Pointcrawls in The City

 

Came across this map posted by @BlvdSubway on twitter earlier. The first thing it made me think of was a Metroidvania map - I've always been a fan of that side-view of mapping of the mythic underground, despite being iffy on the genre (I like Castlevania much more than Metroid.)

I've been giving a lot of thought to dungeon and adventure design - maybe session design is a more accurate term - since the wind down of my 2023 totally-not-a-west-marches campaign, The 5th World. Maybe I'll do a blog post about that at some point, since I have a thoughts/feelings/regrets.  But the biggest one is about being flexible enough to unshackle myself from a specific system. My years long dalliance with 5th edition has soured quite a bit. I'm currently in a cautious flirtation with Pathfinder 2e - we're still feeling each other out. I like it as a player but I'm not sure I would have a good time actually running it.

All that has left me to wade around in a mess of OSR systems - I've mostly gravitated towards Whitebox FMAG, but still have to go back and forth with the voice in my head that says "Just run The Black Hack 1E, yall were made for each other."

Anyway. Session Design. 

Capeshit Near You

While pundits argue over whether "superhero fatigue" is a real thing, 2024 has actually been a pretty good year for capeshit and capeshift adjacent programming. Here's some stuff I've enjoyed in recent weeks:

The People's Joker

 

This movie is an emotional tour de force. It is a gut-wrenching trans coming of age story wearing a Batman snuggie. From its unabshed love for Joel Schumacher and the 90s Spider-man cartoon, to its incisive deconstruction of SNL - this movie is worth catching with a crowd if you can.

X-men '97

 

I still maintain that the first three episodes of this show looked like an old newgrounds cartoon someone texted from an iPhone to an Android, but even I'm not enough of a hater to pretend this jawn hasn't been heat. There is something very clever about the way it has been utilizing the plot developments of the Morrison (and post-Morrison) era to go back and bolster its re-imagining of 80s and 90s storylines. 

I do wonder if anyone under the age of 30 is actually watching this show though.

Extraordinary 

A spiritual successor to classics like No Heroics and Misfits, Extraordinary is a pretty, easy to watch show about struggling shitheads who just want to feel special. Great way to lift your spirits if you're jobless and binging Hulu shows in the middle of the day. 

The 2nd season just dropped. In good conscience I cannot really recommend a show that opens with an unironic dance sequence set to a Lizzo song, but perhaps you will enjoy that type of corny shit. There are some mean and fun new characters.

MONARCH: Legacy of Monsters

About half way through this show it became impossible to ignore that Matt Fraction was helming it. Pretty much every bad narrative impulse that makes you go "oh come on" while reading a comic is present in this show from about the half-way point to the end. But damn do we get a surprising amount of Kaiju action. Apple TV budgets are going crazy.

Worth watching if you're on the Anna Sawai bandwagon after Shogun.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith 

 

This isn't a superhero show by even the most absurd stretch, but it does kind of have the vibe of a mid-aughts indie comic that everybody loved but won't get a sequel. There's some incisive writing on race and identity, some amazing comedic performances (John Turturro and Wagner Moura steal the show when they appear), but Maya Erskine really holds it the fuck down. I was not familiar with her game at all. 

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In other news:

-I'm still waiting on the mass critical re-evaluation of Madame Web. 

-We got our first terrible look at David Corenswet as Superman

-Avengelyne might end up starring Margot Robbie? Honestly just makes me wonder whats up with the Witchblade rights.

-Marvel makes a statement I don't agree with.

-The homie, @artschooldrop just dropped his webcomic, The Human Toilet. It should go without saying its pretty nsfw. My boy has an undeniable pen and I need him to hit us with four pages a week as long as he can. 

 

 

 

"I never liked his work."

Ed Piskor, author of such works as X-men: Grand Design, Hip-Hop Family Tree and Red Room, has been accused of being abig old creep by alt comix artist Molly Dwyer. A few other women have made statements about his behavior as well. Doesn't seem like a great situation and there will probably be more people with lots to say...but you know who we don't need to hear from?

The people who just want to air our their worthless opinions on some dumb comics.

Her Web Connects Us All

Madame Web hit digital this week
 

I enjoyed it.