps less so but hopefully make sense, like Intellect+Wilds being used to navigate by the stars or identify medicinal (or poisonous plants). Some combinations might seem equally plausible for some actions, but I see that as a feature not a bug.