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.

80s Action Cartoons Were Very Gameable

I'm not just talking about the usual suspects like Thundarr the Barbarian or The Pirates of Darkwater; or ones that already have games like G.I. Joe, Transformers, or of course, Dungeons & Dragons. Even the deeper cuts are great too. Let's take a look at a sampling and the gaming inspiration they provide.

Sky Commanders (1987)

If you're a fan of hexcrawls or even pointcrawls, could I interest you in high elevation, feature-to-feature exploration? The premise is a new continent has arisen in the Pacific thanks to some weird energy source, and a multi-national group of mountaineering-specialist good-guys fight the baddies via flight, or by using "laser cables," a fancy rappelling line shot from combat backpacks. There are all sorts of environmental hazards to contend with too, and some monsters.

Spiral Zone (1987)

The high concept takeaway here might be G.I. Joe meets the Walking Dead. In the show, an evil scientist and his Road Warrior refugee have released a weird, bioactive mist (the Spiral Zone) that turns the people in it into mindless zombies. A crack team of agents and their tricked-out vehicles and protective suits do battle with the badguys. A twist is that both sides want to limit civilian casualties as the bad guys want to use them, and the good guys want to save them. 

Defenders of the Earth (1986)

While this team-up of several King Features Syndicate characters against Ming the Merciless might seem like a low-powered supers thing (and in some ways it is), the takeaway here, I think, is genre crossover. You've got a sword & planet guy, a pulp hero (or two), and a wizard who get together to take out a villain.

Wednesday Comic: DC, December 1983 (week 1)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of September 8, 1983. 

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #8: Mishkin/Cohn and Colon give us a bit of the history of Gemworld, and we discovered that the humans originated on Earth and fled to another dimension as magic began to fade. Citrina, it turns out, was the one that led the ritual. Meanwhile, the mysterious Emissaries of Varn, working as mercenaries for Dark Opal, attack and destroy the House of Diamond. Amethyst and her allies are unable to stop the Emissaries and their magic absorbing power, but they are given a reprieve by the sudden appearance of one of the priests of Diamond.

Blackhawk #265: The editorial a few issues back was just a preview as Evanier and Speigle final get around to dealing with some of the lingering racism in Chop-Chops portrayal in story. Unfortunately, it also culminates in him appearing to get written out of the story. As the Blackhawks try to track down Merson through his finances, Chop Chop is uncharacteristically irritable, feeling like he's a second-class member of the team. His attitude forces the other Blackhawks to reflect and realize he has been treated differently. After playing a pivotal role in their capturing Merson, Chop Chop makes a formal announcement that he wishes leave to go fight the Japanese invaders in his home country. Blackhawk presents him with his on Blackhawk uniform for the first time and the group salutes him, addressing him under his real name for the first time in print, Wu Cheng. 

In the Detached Service backup by Evanier and Boyette, Chuck's plane gets stolen, and he's stranded in Europe for a couple of days, while he tries to get it back. He finds some of his plane in a black-market warehouse being run by a sleazy black marketeer Dmitri Hocking. He forces the man to help him retrieve the other parts, but things don't go smoothly, and they run into Nazis. Chuck is forced to assemble a patchwork plane of disparate parts for a dogfight before it's all over.

DC Comics Presents #64: Scientist and TV host Victor Epoch's (his show Astro seems a Cosmos stand-in) time experiment brings portions of the After Disaster future to present-day Metropolis, including Kamandi. He teams up with Superman to fight off the time-displaced Great Caesar and his tiger troops. This is Kamandi's last appearance prior to Crisis, courtesy of Evanier and Saviuk/McLaughlin.

Justice League of America #221: Conway is back again with Patton/Marcos and a particularly violent and bloody story for the JLA. The JLA members individually encounter and seem targeted various sorts of anthropomorphic animal people, and those guys don't pull punches. A rhnio man impales Flash on his horn, a flock of birds push Elongated Man into a press, and scorpion men fighting Hawkman impale a bystander bloodily. Firestorm meets the only animal woman, a cat woman named Reena, who seems opposed to the others. He convinces her to come back to the satellite and tell her story. We don't hear what that is this issue, but we meet the mastermind behind this all: a lion man named Maximus Rex who's ordering around a scientist named Dr. Lovecraft.

Wonder Woman #310: Mishkin and Beachum/Marcos have Wonder Woman considering revealing her secret identity to Steve Trevor and talking it over with Black Canary during a game. Canary is against it, but Wonder Woman tells a story of the Amazon Artemis and how Ares was able to manipulate her through her love of a Greek soldier Cleon into opening up Themiscrya to attack.  

The Cavalieri and Burgard/Rodriguez Huntress backup continues the story of the baby-selling ring run by Earthworm, but not a lot happens this installment other than we see how Earthworm prays upon the desperate and addicted to get the infants he sells.

An Adventure Path like a Dungeon

B1-9 flowchart

Recently I was reading the rpg Flash Gordon and the Warriors of Mongo (1977). The usual take on this game is that it is less an rpg and more a boardgame. That's likely the way it will strike most people on first blush, but I think Christian Lindke makes a reasonable case that it is a roleplaying game of its era (and underwritten even for that) with a definite campaign path, almost like some story games of today.

I don't see any reason why a game couldn't have a definite campaign arc. I think that would work with a lot of licensed properties, and I think the "adventure path" style of modern published adventures is a way to do just that. Unfortunately, these sorts of adventures suffer conceptually, I think, from a couple of flaws. One is the desire to have the campaign arc come as a surprise to players or at least to appear to arise naturalistically from the earlier campaign events. This requires the GM to be deceptive. Two, if the players weren't getting railroaded to get them into the adventure, they certainly are once it starts because the path through the adventure tends to be fairly linear.

I think it can be done better. This is an idea akin to my previous one about running an adventure point-crawl--in fact, it's really just a slightly different approach to the same basic idea. 

Both involve a goal to achieve, a geography to cover in doing so, and certain events or scenes that might occur. These locations and their events/scenes form the "rooms" in a conceptual "dungeon," or more accurately the points in a conceptual pointcrawl. An adventure of this sort would have a conceptual/narrative map and a physical geography map, not unlike the actual Mongo mmap compared to the "Schematic Map" of Flash Gordon and the Warriors of Mongo:

How would this differ from a standard, old adventure path? Well, in at least a couple of ways. As much is possible, nothing is supposed to happen. Certain events would make completing the task of the campaign easier, but only rarely would there be no other way to get it done.

Like in a pointcrawl, players are permit to just follow the physical geography. Nothing forces them to stay on the path, but the locations on the path have special features analogous (or perhaps literally, sometimes times) to secret doors, teleportation disks or what have you that allow quicker, easier travel between "points." "Solving" a "point" might unlock other advantages like allies or items that make completing the goal of the campaign easier. Just like finding certain items or meeting certain NPCs in a dungeon.

This break from linearity would mean the points would have to have less of a causal relationship than the events of adventure paths typically do. It would work best, I think, for certain sorts of campaign arcs. A rebellion (like Star Wars or Flash Gordon) would be one, but something like Pirates of Dark Water with episodic exploration in search of plot coupons would work well, too. Anything more like a broadcast era episodic TV series with a throughline and less like a feature film.

Terminal State is Now!

The Terminal State by Chris Vermeren Kickstarter is going now. Terminal State is a cyberpunk rpg that Vermeren promises isn't stuck in the 80s, but updated to be "the future of now." It's a Year Zero Engine game (like Forbidden Lands and so many others) with some innovations.

I've been following the posts regarding the game on the VX2 discord and it looks really nice. 

There's a quickstart over on drivethru so you can check out the vibe then head over to KS to give it your support!

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 1983 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on the newsstand on August 25, 1983.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #20: Bridwell, Cavallieri and Hoberg/Lay finish out the series with guest appearances by Changeling and Gorilla Grodd and teases for an upcoming limited series that won't appear for another couple of years. The Cavallieri approach to scripting is a bit less punny than the writers that came before, but he does ring some mildly humorous bits from Changeling's bemusement at the differences with the Zoo Crew's world, and that world's with him. Grodd is defeated mostly by the Teen Titan, though. The Zoo Crew isn't exactly sidelined, but they also don't seem to have the lead. Based on one scene, Grodd appears to be working with a mysterious Roquat, who Oz fans will know is the Nome King, but I wonder if Grodd's involvement is still a part of the Oz-Wonderland Wars mini when it appears? Anyway, so long Earth-C.

Detective Comics #532: I liked this issue better than the last one due to an added dose of comic book silliness. Moench and Colon/Alcala have the Joker reveal to the captive Batman and Vicki Vale that his master plan is to get total control of Guatemala and turn the whole country into a Joker-themed amusement park with "killer" rides and attractions. In fact, he's got a site model to show them--and a Joker-faced train deathtrap for them both. Batman frees them both of course. Vicki snatches up a gun, and they fight their way out, collapsing the building on a still-laughing Joker.

Meanwhile, a remorseful Bullock convinces Barbara Gordon he's changed his ways at Jim Gordon's hospital bedside, and Alfred is reunited with his daughter Julia, who finally knows that he is her father.

In the backup by Cavalieri and Moore/Gonzales/Trapani, Green Arrow and the thief he was captured with manage to escape the Survivalists and through a number of outrageous trick shots and gimmick arrows, Green Arrow foils their plot and takes them captive.

Action Comics #549: Bates, Saviuk and Colletta/Marcos continue their "untold tale" of Superman and the Phantom Zone escapees, or as they call themselves here: The Zod Squad. It turns out those criminals are trying to do the right thing for once, and after a confrontation with Superman they manage to convince him. The real enemy is the Vrangs, who we now learn are conquerors with a history of subjugating Krypton (as first revealed in Superman #176). As Kryptonians, the Zod Squad is willing to make common cause with Superman to defeat them. However, when Superman is captured and two of the Phantom Zoners are killed, Zod is quite willing to use the Jewel Kryptonite in a way which will kill the Vrangs (who have a weakness to crystal, apparently) and Superman, thus ridding himself of two enemies. Superman manages to break free from the Vrangs on his own and use the power of the jewel to escape into the Phantom Zone just like the Zod Squad as the Vrang ship blows up. Supes quickly uses the jewel again to return to regular space and ensures the Zod Squad is trapped once again in their prison.

All-Star Squadron #26: Thomas and Howell/Houston again have a lot of characters to juggle, which makes the book constantly feel like a lot of its pages are spent on getting them from one place to another, not on superhero action. While the Atom is briefly hospitalized for his radiation exposure, the Justice Society use Wonder Woman's Magic Sphere to try to find Dr. Fate. They locate him at the end of his search for the Spectre in a Ditko Dr. Strange-esque weird dimension. The Spectre appears to have become the thrall of the evil being known as Kulak, High Priest of Brztal. He fights with Fate and in the end hurls him through an infinity of dimensions, off to the end of time. Then Kulak turns his attention to Earth. Gigantic blue hands, visible everywhere in the world, reach out from the rent fabric of the sky.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #13: Kupperberg returns to script the comic he co-created. Now that Wyynde's father has died, he is expected to become the next dhonu (leader) of the tribe according to the customs of his people. Although, he'd like to keep serving Arion and D'Tilluh, he does his duty. However, his cousin Graywolff challenges Wyynde for leadership during the ceremony, and the shaman Wintermoon uses his magic to help the treacherous Graywolff secure an advantage. Luckily, Arion has Wyynde's back and even without his full magical fight, he's able to help his friend win the day and take his rightful place with his people.

Fury of Firestorm Annual #1: Rafael Kayanan makes his American comics debut and begins a long association with Firestorm. While there are perhaps some amateurish panels here, I think some of his designs (Firehawk, particularly) are an improvement over what we've seen before. The story here continues from this month's issue. Firestorm has to figure out a way to escape Tokamak's plasma rings, which are compressing him right out of the universe. He does by causing a nuclear explosion, but don't worry, he absorbs the radiation. Meanwhile, Tokamak has again kidnapped Lorraine and returns to his base where it's apparent he's not acting rationally. Stein's ex again spies on his activites for Tokamak, who sends the new Enforcer to nab the physicist, but Firestom beats her just like her predecessor. Our hero arrives at Tokamak's base just as Multiplex is deciding it's time to bug out. 

A battle ensues between Firestorm and Tokamak, which it looks like the villain might win, until Firehawk shows up to help. Lorraine's powers got re-triggered by a potential plunge to her death. Firehawk proves she's free of Tokamak's control forever, and the two heroes defeat Tokamak, evening dealing with his explosion, then share a kiss.

Returning to the Day home, Ronnie finds out his father was in the witness relocation program after testifying against the mobster, Shine. Shine tried to have him killed but failed. He's still alive, and he and Ronnie can be reunited now that Shine is dead. Not really sure what the point of this subplot was given that it was resolved so quickly. 

Jonah Hex #78: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga take a bit of a side trip from the ungoing story of Hex being framed for the governor's murder. He does rescue Emmylou from the Turnbull's goons, but as he goes to find the letter than will exonerate him (at least for the original sentence; not for killing the governor) he runs into a massacred group of Indians. He gives aid to the sole survivor, but the kid ropes him into helping bring the men responsible to justice. Hex helps out then becomes the young man's "blood brother." That done, he returns to his mission only to fall into a trap laid by bushwhacking bounty hunters.

New Adventures of Superboy #47: Kupperberg and Saviuk/Schaffenberger conclude Superboy's visit to Japan. We find out Sunburst isn't really a villain but is being forced to commit crimes by criminals who are holding his parent's hostage. In a typical Superman comics twist, Sunburst told Superboy this last issue, so the two are actually working together to set a trap for the crooks. Superboy rushes to rescue Sunburst's parents, who reveal Sunburst must have come by his powers by inhaling vapors from a volcano that happened to be erupting the day he was born. If he appeared again, I'm betting his origin got retconned to "mutant." Anyway, Superboy helpfully super-hypnotized Sunburst so that the hero forgets he has the powers that have been so burdensome. 

In the Dial H backup by Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Hunt, Trouble Clef and Venus the FlyingTrap must defeat a cadre of new villains serving the master: Metalliferro, Darkstar, Spyderr, Titaness, Solar Dynamo, Trojan, Blue Damsel Fly, Serpentina, and Cableman. In the end of the issue a shocker: the suggestion the duo's friend Nick might be working for the Master.

Sword of the Atom #3: It turns out Taren's old righthand man, Voss, isn't a spy but only sort of jealous of the Atom usurping his position. In tried-and-true action media tradition, once the two fight a bit, they come to grudgingly respect each other and work together for the rebellion. Meanwhile in Moriadh, Deraegis continues his plan to steal the throne from Caellich by repairing the stardrive that powered the ship their people came to Earth in to power the city. Caellich forbids this because he fears the engine is unstable, but Deragis instructs his men to continue the work.

Back at the rebel camp, a troop of army ants causes an emergency, forcing the rebels to run for safety. Taren, who has been feeling he is a drag on the group, takes the opportunity to commit suicide by ant. This pushes Atom to decide the time has come to lead the rebels forward--and also frees him and Laethwen up to act on their feelings for each other.

World's Finest Comics #297: Big shift in art style this issue as Colan/Smith replace Andru/DeCarlo. We're treated to a long fight between Superman and the Pantheon member Omicron while Batman gets the secret origin of the villains and just what they're about from Rho. It's a kind of interesting set up, having a definite 70s Marvel feel, like something Gerber would have done. A CIA agent comes across a mysterious Living Diamond in his work, killing the person that had it to take it. Everyone he shows it to, from the priest he to whom he confesses, to a jeweler, to a husband and wife scientific research team fall under the diamond's sway. They find a way to harness the diamond's mutagenic affects and hasten their own evolution. They realized the diamond was a seed of the Cosmic Tree, so they set out to find the tree, believing it will complete their evolution so they can remake the world in their own image. Like I say interesting, to the it takes up a lot of pages.

Batman and Superman finally get together. Batman goes to warn the League to bring in reinforcements, while Superman pursues the Pantheon, hoping to stop them from bringing forth, Zeta, who would be their strongest member from the roots of the Cosmic Tree. The issue ends with him appearing to be too late.

Ronin #3: This issue didn't actually hit the stands until next month, but it was dated November. In Aquarius, a group meets to discuss the Ronin. Their security chief Casey would very much like to kill for murdering 3 of her men. The AI Virgo, however, reminds the executives of the value of the Ronin's telekinesis enhanced cybernetics. It appears, however, Virgo may have another motive. Anyway, the head of Aquarius agrees. He's thinking of moving into selling weaponry, something he had been against previously. Meanwhile, the Ronin acquires himself a horse, some clothes, and a bow. With an old hippie as his self-appointment manager, he seems to be starting to play Yojimbo in the middle of a race gang war between the Nazis and the Panthers. Then, Aquarius security shows up.

Miller plays with a lot of things that will again show up in The Dark Knight Returns and other works of his over the decade. Interesting to see how long he's been going to some of these same wells.

Weird Revisited: Setting History Should do Something

This post original appeared on 2020 and was one of my most popular posts that year. Recent discussion of what constitutes good "lore" over on X made me think it was time to revisit it.

If setting books for rpgs sometimes get a bad rap, history sections of setting books are probably even more widely reviled. There are reasons for this, but I don't think the solution is that history should be banned from rpg books entirely. I do think it's worth thinking about why we have history (particularly deep history) in rpg setting books, when it's useful and maybe when it isn't.

My thesis is that history in rpg books is most useful/good when it does something. Possible somethings are:

1. Helps to orient the reader (mostly the GM) to the themes/mood/flavor of the setting.
2. Directly establishes parameters that impact the player's adventures.
3. Provides "toys" or obstacles.

It is unhelpful when it does the following:

1. Describes events that have little to no impact on the present.
2. Describes events which are repetitive in nature or easy to confuse.
3. Provides few "toys," or ones that are not unique/distinctive.

Now, I am not talking specifically here about number of words or page counts, which I think a lot of people might feel is the main offender. Those are sort of dependent on the style/marketing position of the publication. Bona fide rpg company books tend to be written more densely and presumably read more straight for pleasure. DIY works are linear and more practical. My biases are toward the latter, but I am more concerned with content here. I do think in general that economy of words makes good things better, and verbosity exacerbates the bad things.

Let's get into an example from Jack Shear's Krevborna:

Gods were once reverenced throughout Krevborna, but in ages past they withdrew their influence from the world. Some say that the gods abandoned mankind to its dark fate due to unforgivable sins. Others believe that the gods retreated after they were betrayed by the rebellious angels who became demons and devils. Some even claim that the gods were killed and consumed by cosmic forces of darkness known as the Elder Evils.

Looking at my list of "good things" it hits most of them. It helps orient to mood and theme (lack of gods, dark fate, unforgivable sins), it sets parameters for the adventurers (cosmic forces of darkness, no gods), and provides obstacles (demons and devils, rebellious angels, elder evils).

That's pretty brief, though. What about a wordier example? Indulge me in an example from my own stuff:

So, the good stuff: orienting to theme, mood. etc. (deep history, memeplexes, super-science, transcendence as old hat, names suggesting a multicultural melange), setting parameters (a fallen age compared to the past, psychic powers, vast distances), and toys and obstacles (psybernetics and a host of other advance tech, Zurr masks, Faceless Ones!)

But wait, have I done one of the "bad things?" I've got two fallen previous civilizations? Isn't that repetitive and potentially confusing? I would say no.  The Archaic Oikueme is the distant past (it's in the name!). It's the "a wizard did it" answer for any weird stuff the GM wishes to throw in, and the source of McGuffins aplenty. The Radiant Polity is the recent past. Its collapse is still reverberating. It is the shining example (again, in the name) that would-be civilizers (and tyrants) namecheck.

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 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 August 18, 1983.

Thriller #1: In an unspecified near future New York, Dan Grove is considering suicide, dealing with the trauma of filming his brother's brutal assassination by the terrorist Scabbard in the Middle East. Instead. he's reluctantly recruited into a group of adventurers named the Seven Seconds by a ghostly presence of Angeline Thriller, who wants "Seven Seconds to save the world."

The creation of Fleming and von Eeden, Thriller is (like Ronin) emblematic of the new things DC is trying in this era. I remember reading the Meanwhile column on it as a kid, and it seemed so different from anything I was used to in comics. Today, I would say it perhaps prefigures some of the things the British writers would do that became Vertigo, or perhaps more accurately, it resembles something you might see in the direct sell indies of the era. Unfortunately, the storytelling and presentation is as offbeat as the content, and I don't think that part works quite as well. We'll see if that impression changes with later issues.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #13: The indicia title of this issue says the title is still "The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl," though on the cover it's just "Supergirl." Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner introduce a new costume ditching the short of "70s cocktail waitress/stewardess' vibe she was rocking. There's also the beginning of a new story arc, as Kara learns that her neighbor, Mrs. Berkowitz, has had a swastika painted on her door by a fascist group, the Party for Social Reform.  Linda attends a rally at which the group's imposing leader preaches some dog-whistle anti-Semitism.  When a riot breaks out, incited by the staged beating of one of the party members posing Jewish protestor, Supergirl intervenes and orders their leader to end the rally.  Instead, the woman reveals her name as Blackstarr, and she focuses her cosmic powers on the Maid of Might, knocking her to the ground.

Batman and the Outsiders #4: Another lackluster issue by Barr and Aparo. I think they're still figuring out what to do with the team. A former Batman (and Black Lightning) foe now calling himself Meltdown has broken out of prison and is stealing radioactive materials. The Outsiders pursue and do battle but Batman is suspicious something more is going on here. The one thing I did like about this issue was the twist that the warden of the prison is the real villain, and Meltdown was merely driven to desperation because the establishment was withholding life-saving treatment.

Green Lantern #170: I guess Cohn and Tuska/Sekowsky felt like last issue was great because they repeat the same basic framing sequence of the Guardians telling Lantern Kista X, who questions their treatment of Jordan, another story about a former Green Lantern aimed to convince her "the Guardians always know best." In this one, Green Lantern Monak falls to an invasion of his homeworld by the robotic forces of Z'nang after he had warned the Guardians about a despotic takeover on the Z'nang world and they had declined to allow him to intervene. His son, Meeno, because the next Lantern and makes war on the Z'nang in violation of the Guardians' orders, even directing a comet toward the world. When he's shown that the comet will kill many innocent victims of the dictorial regime, he redirects the comet but is killed by Z'nang soldiers. The ring passes to a Z'nang political prisoner who can now fight to liberate his people.  

Jordan wakes up from the mindgame test the subjected him to, and he is dismissed. He asks for another reply beyond "don't call us, we'll call you," particularly given his current exiled status, but none is forthcoming. Despite this, he tells Krista where he given the option to do it all over, he would still choose to be a Lantern.

Sgt. Rock #382: In the main feature by Kanigher and guest artist Spiegle, Easy takes a town and with it some German prisoners who all happen to be teenagers. The leader is as fanatical as the come, and refuses to go easily, killing some of Easy's "green recruits" with a grenade. This story is a bit unusual; I expected Rock to be able to get through to the kid a bit, but no, he's Nazi through and through.

There are a bunch of shorts on everything from the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee to the F-111, but the only other story is a "Men of Easy" feature on Little Sure Shot, that's okay, other than the silliness of depicting Native Americans in the reservation (presumably) in what must be the 20s or 30s in stereotypical Hollywood "Plains Indians" regalia.

Legion of Super-Heroes #305: Levitz and Giffen/Schaffenberger have a group of Legionnaires go into action against the Shrinking Violet imposter that's married Colossal Boy. Her name is Yera, and she reveals she is working for a group on Imsk that turn out to be separatists. Colossal Boy naturally doesn't take this well but joins the others in trying to locate the real Violet. What follows is well-done, with Cham infiltrating the group as Yera, then calling in the others for a devastating assault. In the coda, Colossal Boy reveals to Yera that he has decided whatever her true identity, she is the one he has fallen in love with.

Warlord #75: Cool Jurgens cover. I reviewed the main story here. No Barren Earth backup this month.

The Collected Planes

One of these days, I'm going to completely finish (and maybe publish) this series on the Great Wheel, but until then, here's everything I've done.

The Planes of Pure Law
The Planes of Chaos
Hell
Carceri

Hades

Arborea

Elysium

Beastlands

Gehenna

Twin Paradises

The Layers of Heaven (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

Arcadia

Limbo

Ysgard

The Return of Flash Gordon

"Gordon's alive?!" 

That's right, the Flash Gordon comic strip started by Alex Raymond in 1934 has returned in a new incarnation to the (digital) comics page on the website Comics Kingdom. Cartoonist Dan Schkade relaunched the series on October 22, 2023, and has been doing daily and Sunday installments since.

Schkade's continuity starts right after the defeat of Ming (in Raymond's 1941 strip) and tells the story of what happens as the uneasy alliances of the revolution fall apart and the different kingdoms jockey for power. I think it's a novel approach: something fresher than either a complete reboot we've seen so many times or bland "further adventures" in a world without a strong central conflict. 

His design sensibility is strong too. It is broadly "classic," but draws a lot on the 80s film (and I think the New Adventures of Flash Gordon animated series) that many readers will be more familiar with and lightly updates it.

The weekday installments tend to carry the story forward, but the Sunday strips offer a summary of the previous six days from the perspective of a specific character, which serves to both catch you up and give insight into the characters.

Check out the strip here.

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 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 August 11, 1983. 

Superman #389: Bates/Kupperberg and Swan/Hunt bring back Cory Renwald, Clark Kent's sort of foster brother, who we last saw in issue 369. This is his final appearance. He's got amnesia and has been framed as a traitor and is on the run from enemy agents. I wonder if Cory has shown up post-Crisis? Looks like no. Meanwhile, Lois and Lana have patched things up, but Perry and his wife Alice still seem headed toward divorce. Also, in the last panel we see Vartox is heading to Earth.

This week also saw the release of DC Graphic Novel #1 "Star Raiders." I won't review it in detail, but I thought it deserved mentioning. It's an Atari tie-in by Elliot S. Maggin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

Batman #365:  It's been interesting to see how Moench's approach to Batman differed from his approach to Moon Knight, a character most people would consider very similar, I think. This issue feels fairly different from Moench's typical Moon Knight story. Vicki Vale is in Guatemala investigating illegal weapons dealing by Cuba and the USSR but gets captured by the criminal running the operation. Batman into a trap as he comes to Guatemala to rescue Vicki, but that's falling right into the trap the criminals set for him. After confronting indigenous peoples and trained jaguars, Batman comes face to face with the mastermind of this whole thing who is (surprisingly) the Joker!

Omega Men #8: The whole Vega System seems to be celebrating the Omega Men's victory over the Citadel, but there are signs of trouble ahead. First off, the remnant of the Citadel isn't about to give up and their wily, human advisor, Harry Hokum, plans a new offensive. On Euphorix, there are indications the guy Kalista left in charge, Dulak, plans to keep the throne--and maybe seize her with it.

G.I. Combat #259: In the first Haunted Tank story, Stuart's Raiders finally get back from their sojourn in the past, but only after Jeb's warrior woman bride is killed by the Huns, and the ghost of Atilla again does battle with the ghost of a Confederate general. This has been the weirdest detour in the history of this title. The second HT yarn is so mundane, I can't even remember it, other than it involves a kid in Italian mountain town saving our heroes with a 50-gallon drum full of kerosene.

There's an O.S.S. story by Kanigher and Cruz where a French chef struggles with finding the courage to assassinate a German Colonel, but in the end, he doesn't poison the Colonel's wedding cake. Instead, the bride, a French partisan, activates an explosive cake topper. Kashdan and Trinidad have a malfunctioning artillery piece getting loose and rolling down a hill to destroy a bridge and an advancing contingent of Germans.  Finally, Kashdan, this time with Henson, has a small group of Americans holding a desert oasis against a German force, in the end the oasis is revealed to be a ruse to play for time, but the explosives that kill the German actually do reveal a spring.

New Teen Titans #36: Wolfman and Pollard/Tanghal follow-up with Thunder and Lighting, who had been left with S.T.A.R. Labs back in issue 32 with the hope of a cure for their condition. They've had no luck, so Raven has to use her power to find their missing father, whose blood holds the promise of saving them. It turns out he's in the hands of H.I.V.E. who've been using his power--and he's an alien. The Titans and the brothers attack H.I.V.E. but badguys control the duo's father to fight them, ultimately forcing Thunder and Lightning to kill him. Using the deceased extraterrestrial's blood, S.T.A.R. scientists are able to cure Thunder and Lightning, allowing them to control their powers, and they choose to return to Vietnam. I wonder was this whole alien storyline planned when they introduced the two? Seems like the Vietnam bit is extraneous, if so.

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.