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NEWS AND VIEWS - JULY 2020
WRITING NEWS Still not quite ready to release Sneak and the Shadow of Darkplanet, but I'm hoping to get it out in a few weeks. Currently working on The Brassfire Fleet, the sequel to The Demon in the Metal and the second book in the Chemical Empires series; I've got about 13,000 words down so far. I think it's coming along okay. Hoping to finish it around February or March of next year. And that's all that's happening on the writing front, I'm afraid. * * * * * * * * THE FANTASTIC FOUR I've always liked the Fantastic Four. Some of the first comic books I read were the Fantastic Four comics included in this book, and they were my introduction to the Marvel universe as a whole -- before I read those comics, way back in the third grade, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and maybe Captain America were the only Marvel characters I'd ever even heard of. The premier superhero team in my Signalverse superhero universe, the CrossGuard, is very obviously based on the Fantastic Four, and if Marvel ever gave me an opportunity to write one of their books, I'd pick the Fantastic Four in a heartbeat. I like the family dynamic, I like their cosmic rogues' gallery, and I like the Silver Age wholesomeness of the characters. Unfortunately Marvel's First Family has suffered a real decline in popularity over the past couple of decades. There have been four Fantastic Four movies (one of which was never intended to be released), and all of them have been disappointing in one way or another. The huge popularity of the MCU movies, which did not feature the Fantastic Four, reduced their popularity even further; in fact there have even been rumors that Marvel ended the long-running Fantastic Four comic because Disney didn't have the movie rights to the characters, which made them feel like the franchise was useless to them. So why haven't modern audiences been able to connect with these characters? I have a few theories. First of all -- the movies. Yeah, they sucked. But why did they suck? You can blame the screenplays, the actors, the directors, and all kinds of other things, but fundamentally, I think, the Fantastic Four are just a difficult bunch to bring to life. These characters look great in comics, but in a live-action movie, Mr. Fantastic's stretchy ability and Ben Grimm's rock-body (with his four fingers on each hand) look silly and cartoony. Sue Storm's invisibilty doesn't really lend itself well to a live-action adaptation, either -- after all, there's nothing there for the audience to see. Their superhero names -- Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, the Invisible Woman -- are hokey as well, and their blue uniforms are kind of lame. There's also the fact that these characters are very much a product of their time -- the early 1960's, when American gosh-wow optimistim was at its peak. The Fantastic Four helped usher in the Silver Age of Comics, and they're still very much a part of that world -- in fact their origin story ties them to the Cold War and the Space Race in a very specific way. They just don't seem to fit in very well in cynical 21st century America. That's not to say a good writer couldn't produce a fantastic contemporary version of the Fantastic Four, or that a good live-action adaptation couldn't be made. I'm sure it could be done, but it would be difficult, because I think you'd have to capture that early '60's optimism somehow. 
(As an aside, I have a particular fondness for the short-lived, syndicated Fantastic Four animated series, which aired back in the mid-90's. The first season wasn't anything to get excited about, but the second season had much better animation and storylines and was a lot of fun.) * * * * * * * * AN ATTENTION DEFICIT I start a lot of video games that I don't finish. Usually when I give up on a game, it's because the game is boring me or because I've become annoyed or frustrated with it, but sometimes I wind up dropping games for other reasons: because another, more appealing game has just been released, and I'd rather play that instead; because I didn't have the patience to fight my way through a difficult boss battle; because the game is exclusive to some retro system which I'd have to dig out of my closet; and so on. Just for the heck of it, here's some games I started but never finished, for whatever reason, but which I keep meaning to take another crack at: Arc the Lad II. The first Arc the Lad is a very short RPG, about ten to twelve hours in length. I got through that one easily enough, then jumped into the second game, which I was really enjoying -- it had interesting characters, a fun battle system, and a good, competent translation from Working Designs. I got about ten or fifteen hours into it...and then I got distracted by some other game (can't remember which one, but I think it might have been Grand Theft Auto: Vice City), and never went back to it. Growlanser Generations. Another Working Designs title. I got all the way to the end of Growlanser II, then realized I was about to get a bad ending because I hadn't won every battle with an "S" ranking or whatever. Annoyed, I quit right there, but I'd really liked the game up to that point and I occasionally think about going back and giving it another try, and then going after Growlanser III as well. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love. I gave up on this one because I got frustrated with the clunky combat, but I liked the silly anime stuff enough that I think it might be worth putting up with. Root Letter. I like visual novels, but if they're especially slow-paced, or have unusual mechanics, I sometimes lose patience with them. I feel like I should have given this one more of a chance, because I've heard good things about it. Fire Emblem: Fates. I spent a gazillion dollars on the cart that contains all three storylines. I played through one, but I feel like I ought to play through the other two as well, just to get my money's worth, despite the fact that I found the game kind of disappointing overall. Until Dawn. Only got a couple hours into this game. Don't think I gave it enough of a chance. I wonder if I'll ever actually go back to any of these, though. I'm fully booked at the moment; The Outer Worlds, YU-NO, Trails to Azure, and Trails of Cold Steel III and IV ought to keep me busy for at least another year, and these are just a few of the games in my backlog/frontlog. Eeesh. * * * * * * * * 114-YEAR OLD MEAT I don't know why watching Steve1989 slowly consume ancient pemmican and chocolate out of a rusty-looking old can is so entertaining, but dang it, it is.
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