The United Federation of Charles

As I mentioned in the "Who is the Girl of Steel" (here) essay, Supergirl was absent from comics in her original Kryptonian form for the better part of two decades. While there were women who wore the big red S, they weren't Superman's cousin from Krypton. This all changed in 2003 with the second story arc of Batman/Superman"The Supergirl from Krypton."

Superman is watching you. Do not look at his cousin.

    Overall, I was very fond of "The Supergirl from Krypton" because it was a fairly whimsical tale with some serious bits. It wasn't especially deep in its characterization, Supergirl is amnesiac about her past for example, but it was fun. You had such things as an entire army of cloned Doomsdays, the Amazons actually being good for a change, and a throw-down with both the Girl of Steel and the Man of Steel with the Lord of Apokolips.

    Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is a really good adaptation of that storyline.

    I know! It had to happen sometime.

    As mentioned above, the story consists of Kara Zor-El arriving with a mount of Kryptonite from her homeworld. In the original comic, it is the remains of Argo City but it just seems like a whole bunch of Kryptonite came with her this time. She makes the mistake of landing in Gotham City, immediately making Batman suspicious. Naked and unable to speak English, Supergirl gets into all manner of trouble with her new powers. Batman manages to disable her with a shard of Kryptonite, which really is troublesome since that's a teenage girl he's using a lethal radioactive isotope to knock out.

I love seeing the DC Trinity together.

    As expected, Superman shows up and is delighted to have some of his lost Kryptonian family back. We get some really good scenes between Kara and Clark where he introduces her to shopping. It's a bit questionable a girl from a scientific Utopia would take to buying like a credit-card happy Valley girl but I appreciated showing her taking to our world with gusto. Batman still believes this is all a trick by someone like Lex Luthor or Brainiac because Batman does not believe in good things happening to good people. Thus, Bruce Wayne calls Wonder Woman to see if Supergirl can get some hardassed training in her powers by someone who isn't her cousin.

    Darkseid, meanwhile, looks for someone to replace Big Barda as the head of his guard.

    Supergirl, being a Kryptonian, looks just right.

    This is a pretty straightforward story and there's not a lot of twists and turns. It's about the three biggest superheroes in the world dealing with the arrival of someone every bit as powerful as them (even if Batman's power is his mind) but none of the discipline. Darkseid senses Supergirl is a weak-link in Earth's champions and could be bent to the, no pun intended, dark side.

Supergirl goes Goth? Fine, good for her. Darkseid lusting after her? No, wrong! Find someone your own age, God of Evil.

    Sadly, we never get to see what methods the Lord of Apokolips uses to try to bend Supergirl to his will and it would have been nice for them to expand on the temptations he might offer. The movie makes much of how Kal-El is a controlling overprotective father-figure while Batman alienates everyone (and Wonder Woman tries to kidnap her for boot camp). Doing a Return of the Jedi scene where Darkseid tempts Supergirl with freedom would have been a good addition to the film.

    Really, my biggest complaint about this film is Supergirl is a sideshow to Superman and Batman's struggle between trust vs. caution. Summer Glau does an excellent Kara Zor-El and I can't help but think this story would have benefited from more scenes from her perspective. What works in a six-issue comic format doesn't always benefit from transitioning to an hour and ten minute movie.

    Also, less of a complaint and more an observation is the artists for these movies really threw in a lot of fanservice for the heterosexual male gaze. Supergirl and all of the women are depicted with large anime-esque eyes, curvy forms, and revealing outfits. Given much of the movie takes place on Paradise Island, this leads to a lot of attractive women in various form-fitting attire. It's on the mild-side but when some of Darkseid's Female Furies, who are historically a collection of grotesques, appear somewhat attractive then you know the artists have gone too far.

All will love her and despair!

The voice acting in the movie is good with Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly doing their usual bang-up jobs with the Dark Knight and Man of Tomorrow. Susan Eisenberg also is an excellent Wonder Woman, which we knew already from the Justice League cartoon and the Wonder Woman movie. In a way, I miss Nicholle Tom as Supergirl but I think Summer Glau was a perfectly good substitute and probably better for their fundamentally different characters. Sadly, Andre Braugher just doesn't work for me as Darkseid after Michael Ironsides.

In conclusion, this is an enjoyable little movie which is about as substantial as a vanilla wafer. It has beautiful characters, excellent action, and about 20% as much characterization as it needs. Still, I'm going to give it a generous review because I love Supergirl and Wonder Woman. Any movie which has both is hard for me to come down on hard on.

9/10

    Changes is, in its own way, an ending point for The Dresden Files. More precisely, it is the end of the "old" Dresden Files and the beginning of the new. The major plot arc for the first ten or so books of the series, the war between the White Council of Wizards and the Red Court of Vampires, comes to its dramatic clothes. We also bid farewell to the majority of the original series' trappings like the Detective story elements, its Noir trappings, and the idea this is anything but a very high fantasy urban fantasy series.

    Some of these changes are for the better.

    Some aren't.

    The premise of the book is Susan Rodriguez, the first love interest of Harry Dresden, has returned from a lengthy absence to inform her ex-boyfriend he's a father. Rather than bring them together, the discovery that she cut him out of his child's life without even allowing him the decency of knowing destroys any respect Harry has for his now-vampiric former lover. Worse, his child has been kidnapped by the Red Court of Vampires for an evil ritual which will probably result in her sacrifice.

    The Red Court is pulling out all the stops to destroy Harry, having grown absolutely gut-sick of the constant never-ending interference of our protagonist. This means attacks on Harry from supernatural, mundane, and spiritual corners. For once, they are portrayed as being every bit as deadly as their reputation implies. Watching Harry's life begin to disintegrate underneath the onslaught of terrible things is some of the most tense storytelling in the series.

    Changes makes excellent use of continuity without feeling the need to bog down the reader in irrelevant details. As Harry's life slowly unwinds, he proceeds to call in just about every single favor and ally he's made in the past ten books. He acts intelligently, with conviction, and proactively rather than reactively--at least to dealing with the problem at hand. It's one of Harry's finest moments, taking charge of his destiny to get back his daughter.

    Much of this novel is devoted to the moral question of what to do in order to accomplish your goals. Nietzsche formed an entire moral philosophy around this concept and what you should be willing to do. Here, Harry makes a statement he will do anything to save his daughter's life. Anything. That includes making a deal with the Queen of the Winter Fae and, if she refuses to help, darker sources of power. There's some genuinely shocking moments and they are all the more effective because you wouldn't think Harry would stoop to those levels.

    The ending of Changes is, sadly, something readers will never be able to experience the same way fans did when the book first came out. It was so shocking and unexpected everyone was seriously considering it to be the end of the series. Now that new volumes of the series are out starring Harry Dresden, some of the initial impact has been lost. Still, it's a surprising ending and more effective for that.

    In conclusion, this is one of the best books in the series but it's also one which is terrible for getting on the series with. Much of its appeal stems from the great use of continuity and previously established characters. Despite this, it's so well-written and such a classic story you could jump on it if you wanted to. The humor, action, and villains are great in this book. There's also a lot of powerful terrible moments like the resolution of the Harry/Susan plot.

10/10

    I initially hated Far Cry 3, having difficulty getting into the controls and not at all enjoying the hard-to-use vehicles. I couldn't get into the mood of the game. It wasn't until I retried playing it that it rocketed up to becoming one of my favorite games of all time.

    However, despite this, I recognized the game as having quite a few problematic elements. Protagonist Jason Brody was a "Mighty Whitey" savior-figure who joined the native people only to become better at their ways than them. Ally-character Citra's cult was completely despicable despite being the apparent religion of the otherwise modernized Rakyat. Even the fact the main enemy was a white Imperialist didn't take away from the fact the majority of the game was a white man killing a bunch of brown folks because they'd taken his other white friends hostage.

    So, I was pleased at the possibility of a game where most of these problems are fixed. Ajay Ghale is a native of Kyrat raised in American. He is a non-white protagonist and the religion of Kyrat is neither orientalist nor hiding any dark secrets. While I would have preferred the use of a real-life ethnicity and religion, this is a definite step in the right direction.

Far Cry 4 is one of the prettiest shooters in video games.

    The premise is Ajay Ghale coming back to the land of his birth to scatter his mother's ashes. On the way, his bus is intercepted by the government's forces. The dictator of Kyrat, Pagan Min, was in love with Ajay's mother and seems to have some transferred affection for her son. The only problem is Pagan Min is a bat**** crazy psychopath who leaves Ajay alone in the upstairs of a mansion, allowing him to escape into the wilds of Kyrat to join up with the resistance.

    Ajay isn't the most interesting character in the story, not going through much of an arc through the storyline. Say what you will about Jason Brody but he definitely changes as he goes through his adventures on Rook Island. Ajay's desire to spread his mother's ashes despite the fact a civil war is going on strikes me as a trifle unrealistic. If it were my mother, I'd be content bringing her back to her homeland once bullets started flying.

     The game makes up for Ajay's rather bland white-bread personality (if not ethnicity) by providing a colorful cast of weirdos every bit as off-beat as Far Cry 3. There's Amita the Marxist guerrilla, Sabal the theocratic freedom fighter, Hunk the American Idiot here to fight, and (of course) the villain. Watching the various characters interact is a source of great enjoyment even if the choice system is kind of ludicrous.

Amita is a favorite character of mind. Reminding me of Bolo Santosi from Just Cause 2.

     A story mechanic is that Ajay serves as the tie-breaker between Amita and Sabal's deadlocked decisions on whether to modernize or isolate Kyrat. Do you want to burn Pagan Min's drug labs or keep them going so the country has an economy to fall back on when he's gone (criminal or not)? Do you sacrifice a group of troops in order to get valuable intel which will warn you about an upcoming attack (which may or may not have already happened)?

    Everyone is, sadly, a little too ruthless so it doesn't seem like there's so much moral ambiguity as there's no good choices. I would have preferred a more tightly written story following Ajay's journey through the Golden Path than the artificial multiple choice story provided.

    The gameplay is virtually identical to Far Cry 3, which isn't a bad thing. I'm a great believer in the principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" in video games. Better to have a formula which you slowly refine rather than changing it around with every new game. There's a few new abilities like elephant riding and new enemies like Hunters (silent but deadly bowmen) but the basic structure remains the same.

    Ajay wanders around a very large map, retakes fortresses, and does missions while exploring the island. There's lots of shooting, skinning animals, crafting items, and stealth murder. Vehicle driving is every bit as frustrating as before but this is a small element of an otherwise excellent game. Then there's the fact Far Cry 4 is gorgeous.

The conflict between the modern and the old is a central theme.

    As beautiful as previous entries in the series have been, this entry trumps them all. There are babbling brooks, luscious jungles, and spectacular vistas. Even the buildings are beautiful with the palaces and temples having a "substance" to them, at least on the Xbox One, which is something I rarely say about video games. I wandered around many areas, just looking at the sights, which is something I haven't done since since Skyrim.

   All of this means Far Cry 4 is one of my favorite action games in terms of sheer playability. The combination of shooting and stealth means there's a near unlimited number of ways you can approach combat with enemies. You can sneak up behind them and stab them, run and gun, or make use of the new bait mechanic to summon animals to kill for you. Taking fortresses is an endless source of fun, involving all manner of tactical planning which is never so difficult as to require you to go one way or another. It's challenging but the guards are dumb enough that you can achieve your results however you want without it being easy either.

    One of the most touted abilities in pre-release media was the ability to ride elephants and use them as war mounts. I haven't got a chance to use this power yet and there doesn't seem to be enough elephants around to justify its use. Still, it's there. That's how varied the game is. You can attack your enemies' fortresses on entirely optional war elephants.

The appeal of the games include lots of hilarious oddball scenes like elephants vs. fascist troops vs. resistance fighters.

    The game makes use of a co-op feature where you and a buddy can join together to handle all of the various horrors but, frankly, I've never been a fan of online dual play and that hasn't been changed here. Indeed, I rather resent the game goes out of its way to encourage you to play with other fans online.

    I, thus, left the game's co-op feature offline for the majority of my playthrough. Indeed, one of the game's few flaws along with vehicle driving is the immersion-breaking suggestions you might want to do something "fun" like this every so often. You don't need to tell me what's fun game, I can judge that for myself.

    Ubisoft. *sigh*

Pagan Min wears a pink shirt. He's also crazy psychotic enough to pull it off.

    Another couple of things I'd like to comment on is the addition of a radio DJ to the game who takes on a Three-Dog (from Fallout 3) role of narrating the protagonist's adventures as they go through the game. A hyper-liberal stoner who is a bit of an ass, the Voice of Radio Free Kyrat is a hilarious character even if I imagine he'll annoy some people. He's endearingly offensive, though, and that's what the best DJs are. I actually found myself wanting to get into vehicles so I could hear his latest speeches.

    Pagan Min also deserves a shout-out in the writers having crafted a delightfully hate-able villain. Like Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2, Pagan Min frequently contacts AJ via radio in order to taunt him or speak. He doesn't hate our protagonist, though, but seems to think of him as a weirdly disobedient son. Troy Baker does an amazing job realizing a three-dimensional comic lunatic who is half-Joker and half-David Bowie. It's all too easy to root for Pagan Min and I rarely say that about villains.

    In conclusion, this is a great game and I think fans of Far Cry 3 will love it. Those who haven't played it will find it just as awesome as I did I think. The characters are great, the scenery is gorgeous, the humor is funny, and most of all the gameplay is fun. That's the best part of things, really?

10/10

    The ending of Changes was, in a word, epic. It also ended in a manner which left fans sincerely curious as to how the series would continue. If you haven't read up to Changes, now would be a good time to stop as it's impossible to discuss Ghost Story without discussing the finale of the previous book.

    Still here?

    Harry dies at the end of Changes.

    Shot by a sniper rifle, probably wielded by Kincaid the Assassin (a rival/friend/enemy), Harry fell into Lake Michigan and disappeared. Much like Superman, you know Harry was going to come back but some believed the series might have a major time skip followed by a switching to Harry's newly discovered daughter.

    Instead, the story starts with the very intriguing premise of Harry as a ghost. This status, again, is something no serious fan would expect to last but allows the consequences from the previous book to continue. Awakening in a state between life and death, Harry is charged by the Archangel Uriel to investigate the circumstances of his death and becomes embroiled in a conflict with the ghost of an enemy.

    The book's appeal is watching how Harry's friends and associates have dealt with a world without their protector. It is a sobering realization for Harry that Chicago is a far darker place without him yet his friends are capable of defending it. They have formed a "Justice League of America" which works as a network across America, fighting against the aggressively expansionist monsters of the world.

    The destruction of the Red Court of Vampires saved the White Council but like the fall of many dictators, the sudden chaos and power vacuum hasn't made things easier for humanity. The Formor Court is a collection of gods, fairies, and monsters kept in check by the Red Court and White Council's power for centuries but now one is gone while the other is terribly weakened.

    Perfect for expansionism.

    Throughout the book, Harry struggles to deal with his friends who are used to dealing with imposters and not wanting to believe their friend is dead. I loved Murphy's reaction best because she has stepped up to be the new hero of Chicago but the "unsolved" mystery of Harry's murder burdens her tremendously. Seeing her come to terms with Harry's death in the way a fan might is a great bit of writing.

    Also great is the development of Molly Carpenter. Previously Harry's spunky Goth girl sidekick, she's evolved into the "Ragged Lady." A woman who uses illusions and misdirection to punish not only the supernatural evils of Chicago but its corrupt police force. The change was unexpected, heartbreaking, and yet believable given what we know about her.

        The action in the book is well-written with a conflict between Harry and an archwizard's ghost. The fact Harry, as a ghost, is deprived of the majority of his supernatural mojo makes the story have higher stakes than normal. You can usually count on Harry to be able to blast himself out of problems and he doesn't have that as an option here.

        The Corpsetaker's ghost and her spirit army reminds me of the old Wraith: The Oblivion tabletop roleplaying game, which isn't a bad thing. I also enjoyed reading about how Harry struggles to adjust to being an invisible incorporal specter who can't do any magic. The Formor are worse than the Red Court in many ways and I look forward to seeing them as foes in future volumes. I can't say I really buy the world is worse off than when the Red Court was alive, though, since they were such a titanic force for evil. You'd think at least some of the world would be a better place without soulless marauding psychopaths.

    In conclusion, Ghost Story is a great continuation of the saga and a way to write Harry out of the corner he was pushed into. The new status quo is exciting and full of promise as is the possibilities opened up by Harry's status at the end.

10/10

    I have an affection for fighting games which goes back to the Super Nintendo version of Streetfighter 2. The internet has revived much of the joy to be had playing against strangers in arcade games with multiplayer even if design has moved away from being able to sit in front of a TV with friends and multiple controllers.

    Of course, I've never been terribly good at fighting games since I'm a compulsive button masher. Likewise, I've always wanted more story and more investment in the characters while plenty of gamers I know prefer less (with some wishing there was none at all). Thus, I was a little skeptical anything could make Injustice: Gods Among Us interesting.

    Then I saw the introduction.

George Newbern's acting both as "normal" and "crazy" Superman is quite impressive.

    The premise is Superman goes insane after the death of Lois Lane and destruction of Metropolis by the Joker. Executing the Joker for his crimes, Superman creates a totalitarian state ruled by him and the corrupted version of the Justice League.

    This premise would probably be too dark and a character assassination of Clark Kent if not for the fact we immediately switch to an alternate reality where our heroes are still in existence. Superman's corruption occurred in a parallel reality and "our" heroes are recruited by Batman to take the evil Superman down.

    Longtime fans of DC comics and their spin-offs will recognize the "Evil DC Superheroes vs. Good Ones" plot as very similar to both the seminal comic series Kingdom Come (though Superman isn't the bad guy there) and the "Justice Lords" episodes of the Justice League cartoon. There's even elements of Mark Waid's Irredeemable.

    Some fans have expressed that it's a bit of a cop out to have the renegade Superman not be the 'real' one but I'd argue against this. As much as there's a kind of seedy joy to seeing heroes fall from grace, I'm an optimist in real life and prefer to see evil triumph over good. As such, my chosen character in Injustice: Gods Among Us is Superman and he's going to beat the crap out of the version who disgraced everything he stands for.

The environments are extremely well-designed.

    The gameplay is hard to really talk about since it's nothing new but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's more or less an adaptation of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which was more or less an adaptation of the Mortal Kombat franchise to begin with.

    There's an addition of many mini-games which are fun and the cool factor of destructible environments but people who have played fighting games know what to expect. Two guys sit on opposite sides of the stage, start pounding on one another, then one finishes the other off.

    The stage design is wonderful, making Metropolis and Gotham City as well as so many other sights evocative. You can fight in the Fortress of Solitude or Bat Cave plus plenty of other recognizable locations. I especially liked the Atlantis, Hall of Justice, and Insurgency stages which really qualify as works of art.

Harley Quinn makes any game better. So, it gets a +1 just for that.

    At heart, though, what makes this game work is the fact its a bunch of recognizable characters the audience cares about going through a dramatic arc. For perhaps the first time, the plotline is not just an excuse for the fighting (well, it is, but it's not just an excuse). The plotline of the game takes place through multiple perspectives, chronicling various characters both good and evil as they explore the Brave New World created by the alternate Superman. You get to play from the perspective of Green Arrow, Superman, Batman, Cyborg, the Joker, and others.

    My favorite moment in the campaign is when Aquaman from the "normal" universe receives an ultimatum directed at the alternate one to surrender Atlantis. He proceeds to kick the ass of Superman's flunkies (including Captain Marvel) in a truly epic way. I also love Wonder Woman standing up for the true ideals of the Amazons (no matter what DC comics says): peace and justice. The voice actors give it their all and you manage to believe everyone is who they're supposed to be. The fact the game got so many actors famous for doing the characters in other mediums.

    This is a work which really "gets" the characters of the DC universe. The moral ambiguity and co-dependency of Harley Quinn, the peaceful warrior credo of Wonder Woman, and Damien Wayne's absurdest need for a father figure who unleashes his dark side are all handled wonderfully. I'm annoyed Supergirl doesn't have a role in the story but, otherwise, I'm impressed by so many characters having cool ties to the new world.

The gameplay's biggest point? It's fun.

    I will say, the story gets a little too dark in places. For example: Not only does the Joker have to kill Lois Lane and Metropolis but the game makes it so Lois is pregnant with Superman's child at the time. I was like, really? You felt the need to go there? Then there's the fate of a certain child superhero's double who Superman executes to show he's fully beyond the moral event horizon. You know, like turning the planet into a Soviet police state wasn't enough. Overall, though, this was a very impressive bit of writing.

    How good is the plotting in the game? The fact they take the time to explain why Green Arrow can fight Superman in a fist fight along with the Joker. Sure, the excuse amounts to a magic Kryptonian-technology pill which makes people almost as strong as Superman but it works. The fact this excuse shows up in cutscenes is a great little bit of fan continuity which "sells" it to the player. There's a few slow parts in the plot but most of them are quite interesting.

    In conclusion, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a great piece of capepunk fiction. Superman's corruption and the toxicity it brings to his fellow heroes is a suitably well-developed tragedy. The fact it isn't, "our" Superman doesn't impact the fact the new world is treated as a valuable and important place in its own right. The fact I was invested in the story from start to finish says its worth getting for those who likes fighting games. If you don't, the storyline is unlikely to change your opinion but this is at the top of storytelling in its genre. With the exception of Arkham Asylum's games, this is probably the best DC comics video game ever made.

10/10

"Make way for the bad guy."
-Tony Montana, Scarface.

    As anyone who is a fan of my blog will know, I am a huge fan of superheroes. Not just comic books but cartoons, movies, literature, and more. With such an endless devotion to superheroes, it was inevitable I take a hand at creating my own. Or, more precisely, creating my own supervillain.

    Written in the style of Soon I Will Be Invincible and published by EJB Networking (Confessions of a D-List Supervillain, Dead Eye, Prime Suspects), The Rules of Supervillainy follows Gary Karkofsky a.k.a. Merciless as he discovers a magical cloak and decides to put it to good use. Specifically, the good use of making himself rich by robbing the overly corrupt and unpleasant of Falconcrest City.

    Being a supervillain in a world with a history of costumed criminals and heroes is tougher than it looks, however. Gary quickly finds himself surrounded by bad guys much worse than himself and a city badly out of its depth thanks to the recent death of its costumed protector. Worse, his magical cloak comes with a built-in conscience thanks to it being haunted by the ghost of a previous wearer. Oh and then there's the fact his wife HATES the fact he's become a supervillain.

Merciless is not the most imaginative supervillain for logos.

The Rules of Supervillainy is the first novel in the Merciless series, chronicling the adventures of the titular supervillain as he works his way through an alternate Earth's various cities and tries to figure out where he fits in a planet full of superhumans.

I've attempted to replicate the kind of kooky, continuity-heavy, melodramatic atmosphere of comic books for my setting while trying to give its protagonist a sense of grounding. He's an ordinary person in an extraordinary world, confronted with all the fantastic things being a part of the superhuman world brings.

    How does a person react to the kind of madmen who want to take over the world? How do they deal with the better-than-reality moral paragons who stand above regular humanity? What do they think of a planet where supervillains are simply too dangerous to stay down? How would the world change with almost a century of amazing wonders in capes and cowls? What tragedies would be averted and what would replace them?

    I try to answer some of these questions with Gary's sardonic wit. As much as I love superheroes, I also recognize it's probably better to handle them with as much humor as horror. I've attempted to go for a similar vibe to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files as well as the Confessions of a D-List Supervillain world. The protagonists may be wiseasses but you have to take the worlds seriously, even as you're aware the surroundings are ridiculous as an author.

    It's what makes things fun.

    Some people may question why I decided to do the book from the perspective of the villain rather than the hero and my take on the subject is we've had eighty years of comics to show us the perspective of heroes.

    Gary isn't much of a villain either. He may talk the talk but I'm not sure he is able to walk the walk. He's also got that wonderful element of tragedy in his background which produces people like Batman, Spiderman, and (sadly) the Joker. Which way he'll fall is something the reader will be forced to buy the book to find out.

    When Jim Bernheimer, author of EJB Networking's books, contacted me, I was surprised to find him so interested in my manuscript. Superhero literature is still a pretty new thing in publishing, even on the indie scene. Still, he loved the work and I was very grateful when he said he wanted to share it with his fans.

    I hope you will all pick up a copy come the middle of May.

    Professional wrestling is my guilty pleasure. I don't watch much of it anymore, having quit roughly two decades ago when I watched my last pay-per-view with the so-called Montreal Screwjob between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in 1997. For those who have no love of "athletic theater", that is an interesting story in and of itself.

    While wrestling may, itself, be faked, it is a fabulous display of choreographed maneuvers and over-the-top fighting moves. The storytelling is cheesy fun, creating good guys ("faces") and bad guys ("heels") who duke it out in exaggerated melodramas. The energy is intense and, most of all, it is fun.

    So why was I hesitant about purchasing this game?

The motion-capture is staggeringly realistic for most, I repeat most, wrestlers.

    Well, again, two decades of absence means that I was unfamiliar with a lot of the characters as well as the changes in the industry. Likewise, a lot of the appeal of professional wrestling is, bizarrely enough, the storytelling. Matches between on-screen characters are charged with emotional energy which is difficult to translate across mediums. If this was just a fighting game re-skin, it would be hard to justify the purchase cost.

    So is it worth it?

    Surprisingly, I'll say yes, with a caveat that it drops the ball in places it could have been awesome in. The final result is WWE 2K15 is a very fun game that has a lot going for it but it could have been much-much better with just a few tweaks.

    The gameplay is, really, what anyone who purchases this game should be looking at and it's incredibly fun and addictive. Even if you don't know these characters from Adam, I think you'll find this a worthwhile purchase. Just beware about the game's very obvious flaws.

The in-ring close-ups show a great attention to detail. This is a very pretty game.

    The heart of the game is simulating whatever kind of wrestling match you want. There's tag-team matches, elimination matches, submission matches, battle royales, ladder matches, cage matches, and more. There's also "Universe mode" which takes you through a year in the WWE with weekly events, pay-per-view events, and so on with a variety of characters.

    Getting to play a variety of characters and listening to the announcer's commentary throughout is greatly enjoyable. I found myself really enjoying certain characters like Bryan Daniels, John Cena, and Nikki Bella for their varied but easy-to-learn fighting styles.

    As you progress through the story, you also get "secrets" about the WWE and this is where the game falls short. Much like Batman: Arkham Asylum, they should have given us biographies of these characters so we knew who they were and their histories. I love that stuff. Here, they just give very short notes about them and their feuds.

In more ways than one.

    The gameplay is extremely well-designed with combat requiring a mixture of grapples, reversals, kicks, punches, signature moves, and finishers. The grappling mini-game took me out of the "reality" on display for a time but, once I mastered it, it became quite enjoyable. I was stunned to realize I'd played almost forty-hours of this game with minimal story by the time I started checking the clock.

    Unfortunately, knowing exactly HOW TO PLAY THE GAME is difficult to figure out. The game gives a "tutorial" which is a complete joke as they don't give you any insight into how to do anything. You have to figure out how to play the game yourself and while this isn't a problem when you're playing WWE Superstars, the My Career Mode is a nightmare. Players should be warned NOT to start with that or they're just asking for trouble.

    Speaking of "My Career Mode", it is a joke. Many-many fans would love to simulate creating their own professional wrestler and taking him through a career in the WWE to becoming World Champion. Theoretically, My Career Mode allows you the Punch-Out!-esque experience of doing just that.

    Theoretically.

There's a pretty big roster but, surprisingly, I understand this is a downgrade from previous editions.

    The problem is the game assumes you have familiarity with how to play the game from either previous editions or the other modes rather than something you're starting out with. Its storytelling is shockingly weak, too, having the vaguest hint of a rivalry with a character named Barron Blade (the misspelling is deliberate) who forces you to tap out at WWE's tryouts.

    Yes, the game starts your power-fantasy character submitting to another's badassitude. Great decision there. There's almost no real story, character interaction, or the colorful personalities from the rest of the game. The game could have easily worked around a silent protagonist but it chooses not to.

    It's still fun getting the chance to squash superstars in a match at Wrestlemania but even this is undermined by having to fight the same wrestlers you should be facing at big events in regular matches. Defeating John Cena at Wrestlemania isn't as cool as it could be since you've defeated him a half-dozen times before.

At the end of the day, it's all about the matches. If that appeals to you, go for it.

    The game is, however, beautiful and this cannot be understated. Motion-capture of the performers has made them incredibly life-like. The music in the game is enjoyable if you like a pop R&B sort of sound but I found it strange it used the wrestler's intro music in-game but not at its sometimes too-long loading screens. The ring announcers can also get a little repetitive but there's enough variety in their commentary that there's still new sound bytes I'm hearing for the first time dozens of hours in.

    As flawed as the game is, it manages to capture some of the energy which is inherent to pro-wrestling. My Career Mode was deeply disappointing, though, and I think it would have been better to remove it entirely than do it half-assed the way they did. The quality of the graphics makes up for a lot as does the varied and fun gameplay. For those who just want pure entertainment from their video games, WWE 2K15 is surprisingly addictive. I just wish they'd provided a decent tutorial.

    In conclusion, this is very much an acquired taste gameplay-wise but I can't help but admit I've played the crap out of it.

    Hell, I even hurt my wrist.

8/10

    Another capepunk novel for your reading enjoyment!

    Deconstructions and parodies are nothing new to the genre but they tend toward the dark and gritty. This novel, by contrast, is light and breezy. It doesn't take the conflict between superheroes and supervillains very seriously, instead treating them as two groups more interested in showing off than anything else. Despite this, their conflicts are fun and colorful. This is a book which reflects a more innocent worldview, more Sky High than Watchmen, and I quite liked it.

    The premise is Penny Akk, daughter of the superhero Brainy Akk, is thirteen-years-old and waiting impatiently for the arrival of her expected super-science powers. Friends with a laid back boy named Ray Viles and a girl named Claire Lutra, she finds her powers finally do come and at an accelerated rate.

    Accidentally activating Claire's superpowers inherited from her retired supervillain mother and giving Captain America-esque Super Soldier abilities to Ray, they get caught up in the latter's attempt to wreck the Science Fair out of revenge for Penny getting disqualified. It makes sense in context (i.e. thirteen year old boys do stupid things to impress girls).

    Attacked by the precious sidekick of a Batman-equivalent, Penny discovers to her horror that she and her friends have been labeled pre-teen supervillains. Through a series of bad mistakes and the illicit thrills which come from rebelling against your parents, Penny and her company proceed to adopt the supervillainous monikor of "The Inscrutable Machine."

    The superhero and supervillain community are both thrown by how good they are at being bad, too, with attempts to manipulate them turning out disastrously wrong for everyone but the child heroes. Their lifelong friendship and familiarity with the superhero world means they are able to succeed where more seasoned criminals don't--and it's hilarious.

    The children antiheroes are ridiculously cute, one even having the ability to appear harmlessly adorable as one of her superpowers. It helps the supervillains of this world operate under similar rules to the Venture Brothers' Guild of Calamitous Intent which prevents them from harming superheroes or their families without difficulty. These rules are enforced by a grim and sinister hero who has difficulty bringing in rule-breakers alive.

    Nice bit of world-building there.

    I also am very fond of the numerous other heroes and villains the author populates his world with. My favorite is undoubtedly Lucyfar who may or may not be the Devil but, either way, acts like a teenage girl. The Council of Seven and a Half, Gabriel, Generic Girl, and the Librarian all make the characters pop out from the page. The stakes are reasonably low for much of the book but keep raising at a steady but reasonable pace.

    I don't think the book is perfect. Sometimes it's a little too cutesy. Also, it would have been nice for the book to acknowledge when the stakes have reached a serious level like when the antiheroes are blackmailed into trashing a local Iron Man-equivalent's office. Still, I can't be too hard on a book which has a legion of zombie rag-dolls which spread by biting cloth.

    In conclusion, if you love adorable superhero stories and don't take them too seriously then this is probably your book. If you have a low tolerance for sugar and spice and everything nice, then this book will probably give you diabetes.

9/10

   Kezzie of Babylon is a hard book to review.

    It has the hilarious introduction of two drug addicts landing in hot water due to the stripper girlfriend of one stealing their only means of paying off a local crime lord. They proceed to deliver a drug for said crime lord which may or may not be responsible for the zombie apocalypse breaking out in Hong Kong.

    The start is a hilarious Guy Richie-esque film from the perspective of two bickering best friends who make stupid decisions but you understand the stupidity because, well, they're drug-addicts. The problem is the book changes around the halfway point. Dramatically. I'm talking From Dusk Til Dawn, change of genre.

    The pair of them arrive at a hippie commune to lie low as the zombie apocalypse spreads, only to become prisoners of an insane religious fundamentalist called Kezzie. Kezzie possesses the power to control zombies and proceeds to hold our antiheroes prisoner for the remainder of the book, shouting nonsensical Biblical-inspired gibberish the entire time.

    And that's it.

    The book is a decent-to-above-average zombie story, don't get me wrong. The problem is I can't help but think the first half of the book would have been much-much more enjoyable to continue the theme of. The madcap lunacy and stupidity of our protagonists is hilarious to read.

    I wanted to see Zack, the male of the group, track down his perfect hippie goddess (a woman he's fallen in love with even though they've never met). I wanted to see them run into Zack's stripper girlfriend who stole from them. I wanted Zack to get it into his head Frankie, his fellow drug addict, is in love with him (or at least seemed to be) but was too drugged up to express it.

    None of this happens.

    The titular character, Kezzie, weighs the book down like a millstone. Kezzie believes God speaks to her and makes up Biblical passages to justify her every whim. She's a two-dimensional character who never shows any sign of kindness, decency, regret, remorse, or backstory. In what was a hilariously Noir comedy, she stops the zaniness dead in its tracks and you can't help but wonder why the protagonists don't just kill her. Especially once bodies start to drop by the truckload.

     Much of the book's page count is wasted on the question of what Kezzie is, whether she's a servant of God or the Devil, and I couldn't help but think, "Who cares? Either way she's a psychopath." My own interpretation is she's mentally ill rather than evil, which makes her a figure of pity rather than derision but no one attempts to help her. Instead, they walk around on eggshells trying to figure out how to get her to not kill them even though she's a mostly helpless figure.

    It's unfortunate because I kept hoping the book would return to its delightfully quirky humor from before but remains saddled to Kezzie until the very end. I also was upset with the death of a main character who was infinitely more interesting than Kezzie but dies first rather than any of the other somewhat-boring inhabitants of the commune.

    There's still much to be enjoyed once the Kezzie portions begins with the terror of Zack being quite believable as he struggles to deal with Kezzie's irrational whims. The fact he attempts to placate her rather than deal with her more permanently is a believable solution for most people. It's rare in stories we see how difficult it is to kill another human and it works well here as Kezzie's willingness to employ violence makes her the ruler of the commune rather than any belief in her divinity.

    I recommend Kezzie of Babylon to die-hard fans of the zombie genre. As irritating as the villain is, she's quite effective as a horror antagonist. The terrifying imprisonment our heroes endure keeps the story from being boring even if I can't help but wish they'd just gotten on the road after stopping by.

7/10

Warning: This review will contain many spoilers.

    Fair warning, I'm not so much going to review this movie as give a retrospective of it because it's hilarious to me as a wrestling fan. I think every professional wrestling fan should watch this movie at some point in their lives, preferably while drunk and rolling heir eyes. The movie, itself, is terrible.

    Really-really bad.

    The acting is ridiculously over-the-top with only Terry Boulder a.k.a Hulk Hogan and Kurt Fuller put in decent performances. The former because he's playing the same character he's been playing for a decade and the latter because he recognizes the movie is crap so he decides to go so-over-the-top he isn't so much on the top rope as the top of the arena.

Amusingly, for a movie about wrestling, there's actually very little of it.

    The movie is mean-spirited, ridiculous, and cheesy in equal parts with some nasty undercurrents of misogyny along the way too. Filmed in 1989, it was at the height of the kid friendly wrestling era where it the then-WWF (and future WWE) and WCW were family entertainment on par with Star Wars.

    This, on the other hand, is a PG-13 movie where a woman is sexually assaulted for being nice to a wrestler and a young man is crippled for being brother to a wrestler in order to get him into the ring. By all accounts, the movie should be rated R but isn't because the Eighties were a strange time. Also, beating a man half-to-death is less offensive than killing them by the hundreds like the action movies of the time were doing.

    What's interesting is the movie has actually gotten better with age, primarily due to the unintentional humor which comes from the way the movie portrays the wrestling industry as as well as how it evolved in the Nineties to 21st Century. The more you know about Vince McMahon, Ted Turner, Hulk Hogan, and things like the Attitude Era as well as Monday Night Wars--the more funny this movie will become.

    All accidentally, of course, but still so.

What's crazy isn't the overacting - it's that we're meant to take it seriously Rip Thomas has business meetings dressed like that.

    The premise is Rip Thomas (as in he rips his shirt), is basically Hulk Hogan played by Hulk Hogan and he's the chief star working for the Not-World Wrestling Federation. He's cultivated a family-friendly image which is true to his personality in this world and is one of the most popular pseudo-athletes in the world.

    Hey, go with what you know.

    Except, Rip is not working for the WWF but a kind of bizarro WWF which is the exact opposite of the way the actual one operated. Here, it's an independent family friendly promotion menaced by an evil media conglomerate mogul which wants to branch out into professional wrestling.

    *Cough* Ted Turner.

    This is already pretty damn funny because the WWF became the powerful promotion it did by cracking down on independent family-friendly wrestling promotions just like the way Not-Ted Turner is going to try to do to them. Likewise, in any comparison between Vince McMahon and Ted Turner, it requires a very strange sort of mindset to set the latter up as the bad guy.

Zeus' character amounts to "big, scary, EVIL black guy." Nope, no veiled racism here. Oh wait, Rip's trainer is black so it's okay.

    Anyway, said evil mogul, Brell (Kurt Fuller), wants to lure Rip away from the Not-WWF to headline his new wrestling federation. Rip finds the idea of betraying the Not-WWF repulses him and literally tries to make Brell eat his own huge check. You know, versus taking said check and going on to found the NWO, like Terry Boulder did in real life.

    Brell takes this poorly. Sends some guys to kill Rip Thomas poorly. Something which doesn't work out because Rip Thomas has superpowers. There's a scene where a guy literally craps himself because he's so afraid of Hulk Hogan--something which needs to be seen to be believed. Rip doesn't report this attempted murder to the police, though, because...reasons?

    Anywho, rather than content himself with the billions he's making publishing countless other forms of media, Brell becomes obsessed with both acquiring Rip Thomas as well as creating a rival wrestling federation which will drive the Not-WWF out of business.

    Brell's solution is hosting "No Holds Barred" matches open to the public. These are basically garbage wrestling involving copious amounts of beating people up horribly in seedy dives. Because this is the days before the internet, the illusion is also maintained wrestling is "real" and these people are actually hitting the holy hell out of one another.

This is the scene where the thug poops himself out of terror. Strangely, it's Hulk Hogan who looks like he's in need of a restroom.

    Emerging from, apparently, Hell itself is the character of Zeus (Tom Lister Jr.) who is the only human being on Earth who can match Rip Thomas in terms of sheer fighting prowess. He isn't a talented martial artist, he just seems capable of absorbing any amount of punishment and possessing super-strength.

    I actually feel bad for the runner-up in Brell's tournament (played by Stan Hansen in a delightfully scene-chewing role) because he seems like he would have been a fun character to follow as champion. I mean, what can you say about a guy who says, "Rules? There ain't rules. Last one standing wins, just don't kill nobody."

    Samantha Moore, played by Joan Severance, is paid by Brell to seduce Rip Thomas over to the dark side but is won over by his charity works. Upset by this, Brell pays a bunch of thugs to rape Samantha in a scene out of nowhere, but which Rip prevents. Brell still wants Rip Thomas defeated on live television despite his Battle of the Tough Guys matches blowing away the Not-WWF in the ratings.

    Rip refuses, so Brell has Rip's brother crippled.

    ...

    I can't make this stuff up!

That's the collapsed ring Rip put Zeus through. Seriously, I think he just straight up murdered the guy on national television.

    I'd say it's a spoiler that all of this is leading up to a gigantic battle in the ring between Rip and Zeus but I think that kind of goes without saying. Much like Rocky IV, defeating one's opponent on national television for their crimes in a sporting competition is more important than legal reprisals. The final battle is an utterly savage contest where I'm pretty sure Rip Thomas kills Zeus at the end and Brell dies due to some badly-made electrical equipment but I can't say for sure because it's so damned ridiculous.

    Wow.

    In conclusion, MY GOD, this is a terrible movie but so damned funny to anyone who knows anything about the real-life people it's unintentionally parodying as well as the titular pseudo-sport. It's obviously an attempt to do Rocky only hardcore, which makes no damn sense given it's professional wrestling. Given Vince McMahon would win the ratings war against the WCW by adopting blood, beatings, and smut while Hulk Hogan made his mark as a self-interested heel with the latter--No Holds Barred is fully of unintentional hilarity.

    Those are the only people I would recommend this movie to.

4/10

    Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain was a great YA superhero novel. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but quite entertaining. The protagonists were adorable and included a character whose superpower was, literally, incredible cuteness. It was funny, entertaining, and made me happy to have read it.

    The sequel?

    Mostly, the same.

    Accent on mostly.

    Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon isn't as good as the original. It's got a lot of science-fiction world-building and out-of-context focus on a Steampunk Jovian colony Victorian humans which is pretty far removed from the original premise of superheroes vs. villains. It is good, though, and advances the characters even if it was in a way I wouldn't have.

    The premise is it's been months since the events of the previous novel and our antiheroes have been inactive. This was a bit disappointing as Ray and Penny kissed at the end. It's not unrealistic, though, since thirteen-year-olds are rarely able to sort through emotions in ways which don't explode horribly in their faces. Likewise, I imagine schoolwork and distractions keep them from any crazy plans to take over the world.

    Events open up a new opportunity for them, though. The Spider, the cordial archvillain who hopes to turn the trio into her allies, has a mission which will put the trio into space. Geeking out as a pair of science geeks invited into space would, they proceed to do grow a flying fish spaceship and head out to the stars. What follows is the discovery of lost mad science colonies from the Victorian Era and dealing with a pair of alien menaces which threaten to destroy the people thereof.

    The scenes in space were both good and bad in equal parts. I was a big fan of the X-men when they went into space to deal with the Brood and Shi'ar. This despite the fact many readers wondered why a comic about prejudice was suddenly a space opera.

    The good thing about taking the Inscrutable Machine (our protagonist's team name) into space is it's a fresh take on the characters and true to comics. Captain America can fight vampires one day, aliens the next, and street crime on the weekend. Watching Penny and Claire deal with things like 19th century fashion is quite entertaining. There's also a touching scene where Penny gets to explain to a Jewish man who fled the Nazis into space during the Thirties that, yes, the good guys won.

    The bad thing is it's a little too far removed from the original setting. It's also a much more serious storyline with direr consequences than the lighter and fluffier first book. People get shot at, nearly-die, and there's lots of terrible genetic horrors which almost eat or enslave our protagonists. The solution to the problems of the Jovian colonists left a sour taste in my mouth, too. Specifically, it left a new "hero" hating our protagonists' guts. I preferred to see our teenage protagonists triumphant and loved rather than failing. In short, I feel the series lost its sense of humor for the sequel and I hate that.

    The best part of the novel was when the Inscrutable Machine breaks into a laboratory owned by a much more powerful supervillain and trash it. They get to deal with people familiar with superheroes, a murderous antihero (who isn't as bad as she sounds), and play off against the setting. None of that gets to happen in space because no one has any familiarity with what superheroes and villains are.

    On the plus side, I loved the steampunk aesthetic of the Jovians. The Jules Verne and HG Wells-style technology combined with a Bioshock sort of setting, complete with clockwork robots, makes them a fun group to imagine. I actually wish we'd got to have more time with them and under less dire circumstances. Unfortunately, the actual Jovians prove to be less than likable with nasty attitudes and a tendency to backstab the protagonists.

    A shame.

    In conclusion, this was a fun but flawed book. I'm sticking with the series, though, and look forward to seeing what happens next. I just hope the future novels are a little more fun and a lot less angst.

7.5/10

Warning - This review will contain spoilers.

    Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is one of the best Batman stories ever told. Which is a big claim to make and one I used to be hesitant on. After all, Mask of the Phantasm lacks a lot of the iconic moments which Batman (1989), Batman Begins, The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, and [I could be here all day with examples so I'll stop now] are famous for.

    Yet, it sticks with me.

    My initial impression of the movie wasn't all that favorable. It didn't have the same staying power to me as even some episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. The origins of Two Face and Mister Freeze remain in my head years later. I wasn't overly impressed with the Phantasm and wondered why the first animated movie was focused on a new character.

    But the story stuck with me.

    It buried itself in my subconscious.

    Growing. Growing.

    Becoming all-consuming.

    Now I love it.

The Phantasm is a beautifully designed villain.

    The premise is a well-worn but classic one. A new vigilante has shown up in Gotham City who doesn't have Batman's hesitation to kill. Batman is framed for their crimes, the police suspecting he's going over the edge. Meanwhile, an old flame of Bruce's returns to Gotham City and he struggles with his memories of how she almost made him forget about being the Batman. These two stories collide in one of the most tragic tales of the Dark Knight.

    On a basic level, Mask of the Phantasm is another retelling of Batman's origins but it stops to take a serious moment and ask, "Could Bruce Wayne have found some better way to channel his energies?" Usually, the answer is no. Batman would always be Batman and the world would be an objectively worse place if he didn't exist.

    Mask of the Phantasm argues maybe not.

    The story attacks not the idea of Bruce Wayne being a hero but that his crusade had to consume him utterly. Bruce Wayne and Andrea Beaumont are people who become so angry, they can't do anything with their lives but channel that anger. They're both heroic people and, together, they might actually have become heroes of a different stripe. Perhaps a new Thomas and Martha Wayne using their wealth to help the city prosper or helping in other ways. I like to think they'd become a duo like Black Canary and Green Arrow.

    But we know history won't let them.

Andrea and Bruce are cute in the way only two emotionally damaged comic book characters can be.

    The action scenes are well-handled with the Phantasm's first appearance in a graveyard, Bruce Wayne's disastrous first attempt to fight crime, and the final confrontation with the Joker but it's really the quiet moments I came to love. Scenes where Andrea talks to her dead mother's grave, the confrontation where Andrea recognizes Batman's pain as Bruce's (and her own), plus their picnic interrupted by bats is all very moving.

    I could try and discuss the movie's twist but it's not exactly a secret that Andrea Beaumont is the titular Phantasm. Any discussion of the movie's themes and story would be without purpose if you don't acknowledge this fact. It would easy to say that Andrea Beaumont is just a female Batman, albeit one who kills, but that is missing the point. Andrea is the only sort of woman who Bruce Wayne could fall in love with--one who understands his pain enough to appreciate it.

    There's some genuinely classic moments in the film like when Bruce realizes he can't risk his life like so many police and firemen if he feels he's going to subject his love to the same pain he knows, like Bruce realizing he can't become Batman if he doesn't have the pain driving him forward, and Alfred's silent approval at the possibility Bruce's twenty-year-obsession is being defeated by the power of love.

Andrea is one of my favorite action girls in the DCU.

The movie is surprisingly complex with lots of twists, turns, interrelationships, and dense plotting. The amazing thing is it all gets explained perfectly clearly without bogging down the narrative. Everyone except the Joker has reasonable motivation for their actions as well as understandable method to accomplish their goals. The Phantasm may seem to have too many supernatural powers to explain away by theatrics but this is quibbling.

The animation in the movie is similar to that of the Batman animated series but smoother as well as crisper. Kevin Conroy could do Batman in his sleep even then but brings an amazing amount of emotion to the material. Dana Delany also succeeds in creating a tortured, fascinating performance with Andrea Beaumont. She's a actress who I love both as Andrea and later Lois Lane and could easily have carried her own superhero show. Mark Hamill, well, is Mark Hamill and allowed to give his most terrifying performance ever as the Joker.

The Joker versus Andrea is a terrifying confrontation. Especially as Bruce is severely tempted just this ONE TIME to let him die.

     The confrontation with the Joker in the World's Fair-inspired theme park is a beautifully constructed climax. In this storyline, I'm quite happy to think of it as the Joker's final fate. The Joker serves as an excellent representation of the chaos which can strike lives like Andrea's and Bruce's at any given time.

    In a way, I'm tempted to say the Joker's presence wasn't necessary despite the fact thsi is probably Mark Hamill's best performance as him. We didn't need the Joker to get between Andrea and Bruce but I respect the artistic choice. Andrea isn't one of the many obsessive vigilantes out there like the Red Hood or Ra's Al Ghul's League.

    This is the sort of movie where the two leads might have been able to talk it out. Given this is a comic book movie, that simply will not do! Also, it's a nice reminder Gotham City's criminals are not exactly helpless prey for someone who would cut them down like wheat. I also liked the fact they returned to the origin of the Joker as a gangster as I've never been too terribly fond of the idea of him as an innocent victim of Batman's.

Alfred's reaction to Bruce's costume is probably the best moment in the film.

    What's interesting is that a lot of the movie is based on the inferior Batman: Year Two. That book had been one of my least favorite Batman storylines yet the writers took the basic premise of the Reaper and his daughter before adapting it to something great. This is a sign of what a good editor and rewrites can do.

    In conclusion, Mask of the Phantasm is an outstandingly good movie which only gets better with re-watches. It is the height of the animated series and something with a lot of great personal moments. It's not exactly a fun movie but it's a great one.

10/10

     This movie is both painful and resonate for me as a professional wrestling fan. My actual review will be informed by the fact I am and involve a lot of fandom commentary on the subject. If you want to know whether you should see it, well, I point to the ridiculous amount of praise the movie has already received.

    You don't need me to tell you this movie is great.

    It's a classic performance, beautifully made, blah-blah-blah. It's not a feel-good sort of movie and is a tragedy in the Shakespearian sense of the word rather than just misery poker. The Wrestler wouldn't be nearly as effective if not for the fact our hero could move away from the inevitable train wreck at several points but chooses not to. You should probably go see this movie but I have to admit I had to stop it several times for the power of the emotion on display.

The visual homages to Macho Man Randy Savage with Randy Robinson are considerable--and heartbreaking.

    So before the rest of my review, know it's amazing, go see it, 10 out of 10, and so on.

    Nothing new there.

    Now onto my own personal thoughts.

    The premise of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, not his real name, was a famous wrestler during the 1980s. A montage of newspaper clips shows him at the height of his physical prowess doing things like performing in main event shows at Madison Square Garden. There's a lot of great references if you're familiar with wrestling, some of which may not have been intentional for the audience to get. Randy's body in the photos, for example, is Lex "The Total Package" Luger's with a younger Mickey Rourke's face placed on top of it.

    Lex Luger, for laymen, is an example of a megastar of wrestling who had the potential to go to the very top (and did by most standards) but was brought down by serious injury as well as poor life decisions. The fact he also achieved his amazing physical presence through the abuse of drugs was an open secret as well. Lex, unlike Randy, managed to turn his life around through religion but the consequences to his family as well as self were not small.

Even dressed-down, Marisa Tomei is lovely.

    Randy, like so many wrestlers, has seriously damaged his health with a combination of drugs and the injuries he's sustained in the ring. At the age of fifty-two, like Mickey Rourke, he's in apparent amazing shape but this is achieved through a massive combination of drugs as well as intense workouts.

    Bluntly, a lot of older wrestlers cannot sustain their physiques without chemicals even if it is killing them by degrees. As Mick Foley said in his commentary on the film, "I wish there had been some visible difference in Randy's physique after he underwent heart surgery and gave up 'roids—even if just to illustrate the effectiveness and necessity of those substances in "the Ram's" life."

    Despite this, the fact his fame has dwindled to a scattered handful of middle-aged fans who loved him during their childhood, and his apparent poverty (living in a trailer park he can barely afford--and only because of his job at a grocery store), Randy is actually rather happy.

The struggle for him in the ring is intense and emotional for a variety of reasons.

    Professional wrestling provides him not only with a reminder he was once world-famous but a camaraderie from his fellow wrestlers as well as a generally appreciative audience. One of the true-to-life elements from the story is Randy is treated as a master performer by the aforementioned wrestlers in much the same way Buddy Holly would be if he was still alive and traveling the indie rock circuit.

    This stops when he has his first heart attack. This occurs after a horrific hardcore wrestling match which goes well-beyond what would have permissible during the ECW's attempt to shock audiences into paying attention. This is one of the few scenes I felt which rang false, not so much because it couldn't happen but I think should have had a bit more build-up. A star of Randy's magnitude, no matter how faded, being used in those sort of brawls required a bit more explanation for me. Either
way, Randy must quit wrestling or die.

    The rest of the movie deals with Randy trying to see if he has anything in his life other than professional wrestling. He attempts to move a gentle flirtation with a local stripper, Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), into an actual relationship. He attempts to reconnect with his lesbian daughter who he ignored during her childhood. Randy also tries to transition to full-time employment at the super-market. Its notable and true-to-life Randy's failures come from the fact he tries to improve himself rather than sticking with what he knows.

    An ugly-ugly truth of society.

Evan Rachel Woods' Stephanie has a small but vital role in the story.

    Hanging over Randy's head during all this is the 20th anniversary of his main event battle with the Ayatollah (real-life wrestler Ernest Miller), a transparent stand-in for one of the most famous wrestlers of all-time in the Iron Sheik. The Iron Sheik played on the prejudices of the time (and today) but was another example of a master performer. Unlike most sports movies, there's no real triumph if Randy goes into the ring one last time, but it might be where he thinks he could achieve one last bit of glory before he dies.

    Pointless as that may be.

    Mickey Rourke's performance is amazing because he imbues Randy with an immense amount of dignity and good will. Without ever directly stating it, it seems obvious Randy was a jerkass in his younger years but has mellowed with age to become a big cuddly teddy bear. The way he bonds with children and those around him shows he should have been able to succeed at anything in his life but just hasn't.

    Marisa Tomei does an astoundingly good job as a woman put-off by Robby trying to pursue her romantically given her profession even as she understands, on some level, he's a great human being. Just a failure at life. I will say, in strictly shallow terms, I had difficulty believing a bunch of twenty-something strip club patrons refused a private show with her because she's too old. I can believe in aliens and zombies in a movie but not that.

    Heh.

The ending is powerful, moving, and yet open to interpretation--at least in my mind.

    I also loved Evan Rachel Wood's appearance as Randy's daughter, Stephanie, who is amazing in a bit role. She wants to believe in Randy but, really, has been burned by him before and her suspicions he'll fail her again are not without cause.

    The Wrestler isn't, necessarily, about wrestling. A variant about it could have been done with any profession that involves money and fame as well as how quickly those things can evaporate. Other kinds of sports and the music industry have just as many Randy Robinsons as wrestling. However, there are plenty of tragic tales like Randy. Too many people who die young or live shells of their previous life because of the profession's hazards. There's no health insurance or pension plan for wrestlers and as they say in the movie, "Wrestling is scripted but the injuries are real."

    As for the ending? I'm glad its ambiguous. In my head, I like to give him a happy ending.

    I'm just crazy like that.

10/10

We have an extra-special guest today with author SETH SKORKOWSKY, who is returning to our website from a previous interview. Seth is the author of the urban fantasy series Valducan and has recently released a second novel in the series, Hounacier.

He's also started a new sword and sorcery series called Tales of the Black Raven with its first volume being called Mountain of Daggers. We'll be discussing both series today and getting some insights into his process.

You can read our review of Mountain of Daggershere and our review of Hounacierhere.

1. What is the premise for Mountain of Daggers?

Mountain of Daggers is a Sword & Sorcery collection that follows a thief named Ahren who finds himself pressed into the service of a mafia-style organization. The stories follow his rise from being a lowly pickpocket into a master thief over the course of eleven adventures.

2. What separates Mountain of Daggers from other fantasy works?

The biggest difference between it and more modern fantasy is that it’s a series instead of a novel. I prefer to think of it as a Season 1. The majority of the stories can be read as standalones, while reading them as a series paints a deeper narrative. It’s very much a throwback to the older pulp adventures that were published separately and later assembled into a book. In fact, several of the stories were previously published in magazines.

3. Can you tell us about its protagonist?

Ahren, is extremely clever and is loyal to a fault. His problems begin with his loyalty leading him to accept a job that he doesn’t trust. Once he enters the service of his organization we see that while his thieving skills are certainly great, his wits are his greatest asset.

4. The book is a very 'old-school' Sword and Sorcery-type collection of short-stories. What inspired you to write in that format?

Honestly, it came about by accident rather than initial design. The first story, The Birth of The Black Raven, was written as a standalone with an open ending as Ahren realizes that he’s been forced into this criminal organization. A year or so later, after visiting Venice, I wrote a second story, Race for the Night Ruby, in which Ahen is now a master thief that is called in for a difficult job. After that, I filled in what happened between those stories and continued on with a series.
My original plan was to sell the individual stories to different magazines, and eventually assemble them much as the old Fritz Leiber or R.E. Howard stories were. I sold a total of six stories to Flashing Swords Magazine. They published three of them before the magazine folded.

5. There's a lot of dissonance between Ahren's reputation as the Black Raven and his actual skill level. Was this deliberate?

It was. In the beginning, Ahen is framed for a murder. The real killer paints a picture of Ahren that is completely untrue. When the Tyenee take him in, they play on that undeserved reputation because it strikes fear into people. But as the book continues, he evolves into that persona and eventually becomes much greater than it.

6. Can we expect more Tales from the Black Raven?

You can. The second collection, Sea of Quills, will be released this October. In the meantime I’ve writing new ones, hopefully to find homes in various magazines and anthologies.

7. What is the premise of Hounacier?

Hounacier follows a demon hunter named Malcolm Romero that returns to his home of New Orleans to investigate the murder of his adopted father. In order to catch the killer he has to navigate through the Voodoo culture. Unlike Dämoren, which was an action/thriller, Hounacier is a mystery/horror.

8. Can you tell us a bit about its protagonist?

Malcolm is a leader. He’s always worked with groups of people and he places a lot of pressure on himself to protect those around him. He’s also a bit of a hot-head. The story forces Malcolm to work alone, something far outside his comfort zone and he also has to learn to play politics within the Voodoo community.

9. Why switch protagonists from Matt Hollis, star of Dämoren?

The Valducan series has a huge cast of knights and their individual holy weapons. While I love Matt, much of his mystery is solved by the end of Dämoren. I could easily continue with him, but it’s much more interesting to explore the other characters, their strengths and weaknesses, and keep everything fresh. It would be such a waste of potential to focus solely on one character.

10. How do the two protagonists differ?

They’re mirrors of one another. Matt is a lone-wolf that has lived his entire life under society’s radar. He shows up in a town, eliminates the monster, and is gone before anyone knows he was there. Matt knows pop culture and many of his experiences he relates to through movies. Malcolm is used to working in teams and often takes control of them. He has a family and a home town. He’s highly educated and has seen the world, but he lacks the social skills that Matt has honed, while pop culture references go over his head.

Their relationships with their weapons and powers are very different as well. Matt knows he’s unique and he seeks to discover what he is. Malcolm, however, is running from what he is. He’s a very powerful and feared priest, but he’s tried to hide from it. His conflict comes from his having to face and embrace that.

11. What sort of changes does Hounacier bring to the Valducan order and its perception of the supernatural?

Dämoren's revelations deal with the nature of holy weapons, what they really are, and where they come from. Hounacier reveals more about the demons, letting us interact with them as something other than pure monsters.

12. What separates this book from its predecessors?

Hounacier is much more of an intimate story than Dämoren. Dämoren is a lot of action and saving the world. Hounacier’s stakes are personal. We focus on one hero as he’s pushed deeper and deeper into a nightmare world and the stakes are his soul. With the world being at stake in Dämoren, the reader has a comfort that they good guys will likely win. But with Hounacier, the hero could easily die and the world will go on, so the reader doesn’t have the comfort that it will all work out.

13. Voodoo plays a central role in the book. How did you prepare for the religion's incorporation and what did you want to achieve by doing so?

I did quite a lot of research on the Voodoo religion, and wanted to show it in a different light than the Hollywood myths that we’re all familiar with. My goal was to depict it not as evil or dark, but simply as a different religion. I did take a few liberties for the story’ sake, but my biggest goal was to keep it respectful.

14. What can we expect from future entries in the series?

Currently I’m working on the third novel, Ibenus. It’ll be closer to Dämoren as far as the action and larger cast, but it’s still going to be a very different kind of story. I’m also working on a series of short stories from the Valducan Archives that all take place before the events of Dämoren. The first of those, The Vampire of Somerset, should be coming out this summer through Emby Press.

Thanks for answering our questions!

     Mick Foley is one of the best ring performers in the past thirty years. I say that because I've been watching wrestling for the past thirty years (admittedly, starting at the ripe old age of four). As Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love, he created three of the most memorable wrestling personas I can think of.

    When Mick first debuted in 1991 on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Cactus Jack, I was legitimately terrified of the man. His matches were full of brutality, acrobatics unexpected of a man his size, and enough overacting you believed the man had a screw loose. The actual Mick Foley is pretty much the opposite of eccentric characters. He's a dorky quirky guy who has a near-endless amount of funny stories to share about his fellow wrestlers. Have a Nice Day is the first of three autobiographies he's written and the largest at about seven hundred and fifty pages. It chronicles Mick's life from his Bloomington, Indiana childhood to his first retirement in 2000.

    Due to the fact said retirement didn't "stick" and he was wrestling with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as late as 2014, this autobiography is by no means complete but that doesn't mean it's not entertaining as hell. It is a crime Have a Nice Day isn't available in Kindle format and I encourage my readers go to Amazon.com (here) and say they want to see it released as such. The heart of the book is Mick's easy-going narrative, which is seemingly one amusing anecdote after another. The book opens up with a horrific story about how Mick lost his ear in a match with fellow wrestler Big Van Vader, only to make the story darkly hilarious as he ended up having to explain to a German nurse how he got injured doing a "fake sport."

    The book is littered with stories both funny as well as moving as we watch Mick Foley move from obscurity to becoming the sort of man who might win the World Championship Belt. Wrestling is scripted but it is a massive competition both behind the scenes and on the mat to distinguish yourself enough to win a push to the spotlight. Listening to the stories Mick has to share about both the WCW, ECW, and WWE's backstage politics will give you a new respect for anyone who manages to make it big. Wrestlers have to work their asses off in order to make any money in the business and frequently injure themselves in order to do the sort of crowd-pleasing moves necessary to make themselves famous.

    There's moments of tenderness, too, like Mick Foley's tribute to Owen Hart and talk about his relationship with Brian Pillman (both men dying tragically at a very young age). We also get a moving account of his romance as well as sustained relationship with Colette Foley, a woman who is, in Mick's own words, far too good for him. Mick isn't a professional writer but this doesn't hurt him in the slightest as it goes well with his informal conversational tone. At the end of the book, I feel like I'd come to know the oddball professional wrestler and would likely have called him friend if we'd ever shared a workspace.

    One of my favorite stories from the volume was Mick sharing how he first got inspired to enter professional wrestling by watching "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka climb to the top of a steel cage and jump down onto his opponent. It's a story with a funny twist at the end because he'd snuck away from college to go see the match against his parent's wishes, only for them to see him sitting in the third row on television (due to his very recognizable trademark flannel shirts). Another tale which I loved was Mick trying to deal with Vince McMahon's good-natured attempts to help his career by giving him truly horrendous gimmicks like "Mason the Mutilator" amongst other dumb stage names.

    The book also contrasted and compared the benefits of wrestling in the WWE, the WCW, Japan, ECW, and the independent circuit. Mick Foley has worked in all four promotions and gone back to them after serving in others so we get his initial perspective as well as some after the fact. Mick talks about the fans of each promotion too and what they reacted to. I especially loved how he decided his "gimmick" for the ECW would be to be a guy who loved the WCW and hated hardcore wrestling. That's adorable. Less adorable being the description of how many injuries Mick Foley has sustained in pursuit of his craft.

    Through Mick Foley, I got to know such individuals as Terry Funk, Diamond Dallas Page, Steve Austin, and Vince McMahon. We also get Mick Foley's opinion on some famous moments of wrestling history such as the folding of WCW and the infamous Montreal Screwjob. The truly impressive thing about this book is that I think non-wrestling fans would enjoy this book almost as much as wrestling ones.

    And that's amazing.

10/10

    The Demon Squad series is a Urban Fantasy series following the adventures of the Devil's nephew, Frank "Triggaltheron" Trigg, as he works for the demon hunting organization DRAC. God and the Devil have abandoned the world to humanity, which has triggered an endless series of wars between their remaining servants. I enjoyed the first three books of the series and their over-the-top struggle between demons and angels.

    Echoes of the Past answers a question which I never expected to be answered: "Where are God and the Devil?" Answered in the first chapter is that both God and the Devil have taken to other realities in order to fight some of God's earliest creations. Aliens. They're obscenely powerful and, apparently, have decided they want to mess with the other realities the Lord created. Which appear to be a lot. Frank gets involved when Lucifer contacts him and one of these beings, imprisoned ages ago, gets loose.

    I'm a little sketchy about the unnamed extraterrestrials which are threatening Frank's reality. I thought the series was never more interesting than when it dealt with lower-scale threats like archwizards and demons Frank could fight. People who legitimately terrify the Devil seem to be a bit too large for someone like Frank to deal with. However, I'm actually glad Tim Marquitz has introduced a threat like this.

    With both good and evil people on both sides of the Heaven versus Hell divide, it's nice to have a solid villain for the two sides to unite against. I also like the homage of names with one of the aliens who appears in the book being named Hasstor after the Cthulhu mythos monster Hastur. The aliens don't appear to be alien or incomprehensible but it's a nice way of homaging classic monsters.

    Echoes of the Past spends a good deal of time following up on the plot thread established in At the Gates book regarding Frank's father murdering his mother. We learn more about Frank's childhood in Siberia, his relationship with his father, and what sort of woman his mother was. I'm reminded a great deal of Alucard's relationship to Dracula in the Castlevania series.

    Frank's mother was a formidable woman who managed to serve as an anchor to Hell's royalty. I'd like to know more about her and maybe see some scenes from her perspective. I'm not sure if the books are setting up Frank's father to be alive (and a potential villain) but, either way, it's a dramatic little soap opera I enjoyed reading about.

    This volume also changes the power structure in the setting significantly by removing a major player from the setting and placing our hero in a new role. I can't wait to see Frank deal with the fallout. He's not exactly a very responsible guy so seeing him change and adapt will be quite entertaining. I dislike it when characters remain static but the Demon Squad series has been nicely progressive in both character development as well as shaking up its status quo.

    One thing I'd like to see more of in the book is development of Frank's relationship with the three women in his life: Scarlett, Veronica, and Karra. I love how he reacts differently to each one of them and would love a larger role for all three. I'd also love to see Frank just hang out with each of them for a time as they get less screen time than they really deserve, in my humble opinion.

    Overall, while a transitional book, this is really a very strong entry into the series and I can't think of many flaws.

9.5

Hey folks,

I'm very pleased to announce the release of Esoterrorism's cover. Esoterrorism is the first book in the Red Room series and chronicles the adventures of Derek Hawthorne, secret agent for a conspiracy which is fighting a (losing) battle to keep the supernatural under wraps.

The cover is by Eloise Knapp and is just GORGEOUS I think. Props to her and Ragnarok publications for setting her up with me. The book is set for a June release and I hope all of my readers will pick up a copy.

Here's the unmarked version for those who just like the art.

Thanks again to all of my fans for their support through the process of getting this to print.

    This movie is a cartoon. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

    I enjoy cartoons and think they're quite entertaining but this fact should be understood by those who think the latest Fast and the Furious is going to be anything like the original. Given the last movie was about the team fighting a bunch of roadster terrorists, this isn't likely to be a problem as they've adjusted to the "serial escalation" that's been going on but fair warning this is a series which has long since abandoned its car porn heist-movie roots.

    The film can be summarized by the opening scene, really. There, the villainous Deckard (Jason Statham) is revealed to have personally killed two dozen police officers, SWAT, and military personnel in order to go visit his paralyzed brother. The hospital lobby looks like he destroyed it with Neo's powers and he gives a armored officer a grenade before kicking him away--a trick straight from Bugs Bunny's playbook.

    The movie is chock-full of ridiculously over-the-top action sequences like the Rock surviving a pin-point grenade explosion while smashing out a window onto a police car three-stories below with only a few minor injuries. There's also a sequence where the heroes drive a car through the windows of a skyscraper into another skyscraper and then into another. A further scene has them driving a car off a cliff and surviving because, well, they're the protagonists.

Jason Statham is able to fist-fight the Rock without difficulty. Yeah, I have a little difficulty believing that.

    Furious 7 is a movie which repeatedly drills home our heroes are invulnerable and physics defying, which I have a reasonably high tolerance for but this manages to blow it out of the water with. The fact series regular Han is killed in the opening minutes and the gloom of Paul Walker's real-life death hangs over the movie doesn't change this fact.

    Albeit, the latter causes some unintentionally uncomfortable moments like at Han's memorial, a character says, "I can't attend any more funerals." Paul Walker then says, "Just one more." He's referring to the villain but I couldn't help but grimace.

    Despite this, I enjoyed the movie.

    I enjoyed it a lot.

There are many-many power-walks in this movie. They're also all awesome.

    Furious 7 nicely exists in the middle of the road for, "Fun but stupid" movies. It's as close to Grand Theft Auto the movie as you're going to get, really. Kurt Russel makes a surprise appearance as a character named, "Mister Nobody" who employs our antiheroes to rescue a hacker from a terrorist PMC in the middle of their revenge story and I swear I was back in San Andreas, playing CJ.

    There's a lot of really fun moments in the movie, too, like a girl fight between UFC Champion Ronda Rousey versus Michelle Rodriguez. Now I have no doubt Ronda could beat Michelle every which way from Sunday but Michelle manages to sell Lemmy is able to stand up for herself in the resulting match. I also loved silly but awesome moments like parachuting cars as well as the Rock breaking his cast by flexing.

    There's a pretty decent amount of melodrama and character development too. Lemmy and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesal) struggling to recover their relationship before her amnesia. Likewise, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is having difficulty assimilating to civilian life. Brian wants to be a good husband to his wife but he struggles with his addiction to danger. Neither of these plots are terribly believable but they're fun and give a cursory nod to the idea these people are more than paper cut-outs. I also like Han's replacement of Megan Ramsey (played by Game of Thrones alumni Nathalie Emmanuel).

This is a typical stunt in the movie.

Jason Statham's character of Deckard is a hilarious but effective villain, more or less playing an invincible comic book villain who no one thinks just to shoot in the head. Djimon Hounsou's character of Mose Jakande also provides welcome aid to making us believe Jason can menace the entire group. Albeit, I have to wonder how a rogue PMC from the middle of nowhere can get access to state-of-the-art military hardware they can deploy in the middle of Los Angeles.

My favorite characters in the movie are not the main group at all, instead being Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson/The Rock) and the aforementioned Mister Nobody. Both the Rock and Russel recognize what sort of movie they're in and gleefully chew the scenery as only veteran performers can. There's actually a moment where Mister Nobody puts on night-vision sunglasses in a fire-fight and starts executing people with Hong Kong action movie gunplay. It has to be seen to be believed.

Ronda Rousey's acting skills are limited but she just needs to stand there looking both badass and attractive, which she does well.

    The series trademark car porn is present as always with numerous chase sequences and a short nod to the roots of the films in street racing. The franchise has long since moved on to be as heist series and now Mission Impossible-style antics. Either way, they involve a lot of cars getting smashed up and blown up in exciting ways. Ironically, for a series which loves vehicles so much, they get destroyed a lot.

    For the male gaze, the movie is utterly loaded with female extras in various stages of undress. Frankly, it got a little embarrassing at times even if I was able to enjoy it for the most part. For the female members of the audience? Not as much pandering but my wife says there's still quite a few very attractive men.

    In conclusion, this is a fun-fun movie. It is the definition of a "good" example of the "turn off your brain at the door" film versus a bad. Paul Walker also gets a loving tribute at the end of the film which left me a little misty-eyed too. He may not have made an especially deep movie to end his career but he made an entertaining one and I hope he is able to take comfort in that fact in whatever undiscovered country he's found himself in.

8/10

Hey folks,

We have a special treat today: an interview with one of my favorite indie fantasy authors. Kenny Soward is the author of the popular GnomeSaga series, published by Ragnarok Publications. GnomeSaga follows the adventures of a group of gnomes which struggle to deal with an invasion from another dimension. You can read our reviews of the first volume in the series, Rough Magic, here and our review of the second, Tinkermage, here. The third book in the series, Cogweaver, just came out.

We hope you enjoy this interview!

1.    We've enjoyed your writing here on the UFoC for quite a while, what's changed for you as a writer since you've made your debut?

Charles, thanks so much for having me here. I really appreciate the opportunity. A lot has changed since my last time over here. Internal things, really. Mental things. Like, how I perceive people perceiving my work.

Not everyone is willing to take a chance on a new author, and even if they do purchase your book, they may still not have time to read it. And even if they read it, there’s an upward chance you might not get a good review. So, the ability to handle unfavorable things like that. To learn from mistakes and eject any guilt I might feel about wasting people’s time with a bad read. Just all of that, because I really do want people to have a good experience reading my stuff, but I can only control my own feelings and attitude. So, getting over those mental things and having the confidence and “inner smile” to be able to move forward regardless. I’ve come a very long way in that regard.

Process-wise; outlining, outlining, outlining. It has given me a lot of confidence in my pacing and general plotting ability, and I think it really shows in CogWeaver. CogWeaver was the first book I really sat down and outlined for a month or two before I started. I used more Scrivener features and really worked hard on the pacing. After writing twenty plus years – and more feverishly in the last five – I simply have a lot more experience now.
There are also fewer excuses I can make.

2.    Can you tell us about GnomeSaga and what sort of story it is, now that we're hitting the third book?

GnomeSaga is a story about finding meaning in one’s life, something to hold on to. Whether it’s a cause, an invention, or even some sort of spiritual reckoning. On a more minute scale, it’s about a brother and sister who have essentially become estranged finding their way back to one another and uniting for a single cause, a single purpose. And even though they spend much of the narrative apart, they are not far from each others' thoughts.

CogWeaver basically ties up books one and two while launching the reader into a series of epic skirmishes and battles. CogWeaver is probably the most intense of the three books, where characters leave it all on the battlefield, so to speak.

3.    Can you tell us about the main characters and what separates them from other fantasy heroes?

Well, for one, the main characters are gnomes. I’ve not read a single series that features gnomes as the primary characters. They’re inventive, humorous, and, above all, tough as nails. Through them, I felt a certain freedom to explore the toils of the inventive process; their dedication, smarts, and willingness to take risks.

Their reluctance to actually test their inventions while focusing only on results, which, as you might guess, can often be deadly. J The motivations of my characters are more complex than your average hero. They aren’t the typical “farm boy makes good” nor was their family killed in a raid by brigands or trolls.

Their motivations stem from their personality traits (their faults and qualities) and their stubbornness toward change. Things get in the way and force them to change. It’s certainly a hero’s journey but with maybe a little different approach.

Kenny Soward in real-life. Honest.

4.    How many books do you envision in the series, may I ask?

I was going to stop at these three books (call them Volume 1), but I’m pecking away at outlines for upwards of six more books. The next three (call them Volume 2) would continue the adventures of Nikselpik Nur and his various quests. In V2, there would be a closed set of characters with a more narrow focus.

I think it would give the reader more time with Nik and Jancy and their merry gang; a more personal approach, if you will. It will be rougher and probably more “grimdark” than the others. The final three (call them Volume 3) would delve back into a more epic style where we would have multiple plot lines and huge stakes. I will also be doing novellas for secondary characters in the series (I have one completed already which should be out in the summer 2015).

It’s pretty ambitious, I know, but I really love the characters and the world. And it would certainly be a labor of love, because it’s really hard to tell how well the series will sell in the long run. You tend to get a lot of readers for the first book of any series, but it drops off from there. After nine books, I might only have 3 readers, JK.

5.    What can you tell us about the villains of GnomeSaga?

There are three villains in GnomeSaga. One is Raulnock, a dangerous and corrupt gnomish wizard who has been holding back and even persecuting our protagonists the entire series. Another villain would be the Prophetess, a gnomestress with goddess-like powers who fights Niksabella for her very soul.

The final villain, or villains, would be the ultraworlders, who came from another dimension to threaten the gnomish city of Hightower and all its citizens. The ultraworlders are not given a POV, my intention being to keep them in the shadows as long as possible. Only at the very end, during the final battles, do we really dig into the characters behind the ultraworlder invasion and discover their true intentions.

It was most fun marrying up the villains down the stretch to really make them more powerful and deadly. A real challenge for our heroes.

6.    What's the premise for Cogweaver?

The premise for Cogweaver is pretty simple. Things have been building through the first two books, some challenges were overcome, some failed, and now it’s all come to a head. Niksabella fights for her very soul while trying to build a stonekin army to force back the ultraworld invaders. Nikselpik has his hands full with a traitor in the sewers of Hightower. And then there’s the final battle, which pits swamp elves, gnomes, and stonekin against a huge ultraworlder force.

It’s pretty epic.

7.    Can we expect to see any new characters this time around?

The villains would be the most important “new” faces. At least when it comes to the Baron, Martreuse the Foul, and some of the Warlords of Weyar, like Mogwitch and Traive. Most notably is an appearance by Penny the auton, who plays a somewhat larger role in CogWeaver (she appeared briefly in the first book).

8.    Who is your favorite character in the series, if I may ask?

My favorite character in the series is Nikselpik. While he’s powerful and ballsy, he’s also sort of a sad little guy. His anger only gets him so far, and then he’s always forced to face the reality of what he is, which is a stubborn curmudgeon who seems perpetually drawn to the darker side of magic. He knows he doesn’t deserve a “good gal” and he’ll likely never be the upstanding citizen and leader he ought to be. My second favorite (or my growing favorite) is Penny. She came into her own in CogWeaver, and there may be a novella … oh, wait. I wasn’t supposed to talk about that.

9.    How has the response been to GnomeSaga so far? Do you have any fan reactions which have surprised you?

The response has been fairly good, I think. I’ve sold hundreds and hundreds of copies and gotten a fair amount of reviews, and most of the reviews are excellent. Some of the comments have been interesting. While one person thought Rough Magic was too slow in parts due to too much character development, another person said I needed to add another 150 pages to each book to really flesh out the characters J And I’m always pleased when someone says they didn’t expect the books to be so good (maybe because it’s gnomes?) but they ended up loving them.

10.    What can we expect from you next?

I’m just going to keep on writing. The only decision I have to make is whether or not to continue to write more novellas in the world of Sullenor, or jump right into the next GnomeSaga volume which I’ll pitch to Ragnarok. Also, I’ve been toying with some ideas to finish Dead West, a series I started with Joe Martin and Tim Marquitz. Thanks a lot, Charles! As always, I love answering your questions.

Thanks for stopping by, Kenny!

This is something of a classic gaming review as Deus Ex was released in 2000, almost fifteen years ago. It is, however, one of the best video games of all time, IMHO. Much of this is due to the way it maximized player freedom to resolve missions however they wished as well as the multiple paths the main character could take.

The storyline and plot drew from Nineties conspiracy theories but put its own spin on it, making socially relevant commentary which is still accurate to this day. With the sequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolutions revealed to be in development, I can't help but feel it's time to take a look back at this classic of computer gaming.

The graphics are limited but functional.

    The premise of the game, revealed in the opening cutscene, is the corrupt corporate CEO Bob Page and his associate Walton Simmons discussing how they've released a technologically-created plague across the planet. This plague, dubbed the Gray Death, is being used to blackmail the rich and powerful into going along with Bob's ambitions as they're the only people with a treatment. It's also being used to kill the poor and destitute en masse in order to bring the world closer to Bob Page's vision.

    Enter JC Denton, a new agent for UNATCO, the United Nations anti-terrorist organization based on the ruins of Liberty Island. JC Denton, who's initials aren't remotely coincidental, is a nanotechnology-enhanced super-soldier who has been given the mission of fighting those people who oppose the cyberpunk future's failing governments. In this, he is aided by his brother Paul, a cyborg supersoldier named Gunther, a femme fatale named Anna Navarre, and a beleaguered boss named Manderlay.

    As the story progresses, JC will find himself confronted with such age-old groups as the Illuminati, Majestic-12, the remains of the Knights Templar, A.I., revolutionary anarchist groups, Triads, and even Grays. He must choose which organization he wants to side with in order to bring peace to a world which is rapidly falling apart.

Part of what I love about the game is even the bosses are very personalized. Gunther, for instance, is hilarious.

One of the innovations of the game was that you could choose multiple paths for solving the game. You could use stealth to take down enemies one at a time, shoot your way out, or stealth your way through without ever fighting anyone. This was fairly innovative at the time and most games which followed draw from this line. Not all paths were optimized, of course, but it was still quite effective at its job.

The game, itself, kind of looked like ass. Even by the standards of 2000. There were also numerous problems with the engine. It's a common statement the game is so dark all the time to cover up the graphical limitations. Whether or not this was true, it does help as making everything dark like The Matrix did help sell the atmosphere and avoid just how bad things appeared. The game's writing was pretty weighty and would influence both my political as well as spiritual views in the future--much the same as Star Wars. It tackled subjects like transhumanism, government control, and philosophical concepts like anarchism vs. philosopher kings.

The game draws from cyberpunk, transhumanism, conspiracy theory, the Matrix films, and more to create unique yet recognizable world.

    The Illuminati are a covert group of manipulators behind the scenes who believe the smartest people on Earth should rule--the thing is, unlike the majority of people who hide behind such claims, they really are that intelligent and forward thinking. The anarchists may want to empower the common masses but they believe they have to tear down infrastructure built by said masses in the name of freeding them.

    You can even become a cyber-god.

    I'm a big fan of the character too. Everyone you fight, other than mooks, is extremely well characterized and you can even chat up some of the mooks. I loved the character of Gunther who just wants to be have a gun installed in his head as well as all the orange soda he can drink. Anna Navarre is a bloodthirsty secret agent who wants to serve her country right or wrong. Paul is both duplicitous and saintly, qualities which don't usually go together. I also love Morgan Everett, who is the nicest leader of a global conspiracy you'll ever meet. Bob Page and Walter Simmons also do a wonderful job establishing themselves as believable yet over-the-top villians.

    And who doesn't love Tracer Tong, who gleefully talks about conspiracy nonsense which turns out to be factually correct?

The gameplay is a well-crafted variant on Doom which went on to spawn many-many spin-offs.

In short, the biggest thing to realize about Deus Ex is that it's fun. The second biggest thing to realize it's an intelligent game. Many of the game's themes and storytelling ideas are as enjoyable for the tenth time as they were for the first. Unfortunately, the gameplay and graphics are still pretty frustrating even with game mods. Still, that doesn't take away from the fact this is a game which inspired countless imitators. Very few who achieve half of what it managed to accomplish.

10/10

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse review

The Dresden Files: Changes review

Far Cry 4 review

The Dresden Files: Ghost Story review

Injustice: Gods Among Us review

The Rules of Supervillainy coming in May!

WWE 2K15 review

Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain review

Kezzie of Babylon review

No Holds Barred (1989) review

Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon review

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm review

The Wrestler (2008) review

INTERVIEW WITH SETH SKORKOWSKY

Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks review

Demon Squad: Echoes of the Past review

ESOTERRORISM cover revealed!

Furious 7 review

Exclusive Interview with Kenny Soward!

Deus Ex (2000) review