Superhero Media: Power Rangers RPM

Last Power Rangers content for a while, I promise, but RPM is a doozy. I'd honestly say if you can make the commitment to thirty two 20-odd-minute episodes, then Power Rangers RPM is worth checking out, if only for a look at what can happen when a dedicated team does the absolute best they can with the material. Set in an alternate near-future, where humanity has been all but wiped out by an evil AI named Venjix, the last human city, Cornith is defended by the Ranger Operators, aka, Power Rangers RPM. Much like the last series I covered here, Lightspeed Rescue, YouTuber Linkara covers this all in a lot more depth than I will if you want to go give him a few more views. What differentiates RPM from other series in the Power Rangers franchise (aside from being set in an alternate universe) is that the crew behind it elected to write the best version of the programme they could, shoot their own scenes rather than just recycle Super Sentai footage, and have an overarching narrative with character development. Then they found out they had to adapt a comedy Sentai series about transforming cars. Somehow though, RPM works. 

Yes, this is a Power Rangers series, and even I got sick of the episodic monster fights and repeated transformation sequences, but everything else is about as good as children's television gets short of the Gravity Falls/Adventure Time watermark. A lot of it comes down to the cast which includes Eka Darville (Jessica Jones), Rose McIver (iZombie) and Olivia Tennet (The Lord of the Rings) before they really hit, along with talented people like Milo Cawthorne, who sadly never broke out himself. Cawthorne plays Ziggy, a repentant criminal who accidentally takes on the mantle of the Green Ranger, and as well as being a great character to watch, his interplay with "Dr K" (McIver), inventor of the Power Rangers in this setting, is brilliant, and it's no shock that the pair later married and collaborated on a series of independent films. Just watching some of the action-light episodes, one can see the effort that is being put in to the programme, an effort that is only held back by the framing of the Power Rangers narrative. 

I'm more forgiving of the goofier parts of Power Rangers than most non-fans, but in the latter half of RPM, I found myself playing Switch or getting a tea during the fight scenes and only coming back to see the character interaction. RPM may well be the best written and acted Power Rangers ever made, but it's still Power Rangers and the interesting stuff needs to put aside from time to time in order to sell more toys. Again, I feel that the programme is worth your time, if you can get to the good stuff through the chaff, Venjix gets one of the all-time great villain deaths, Dr K is a character for the books and the episode where the characters dissect the tropes of the series is masterful, if a little on the nose at times. Although the nice, round, ten year mark has passed for RPM, I'd be up for seeing where these characters ended up as they tried to put the world back together, there is a tease that the villain may not really be dead after all. Forget trying to adapt the original run, get all of these people back, most are still acting and slap together 90 minutes of reunion and action. I'd watch it.

My Strange James Bond Head Canon

As of the time of writing, Sean Connery passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I've had some complicated feelings about it. I really like a lot of films that Connery is in, and he is a remarkable actor, one of the best I've seen in terms of occupying the lens with his physicality. However, as a person, he was, at best, a misogynist and a womaniser; my own mother suffered his verbal abuse once for asking for an autograph in the 1960s. Many of Connery's iconic films have dated poorly and really need to be viewed in context to be enjoyed at all. I'm not the kind of Film Graduate who ascribes too closely to the concept of separating art and artist, and I also believe that few individuals are worthy of idolization, but I'm still uncomfortable when James Bond slaps a woman, or outright rapes her in some of the early films. This one isn't really a superhero thing sorry, just some stuff that was on my mind as I watched old Connery films that I don't really have another forum to get out of my head and out into the world. 

If you want to enjoy a version of James Bond which follows a strong narrative and has a solid core of canon, what you want is the novels, especially the Ian Flemming ones, which tell the story about as best as one could want. Of course, this isn't enough for many, as most fans are focused on the films, as they are more easily found and digested, and tend to be better versions of the stories, as Flemming was not the best writer. It is hotly debated as to whether or not the Bond portrayed by different actors is the same individual, up until the Daniel Craig era, of course, with most fan articles I could find coming down on the "yes" side of the discussion. In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, it is revealed that Bond (from the novels) was the original with Connery, Moore, Lazenby etc. being versions recruited by MI-5 to continue the myth in later years. Basically the same tack as the 1967 Casino Royale, which is an amazing film and I love it. 

My own personal take is pretty similar, but with a few twists. In the world of the films, I do believe that the Connery incarnation is the "original" Bond and that Moore, Dalton and Brosnen were agents given new names to play on the legend. However, I contend that Lazenby is not playing a new agent with the same codename, but the very same Bond as Connery, the "This never happened to the other fellow" line not withstanding. The deciding factor, for me, is Teresa Bond (ne Draco), the woman Bond marries just before she is killed in a revenge attack by Blofeld (played by Telly Savalas! Man, this film is underrated!). This seems like it may be something of a non-issue, until, the next film in the series, Diamonds Are Forever, opens with Bond going on a murder-rampage of Blofeld's men like nothing seen before in the series. Looks like a revenge-driven reckoning to me. Even in the books, the jump in tone after On Her Majesty's Secret Service is marked, as Bond finally had someone to love, and lost them to his own hubris and his greatest nemesis. That On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the few stories where Bond loses contributes to this shift in tone. 

Also of consideration to my "Head-Canon" is 1983's Never Say Never Again, in which it is strongly hinted that Connery is the original Bond, and has been brought back into action because his successor (Moore) isn't delivering in the same way. Sure, Never Say Never Again is just another Thunderball remake, but Blofeld (Max Von Syndow!) is never named and SPECTRE exists across most films in the franchise, so it doesn't require a great deal of mental contortion to get it to fit. Remember, none of the Bond Films are intended to connect narratively to more than a handful of the others, so this entire exercise is fraught from the start. If making sense of of the Bond series in a logical manner is something you "need" to do, I believe something along the lines of assuming each actor is Bond, but in a separate universe that runs more-or-less parallel could probably work, but I haven' thought too deeply about it. Honestly, I only really watch the classic Connery/Lazenby films regularly myself, so maybe I'm missing something vital, oh well.

Superhero Media: X-Men First Class

When considered in retrospectives of the X-Men film series, First Class is typically granted as one of the "good ones", well lauded on its release. I remember walking out of the cinema and hating First Class and was pretty shocked when everyone I spoke to loved it. Admittedly, I was, and still am, annoyed that the proposed X-Men Origins: Magneto story had been compressed into the first act of First Class, but I was just shocked how racist the film was and how many opportunities to be interesting that it missed. Ok, so I'll have to tackle the big one first, how is First Class a racist film? Well, it's not outright, hell, I doubt that it's deliberate, but did you ever notice that by the final act, all of the non-white X-Men have either turned evil or died? That's a bit strange right? Even Darwin, an African American man, who's power is specifically to avoid death by adapting, is killed by Sebastian Shaw, a literal Nazi. How about the first Hispanic mutant in the series, who starts out as an exotic dancer and changes sides because she got bullied once? Again, I don't think these choices were deliberate, but when any thought is put into them, they become pretty obviously uncomfortable. 

The cynic in me would want to say that the only reasons people remember First Class fondly were Jennifer Lawrence in blue body paint, their first exposure to Michael Fassbender and Wolverine saying "fuck". Setting the film in the 1960s should be really clever, especially with the comics having begun in 1963, and Charles Xavier and Magneto where at least partly based on Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X respectively, so there is plenty of ground for interesting stuff to happen. Instead we get a weak-sauce story about the Cuban Missile Crisis so that the characters get to make "Children of the Atom" references. I mean, would it have been all that hard to cut a scene about fighting Russians to have a symposium about minority rights with someone fun doing a cameo as MLK? Hell, why not have Magneto listen to the "Plymouth Rock landed on us" speech and make a comment about "lik[ing] this one"? Writes itself. The first two X-Men films had a strong undercurrent of queer rights, so it's not like it would have been a stretch to introduce a Civil Rights element. 

Is First Class racist then? Well, yes, but mainly in a particular way. First Class is "racist" in the same way Green Book or La La Land are "racist"; namely, in that they ignore racial issues to their detriment. The reasons behind this are pretty obvious, as Hollywood is still heavily focused on "Middle America" white audiences and worry that anything that focuses too much on "Minority Issues" will tank at the box office. Of course, Black Panther has proven that's bullshit, but old habits die hard. The story of the X-Man "Macavoy Timeline" is a little sad, given how many talented actors and filmmakers worked on First Class, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, that only one of those was really any good and they were overshadowed by the, much better, Logan and Deadpool entries. Still, at least many of the good actors got to go on and be in better films, Fassbender especially, even if he keeps dropping into his natural accent during this film. If you really like First Class, good on you, it's at least well shot and acted, but maybe just think a little bit harder about what's going on next time you watch it.

Miniatures Finished: EDF Strongholds

Chipping away at the pile of Kaiju miniatures continues in-between other projects. I'm actually just about finished now, unless I get my hands on some new stuff or chip into the massive collection of 6mm WWII Soviets I still have in a box. I'll probably wait until I actually start playing games for that, though.

Some kind of tower from Dystopian Wars that I'm assuming is a Shot Tower, because it reminds me of one in Melbourne. The other building, which I am calling "The Bloodkeep" is another Dreamblade figure.

 

Looks like someone has been experimenting with adding Kaiju DNA to old planes to create living weapons. Dreamblade

Superhero Media: Bolt

I first watched Bolt years ago and dismissed writing it up as a "Superhero Media" because, at it's core, it's a The Incredible Journey remake with some superhero gloss, rather than truly a piece of superhero media. Then, however, I watched the second season of Titans, and was delighted to see Krypto the Superdog, not only present, but pretty much unmolested and recognisable. A vestige of the huge spread of "Super" characters of the Golden and Silver Ages, Krypto is exactly what he seems to be, a dog with the powers of Superman. Krypto hovers around the edge of DC canon, usually being technically considered to be in there somewhere, but is hated with a passion by the "hardcore" fanboys, because, and stop me if you've heard this one, he's fun. Only comic book fans could make enjoying a dog with heat vision into a statement about lifestyle. 

Bolt follows the story of a Canine Actor who actually believes he has super powers (due to an overly-contrived, but forgivable set-up), but becomes separated from his owner/costar and has to travel across America to find her again. Bolt is joined by Mittens, a stray cat, and Rhino, a pet hamster who also believes that Bolt is actually a superhero, and is probably the only worthwhile character in the film. A lot of that comes down to two factors, one being Mark Walton's brilliant delivery of the lines, and the other being that no one else is really trying all that hard. Ok, Malcolm McDowell is always good, but that kind of goes without saying, and he sadly has fewer than a dozen lines in the entire film. The narrative is basic, goes exactly where you think it will, but as far as this kind of film goes, it's all pretty harmless and decent fun on a rainy afternoon. 

So why bother with all this then? Well, Bolt was about as close as one could reasonably hope for a major release Krypto film for a long time; though now we have DC League of Super-Pets. No, it's not a major, big-budget DCU tent-pole with the Synder aesthetic, but isn't it great to live in a world where a film about a dog with heat vision exists? I'm yet to watch it sadly, but you can bet it's on my list. To me, Bolt represents the kind of film I always thought we would get about characters like Krypto or the Pet Avengers, instead of anything close to a faithful adaptation, just something silly and disposable. And that's what the film is, really, something throwaway that's fun in the moment and soon forgotten.

Drokk the Law!! - Part VIII

Finally got a couple more games of Judge Dredd in, despite getting over an infection and being exhausted by the extra commute I have currently. Even better, I finally got to play my new builds for the Lone Vigilante and Renegade Robots, both of which worked a little more smoothly, a good indication that I'm figuring out the game.

I still have a couple of Robots to paint, as I somehow kept finding more, but the gang is getting to a decent size, giving me plenty of potions for a full campaign, should we ever get there. Putting the gang together has been a really fun project, with a wide range of miniatures and parts to get a real rag-tag look going. My major change to the starting gang list is introducing two "Junkers", cheaper robots who can break down and miss a game, but can also shrug off injuries because they're really beaten up already.

My Lone Vigilante "Bubba Feet" got a re-working as well, dropping some grenades for a melee weapon just in case he gets caught short by apes again. For this game, Bubba had been ambushed by Andy's Brian Ansell Blockers, now with some more paint on them, and has to drive off seven Punks by himself to win out.

From the right, I painted the old Cawdor Heavy and the Yardi, the Scrawler is Andy's work, and the others were another painter he knows. Andy hasn't painted in years, due to time and having issues with his hands, but some new Speed Paints have him giving it a go again, which I think is great.

The idea of wanting to play the Lone Vigilante is to challenge myself as a player and to get better both at Judge Dredd and skirmish-style games in general. At the risk of sounding too full of myself, I'm very good at this particular style of miniature game, since playing Judge Dredd again, I've won at least 80% of my games because it's pretty easy to figure out what's a better build and to work around gang limitations. I'm yet to win with the Vigilante, but each game is very satisfying, with a lot of dodging to cover, taking snapshots and having to watch Line of Sight very closely.

In this game, Bubba made use of the tall buildings and his jetpack to keep the number of Punks that could get a shot on him as low as possible, as Andy had seven times the activation priority I did. Bubba has a Laser Rifle with Scope and talents around weapons that roll a single die to hit, all of which translates to him being able to snipe away targets with decent regularity, but it takes his entire turn. So my basic strategy is alternating turns of movement and shooting.

My big play that was fun was jumping down from the roof of a building to the interior and blowing away a Punk with my Spit Pistol. His friend came up the stairs and blasted Bubba with a Stump Gun, but a set of Sports Armour turned away the shot, so I figured I was safe for a turn. However, the Punk Hero with Heavy Spit Gun had a great shot through the open door at Bubba's dynamic silhouette. One round of fire and the game was over, but I'm pretty happy with how I'm getting a handle on the character.

Game two saw my Robots ("Blood in the Machine") up against Sam's Gorilla Gangsters, which would be a tough match, but even worse, one of my gangers had to be fleeing from his at the start of the game. The Apes are one of the fastest gangs, and my Robots are pretty average on movement, so my best bet was to put my leader, Haro-2 Goodbye, in the role of the pursued, as he had the best armour, the most Hits and Sam wouldn't want to fight him in melee.

Somehow, I pulled out a win on this one, despite Haro-2 being reduced to one Hit by the end of the first turn. Sam's gang was entirely made of Gorillas with Spit Guns (to match the models), which have an impressive 3 Shooting Dice and -2 AP, but with only four members, even my Robots outnumbered them. By taking risks and pushing up through the board, I could take off any monkey head that popped out of cover. With few Apes left, Sam couldn't keep up the pressure and Haro-2 escaped on the fourth turn with his one Hit intact.

So what's next for the game? Well, I have a painting deadline for another event, so I'll be finishing off my Robots and then shelving the other Gangs for a moment. Sadly, those who have wanted to play haven't shown much interest in a campaign, so I may have to come up with a little two-player thing for me and Andy or similar once I have a little more time in my days again.

Superhero Media: Die Hard

I honestly don't feel I really need to talk about how good a film Die Hard is, its one of best best films ever made in the Action genre, still highly influential thirty years after its release and possibly the best film to watch at Christmas. For quite a while I've had a John McClaine miniature in my Superhero collection, I've even used him in a few games if you look back through my AARs on this blog. When I'm running a game and I put McClaine down on the table, even next to characters like Robocop and Commissioner Gordon, I often get questions as to why he's there; simply put, is John McClaine really a superhero? I think the answer is yes, insofar as characters like Marv (Sin City) and Mister A can be considered superheroes merely because they're highly physically capable. Now, Marv and Mister A have the advantage of having originated in comics, rather than in film, but the character from which McClaine sprung was, himself, a pulp detective, of the kind from which many early superheroes grew. 

From a series of, not great, books by Roderick Thorp, about New York Detective Joe Leland, very much of the Joe Friday mold, Nothing Lasts Forever has an ageing Leland battling terrorists in a Los Angeles skyscraper whilst barefoot and cut off from help. Taken from that perspective, Leland isn't too far removed from characters considered comic heroes, like Mister A, The Spirit and the original Blue Beetle (Dan Garret was a police officer before being retconned into an archeologist). For my Ultimate Alliance games, McClaine has the ability to heal himself, like Wolverine or Deadpool, representing the dozens of injuries he will get throughout a film, as well as being able to trade health for increased damage. Strictly speaking, these function the same as actual "Superpowers" that other heroes have, but for me they fit the themes and feel of the Die Hard films perfectly, even if I'm primarily only taking Die Hard, Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Die Hard With A Vengeance into account, though we'll get to my reasoning behind that as the series progresses. 

So where would John McClaine fit into a broader superhero setting? Well, cops, especially exceptional ones have long had a role in superhero media, with Code Blue being a good example, or even SHIELD though the right lens. Though real life police violence, corruption and militarisation are major issues (and I'm personally in favour of defunding the police), so long as Police are a reality for the majority of comic audiences, how they react to superheroes in fictional settings will be something that needs to be considered. Assuming something like Code Blue existed in the NYPD, the heads of that department looking at a detective who took out 12 terrorists and rescued 30 hostages without the use of shoes or backup and thinking "this could be our guy" makes perfect sense. I don't believe that John McClaine has actual super powers, even taking post-With A Vengeance entries into account, that's basically just how action cinema works, but when compared to "costumed adventurer" types, like Batman, he takes the same absurd level of punishment on a regular basis. Next time you're watching Die Hard, have a bit of a lateral think about how all of this look in the MCU or another superhero setting.