Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Open that box and hand me my cigar...

Samuel L Jackson is Nick Fury?

Sweeet.

Friday, December 21, 2007

New Trailers

First up, Hellboy 2, followed by Hancock, and a spectacular finish by Axe Hero.

Maybe later, I'll pontificate upon the comic series The Runaways, which I think could make a cool movie.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Fan Films

While "Grayson" is IMO the best fan film in existance, I feel the need to share the love for some others.

Keeping in the superhero theme, I recently watched "Worlds Finest" by Collora Studios and "Batman Dead End" by Montauk Films & Level 7. While not as good as Grayson, they are still pretty cool endeavors. I was quite surprised by where "Dead End" went.

Switching speeds to the genre that originally got me into fan films (Star Wars), there's "TROOPS." I would rate this as my 2nd fav. "Broken Allegiance" does a good job, but there's something about it that never sat right with me. "Revelations" is pretty good, potentially better than BA, but it was completely over-hyped by the time I saw it. I've downloaded "Seeds of Darkness" 1-3 and I've watched the first one. So far, so good. They haven't done much to attempt to botch it, but we'll see what happens in the other two parts.

So, if you've the bandwidth, I'd suggest checking out any of these fan films.

Continuing on the comics theme

I'm not necessarily up to date on things. This is me we're talking about here.

T Gallows
Red Sky Diaries still isn't being made. However, Tim Bradstreet is working with Thomas Jane on a movie called Dark Country. Too bad they didn't work on P2 together. I'm still not convinced P2 will be that great without Jane as Punnie.

With Punisher Max #60, Tim is leaving The Punisher. While I've been a fan of the Pulverizer since his days as a guest star in such fine comics as Spider Man and Capt. America, it was the knowledge that Bradstreet was doing the covers of new Punisher comics that got me to start picking up the trade paperbacks (like I said, I'm not exactly timely).


RPGs into Movies
Matt Forbeck's rpg Brave New World is in the process of being made into a movie. I saw his "fan film" style trailer at GenCon this past summer. It was okay, nothing special, though. My bro Foster clued me into the fact that it's been picked up.

Mutant Chronicles is being made into a movie, as well. Filming is in England, I do believe. Thomas Jane, John Malkovich, Ron Pearlman, Devon Aoki, and Anna Walton are all starring in it.


Comics in Person
I'm off to one of my local comic shops today. Buddy of mine is doing a signing for his comic book series and I need to pick up a fig to use in edige's Crescent City: The Heroes of New Orleans Mutants & Masterminds game. I'm working on the netbook for the game. I'm hoping to get more artwork into before posting it for the world to see. I'm also hoping the other players will send me information on their characters so I can include it in the book.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Batman Begins comment

I've been watching Batman Begins the past two nights. With edige's M&M game starting soon, I find myself in the mood for superhero/vigilante action.

As I watched the chase scene with the "Bat-tank," I took notice of the landscape. I recognized a lot of the scenery and buildings. Lower Wacker, below Lower Wacker, the various bridges, the buildings in the Loop, it's all there. I've always liked knowing such insider knowledge, as much as is it is insider knowledge. No, it isn't insider knowledge, but it kind of feels like it and let's face it, we all like being one the inside.


One side note, today is Of Masks and Men's birthday. If you have a chance, swing by and wish him a happy birthday! I already did so, over dinner.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Heroes - not the tv show

(ed. note: I've added at least two new links to other blogs today. Check 'em out!)

First, picked up Guitar Hero 3 after playing Rock Band at edige's over Thanksgiving brak. RB is a way awesome game. It was much fun to play with Kaiju, Mrs. Kaiju, edige, and everyone else! However, as I don't own a PS3 or 360, I went with GH3. I've nver played any of the GH games, but I'm slowly making this one my bitch!


Second, I finished up my draft background for my character in edige's M&M game. Domino will be in that game, as well. If anyone knows where to find or has the old Korean M&M paperdoll program, give me a holler, we'd love to use it, but don't have it. I thought I'd actually share somethign with you folks that I wrote, that isn't "my life drama." So, if you are interested, here's the character background. (And if that's not your schtick, stop reading, now. There's nothing else to this post!)

Real Name: Carson Trudeau
Aliases: nicknamed Kit; no known superhero name
Identities: no known secondary IDs
Occupation: owner, Trudeau Development and Reconstruction, NOLA
Citizenship: USA
Place of Birth: Baton rouge, LA
Relatives: Dennis Trudeau (father), Ruth Trudeau (d) (mother), Charles Trudeau (d) (uncle), Corinne Trudeau (aunt), Terrence, William, Jude, and Delta (Dunbar) Trudeau (all cousins), Walter Trudeau (grandfather), Patricia Trudeau (d) (grandmother)
Group Affiliation: none currently
Education: LSU
First Appearance: Baton Rouge’s defense during the Second Sunder War

Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 195 lbs.

Costume Colors: Dark Green and Dark Blue

History
Kit’s father and uncle owned a successful construction company in Baton Rouge. Kit and his cousins eventually inherited the company after the uncle died (oddly) and Kit’s father decided he didn’t want to keep on after his brother’s death. Kit’s father moved to an old family properly in New Orleans that was not being used.

Kit’s mother died when he was young. Kit was told she died in a car accident. Kit is an only child.

Kit was not overly close to his cousins. They went to different schools and only saw each other during holidays.

While Kit was growing up, his father was aloof. Running the company and being a very competitive man kept him away from Kit. Kit alternately blamed his mother’s death and himself for his father’s absence.

Kit played defensive back (football) in high school and gained a college scholarship with it. Kit studied urban planning and architecture during college in order to carry on the family business.

After the end of the Second Sunder War, Kit decided it was time to expand the family business. He sold his “shares” of the family business to his cousins. He took that money and used it to help start the New Orleans branch of the company. Kit’s cousins contributed the monies that Kit couldn’t front to start the New Orleans branch. He is paying them off through a plan that will result in him being a full partner with the cousins, while owning the New Orleans business.

Kit’s departure from the Baton Rouge office left behind a somewhat bitter rift among some of the employees. Several of the well-liked and efficient employees left with Kit. Some left out of loyalty and friendship, others for the growth opportunity. Rumours ran amock as to why Kit and various employees left to start the New Orleans branch. None of the rumours made it to the media.

Kit immediately began using his family name to land contracts. When the family name didn’t work, he used his contacts back in Baton Rouge. When those didn’t work, he did everything he could to under-cut his competition. Kit’s ambition was fueled by his personal ambition to establish the company in New Orleans and his drive to help the people of New Orleans reclaim their lives. To achieve these ends, he has worked with several different civic organizations to donate work and has purposely taken losses on jobs to guarantee his company gained contracts. On the opposite end of this work, his company has built high-end condos, rebuilding family mansions, and developed retail areas to bring in big sales.

Kit has worked his way into city hall, giving him direct access to the movers and shakers in the city. His day-to-day company operations are more about wheeling and dealing than doing design work. He often continues this into the evening attending galas and parties.

Paranormal
Kit’s experience with the paranormal first began during the Second Sunder War. Kit and several of his employees (complete with their families) gathered in one of the company’s more secure buildings in the Baton Rouge area. As one of Sunder’s patrol units moved through the area searching for “capes,” Kit’s hideout was discovered. The lone Sunder minion that had entered the building was immediately set upon. What Kit and his fellows in hiding did not realize, was that this minion was not alone.

Hearing the cries of their comrade, the rest of the patrol made a grand entrance. The patrol hit Kit’s group hard. Bones snapped and blood splattered. After the first round of casualties, Kit’s group aggressively fought back. Handguns and long guns were brought out, quickly evening the level of lethality being dealt.

After breaking his souvenir baseball bat across the neck of the patrol’s leader, Kit resigned himself to death. Already, the leader had taken two rounds of buckshot to the chest with no visible complaints and the broken bat had no effect upon him. However, when the Sunder lieutenant grabbed Kit by the neck, a dark green aura suddenly enveloped Kit’s body. The leader immediately let out a scream of pain and let go of Kit.

Not exactly realizing what was occurring, Kit pressed the attack. This brought about another power. Between Kit’s new-found powers and the firearms, Kit’s crew won the fight. They quickly gathered their dead and injured, stealing away to another safe house to wait out the war.

Kit had no idea how his powers developed. He asked those with him not to divulge this secret to the public. Kit wanted a chance to research these abilities and test for new ones, before letting the cat out of the bag.

With the end of the Second Sunder War, Kit moved on to New Orleans to start a new branch of the company. To those employees who witnessed his powers during the war, he offered lucrative jobs in his new office. He wasn’t fond of the idea of leaving behind people who knew his secret. All of them accepted his offer “they could not afford to refuse.”

In New Orleans, Kit moved into the family home. His father was not there when he arrived and Kit would not see him again anytime soon. Kit made the home his own, including hiring a housemaid to clean and do laundry once a week. He spent time going through his father’s belongings, searching for clues as to his father’s whereabouts. Kit found nothing, moving the boxed up property into the attic.

Two months later, while watching an HBO special on the Second Sunder War, Kit found his father – kind of. The third night of the miniseries included a section on super villains. While his father was not named (real name or nom de guerre), Kit recognized him. (Not sure how – signet ring, domino mask not covering enough to hide the fact of who he was to a family member, ???)

Kit’s father had teamed up with five other super villains to fight Sunder’s army, under the leadership of The Water Bug. The Water Bug was the only super villain in the group named on the HBO special. He and two of the other six group members died before the end of the war. The television special showed them in action in the New Orleans area during the war. Mention was made of the team members’ deaths, but no mention was made of the current activities of the surviving members – or whether any of them were still working together.

It was a fleeting moment, but a moment none-the-less.

Power
Kit’s paranormal abilities that manifested during the fight with the Sunder patrol were most likely Energy Aura or Force Field and Earth Blast or Magma Blast. Since then, he has developed at least one more power and has constantly pushed his limits to discover more.

Potential paranormal abilities include:
Earth Control Ultimate Power page 152
o Dazzle
o Earth Blast
o Density effect
UP 152
o Snare
o Move Object (automatic power for Earth Control per the text)
Energy Aura UP 154
Force Field UP 158
Absorption UP 124
Shield UP 189
Ward UP 200
Spatial Control UP 191

Energy Aura appears to be vines and thorns wrapping around Kit’s body.



Appropriate areas of knowledge:
Acrobatics
Diplomacy
Drive
Escape Artist (low level at most)
Gather Information
Intimidate
Investigate
Knowledge
Civics
Business
Notice
Profession
Engineering
Architecture
Search
Sense Motive
Stealth
Swim