Creepshow Season 4 – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

We recently took a look at the physical media release of the first three seasons of Shudder exclusive horror anthology series Creepshow, developed as a continuation of the 80’s film series. These were released around the same time that the fourth season premiered on the streaming platform, and now the fourth season has got its own release, allowing fans to complete the collection.

As with the previous seasons, season four has six episodes, and each one covers two short horror stories, with different on and off screen talent. In the first few seasons of the show these episodes were fairly evenly split, with both stories taking around 20 minutes each. This season, however, feels quite different, as some of the episodes tend to lean more heavily towards one of the stories over the other, leading to it feeling more like a main story and a B-feature. To be fair though, the premise of the show is that you’re reading a comic book, and most comics that feature a back-up story are structured this way, with one gaining the bulk of the page count; so in that regard it does feel a bit like a comic.

This season has some interesting episodes, and opens strong with two tales that are immediately engaging. The first deals with a woman whose home comes under siege by a monster who’s chasing a woman that she decides to help. Having been told that the monster will kill her within twenty minutes, we follow the woman as she tries her best to find a solution to saving her life. Whilst it’s light on the horror, this story is surprisingly introspective, and features some really delightful interactions. And it might just have the best pizza delivery guy that’s ever been put on screen. The second part of the episode is much shorter, but works well because of it. It follows an award winning photographer whose past comes back to haunt him, and is genuinely quite creepy in places, and ended up being one of the stories from the season that really stood out in my mind.

After this first episode, however, things become kind of a mixed bag. There are still some good stories to be found, such as one about a writer who uses a lucky hat to get through his writer’s block, but it turns out the hat is controlling him. It’s kind of silly, it makes obvious nods to Stephen King (who helped create the original Creepshow), and it goes a bit creature feature towards the end, but there is something delightfully engaging about it. But I found there to be a lot more misses than hits as the show went on, with stories that were either completely forgettable, or just dull and predictable. There was one that felt like it was going through the motions until the ‘show twist’ final moment, but this elicited nothing much more than ‘Oh, so that’s the twist? Okay then’ from me.

This season seems to lack something that the previous ones had; the hook that made the others really enjoyable just doesn’t seem to be here. Part of this feels like it may be a decrease in budget. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it feels like it might be. The show doesn’t have as much punch as before. The segments with the Creep are gone, with the show now simply doing animated pages within the comic, there’s much less night shooting than previous seasons, which tends to save money, and there are next to no big name stars this season. The very first episode of the series, the very first story, opened big, with Tobin Bell, Adrienne Barbeau, and Giancarlo Esposito, all names that horror fans will recognise. Other episodes would feature people like Jeffrey Combs, Keith David, Kiefer Sutherland, Justin Long, James Remar, and other relatively big names. But this season doesn’t have any.

The lack of big name guest stars certainly makes this season feel like it has dropped somewhat in quality. Whilst none of the bigger actors featured in past seasons did anything more special than the actors in this one, with every actor essentially playing a bit part, the loss of recognisable faces means that this season just doesn’t stand out. Part of the fun of loading up an episode of the show was waiting to see if anyone you know would be in it, but after a coupe of episodes of season four I gave up even trying to anticipate, because I just knew it wasn’t coming.

Sadly, a lack of big names isn’t the only thing missing from this season. The previous home releases came with some extra features that included interviews, comic-con panels, audio commentaries, and special episodes. What does this season have listed as extra features worth getting the physical release for? Subtitles. Basic accessibility features that should be included in everything is all that this set could put together as ‘special’ features. Disappointing to say the least. Not only does this seem like a huge downgrade on previous seasons (and once again feeds into the feeling of cheapness) but it also gives those with a Shudder subscription no incentive to buy the discs. There are some people who have Shudder who’d absolutely buy the physical releases to look into the extras, but for this season they’ll likely just not bother.

I very much enjoyed the previous Creepshow releases, but season four feels like a big let down. After excitedly awaiting its delivery, hoping to get it watched before Christmas kicked in, I ended up feeling kind of deflated by the time the final episode credits rolled.

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The Chucky Collection – Limited Edition 4K UHD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Dolls have always been a source of horror, possessed or evil dolls have been a thing long before the series we’re discussing here. Bu, as soon as you say ‘evil doll’ there’s likely one that comes to mind first: Chucky. This diminutive slasher has been stalking victims for thirty five years now, and Arrow Video have decided to celebrate this with one of the biggest Chucky box sets you can find with The Chucky Collection.

The series begins in 1988, with the release of Child’s Play, a film that opens with serial killer Charles ‘Chucky’ Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) being chased through the streets by a cop. Chucky takes refuge in a toy store, but is wounded in the shoot-out. Rather than die, he grabs a nearby Good Guy doll and uses voodoo to transfer his soul into it. Soon after, single mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) buys the possessed doll for her young son Andy (Alex Vincent). Strange things begin to happen around Chucky, who Andy claims is alive, and when Karen’s best friend is killed whilst babysitting the blame seems to fall squarely on Andy. It’s not long, however, before she and the lead cop come to learn that Chucky contains the soul of Charles Lee Ray, and that he’s trying to get inside Andy.

The first Child’s Play film is an 80’s horror film through and through. It might have a silly concept, but the film never treats it as such. The possessed doll is never used as a joke, and the film treats him as dangerous, a foe more than capable of taking down a grown adult. The movie is suitably dark, and has a gritty, dirty quality to it that horror films set in city environments had during the ’80s. This approach works well for the film, and gives a firm foundation for the series. By playing things completely straight the coming films are able to go in any direction they want to, and boy do they.

The first sequel, Child’s Play 2, follows Andy after the fall-out of the first film. His mother has been put into a mental health facility for claiming a killer doll murdered everyone, and Andy is now in the care system. Whilst he’s slowly putting his life back together the Good Guy company has taken the remains of Chucky and rebuilt him in a show of public relations, to show that of course the doll couldn’t kill. But the still possessed Chucky soon escapes, tracks Andy down, and continues his plan to possess the boy. Whilst the film is very similar to the first in a lot of ways you do start to see the first signs of the lighter tone that the series will take her. Chucky makes more jokes, and the factory showdown at the end of the movie has big, bright colours.

This lighter tone is played down somewhat for Child’s Play 3 which sees an older Andy (Justin Whalin) at military school. Chucky comes to the school to go after Andy again, but figures out because he has a new body he can transfer into a new victim, and sets his sights on a young cadet. This puts the Andy character into a more proactive role, rather than being a victim, and the film uses the military school setting to do some interesting things with the story. Despite not actually being bad this seems to be one of the films in the franchise that gets a bad reputation. However, the ending, where Chucky gets diced, sets things up nicely for the fan favourite fourth entry.

Bride of Chucky seems to know that the series can’t just be horror any more, and embraces the comedy aspects. In this film Chucky’s girlfriend, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), gets hold of Chucky’s remains, rebuilds him, and brings him back to life. After their relationship quickly sours, Chucky ends up killing Tiffany, and uses voodoo to put her into a doll. With them both trapped in dolls they hatch a plan to use a pair of young lovers desperate to break free of their oppressive lives to transport them across the country so that they can get an artefact that will make them human again.

Unfortunately, their murderous antics along the way makes it look like the young couple are on a murder spree. Bride of Chucky is a wonderful addition to the series, taking it in the direction it needed to stay entertaining, and Tilly joining the cast is frankly perfect. Tiffany brings a fantastic energy to things, and is the perfect companion to Chucky. The fact that Tilly would appear in every subsequent film shows that her addition was the correct choice.

The firth film, Seed of Chucky, is perhaps the most hated of the series, taking a more meta approach and really embracing the humour. It features Tilly playing herself, playing Tiffany in a film about Chucky, who the real Tiffany tries to put her soul into. However, it’s the most openly queer film of the series, introducing Chucky and Tiffany’s gender fluid child, Glenn/Glenda (Billy Boyd). Whilst this is easily the weakest of the franchise, it’s still got some great moments in it, and some of the best jokes of the series.

After the critical failure of Seed, the next film went back to its horror roots, seeing Chucky terrorising a family in their home, killing them one by one whilst trying to possess the child. Whilst it may seem to be copying the formula of the first film it manages to never feel like a rehash, and Curse of Chucky instead feels like a return to what captured the audience’s love the first time around. The addition of Brad Dourif’s daughter, Fiona Dourif, makes the film enjoyable too, and her character of Nica would become the new protagonist of the series. She would return in Cult of Chucky which also saw Alex Vincent return as Andy, and is perhaps the best film in the series thanks to its unique environment, a great supporting cast, and some of the funniest moments in the series.

As well as the seven films, the new box set also comes with the 2022 Living With Chucky documentary film that goes deep into the series, talking with both the stars of the films, as well as the people who worked behind the scenes. Very much a love-letter to the series, it’s a wonderful companion piece, and a great way to round things out. Each of the films are presented in high definition, with the early films looking better than ever. There are also audio commentaries for each film, featuring cast and crew, and a number of interviews and behind the scenes features, both new and archival, that are sure to scratch the itch of anyone wanting to learn more about the series.

The Child’s Play franchise is something of an anomaly when it comes to long running horror franchises. It’s had the same writer, Don Mancini, on every entry, David Kirschner has produced each one, the lead has come back every time, and despite the tone and genre going all over the place, there is a consistent story throughout them all. The fact that the killer is a doll might make this a series that people overlook in comparison to things such as Friday the 13th or Halloween, but it might just be the best horror franchise out there, and this new box set deserves to be on any horror fan’s shelves.

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Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., or Godzilla X Mothra X Mechadozilla: Tokyo S.O.S. to give it its full title, is the sequel to 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, which saw an antagonistic Godzilla fighting the human made cyborg Mechagodzilla. In that film Mechagodzilla, called Kiryu in this continuity, was successful at driving the monster back, and managed to secure peace for the people of Japan. But a year has passed, and the monster has returned to wreak vengeance.

After the success of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla director Masaaki Tezuka was given the go ahead to create a direct sequel; something that is never a guarantee in the Godzilla franchise. The previous four films released by Toho were all unconnected, and this marked the first time since 1999 that a new film would continue on the story of a previous one. Masaaki was given a number of possible plots to use, but instead decided to create a new story alongside screenwriter Wataru Mimura, who had been writing for the franchise for the last decade.

Thanks to the popularity of Kiryu in the previous movie it was decided that the cybernetic defender would make a return. However, so as not to completely rehash the plot of the other film another heroic monster would take part in the defence of Japan; Mothra. More than forty years after his involvement in the original Mothra, Shinichi Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi reprising his role) is approached by the Shobijin fairies (Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka), who warn the scientist that the original Godzilla bones inside Kiryu are attracting the new Godzilla, and that as long as they use Mechagodzilla the nation will be under threat. The fairies tell them that Mothra will protect Japan in Kiryu’s place, but due to Mothra having once attacked Japan (in her original film) they refuse.

As Kiryu undergoes repairs Godzilla emerges from the ocean, sporting a scar across his chest from the last fight. Despite the refusal of their aid, Mothra arrives to fight the rampaging monster, but the ageing kaiju soon finds herself losing the fight, and Kiryu is dispatched. The two of them battle the monster, and even Mothra’s infant offspring arrive to assist in the fight. However, when Mothra sacrifices herself to save her children it looks like Godzilla will win, until brave pilot Kyosuke Akiba (Mitsuki Koga) and Kiryu decide to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop him.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. is, in some ways, a bit of a stripped down sequel, despite containing even more Kaiju than the last film. Whilst the movie does feature Mothra and her offspring it’s lost some of the human cast members. The film features a few returning actors from the last film, but others are very noticeably absent. One of the co-creators of Kiryu is gone from the film for no obvious reason, and considering that he was in love with the previous film’s protagonist, who returns in a more reduced role, his absence is somewhat jarring. Oddly enough, the inclusion of Mothra seems to have been something that Toho instructed Masaaki Tezuka to include Mothra in order to attract female viewers; something that feels odd on the surface, but considering how much I love moths I actually completely understand it.

Despite the human cast shuffling and changes, the thing that most viewers came back for was the action, and this film includes a great deal of it. The effects are good, and mix practical suit and model work with CGI well. The suits for both Godzilla and Mechagodzilla were not new this time round, with the costumes from the previous film still being in storage. Whilst not needing to create new suits saved them some money, they did make some changes such as with Godzilla’s scar and Kiryu’s new drill hand attachment, though this was more of a move to be able to sell slight variations of toys and models more than an artistic choice. Godzilla suit actor Tsutomu Kitagawa returned to reprise the role, whilst Kiryu sported a new performer this time round.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. would prove to be the final entry in this two film continuity (more if you include the past films it draws from) as the next year’s 50th anniversary film Godzilla: Final War would take a different approach (and would be absolutely amazing!). It’s somewhat sad to see this particular continuity come to a close, especially as the post-credits tease clearly indicates that Tezuka had ideas for what to do next. As it is though, this is a pretty fun entry in the franchise, one with some surprisingly emotional moments, and some really cool visuals that we’ve not really had in any other Toho Godzilla films. Plus, Mothra. You can never go wrong with Mothra.

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The Comic Cave – Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Comic Cave is a fortnightly feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix, one of the most influential, and most adapted, X-Men stories of all time.

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created The X-Men, the book was far from the comics juggernaut that it would go on to be. In a Marvel landscape where characters like Spider-Man dominated the scene, and The Fantastic Four were the premier team, no one had time for this strange collection of mutants. After barely more than a decade on the shelves the series was cancelled in 1975. But, it wouldn’t be gone for long. Later that year the book would return with a new creative team, and a whole new host of characters.

Of the original five team only Cyclops would remain, continuing on as the leader, joined by a hastily assembled group of mutants from around the world, including Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. After rescuing the original team these new heroes would stay on as the Uncanny X-Men, and under the control of Chris Claremont, would go on to become a series that dominated sales. The X-Men that people think of today, the kinds of characters that you’d pick first for a line-up, the colourful costumes unique to each member, and the wild stories involving not just evil mutants but time travel, space entities, and other universes, all came about during the Claremont era.

One of the biggest changes made early on, other than the new team, was Jean Grey sacrificing herself to save her team on a mission to space. With their ship having to pass through dangerous radiation on the way back to Earth, Jean locks the others in a chamber that will keep them safe, and flies the shuttle. After the ship crashes into the waters of Jamaica Bay the team assume Jean lost; but then she rises from beneath the waves, in a new costume, surrounded by flames, and calling herself Phoenix. After this Jean would come and go from the team, with most of the stories between Phoenix’s first appearance in X-Men # 101 and X-Men #129 (the start of this story) being as a minor character.

Despite not being on the team much her powers continued to grow, and she became an easy solution to most of team’s problems. The creative team were faced with the question of what to do with Phoenix if she could wave her hands and save the day every time. It was then suggested that perhaps Phoenix would better serve the series if she became a villain. The groundwork for this was laid across several issues, as Jean kept meeting the mysterious Jason Wyngarde, which resulted in her having visions of herself in the Regency era as his lover. But it wasn’t until X-Men #129 that things really kicked off.

The story begins with Professor Xavier detecting two new mutants that he wants the group to approach. The team splits up to go meet these new mutants, with Cyclops, Jean, and Nightcrawler heading off to meet the musician Dazzler, whilst the others go to introduce themselves to the parents of 13-year-old mutant Kitty Pryde. However, there’s another group looking to get these mutants, the Hellfire Club; which includes Jason Wyngarde. This group tries to recruit Pryde into Emma Frost’s school, whilst sending their troops to kidnap Dazzler. Cyclops and the others in New York fend off the Hellfire Club, but when Frost sees that her plan isn’t working, sends troops in to capture Kitty and the other X-Men.

Thanks to her new powers, Kitty is able to get away, but the other X-Men are captured. Using her powers, she follows the Hellfire Club to their base, and calls for the other X-Men to help. With the help of Dazzler, the others manage to infiltrate the facility and free their friends. During the rescue, Jean gets into  psychic battle with Emma Frost and defeats her, bringing the entire building down upon her. Having learned about the Hellfire Club, however, the X-Men decide to look into their new foes.

Days later, the team infiltrate a swanky party at the club’s New York premises. However, thanks to Wyngarde’s previous manipulations of Jean’s mind, he’s able to fully put her into his illusionary world, and convinces her that she’s not only his wife, but the new Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. Using their mutant powers, the leaders of the Club are able to beat the X-Men and take them prisoner. Fortunately, thanks to Wolverine’s combat skills, and the psychic bond between Jean and Cyclops, the team are eventually able to defeat the club and escape into Central Park.

However, it seems like the strain of everything Jean has gone through, and the increasing growth of her powers, have pushed her over the edge, and she changes into Dark Phoenix. Wearing a red version of her costume, she attacks the X-Men and quickly defeats them. Following this she set out into space, testing her new powers. Needing to recharge, she flies towards an alien sun and feeds upon its fires, a process that ends up destroying a nearby planet and killing all five billion inhabitants. She also engages a close by Shi’ar ship, which gains the attention of their Empress, and X-Men ally, Lilandra.

Returning to Earth, to her family home, Jean appears confused, slipping between her normal personality and the murderous Dark Phoenix. The X-Men arrive, and manage to get through to Jean, who regains control of herself. Things look to be back to normal, when the team is beamed aboard the Shi’ar Imperial Cruiser. Lilandra tells the X-Men of Jean’s genocide, and how the Phoenix Force within her must be stopped, and to that end, Jean must die. Xavier invokes a Shi’ar tradition that would allow the X-Men to fight for her freedom, and so the team engage the Shi’ar Royal Guard on a special arena on Earth’s moon.

Fighting as hard as they can to save their friend, the X-Men are defeated one by one, until only Jean and Cyclops remain. With the Dark Phoenix personality beginning to re-emerge, Jean knows that if it does it will kill everyone, including those she loves. Jean activates one of the discarded alien weapons within the ruins of the arena, and fires it at herself. Jean is reduced to ashes, the threat of the Dark Phoenix defeated by her self sacrifice.

The corruption of Jean Grey, one of the very first X-Men, and her eventual death was a story that rocked comic readers at the time. Marvel used to have a rule: dead means dead. Death has become a revolving door in comics, and characters dying and coming back has become so second nature that even just this year Marvel announced that they were killing off Ms Marvel, and then announced her return three months after her death. But, in the ’80s a character death was a big thing, and this story sent shock waves through X-Men readers. But it might surprise people to learn that this iconic comic book death was never actually supposed to happen.

The original plan for the final issue of the Dark Phoenix story was for the Shi’ar to not want to kill Jean but strip her of her powers. Much like in the final issue, the X-Men end up losing their battle on the moon. However, rather than Jean sacrificing herself, she’s placed inside a device on board the Shi’ar ship that strips her of her mutant abilities. Of course, the X-Men argue against this, saying how taking her powers not only makes her human, but makes her less than that; Wolverine has some wonderfully ableist slurs to describe this. Once stripped of her powers, Jean returns home with the others. This version of events was eventually released in a special issue, Phoenix: The Untold Story #1.

This plan never made it to print though due to Jim Shooter, who was checking out the proof copies of X-Men #135 and saw that Jean kills five billion people. Shooter had been part of the discussion to turn Jean into a cosmic villain for the team, but had been mostly hands off the production after that, so was not completely aware of the creative teams plans for her. Upon seeing that, however, he became more actively involved, and vetoed the idea of her being de-powered. In an interview in Phoenix: The Untold Story #1 he described the scenario as being like taking the German Army away from Hitler and making him live a quiet life somewhere else.

It was during discussions on what to do in the final part that creators Claremont and artist John Byrne explained that they saw the Phoenix entity as possessing Jean, and that she was therefore innocent. However, after going through the issues again they could agree that that wasn’t clear in the text, and that a more drastic punishment would be needed; and thus Jean Grey was killed off. This was a decision that the creators would later agree worked best for the story, and it was one that would impact the X-Men for decades to come.

Eventually Jean was brought back to life, with the explanation that the Phoenix Force has created a duplicate body from Jean, and that the real Jean was still beneath the waters the original Phoenix emerged from, getting around the fact that ‘Jean’ was guilty of genocide. Over the years the Phoenix Force and its relationship with Jean would continue to evolve, but Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix is where this still evolving saga really began. And it caused such a stir at the time that it has become one of the most adapted and revisited story in the entire X-Men catalogue.

The story was adapted in the hugely popular X-Men: The Animated Series where both the introduction of Phoenix and the Dark Phoenix saga were told over nine parts. Unlike the comic, however, the Phoenix entity eventually left Jean, so as not to kill the character off permanently. Phoenix was heavily hinted at in the X-Men: Evolution series, and was planned to take place in its fifth season, but had to be shelved when the show was cancelled. It was also a big plot point in the final episodes of the single season show Wolverine and the X-Men.

It wasn’t just the small screen that made use of the Phoenix though, as the film X2: X-Men United saw Jean tapping into a fiery new power and sacrificing herself to save her friends, with a large, fiery bird seen briefly beneath water in the final moments. This would lead into the Dark Phoenix being a central plot point in X-Men: The Last Stand, in which she would kill several characters before eventually being stabbed to death by Wolverine. This would be revisited in the prequel films, with Jean using Phoenix-like powers in X-Men: Apocalypse, before becoming the villain in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Interestingly, both movies that used Dark Phoenix were written by the same person, Simon Kinberg. Both movie versions were received negatively by fans.

The lasting impact of the story, its continued adaptation, the repeated use of the Phoenix Force in the stories that would come after show just a small part of the impact that the Claremont era of X-Men would have. Just in this story alone several new characters are introduced who would go on to become huge characters that would have hundreds of appearances over the years; characters like Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, and Dazzler. Claremont would create dozens of characters and stories that would become so popular and so ingrained into the X-Men mythology that he might be one of most influential comic creators of all time, especially when it comes to one who worked on a series they didn’t create.

If you’re wanting to look at early X-Men stories, Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix is a perfect book. It’s early enough into Claremont’s era to be easy and accessible, and showcases some fantastic issues. From here, the series continues to have some fantastic stories, with the hugely popular Days of Future Past only a handful of issues later. Claremont made the X-Men a group worth following, and Dark Phoenix is, for many, the story that made them realise that.

Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix was published in X-Men from October 1979 to June 1980 by Marvel Comics.

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – Throwback 30

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Today it’s hard to think about The Legend of Zelda series and imagine it without handheld games. There are now roughly the same number of handheld games as there are console ones in the series. Depending on how you class the Switch alters that number too, and if you include spin-off games, the handhelds lead by quite a margin. But there was a time when Link and friends being on anything but a home console felt like a wild idea.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was the first Zelda game to make the leap, but it was never really intended to be when it was first created. Unusually, the game began life as a side-project, one that some of the developers at the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development division worked on after hours in an unofficial capacity. It originally started with programmer Kazuaki Morita, who played around with one of the first Game Boy development kits, creating a Zelda-like game. After the release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past Nintendo looked at porting the game to the Game Boy, but soon decided that the unofficial side project felt more promising.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is unusual for a Zelda game, as it was the first to not take place within the Kingdom of Hyrule, nor did it feature the titular Princess, or the evil Ganon. Instead, the game begins with Link, the hero of the previous instalment, caught in a fierce storm whilst out at sea. His ship is destroyed, and he wakes up on the remote Koholint Island. He learns that the only way off the island is to wake the mystical Wind Fish, a giant whale-like creature that lives inside a giant egg on the island’s mountaintop. In order to do so he will need to travel across the island, battling monsters inside eight dungeons, to collect the musical instruments needed to take the Wind Fish.

The game introduced a number of new features that would go on to become commonplace in the franchise, such as fishing, being able to map weapons and items to different buttons, and being able to play songs on the ocarina. These are game-play elements that fans of the series have likely now taken for granted, and may have first encountered in The Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but series producer Eiji Aonuma credits Link’s Awakening for introducing them, and has said that Ocarina of Time would likely have been a very different game without the handheld entry.

In the same interview he would also describe how the game drew influence from the popular television series Twin Peaks, especially in its approach to friendly NPC’s. The townspeople were made to be suspicious, again something that would carry over into other games, and the game would play around with the fourth wall and player expectations. Due to not being able to use characters like Zelda, the game instead featured characters from the Mario and Kirby franchises, and characters would break the fourth wall at times, talking directly to the player rather than Link.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was hugely popular upon releases, and topped sales charts. It was the top selling Game Boy game of its release month in both Japan and the US, and even helped to boost sales of the Game Boy itself. The game would remain on the bestseller list for seven and a half years, and would receive a re-release in the Players Choice series. The sales and critical reception were so high that when the Game Boy Color was released the game received an overhaul with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX version in 1998. This new version was presented in full colour, with an extra dungeon introduced into the game that made use of the colour mechanics. This version would sell more than 2.2 million copies, on top of the original’s 3.8 million. The colour version would also tackle the chief complaint about the game, that the grey-scale graphics sometimes made things harder to see.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening didn’t end there though. When the game was released on the virtual console for the Nintendo 3DS it became the top-selling downloadable game that year. This proved that there was still a lot of love for the game, and in 2019 it got the biggest overhaul yet. Released on the Nintendo Switch, this new version was a ground-up remake. It stayed true to the spirit of the original, keeping the top-down view, and used a ‘retro-modern’ style, making the characters look toy-like. The remake was a fantastic adaptation of the original, and would receive positive reviews, as well as a number of awards, and would go on to sell more than 6.4 million copies.

Whilst The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild often get held up as examples of the series at its best The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening deserves similar praise. It brought the franchise to the handheld consoles, and it created innovations that are still felt across the games to this day. And, as a personal note, it’s the very first Zelda game I ever played and completed. It might not be the first game that comes to mind when thinking of the franchise, but I’ll always argue that it’s one of the best.

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Batman #140 - Comic Review

 

I was really enjoying the Zdarsky Batman run until Gotham War. I was hoping that Gotham War was some kind of editorially mandated event that Zdarsky had to do, and that's why it's quality was a big dip on what came before. But this new story just continues to make me groan and lose interest in the title. Not only did we have the Joker addressing Batman as Bruce last issue, something I truly believe the Joker would never actually care about, but this issue is all about Zur-En-Arhh again. If it wasn't for the fact that the character existed before I'd be sure Zdarsky was pushing him so much for royalties.

At the end of the previous issue Batman is gone, his body taken over by the Zur-En-Arhh personality, a 'pure' Batman, who's currently busy beating the ever loving shit out of Joker, determined to leave him so broken and maimed that he needs machines to be kept alive. So, Batman is stuck inside his own head as Zur does what he wants. But, he's not alone in there. Several other Zur-En-Arrh Batmen have made his head home, somehow having jumped out of their own Batmen and into him during Bruce's universe hopping anniversary issue of Batman #900.

There's Zur versions of Adam West, the Arkham game Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, the animated series, Gotham by Gaslight, vampire Batman, and of course, Michael Keaton. And probably more. I simply stopped caring about references and callbacks at a certain point. And that's what this issue feels like, a long, long, long conveyor belt of call backs and winks to the audience with an almost 'do you remember that!?' energy to it. 

Whilst Zur fights the Joker in the real world, Bruce battles the other Batmen across his 'mind palace', an Escher type depiction of the Wayne Manor. It's here that we get some of the more egregious moments of weirdness and 'oh remember this' as Bruce takes them on one by one. Adam West has bat-gadgets to counter what Bruce throws at him, Micheal Keaton is taken down because he can't turn his head, and TDKR Batman is old, and surly and gives speeches about how he's the true, most dangerous Batman because of how old and surly he is.

Batman visiting other versions of himself during the 900th issue was fine, because it was an anniversary issue. It was even good and entertaining at times. But here, it's just a bit too much, and kind of sad in some ways. It feels like Zdarksy is despertely trying to draw upon nostalgia to get you invested. It's Adam West, but Zur-En-Arhh! Oh, Batman is fighting Michael Keaton's Batman, and he won because Keaton can't turn his head! When you take these moments out what is really in this issue? A man trapped inside his mind and having to fight physical representations of his captors to escape; which we've seen many times before. And the Joker getting a beating of course; which we've also seen many times before. 

The only true surprising moment is when Bruce wakes up back in control of his body. Did he beat the Zur personality? No, as Zur is standing in the shadows talking to him. he steps into the light to reveal that Zur has somehow jumped out of Bruce's head and is now controlling Failsafe, the unstoppable robot. Now Zdarsky pushing Zur so hard makes sense, because putting him into Failsafe and making him a big villain he'll get the residuals that way. And whilst this moment is surprising, is it interesting? Not really.

Bruce didn't beat Failsafe first time round. He got lucky by giving the machine a conscience. But now that's gone, and the 'pure' Batman is in control of it. Which feels like we're setting up for a second round of the Failsafe arc with the only way of surviving now removed from play. It also raises a ton of questions. How did a personality in Bruce's head get into a machine? What about the other Zur's, did they go too or are they still in Bruce? And how the hell did they get into Bruce anyway? That last one looks like it has an explanation at first, with TDKR Batman saying Zur invited them in when Batman's mind touched the other Batmen, but if that was a thing in that issue it was something I missed, because I don't remember any psychic connections. I hope coming issues might try to explain things, but I'm starting to think that even if they try to, the answers won't be worth the wait.

Whilst the writing in the issue is, for me anyway, borderline terrible, the art is superb. Every single Zur inside Bruce's head has their own look and style that resembles their origin. Keaton and West look like a comic, sure, but they're surprisingly accurate translations. The animated versions look like they've jumped off the screen, and Gotham by Gaslight and TDKR Batmen both look like their original artists drew them. All of that, and they're being used in dynamic fights and fast paced panels half the time. Jorge Jiménez is firing on all cylinders here, and the book look fantastic. Sadly, great art can't save a bad comic.

The back-up feature continues to follow Vandal Savage as he gets involved with a group of rich Gothamites who love his style and his cruelty, and want to make him the leader of their little group to help him attain the total domination of Gotham that he wants now that he's stuck in the city. It's, fine, I guess. There's nothing here that's super exciting, but there's also nothing here that's so terrible it puts me off. And compared to the contents of the main story it's a nice little pick-me-up to end things on. It's surprising that both stories are by Zdarsky, and at first I assumed it had to be a different author.

The art is by Mike Hawthorne, with Ivan Plascencia doing colours, and whilst it doesn't reach the highs of the main story it's decent. The comic has a bit more of a cartoonish look to it than the main story, but considering it's dealing with cartoonishly evil billionaires the tone kind of fits. This issue seems to be setting up for the next stage of Savage's story, but I kind of don't care about it.

I don't think I've ever been turned around on a run before as much as I have with Zdarsky's Batman. I'm hoping this is just a lull, that something spectacular happens in coming issues that has me looking back at this as a blip, rather than the norm. But that hope grows slimmer.

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Daredevil #4 - Comic Review

 

Daredevil is searching the streets for information that will lead him to the assassin Bullseye in this issue, but is finding it hard to juggle his commitments as Father Matthew and the masked vigilante.

This issue deals with a number of plot threads, and because of that it never really has a chance to get boring; but nor does it have a chance to really spend time with the characters and give things a chance to breathe. After interrogating a member of The Heat, Matt heads over to the Daily Bugle to meet with Ben Urich, who's been publishing slanderous articles about his church and the work that they're doing with local kids. Surprisingly, Ben doesn't seem to recognise who Matt is, though the explanation for this could very well be the demon that's looming over him.

Much like Elektra in the first issue, Ben seems to be possessed by a demon, making this the second person close to Matt to be in this situation. Interestingly, just before this there is a panel where Matt is swinging past a building, and his reflection looks different, with more demonic horns and glowing eyes. Perhaps this is giving us hints that it's not God who got him out of hell and gave him this second chance at a life, and that maybe Elektra and Ben aren't the only people with demons inside them.

The meeting ends when Matt overhears information of The Heat, and has to leave to go and track a lead before it's too late. It's during this that he's called by the cops, who have one of his kids under arrest for shoplifting. This means he has to jump back into being Father Matt to go and bail her out and smooth things over, leading to him being late to stop Bullseye. As such, the building is already under siege when he arrives, and he's barely able to stop Bullseye from killing his target, though he is seriously wounded and dozens of others are dead.

Whilst Matt is getting the injured man out of the building Ben Urich arrives on the scene, leading to Matt to have to do a quick exorcism to get the demon out of his friend. Like I said, a lot happens this issue.

Because there's so much here it does feel like the plot is moving forward, though some of that kind of feels artificial. The plot of Ashley getting arrested and Matt not giving up on her feels thrown in to just break things up, and it's a shame as Matt' relationship with the kids under his care should be a plot that gets some proper time, and shouldn't just be a throwaway things to give the writer a reason for why Matt is late to his mission. The same with the Ben Urich plot. Ben gets two scenes in this issue, one that establishes he's got a demon, the other gets rid of it. I can't help but feel this could have been the focus of an issue itself, and these two scenes are decent, but kind of clash with all of the Bullseye stuff.

Speaking of Bullseye, despite the characters not really getting much time to fight in this issue their fight is really entertaining. There's a great moment where Matt punches him hard enough to knock one of his teeth out, and Bullseye catches it as it flies out his mouth, and uses it to set off the fire alarm, flicking it to break the glass. This give him the chance to disorient Matt enough to get out of his grasp and escape. It's a cool little gag that highlights the kind of skill that Bullseye has, and how tricky a character he can be if given half the chance. 

The art on the book, by German Peralta with colours by Jesus Aburtov, looks good, and the fight with Bullseye is a particular stand-out, with a ton of energy and a sense of speed and movement to the characters that works well here. The moments with Ben Urich and his possession aren't depicted in the same creative way as Elektra was in the first issue, the creature is perched on his shoulders, tail wrapped around his chest, rather than being a part of him. But, these moments still look cool, and create for a striking look, especially when shown thorough Matt's radar hearing senses.

This issue is enjoyable, though the packing in of three different plots into a single issue, none of them really given the time they need to feel like they've been given a fair focus, leads to an issue that feels like it could have been better. Hopefully the pacing in future instalments improves somewhat, as it'd go a long way towards me liking it more.

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Blood Commandment #2 - Comic Review

 

The first issue of Blood Commandment introduced us to Ezra, a single father and widow raising his teenage son, Wil, in a remote cabin out in the woods. He teaches Wil how to hunt and be self sufficient, and whilst they occasionally visit the nearby mountain town they keep to themselves. We learned that this is due to Ezra being a vampire, and that he's using the valley forest where he lives to stay out of the direct sunlight, a perfect little home in which to raise his son in peace. However, an evil from his past has caught up with him.

This issue really starts to move the story forward in quick and exciting ways. Last issue I mentioned how writer and artist Szymon Kudranski creates a very slow, cinematic style to the book, where we have long lingering scenes where the art directs the flow in a way that I've rarely seen. This is still present here, and this issue has some fantastic moments of visual presentation, but now that we've been introduced to these characters and the set-up for the plot scenes more a little bit quicker, and we start to get into the meat of things. 

Half the book is spent with the sheriff, who finds a mutilated wolf on his way in to work (just a head and spine left laying in the middle of the road). Soon after, he's informed of the disappearance of local store owner, Dewey, who we saw being taken by a mystery figure last issue. He goes around the two, investigating the shop, talking to Dewey's wife, and eventually decides to head out to speak to Ezra. These parts of the book have a slower pace to them, with the sheriff's introductory scene being a series of panels of him getting up, shaving, buttoning his shirt, grabbing his gun. It's slow, it shows the monotony of his routine. 

In contrast, Ezra's scenes have more energy to them, in part because he knows that there's another vampire coming for him and Wil. He's preparing to fight, he's on edge, and because of that his scenes have a similar tightly wound energy to them. We spend a little time with the antagonistic vampire too, seeing him close in on the family. It's in these moments that the narration gives us some insight into the vampires of this story, how they work, what they're capable of. Considering vampire rules can vary from project to project it's nice that we're being given important information before things really kick off. And kick-off they do.

Once the action begins we get some fantastic moments of visual flair. Kudranski creates some fantastic panels that take up huge portions of the page that showcase the speed and strength of the vampire, and there are a couple of splash pages and double page spreads that look absolutely stunning. If this is what the rest of the series is going to be, this violent, beautifully presented fight to survive, then this series is going to be a stunning book to look at once it's done.

Kudranski's art has two distinct looks in this issue, created through use of colour. The daytime segments are brown and sepia in tone, with very muted other colours seeping through. It creates an almost black and white look to it, whilst the nighttime segments of the book is done in blues and greys. You can tell exactly what time of the day you're in as soon as you see the page, and the two different looks also help to make each part of the story feel distinct. The daytime stuff of the sheriff looking into the disappearance have a different feel to the fight against the vampire at night, and when these two parts of the story eventually crash together the moving of the sheriff from the daytime visuals to those of the night are going to feel jarring and different in a wonderful way; a visual representation of him entering a world he shouldn't be in.

Blood Commandment is a series that I thought was going to be good after reading the first issue, but now I'm starting to think it might end up being one of those indie books that people are going to recommending and sharing around in the future. If the rest off the series can keep up this style and quality it's going to be a must read. 

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The Hobbit – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The beginning of the millennium was a time when the works of J.R.R. Tolkien were big business. Thanks to the Peter Jackson directed films, The Lord of the Rings was a hot commodity. This beloved, but still niche, fantasy book was available in almost every shop; you could find action figures, t-shirts, lunch boxes and more. People had Middle-earth fever, and as the Oscar winning film trilogy was nearing its conclusion other companies were doing whatever they could to try and cash in on the hype train. This is how we got the 2003 video game The Hobbit.

Long before a movie executive had the wild, and frankly terrible, idea to turn a short children’s story into a three film, nine-hour epic that would reportedly damage the New Zealand film industry, The Hobbit was the part of Tolkien’s catalogue that most tied into The Lord of the Rings, but one that tended to be overlooked. It’s needed so that Bilbo gets the ring, but most people who discovered The Lord of the Rings via the movies didn’t engage with The Hobbit, learning what they needed through in film context clues. As such, there was an almost untapped market when it came to The Hobbit, and making it more accessible would surely result in big money for the people doing that, right?

Sierra Entertainment believed that to be the case, and whilst the films were taking the box office by storm began work on their own piece of the Tolkien pie. Originally, Sierra began work on a Fellowship of the Ring game that would have had no connection to the films, but shifted onto The Hobbit. The Fellowship of the Ring game was released, having been finished by another developer, and was pretty panned in reviews and audience reactions. Despite having no connection to the films, a lot of people bought the game thinking it was a tie in, and it led to angry and disappointed fans. As such, Sierra made it clear early on that their game has zero connection to the film universe, instead hyping up the fact that it was based upon the original novel.

The game puts players in control of Bilbo Baggins (Michael Beattie), a hobbit who is recruited onto a mission to help a group of dwarves travel across Middle-earth to their ancestral home of the Lonely Mountain, where they would defeat an ancient dragon and reclaim the treasure it holds. The game follows the plot of the book fairly well, keeping most of the main beats of the story intact, building around what was in the book without adding too much that changed the basic structure. This was done under the supervision of Tolkien Enterprises, who had veto rights on any part of the development they felt strayed too far from the source material.

The game-play itself was based around platforming and combat, taking a few inspirations from The Legend of Zelda series. Played via third-person view, players take Bilbo through 3-D environments that you’re able to jump, climb, and sneak your way through. Each level has enemies for you to fight, using basic weapons like a stick and throwable rocks, until you eventually gain Bilbo’s sword Sting, as well as collectable items to discover in order to unlock and purchase upgrades. Each level also has quests to complete, some of which are needed to progress the story, whilst others are optional.

The game takes players to several locations from the book, such as dealing with Smaug inside the Lonely Mountain, freeing the dwarves from the dungeons of Mirkwood, and of course, the iconic encounter with Gollum deep within the Misty mountains. And like the book it was based upon, the game took a much lighter tone to the rest of Tolkien’s works. The visual style of the game seemed geared towards younger players, with a more cartoonish and fantastical design element to it that also helped to differentiate it from the Jackson film aesthetic.

When it was released The Hobbit received mixed, but positive reviews. The game was praised for sticking close to the source material, yet managing to expand it out in ways that allowed for a fuller game experience. The visual style and music were also noted as a positive in a lot of reviews, but many found the simplistic game-play to be an issue. It was felt that the game was too similar to The Legend of Zelda series, yet lacked any of the flair those games possessed. Some people also complained that the game was aimed at too young an audience for adult gamers to really enjoy, whilst being too challenging to be squarely for kids.

The Hobbit may have been trying to cash in on the hype surrounding the big screen versions of Tolkien’s work, but managed to be at least a few steps away from being a soulless cash grab. There are some interesting elements in the game, with a fun art design that sets it apart from other Tolkien adaptations at the time. It might be one for hardcore Tolkien fans, but there’s a fair amount of fun to be found with it.

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Beast World Tour: Metropolis #1 - Comics Review

 

I'm going to sound old when I say this, but I remember a time when the covers of comics gave you an idea of what you might be getting inside them. Just looking at the cover to Beast World Tour: Metropolis again to do this write up makes me somewhat annoyed. The issue contains three short stories, none of which are what you see on the cover. Yes, in one Jon and Dreamer team up to fight a lizard Livewire, but the beast Power Girl isn't in that story, and Supergirl isn't even in the book, unless you count her being on a computer screen in one panel. This book seems to be promising things it's not delivering, and it's honestly left me a little worried about what other false promises we've been given about this event.

The first story of the issue is 'Primal Pain' and is written by Steve Orlando and Nicole Maines, and focuses on Dreamer and her evolving powers since the events of Lszarus Planet. Dreamer was one of the handful of existing characters that went though a change following the event, and her prophetic powers have now begun to happen outside of her dreams. We see the result of this being that she keeps seeing things that haven't happened yet. Sometimes it's a second or two in the future, or it could be days. Either way, it'll happen.

Most of the story is her reacting to things that other people can't see, and it kind of results in the character coming across as slightly crazed, with most people thinking that she's either someone in costume having a joke, or that she's some weird new hero. When she sees a vision of A-Town in flames and ruin. With the help of Jon Kent, she manages to convince people that leaving for a short while is the best option. Luckily, this happens before Livewire arrives on the scene, infected with a Garro spore. She transforms into a lizard creature, and battles Dreamer whilst Jon gets people to safety.

In all honesty, this story didn't do a whole lot for me. Dreamer is nothing but reactive in this story, and because she's constantly dealing with either external threats or her own visions it felt like there was no time to do anything with her character; or to even let her character come through. She was more 'generic hero' here than Dreamer, and if this is someone's first experience with the character I can't imagine that it'd get them too interested in reading more about her. Another part of the story that seems slightly odd to me is that this is set after issue two of Titans: Beast World, and there seems to be no indication that anything is happening. The problem with this coming out before the issue it's set after means that we don't know the state of the world, but the end of Titans: Beast World seemed to imply that Garro spores were falling everywhere, yet people are sitting at coffee shops, hanging out in parks, and wandering around like there's no global threat. It feels very disconnected to the main story.

This segment has art by Fico Ossio, with colours by Luis Guerrero, and it's decent for the most part. There are some panels such as the full page splash of Dreamer transforming into her costume, that look fantastic, but as the story goes on the art feels slightly different, and it took me a while to figure out why it wasn't sitting right with me as much. The colours get darker. Things are a bit duller and more muted, and it just didn't work for me. Jon in particular looks way too dark in his costume, with his blue being almost black at times. These are personal gripes, and the art isn't bad by any stretch, I just didn't enjoy it as much as the story went on.

The second story, 'Turtle Boy' by Dan Jurgens feels even more divorced from the main event. It opens with the citizens of Metropolis fleeing in terror. Not of the Garro spores, or characters with new beastly treansformations. No, they're running from a familiar figure, Turtle Boy, the kaiju-like Jimmy Olsen. Through flashbacks we find out that Bibbo Bibowski, who was the only person running towards the monster Jimmy, was serving lunch in his bar for Emil Hamilton, when Jimmy comes in to take a break from trying to get a photo of the transformed Power Girl. He sits down for coffee, and accidentally swallows a Garro spore that snuck in on him and jumped into his cup.

This turns Jimmy into his Turtle Boy persona, and he begins a rampage. Luckily, Bibbo and Hamilton come up with a plan to stop him, making him sleepy with some gas, and tricking the spore into jumping out, going inside a summoned monster Power Girl instead. With the crisis averted the three of them head off, joking about the situation. 

I just don't get what's supposed to be happening in this event now. The initial issue was superb, and it set up for a big global disaster spurred on by a huge cosmic horror monster and the 'death' of a hero. But here it seems like the whole thing is perhaps a mild inconvenience at best. People are going out to grab lunch, chatting about how one of their heroes is a bird monster now with a shrug and little care. Is this a potential apocalypse situation or not? The tone of this story just doesn't work for this event for me, and this isn't helped by Anthony Marques' art. The story is very simply drawn, big bold lines, little detail, and a cartoonish feel with bright bold colours by Pete Pantazis. It feels like a young readers book rather than a part of a big event. It makes me think of the Tiny Titans issue of Blackest Night for the kind of tone it has.

The final story actually feels like it might reflect the actual tone of the main event, though after the other two stories here it feels incredibly out of place. 'Don't Stop' is set after issue three of the main title (why has this book come out before issue two if all of these stories are set after?) it follows Lois Lane as she bunkers down in the Fortress of Solitude to protect her from the end of the world as Garros spores take over everyone they can. Maybe she should have stayed in Metropolis, as the other stories seem to show it's fine there.

She's communicating with Clark as he tries to get survivors to safety whilst killing any spores that he can. When the infected hordes close in on the Fortress, believing the energy signature is Superman, Lois and Kelex hold them off with alien rifles as Superman speeds to get there, ignoring the threat of the spore that want to take him over. He arrives on the scene and saves Lois, and is almost taken over when a mysterious nanbot under his skin fries them all. Kelex isn't sure where the tech came from, but the story ends with the reveal that Brainiac saved him. 

Joshua Willamson seems to be the only writer in this issue has received the note that this is supposed to be a apocalypse, and writes this story as a desperate fight to survive. The hordes of animal people storming the Fortress whilst Lois and Kelex try to hold them back feels like something from a horror film, and Clark flying so fast to get there that it causes a huge sonic boom and blows the ocean out in all directions is a big, powerful moment. Perhaps because Williamson is currently writing Superman and the Brainiac inclusion makes this a part of the bigger story for the character next year, but this feels like the only story in this collection that's treating the assignment with seriousness, and is writing a tie-in rather than a tangentially connected story to showcase characters that have nothing to do with the main title.

The art on this segment, by Edwin Galmon, looks fantastic too, and absolutely fits with the kind of art that we've had on Superman. If the entire issue was like this then I'd have been really happy with that we've been given. As it is, it's a great story that's hampered by what comes before it. By the time I'd gotten to this point I'd almost given up on the book; and whilst I really liked what it did it didn't do enough to redeem the issue as a whole.

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