Peacekeeping Mission to Mars

I was thinking about Leigh Brackett's Mars today (as I often do) and reflecting on how it isn't very science fictional at all, so that if you advanced the timeline of its colonial Mars about half a century to a century, you might get something that looks a bit like our modern world except with spaceships where Terran peacekeeping forces get bogged down in insurgencies or civil wars on Mars (or Venus).

With a set up like this, you could do the pulp Mars version of modern films set in conflict zones like Blackhawk Down or even better Three Kings. If you went with Earth in a sort of Cold War, you could even wind out with a Twilight:2000 sort of situation would troops lost on Mars and trying to figure out what to do next.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1984 (week 3)

Inm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on July 19, 1984.

Justice League of America Annual #2: Well, here's the big change editorial has been teasing. In the wake of the Earth-Mars War and the destruction of the satellite, Aquaman officially disbands the JLA (his right as chair and the only founding member present, apparently) saying that the world deserves a more dedicated, full-time group of heroes. Having just had his wife leave him, he's willing to make that commitment, as are Elongated Man and Zatanna. Martian Manhunter also steps up and rejoins. Soon, new heroes Vixen and Steel volunteer. Steel even offers them a new base and training center--in Detroit. Shortly after the move they meet the empowered neighborhood youths, Vibe and Gypsy, and they are recruited for the team. The issue ends with the neighborhood throwing a street party in honor of their new neighbors.

This era of the League isn't well thought of, but I was there at the ground floor in 1984, having bought this issue off the stands. I wouldn't say I liked these characters better than the sort of Superfriends roster, but I did like getting to see a new team forming, and the fact that they would do this meant the title was actually going somewhere. Conway's obvious inspiration here seems to be the "Cap's Kooky Quartet" era of Avengers, but I don't think it works quite as well because some of the characters are a bit too "kooky" (Vibe and Gypsy). Beyond that though, I think was clearly an attempt to grab some of the energy of DC's successful Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes franchises (and X-Men): a close-knit group of often younger characters whose adventures involved a lot of character drama. In fact, the new character's here kind of fill similar niches to the new Titans in NTT: Cyborg (Steel) as the cybernetic hero with parental figure conflict, Starfire (Vixen) as the vivacious warrior woman, Gypsy (Raven) the mystery woman, and Changeling (Vibe) for comedy relief.

Batman and the Outsiders #14: The 1984 Summer Olympics will get under way in Los Angeles on July 28, so Barr and Willingham/Anderson give us a topical story. Maxie Zeus breaks out of Arkham with the goal of trying to make Olympic athlete Lacinia Nitocris his queen. He calls up the Monitor (that guy again!) to outfit his New Olympians. When Maxie and his crew interrupt the Olympic games, Batman and the Outsiders are on hand undercover to challenge them.

In the first part of the issue, we get a peak at the Outsiders in their private lives, which includes a brief bit of romcom where Halo and Geo-Force first interview with each other's dating lives before acting on their feelings for each other.

Blue Devil #5: This is another (and the last to be published) of the stories in Best of DC #61 "Years Best Comics Stories" that I have mentioned several times. And this is a good one! Not an "Anatomy Lesson," perhaps, but Mishkin/Cohn and Cullins/Martin craft story that is both well-done and fun. After the events of last issue, Nebiros is rampaging in Mexico, and Blue Devil and Zatanna have to stop him. The Mexican army takes their shot, but Nebiros is too powerful. They are helpful with the army of lesser demons he calls up. The two magical heroes have to engage him. Blue Devil manages to regain control of his tridents and the two push Nebiros back through a portal to Hell.

For those keeping score, the Monitor and Lyla make a brief cameo this issue, uh--monitoring events in Mexico.

Green Lantern #181: This arc by Wein and Gibbons/DeCarlo might feel more noteworthy if it hadn't come closely on the heels of a long arc where Hal was at points at odds or on the outs with the Guardians. It's one of the inherent problems with serialized media, I suppose, but particularly comics: every new team wants to make sure classic stories are told their way, so you get repeated elements. Here, Jordan flies off to deliver his resignation to the Guardians on Oa so he can be with Carol. A group of his colleagues in the Corps try to get him to reconsider--and Katma Tui is angry because he convinced her to stay in the past, giving up her love to do so, but he won't be dissuaded. So, he goes through with it and returns to Earth a civilian, still wondering if he made the right decision.

While all this is going on, Jason Bloch is killed in his office by someone in shadow who looks suspiciously like the Predator and admonishes him for not listening to Smith from Con-Trol. Bloch manages to stumble out and try to out Jordan as Green Lantern before dying, but unfortunately for him the only person who hears his final words is Diana Prince, and she protects Green Lantern's secret.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Kupperberg and Newton a robbed figure walks into a Star Wars cantina-esque bar. It's the Green Lantern Ch'p, and he teaches a group of space pirates not to take any member of the Corps lightly.

Infinity, Inc. #7: The Thomas' and Ordway/Machlan have us still in midstream of this Koehaha River arc. Power Girl is unable to stop Superman in Metropolis and has to escape or be killed. Fury, Northwind, and Silver Scarab try to stop Hawkman and Wonder Woman from stealing an ancient statue of Horus. Wonder Woman snaps out of the magically induced ruthlessness, but only after accidentally injuring her husband, Steve Trevor, ironically in an effort to win the secret of immortality for him.

Legion of Super-Heroes #3: The Legion of Super-Villains have 3 Legionnaires captive on Orando. They draw the other Legionnaires into a trap, attacking them in space as they are rushing to the rescue. A few more Legionnaires arrive, though, and the villains are defeated. Their ultimate goal is revealed: to somehow escape to a universe without heroes. Under good issue from Levitz/Giffen and Lightle/Mahlstedt.

New Talent Showcase #10: There's little to like in this issue, unfortunately. Jenesis is still the leader of the pack, with a story that has her attempting to use empathy and communication, not superhero brawn to win the day when a distraught man takes hostages at a medical facility. The police sort of spoil it though. There there's Astro-Busters by Stradley and Saltares about a group of miners in the Belt who have to put their interpersonal differences aside to deal with pirates.

Besides Nick O'Tyme, the other two stories are amateurish almost supers rpg-level superhero stories. Part 2 of the Progency story does have art by Jeff Dee, though, but he's not done any favors it looks like by Joyce's inks.

Saga of Swamp Thing #29: Moore and Bissette/Totleben have Abigail make the horrific discovery that her husband Matt who appeared to have gotten himself together, bought a house for them and got a job, has been taken over by her evil uncle Anton Arcane. A horror filled issue, but we are definitely in decompression here. The Pasko years would have probably handled all this in a page. I'm not complaining at all, just noting the shift to a more cinematic storytelling style that eventually all comics will embrace. 

Sgt. Rock #393: In the main story, Bulldozer's kid brother joins Easy. With flowers under his helmet netting, he seems to be coded with an anachronistic hippie vibe. Anyway, he proves his worth despite his unusual ways by getting Easy out of a tough spot with a disguise as an old Italian lady selling vegetables, so he can get close enough to lob grenades at a German installation.

The other two stories seem like leftovers from Weird War Tales and are by writers other than Kanigher. In the first, by Andy Kubert and Ron Wagner, a German grenadier discovers that he can't escape war even in death. The second, written by Alan Baker with somewhat amateurish but evocative art from Jim Balent's DC debut, takes the pessimistic that war crimes and attacks on civilians will still be a feature of warfare in the remote future.

Warlord #86: Cool Jurgens cover, though it oversells the "Forever Man" as a thing. I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and friend capture their Qlov after an extended struggle. A minor mystery is uncovered as the Qlov proves susceptible to a sedative that works on humans.

Thriller #11: DuBay/Niño limp Thriller toward its conclusion in a way that makes an already complicated title more so. It's an odd approach to use everything that your predecessors did on a title but completely alter the relationships between all the characters and their status quo. I suppose "everything you know is wrong" has a strong pedigree in comics, but usually that entails just dropping some stuff. Not here. Still dealing with the fallout of an aborted Golden Age last issue, we learn that Angie Thriller is apparently thrown in with Lusk as is apparently having an affair with him. And is sort of his daughter, in the sense that he (I guess, it's unclear) created her in a lab. Anyway, one issue to go, per the editorial here.

Going Beyond the Wall

 

A couple of weeks ago, my 5e gaming group agreed to give Beyond the Wall a try as a bit of a change of pace. While the setting is only defined in the broadest of strokes to give room to decide some things in play, it's the same setting as in the triads I presented here.

There was a bit of a learning curve. A couple of the players had either only ever played 5e or either hadn't played older D&D in a long time, and both rely on a virtual tabletop for running their characters, so had to discover or rediscover some terminology and how things fit together. That's a wrinkle that's worth considering when introducing players to a new game coming from 5e/Pathfinder: The new game may be less complicated in an absolute sense, but if they can't lean on a VTT, that might not help in getting the game up and running.

Anyway, once we got into the group character creation and associated village (and environs) creation everybody got into the spirit and enjoyed it. One player remarked it was the most fun that she had had in character creation. I gave them their pick of the playbacks in the original book and several supplements. In retrospect, I might have limited them a bit more or modified them slightly if I had thought to do so, but it will work out, I'm sure.

I did not follow BTW's advice and rush to complete chargen and play an adventure in one setting. I know that's meant to be one of the primary points of the game, but it's an advantage not really needed with our group, and we had a player out, so no reason to leave him behind.

Ozoom Revisited

Scott Martin can be blamed for this post for pointing out the similarities between Oz and Edgar Rice Burroughs fandom....

Mars is dying and has been for millennia. The only truly fertile land left is the squarish Land of Oz, surrounded on all side by deadly desert.

Oz has four countries, each home to a different race of men. The east is the home of the Blue Men, short in stature and friendly. It was once under the tyrannical rule of an ancient crone, but she was felled by a little girl from Earth. In the South is the Country of the Red Men, ruled by a benevolent queen. In the west are the Yellow Men, who are renowned for their technological skill. They are ruled by a metal man. The northern country is the land of the Purple Men. They've been ruled by a succession of queens, each with a mastery of the powers of the mind.

In the center of Oz is the Emerald City-State, and it's lofty spires and magnificent domes are made entirely of crystal. Their true color is in a part of the spectrum neither human nor Martian eyes can perceive, but the city's people wear optics which convert the color to green. It was formerly ruled by a man of Earth, a charlatan and huckster, but the rightful queen has been restored, after having spent her youth in exile, disguised as a boy.

Young Dorothy Gale was transported to Mars by a strange storm that tossed her, along with her dog and her home across the astral void. She killed a witch, exposed a charlatan, and helped restore the rightful ruler of Oz. She didn't do it alone. She was aided by a Lion Man, exiled for his supposed cowardice, an artificial man without the ancient brain that formerly guided him, and a Yellow Man whose mind was had been placed in a metal body. The companions took the Golden Road that followed the ancient canals that terminated in the great Emerald City, then undertook a quest to depose the witch that ruled the Yellow Men and who forced them to use their knowledge to build her an army of conquest.

This was only the first on many trips Dorothy Gale made to Mars. That young farm girl became a dying world's greatest hero.

The original version of this post appeared in 2018.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of July 12, 1984. 

Superman #400: I remember seeing this issue on the stands and thumbing through it, impressed by all the artists gathered, but not being much interested in Superman at the time, I didn't buy it. Reading it for the first time 41 years later, I think it's a better anniversary issue and commemoration of the character than Batman #400, which I did pick up. 

Maggin's sprawling story examines the meaning of Superman people of Earth across future times. In 2199 (rendered by Al Williamson) on U.S. lunar colony, an elderly snake oil salesman and his son weave a tale of an encounter with the now-legendary Superman to move their elixir. In 2230, in a segment with art by Miller, researchers announce discovery of 1950s media from an alternate earth that reveals the secret ID of Superman was Clark Kent, but commentors dismiss their findings in favor of the more popular theories regarding Morgan Edge or Bruce Wayne. In the most resonant segment (with art by Marshall Rogers), the U.S. ruled by a tyrannical oligarchy, until a homeless man seeking shelter in the forbidden Metropolis library discovers Superman's costume and puts it on. He is quickly killed by security forces who figure out the suit is impervious, but the man isn't, but his actions inspire the gathered crowd to resist, triggering a rebellion and, eventually, a Second American Revolution.

In a segment with art by Wendy Pini, historians debate the reality and nature of the Superperson whose costume is now a historical relic. Then, Kaluta draws the virtually reality adventures of two young boys who create their own Superman for play. In 5902 (as drawn by Janson), the real, time-lost Superman shares dinner with a family on Miracle Monday, the holiday established to commemorate him--though only one of them knows who he is. To end the issue, Steranko writes and draws an Olaf Stapledon-esque sweep of the even farther futuristic eras, making the last remnant of humanity escaping a dying universe also the descendants of Superman.

Interspersed are pinups by various artists. I don't any of them are real standouts, but it's an eclectic array of artists. I think this would be a good issue for a facsimile edition.

Arak Annual #1: The Thomases, and I believe, all the artists that have worked on the series thus far complete Arak's quest to request his friends from the Lord of Serpents. Satyricus and Arak trek across the desert and are ensnared by illusions: Arak of his Quontaukan village, and Satyricus of the Underworld and his friend Chiron. Only Arak's will and the use of Gabriel's sword is able to save them. They finally reach the lair of the Serpent Lord, and as he promised, Arak hands over the sword in exchange for Alsind and Sharizad. When a minion of the Lord of Serpents tries to claim the sword, it explodes with radiance and power. Arak shields his friends with his shamanic power, and the Lord of Serpents survives but his minions are destroyed. The Serpent Lord battles Arak one on one, and Arak wins. The sword then returns to Heaven, and Arak makes his escape with his friends. However, the Lord of Serpents, though wounded, also gets away.

Batman #376: Moench and Newton/Alcala introduce "Nightmare, Inc." a "scare for hire" operation new to Gotham that may be tied to robberies at the same locations, if Bruce's suspicions are correct. Turns out the leader of the group, Sturges Hellstrom, has a criminal record as well as a history in horror film special effects. Bruce hires Nightmare, Inc. for a party at Wayne Manor to lay a trap. Batman later goes to the group's hideout and tangles with Hellstrom, who manages to pull out some special effects fakery (and then a flamethrower) to get the upper hand and escape.

Later, in a cave on the outskirts of Gotham, Hellstrom trumpets his successes, despite setbacks, to the woman he's trying to woo, the true mastermind of Nightmare, Inc.: Nocturna.

Flash #338: Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin have Flash escape the demon-related deathtrap the Pied Piper put him in and defeat his foe. The Piper (previously noting he was already under stress) has some sort of nervous breakdown, which the media suggests is organic in nature, related somehow to excessive speed the Flash exposed him to. The other Rogues Gallery members take this as absolute truth plan revenge on the Flash for the escalation in their games of breaking the Pied Piper. They give armor supplied by the Monitor (that guy's into everything!) to a mental patient, turning gentle giant Dufus into a powerful super-villain dubbed Big Sir and send him against the Scarlet Speedster.

G.I. Combat #270: In the Haunted Tank story, the crew is split up so that their superior skills can help increase the competency of other units, but Stuart's Raiders don't do so well when split up, then wind up getting back together anyway in a stolen German tank after a mission goes badly. The brass sees the error of their ways and puts the crew back together.

In the first of the nonrecurring stories, an American sub captain gives his "Last Command" telling his crew to shoot his own dead body out of a torpedo tube so they can trick and destroy a Japanese ship, Akibi. In the second by Kashdan and Patricio, a ne'er-do-well brother saves his sibling from capture and torture by the Germans, finally becoming the family hero. 

The final story is another Sgt. Bullett and the Bravos of Vietnam installment. Again, we get high body counts and racial slurs as the group grimly makes their way down river on a raft after a helicopter crash under almost constant Viet Cong assault. 

Jemm, Son of Saturn #2: Potter and Colan/Janson pack a lot into this one. Jemm and Luther try warm themselves by a trashcan fire but get hassled by some homeless people. After that brief brawl, one of the homeless folk, Crazy Freddie agrees to help them find a place to put Gramps body to rest. He takes them into the sewer, but they are pursued by a Saturnian robot (I think), and then Jemm must battle perhaps the last surviving White Saturnian who has the power to inhabit and control inanimate material. He defeats and apparently kills her, so Gramps can have his burial at sea in the sewer. Meanwhile, the government is concerned with aliens loose in New York after the death of the scientists, and turns to an old associate, the crime boss Claudius Tull for help locating them. As it turns out, Tull's goons have, of course, already met Jemm.

Omega Men #19: This goofy story just keeps getting weirder. The asteroid the Omega Men are on is heading toward Euphorix, so Kalista (not knowing her estranged love is there) launches an unmanned drone to destroy it. The Omega Men still trying to solve the weird mystery facing them, explore the giant Tigorr, but for some reason are put t sleep and dream some of their origin. When they wake up, the giant Tigorr forms pustules that grow new, regular-sized Tigorr clones. They take refuge in a cave and discover the Psion monitoring the experiment. Meanwhile, Lobo, answering their distress call, races the missile from Euphorix to the asteroid.

Tales of the Teen Titans #47: Wolfman and Perez/de Carlo reveal that Raven rescued the other Titans at the last minute. The team rallies and renews their assault on the H.I.V.E. base. H.I.V.E. is revealed to something of a mismanaged entity. Attacking the Titans to begin with was merely a miscalculated attempt to gain notoriety, which is the aim behind their current attempt to destroy Atlantis. In the end, the Titans prevail, and Atlantis is saved. The mistress of H.I.V.E. commits suicide to avoid capture and kills her inner circle. The Monitor, monitoring these events from elsewhere, is disappointed with the H.I.V.E. 

Meanwhile, things start to look up for Changeling as his high school sweetheart returns. However, he still secretly harbors his plans for vengeance against the Terminator.

Prophet of the Wyvern's Word

Though the deadline's are tight, I thought it would be fun to join the Appx. N Jam over on itch. The challenge is to create an adventure homaging the style of the pulpier fiction of the fantastic of Appendix N. Your given a title and you have to work with that to create your short adventure.

I got "Prophet of the Wyvern's Word," for which I think I'll take inspiration primarily from one of my favorite's: Leigh Brackett, as well of a lot of general pulp fiction ambience. It will be a challenge getting everything done in the time less than 25 days remaining, but since it has to be 4 pages of less, I figured it was worth a shot.

Above is my work on a banner. I based it on the hand drawn title text of the Ace Double of People of the Talisman from 1964.

Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1984 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of July 5, 1984. 

Vigilante #11: Another great Andru cover. Vigilante's investigation leads him to the Controller and reveals his plot to take control of the various crime families. Vigilante infiltrates the Controllers mansion and faces an army of goons, robots, and deathtraps to finally reach the boss. He's nearly done in by lasers, but a well-placed throwing star wins the day, shorting the Controller's cybernetic support and leaving the villain immobile, in pain, and begging for death. In the end, Chase can't bring himself to kill J.J.'s killer, which (as several letters in the letter column point out) is a change from the Vigilante we were initially presented with. In fact, the letter column is interesting for both Wolfman's defense of the character and the arguments for and against "killer vigilante" methods. Oh, and Chase agrees in coda of this issue to take the judgeship.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3: The title and numbering of this issue is a bit weird in that being been designated the third annual would mean that it belongs to LoSH volume 2, but volume 2 has already ended (being renamed Tales of...) and there's a new volume 3 concurrent--which will later get its own annuals.

Anyway, Saturn Girl is about to deliver her and Lightning Lad's child. Starfinger tries to mess things up by mind controlling Lightning Lad, but he's shut down instantly. The conflict this issue comes from goings on elsewhere, as a group of Legionnaires are looking for signs of Mordru on the other (than Orando) magic planet, Avalon as they think he might be behind the Legion of Super-Villains. But he isn't as Darkseid turned him to stone and stole his power, but now a crazy cabal of evil wizards are trying to resurrect him, and they kidnap Shadow Lass and Shadow Kid to do it. The spell causes darkness to spread across the galaxy, even to where Saturn Girl is giving birth.

The Legionnaires put an end to all this, and Saturn Girl's baby is born healthy, but in the epilogue, we get the point of all this. Saturn Girl and Lightning Lass actually had twins, but the other child was stolen in the darkness to be taken back in time to become Validus, thus fulfilling Darkseid's curse via a retcon. 

Atari Force #10: Conway and Garcia-Lopez/Baretto reveal the return of Blackjack back, and we learn how he was rescued from his apparent death by the Dark Destroyer and held captive on the Destroyer's ship. Speaking of the Destroyer he's busy completely some sort of super-weapon and gloating about how he's preparing for his final vengeance after feigning defeat.

Meanwhile, Christopher is still on New Earth, trying to stay one step ahead from the security forces while learning the backstory of the enmity between the Destroyer and the original Atari Force. He's rejected by his ex-girlfriend then betrayed by Dr. Orion who too late realizes Martin Champion is right about the Destroyer being back.

DC Comics Presents #74: Rozakis/Mishkin and Saviuk/Tanghal team-up Superman with the Hawks (Though only Hawkman gets cover billing. Hawkwoman's mentioned on the title page, though.) and deliver a follow-up to two other DCP stories: the team-up with Hawkwoman in issue 37 and with Atom in issue 51. An encounter with those pesky tech thieves the Orgons, leads to the recovery of Superman's time-lost grandfather Var-El. Unfortunately, also puts an Orgon on an attack Thanagar with the aim of stealing absorbacon tech. Superman and the Hawks try to stop him, but it's Var-El that secures victory with the ultimate sacrifice. The heroes will always remember his bravery, of course--until Crisis wipes him from existence.

Fury of Firestorm #28: Cavalieri is scripter here with the plot still from Conway. The 2000 Committee is still trying to capture Lorraine Reilly, so they call that shadowy guy in a satellite, the Monitor, who subcontracts them Slipknot, a rope-wielding villain, to distract Firestorm. This is actually a bit of a less asymmetric fight than you might think, and Slipknot's ropes are organic so Firestorm can't affect them. Still, once Firestorm is able to go on the offensive its over for Slipknot, and the Monitor is irritated at the expense.

Justice League of America #231: As promised in the previous issue, here are Busiek and Kupperberg/Buckler to tell us where the League's heavy hitters were during the Martian invasion. It turns out they were teaming up with the JSA dealing with (as the cover teases) an out-of-control Dad. Research scientist Joshua Champion has been missing but recently an image of him appeared to his two kids and his sister boasting of tremendous power and acting weird. The Champions go to the League for help in finding their real dad. They split up and go to likely meeting points but keep having to fight mythological or fictional creatures made real. In a city on an alien world, they find a building where the force inhabiting Joshua Champion is centered and where Champion himself is being held. They're blinded by a beam which sends them into fantasy where their fondest desires come true. Except for the blind Dr. Mid-Nite! He blacks out the beam and appears to free them. They find the unconscious Champion, and with Dr. Fate and Starman taking care of the city's inhabitants, the Champions transport everyone back to Earth--but everyone except Dr. Mid-Nite is now under the control of the brain that controls Dr. Champion.

New Teen Titans #2: Picking up where the last issue left off, the skies are black and full of storms, as the Titans ask for help from Lilith. She says they also need to get Wally West back given his (former) close relationship with Raven. Once everyone is assembled, she leads the group in a seance. They contact Raven, but she rejects their help, and then the Titans are transported to Azarath which is being destroyed. There's nothing they can do. Raven appears in New York in a demonically transformed state and heralds her father's coming. Titans Tower is transformed into stone, and a gigantic Trigon appears atop it.

Wonder Woman #320: Wonder Woman tows a nuclear sub off-course to give the captain time to reconsider the false order he was sent with nuclear launch codes. It's a distraction by Dr. Cyber, but for what? Meanwhile, Cyber's got Sofia Constantinos prisoner and she muses about implanting her brain in Sofia's unmarred body. Griggs and Diana break into Cyber's stronghold to prove Diana's innocence of the theft last issue, and they run into Steve Trevor and his gremlin buddy Glitch who have already infiltrated the place. Steve and Wonder Woman battle Cyber, who defeats them, teasing that she killed Trevor once before. Wonder Woman ends up entangled in wire that heat up as she struggles. Cyber gloats that soon Wonder Woman's body will be as scarred as Cyber's face.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Woch, Huntress is troubled by dreams about her mother's criminal side and she's having blackouts, so she asks that medical resident that has a crush on her if he knows any psychiatrist. He introduces her to one, and she immediately goes into therapy. As she's on the couch, starting to talk about her childhood, the therapist pulls a gun!

The Case for Planetary Romance

Richard Hescox

I feel like planetary romance (sometimes called Sword & Planet, though I think that might be better thought as a subgenre or sub-subgenre) is, I think, a genre well-suited for rpg exploitation, but despite this utility is oddly under-represented. Sure, a search for "sword & planet" or "planetary romance" on drivethru turns up a few pages of entries, but many of those are only sort of "planetary romance informed" (like Dark Sun) or really other genres (like Old Solar system space opera). 

Genre boundaries are admittedly, fuzzy things, so I suppose I should first define what I mean. Planetary romance is a genre about exploration of the biospheres, societies, and cultures of an alien world. Typically, the exploration of the world doesn't just entail the usual activities of naturalists or explorers, but additionally the uncovering of a mystery or mysteries. Planetary romance worlds are more than they appear. The protagonist of these stories is most often an outsider like the reader because that gives the author the greatest freedom into working details about the setting into the narrative. Since a singular world and its exploration is essential to the genre, world-hopping works may share stylistic similarities to planetary romance, but I don't think they belong in the genre--though one could have a planetary romance series where every installment was a different world. Works with a non-outsider protagonist might likewise be excluded*, otherwise some secondary world fantasies would be up for inclusion, though mostly I'd exclude those for their settings being too Earth-like. Lord Valentine's Castle, I'd say, one could call a Planetary Romance and has no outsider protagonist, but it has an amnesiac one, which serves the same purpose.

Sword & Planet, I think, is a subtype of planetary romance, where the planet being visited is (mostly) less technologically advanced (at least in surface ways), and the plots mostly involve action. That action typically resembles swashbuckling fantasy or Sword & Sorcery fiction. The exemplar and progenitor of this type is Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. Swords and sci-fi (like Star Wars or any pulp era space opera stories) have anachronist/inconsistent tech like Sword & Planet but lack the focus on a single world.

Anyway, definitions aside, why do I think it's a good genre for games, perhaps particularly those of an old schoolish bent? Well, the focus on exploration for one thing. Planetary romance easily fits a hexcrawl or pointcrawl model. Planetary romances like Vance's Tschai/Planet of Adventure series or the Alex Raymond years of the Flash Gordon comic strip involve covering a lot of ground and uncovering new things.

Panel from Flash Gordon comic strip by Dan Schkade

Secondly, while actual dungeons are perhaps few (the Cave World of Kira from Flash Gordon not withstanding), ruins to explore are quite common. A number of dead cities, for instance, turn up in Burroughs' John Carter series.

Third, there is an element at least close to picaresque in a lot of planetary romance. While the protagonists aren't typically rogues or anti-heroes, their adventures are episodic and involve navigating or outsmarting corrupt or stultified social systems. Money and food are concerns, depending on the story, and the protagonists often have to get menial sorts of jobs or get imprisoned for petty offenses. Don Lawrence's Storm, for example, is more than once forced into some sort of labor for basically not knowing local customs.

Don Lawrence

So, given what I've said, why isn't Planetary Romance more popular? Mainly, I think it's because there hasn't been a recent example that reached a wide audience. Burroughs' work seems old fashion (as the failure of the recent film perhaps shows) and newer examples (like Scavengers Reign) tend to position themselves more firmly in science fiction than as something that sort of mixes fantasy and sci-fi.

*There are certainly books in planetary romance series that have native protagonist (books in both Burroughs' Mars series and Akers' Kregen series come to mind), but these notably occur after several books with outsider protagonists to get things established, so I think my point still stands.

What it's Like to Travel The Stars

Presumably no one on Earth has yet experienced interplanetary space travel. When the creators of space travel-related media go to describe it or evoke the feeling of it for their audience they tend to analogize it in terms of some idiom of travel their audience is familiar with. The ways in which travelers interact with travel, the stylings of ships and controls, and the attitude of the world toward pilots--all of these things are typically informed more by the specific analogy employed that the speculative mechanics of the travel.

For example, the most pervasive of these is likely space travel as sea travel. This occurs at the level of language where we usually talk of "spaceships" instead of craft or vehicles and crew rankings/positions typically follow naval models. This analogy is evident in Star Trek in its naval organization and the conduct of its space battles, but also in the particular romanticization of both vessels, voyaging, and at times, captaincy. In Star Trek V, Kirk quotes the 1902 poem "Sea-Fever" by Masefield: "All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer by," and it's not at all out of place with the vibe.

Star Wars engages in the sea travel analogy, too. It and its imitators like Battlestar Galactica have capital ships acting as aircraft carriers. The Millenium Falcon is a tramp freighter with a captain supposedly inspired by Humphrey Bogart's screen persona (and perhaps his famous role as a tramp steamer captain in The African Queen (1951)). His adventures with Chewbacca prior to Star Wars probably look a lot like episodes of the radio series Voyage of the Scarlet Queen just translated from the South Seas to the Rim. Cowboy Bebop really hits you over the head with the tramp sea vessel analogy by having the Bebop land in water and being built from a sea-going vessel.

Star Wars likes to mix things up, though. It also employs the second most common analogy: space travel as air travel. Dogfights between fighters have moves out of World War II and hotshot pilots are almost as important to the narrative as they are in Top Gun. The cockpit controls of the Millennium Falcon, and the fact "she doesn't look like much" but "she's got it where it counts" could easily be the way a cargo pilot in some pulp adventure describes his aging sea plane, as in Tales of the Gold Monkey (or more accurately, the sort of fiction that inspired it) or the cargo planes in the early years of the Steve Canyon comic strip.

The third analogy that comes to mind is trucking. I define this as a focus on space travel as performed by rather unromanitic figures, blue collar-working stiffs, often solitary and with few amenities in their utilitarian-appearing vessels. It is not nearly as common as the other two, but it is specifically evoked in Alien and in Cowboy Bebop in the episode "Heavy Metal Queen." The farhaulers of the Transhuman Space setting also have some of this vibe. 

Are there other analogies? Probably. I think some media gestures toward spacecraft as automobile, often in a sort of plot where automobile itself is just the modern stand-in for the freedom of a "fast horse." Leigh Brackett has several protagonists on the run from the law in a fast, small ship like an outlaw escaping on horseback in a Western or a muscle car in a 70s car movie. Battle Beyond the Stars, the Star Wars-inspired space opera retread of the Magnificent Seven (and thus, Seven Samurai) has several of its "hired guns" traveling in solo spacecraft, and at least one is a cowboy. These are less convincing, though, because spacecraft tend to only analogize to cars or horses in media in limited ways. They always occur in "mixed metaphors."

And there are a lot of those of course, with Star Wars being the obvious example, as I said. Still, I find it interesting just how clear these analogies often are.

Wednesday Comics: DC, September 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on June 28, 1984.

Warlord Annual #3: I reviewed this annual by Burkett and Jurgens/DeCarlo starting here. In it, Morgan and crew are back in time and meet one of Deimos' ancestors and also learn the origins of Atlantean beast-man creating technology.

Action Comics #559: It's another 2-story issue and again the first story by Rozakis and Schaffenberger is sort of a throwback as it brings back the Yellow Peri from 1982. Loretta Grant gets the magic book back that transforms her into the Yellow Peri. She performs good deeds magically for a fee, an idea of her grifter husband who eventually manipulates her into attacking Superman. Despite all this, Superman lets her keep the magic book in the end. I'd suspect that won't turn out well, but I'd place equal odds-on Yellow Peri never showing up again Pre-Crisis. We'll see!

In the second story by Kupperberg and Saviuk, an encounter with an alien creature results in the temporary de-supering of Superman's hair, allowing Clark Kent to indulge in a visit to the barbershop for a haircut.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #23:  Duursema is back on art. Arion and crew get back to Atlantis and the king seems uninterested in their warnings about Garn Danuuth. Soon strangers start being hostile to Arion and then his friends. Garn shows up but he seems all good now. This all culminates with Wyynde and Arion fighting a duel to the death in the arena. The weakness of this issue is that Arion seems really dumb. From the moment they arrive, and the king is acting out of character, he should have considered a plot by Garn, but know, he doesn't seem to even after his friend and lover turn on him. Maybe mind control magic doesn't exist in Atlantis, so he doesn't consider he because he has no framework for it, but I suspect his thickness is merely in service of padding out the plot.

All-Star Squadron #37: Thomas and Jones/Howell pick up where last issue left off. An uncharacteristically (well, for the Earth-One version, at least) hotheaded Superman is spoiling for a fight with the Marvels, and briefly gets it before cooler heads prevail, and they all realize they are on the same side. We hear how they got here from Earth-S and how they want to get Billy/Captain Marvel back and go home. The magical plot contrivance shield over Europe makes it difficult, but if the two join the technologically empowered JSA as plain old Freddie and Mary, it shouldn't be a problem. Sneaking into Germany, the JSA and the kids find Billy Batson captive, but they are ambushed by the Nazi Captain Marvel. It seems a Nazi scientist has a device that can separate the powered forms from those empowered by Shazam's magic lightning. They do that to Mary and Freddie, too, and send the Marvels to attack Britain.

The mind-controlled Marvels are able to get the better of the powered JSA members left behind, but luckily the group in Germany escapes. As soon as the Batsons and Freddie get out of the range of the Nazi's shield, the Marvels turn good again and help the JSA defeat a German invasion force. Then, they use their powers to recombine and transport themselves back to their Earth.

Detective Comics #542: Again, the assassin makes an attempt Bullock's life but dumb luck (scrambling to get a car cigarette lighter) saves him. With an injured arm, Bullock is on light duty and winds up being the one to accompany the Child Welfare worker to pull Jason from Bruce's custody. The legalities of Bruce's custody are weird here. Moench seems to not want to have Bruce breaking the law, but yet maintain he can't legally have Jason (for some reason the papers weren't signed). It just seems contrived. 

Anyway, while Bruce meets with his team of legal eagles and offers to double their salaries if they can figure a way to get Jason back. Jason slips out of his new living space to answer a bat signal and try to protect Bullock from the assassin. Ultimately, Batman arrives to save the day, but now Batman and Robin have two separate abodes.

Sun Devils #3: The mysterious, ethereal Myste helps Rik Sunn led hi ragtag squadron to victory over the Sauroid invaders. Their dictator natural executes the commanders responsible for the failure, but his troubles only increase as his Crustate allies rethink their planned attack on Earth. Meanwhile, the success of Rik and others leads the Centaurian forces to reconsider rejecting them, and they give them special status with new fighters and snazzy red and black uniforms. Myste reveals herself to the group and is going to continue to aide them. Rik and Annie get some private time and their relationship blossoms. Things aren't all roses for the Sun Devils, though, as we discover there is a traitor among them.

Super Powers #3: Kirby/Cavalieri and Gonzales/Kupperberg have the heroes comparing notes on their recent encounters with villains with heightened powers. Their speculations are cut short by an attack by the Amazons, including Wonder Woman, on the island nation of San Marcos thanks to the actions of the enhanced Brainiac. The heroes have to pull out all the stops to defeat them, including Aquaman summoning a kaiju. Then Brainiac de-evolves Superman to a belligerent, Kryptonian caveman.

Tales of the Legion #315: Levitz/Giffen and Shoemaker/Kesel have a trio Legionnaires crash the trial room of the Dark Circle, but the Circle members tap their sun's power to teleport themselves and Ontiir to a secret satellite. The Circle orders Ontiir to prove his loyalty by giving up his secrets and committing suicide. The Legionnaires arrive in time to prevent that with the Science Police on their heels. The Legionnaires see the Dark Circle's true Cthulhoid form. Ontiir refuses to drop his weapon and is shot and killed by Chief Zendak without us every learning what side he really though it was on. The Circle declares they have nothing to fight over anymore and leaves. Later, Supergirl tells Brainiac 5 that maybe she shouldn't and come, and she doesn't fit in with the Legion anymore. Promising to see him sometime later, she heads back to the 20th Century.

In the backup by Levitz/Newell and Tuska/Kesel, the White Witch continues telling her origin story to Blok. She reveals how Mordru was one of her teachers, and how he betrayed her out of spite and changed her appearance, so she looked like an old woman.

World's Finest Comics #307: Kraft/Rozakis finish this epic with von Eeden/Andrews. I wonder if Kraft was satisfied with the result? Anyway, Superman is trapped by the villains, giving X'ult time to reveal his backstory. He's an alien and the source of everyone's powers is really a technological artifact from his home world. He revives Barracuda and places her under his control. He makes the mistake of having Batman locked in a cell though, which the Caped Crusdader of course, escapes from, then frees Swordfish and Null. They get Superman out too, and the heroes confront X'ult. Swordfish's love frees Barracuda from control, and the two of them and X'ult are plunged into the past, still battling.

With X'ult gone Null's and Void's powers are...well, you know. The heroes take them back to the authorities.

Star Trek Movie Special #1: Nice cover here by Chaykin. Barr and Sutton/Villagrain adapt Star Trek III: The Search for Spock which was released on June 1, 1984. Though it's been clear from hints dropped in the regular series, that Barr knew at least some of the plot points of STIII, he didn't quite set things up for the start of the film, so there's a bit of discontinuity between what we last saw there and where this issue picks up. It's unexplained, for instance, at what point Saavik left Enterprise and how much time has passed since we saw Kirk acting as captain with a full crew compliment and the apparent decision to decommission the vessel. Still, the same creative team on the adaptation does make it seem to flow into continuity better. It will be interesting to see what they do regarding STIV that seems to pick up closely on the heels of this film in movie continuity, but won't actually be released until 1986, leaving a lot of comic issues in between.

The Rpg Art of Kent Burles

 I first became aware of Canadian artist Kent Burles via his comic book work in The Adventurers, though I had seen it decades ago in Malibu's Planet of the Apes comics, too. Once I began to associate his style with his name, I connected him with a lot of rpg illustration from the past I had liked but hadn't known the artist. He did work in the 80s through the 00s in a lot of places: Iron Crown Enterprises, Steve Jackson Games, Palladium, and Green Ronin, among others.

Here are a couple of pieces that really showcase his design sensibility. I love the texture on both of these. It recalls for me the work of Stephen Fabian:

His elaboration of clothing decoration, armor, and technology is a bit like Jack Kirby but also strongly classic Sword and Sorcery:

This is just some of the stuff I could find online. Some of his most fantastical work I think is in the MERP Dol Guldur supplement. I don't know if it says "Tolkien," but it's got a strong S&S vibe and hints of Kirbytech, and it really sells the evil and deadly nature of the fortress. Anyway, I think his stuff is under-appreciated, which is unfortunately true of a number of rpg artists' work of the same era.