REVIEW: End of Month Reviews #54 - June 2008 [spoilers]
Saxon Brenton
[REVIEW] End of Month Reviews #54 - June 2008 [spoilers]
58.5 #44 [LNH]
Academy of Super-Heroes #90 [ASH]
Chessmen: Foundations #1 [AC]
Guardian Sentai RoboMan #1-5 [PSP]
Jolt City # 14 [8Fold]
The Reverse Engineers #2 [ASH]
Extreme #1-3 [Superfreaks]
Also posted:
Anthology 2: Seraphim Wing [AC]
Legion of Net.Heroes Vol.2 #27 [LNH]
Mister Blister and Sister State-the-Obvious #1 [LNH]
Apropos of nothing to do with amateur fiction:
One of the people in one of my role-playing gaming groups recently
decided to record and podcast some of out sessions. The first
opportunity came a few weeks ago, when the rotating gamesmaster's
position moved on to the next person. Now, keeping in mind that this
group has been playing approximately fortnightly for just over ten years
and hasn't had a name, I was mildly bemused to discover that we are now
The Future Guys From The Past. Anyway. The 2 hour session from mid June
is up, in five parts, at: http://futureguysfromthepast.mypodcast.com/
So if you have a hankering to waste some time listening the gaming
antics of some Australian guys in their late 30s playing a Star Wars
adventure, recorded with bad sound that those who have mechanical
aptitude in these things swear they'll be able to fix next session...
well, this might be worth your attention.
Spoilers below...
-----
58.5 #44
'Only Waiting For This Moment To Arise'
A Legion of Net.Heroes [LNH] series
by Lalo Martins
The story starts with a brief vignette of Cannon Fodder continuing
his search across various worlds for the Xinerama Brothers. And maybe
he found them. Certainly he found something, since he returns at the
end to get assistance from the New Misfits.
However, in the meantime the bulk of the story is the concluding
half of the fight between the New Misfits and their Evilverse counter-
parts, Acla Fright - which is short but full of incident. After having
killed Blackbird as part of their infiltration efforts, the Acla
Frighters are surprised when Blackbird's powers recreate his body,
reveals himself as one of the family of Wicked (cf Ben Rawluk's _Teens
In Trenchcoats_ series) and proceeds to beat the crap out of them.
Regrettably for the villains: they are stupid. They make the mistake
of confusing the fact that the heroes don't kill their opponents with
the notion that they don't have the wherewithal to kill them, and thus
even when captured they cannot help but taunt the heroes. This sets off
Smoke Ring Girl, who kills them and herself with her powers.
Academy of Super-Heroes #90
'Kheper's Path Part II: Jaws of Apophis'
An Academy of Super-Heroes [ASH] series
by Dave Van Domelen
The investigation into the murder of Devlin Marx continues. Details
gathered by the police lead Contact to conclude that the person who
purchased the antimatter bombs was wearing armour of extraterrestrial
Santari make - and that narrows the leads to only a few people who have
access to technology that has been interdicted for sale on Earth. Along
the way Contact also has a chat with Doctor Developer, and then finally
gets the go-ahead to interview the Catholic Pope. The plot thread with
Kim Bell proceeds, as it's implied that the 'help' she is currently
receiving is at least partly a scheme by Marx.
Chessmen: Foundations #1
'Sales Pitch'
An Artifice Comics [AC] series
by Aaron Baugh
This is a fairly straightforward 'introduce the concept and
characters to the audience' episode. Industrialist Nicholas Castle has
put together a team of superhumans named the Chessmen and spends this
story selling them to a general as replacements for the Seven team. Now,
some of the origins and powers are fairly straightforward, even mundane
as far as four-colour heroes go, while others (such as that of Adam
Lazarus, the Bishop) are more idiosyncratic and interesting. I suspect
that it will be the personalities of the individuals that make or break
them as characters. However, for now it's enough that Castle is
presented as outgoing - even arrogant and abrasive - and with just a
hint at the conclusion that his self-confidence might cover something
underhanded. Is he another example of an 'evil corporate boss'? Or
does the fact that he himself is part of the team hint at a more
complicated motivation? We shall have to wait and see.
Guardian Sentai RoboMan #1-5
'Attack on Blizzard Base Zero' Component 01.1 ;
'Attack on Blizzard Base Zero' Component 01.2 ;
'Attack on Blizzard Base Zero' Component 01.3 ;
'Phase Three! Go Robo Vehicles!' Component 02.1 and
'Phase Three! Go Robo Vehicles!' Component 02.2
A PSP [PSP] series
by Adrian J. Watts
Okay, I'll admit that the visuals of the opening scene are
impressive. When I got to the end of the second paragraph I thought,
"How can you not love a setting that has people living in a giant
robot head buried under the snow in Antarctica?"
Anyway. Adrian Watts has posted (or had posted for him) an
Artifice Comics story to RACC before, but _Guardian Sentai RoboMan_
is a separate setting and imprint (although I have yet to figure
out what PSP actually stands for). Adrian's webpage at:
http://www.night-jaeger.net/ contains an eclectic collection of
amateur fiction and fanfiction, including several dozen episodes of
this series. As the name indicates, it's an adventure story
featuring the elements of sentai teams and transforming robots
(although not of piloting shapechanging mecha).
Kiko Sato is brought to the Blizzard Base Zero in Antarctica to
participate in the Project: Roboman being run by Dr Nagura and
Dr Smith. She meets these two, as well as Dr Nagura's son/ward Ian/Ikku,
and Sei - the latter two being trained in the powers granted by the
roboman costumes. However, she is also just in time for an attack on
Blizzard Base Zero organised by the Sorceress Miko and Jinsei (a shape-
shifter who has been masquerading as Dr Smith). The Sorceress Miko has
used her pixie related powers to take control of soldiers of the Black
Battalion (and the revelation of precisely how she tricked them into
being unwittingly covered with her pixie dust, under the cover of
plaster dust from a damaged wall, was impressive).
The compromised soldiers attack Blizzard Base Zero, giving Jinsei
the opportunity to use the pixies to kidnap Dr Nagura, as well as
prompting Kiko to don the third roboman costume and join with Sei and
Ian to ward off the assault. The three then take refuge at a Black
Battalion safe house to await debriefing on the disaster, but
unfortunately the administrators of Science Island (the supervisors of
both the Black Battalion and Blizzard Base Zero) have to sort out which
of their soldiers have been taken over first. The implusive Ian goes
off to find answers rather than continue to wait, and then gets attacked
by a humanoid turtle called Shellshock who was sent by Jinsei to kill him.
Jolt City # 14
'The Sensational Character-Find of 2007, Pt. 3: The Secrets of the Contessa!'
An Eightfold [8Fold] series
by Tom Russell
Well, that's a nasty surprise ending.
Derek's training with Martin continues, and Derek also develops a
friendship with Erika, an older woman Who just happens to be the Clockwork
Contessa and whose sexual obsession with the Green Knight incited her to
kidnap and rape him back in #8. She is seriously emotionally unbalanced,
and to be honest I can't tell whether she is sexually obsessed with the
Green Knight and feels genuine guilt for her obsession, or has a guilt-
and-punishment fetish with her harassment of the Green Knight as its focus
(her hysterical self-condemnation put me in mind of the 'naughty nun
sketch' from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, which I'm pretty sure will
loose me some cred as a reviewer).
Meanwhile there's a serial killer on the loose, and this plot thread
gets various scenes. Despite this I was faked out by the discussion
between Derek and Martin over the practicalities and obligations of Derek
telling his father, Moses, about his superhero training (That discussion
it looked like foreshadowing, something that was almost certainly
deliberate on Tom's part). In nay case, because of this near bit of bait-
and-switch I didn't anticipate that Moses Mason would be revealed in the
last line as one of those people who had been murdered.
The Reverse Engineers #2
'Forbidden Foo'
An Academy of Super-Heroes [ASH] series
by Andy Burton
It seems that one of the ways that Dr Developer chose to protect
Detroit was to enlist the help of Spaz in erecting a magical barrier
around the city that made it 'functionally invisible': people simply
tend to ignore the place. As seen over in the _Academy Of Super-Heroes_
over the past two issues, this not only tends to affect people who are
immediately physically present, but also the national administration
which has apparently been made to 'forget' to rescind its contract
town status. The other method of defence is to have a team of
superhumans on hand to handle attacks, which is what happens in the
present when the Tinker Team somehow gets in and starts causing havoc.
Extreme #1-3
A Superfreaks [Superfreaks] series
by Martin Phipps
This series picks up where _Superfreaks Season 3_ left off, with
Extreme having just returned from a sojourn in space. His team leader,
Waterlord, suggests getting his newborn son Tyk-El tagged with a tracking
device, which is just as well since the kid soon wanders off to China.
After being recovered Tyk-El is enrolled at Javier's in issue 2.
Meanwhile the clone rights agenda continues to bubble away.
Issue 2 is also interesting in that it shows Extreme, in his secret
identity, being slightly ethically underhanded in using his powers to
spy on the police for the purpose of gaining a news scoop. This
contrasts his ethical dilemmas in issue 3, when fanatics from the
'Extreme Is God' fan organization cause trouble, ranging from
suicide through to execution style murders.
----------
Saxon Brenton University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
saxon....@uts.edu.au
The Eyrie Archives of Russ Allbery which collect the online superhero
fiction of the rec.arts.comics.creative newsgroup and its sibling group
Superguy can be found at:
http://archives.eyrie.org/racc/ or
http://lists.eyrie.org/pipermail/racc/
http://archives.eyrie.org/superguy/ or
http://lists.eyrie.org/pipermail/superguy/
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Tom Russell
> [REVIEW] End of Month Reviews #54 - June 2008 [spoilers]
> Jolt City # 14
> 'The Sensational Character-Find of 2007, Pt. 3: The Secrets of the Contessa!'
> An Eightfold [8Fold] series
> by Tom Russell
>
> Well, that's a nasty surprise ending.
> Derek's training with Martin continues, and Derek also develops a
> friendship with Erika, an older woman Who just happens to be the Clockwork
> Contessa and whose sexual obsession with the Green Knight incited her to
> kidnap and rape him back in #8. She is seriously emotionally unbalanced,
> and to be honest I can't tell whether she is sexually obsessed with the
> Green Knight and feels genuine guilt for her obsession, or has a guilt-
> and-punishment fetish with her harassment of the Green Knight as its focus
> (her hysterical self-condemnation put me in mind of the 'naughty nun
> sketch' from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, which I'm pretty sure will
> loose me some cred as a reviewer).
Looking at it now, her little monologue would probably play better/be
more effective in a film or a play than in prose.
> Meanwhile there's a serial killer on the loose, and this plot thread
> gets various scenes. Despite this I was faked out by the discussion
> between Derek and Martin over the practicalities and obligations of Derek
> telling his father, Moses, about his superhero training (That discussion
> it looked like foreshadowing, something that was almost certainly
> deliberate on Tom's part). In nay case, because of this near bit of bait-
> and-switch I didn't anticipate that Moses Mason would be revealed in the
> last line as one of those people who had been murdered.
Often times in serial storytelling, when a character is about to die,
there's usually some kind or sense of closure-- some truth is
illuminated, something meaningful is communicated, et cetera. I tried
my best to leave Moses's story "unfinished"-- after all, we just met
the guy a couple of issues ago, and he seemed (or at least I hope he
seemed) like he was going to be a regular supporting cast character.
In his last scene-- perhaps the last time that he and Derek speak to
one another-- Moses doesn't say anything *particularly* meaningful
and, in fact, jokes about Erika's breasts. (Hardly a graceful send-
off.)
I think there's a higher degree of versimilitude, and I'm glad you
were surprised by it. And while it's not until the next issue that I
explicitely connect the serial killer to Moses's death, I'm glad you
made that connection and that the twist didn't seem to come completely
out of left field-- that it felt in some way organic.
And, yes, in one way that scene between Martin and Derek re: Moses and
Derek's secret is meant as a bait-and-switch, but if that was its only
purpose, I probably wouldn't have used it; I think it also manages to
highlight some of the tensions/differences in Martin and Derek's
relationship, some of Derek's maturity (wanting to tell his father)
and some of his immaturity regarding his rushed feelings for Erika--
if only in a somewhat oblique way.
+=+=+
I've been a little worried about this story (the whole thing, all five
parts) because it's different than most of those before it. There's
not really much by way of external conflict-- i.e., heroes versus
villains, saving the city, et cetera-- and the structure is one of a
slow build, details and small events (with a couple of big ones)
piling on top of each other. I've got a good feeling that in the
conclusion, everything will pay off-- that everything will come
together and the ultimate over-riding structure across the five parts
will become apparent.
But I'm wondering, dear readers and reviewers out there in RACC-land--
is the pace too slow? Is the lack of super-conflict making you feel
good, bad, or indifferent? Is the structure too eccentric or oblique
at this point in the game?
I'll probably return to more stand-aloneish stories with villains and
death-traps and crazy-ass ideas with # 17, but I just wanted to know
what general feelings, if any, pervade about the current story.
==Tom
Lalo Martins
> 58.5 #44
> 'Only Waiting For This Moment To Arise' A Legion of Net.Heroes [LNH]
> series
> by Lalo Martins
>
> The story starts with a brief vignette of Cannon Fodder continuing
> his search across various worlds for the Xinerama Brothers. And maybe
> he found them. Certainly he found something, since he returns at the
> end to get assistance from the New Misfits.
> However, in the meantime the bulk of the story is the concluding
> half of the fight between the New Misfits and their Evilverse counter-
> parts, Acla Fright - which is short but full of incident. After having
> killed Blackbird as part of their infiltration efforts, the Acla
> Frighters are surprised when Blackbird's powers recreate his body,
> reveals himself as one of the family of Wicked (cf Ben Rawluk's _Teens
> In Trenchcoats_ series) and proceeds to beat the crap out of them.
> Regrettably for the villains: they are stupid. They make the mistake of
> confusing the fact that the heroes don't kill their opponents with the
> notion that they don't have the wherewithal to kill them, and thus even
> when captured they cannot help but taunt the heroes. This sets off
> Smoke Ring Girl, who kills them and herself with her powers.
That's a summary, not a review. Was it so good that you had nothing to
say, or so bad that you didn't dare?
best,
Lalo Martins
--
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
then they seem improbable, and then, when we
summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
-----
http://lalomartins.info/
GNU: never give up freedom http://www.gnu.org/
Saxon Brenton
On Friday 4 Jul 2008 Tom Russell replied:
> On Jul 4, 1:46 am, Saxon Brenton wrote:
>> [REVIEW] End of Month Reviews #54 - June 2008 [spoilers]
>
>> Jolt City # 14
>> 'The Sensational Character-Find of 2007, Pt. 3: The Secrets
>> of the Contessa!'
>> and to be honest I can't tell whether she is sexually obsessed
>> with the Green Knight and feels genuine guilt for her obsession,
>> put me in mind of the 'naughty nun sketch' from Monty Python
>> And The Holy Grail, which I'm pretty sure will loose me some
>> cred as a reviewer).
>
> Looking at it now, her little monologue would probably play better/
Hmm. Yes, I think I can see how visuals would clarify the issue.
It also occurs to me that adding in one or two parenthetical
comments that describe those visuals (the ones that immediately
springs to mind are things like 'pain in the eyes' and 'tension in
the body' - things that hint that it's not a pleasant, fetish-like
recrimination she's going through, although some people do get
off on extremes of pain). That said, those would need to be brief
and ambiguus enough that Derek is still confused about whether
she's serious or not.
[...]
>> In nay case, because of this near bit of bait-
>> and-switch I didn't anticipate that Moses Mason would be
>> revealed in the last line as one of those people who had
>> been murdered.
>
> Often times in serial storytelling, when a character is about to
> die, there's usually some kind or sense of closure-- some truth
> is illuminated, something meaningful is communicated, et cetera.
> I tried my best to leave Moses's story "unfinished"-- after all, we
> just met the guy a couple of issues ago, and he seemed (or at
> least I hope he seemed) like he was going to be a regular
> supporting cast character. In his last scene-- perhaps the last
> time that he and Derek speak to one another-- Moses doesn't
> say anything *particularly* meaningful and, in fact, jokes about
> Erika's breasts. (Hardly a graceful send-off.)
>
> I think there's a higher degree of versimilitude, and I'm glad
> you were surprised by it. And while it's not until the next issue
> that I explicitely connect the serial killer to Moses's death, I'm
> glad you made that connection and that the twist didn't seem to
> come completely out of left field-- that it felt in some way organic.
of reality in art). Mostly Jolt City looks like you're concerned with
realistic reactions to events and situations, even if those events and
situations are fantastic. (More constraining forms of this would be to
insist that a story itself have no fantastic elements at all.) And of
course there's also visual realism, as in having a TV show or movie
with high production values so that the props and sets don't look like
they're done on a shoestring budget.
And then there's what your doing in Jolt City #14, where (as you say)
you've done away with the most basic form of narrative by having
something happen that's random and senseless and more like what
happens in real life than you would expect in a story. Essentially,
ignoring the consenusal reality of audience expectations about how
a story 'should' read for the something that closer resembles an
actual trajedy.
> And, yes, in one way that scene between Martin and Derek
> re: Moses and Derek's secret is meant as a bait-and-switch,
> but if that was its only purpose, I probably wouldn't have used
> it; I think it also manages to highlight some of the tensions/
> differences in Martin and Derek's relationship, some of Derek's
> maturity (wanting to tell his father) and some of his immaturity
> regarding his rushed feelings for Erika-- if only in a somewhat
> oblique way.
been doing: the annectdotes about superheroing and ethical
hypotheticals.
> I've been a little worried about this story (the whole thing, all five
> parts) because it's different than most of those before it. There's
> not really much by way of external conflict-- i.e., heroes versus
> villains, saving the city, et cetera-- and the structure is one of a
> slow build, details and small events (with a couple of big ones)
> piling on top of each other. I've got a good feeling that in the
> conclusion, everything will pay off-- that everything will come
> together and the ultimate over-riding structure across the five
> parts will become apparent.
>
> But I'm wondering, dear readers and reviewers out there in RACC-
> oblique at this point in the game?
you read and think and write about these writerly concerns, the
less you're able to simply sit back and enjoy a story. For my part
#13 seemed at bit slow because of the early inclusion of so much
of the apparently unrelated serial killer plot, but I assumed that it
would resolve in the end. The pacing of the whole *arc* hasn't
given me a problem however, because I groked that this is more
of a character based story: so it's less 'man-vs-man' than
'man-vs-self' and most especially 'man-vs-nature'. There's a
difference between slow pacing and leisurely pacing, and I think
it may be a mistake to assume that because the 'classic' form of
four-colour heroes has fast events and lots of fight scenes that that
is the only way it can be done. Judicious alternative treatments
- ranging form decompressed storytelling on the slower side and
wide screen megaviolence on the speedier side - are just as valid.
---
Saxon Brenton
_________________________________________________________________
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Jamas Enright
> That's a summary, not a review. Was it so good that you had nothing to
> say, or so bad that you didn't dare?
Not to jump on Saxon's reply, but yeah, sometimes he only summarises. I've
brought that up with him before, and he's addressed it... sometimes, it's
just what he does. Certainly he's just summarised, not reviewed, my
stories before. Eh. (And what does that say for the "also posted"
stories?)
--
Jamas Enright
Blog: http://www.jamasenright.com
Homepage: http://www.eyrie.org/~thad/
Blue Light Productions homepage: http://www.blue-light-productions.com/
Tom Russell
> Eh. (And what does that say for the "also posted"
> stories?)
That they're so awesome that they defy rational explanation.
==Tom :-)
Tom Russell
> On Friday 4 Jul 2008 Tom Russell replied:
> > Looking at it now, her little monologue would probably play better/
> > be more effective in a film or a play than in prose.
>
> Hmm. Yes, I think I can see how visuals would clarify the issue.
I was actually thinking more about tone of voice. But that's hardly a
good source of meaning for fiction. :-)
> It also occurs to me that adding in one or two parenthetical
> comments that describe those visuals (the ones that immediately
> springs to mind are things like 'pain in the eyes' and 'tension in
> the body' - things that hint that it's not a pleasant, fetish-like
> recrimination she's going through, although some people do get
> off on extremes of pain). That said, those would need to be brief
> and ambiguus enough that Derek is still confused about whether
> she's serious or not.
True, and I can see where I dropped the ball there. Ambiguity is
something I strive for-- creating that space where several different
and perhaps contradictory meanings can be present at once.
> {shrug} There are different levels of 'realistic'; of mimesis (imitation
> of reality in art). Mostly Jolt City looks like you're concerned with
> realistic reactions to events and situations, even if those events and
> situations are fantastic.
Very true.
> And then there's what your doing in Jolt City #14, where (as you say)
> you've done away with the most basic form of narrative by having
> something happen that's random and senseless and more like what
> happens in real life than you would expect in a story. Essentially,
> ignoring the consenusal reality of audience expectations about how
> a story 'should' read for the something that closer resembles an
> actual tragedy.
Thank you.
> Perhaps it is as the TV Tropes wiki webpage warns, and the more
> you read and think and write about these writerly concerns, the
> less you're able to simply sit back and enjoy a story. For my part
> #13 seemed at bit slow because of the early inclusion of so much
> of the apparently unrelated serial killer plot, but I assumed that it
> would resolve in the end. The pacing of the whole *arc* hasn't
> given me a problem however, because I groked that this is more
> of a character based story: so it's less 'man-vs-man' than
> 'man-vs-self' and most especially 'man-vs-nature'. There's a
> difference between slow pacing and leisurely pacing, and I think
> it may be a mistake to assume that because the 'classic' form of
> four-colour heroes has fast events and lots of fight scenes that that
> is the only way it can be done.
Well, I didn't so much mean that-- after all, my pacing's never been
exactly break-neck. I have a love for leisurely pacing, whether in
prose (for example, Proust) or film (Once Upon a Time in the West,
Tarkovsky, Kubrick). I guess my question isn't so much "is it okay to
do this?" but rather "am I doing it okay?", and your very kind and
generous feedback seems to lean towards the affirmative.
Thank you. :-)
==Tom
Saxon Brenton
On Sunday 6 July 2008 Lalo Martins (lalo.m...@gmail.com) felt compelled
to point out the obvious:
> That's a summary, not a review. Was it so good that you had nothing to
> say, or so bad that you didn't dare?
As Jamas has already pointed out, I tend to do that from time to time.
Okay, fine, forget that - I tend to do it a lot. On this occasion I was
cranky - mainly at myself - for not being able to finish LNHv2#28 last
week (I only just sent the prelimary draft off for editorial review this
morning) and then get on with stuff for Beige Midnight. So, basically,
I went "fsck it!" and just mainly posted plot summaries. I deliberately
went out of my way to find something to talk about with new stuff like
_Chessmen_ and _Guardian Sentai Roboman_, and I was able to put in minor
comments without too much effort for _Jolt City_ and _Extreme_. As for
things like _58.5_, _ASH_, and _Reverse Engineers_, they were much the
same quality as every month, and for time reasons I just didn't feel
up cudgelling my brain to find a new angle of discussion.
There, now you know my dirty secret. Well, one of my dirty secrets.
-----
Saxon Brenton University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
saxon....@uts.edu.au
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex
world of jet-powered apes and time-travel." - Superman, JLA Classified #3
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