Weird Comics #1 - pt. 1

It's been some time since we read the debut of a "brand new" comic book together, but here we are with the inaugural issue of Fox's Weird Comics, plus the first appearance of a version of Thor in comics -- unless the character named Thor in Top-Notch Comics was the real Thor, and I've still reached no decision there). 

Already we're getting an unusual take on Thor...apparently he waxes, runs around in shorts, a cape, and a hat, and lives in Valhalla instead of Asgard. Say...is that acknowledging that Ragnarok already happened, and Thor is dead? That actually makes this truer to mythology than the Lee/Kirby version started, if I'm right.

Although Thor appears to be shooting an energy bolt from his hand, I believe that's meant to represent the path of his hammer.

Another interesting development: Grant Farrell could have just been given Thor's hammer and his powers, but instead he's "transformed into Thor's being," which seems more complex, like how Don Blake and Thor were merged into one person? 

How does he recognize them as spies? Grant isn't a spy himself. Is this some kind of Thor sense? Or are the Editor and player meta-gaming, where the Editor just tells the player what everything is he encounters?

The spies' motivation here is pretty suspicious. Could they really find no one to pose as a tourist for them willingly? 

"Andurian" makes me think of Peruvian. Peru is the 2nd largest world producer of copper and silver, 8th largest world producer of gold, so that does sound like something international spies would want to get their hands on.

Riding on a lightning bolt is a curious way for Thor to get around, but the Marvel Thor seldom used his goat-drawn chariot either. It could be the Teleport through Focus power, since electricity is technically everywhere, or this could be flavor text for a slower Race the power; after all, he doesn't really need to be faster than Race the Plane to catch up to the spies.

Forcing a plane to land I could see as a freebie result with a Control Weather power. 

So, Plan A was to sneak spies into the country to look for the mines, but Plan B was to roll tanks into the country and crush everything but the mines. It seems like a lot of escalation is happening there and maybe there should have been a plan in between?

No one in Hideouts & Hoodlums should be able to smash five tanks at once. I think I would cap Mass Wrecking at three tanks. Five...that's just a lot of tanks.

Speaking of plans...it's hard to imagine what Grant was thinking to accomplish, changing back to normal and just waltzing up to the mines. Was he planning on asking how they planned to defend the mines? Was he trying to flush out any spies around the mines? Couldn't he have done both as Thor? The story hasn't told us yet that there's a time limit to how long Grant can be Thor, but if there was one that would explain why there needs to be scenes like this. 

It's also worth pointing out that the low ceilings in the mine are pretty realistic, more so than how spacious mines usually look in the movies.

I didn't show you page 9, but Grant stays in the same spot throughout, which begs the question -- where did that lightning come from? Can Grant summon lightning even when he doesn't appear to be Thor? Did the real Thor send it? 

  

Again, it's difficult to get a sense of Thor's plan. Carrying the spies back to their home country seems more like doing them a favor then deporting them...unless Thor wanted them to get shot by the anti-aircraft guns? He must have been expecting it, because he buffed himself with Invulnerability before taking off.

 

Lastly, Thor must have eight brevet ranks, going into this adventure. 

 

Moving on, we meet the Sorceress of Zoom in her magic floating -- and mobile! -- city. I wish we could see more clearly the monsters in panel 4. When it says she created them with her magic spell, I don't think we should consider this an ordinary magic spell, like Mobster Summoning, with a duration. Rather, I think we can hand wave this as flavor text explaining where the monsters came from.

 

 

 

The monster in panel 1 reminds me of Spider-Man's future foe, the Jackal. It also looks kinda goblin-like? Even more interesting is the monster in panel 2 -- I really wish I had a clearer picture of it. It looks like it has webbed feet, one glowing eye, attacks by strangulation, and is wearing a cape? I want to stat it, but I don't even know what to call it!

 

The floating city "speeds off into the distance"? How fast can a magic floating city move? Fast enough that planes can't catch up to it? 

 

If I thought the Thor story was confusing, the narrator here is of little help whatsoever. I don't understand why the Sorceress wants to take over the city by force, but then gets upset when one single boy is knocked out. 

 

Ohh...carefully looking at the page numbers, I see two pages are missing. Now I may never understand what spell "hundreds of us" were under, or how the mysterious figure knows to single out Tom to help him.

 

There's our goblin friend again. While before I thought the red dots on his undies were gems, now they just look like polka dots. 

 

Hmm. I didn't actually have anything game mechanics-related to say about that page. I think I just wanted the excuse to mention his undies. 

 

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)

 
 
 

Silver Streak Comics #2 - pt. 4

We're still in Duke Kelly, Ace Inspector.  The narrator calls these thugs, but they sure seem like superstitious hoodlums, a mobstertype that was introduced in Supplement I: National.  Haunted houses are, of course, a wonderful set of tropes to exploit for hideout-building.

There is absolutely no game mechanic that would explain how Duke just happens to be on the same road as the kidnappers at this particular moment; it's just a handout from the Editor.

Shooting people inside a moving vehicle is possible during a chase scene in Hideouts & Hoodlums, but negative modifiers for cover and speed are need to be taken into account. Duke's player must have rolled really high.

Throwing your gun after you run out of bullets is what happens when the Editor just keeps rolling really high for morale saves.

Duke makes an unusual choice, letting the hoodlum/thugs get away so he can go after Hix. But...how does Duke know that neither of these guys is Hix?  Did he ever see a picture of the man, between panels? And he's so confident neither of them is Hix in disguise? I suspect Duke's player is meta-gaming here, and figures this isn't a likely place for a boss battle to take place.

The 6' hedge leading straight up to the house is convenient cover!

The falling beam, poised to fall and hit anyone coming in the entrance, was a trap.

It turns out Hix is a supervillain! Here he uses the power Extend Missile Range I, turning Duke into a missile.  It's possible he also used Spook Bad Guys on the thugs earlier, meaning Hix is at least 2nd level (shameful man).

There is a serious design flaw in this hideout -- if you're going to install steel doors to keep people out, it's not a good idea to leave open transoms above them.

It's an interesting tactic here; most villains rig their hideouts to explode, but Hix went with slowly burning it down and then making it explode. It definitely gives him more time to escape that way!

I'm calling shenanigans on those porch roof physics, though. If their weight was really too much for the roof, they would go right through, not make it "gradually sag" to the ground.

Mister Midnite is a curious feature. These bad guys are called "The Little Men." Some of them look really weird, and the one with the mohawk definitely has fangs, but it's still unclear if these are just ugly midgets with woman issues or if this is supposed to be some non-human race.

The brute they use called "Noman" (long before THUNDER Agents!) appears to be undead, but let's wait and see if that turns out to be true.

Noman is given several colorful descriptors, but brute is perhaps the most telling for H&H. My entry on thugs may say something about how brutes are thugs who specialize in unarmed combat.

Now, bear in mind that Carruthers here is a superhero, so his embarrassingly fast smackdown is telling. In first edition, this would be proof that superheroes cannot use their powers when out of costume. But in second edition I removed that restriction because there were so many exceptions to it. I still think we can explain this, though, as an example of how low level Mister Midnite is, and being low level means Heroes are vulnerable.  Particularly if he rolled poorly for starting hit points, it is not inconceivable for a first-level Hero to go down in one hit.

It's almost impossible to follow what is happening in the first half of this page. What is the nature of this trail that is so easy for Mister Midnite to follow, but the police haven't bothered to yet? Mister Midnite stops time...and then just appears at the hideout entrance?

It's possible that Mister Midnite has used the power Find Evidence -- as-written, it does not find trails, but I have had players ask for a more lax interpretation of the power so it can be used like this. 

And as for the time stop...perhaps the Editor has agreed to ignore how much time it would take to follow the trail, in keeping with the flavor of Midnite's power. There is no hard and fast mechanic to timekeeping when out of combat; mostly it is just the Editor making common sense decisions over how long something should take.

I'm amused by the narrator pretending that he meant to get captured. I think it's pretty clear that Mister Midnite is a bit of a wuss and did not wind up in chains on purpose...

(Scans courtesy of Digital Comic Museum.)