Captain America
Captain America and his signature shield
I’m still in the middle of moving — new job and new home means very few blog updates, as I’m sure anyone who’s still following me has noticed — but I had a chance yesterday to catch the Captain America movie, and it demanded comment.
Captain America is a very interesting sort of superhero. He doesn’t follow the general arcs other superheroes do. By far the most common superhero character-development arc is Tragedy – Vengeance – Responsibility: something bad happens to the character that drives him to become a superhero, and once he’s addressed the situation, he feels responsibility to continue to pursue justice. This arc describes many Marvel heroes, including Spider-Man and Iron Man, as well as DC’s Batman, who is similar to Captain America in that he’s not a “true” superhuman but rather a human operating at the pinnacle of his abilities.
Categories: Comics, Manga, and Anime, Movies and Television, Reviews | Comments (2)
“No, Wait…”
Order of the Stick #1, by Rich Burlew. Upgraded to 3.5e!
There’s an interesting thread at the Giant in the Playground forums that deals, in part, with retracting an in-character action. (As a side note, if you’re not reading the Order of the Stick comic at GitP, you really should. There’s a lot of terrific gaming humor there.)
Among the questions the original post poses is the following:
- Do you allow your players to revise an action, if, a second or so later, they remember themselves why they shouldn’t do that?
There is, naturally, quite an array of views on the matter. Some espouse the “you said it, it’s done” school of thought. Others allow retractions with few restrictions. There’s a lot of ground in between. General opinion seems to fall toward “it depends,” which I realize isn’t terribly dramatic. But the question of what, exactly, it depends on remains intriguing.
Categories: Comics, Manga, and Anime, Philosophy and Rants, Websites | Comments (2)
I Watch the Watchmen
Watched, rather. And it was good. Some spoilers below, though I’m not sure whether spoilers really apply to movies based on comics published more than two decades ago.
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Superhero Lessons for Fantasy Games
Even if you don’t play a superhero game, this month’s RPG blog carnival on superheroes needn’t be a wasted month for you. There are qualities of a superhero game that can be adapted to enliven your new fantasy campaign — or to revitalize an old one with a change of direction. Consider some of the lessons of a superhero campaign:
Symbols (and Names) Matter
When you think of Superman, you probably think of the big red S on his chest. It’s a distinctive sigil. When you think of Batman, you probably picture his scalloped cloak, which resembles the wings of a bat. When those two get together with a couple more of their friends, it’s not just any gathering — it’s the Justice League.
Categories: Advice, Comics, Manga, and Anime | Comments (6)
Strange Superpowers
In the spirit of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival on superheroes, I present some of the strangest superpowers ever to grace the pages of a comic book. Perhaps you’ll find them inspirational. In no particular order:
Eyes in your Fingertips. This is the rather unique superpower of the Ten-Eyed Man, an old Batman villain. He was blinded in an accident, but a skilled doctor was able to reconnect his optic nerves to his fingertips, allowing him to see through them. Somehow, this made him a master escape artist as well — when he was imprisoned, he had to be kept with his hands locked into a box, or otherwise he’d escape. He had a couple other gadgets, like a jetpack and a bullwhip, but for some reason, everyone he met was really impressed by his ability to see through his fingers. The character was finally, mercifully killed off in DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths series.
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