You've all played Konami's "Silent Scope," yes? I have, recently. And I think I've stumbled onto something. Something big.
I think the narrator is working with the terrorists.
Here's why:
Throughout the game, without fail, the sniper finds himself alone against an army of terrorists. The plot revolves around these terrorists trying to kidnap the President and his family by force; in what universe does that happen without a literal army arriving at the scene?
The narrator sounds like some kind of operator, directing the sniper and others to their various assignments. Anybody who's seen "24" knows what's going on here; they guy in front of the computer directs all the SWAT teams to go tackle the terrorists on the left, while they get away with their dastardly deeds on the right. The sniper is said to be an outside contractor. Could it be that he's arriving at the scene without backup because he's not linked into the same corrupted system and command hierarchy?
It's implied that the narrator and the sniper know each other; he tells the sniper he's "lost his touch," for instance. Not evidence of wrongdoing, but there's never been a movie in which the mole and the hero don't have a friendly relationship before the reveal. More damning is what happens when the sniper is killed. In a much darker tone, the narrator whispers "THE END." Now, it could just be that Konami didn't want to hire another guy to voice the Game Over screen, but I think it's the narrator having a little "just between you and me" moment with his old buddy as he bleeds out.
The evidence is substantial, and, given the circumstances, we can't afford to take any chances. Officers, arrest the narrator.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
I Finally Get The Legion!
Today, I had a minor, personal epiphany about the Legion of Super-Heroes.
See, it's not that I don't like superhero aliens teaming up to have space adventures in the 31st century, everyone does. I just couldn't get over the fact that, while the universe has come to regard them as a Justice League-esque organization, realistically they should be pretty ineffectual. Take founding member Saturn Girl, who has psychic powers. She's not unique among her race. All Saturnians have psychic powers. Her race also has a military, and SWAT teams, and the like. When Darkseid shows up and tries to conquer the universe, there should be whole armies of psychics mobilizing to stop him. While some Legion members have unique powers, many are in the same boat. So why are they anything remotely special or effective, when so many others can do exactly what they do?
Well, the answer is that many others simply DON'T do what they do. It's not the Legion members' powers that make them special, the thing that distinguishes them from others is that they saw problems and stepped up to do something about it. By chance I also stumbled upon this post about Superman, arguing that he chose to be a hero not because it was forced on him (like Batman) or because of something he did (like Spider-Man), but simply because it was the right thing to do. If he lost his powers tomorrow he would shrug, become a fireman, and still try to do the right thing to the best of his abilities. The Legion, originally, was inspired to heroics by Superman, and they're doing the same thing: stepping in and using their abilities to the fullest to do the right thing. Other Saturnians could throw themselves in the path of galactic tyrants, but they don't. Saturn Girl does.
Now maybe I can enjoy reading about them more.
See, it's not that I don't like superhero aliens teaming up to have space adventures in the 31st century, everyone does. I just couldn't get over the fact that, while the universe has come to regard them as a Justice League-esque organization, realistically they should be pretty ineffectual. Take founding member Saturn Girl, who has psychic powers. She's not unique among her race. All Saturnians have psychic powers. Her race also has a military, and SWAT teams, and the like. When Darkseid shows up and tries to conquer the universe, there should be whole armies of psychics mobilizing to stop him. While some Legion members have unique powers, many are in the same boat. So why are they anything remotely special or effective, when so many others can do exactly what they do?
Well, the answer is that many others simply DON'T do what they do. It's not the Legion members' powers that make them special, the thing that distinguishes them from others is that they saw problems and stepped up to do something about it. By chance I also stumbled upon this post about Superman, arguing that he chose to be a hero not because it was forced on him (like Batman) or because of something he did (like Spider-Man), but simply because it was the right thing to do. If he lost his powers tomorrow he would shrug, become a fireman, and still try to do the right thing to the best of his abilities. The Legion, originally, was inspired to heroics by Superman, and they're doing the same thing: stepping in and using their abilities to the fullest to do the right thing. Other Saturnians could throw themselves in the path of galactic tyrants, but they don't. Saturn Girl does.
Now maybe I can enjoy reading about them more.
Public Service Announcement
The Gemini Arcade on Flamingo and Sandhill has the holy trinity of Konami beat-em-ups, "X-Men," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and "The Simpsons." All 4-player cabinets, all 25 cents per play. And free fooseball.
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Let's Read Some Comics!
As I said earlier, I managed to snag 60 comics exactly from a quarter bin sale. Let's read 'em!
X-Men #80
I only bought this one because I recognized the cover image from a house ad in an issue of "Thor" I subscribed to when I was 10 or so (good god, why can't I remember useful things?). It's bland to the extreme. It made so little impression on me that it's actually kind of remarkable, but not really because booooooring.
Infinite Crisis #6
Oy. Geoff Johns makes miniscule to moderate changes in the history of the DC Universe. Exclamation point. Okay, okay, that doesn't preclude there being a good plot, but this is about as "meh" as any other crossover you might have read. Alexander Luthor brings back the DC Multiverse and starts slamming earths into each other to create an idealized, perfect earth, kind of like in Persona 3. The heroes smash his tower and Superboy dies (BOO). The issue has multiple pencillers (probably a deadline thing), but each is of high quality and transitions between them aren't jarring. The panel design is also good. Geoff Johns' dialogue is very Geoff Johnsy, but not terrible by a long shot. One thing I like is that, unlike most crossovers which generally throw out JLA/JSA/Outsiders/Titans, this one really throws obscure, z-list characters all over the place to give the impression of a reaaaaal big problem they're dealing with. It also has that Black Adam "funny faces" scene. For a quarter, you could do worse.
Captain America #50
Bucky Cap fights some rocket robot terrorists on his birthday and reflects back to his crappy past birthdays. When he gets back to his house, his friends throw him a surprise party. Inoffensive. The backup, "Sentinel of Liberty" by Marcos Martin, is a simple history of Cap beautifully illustrated. I'm the type that won't buy a comic based on art alone, but this one makes me wish I owned a scanner to share some of the pages, so if you're an art guy, go nuts.
Guardians of the Galaxy #17, 21-23
Abnett and Lanning's post "Annihilation 2" series about a team made up of quirky and fun characters like space Kratos and a lovable, sarcastic space raccoon. They're tying into crossovers like "War of Kings" and "Realm of Kings," so I'm not sure what's going on, but the dialogue, fights, and art are all of high quality and worth reading. #21-23 involves Moondragon being impregnated by a little elder god from a "cancerverse," and a space church being lead by The Magus kidnapping her and trying to birth it. Perhaps not reading everything hurts here, but I have no idea who The Magus is besides the fact that he's an evil version of Adam Warlock and he's, like, the champion of life or something. If you're not into Marvel's cosmic side, you might be a bit lost. Fun, space.
Amazing Spider-Man
#613, 614: Electro gets an upgrade and fights Spider-Man. Mark Waid's the writer, so it's pretty solid stuff with nice art. My main point of contention comes from the fact that Electro becomes an internet celebrity protesting Wall Street bailouts, to the point that his crowd of supporters tries to kill Spider-Man! C'mon, if Glenn Beck can't drive people to murder, I doubt Electro can.
#618, 619: Mysterio is back! Or maybe he isn't? The whole plot is about comic book heroes, villains, and supporting casts faking their deaths taken to an entertaining extreme. Mysterio, who may or may not have actually died, reveals the he either faked the deaths or the resurrections of several mafia crime members and a few Spidey supporting cast members in a gambit to control the underworld while driving Spidey nuts. I only get the middle two issues, so there's a lot of "what the hell is going on?" but in a deliberate way. It's a neat use of Mysterio and commentary on comic book death, so I'll see about tracking down the rest.
X-Men #80
I only bought this one because I recognized the cover image from a house ad in an issue of "Thor" I subscribed to when I was 10 or so (good god, why can't I remember useful things?). It's bland to the extreme. It made so little impression on me that it's actually kind of remarkable, but not really because booooooring.
Infinite Crisis #6
Oy. Geoff Johns makes miniscule to moderate changes in the history of the DC Universe. Exclamation point. Okay, okay, that doesn't preclude there being a good plot, but this is about as "meh" as any other crossover you might have read. Alexander Luthor brings back the DC Multiverse and starts slamming earths into each other to create an idealized, perfect earth, kind of like in Persona 3. The heroes smash his tower and Superboy dies (BOO). The issue has multiple pencillers (probably a deadline thing), but each is of high quality and transitions between them aren't jarring. The panel design is also good. Geoff Johns' dialogue is very Geoff Johnsy, but not terrible by a long shot. One thing I like is that, unlike most crossovers which generally throw out JLA/JSA/Outsiders/Titans, this one really throws obscure, z-list characters all over the place to give the impression of a reaaaaal big problem they're dealing with. It also has that Black Adam "funny faces" scene. For a quarter, you could do worse.
Captain America #50
Bucky Cap fights some rocket robot terrorists on his birthday and reflects back to his crappy past birthdays. When he gets back to his house, his friends throw him a surprise party. Inoffensive. The backup, "Sentinel of Liberty" by Marcos Martin, is a simple history of Cap beautifully illustrated. I'm the type that won't buy a comic based on art alone, but this one makes me wish I owned a scanner to share some of the pages, so if you're an art guy, go nuts.
Guardians of the Galaxy #17, 21-23
Abnett and Lanning's post "Annihilation 2" series about a team made up of quirky and fun characters like space Kratos and a lovable, sarcastic space raccoon. They're tying into crossovers like "War of Kings" and "Realm of Kings," so I'm not sure what's going on, but the dialogue, fights, and art are all of high quality and worth reading. #21-23 involves Moondragon being impregnated by a little elder god from a "cancerverse," and a space church being lead by The Magus kidnapping her and trying to birth it. Perhaps not reading everything hurts here, but I have no idea who The Magus is besides the fact that he's an evil version of Adam Warlock and he's, like, the champion of life or something. If you're not into Marvel's cosmic side, you might be a bit lost. Fun, space.
Amazing Spider-Man
#613, 614: Electro gets an upgrade and fights Spider-Man. Mark Waid's the writer, so it's pretty solid stuff with nice art. My main point of contention comes from the fact that Electro becomes an internet celebrity protesting Wall Street bailouts, to the point that his crowd of supporters tries to kill Spider-Man! C'mon, if Glenn Beck can't drive people to murder, I doubt Electro can.
#618, 619: Mysterio is back! Or maybe he isn't? The whole plot is about comic book heroes, villains, and supporting casts faking their deaths taken to an entertaining extreme. Mysterio, who may or may not have actually died, reveals the he either faked the deaths or the resurrections of several mafia crime members and a few Spidey supporting cast members in a gambit to control the underworld while driving Spidey nuts. I only get the middle two issues, so there's a lot of "what the hell is going on?" but in a deliberate way. It's a neat use of Mysterio and commentary on comic book death, so I'll see about tracking down the rest.
Genius At Work
The last boss of "Marvel vs. Capcom" is Onslaught, who, as we all know, is a psionic merging of Professor Xavier and Magneto. However, you can still use Magneto as a helper character while fighting Onslaught. Are we supposed to believe that there are, heh heh, two Magnetos? Oh, I sincerely hope someone got fired for that blunder.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Comics Are Weird To Buy
A few amazing sales at some comic stores today. At "Alternate Reality Comics" their one dollar bins were converted into 25-cent bins for a few hours. They also had a girl dressed in a skintight Phoenix costume to seal the deal. At "Cosmic Comics" they were discounting a ton of trades at 70% off. Not just crap stuff, either, stuff like "Incredible Herc" hardcovers and Waid "Fantastic Four" trades. I ended up spending 20 dollars and ending up with the equivalent of about 100 random comics.
I also went to "Tim Boald's Comic Oasis" to find some key Cassandra Cain appearances outside of her own series; I'm finally getting to making those Batgirl omnibuses I've been dithering about for years. 7 specific issues cost $21, and I've still got 12 to go, assuming I have a complete list right now. Oy.
The point is, the cost of a comic is directly correlated with its specificity.
UPDATE: Yep, after buying from various online sources, all seventeen issues add up to around sixty bucks. I guess that's about cover price + tax, but that's bordering on a ridiculous amount of money to pay for back issues. I hope I don't need any more.
I also went to "Tim Boald's Comic Oasis" to find some key Cassandra Cain appearances outside of her own series; I'm finally getting to making those Batgirl omnibuses I've been dithering about for years. 7 specific issues cost $21, and I've still got 12 to go, assuming I have a complete list right now. Oy.
The point is, the cost of a comic is directly correlated with its specificity.
UPDATE: Yep, after buying from various online sources, all seventeen issues add up to around sixty bucks. I guess that's about cover price + tax, but that's bordering on a ridiculous amount of money to pay for back issues. I hope I don't need any more.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Awesome Potential of Digital Publishing
So, I've been thinking a lot about digital publishing.
Books, magazines, and, to some extent, newspapers are starting to hit the same transition that music faced with the advent of the iPod: digital distribution. Let's not get into the history and hurdles, because, while interesting as all hell, I don't know nearly enough about any of the industries involved. What I'm interested in is the possibilities.
Let's look at magazines. They're far from a dying medium, but they've got it rough. There's a lot of competition, and a lot of upfront costs for printing and distribution. Digital distribution largely eliminates all that; your magazine can be published and accessed almost as easily as a high-schooler's blog. All your need is your creative staff and the IT guys.
Now, there's no doubt that owning a bound, printed magazine is nicer than owning a digital copy. It's larger, for one thing, you've got more real estate on the page. It's a lot easier on the eyes than the iPad screen (I'm waiting for the big-screened color Kindle, at which point I will be buying the biggest memory card on the market and downloading every magazine and comic book known to man). It has a sense of tangible...ness to it; weight, smell, piling them in a stack on your desk. The printed magazine is a beautiful thing.
However, let's think of all the things you can do in a digital edition that can't be done on the printed page. Obviously, there's integration of sound and video. Now, one must be careful about this... if you're just throwing little animated pictures and movies and sound bytes all over the place, then you've just got a webpage with a lot of annoying banner ads. That's not a magazine. Magazines are for reading, first and foremost. In my mind, a good article with good art direction would have to be the start, with the additional bells and whistles only showing up when the user selects them.
The first advantage that springs to mind is the "infinite canvas" of the iPad's screen. While page space is limited in an ordinary magazine, in a digital version you could theoretically have thousands of lavishly-decorated pages. In many magazine articles, you'll see tons of side bars summarizing fun facts in a few paragraphs. In a digital edition, you could have the user, if he or she was so inclined, click on it to expand it into it's own "full-sized" feature. For example, say I'm writing an article about the "Back to the Future" trilogy and I want to do a sidebar asking scientists why we don't have hoverboards yet. I may have six sentences and one picture in a regular magazine. In a digital edition, you can expand that out and give each waffling scientist you interviewed two pages, if you were so inclined. Throw big pictures in compelling page layouts all over the place; it's not like you're going to run out of pages!
Then, there's sound. I read that "The Economist" magazine's digital edition had audio files of all of the articles read by professional V.O. people. That's incredible. Read in bed, listen when you're driving to work in the morning. Truly, that is a wonderful idea that I hope is implemented into every single digital version of the printed word ever.
Music is the other big thing. If I'm discussing "Sonic 2," you can bet your ass I'm including a sidebar (that, again, expands into it's own feature with infinite space to fully explore the tangent) that includes the memorable tracks from the series. Take a listen. Perhaps set the whole series playing in order while you read the rest of the magazine. Even transfer any and all songs to your iPad's music playlist (or whatever the hell it is). Of course, there's also magazines like, oh, I don't know, "Rolling Stone" that this might be a boon for. Independent musicians can offer songs or whole albums that you can listen to in the magazine. Hell, you could have a printed review of an album, and then listen to the song while the critic gives his spoken commentary.
Video is a more direct break from the reading experience. People often listen to music while they read, but it's next to impossible to watch television and read at the same time. Not that video doesn't have it's place; the power of video is so pervasive that it's not even obvious, it's like an ephemeral constant. In a digital magazine format, however, essentially you're saying "Here, stop reading, watch this video, then come back," even if the video is only seconds long.
Something similar, and only very narrowly applied to gaming magazine, is, well, games. I recently read an interview with a prolific Swedish indie game developer, with screenshots of several of his works. What if you could just pinch the corners of that screen, pull it up to the edges of your browser, and start playing then and there? Or begin playing a demo for a game right from the advertisement? Some very cool possibilities. Again, however, it's largely an experience completely divorced from reading the magazine itself.
There is, of course, all of the digital connectivity stuff as well. Highlight, chop up, combine, and make annotations to articles, and send "collages" to yourself and friends. Set anything you read about to be downloaded or shipped to you, or do instant searches to get more information and similar products. Link specific items not only to features and previews in back issues, but also to pertinent analysis and retrospective in future issues (y'know, assuming you're reading a back issue).
I think the main thing is just to make it look like a regular magazine to dad. If you go in with all the bells and whistles ringing and singing, you're going to lose the art of the magazine. Make sure that when there's an extra, be it an expandable sidebar, a soundtrack, a movie, a download, there's some kind of marker that's noticeable but nonintrusive. Keep all the strengths of the printed page (save for those dependent on printing a page) and make the extras available but not forced onto users, and you could create something that truly takes that informative, entertaining power of magazines to a new level.
Books too, I guess.
Books, magazines, and, to some extent, newspapers are starting to hit the same transition that music faced with the advent of the iPod: digital distribution. Let's not get into the history and hurdles, because, while interesting as all hell, I don't know nearly enough about any of the industries involved. What I'm interested in is the possibilities.
Let's look at magazines. They're far from a dying medium, but they've got it rough. There's a lot of competition, and a lot of upfront costs for printing and distribution. Digital distribution largely eliminates all that; your magazine can be published and accessed almost as easily as a high-schooler's blog. All your need is your creative staff and the IT guys.
Now, there's no doubt that owning a bound, printed magazine is nicer than owning a digital copy. It's larger, for one thing, you've got more real estate on the page. It's a lot easier on the eyes than the iPad screen (I'm waiting for the big-screened color Kindle, at which point I will be buying the biggest memory card on the market and downloading every magazine and comic book known to man). It has a sense of tangible...ness to it; weight, smell, piling them in a stack on your desk. The printed magazine is a beautiful thing.
However, let's think of all the things you can do in a digital edition that can't be done on the printed page. Obviously, there's integration of sound and video. Now, one must be careful about this... if you're just throwing little animated pictures and movies and sound bytes all over the place, then you've just got a webpage with a lot of annoying banner ads. That's not a magazine. Magazines are for reading, first and foremost. In my mind, a good article with good art direction would have to be the start, with the additional bells and whistles only showing up when the user selects them.
The first advantage that springs to mind is the "infinite canvas" of the iPad's screen. While page space is limited in an ordinary magazine, in a digital version you could theoretically have thousands of lavishly-decorated pages. In many magazine articles, you'll see tons of side bars summarizing fun facts in a few paragraphs. In a digital edition, you could have the user, if he or she was so inclined, click on it to expand it into it's own "full-sized" feature. For example, say I'm writing an article about the "Back to the Future" trilogy and I want to do a sidebar asking scientists why we don't have hoverboards yet. I may have six sentences and one picture in a regular magazine. In a digital edition, you can expand that out and give each waffling scientist you interviewed two pages, if you were so inclined. Throw big pictures in compelling page layouts all over the place; it's not like you're going to run out of pages!
Then, there's sound. I read that "The Economist" magazine's digital edition had audio files of all of the articles read by professional V.O. people. That's incredible. Read in bed, listen when you're driving to work in the morning. Truly, that is a wonderful idea that I hope is implemented into every single digital version of the printed word ever.
Music is the other big thing. If I'm discussing "Sonic 2," you can bet your ass I'm including a sidebar (that, again, expands into it's own feature with infinite space to fully explore the tangent) that includes the memorable tracks from the series. Take a listen. Perhaps set the whole series playing in order while you read the rest of the magazine. Even transfer any and all songs to your iPad's music playlist (or whatever the hell it is). Of course, there's also magazines like, oh, I don't know, "Rolling Stone" that this might be a boon for. Independent musicians can offer songs or whole albums that you can listen to in the magazine. Hell, you could have a printed review of an album, and then listen to the song while the critic gives his spoken commentary.
Video is a more direct break from the reading experience. People often listen to music while they read, but it's next to impossible to watch television and read at the same time. Not that video doesn't have it's place; the power of video is so pervasive that it's not even obvious, it's like an ephemeral constant. In a digital magazine format, however, essentially you're saying "Here, stop reading, watch this video, then come back," even if the video is only seconds long.
Something similar, and only very narrowly applied to gaming magazine, is, well, games. I recently read an interview with a prolific Swedish indie game developer, with screenshots of several of his works. What if you could just pinch the corners of that screen, pull it up to the edges of your browser, and start playing then and there? Or begin playing a demo for a game right from the advertisement? Some very cool possibilities. Again, however, it's largely an experience completely divorced from reading the magazine itself.
There is, of course, all of the digital connectivity stuff as well. Highlight, chop up, combine, and make annotations to articles, and send "collages" to yourself and friends. Set anything you read about to be downloaded or shipped to you, or do instant searches to get more information and similar products. Link specific items not only to features and previews in back issues, but also to pertinent analysis and retrospective in future issues (y'know, assuming you're reading a back issue).
I think the main thing is just to make it look like a regular magazine to dad. If you go in with all the bells and whistles ringing and singing, you're going to lose the art of the magazine. Make sure that when there's an extra, be it an expandable sidebar, a soundtrack, a movie, a download, there's some kind of marker that's noticeable but nonintrusive. Keep all the strengths of the printed page (save for those dependent on printing a page) and make the extras available but not forced onto users, and you could create something that truly takes that informative, entertaining power of magazines to a new level.
Books too, I guess.
Oh hey!
Hsien-Ko! It has been AGES! I haven't seen you since Super Puzzle Fighter! Damn, girl, you look great! Whatchu been up to? Still do that thing... y'know, where, like, you drop a giant iron maiden or something on someone? Awesome, awesome...
Oh yeah, I've been doing okay. Y'know. Same old, same old.
Well, yeah, yeah, I'll see you around. Yep. See ya.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Survival Horror in Seven Words
Found where they were hiding the back issues of gaming magazines at the library today. The one I've been reading, Games TM #92, has been... absolutely wonderful so far, even though it's a year old. It's a real testament to how gaming magazines can have value just as a collection of reasoned, thoughtful perspective on the industry at a point frozen in time.
I'll probably have more to say on this later, let's not get sidetracked. Gentle readers, you may not know this, but I have something of a thing for writing. I wouldn't call it an overwhelming passion to write or anything to that extent, but I have something for writing with clarity, brevity, and wit. This comes mostly from being forced to rely on incomplete and badly written explanations in my Economics textbooks. In this vein, there was a turn of phrase in Games TM's "Dead Space 2" preview that I enjoyed so much I HAD to write about it a bit:
"The habitat setting gives the game free reign to embrace a far broader spectrum of light and darkness, once-residential areas giving way to the usual dimly lit maintenance tunnels filled with the expected amount of the unexpected."
"The expected amount of the unexpected." That's... that's it. That's survival horror.
I've really got nothing else to say.
I'll probably have more to say on this later, let's not get sidetracked. Gentle readers, you may not know this, but I have something of a thing for writing. I wouldn't call it an overwhelming passion to write or anything to that extent, but I have something for writing with clarity, brevity, and wit. This comes mostly from being forced to rely on incomplete and badly written explanations in my Economics textbooks. In this vein, there was a turn of phrase in Games TM's "Dead Space 2" preview that I enjoyed so much I HAD to write about it a bit:
"The habitat setting gives the game free reign to embrace a far broader spectrum of light and darkness, once-residential areas giving way to the usual dimly lit maintenance tunnels filled with the expected amount of the unexpected."
"The expected amount of the unexpected." That's... that's it. That's survival horror.
I've really got nothing else to say.
Friday, February 4, 2011
C'mon, The Quote Was BEGGING For It
"Home console games are like novels, arcade games are like poems."
-Yu Suzuki
Time Crisis:
Deadline is sundown
Send in the one-man army
Wait, time's really up?
Police Trainer:
Speed, Judgment, Timing
The commissioner must be
A killing machine
Crisis Zone:
No one can beat us
Never before and never
After! I love you
The Lost World:
Back to Dino Isle
Little targets on your face
Five bullets? Fuck you
House of the Dead 2:
Will I ever quit?
Still can't one-credit, oh well
Suffer like G did
-Yu Suzuki
Time Crisis:
Deadline is sundown
Send in the one-man army
Wait, time's really up?
Police Trainer:
Speed, Judgment, Timing
The commissioner must be
A killing machine
Crisis Zone:
No one can beat us
Never before and never
After! I love you
The Lost World:
Back to Dino Isle
Little targets on your face
Five bullets? Fuck you
House of the Dead 2:
Will I ever quit?
Still can't one-credit, oh well
Suffer like G did
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
I Kaine Not Stop Talking
I'm sorry.
Bought a big stack of back issues yesterday, including "Web of Spider-Man #1," which featured a short story about one of my favorite comics enigmas, Kaine.
"Kaine in: Echoes" is written by J.M. DeMatteis, who's, like, one of the most stalwart writers of Spider-Man ever. He's been writing him since at least the early 90s, and his stuff is almost always solid. He was one of the main writers during the original Clone Saga, so I figure he's got as solid a grasp on the character of Kaine as anyone. "If a man is never truly born... can he truly live?" Oh yeah, that's DeMatteis.
In the story, Kaine is dying in prison from the cellular degeneration that affects all clones eventually. He has hallucinatory conversations with Ben Reilly, the Jackal, his ex Louise, his past self, and Peter Parker. He realizes that his cellular degeneration is his body growing into a stronger form and accepts it, recovering fully and ready to embrace a new, uncertain future.
Kind of a kontinuity kleanup tale, but not a bad story by a long shot. However, it still didn't give me a real handle on Kaine's motivations. That's what fascinates me about Kaine. He has all of Peter Parker's memories, morality, and outlook up to a point; Peter, Ben, and Kaine all start down the same track, but at one point they split down three different paths, with Kaine becoming a killer and a monster. Why? What was the inciting event? What was it?
Kaine intones that he never had a mother, and that the closest thing he had to a father was a deranged murderer who only saw him as an experiment. Could that be what makes him different from Peter Parker? We know that Peter himself initially used his powers for showboating self gain before the death of his Uncle Ben... could the lack of parenting be the source of Kaine's rottenness? This rings hollow... he'd still have Peter's memories and experiences of good upbringing (even if he rejects them as "false"), and Ben is in the same boat but turned out okay. However, he does seem to get a lot more hung up on his relationship with the Jackal than Ben does (who is completely "whatever"). The Jackal essentially kicked Kaine out on his ass within ten minutes of birthing him but completely accepted Ben, so maybe the double rejection has something to do with Kaine's self-loathing and depression? Yeah, but it's clear to everybody that the Jackal is a complete loon, I doubt it'd be something Peter Parker couldn't get over, much less something that would turn him into a 90s faux-badass killing machine.
Kaine has a worse case of cellular degeneration than Ben, and is living in constant pain. I mean, that would make you pretty grumpy, but I don't think that by itself is enough to turn Kaine into a killer. If Peter was diagnosed with some sort of painful disease, would he turn into a supervillain? No, he'd fight through it. And Ben, while not suffering like Kaine did, had the knowledge that all clones like himself were fated to suffer a horrible disease-like death before their tenth birthday, and it didn't get him down. Could it be that, without pain, Ben saw his short time as a gift, whereas Kaine saw his as a curse? A combination of constant, almost debilitating pain with a short lifespan might account for a difference in outlook, but I just don't see Peter Parker ever succumbing to that kind of despair given the same circumstances.
Hm. Kaine has a sense of self-loathing that Peter doesn't. He hates being in solitary because he doesn't like being alone with his thoughts. He says he's been "running from himself" and can't find peace. Could that be the main difference? When Ben realized that he was a clone, he wanted to die and was briefly a fatalistic douchebag as well. While busing away from New York, he snapped at a depressed man to stop bothering him and that he'd be better off disappearing, but changed his mind when he stopped the man from committing suicide. He'd had an epiphany that losing "his life" could be the start of something new and better. Peter Parker himself went mental when he thought he was the clone; he tried to kill Ben, smacked his pregnant wife, and fell in with supervillains. Granted, that was more overwrought, terrible writing than anything else, but there's still precedent. Could it be that fate just didn't give Kaine an epiphany about his life that might have given him a different outlook? Again, this seems wrong. It suggests that Ben and Peter's coming around is solely based on luck, completely discounting the Peter Parker decency. I find it difficult to believe the same decency wouldn't sink into Kaine, even if it would take longer.
Y'know what? Maybe, by the same mistake that made him have more horrible cellular degeneration, he's just more mentally unstable. That kinda rings false also... if this degeneration is just a sort of "evolution," as this story suggests, then his brain should be fine. I mean, the side effects of the "evolution" might be long-standing brain problems that Peter or Ben wouldn't suffer, but just "brain problems" is hardly a satisfying explanation. I find it to be less unlikely simply because you can't really "convince" an insane person to be sane again, as happens in this story (of course, he's being convinced by his own hallucinations...). Furthermore, if it was just a mental condition, he would be cured now and acting more like Peter Parker, but from what I know of his later appearances he's still pretty much a fatalistic asshole.
Maybe it's just a combination. Upbringing, rejection, constant painful disease, bad luck, and possible mental problems can gang up on a guy. The problem is... it's Peter Parker. The guy's essentially got a butt crapping on him all day and all night forever, and he always always always manages to rise above and be the best man he can. That's what fascinates me so much about Kaine. Anything that would make Peter Parker abandon his deepest principles and succumb to hateful despair would have to be something BIG, and I want to know what that is. I just... don't see it there with Kaine.
Of course, I've far from read everything with him in it, so maybe I'll get another epiphany. I hope so!
Oh, by the way, I just got it. Kaine, as in "Cain and Abel." Kaine is Peter Parker's evil brother, Ben is his Abel. Only, y'know, with xtreme 90s letterz. They really had some nice foreshadowing with him. HE'S SO CLOSE TO BEING A GREAT CHARACTER.
Kaine also appeared in my copy of "Amazing Spider-Girl," where he's mellowed and helps out Peter Parker's future daughter. He acts kind of like how Peter Parker gets in those situations where he stops joking and gets serious, which felt very right.
Seriously, I need to go back and get more Spider back issues, I really had a ball reading them.
Bought a big stack of back issues yesterday, including "Web of Spider-Man #1," which featured a short story about one of my favorite comics enigmas, Kaine.
"Kaine in: Echoes" is written by J.M. DeMatteis, who's, like, one of the most stalwart writers of Spider-Man ever. He's been writing him since at least the early 90s, and his stuff is almost always solid. He was one of the main writers during the original Clone Saga, so I figure he's got as solid a grasp on the character of Kaine as anyone. "If a man is never truly born... can he truly live?" Oh yeah, that's DeMatteis.
In the story, Kaine is dying in prison from the cellular degeneration that affects all clones eventually. He has hallucinatory conversations with Ben Reilly, the Jackal, his ex Louise, his past self, and Peter Parker. He realizes that his cellular degeneration is his body growing into a stronger form and accepts it, recovering fully and ready to embrace a new, uncertain future.
Kind of a kontinuity kleanup tale, but not a bad story by a long shot. However, it still didn't give me a real handle on Kaine's motivations. That's what fascinates me about Kaine. He has all of Peter Parker's memories, morality, and outlook up to a point; Peter, Ben, and Kaine all start down the same track, but at one point they split down three different paths, with Kaine becoming a killer and a monster. Why? What was the inciting event? What was it?
Kaine intones that he never had a mother, and that the closest thing he had to a father was a deranged murderer who only saw him as an experiment. Could that be what makes him different from Peter Parker? We know that Peter himself initially used his powers for showboating self gain before the death of his Uncle Ben... could the lack of parenting be the source of Kaine's rottenness? This rings hollow... he'd still have Peter's memories and experiences of good upbringing (even if he rejects them as "false"), and Ben is in the same boat but turned out okay. However, he does seem to get a lot more hung up on his relationship with the Jackal than Ben does (who is completely "whatever"). The Jackal essentially kicked Kaine out on his ass within ten minutes of birthing him but completely accepted Ben, so maybe the double rejection has something to do with Kaine's self-loathing and depression? Yeah, but it's clear to everybody that the Jackal is a complete loon, I doubt it'd be something Peter Parker couldn't get over, much less something that would turn him into a 90s faux-badass killing machine.
Kaine has a worse case of cellular degeneration than Ben, and is living in constant pain. I mean, that would make you pretty grumpy, but I don't think that by itself is enough to turn Kaine into a killer. If Peter was diagnosed with some sort of painful disease, would he turn into a supervillain? No, he'd fight through it. And Ben, while not suffering like Kaine did, had the knowledge that all clones like himself were fated to suffer a horrible disease-like death before their tenth birthday, and it didn't get him down. Could it be that, without pain, Ben saw his short time as a gift, whereas Kaine saw his as a curse? A combination of constant, almost debilitating pain with a short lifespan might account for a difference in outlook, but I just don't see Peter Parker ever succumbing to that kind of despair given the same circumstances.
Hm. Kaine has a sense of self-loathing that Peter doesn't. He hates being in solitary because he doesn't like being alone with his thoughts. He says he's been "running from himself" and can't find peace. Could that be the main difference? When Ben realized that he was a clone, he wanted to die and was briefly a fatalistic douchebag as well. While busing away from New York, he snapped at a depressed man to stop bothering him and that he'd be better off disappearing, but changed his mind when he stopped the man from committing suicide. He'd had an epiphany that losing "his life" could be the start of something new and better. Peter Parker himself went mental when he thought he was the clone; he tried to kill Ben, smacked his pregnant wife, and fell in with supervillains. Granted, that was more overwrought, terrible writing than anything else, but there's still precedent. Could it be that fate just didn't give Kaine an epiphany about his life that might have given him a different outlook? Again, this seems wrong. It suggests that Ben and Peter's coming around is solely based on luck, completely discounting the Peter Parker decency. I find it difficult to believe the same decency wouldn't sink into Kaine, even if it would take longer.
Y'know what? Maybe, by the same mistake that made him have more horrible cellular degeneration, he's just more mentally unstable. That kinda rings false also... if this degeneration is just a sort of "evolution," as this story suggests, then his brain should be fine. I mean, the side effects of the "evolution" might be long-standing brain problems that Peter or Ben wouldn't suffer, but just "brain problems" is hardly a satisfying explanation. I find it to be less unlikely simply because you can't really "convince" an insane person to be sane again, as happens in this story (of course, he's being convinced by his own hallucinations...). Furthermore, if it was just a mental condition, he would be cured now and acting more like Peter Parker, but from what I know of his later appearances he's still pretty much a fatalistic asshole.
Maybe it's just a combination. Upbringing, rejection, constant painful disease, bad luck, and possible mental problems can gang up on a guy. The problem is... it's Peter Parker. The guy's essentially got a butt crapping on him all day and all night forever, and he always always always manages to rise above and be the best man he can. That's what fascinates me so much about Kaine. Anything that would make Peter Parker abandon his deepest principles and succumb to hateful despair would have to be something BIG, and I want to know what that is. I just... don't see it there with Kaine.
Of course, I've far from read everything with him in it, so maybe I'll get another epiphany. I hope so!
Oh, by the way, I just got it. Kaine, as in "Cain and Abel." Kaine is Peter Parker's evil brother, Ben is his Abel. Only, y'know, with xtreme 90s letterz. They really had some nice foreshadowing with him. HE'S SO CLOSE TO BEING A GREAT CHARACTER.
Kaine also appeared in my copy of "Amazing Spider-Girl," where he's mellowed and helps out Peter Parker's future daughter. He acts kind of like how Peter Parker gets in those situations where he stops joking and gets serious, which felt very right.
Seriously, I need to go back and get more Spider back issues, I really had a ball reading them.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
"Don't worry. This happens all the time."
Question: When comic characters, quite understandably, take into account the fact that they tend to end up back at the status quo when looking at the "earth shattering changes" in their lives, does it cheapen the story's effectiveness?
I mean, look at all the crap that's happened to Spider-Man. How many times have things "never been the same again" shortly before becoming the same again? There was that time when he he was convinced he was a clone of Peter Parker. And the time he got weird spider totem mystical powers. The dozen times he burned his costume and swore never to be Spider-Man again. The other dozen times when foes and friends, from Norman Osborn and Doctor Octopus to Aunt May and his parents, have died and come back to life.1 He always seems to end up at a comfortable status quo with the same basic supporting cast and the same basic rogues gallery. I'm not necessarily faulting the idea, I mean, that's what readers want to read about. What I'm saying is, when one of these "earth shattering" events take place, can we really blame Peter Parker for saying "That's a shock... but I'm not 100% convinced."
It's only natural, right? I'm something of a "past events should have a significant effect on the present," so I should be behind this. And yet... is it as entertaining? Say Harry Osborn dies. Is it going to be more dramatic for Peter to grieve and rage and whatever you do when a good friend dies, or would we prefer him to be paranoid about it? It makes sense, but every time something status quo-shaking happens, the only reaction is going to be reasoned paranoia. I mean... it's boring, right?
Perhaps its all in the writing style. Take Ed Brubaker's entertaining "Captain America" run, for instance. In the second issue, Cap finds out that the Red Skull has been murdered. He, having seen the man "die" in front of him at least two or three dozen times, is completely unconvinced. They DNA test the corpse and everything, but noooope. This all makes sense, is written well, and is entertaining. Of course, there's a difference between Nazi spymaster The Red Skull faking his death and Peter Parker's decrepit Aunt May faking hers, but whatevs.
Later, Captain America himself dies. This is handled very well; all the readers (and, going by logic, all the characters) know that when somebody dies, you'd better see a corpse or he'll be back up like a horror movie sequel. In this case, Cap took three bullets to the chest and bled out on the operating table. He was as mundanely dead as could be.3 Then Marvel let the death go on for two years, to great dramatic effect for the rest of the line. His allies felt his loss, his sidekick tried to fill the role, some really terrific stuff was written. Then, they brought him back to life in a good way that was intentionally foreshadowed well before his death.
Thus, when it's done in an intentional way (instead of by retroactive editorial mandate), this can be successful and compelling. I guess, either way you go, characters genre-savvy or dramatically convinced, there are no bad plots, only bad writers. That doesn't sound right, but you get me.
1And occasionally died again2
2And have occasionally come back to life again
3Another little detail I just loved about that story: the press covers the story all day and long into the night. I don't know why, but, just the fact that this would be a 24/7 media vigil seemed so... "solid" to me that I've remembered it years later.
I mean, look at all the crap that's happened to Spider-Man. How many times have things "never been the same again" shortly before becoming the same again? There was that time when he he was convinced he was a clone of Peter Parker. And the time he got weird spider totem mystical powers. The dozen times he burned his costume and swore never to be Spider-Man again. The other dozen times when foes and friends, from Norman Osborn and Doctor Octopus to Aunt May and his parents, have died and come back to life.1 He always seems to end up at a comfortable status quo with the same basic supporting cast and the same basic rogues gallery. I'm not necessarily faulting the idea, I mean, that's what readers want to read about. What I'm saying is, when one of these "earth shattering" events take place, can we really blame Peter Parker for saying "That's a shock... but I'm not 100% convinced."
It's only natural, right? I'm something of a "past events should have a significant effect on the present," so I should be behind this. And yet... is it as entertaining? Say Harry Osborn dies. Is it going to be more dramatic for Peter to grieve and rage and whatever you do when a good friend dies, or would we prefer him to be paranoid about it? It makes sense, but every time something status quo-shaking happens, the only reaction is going to be reasoned paranoia. I mean... it's boring, right?
Perhaps its all in the writing style. Take Ed Brubaker's entertaining "Captain America" run, for instance. In the second issue, Cap finds out that the Red Skull has been murdered. He, having seen the man "die" in front of him at least two or three dozen times, is completely unconvinced. They DNA test the corpse and everything, but noooope. This all makes sense, is written well, and is entertaining. Of course, there's a difference between Nazi spymaster The Red Skull faking his death and Peter Parker's decrepit Aunt May faking hers, but whatevs.
Later, Captain America himself dies. This is handled very well; all the readers (and, going by logic, all the characters) know that when somebody dies, you'd better see a corpse or he'll be back up like a horror movie sequel. In this case, Cap took three bullets to the chest and bled out on the operating table. He was as mundanely dead as could be.3 Then Marvel let the death go on for two years, to great dramatic effect for the rest of the line. His allies felt his loss, his sidekick tried to fill the role, some really terrific stuff was written. Then, they brought him back to life in a good way that was intentionally foreshadowed well before his death.
Thus, when it's done in an intentional way (instead of by retroactive editorial mandate), this can be successful and compelling. I guess, either way you go, characters genre-savvy or dramatically convinced, there are no bad plots, only bad writers. That doesn't sound right, but you get me.
1And occasionally died again2
2And have occasionally come back to life again
3Another little detail I just loved about that story: the press covers the story all day and long into the night. I don't know why, but, just the fact that this would be a 24/7 media vigil seemed so... "solid" to me that I've remembered it years later.
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