Dark Souls: Age of Fire #3 – Comic Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

‘His armour charred black by the flames of Izalith, Silver Knight Arkon now marches to Anor Londo in search of the brother knights who abandoned him. Meanwhile, in the Lower Ward, the undead curse begins to spread, with no care for rank or status. But who is to blame for this accursed outbreak?’

It’s hard to read Dark Souls: Age of Fire without being shocked by how beautiful the artwork is. Even three issues into the title Anton Kokarev is still able to push the bar further and further, and the very first scene is a testament to this. A meeting between the now cursed Silver Knight Arkon, transformed into a black knight, comes face to face with Artorias, the Wolf Knight, in a forest in the middle of a rain storm.

The effects look beautiful, dark and gloomy skies, streaks of rain filling each panel, as the two warriors enter into combat. There is very little dialogue in the scene, instead each panel tells a very clear story; the warriors watching each other, swinging their swords through the rain, clashing and blocking, circling each other. It’s like watching a samurai movie play out in comic form; and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Following this brief but brilliant action sequence, the rest of the issue focuses on the undead curse that is sweeping through the Lower Ward and the machinations of Seath the Scaleless, the albino dragon. This is where the story really delves into the lore of Dark Souls and explores the backstory only hinted at within the games.

The undead curse is played as truly frightening and some of the depictions of them are truly terrifying. In one panel, Kokarev depicts them as mindless, withered, shambling victims, yet in the next panel they’re screaming, banshee like monsters.

Elsewhere Channeler Liste is seen in his manipulations of the public, whilst simultaneously assisting Seath the Scaleless with his experiments – experiments that have caused the undead curse that is sweeping through the population, a duplicity that comes back to bite him when Seath turns on him.

Despite these moments of story and lore exploration, the book doesn’t go into great depth. The book touches on important events, yet doesn’t give them the time they need. I don’t feel like this is something that writer Ryan O’Sullivan has done intentionally, as his characterisation is very good, but comes across as an editorial decision to try and maintain enough mystique around these big moments that they can be explored in future comics, novels, or games, depending on the company’s decision. Thankfully, O’Sullivan is weaving enough personal elements into the story through the cast of characters, but it is a little disappointing that we don’t get a little more detail.

Dark Souls: Age of Fire continues to be entertaining and visually stunning, and offers readers artwork that stands out amongst other competition as something really special. Hopefully future issues will dedicate more time to story without having to sacrifice character.


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TV Rewind… Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1X08 – The Well

Originally published on Set The Tape

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode ‘The Well’ is definitely much better on subsequent watches rather than the first time it aired on television. Billed as a direct tie-in/follow-up to Thor: The Dark World, many fans were understandably annoyed when the episode only spent the first three minutes in a post-Thor London, before moving on to another, vaguely connected story. Marvel spent a lot of time advertising it as a big follow-up to the film – and as that it totally fails, but seen separately from that advertisement, as an episode on its own? ‘The Well’ is actually quite good.

Ignoring the opening scene, which is just the S.H.I.E.L.D. team playing clean-up after the climactic fight from Thor: The Dark World, the episode centres on a ‘Norse Pagan hate group’, who have managed to track down an ancient Asgardian artefact, one that gives the wielder super-human strength and uncontrollable rage.

It turns out that the artefact is one of three pieces of a Berserker Staff, a weapon used by a member of the Asgardian army, a Berserker Warrior. With the hate group searching for the other pieces, and spreading chaos in their wake, Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the team have to try and find the other pieces first.

It’s a pretty fun little story that takes our team of heroes around the globe, but what makes it something special is the inclusion of the Berserker Warrior himself, who has been hiding on Earth for a thousand years. Not only does this give the series its most powerful character to date, but the Warrior is played by Emmy Award winning Peter MacNicol, who many film fans will remember from his comedic roles in Bean, The Adams Family Values, and Ghostbusters II.

MacNicol is so unlike any other Asgardian we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before. This isn’t just because he’s been living on Earth for hundreds of years, but because he’s a common man. Thor, Loki, and even the Warriors Three, are all members of the Asgardian court. They’re royalty, or spend all their time around royalty. MacNicol is just an ordinary man who joined the military, got disillusioned with his life as a warrior, and chose to settle on Earth. He’s relatable where Thor and the others feel alien.

‘The Well’ isn’t all about Asgardians, however, as it also gives us more of an insight into the pasts of Agents Ward (Brett Dalton) and Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) when they fall under the influence of the Berserker Staff. Bringing out their fear and anger through their darkest memories, the staff causes Ward to have to face a trauma from his childhood.

Whilst it’s good that we are finally learning more about the character it doesn’t quite feel like enough. We see his younger brother trapped down a well as he’s trying to help him, but we don’t get full context as to what’s happening and why. This would have been the perfect opportunity to give us more details, to flesh him out more; but the series seems to be holding back on much of this information so that it can stretch out the ‘mystery’ of Wards past.

This is something that happens here with May as well. Like Ward, she comes under the staff affects, but is able to control herself. Claiming that this is because she lives with her trauma every day rather than burying it. But, we don’t find out what this is, leaving even more mysteries hanging over the audience. I understand that this is episodic television that’s going to be unfolding over twenty episodes, but it feels like the writers are making the mistake of giving too many characters a ‘mystery past’; the only ones who don’t seem to at the moment are Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge).

Overall the episode was quite fun, and had some interesting ideas, but is beginning to make its characters run the risk of becoming boring. The most interesting character development in the episode happened right towards the end when Ward and May hooked up, but other than that the inclusion of more mysterious pasts is beginning to grate a little.


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Dungeons and Dragons: Evil At Baldur’s Gate #3 – Comic Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Baldur’s Gate heroes return to the city at last, but their time adventuring in Ravenloft and the frozen northern reaches of the Realms have changed them. Each of them must face great trials ahead before they’ll be ready to embrace their destiny. Delina searches for something to cure her wild magic, but the solution she seeks plunges her into danger unlike anything she’s faced before.

Writer Jim Zub continues to explore the universe of Dungeons and Dragons and the Baldur’s Gate Heroes, with a much more personal story as the series once again gives its readers something new and interesting.

With the first two issues having a more action-oriented approach, issue three shifts the focus to a character-orientated story as we follow the sorceress Delina as she searched for a way to bring her wild magics under control.

Having sought help from the Baldur’s Gate wizard-librarian Matrikay, Delina finds herself transported across the multiverse, sending her to a ‘place of absolute order’ so that she can learn to control her chaotic magics. Unfortunately, Delina is sent to the realm of Mechanus, a place made from cogs and gears, inhabited by part biological, part mechanical creatures.

The inhabitants of Mechanus are a wonderfully varied bunch, with some brilliantly unique designs and looks, sometimes with half a dozen different designs in the same panel. Some of the deigns are so strange and unusual that it’s not hard to believe that the artist had a lot of fun designing and drawing them.

True to Matrikay’s words, Mechanus is a land of pure order; however, this means that Delina doesn’t fit into their ordered society and she is forced to go on the run. Whilst the book could have very easily turned into a fugitive story, with Delina on the run getting into fights, it makes the bold decision to turn the story inwards, to make it a journey of self discovery and learning for Delina.

After almost being converted into a mechanical being herself, then put on trial for breaking multiple Mechanus laws, Delina comes to the realisation that whilst she might not like the chaotic nature of her magic abilities, sometimes order isn’t a good thing. Order is rigid, order is strict, order doesn’t allow for nuance or individuality.

The latest issue of Dungeons and Dragons: Evil at Baldur’s Gate is a big departure from the first two issues, but is certainly making the most of focusing on smaller scale stories centred around the members of the hero team. Whilst this may not have been the most exciting issue to date in terms of action, it might be one of the best for its look into character, giving some very real growth and development for Delina, and for its great designs.

Harvey Tolibao excels here more than previous issues, managing to craft a visually stunning world in the form of Mechanus. The landscapes are filled with gears and cogs, with an entire clockwork city filling the background of the very first page. Wherever Delina goes in Mechanus it looks amazing, even with tiny clockwork motifs worked into clothing decoration. This issue would not have been quick to draw, but the end result is a believable and beautiful fantasy world.


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Throwback 20: The Negotiator

Originally published on Set The Tape

I feel like I have to address the elephant in the room in regards to The Negotiator before I get too far into this Throwback. I really enjoy this film, I have ever since I first saw it, but this is the first time that I have re-watched it since the allegations about Kevin Spacey’s past have come to light. Yes, this has changed how I look at this film, as I’m sure it would any project involving Spacey. However, the story, the performances, and the supporting cast in The Negotiator are so good that I found that I was able to put this aside and still enjoy the film for what it is.

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, The Negotiator tells the story of Danny Roman (Jackson), a brilliant hostage negotiator for the Chicago Police Department who finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy to embezzle large amounts of money from the department’s disability fund. His partner, Nick Roenick (Paul Guilfoyle), tells him that he has evidence from an unnamed source, but when he’s killed Danny not only becomes the prime suspect in his murder but is also framed for the embezzlement. Left isolated from his former friends and co-workers, Danny takes hostages in order to clear his name.

The Negotiator begins as a fairly standard cop drama; it has the hero cop save the day at the beginning, they go for drinks to celebrate with their co-workers, they suddenly find themselves disgraced, then they have to hand in their gun and badge. It’s a set up that has been done before in many other films, one that you’ll be very familiar with. It’s what happens after this, though, that makes the film stand out.

The majority of the film has Jackson and his hostages in one office set, whilst his former colleagues attempt to defuse the situation. Because of the fact that Jackson’s character is trained in how to defuse a hostage situation, you’re not sure which cops are there to do their job and which ones are part of the conspiracy, and the central mystery of who is behind everything adds extra stakes to the whole thing.

The Negotiator is light on action and heavy on dialogue, but it’s the perfect film for it. Gun fights and punches would feel completely out of place here as the film tries to take a more real world approach to the police force and how they would act in a hostage situation.

Thanks to the film’s supporting cast you never feel bored, or that the film needs an action sequence to make things exciting. So many of the members of the police force are cast with great actors that a lot of film and television fans will instantly recognise. Ron Rifkin from Alias, John Spencer from The West Wing, David Morse from The Green Mile, Paul Giamatti from Billions, Bruce Beatty from Straight Outta Compton, and Michael Cudlitz from The Walking Dead, to name but a small few of the amazing cast of great character actors.

With a sharp and well paced story, a really clever script, and an amazing cast to populate the world, The Negotiator is one of the better examples of a police thriller, one that takes a different approach and puts the focus on the police, rather than the hunt for a villain, in a story that keeps you guessing as to who the real bad guys are right until the end.


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Labour Councillor Quits Over Transgender Toilet Debate

Labour party member and Cambridge councillor Ann Sinnott has resigned her political position in protest over transgender rights.

Following the election of openly transgender Lib Dem councillor Sarah Brown, and her campaign to bring Cambridge Council into line with existing legislation and to change their guidelines to allow transgender people to use the correct bathroom facilities; Sinnott described the council of 'insidiously dismantling women's rights' and as being 'in dereliction of the law'.

Sinnott has said that she is 'not anti-trans', but 'pro-women', but objected to transgender people having fair and equal rights due to the risk of men identifying as women in order to access female spaces. She claimed that transgender people being able to use the toilet facilities that matched their gender would be a 'risk to women' in places where women 'expect privacy'.

Despite a number of UK press outlets linking transgender people being able to use the correct bathroom facilities to proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, transgender people have been guaranteed access to toilet facilities under the law since the passing of the Equality Act of 2010. This appears to be a nuance that Sinnott is unaware of, as she only raised objection to trans people using public facilities in June this year.

Writing to The Times newspaper, Ann Sinnott said, 'Cambridge city council knowingly stands in dereliction of the law.I have no wish to be party to unlawfulness, nor will I collude in keeping this matter from Cambridge women, and other residents — they have the right to know.

'I do not want to be a member of a council that fails to recognise that female-only facilities are needed by women as a generality. Nor do I wish to be associated with a council that effectively treated Cambridge women with contempt, while it insidiously dismantled their rights.'

She has also said that, 'Any change the council makes has to have an impact assessment, and there was never an impact assessment carried out. Trans people are entitled to be protected along with everybody else and should not be discriminated against, but women are a protected group as well. Put any woman in a dark street at night and the overwhelming majority will say she is afraid.

'Women have the right to be protected and when you open up female-only spaces, you open them up to risk. If you are a female in public loos at night and there is a person who is clearly male, how does she know they are not a threat?'

Sinnott has conceded that making trans women use male facilities is not, however, the correct solution, but has instead proposed that specialised transgender facilities be made. 'People talk about having a third type of facility, maybe that is the way to go. They need to sort it out, but not at the expense of women and girls.'

When approached for comment by the press, Sinnott responded with an automated email replying, 'I resigned on Mon 30 July because the Council’s Equality Policy – by which female-only services in Cambridge Council owned facilities were abolished – is in breach of the Equality Act 2010.'


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Sources:
Pink News BBC Cambridgeshire Live