Superhero Media: Spiderman

Emissary from Hell, Spiderman! Yes, you may know Spiderman (note the lack of hyphen) as either Japanese Spider-Man or Spuidaman, depending on where you first heard about it, but the title is Spiderman in the opening credits, so I'll be sticking to that. Our story begins when aspiring professional motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro is caught up in the centuries-old battle between the Planet Spider and the Iron Cross Army, led by Professor Monster. After the death of his father at the hands of the Iron Cross Army, Takuya encounters Giaera, the last survivor of Planet Spider, who gifts the young man his blood so that he may become Spiderman! With his new suite of powers, as well as the supercar Spider-Machine GP-7 and the transforming spaceship Marveller, Takuya is ready to battle evil. Up against him are the Iron Cross Army, with legions of soldiers, Amazoness and her increasingly-terrible wigs and a plethora of cyborg monsters known as Machine Bem. It's pretty fucking amazing.

Like most Sentai and Toku, Spiderman is pretty repetitive, and you really don't need to watch all 41 episodes like I did to get the feel of it, but it really is a lot of fun if you can stick with it. Although Super Sentai technically predates Spiderman, this series codified many of the themes and tropes that would become the standard in the genre, such as giant robots, transforming vehicles and enemies growing giant in the climax. Although you can jump into pretty much any episode of Spiderman and not have to worry about continuity, there is some development over the course of the series, such as the Iron Cross army suspecting that Takuya is Spiderman, Spiderman working with INTERPOL and a recurring Youth Detective Club. Should you just want to check out a few episodes of Spiderman, the first four and last two do quite well, with a surprisingly solid climax that sets an injured and desperate Takuya against the last vestiges of the Iron Cross Army. It's pretty damn solid given the genre and era.

Despite being reasonably obscure outside of Japan, the internet has, almost miraculously, brought Spiderman back into the cultural consciousness. Aside from appearing in the Spider-Verse comic crossover event, Spiderman has been referenced in cartoons, video games and is set to appear in an animated film. Naturally, I've had one in 28mm for a while, though I'd be up for an Amazoness and Professor Monster if I could get them, and it's an easy conversion if you want someone other than Peter Parker filling out the red and blue for a few games. Hopefully, Spiderman is here for many years to come, and Takuya takes his rightful place alongside other alternatives like Miles, Gwen, Miguel and Ben, because he really is just as good and deserves more exposure. It may seem like a big ask, but go track some Spiderman down and give it a watch, trying to push past your cultural expectations and aversion to rubber suits and see what's there. It's not a great programme, but it's bloody interesting and certainly good enough to fill up a slow afternoon.

Superhero Media: Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla II

So here's the thing about Godzilla films of this era I've been covering lately; they're ok. Very few fans tend to consider the 1990s to be a great time for the King of the Monsters, even if the worst offerings tend more towards the dull than the outright terrible. Drawing upon the successes of Mecha Anime and Super Sentai, Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla II pits a team of scientists against Godzilla in their mehca with jet attachment. So yeah, this is one of those Godzilla outings that is human-focused. Godzilla is around, and doing stuff, but the mood is closer to a high-budget Power Rangers series than Shin Godzilla. Or, I'm guessing Super Sentai, but I haven't seen any Sentai, so Power Rangers was my touchstone. There's even a cute monster who helps there heroes, Minilla (or Baby Godzilla, depending on your translation), and the puppetry on the suit, especially the eyes, is fantastic, so whilst the character is silly, it always looks good on-screen.

Rhodan is also in Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla, but he almost seems an after-thought, intended to provide a tenuous link for a Pterodactyl-obsessed engineer to join the team. There's even that whole "international" team element for the Mechagodzilla crew common to Sentai and Power Rangers, though the justification here is that they are provided and trained by the UN's Anti-Godzilla Taskforce. What? Of course the UN has an Anti-Godzilla Taskforce in the Godzilla universe, that's just common sense. And they must be backed pretty well, because Mechagodzilla looks pretty damn expensive, even with the Apple 2Es in the control banks. Sadly, the action scenes of Godzilla fighting Mechagodzilla aren't all that great, even if Mechagodzilla looks awesome, it just can't seem to move very much and ends up being swung around on wires blasting beams of light at everything. Comparing it to Godzilla Vs Kong is unfair, but even the robots in [Japanese] Spiderman have more movement.

Again, I'm not the kind of fan who gets down on Kaiju films that focus on human characters, as Shin Godzilla and Gamera: Revenge of Iris are some of the best in the genre and do that same thing with their characters. The team of scientists aren't super deep or anything, but seeing normal people react to the continued presence of Kaiju in their world is pretty interesting; again, the UN having an anti-Godzilla taskforce is silly, but not within the setting. It tends to be subtext in the Godzilla films, but for the most part, the characters, and thereby Japan as a nation, are accustomed to life with Kaiju, to an extent. The destruction and death related to continued monster attacks are still tragic, but it's not a surprise and people are working to fix the problem as best they can. When you remember that Godzilla is very much a metaphor for the threat and destruction of nuclear power, this lends a credence and depth to the series that isn't obvious with all the rubber suits and atomic breath.

The Pitch: Power Rangers Movie

Having watched a couple of attempts to re-launch the Power Rangers franchise in recent months and years, and how they've mostly bombed; I've had a few ideas. Now, though I've watched a little Power Rangers here and there, I wouldn't say I'm truly a fan, I just like peeking over that side of the superhero fence every now and then to see what's happening. But I do see these stumbles and it gets me thinking. This entry of "The Pitch" may be even less focused and more vague than usual, as it's more a gathering of ideas on how constructing a Power Rangers motion picture may work, instead of a refined idea like I've done in the past.

Go Go Power Rangers

An important element of Power Rangers lore that the casual fan may not be aware of is that it takes place in a multiverse and has for most of its run at this point. Whilst most stories and teams follow on from the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, other realities feature other teams and different timelines. In recent years, these universes have crossed over in the series and an organisation of former Power Rangers are keeping watch over the multiverse. Because this gives us a few opportunities to tie back into the main series, we now have the freedom to basically start from scratch. So we'll be doing a brand new universe and a brand new team, with our teenagers with attitude being the first Power Rangers in their reality, or at least, the first Rangers on Earth...

This is Power Rangers, so we already know what the formula is and what will work, which saves us a lot of time. We'll introduce a rainbow coalition of teenagers with attitude, give them colour-coded costumes and have them punch foot soldiers before the second act starts. Because we're using a new universe, we can bring back fan favourites with a few tweaks and updates, so long as we don't overdo things. I'm thinking we have a new version of a classic mentor, though Zordon may be pushing it after the 2017 film, possibly enough time has past. To that end as well, I'm thinking something like the Machine Empire as the antagonist. It's big and scary enough to let some sequels happen, but vague enough that it can be made cool with a few tweaks. Throw in some references to "AI" and maybe it even gets to be topical.

At some stage in the film, the "all is lost moment", our new team is cut off from their mentor and has to use the "in case of emergency" button that we Chekov's Gunned the hell out of in a previous scene. This calls our cameo for the film, a former Ranger from the television series, who helps our teens get the Megazord together to defeat the big monster in the third act. Now, this probably should have been Tommy, but due to the passing of Jason David Frank, I'm thinking Dr. K (Olivia Tennet) is the best choice. She's had enough of a career after Power Rangers RPM to be a draw, but isn't so big she won't come back, like in Beast Morphers. Her character is basically a mentor as well, but with some interesting pathos, and she can always come back and look alright, because she'll never have to morph into a much slimmer stunt person in spandex. Hell, maybe she can direct the film too.

I know that a lot of what I've put here is pretty basic stuff, but I do really think that's what this series needs to make the jump to film. Take the formula that has been working for over twenty years now and do a more expensive and refined version of that. Only bring in as much of the lore as you have to plus a little extra for the fans to salivate over. End with a big third-act blow-out giant robot fight and a post-credits tease and you have a successful film in the can. Maybe it's not a real threat to the MCU or anything, but you finally broke out of the television ghetto and made people take notice of the brand. Anyway, that's been on my mind, so good to get this done.

More 40K Superheroes (and Villain!)

Well, I thought I was done with this after the first one, but looks like I'm still going. Much like the Victorian Superheroes, I just keep coming up with ideas for 40k heroes that work too well to ignore. Unlike the Victorian stuff, however, I'm building most of these ideas when I can, because they work well with my narrative 40k games over on some other blogs I'm on. Also, I like messing with hardcore 40k-fanbois but doing stuff like female Space Marines and Ork Merchants, so this is another outlet for that, in a way.

The Avengers 40,000

When we last left our heroes, Kang the Conqueror had found himself trapped in a grim, dark future by the phenomena known as Warp Storms preventing his time travel technology from working. Unable to conquer the Galaxy on his own, rent as it was by constant war and ruled by a decaying mutant corpse, Kang chose to do what history had demonstrated to be the best course of action, assemble The Avengers! Like any era, there were heroes to be found in the wide galaxy, though they took vastly different forms to the ones with which Kang was familiar; Brunnhilde was an alien-hunting Space Marine burdened with conscience, Carol Danvers had betrayed humanity for the T'Au Empire and M'Baku fought the menace of the Orks. Gathering who he could, Kang himself led this newest incarnation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in an attempt to free the Galaxy once more.

As time wore on, Kang would find more familiar faces haunting the strange corners of the 41st Millennium, some would be welcome recruits, but others would be revealed to be enemies, old and new. Thanks in part to Kang, the heroes have arrived, but so too, it seems, have the villains. Trapped in a time not his own, Kang and his Avengers fight the good fight against hopeless odds; because that's what heroes do.

Rogue Trader Pryde, The Daring Devil, Trooper Greyson and Carol Danvers face off against Trayzen the Collector.

Rouge Trader Pryde: Kathryn Pryde was probably meant to live a normal, mundane life on her homeworld, but she had the misfortune to fall in love with a man from the stars. Quill Spartax, also known as the Star Lord, was the youngest in a dynasty of Rogue Traders, known for being brash and making poor decisions as much as his heroism and good looks. Pryde fell in love and joined Quill in the stars, going on adventures and even befriending a young xenodragon, which she named Lockheed. In time though, Quill's dangerous lifestyle caught up with him and he died on the Galactic Fringe. With no immediate family to take over the Rogue Trader Writ, Pryde had her late husband's armour adapted to fit her and became the new Star Lord.

The Daring Devil: That Aeldari and Humans can interbreed and produce viable offspring is a closely guarded secret by both races, especially since the embarrassing incident of the first Librarian of the Ultramarines. For some, however, that secret is something more; it is a prophecy. Deep in the winding halls of the Black Library, the Solitaires whisper of the coming of their greatest warrior, born of both races, the Daring Devil. When such hybrids are born, the Solitaries whisk them away for a lifetime of rigorous training and testing, and such was the fate of Mayhew Mur'Doch, the bastard son of a human soldier and an Aeldari warrior. Mayhew was a born fighter, the most naturally talented killer ever seen in the ranks of the Solitaries, whilst being completely blind. In his iconic red uniform, the Daring Devil is a legend, striking from the shadows and mowing down foes like death itself. 

Carol Danvers: No story on this one, I was just doing a Gue'vesa Kill Team and had the parts spare. I figured I may not always want to be fielding her in the Crisis Suit.

PDF Veteran Carter Greyson: Carter never wanted to fight, he wanted to save people. Born on a reasonably peaceful Imperial world, Carter volunteered for the Planetary Defense Force to help battle fires, rescue people from disasters and dig flood trenches. When war came to his sub-sector though, Carter found a lasgun thrust into his hand and Chaos Cultists in his sights, and as much as he hated it, Carter was clearly born for the battlefield. Slogging through the mud, fighting for his life, Carter continued to save everyone he could, keeping his squad-mates alive and throwing himself into the melee first, his trusty fire axe leading the way.

Trayzen the Collector: Known by many ways and many faces over the millions of years he's lived, Tanaleer Tevan, the Collector, one of the Elders of the Universe, survives well into the 41st Millennium. The disguise of Trayzen has been useful to the Collector, drifting in and out of Necrotyr society for aeons, taking interesting finds for himself whilst manipulating those around him. When a chance encounter brought Inquisitor Kang and Trayzen face-to-face, the Elder revealed he may be in possession of a way for Kang to leave the grim and dark future in which he was trapped. The two clashed and Trayzen escaped, but Kang did not forget and has since made it one of the missions of his Avengers to track down Trayzen and uncover what he has at his disposal.

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.

Superhero Media: Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

Well, I said I'd actually try some Power Rangers at some stage, and after watching some of Linkara's "History of Power Rangers" videos, the first one I settled on was Lightspeed Rescue. Longtime Lead Capes readers will know that one of my very first articles was about Lightspeed Rescue and the supers gaming potential of the team and setting. Just in case you don't want to wade through forty episodes of Power Rangers (don't blame you), the premise of this series revolves around the titular Lightspeed Rescue organisation, a quasi-governmental task force somewhere between International Rescue and SHIELD, complete with underwater "Aquabase" and plenty of support crew. When Queen Bansheera awakens from her slumber and begins a plan to raise the legions of the underworld and drag the city of Mariner Bay into a literal Hell, Captain Mitchell puts out the word to recruit five Power Rangers to battle the coming demonic forces. This time, every recruit is an adult, including a Pilot, an X-Games competitor, a Paramedic, an Oceanographer and a Fire Fighter.

What I like about Lightspeed Rescue is the more military approach to the problem posed by Bansheera, as the Power Rangers have an entire support staff behind them and do as much search and rescue as they do fighting. Also, as adults working for a legitimate task-force, there are no secret identities and brushing with celebrity can be a plot point at times. Boiled down to core concepts, a team of Emergency Services Workers supported to be superheroes to fight a demonic invasion is the kind of thing that would make for a great supers game or comic in its own right. Other elements of note are that many of the team's weapons are firearms, as befits a military outfit, and that new equipment is developed by Lightspeed Rescue, rather than gifted from a mentor figure or mystic force. The attitude of the Red Ranger is pretty different as well, as a Firefighter, Carter Grayson's natural instincts are to run into danger, his signature move being leaping through the air whilst firing two guns. In the final battle with Banseera, Cater defeats her by crash-tackling her down into the Underworld. 

There's a lot to enjoy in Lightspeed Rescue, even for someone, like myself, who isn't really a fan of Power Rangers generally, and I'll be carrying plenty of ideas forward into my own games and characters. That said, this is still a Power Rangers series, with all that entails still present. The programme is repetitive in the extreme, the acting is patchy and it can get tiresome very quickly; I only got through all forty episodes over a few months whilst painting and doing jobs around the house. The design and realisation of the monsters and Zords is really good if you're into Kaiju and Sentai, but otherwise are pretty silly. Again, checking out the Linkara videos may be the best way to go if you're unsure how much Power Rangers you can handle. I certainly don't regret the time I spent on Lightspeed Rescue, but it will be a while before I attempt any more Power Rangers, as I've had my fill for the moment.

Superhero Media: Power Rangers (2017)

Although I'm not a fan, I feel that I do actually "get" Power Rangers as a franchise, and why it has such appeal. Whilst I never really enjoy watching more than a little of the programme, a giant robot fighting a giant monster on a nicely made model set will always get my interest. When the reviews of the 2017 Power Rangers film were overwhelmingly negative, it piqued my interest, as the trailers had looked decent enough, if a tad generic. Well, it took a while for Power Rangers to come to Netflix, then I kept putting it off, but one night, I had the house to myself and some commission painting to do, so I gave it a go. In my opinion, the major issue with Power Rangers centres around the studio being unwilling to take any real risks. The characters, story, soundtrack and narrative are rather dull and generic, with little sprinklings of good ideas here and there, yes, but that never seem to gain any real traction. 

In the small fishing village of Angel Grove, no really, the "Breakfast Club" of detention accidentally all end up at the same mysterious cave one evening and discover magic disks with the ability to destroy anything they touch other than the five teenagers with attitude. Before you can say "world-building", the teens have encountered Alpha and Zordon and have the background on Rita and Goldar. There is an odd tension to Power Rangers, between the desire to build up the characters and the conflicting rush to the third act with the big CGI monster fight. I want to like Billy and Jason because they're portrayed sympathetically, but we spend so little time with each that I don't get the sense of them as people beyond broad stokes. Yes, it's cool that Trini is queer, but it doesn't inform the film beyond a moment between her and Zach over their mutual trauma, and I'm not sure being a carer for a sick parent is equitable to being queer in a conservative household. 

The big blowout against Rita in the finale is sadly pretty forgettable as well, with the secret to forming Megazord being the power of friendship, even if the Zords themselves do look pretty neat. There is a moment where the Zords are running into battle and the classic Ron Wasserman "Go Go Power Rangers" starts and I had some hope for a moment, but it's undercut with an ableist joke about how the Autistic boy is uncoordinated. Elizabeth Banks is fun, but clearly no one told her the tone everyone else was going for, I do like the idea that she was a corrupted former Ranger as an origin, not that it really got covered in a significant way. Power Rangers is a dull mess, which is a shame, because as a franchise, it really has potential to be more than the glorified toy commercial most series settle for being.

Playing Power Rangers - Heroes of the Grid

One of the friends I play card games with is a huge Power Rangers fan, and he picked up the "Heroes of the Grid" boardgame, giving me a chance to try it out. As regular readers will know, I'm not much of a fan myself, but appreciate the appeal, such as it is, but a boardgame full of superhero miniatures will always get my attention. Sadly, for some reason the figures in Heroes of the Grid are around the 40mm mark, so probably not of use to many wargamers unless Marvel Crisis Protocol is your go-to. 

This won't be much of an AAR, sorry, as the pictures uploaded in the wrong order and it's a bugger to fix, so I'll just be talking about the game and providing some commentary as I go. 

Heroes of the Grid is cooperative, with an enemy AI mechanic based on this track of cards, the players can choose to "attack" the next card in sequence or a later one that perhaps will have worse effects. The Rangers typically act first, then play alternates, so choosing the best moves is a big part of the strategy. 

I was playing as Zach, from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, whose abilities enabled him to sacrifice cards to power other attacks. Your deck of cards is also your health, so this play style made Zach risky but powerful. The Dragon Ball Z playmat is what I use for every card game, so has no particular meaning here. 

At a certain point in the game, a "Villain" will arrive, signalling the final turns. We got Rita, who is the most powerful in the core game, so we lost pretty quickly after that. Even with the large size of the figures, the detail is pretty nice and I suspect they'd paint up well. 

The all-important scale shot! Putty and Green Ranger next to a GW Underworlds Skeleton, about all I had to hand at work that wasn't a Space Marine or Reaper Bones. 

Each turn, a number of enemies spawn in each location; if any location becomes too full it is denoted as "Panicked". If all locations become Panicked, the Rangers lose. This isn't too dissimilar from other co-op games like Pandemic, but we lost to a bad flip only a couple of turns into the game and that kind of spoiled it for me. 

I just took this picture because it's a Power Axe, you know, like Warhammer. 

The basic board at the close of the second turn, moments before the random card flip lost it for us. Rangers can travel to different locations, but can recharge Power by going through the Command Centre. 

The start of the game looked pretty intimidating, but the Putties aren't too tough and decent teamwork clears them out nicely. 

Obligatory box shot. There is a huge number of expansions for the game already, which makes sense given the dozens of Power Rangers teams around. 

And being a miniatures gamer, I had to get an action shot, even if this was after we were soundly beaten. 

I'm not big on custom dice for minis games, but for board games I don't mind so much. These would also work nicely for SuperSystem or Super Mission force if you wanted more utility out of the purchase. 

After one game of Heroes of the Grid, I'm not terribly impressed, but mainly due to the random way in which we lost. Yes, I would have liked a resource for a couple of Power Rangers characters in 28mm, but I'll live for a little longer without them. What is there is good, especially if you're a fan, as the depth of characters is astounding for such a young game. From what I understand, the fan community is also pretty active, with lots of homebrew stuff out there and even new ways to play the base set. Unless my friend ropes me into a campaign of the game, I'm unlikely to revisit it here, though. 

Alternate Supers: Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

So this is one of the main reasons I wanted to start this blog, too many ideas for heroes and never enough time to make them all. The idea with this series is to look at alternate ideas for and/or incarnations of superheroes in the hope that it can kick-start someone else in the hobby. 

First cab off the rank is Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue 

Now, I haven't really watched Power Rangers in twenty years, but I started watching this on a friend's recommendation: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/hopr/25817-power-rangers-lightspeed-rescue . I found myself interested in Linkara's passion for the franchise and ended up watching the entire thing. If you just want to skim the bullet points, there's always the Wikki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Rangers_Lightspeed_Rescue

What I failed to realise when I was 6 was that Power Rangers were indeed Superheroes, complete with secret identities, powers and wise mentors. That said, a team of 5 almost identical supers in bright spandex never really appealed as a miniatures project... until I learned about Lightspeed Rescue. Unlike other Rangers, the Lightspeed Rangers are entirely products of human technology and ingenuity. They work for what is essentially a military operation, acting as an elite force to handle situations that normal search and rescue cannot. Also fight monsters, hey, it's Power Rangers. Also, the team has no secret identities and operate out of a giant submarine base commanded by a classic "stiff-upper-lip" officer type. In a sense, Lightspeed Rescue is an odd mash of Power Rangers and International Rescue.

Now, if you managed to get through at least a little of the video, you'll have noticed the snazzy jacket and wrist morpher combo that the Rangers sport when not in spandex to fight evil; personally, I think a uniform like that for fighting evil would be pretty funky and would keep the core theme (of Super-Rescue) without too much of the "Teenagers with Attitude" stuff. Seriously take an axe to Lightspeed Rescue and what you get is an emergency rescue team, given powers with advanced technology, working for a SHIELD/International Rescue[ish] organisation and fighting alien monsters. Pretty cool huh? 

To get you started: I'm thinking, Super Agility, Martial Arts, a ranged attack and maybe some kind of force field for heroes like these. 

- James 
"It's morphin' time!