Star Wars: Issue #1

Star Wars

Issue #1

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: John Cassaday

Rated: T/Teen

Genre: Sci-Fi

Price: $4.99

Time for a sneak peak at issue number one of the upcoming Star Wars title from Marvel Comics. Due to be released on January 14^th I was fortunate enough to come into a copy early. This series will be taking place between the events of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and it's important to remember that most of the previously published Expanded Universe (EU) content is not considered canon. That is to say that those stories exist separately from what is accepted as the actual Star Wars story. If you, like myself, were a fan of the various books, comics, and games that have been released over the years that brought additional detail to the universe you will need to set aside your preconceived notions of what took place between, before, and after the movies. Settle in and enjoy the fact that every bit of new Star Wars media that you consume is now officially part of the story.

On to the comic! These are the characters you've known and loved for a large part of your life. The feel of the universe is nearly spot on, it just feels like a Star Wars story from the start. Cassaday's art fits in well with the story, and the characters look the way I want them to look for a comic. Some panels seemed to be lacking in detail though, almost like the action was taking place against a back drop in a studio instead of in a galaxy as vibrant as the one we've come to expect. I also felt that it was a strange design choice to have the characters all dressed in outfits very reminiscent of those we've seen elsewhere in the trilogy. I was expecting something that felt a little more different than what we've already seen. I can buy that Han basically dresses the same every day, but Luke is wearing his award ceremony get-up from A New Hope and Leia is dressed practically the same as she is through the first half of Empire. A small complaint, I know; it has little bearing on the story, but it jumped off the page as an oddity to me.

Jason Aaron's story captures the 'against the odds' feeling of the Rebel Alliance very well. When we enter the story our favorite rebels are in the midst of a plan to destroy a major weapons manufacturing plant. The plan seems to be going well, which as we all know is a bad sign in this universe. C-3PO even commits the cardinal sin of remarking on how good a feeling he has about things. When everything inevitably goes sideways for our heroes Han improvises one of his famous plans. Luke picks that moment to have wandered off on his own, first as part of an impromptu rescue and then a much more dangerous confrontation. The banter between Han and Threepio specifically feels like a continuation of the relationship originally seen in the movies. All of the characters feel like their movie counterparts and react to situations as the reader would expect. One surprising thing for me is that it looks like they're going to tackle the growth of the relationship between Han and Leia very early in the series. It makes sense, as it's the best motivation for Han to be sticking with the Alliance; I just thought they'd develop the story line a little bit more before tackling a romantic link between the two.

Conclusion: I don't know if it's still the case, with the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars franchise, but before it's been generally accepted that there are three years between episodes four and five. If that is still the case then there is a lot they can do with this series, and with some minor tweaks it appears that the story is in good hands. I'm excited to see what happens next, and do not envy the task of telling this story while under constant scrutiny from many fans that have had thirty years to fill in this gap in the story with their own ideas.

Rating: 8/10

Saturday is Haul Day 25!!

This is a notoriously slow week in the world of comics, so this week's Haul is a bit limited.  Despite that, it's still something special.  Although it's not being released to the general public until January 14, Marvel has shipped special sneak peak copies of Star Wars #1 by Jason Aaron, John Cassaday, and Laura Martin in very limited quantities.  "How limited?" you might ask.  One per store.  Special thanks to Kyle at Galactic Quest for keeping me in mind and giving me the opportunity to get a first look at this exciting new book!

Pandemic

Pandemic

Publisher: ZMan Games (2012)

Players: 2-4

Play Time: Approximately 45 minutes

Genre: Board Game, Strategy, Co-op

Price: $39.99

Pandemic is the first of several games designed by Matt Leacock that readers will be seeing here. He seems to specialize in cooperative games, for those unfamiliar with the terminology those are games in which the players play against the game instead of against each other. I really enjoy cooperative games, sure trash-talking your friends can be fun but I have just as much fun hearing the different plans that everyone can come up with to tackle the same problem. I just seems to be a more social experience when everyone is working towards the same goal.

Commonly there are many ways to lose these types of games, and one way to win them. Pandemic is no exception. The players lose the game if the game board suffers through eight outbreaks, if you run out of disease cubes to place on the board, or if the players run out of cards to draw from the draw pile. That's right, even the draw pile isn't not your friend, instead of reshuffling and starting over, the players lose the game when the cards run out. It's a punishing mechanic that forces the players to do something meaningful with every turn, biding your time isn't an option.

It isn't the most punishing mechanic though, that honor is held by the outbreaks that occur in the game. Throughout the course of play infection cubes are placed on cities around the map, when those cities reach three cubes they become a ticking time bomb. If another cube would normally be placed on a thrice infected city that city suffers an outbreak, placing infection cubes on all cities connected to it. The worst case scenario is that an adjacent city reaches the outbreak point due to the initial outbreak, throwing out even more infection cubes (thankfully a city can't outbreak twice as part of the same chain) and making a bad situation downright dismal.

“With so many paths to failure arrayed before the players how do the good guys win the game?” you ask. The players must discover cures for all four diseases on the board. It's important to remember that you DO NOT have to eradicate the diseases to win, you just need to discover the cures. Without keeping that tidbit in mind the players will find the game nigh impossible to win. Believe me, Pandemic doesn't need any help, it's difficult enough as it is.

There are a lot of things to remember during the course of a game. Reference cards are provided to serve as reminders of all of the different things that are possible during a player's turn. Pay close attention to the movement rules regarding the use of city cards for transportation and the sharing knowledge mechanic afforded the players. Getting either of those things wrong drastically changes the way the game plays and you'll be kicking yourself when you realize that your easy victory came from a misapplication of the rules.

Conclusion: Pandemic is an insanely challenging game. I wouldn't recommend it for neophyte gamers unless there is someone very experienced around to help guide everyone through a couple of games. In the same vein, it might not be the best game to wrap up a play session with, as there's a better than decent chance you'll end the game humbled in defeat, staring sullenly at your implacable foe; an unfeeling, remorseless collection of cardboard and plastic. With all that being said; when you do manage to defeat this evil, brought into our world by Matt Leacock, you'll feel an amazing sense of accomplishment...or so I've heard.

Rating: 7.75/10

Star Fluxx

Star Fluxx

Publisher: Looney Labs (2011)

Players: 2-6

Play Time: 10-40 minutes

Genre: Card Game, Sci-Fi

Price: $15.99

Star Fluxx begins as a game with very few rules. Each player starts out with three cards in their hand, and on their turn they must draw one card and play one card. When the game starts there is no win condition. What follows is a crazy game that is sure to feature all sorts of twists and turns. There are many types of cards that affect the game in one way or another; Goals provide that game with its win condition, Keepers are the players' way to fulfill goals, Creepers keep a player from winning the game unless otherwise specified by the current Goal, Actions provide strategic ways to affect that game on a player's turn, Surprises can be played at anytime and impact the game in different ways depending on when they're played, and New Rules provide ever-increasing constraints on how the game is played.

This isn't a bad game to use to introduce new players to the world of table-top gaming, but if you're playing with inexperienced players it's best if at least one person knows the game. That person can help to keep track of the rules and keep things straight. The most important thing to remember is that the cards tell the players exactly what to do, they should be interpreted as literally as possible. Have no fear, after a few rounds of play everyone will be comfortable enough that you can sit back and just enjoy the game.

If the game isn't won very quickly, say in the first ten minutes or so, it seems that inevitably everyone is in for a wild ride. The longer games are the most fun, as players dive down deep into their bags of tricks for the slightest advantage. Card advantage, having more cards and therefore more options, is the most important aspect of the game. The trouble there is that there are many ways to turn that advantage against a player. That's where strategy most strongly comes into play. The order in which the player executes their plays can spell the difference between victory and perhaps handing victory to another player, the most embarrassing way to lose the game.

The artwork on the cards is pretty simple, but it conveys the sci-fi inspirations behind the cards perfectly. When it's not your turn it's fun to watch the other cards being played and trying to identify what sci-fi stories the cards are referencing. You might also find that this launches some fun conversations regarding those stories, perhaps allowing you to introduce someone to a book or movie that they haven't been exposed to before. It is a game after all, one you play with friends in order to have fun. What could be more fun than playing an awesome game and seeing someone discover Star Wars or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time?

Conclusion: Star Fluxx is a great game to start any game session. It's simple enough to be taught to just about anyone, but has enough depth to serve as a nice primer for the rest of the session. Will it satisfy the hardcore gamer in more experienced players? No, but it's a good appetizer for what ever main course game you're planning on serving up.

Rating: 7/10

Saturday is Haul Day 25!!

There's a little bit of everything in today's Haul.  For gaming we've got Star Fluxx, a card game in which the rules change constantly, the players' strategy for victory has to evolve with the game.  There's also Matt Leacock's creation, Forbidden Desert, which is a cooperative game that I've heard is quite difficult.

For reading material I got S.M. Stirling's A Taint in the Blood and a few comics; She-Hulk #11 by Charles Soule, Javier Pulido, and Munsta Vincente, Tomb Raider #11 by Rhianna Pratchett, Gail Simone and Nicolas Daniel Selma, and Wytches #2-3 by Scott Snyder, Jock and Matt Hollingsworth.

Christmas 2014 is Haul Day 24!!

All right!  Christmas is here, and that means a ton of new stuff to check out.  I got a little bit of everything this year, but it all looks awesome!  It's a little hard to know where to start:

First there's Castle:  Season Five starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic, then we've got a few classics that somehow I've gone my entire life without watching; Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman, an Alfred Hitchcock double feature; Vertigo and North by Northwest, Scanners by David Cronenberg, and finally The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton and Liv Tyler rounds out the movies and television department.

Let's move on to the games, shall we?  Both table-top and video games are represented here.  Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber, Forbidden Island by Matt Leacock, and The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin by Steve Jackson on the table-top side of things, and Wolfenstein: The New Order from Bethseda Softworks on the videogaming side.

Reading material was not overlooked either.  The trade paperbacks include Green Arrow Volume 2 by Ann Nocenti and Harvey Tolibao, Green Arrow Volume 3 by Ann Nocenti and Freddie Williams II, and Green Arrow Volume 4 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, and Marcelo Maiolo.  Finally, wrapping up with the books; a signed copy of The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, The Council of Shadows by S.M. Stirling, and The World of Ice & Fire:  The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia, Jr., and Linda Antonsson.

As you can see that's plenty to keep me busy for quite some time.

Revival Volume One: You're Among Friends

Revival Volume One: You're Among Friends

Issues #1-5

Publisher: Image Comics

Story: Tim Seeley

Art: Mike Norton

Rated: M/Mature

Genre: Horror

Price: $12.99

Revival is the story of a small town in Wisconsin where the dead have risen from the grave. I know what you're thinking; “Do we really need another zombie story?” or perhaps even more pointedly, “Doesn't Image already have a fairly successful little zombie comic running right now?” Believe me, before I purchased this book I had the same thoughts, but within the first few pages you'll know that this story is very unlike many other zombie stories. As it's presented the revival seems to be a very isolated incident, one which results in the quarantine of the town, CDC involvement, and attempted pilgrimages to the site. In many ways it's like an anti-The Leftovers; a small town's struggle with an unexplained event, the return of their loved ones, and the consequences of those returns.

The revived people are not like the zombies we've grown accustomed to, they're not rotting, flesh eating killing machines, they're just people that do most things people do; they're just dead while they do it. The reactions to their returns vary, as you'd expect. There's happiness that loved ones have returned, there are those that found closure and now are confronted with their dead friend or relative all over again, dead victims wish to find their killers, religious groups all have their own interpretations; all of the realistic real world responses to such an event are presented. Then, when it's time for things to go sideways with some of the revived, it goes really sideways, to grisly effect.

The art does the job, without being extraordinary. What I was most struck by was Mike Norton's ability to create such a diverse set of characters. The cast features many ethnicities and body types. There's a large Hmong population, a CDC doctor with Muslim parents and more. The population is not made up of only athletically gifted, superhero physiques. It's an actual populous with just about everything represented, something that cannot always be said about a comic book, and it's refreshing.

The one gripe I could have with this collection of issues is that there is a lot of information and characters to introduce. There are so many that at times I found myself warming to a character just in time for the story to jump to something else, leaving me hanging. It seems clear who the main characters are going to be, but there are so many different stories to tell regarding the denizens of Wausau, Wisconsin that I would have appreciated a little more time to get to know them. A little more focus would have been nice. It's such a small thing, that is sure to be rectified in coming issues, that it seems almost petty to mention it. Be that as it may, it was something that I noticed while reading.

Conclusion: Revival is a zombie story unlike many of those out there. The real world reactions and varied cast of characters will make it easy for just about anyone to jump right in and enjoy the story. The lack of focus through the first few issues is sure to be resolved, which will create a multi-layered story that horror comic fans will relish.

Rating: 8/10