Looking for a topic to discuss
Hello all,
I find it so hard lately to come up with a good topic to discuss, it seems my mind is blank when it comes to this.
There aren't any games to discuss as there aren't any titles on a short term release that I am looking out for (well perhaps Alone in the Dark but that depends on the reviews) and I have barely anything else that is worth bringing up.
Well there is the new Indiana Jones movie but I would like to see the story for myself rather than speculating what its about, well there are Communist soldiers in it, reminding me much of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, good game BTW.
I have been reading a lot of comic books, mostly from the US (European comic books are very different) with a lot being based on franchises such as Aliens, Predator or Indiana Jones, and a pure comic creation; Hellboy and its various spin offs.
I have to say that most of the franchise comics were really terrible or boring.
The Aliens ones the most, I found most of the stories rather contrived and pretty much only excuses to shoot a lot of things and trying to re enact Aliens.
A lot of these stories also came up with very weird plot devices such as Alien Kings, Bugmen; humans that had turned into Alien/human hybrids because of an Alien derived drug, and Aliens that could talk and use weapons!
Especially the so called Aliens VS Predator, Aliens VS Anything (fill in popular character) and Predator VS Anything (fill in popular character) had loads of these plot devices.
One of the most awful stories IMO must have been Aliens VS Predator: Deadliest of the Species that truly pushed the limit of bad sci-fi story telling, at some point humans, a Predator and an Alien Queen will work together, and later the Alien guess gets infected by a facehugger.
This story also introduced Alien/Predator/human albino hybrids that could talk and use weapons and were led by a hybrid King, thus avoid this series at all costs!
Before the release of the Alien 3 series there was also a comic made up sequel to Aliens; Aliens Book 1, Aliens Book 2: Nightmare Asylum, and Aliens Book 3/The Female War.
Some people praised them but I found them a bit to 'comic-y', perhaps interesting to read but not that good as a series of movies as some fans would have wanted.
Other series I also recommend you all avoid is Aliens Colonial Marines (the comics, not the game), it introduced the earlier mentioned bugmen.
The few stories I really liked was the original Aliens VS Predator mini-series, and Aliens Apocalypse - The Destroying Angels, with the last trying to recreate the atmosphere of the original Alien movie somewhat.
I guess I could also talk about the other Aliens / Predator VS comics but as most of you expect a lot of these are simply gimmicks.
The best IMO would be the original Batman VS Predator.
Onto Indiana Jones.
The stories in general weren't that bad as the earlier mentioned Aliens comics but to say that I got the same excitement from the movies as I went through the Marvel series and the Black Horse mini series.
At some point the stories simply lost me, not because they were to complex but I wanted to get through them as quick as possible so I could read a story that I did like.
Stories like Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny weren't that fun at all to read through, Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold was okay but nothing special, and Indiana Jones and the Pirates of the Sargasso Sea felt like a bad Pirate story with some elements really being annoying like a female Pirate leader who calls herself the Sea Witch, and New Jersey Jones, a con man who posses himself as Indiana Jones' brother.
Along the story is also an enemy of Jones (forgot his name) that keeps making trouble for our archaeologist, and has the tendency to call his henchmen his 'bully boys'. (why he does this, I have no idea)
After the few murder attempts in the beginning of the story I think it would have been justified if Indy had just taken this guy out as soon as possible, rather than in the end.
The story I like the most of all of these comics was Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix.
Taking place in 1946, Indiana Jones has to track down the pieces of the Philosopher Stone while competing with the Red Army and a faction of Nazis who want to use its power to restore the Third Reich.
Hellboy, now that was a comic I really liked.
A friend of mine asked me to describe why but I find it quite difficult to put it easily in words, well for one the characters were fun to read about.
Characters like Hellboy, Abe Sapiens, Roger the Homunculus, and later Johann are likeable and in case of the characters whose background is mystery, you really become curious of what their origins are.
The stories deal with the super natural such as Lovecraftian creatures but also beings from folklore that still haunt the human world.
Hellboy and his colleagues from the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence have to investigate encounters with such elements, determine if they are dangerous for humanity and take them out if necessary.
It has brought the characters in conflict with a colourful assortment of creatures such as the mentioned Lovecraftian monsters, witches from folklore, vampires, creatures from the Inner Earth, warlocks, and Nazis who since the Second World War have been doing various attempts to rebuild the Reich and get back at the former Allies.
A major part of the stories deals with a possible coming apocalypse and a new world that would come after it.
Apparently creatures known as Frog monsters would replace humanity as the new dominant species, the BPRD has already been forced to fight with large groups of these.
The original frogmonsters were originally humans but were transformed into the creatures by a super natural entity, since then they have been increasing in numbers and are undertaking attempts at freeing their masters.
