Dark Avengers, The Patriot List: A Marvel Untold Novel by David Guymer - Book Review

 

'S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone, the Avengers have fallen. All that stands in defence of the world are its greatest villains, the Dark Avengers, in this high-octane adventure from the Marvel Untold line

'Under Norman Osborn’s jurisdiction, the Avengers have been secretly re-formed with a cabal of deadly super villains. This is Osborn’s chance to finally put the Green Goblin behind him and become the Iron Patriot the world needs him to be. But villains aren’t easy to wrangle into the place of heroes – doing damage control for his new line-up constantly puts his empire at risk. When S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalists break into Avengers Tower and steal the secret list of replacements for his team of maniacs, the threat to his reign becomes intolerable.  Osborn unleashes the worst of the worst to crush those responsible… It’s hard to be a hero!'

When I first started getting into comic books properly, having always been something of a fan of the genre since being a little kid, I remember walking into my local comic shop (an absolute amazing thing for my tiny, backwards town) and seeing posters for The Dark Avengers. Secret Invasion had just happened and now Norman Osborne, the man behind the mask of the Green Goblin, was put in charge of protecting the world with his own team of Avengers. I remember the excitement and intrigue around the event, especially as people were trying to put together who was going to be on his team thanks to the small clues Marvel were giving out.

Whilst I only dipped my toes in and out of this series thanks to spending a lot of time in that shop, and eventually coming to work there, I got to see most of the bog moments such as the murder of Frank Castle, and the eventual Siege finale. Over the years I've gone back and read up on bits of this era that I missed at the time, and have really enjoyed it. It was a wonderfully different time, to see the bad guys in control, yet having to pretend to be heroes, and the real heroes on the run. It felt different and unique to other eras in Marvel, and I wish it could have had more stories.

Luckily for me, and everyone else, Aconyte Books have just released their first novel set within this time period, Dark Avengers, The Patriot List. The book takes place well within the Dark Reign, with Norman having been in charge of HAMMER for some time now and his Dark Avengers having gotten used to their roles; with some early members of the team having left by this point.

The story begins with Norman having been contacted by an investigative journalist who claims to have something that could be damaging to him; having chosen to approach Norman for a quote on the incident before running the story. This moment of journalistic integrity gives Norman the heads-up he needs, and he sends several of his Avengers to steal the sensitive information from the newspaper offices in the dead of night. Unfortunately, they're not the only people there, and an armed group starts a fight with the 'heroes' that leads to destruction across the city.

Dealing with the fallout of the previous operation, Norman leaves Avengers Tower open to infiltration, and the same mystery group breaks in and steals some highly classified documents; including a list of potential candidates to replace his Avengers if the need arises. Knowing that most of his dirty secrets are close to being laid out in the open, Norman has to use his team to try and stop their opponents and retake the information. All without the Dark Avengers finding out what's on the list.

One of the best things about Dark Avengers, The Patriot List is just how well David Guymer manages to capture the characters from the comics in such vivid ways. The people who make up the Dark Avengers aren't your average group of heroes; they're not heroes at all. They all deeply flawed, awful people who snipe at each other, mock each other, put their own agendas and interests first, yet somehow manage to form a competent team; and Guymer brings that wonderful energy from the comics into the book.

A lot of the times with comics people will say that they love the action, that they're there to see the costumed heroes and villains fight in over the top and explosive ways; and whilst there's nothing wrong with liking that, and this book does deliver that, the real highlight of this novel is the smaller character moments. Instead of looking forward to seeing Ares throw someone through a wall I was eager to see what sly moves Daken was going to pull, instead of wanting to see the Sentry unleash his amazing powers I wanted to see how petty and weird Bullseye was going to be. Some of the best moments of this book are the scenes where several of the Dark Avengers are forced to be in the same room together just interacting. It was pure chaos and bitchy drama and I loved every moment of it.

The book also dove into some of the characters in ways that I can't really remember seeing in the comics, and led to some wonderful new insight into their motivations that changed the way I thought about them. The two biggest examples of this are Moonstone and Venom. Moonstone is a very complex character right from the start; we see her working with the Sentry as a psychologist, using the things from her past to try and help him, and we learn more about what drove her to become a villain. As the book progresses we see that despite being a villain, and a murderer, this is very much not what she wants to be, and there are several moments where her desire to do good, to be better, shine through and push her to do genuinely decent things that put her life on the line.

Equally, Venom has similar moments across the course of the book, though these are a bit more complex. Venom is already a harder character to understand due to him essentially being two different entities in the same body, and the influence that the symbiote has over the host changing the way the host thinks. At the start of the book Mac Gargan is fighting against eh symbiote's influence, trying not to eat people and the such. Over the course of the book Venom goes through some trauma and some changes, and the lines between the two personalities blur a little; but towards the end we see Gargan fighting back and fighting to be better, to do better, and this gives us a glimpse into the man he was before he even became Scorpion, let alone Venom, and how he wants to try and be better once again.

Possibly the stand out star, however, is Norman Osborne. How could it be anyone else? As fans of the comics will know, Norman isn't the most stable of people, and his shift into crazy towards the end of Dark Reign is some great stuff, and Guymer brings some moments of this to the book. The small glimpses we see at the deeply unwell man under his professional veneer are actually quite frightening at times, an the moments when he begins to slip into a mania that's close to the Green Goblin make for some wonderfully tense, stand out moments in the book. I could have spent so much longer following Norman like this, and I really hope that this won't be the last time Guymer gets to write the character.

Dark Avengers, The Patriot List is an action packed, dark, and wonderfully fun book that takes readers back to a unique time in the Marvel universe. It has reignited my desire to read more of this period, and to delve into some of these characters again. Whether you have read anything from the Dark Reign or not, I'm sure that a lot of readers are going to love this latest addition to the Marvel Untold line.

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Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #4 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

One of the things I’ve been loving about Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle is seeing what horror tropes each issue is going to be using. Thanks to both the regular and variant covers for this issue it didn’t take long to see that in issue four were going to be tackling another classic that doesn’t see a whole lot of use nowadays, the ‘creepy kid’ genre. That’s right, it’s time for little Anakin Skywalker to go full on Omen.

With how the rest of the series has operated I should have twigged that something was wrong straight away, as the first pages of the book were not drawn by Francesco Francavilla, who has been doing the non-nightmare sections of the book. This should have been a huge tip off that what I was seeing wasn’t real, but I’ll admit, I wasn’t quick enough to pick up on things, so once events began to shift into more horrific themes it was a genuine surprise.

The issue begins with Lina Graf and her rag-tag team of allies trying to break their way through a small Imperial blockade so that they can reach Mustafar, where they believe her brother Milo has been taken. It all starts normally enough, with Jaxxon trying his best to get past the enemy TIE-fighters whilst arguing with the team, but things take a sudden shift when everyone but Lina seems to vanish. Not only that, but the Imperial attack stops too. Alone on the eerily quiet ship, Lina begins to worry that something awful is happening.

Little does she know how right she is, as the pilot’s chair turns to face her, revealing little Anakin Skywalker as seen in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. If the sudden appearance of a strange child wasn’t unsettling enough, he comes complete with yellow Sith eyes and creepy voice. From here the little Anakin chases Lina through the ship, tormenting her with her fears, throwing things at her with the Force. It’s a lot of fun.

A lot of the other nightmare sections in the series so far have failed to really go into much around the characters who are having them. They get to live through these awful events, and get pretty shaken by them, but for the most part they just seem to be things that they’re having to live through with no real impact upon them other than leaving them feeling freaked out. This issue, however, seems to tie it into who Lina is a lot more, and a lot of her fears and insecurities are dragged to the fore as young Anakin uses them against her. It makes it feel like of those we’ve seen so far this is definitely the more important of these nightmare sequences, and one that may have a lasting effect.

As in previous issues the non-nightmare sections are provided by Francesco Francavilla, and their art is great here as always, with the Rabbit’s Foot interior coming off as creepy as Mustafar, showing that the horror of what’s going on has already begun to get to our characters and make them afraid and on edge no matter where they are. The rest of the art on the issue is provided by Chris Fenoglio, who has previously worked on a Star Wars horror story on Cavan Scott’s previous series Star Wars Adventures: Tales From Vader’s Castle. Fenoglio has a very different style to Francavilla, and his work is much neater and more cartoonish, which worked surprisingly well considering how creepy the evil Anakin was in this issue. I did like that they went for a more cartoon-like style for the nightmare featuring children too, as it felt like a good narrative fit.

Now that our heroes are finally on Mustafar we’re all set for an exciting conclusion, and this issue gives us some hints as to what might be coming. Fingers crossed the good guys will all get out of this one alright.

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Sherlock Holmes & The Three Winter Terrors by James Lovegrove - Book Review

 

'1889. The First Terror. At a boys’ prep school in the Kent marshes, a pupil is found drowned in a pond. Could this be the fulfilment of a witch’s curse from four hundred years earlier?

'1890. The Second Terror. A wealthy man dies of a heart attack at his London townhouse. Was he really frightened to death by ghosts?

'1894. The Third Terror. A body is discovered at a Surrey country manor, hideously ravaged. Is the culprit a cannibal, as the evidence suggests?

'These three linked crimes test Sherlock Holmes’s deductive powers, and his scepticism about the supernatural, to the limit.'

Eagerly waiting for the new James Lovegrove Sherlock Holmes book each winter has started to become a tradition of mine, as for three years now readers have been treated to a wonderfully told wintery tale staring the world's greatest detective and his ever present companion; though this year is slightly different. We don't just get one mystery to keep up entertained, we get three.

Sherlock Holmes & The Three Winter Terrors is set across several years, where Holmes and Watson are called in to investigate three cases that have ended in death. The first one, set in 1889, sees Watson returning to his past as he and Holmes travel to the school he used to attend, where a young student was found drowned in the lake on the grounds. Whilst everyone else thinks that this was simply a tragic accident, that the boy went swimming and met a horrible end, one of the teachers, an old friend of Watson's, believes that there may be a more nefarious answer.

The second case, set just a year later in 1890, sees Holmes being approached by a wealthy businessman who wants to hire him to look into strange, ghostly appearances that have been happening in his home. He claims that sooty footprints have been found, hand prints left in strange places, ghostly flames that suddenly vanish, and mysterious smoke that seems to have no source. Not convinced that there's much of a mystery here to investigate, and rather put off by the man's rudeness, Holmes agrees to at least check into it. However, when he arrives at the family home the next day he's shocked to learn that his client is now dead. Suddenly sure that there's more going on that there appears, Holmes sets out so solve what he believes may be a murder.

The final case, set four years later in 1894, after Holmes' miraculous return from the dead, Holmes and Watson are approached to look into the murder of an academic who was found dead on the edge of the forest that surrounds his country home. Whilst everyone thinks it was the result of an animal attack the doctor who examined the body claims to have found human teeth marks on the corpse, leading people to suspect a strange man living deep in the woods with a tragic history may be responsible. Holmes sets out to find out the real answer, before a potentially innocent man falls victim to mob justice.

On the surface there's not much to connect these three cases, except the fact they all take place over the winter months. One is set in a school and sees Holmes investigating an accident. Another is set in the heart of London and may involve ghosts. And the last took place in a quiet country village and might have been committed by a cannibal. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is nothing more than a collection of three stories without much in common, and that would still be a perfectly fine book; but Lovegrove does something great to tie these cases together. They all keep involving the same family. This isn't just three random cases, but one family's continued misfortune over the years.

It's a great conceit, and one that make this more than just three random stories. We've seen Holmes and Watson meeting people more than once over the years, and there have been sequels to certain of the original stories that see characters and ideas returning; but this might be one of the few times where the two investigators keep coming back to the same family time and time again. This alone makes the book an interesting addition to the ever expanding Holmes canon; but the cases themselves as so wonderfully good too.

James Lovegrove does an excellent job of giving the reader enough clues to be able to figure out everything we need to get to the same answers as Holmes, and there were times that I began to piece things together alongside the detective. However, there's always that moment where I'd thought I'd gotten the answer but found that I'd gone down the wrong line of thought, not because of some hidden detail that I wasn't aware of or some last minute revelation, but because I'd overlooked something or judge something wrong. Whenever this happened and Holmes gave the correct answer I couldn't help but shake my head at my own conclusions and marvel at the answers I was given.

This is a large part of why I really enjoyed this book, why I enjoy all of Lovegrove's Holmes stories. He just knows how to write the perfect mysteries. It doesn't feel like someone trying to emulate the original stories, it simply feels part of that world. He also knows how to make the characters feel more than just caricatures or impressions of the originals. They have personality and charm that feels real, that's true to the source material. James Lovegrove is easily one of my favourite Holmes writers.

This is the third year in a row that I've gotten to sit down in the darker, colder months of the year with a wonderful Sherlock Holmes book. It's something that I look forward to, and this year hasn't spoilt that experience at all; if anything it's been an absolutely wonderful one. I can't wait to see what we get next.

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Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #9 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest issue of Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures continues to follow our young band of heroes as they head to the planet Takodana to assist with the defence against the Nihil, but also delves into the history of Padawan Qort in the process – and features a very familiar face.

Whilst I’ve really been enjoying this series, one of the places where I think the story has been a little lacking sometimes is in character development. This isn’t a slight against writer Daniel Jose Older in any way, he’s done brilliantly with the series and focusing on certain characters. Rather, it’s been the limitations of a comic series, where there’s only so much room per issue, and you only get the book once a month. This means that readers will often have to wait a while to get to know characters that really intrigue them, especially in an ensemble piece like this. Luckily, I’ve not had to wait too long to get to know Qort, one of the more mysterious members of the team.

Despite being there from the beginning we don’t really know much about this young Jedi. We’ve never seen his real face beneath the skull like mask he wears, and he doesn’t speak Basic, meaning that we’re often left wondering what he’s been saying. Whilst this issue doesn’t reveal his words, or his face, it does explain where he comes from through a series of flashbacks scattered throughout the issue.

These flashbacks were a genuine joy, not just because we got to see a baby Qort being a little terror, but because the person who took him in and took care of him is none other than Maz Kanata, the diminutive pirate queen from the sequel trilogy. Considering this story is taking place on the Takodana, and that the Jedi temple they’ve come to defend is located on the same lake as her castle, I was expecting the character to make an appearance at some point; but to use her in this way, to tie her in so directly with one of our core cast of characters was a genius move.

Because of this we not only got to learn more about Qort, including an explanation of where he comes from and why he wears that mask, but we also get to see a bit more of Maz and get to see the kind of decent and caring person she is. Some of this is also shown in Sav too, and how she clearly has a deep caring for Qort. We don’t get much of their connection or past explained in this issue, but you can tell that the two of them go a long way back, and it really helps to flesh out her personality after her brief but amazing first appearance last issue.

The rest of the issue sees the various members of the group preparing the Jedi temple in case the Nihil return, and it moves the plot forward without overshadowing the much more interesting character story that’s going on throughout. Come the end of the issue not only have things been set up nicely for further confrontations to come, but now we also care a bit more about the people who are going to be caught up in it too, which certainly raises the stakes.

As with the previous issue, the art is provided by Toni Bruno and Rebecca Nalty, who do a good job at making Takodana feel big and bright, and a place of beauty. They also make the characters look engaging, especially Sav and Maz, whose aged and wrinkled faces seem to convey their emotions and thoughts wonderfully. The scenes where a baby Qort is causing chaos in Maz’s castle are also a lot of fun, especially how they always frame things in a way where we’ve still not seen Qort’s face.

But that mystery might be getting solved a lot quicker than we think, as the teaser image for the next issue shows Qort standing without his mask, face cast in shadows, as he crushes the mask in his hands. Knowing what we do now about the mask and his species, and with the promise that we’ll get to see what’s underneath, it leads to a very exciting next issue; one that I’m very much looking forward to.

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5 Scary Books For Halloween – Spooktober

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Whilst a lot of people enjoy curling up on the sofa with a spooky movie when the Halloween season rolls around (and this is always good fun) I think that an even scarier thing to do is lying in bed in the dark with a book that chills you, and makes you scared to stick your foot out of the covers just in case something grabs you! Here are five books that I’d definitely recommend reading this Halloween.

The Book of the Baku by R.L. Boyle

The Book of the Baku is the best book I’ve read this year, by a long margin. The story follows Sean, a young teen who has to move in with his grandfather following a tragedy in his past. We’re not let in on the secret about what happened to begin with, and thanks to Sean’s trauma causing him to go mute he’s not telling us.

But his grandfather is trying his best to help, even setting him up an art studio. When Sean finds a book in his grandfather’s library, written by his grandfather, called The Book of the Baku he discovers haunting short stories in its pages; stories that seem to summon a horrific entity to come and haunt Sean.

This book is incredibly interesting, and so well paced. You spend all of your time with Sean, trying to figure him out, learning more about him through flashbacks that help you as you try to figure out what led him to this point.

And mixed into this mystery are the short stories that begin to haunt Sean, dark and disturbing tales that begin to bleed through into the real world. There is so much in this book to draw you in, and the horror is so well crafted that it kind of sneaks up on you. But the thing that sets this book up as one of my all time favourites is the end. I won’t say what it is, but be prepared, because once I finished I was in tears.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Bird Box tells the story of an apocalypse that sweeps across the globe, one that causes the lead character, Malorie, to seek refuge inside a house with a group of strangers. We never get a clear answer as to what this apocalypse is, but quickly learn that some kind of entities are walking the earth, and that anyone who looks at them is driven to attack others and kill themselves. Trapped with people she doesn’t know, and with supplies running low, Malorie is forced to venture out into the world blindfolded, searching for a way to survive.

Chances are you’ve probably have heard of Bird Box thanks to the film adaptation produced by Netflix. When it first came out it was received well, though unfairly compared to A Quiet Place, which is ridiculous as the book came out long before. Even if you’ve watched the film you should pick up a copy of the book, as the two differ in a lot of ways. Whilst the film was intriguing the book is scary in ways the film never was.

It’s told from Malorie’s point of view, so when she ventures outside with her blindfold on we don’t know what’s around her, and the tension and paranoia this brings is brilliant; was that a leaf brushing her hair, or was it some kind of creature? Bird Box is a perfect example of a simple concept that is used to chilling effect, in a story that was so hard to put down I read it in a single sitting.

Soon by Lois Murphy

Set in an almost deserted town, Soon tells the story of the last handful of holdouts in a town terrorised at night by strange spirits and haunting visions.

After the winter solstice a strange mist descends on the small town, a mist that seems to move and change, bringing with it ghastly shades that pluck fears from people’s pasts. With the rest of the inhabitants having left, only those who can’t or won’t leave remain, continuing on in homes they love, making sure they’re back inside before nightfall brings the dark forces once again.

Soon is a very haunting book, one that relies on atmosphere more than anything else. The story begins long after the instigating event, when those who are left behind have become somewhat used to the spirits that haunt their nights, having formed careful practices to keep them all safe.

The book lets you get to know the characters as it slowly builds the tension, before bringing the horror crashing to the forefront. Whilst the book may be a bit slowly paced for some it gives you a lot get your teeth sunk into, and some truly creepy and disturbing moments that will linger long after the book is done.

The Troop by Nick Cutter

The Troop follows five teenage boys and their scoutmaster as they head out to a remote island off the coast of their small town, where they plan to spend the weekend camping and spending time in the woods.

Desperate to get the group of mismatched teens into the spirit of surviving outdoors, the scoutmaster has cut off contact with their families, leaving them almost stranded for the planned trip. When a small boat washes up on the island bringing with it a strange, malnourished man, the troop is weary. Little do they know, the strange man is infected with a virulent parasite that makes you ravenous for anything you can eat, that will destroy you as it grows inside you, and is highly infectious.

The other books on this list are more spooky stories, ones that deal with strange forces and hauntings, but The Troop is full on body horror. It’s gross and disturbing in ways that I’d never encountered in a book before, and because of this it’s one of the most affecting horror books I’ve ever read.

We learn quickly that none of the characters are safe, that even being a kid doesn’t shield them from parasites eating them from the inside, or bodily mutilation. The plot is filled with paranoia the characters soon start to fear everyone around them could be infected, and as the story unfolds it’s sure to get under your skin too.

Litany of Dreams: An Arkham Horror Novel by Ari Marmell

Based upon the popular Arkham Horror game, which is itself inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Litany of Dreams is a cosmic horror story that follows a local student as he searches for information about his missing roommate, and an Inuk tribesman as he searches for a relic stolen from his people.

As the two investigations seem to lead to the same place, the two men band together; but little do they suspect they’re about to stumble onto a dark force that’s trying to break through into our reality, a dark force that’s twisting a small town into monstrous servants to its cause.

The Arkham Horror books produced by Aconyte Books are some great horror stories, usually dealing in cults and secret societies that are out to advance themselves through occult means, but Litany of Dreams feels a little different. It’s a story less about humans making bad choices, and more about godly beings trying to gain a foothold inside our world. Even if you’ve had no experience with this game, or even Lovecraft’s fiction in general, you can read this book with no difficulty, and the horror inside its pages is sure to draw you in and disturb.

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Dark Souls – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

It would have been hard to believe when it appeared on consoles ten years ago, that Dark Souls, a spiritual successor to a little known game, would go on to become one of the biggest names in gaming; a series that would be cited as some of the greatest games of all time, and the birthplace to a number of instantly recognisable memes and phrases.

Dark Souls owes a lot of what it is to Demon’s Souls, a game produced by FromSoftware in 2009 for the Playstation that saw players fighting through a dark fantasy world with giant, ferocious enemies, and unforgiving combat that would often result in player death. Because the game was not initially received well in review, in part because of the difficulty, it was not released outside of Japan. Despite this, it received something of a cult following, and FromSoftwars and director Hidetaka Miyazaki began work on a new game.

Due to the fact that Demon’s Souls was published through Sony, FromSoftware were unable to produce a direct sequel to the game. This meant that they had to create a new world for their game to be set in, and that they would need to make some tweaks to the game play to set it apart. This resulted in the creation of Dark Souls.

Set in a fantasy world once ruled by dragons, the second ‘Age of Fire’ is coming to an end. Having stolen fire from the dragons mankind had ruled the world for thousands of years, but as that fire waned a dark curse has spread across the world, a curse that results in people becoming undead, doomed to resurrect after death over and over until driven to madness. The player character is one of these undead, sent to an asylum for the cursed, before breaking out and making their way to the city of Lordran, where they set out to find a way to save themselves.

Much of the storytelling in Dark Souls is pretty light on the ground, and if you’re not paying attention you can end up missing a lot of the narrative. This is because the game doesn’t really employ traditional storytelling, there are no cut scenes where the character learns the history of the land and is told what to do, and other characters are so few and far between that you can be forgiven for forgetting they exist. Instead, it’s through item descriptions and narrative clues in the environment that players are left to piece things together, being allowed to come to their own conclusions and deductions.

But the story and setting of Dark Souls isn’t the main draw, and it isn’t what has made it a success. The one thing you’ve probably heard even if you’ve never played the game is ‘prepare to die’, and it’s a fitting motto for Dark Souls. There is no way to get through the game without dying, and if anyone ever tries to tell you they’ve finished the game without dying they’re lying. It’s just not possible. Where other games discourage dying, making it a mark of failure, Dark Souls makes it a part of the experience. Dying means that you’re learning, that you’ve come across an enemy you haven’t encountered yet and who you still need to figure out, or that maybe you just got too cocky.

Death is something that you come to expect from the game after a while, and whilst at first you might be cursing and shouting because you’ve just been hacked to pieces or crushed under a huge weapon, soon you’ll be shrugging to yourself and getting straight back into the fight. It is a strange way to play a game for sure, but one that becomes incredibly rewarding as you push yourself to do better, to make it just a little further each time before dying as you begin to master a tough game, but one that is never trying to discourage you from paying.

The success of Dark Souls is in this game play, in the world it created, and the challenge it gave people. Players suddenly found themselves up against something they’d never encountered in gaming before, and it was exhilarating. This formula has been copied by other studios and other games, and whilst there have been some successes FromSoftware, Dark Souls remains the king of this type of game.

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Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #3 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

As the spooky Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vaders’s Castle continues on into its third issue, Cavan Scott treats readers to a story about frightening swamp monsters on Dagobah.

As with the previous two issues of this run, we start by catching up with some familiar faces who have previously been involved in adventures to Vader’s castle; this time it’s human thief turned Rebel soldier Thom Hudd, and the insect like Peasle Skritt, who’ve found themselves on a former Imperial facility on Kraken, where they’re trying to get the place up and running to be used by the Republic.

It’s whilst working away on the repairs, dodging the occasional swooping Mynock, that Hudd tells his friend that he’s been having bad dreams; dreams that feel strangely real. He begins to recount how his dreams see him journeying with Luke Skywalker as he searches for missing Jedi artefacts; a journey that takes them to the swamp planet Dagobah, former home to Jedi Master Yoda.

After trudging through the swamp, an experience that puts Hudd on edge and reminds him of some of the trauma in his past, the two of them come across the ruins of Yoda’s hut, now smashed beyond repair. Finding a small holocam within the ruins they play back the recording to see a group of developers had recently come to the planet, hoping to make it more habitable. The recording is cut short when some kind of creatures suddenly attacks them. Before they’re able to investigate further Hudd and Luke are attacked by the same entity, a large fish-like monster. Separated from Luke, Hudd has to trek through the swamp alone.

Horror is always a popular genre, but one of the parts of the genre I feel we don’t see often enough of is the swamp monsters. There’s The Creature From The Black Lagoon, but nothing really since then; and that was the 1950s. A monster rising up out of the dirty, murky water that surrounds you in a swamp is a popular image, and the fear of never knowing what’s around you is one that makes for great horror. Yet it’s rarely visited, and when it is it tends to be for things other than swamp monsters, such as the film Anaconda, which featured a giant snake. So getting a big fishman tearing out of the water, charging at our heroes feels unique and rarely seen when it happens here. Cavan Scott seems determined to revisit some of the best horror tropes of the 195s, and this is one I wasn’t aware I was missing so much.

The horror factor for this issue is probably the best of the series so far, and the entirety of Dagobah feels off-putting and wrong, even before the monster shows up. Some of this is down to the horrific visions that Hudd has, seeing the twisted face of Vanee in the trees, or seeing the skeletal bodies of his friends in the water beneath him. But a large part of why the place feels so wrong is down to the art by Robert Hack, who handles the nightmare sequence this issue.

Hack’s art has an almost watercolour feel at times, with the backgrounds of his panels feeling like they’re in constant motion within water, even if they’re just a solid colour. It feels like the twisting, changing waters of the swamp have permeated every part of the book, even the art. The plants and the people sometimes take on odd, elongated angles as the panels of Hudd’s perception begins to warp. This art style is also helped by the thick, heavy line work that Hack uses, which gives certain parts a more angular and harsher aesthetic, which helps to balance out the look of the colours.

The rest of the issue, as with previous issues, is supplied by Francesco Francavilla. I don’t know what to say here that I haven’t said about his work in the other reviews for this series, other than his artwork is wonderful for establishing the dark and scary tone of the book, and that it helps the horror of the nightmares pervade into the waking world.

With it looking like the crew might all finally be together for the planned rescue of Milo Graf I’m looking forward to seeing what the series does next. Will it continue to feature the nightmare sequences, or will it focus more on the real world? Will there be very real horrors waiting for our heroes on Mustafar? And, what awful things does Vanee have planned?

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Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy #10 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest issue of Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy not only concludes its Clone Wars story by bringing two powerful Force users into combat with each other, but brings a few characters from Star Wars Legends into Disney canon for the first time.

The first story in this issue, ‘Separation Anxiety, part two’ by Michael Moreci picks up where it left off last issue, with Jedi Master Mace Windu and his squad of Clone Troopers coming into conflict with Separatist forces, as well as strange ghost-like creatures on a planet during an eclipse.

Where the first part of this story was something of a mystery, setting up the oddly deserted world, and introducing these strange ghost-like creatures that seemed to defy explanation, this part is focused squarely on action, as the opposing sides in the war find themselves clashing for control. The last issue left off with Count Dooku rising up out of a huge pit, riding on top of a Battle Droid transport as his forces, and the ghost creatures, come after him.

We get a brief explanation as to what these creatures are before he and Windu clash sabers, whilst Ponds and the rest of the Clones are left facing the rest of the enemies on two sides as the droids and the creatures close in on them. The battle is fairly brief, with the two force users seeming quite equally matched, whilst the Clones make short work of the Droids, but find themselves unable to deal with the creatures. However, due to the creatures seeming to be tied to the eclipse, and the eclipse coming to an end, the battle kind of peters out, and Dooku leaves the planet. This feels a bit anticlimactic, and if it wasn’t for Windu having to then deal with the ghost creatures it would feel like the good guys did very little here. The first part of the story had a lot of promise, but this part doesn’t seem to do much with it, which is quite a shame.

Michael Avon Oeming and Chris O’Halloran return for the art on this second part, and for the most part it’s okay, but there are times where Mace Windu and Dooku feel really odd looking. The alien creatures and the men wearing helmets all look alright, but occasionally the faces of characters we know seem to become quite distorted, with strange proportions and features that seem almost inhuman at times. Whilst it isn’t bad, there were times I found myself being taken out of the story because of it.

The second story of the issue is ‘Grave Digger’, a single part story written by Dave Scheidt. This is a story that some Star Wars fans might find interesting, as it centres on Zak and Tash Arranda, as well as their tutor and adopted father Mammon Hoole, as well as their droid DV-9. These are characters that haven’t appeared in canon since Disney acquired Star Wars, and as such were relegated to ‘Legends’ status; but now they’re back. The stars of the ‘Galaxy of Fear’ novels are now part of the new canon, and that’s pretty damn cool.

The story focuses on the two children as they spend time on an unnamed planet, studying the strange energy spiders that live in this system. Bored with their studies, the children decide to sneak out at night to go and explore, and to investigate the strange feeling one of them had during the day. This feeling, an obvious nod to their Force sensitivity from the books, leads them to an amulet decorated with a spider motif. Unfortunately for them, a rather scary looking group of robed cultists are also after the amulet, leading to the two groups coming into conflict.

This is a pretty fun story, one that feels very true to the spirit of these characters and their adventures in the old canon. It’s a very short story, one that seems to be more establishing the fact that they all exist in the current canon, and that they’re very much still the characters we know. Which is actually absolutely fine. I really didn’t feel like I needed more from this. It was a fun story that genuinely added something to the universe.

The artwork, provided by Stefano Simone, is absolutely gorgeous, and stands out in stark contrast to the gloomy looking art of the previous story. Simone uses bright but muted colours for the daytime parts of the story, and a darker, more oppressive palette for the night time parts. But where it really stands out is the character design. The characters have a sense of elegance to them, but also a stylised look that makes it feel different to other comics in this series. It really reminded me of independent European comics, and it was great to see in this book.

Whilst the first story in this issue felt like a slightly fumbled conclusion over last month’s, the second story was an absolute highlight of the series so far. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be seeing more of the Arrandas again in the future.

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Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw - Book Review

 

'A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.

'But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.'

Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a spooky new novella from Titan books and author Cassandra Khaw steeped in Japanese mythology that makes its arrival just in time for Halloween.

The story follows five young friends as they travel to a remote mansion ruin deep in rural Japan so that two of the group can be married, one of them having always wanted to get married in a haunted house. There's a few problems though, first of all, none of them really like each other all that much; and you quickly begin to see the cracks in this fragile friendship, a friendship that probably should have ended long before this point. The other, bigger issue, is that the story around the mansion, of the ghostly bride buried alive beneath the foundations who haunts its halls is more than just a story; and now the five of them are going to have to fight to survive the night.

As someone who loves Japanese fiction and mythology I was hugely excited for this story. There's something about Japanese ghost stories that hit so much harder than those we get here in the UK that makes them so much scarier. The imagery is more frightening, there are rules around things like ghosts and yokai, and usually it's people who deserve something awful that happen to be the ones getting haunted to death.

And whilst this book has a lot of this, and there are moments of great tension built up in the descriptions of the environments and the things lurking just out the corner of your eye there's one area I unfortunately felt the book didn't give me enough. The characters. We get titbits about the five people that make up our cast, and very quickly learn the broad strokes of their relationships and how they feel about each other; but as things progress it's clear that these first impressions aren't telling us everything, and that most of these characters are really bad for each other.

We get a few hints as to what's going on, such as one of them having not liked another when she started dating her friend, and thought the relationship should have ended; or how another of the friends had secretly slept with the bride in the past. But for the most part the details aren't really there. Whilst this doesn't really affect the story in any great way, and it's more of what's happening in the mansion whilst they're there that's the most important I really wanted to understand these people more, to see what their issues were and to understand their relationships better. 

I think some of this is down to the fact that this is a novella, and as such there's pretty limited space given over to these in-depth character dives and explanations, and that if the book was longer I'm sure we'd have gotten a lot more of that. What we do get is very intriguing though, and it's clear that Cassandra Khaw can write complex and flawed characters, even if they're going to be characters we only know for a brief while.

Where Khaw really excells, however, is in the atmosphere. A lot of attention is given over to the setting of the book, and very soon the reader gets a good sense of what the old mansion is like. You feel like you're in the hallways yourself, peeking in at these lonely, haunted rooms. There's a sense of pervading darkness and gloom that flows throughout the book, and there were times the descriptions were so vivid and so detailed I felt like I could reach out and touch the crumbling walls and smell the dampness.

The same level of attention to detail is given over to the main star of the book too, the ghost. It's clear Khaw hasn't just replicated the 'standard' Japanese ghost image that most of you would probably think of if asked to imagine one, but has drawn on other sources too; such as the monstrous yokai. The ghost is a figure that's gone beyond what you would expect of a human, taking on a more demonic and twisted form, one that sends chills down your spine and really sticks with you.

Whilst this is a short read, and we don't get a lot of time to know the characters there is a lot to like about this book. The story is chilling in a way that I absolutely loved, and I wanted it to keep on going because I was enjoying it so much. Thanks to this book I'm definitely going to be checking out more of Cassandra Khaw's work.

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Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle #2 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second issue of Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle continues to recreate some of the best tropes of horror fiction, tackling giant monsters in a very fun, slightly silly way.

The stories continue on with the mystery that’s been building, with Darth Vader’s attendant Vaneé continuing to collect sacrifices for his ritual. It now seems like his gaze may have shifted from Milo Graf to his sister Lina, who has been having nightmares of her brother trapped inside Vader’s castle, calling for help. Knowing that she can’t get to Mustafar on her own, Lina asks Mon Mothma to help, but Mothma refuses to give her a ship. This results in Leia advising Lina where she can find a competent smuggler and pilot who can get her where she needs to go.

Anyone expecting this to be Han Solo obviously didn’t pay enough attention to the cover, as Lina finds herself going to Jaxxon T. Tumperakki, everyone’s favourite rabbit man. It’s here that we discover that Jaxxon, like the Graf siblings, has been having nightmares, and he recounts his tale. Now, this is where the issue gets pretty ridiculous, as Jaxxon describes a dream where Chewbacca is transformed into a giant monster and starts to trash the planet. It’s silly, it’s over the top, and probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen in Star Wars, but I honestly loved it.

Where last issue we had a zombie story, this one we get a love letter to the classic kaiju movies, and it’s so wonderfully weird. Chewie becomes this giant creature and causes havoc, destroying settlements and terrorising the regular sized folk, so just like with kaiju movies they need to send another giant monster to fight him – by making Jaxxon into a giant monster too. It might make zero sense, but it doesn’t have to. This is just a nightmare that Jaxxon had, and it’s a ton of fun to read so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this.

Much like the first issue there are two different artists working on this book. Francesco Francavilla once again provides the art for the ‘real’ parts of the book, those that are actually taking place outside of the dreams. Just like the first issue, his art has a frantic, messy style to it that suits the tone of the story. But I was also pleased to see just how well he’s able to capture the likenesses of certain characters too. For example, I instantly knew Leia was in a scene even before anyone called her by name because he captured her face wonderfully, without having to change his style in any way.

The dream sequence parts of the book feature a different artist than last issue, with Derek Charm providing the line work and colours. The difference in art styles is less jarring here than in the first issue, and they’re similar in a lot of ways. But whilst the art in the first issue’s nightmare was supposed to capture the creepy feel of a zombie film and was quite simple and realistic, this art goes a little bit more cartoonish. This works brilliantly with it being a nod to giant monster films, which were always a bit goofy, a bit childish, and often bright and in your face.

With more hints at a bigger plot forming, more characters coming into the story, and some brilliantly fun moments this is a great issue, and one that is continuing the energy and excitement of the first issue. With a small preview of the next issue at the back seeming to hint that we could be getting swamp monsters next, this is quickly turning into one of the best Star Wars comics around.

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