Things I’m Geeking Out On – Top Ten Edition

There is so much going on in the geek circles this week that I’m just going to make this entirely a “Things I’m Geeking Out On” list. We’ll do it list style since we just did a list for Topless Robot this week on the new Daredevil series so my mind is in total Top Ten mode. (By the way, when you are done here, you can totally go read that over here – if you don’t mind spoilers, or have already seen it.)

Top Ten Things I’m Geeking Out On This Week

1. The new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer – I didn’t think I was THAT excited about it yesterday when everyone was losing their minds over it, but now that I’ve watched it a couple of times, it really is pretty exciting. I found myself excitedly chatting up to one of my co-workers after she mentioned her dog is named Mara Jade. Apparently none of her friends are cool because she didn’t know the new trailer had dropped, nor did she know Celebrations was happening RIGHT NOW, 20 minutes away from our office! (I live for moments like this, I really do.) Anyways, it does look like it’s going to be hella cool, so you win this round J.J.
2. Batman V Superman – Not in the sense that I’m excited about it, because I’m expecting it to be a hot mess at this point, but more in that I’ve been nerd raging about it since that insulting excuse for a teaser trailer dropped yesterday. Then the news that you had to get tickets to see the trailer in select theaters? After the giant pile of MEH that was Man of Steel, I feel like the Warner Bros marketing team needs to earn my excitement, not act like they are doing the fans a favor. I mean, COME ON, the movie was pushed back A YEAR. That can’t possibly be a good sign. (If this movie isn’t another Suckerpunch, I’ll be amazed.)
3. Mad Max: Fury Road – That new trailer is amazing. I cannot wait for this movie to be out. What a lovely day indeed.
4. Fast and Furious 7 – Two of my favorite categories of movies are car movies (see above) and caper movies – F&F is pretty much the best of both worlds. The only reason we haven’t seen this already is because of Daredevil, but that will be fixed on Saturday! I need my car chase fix!
5. Convergence: JLA – I was pretty skeptical of Convergence because I’m getting pretty tired of the seemingly endless DC comic crossover events, BUT give me the 90s versions of my favorite comic characters from my favorite era of comic collecting and I forgive surprisingly quick. In JLA, they doubled down and gave me not only some characters I’ve been really missing, like the green skinned Jade, Type A Speedster Jesse Quick, and Queen of the Sea Mara (Aquaman’s lady who is a force to be reckoned with herself), but gave us a girl power super group that I instantly fell in love with. If they turned this comic into a regular series I would lose my mind and subscribe in a heartbeat. The issue was pitch perfect – the art was beautiful, the ladies were tough, but also felt like real women, and the part where they taught some grabby dudes a lesson in manners was priceless. Also, a great reminder that DC has some pretty amazing super ladies BESIDES the way overdone Wonder Woman. In this case, we got Supergirl, Jesse Quick, Mara, Jade, and a very gothy take on Zatanna. This would be an amazing TV show – you hear me DC!?
6. Convergence: Superboy – Speaking of characters I really miss, the Convergence version of Superboy was a total throwback to my favorite Superboy; the one with the leather jacket and the 90s haircut and the attitude. Team Cadmus is also back and excellently written (and reminded me more than a little of another certain science team on some show called Flash. Coincidence?). I felt like I was reading a lost issue from the late 90s. It made me miss it. Can we get this version back, please?
7. Harley Quinn – Ok, I’m pretty much always geeking out on the Harley series, but this whole Team Harley storyline is pretty amazing. I love how the creators just single handedly exploded the number of female minority characters (and even added one possibly gay dude?) in the DCU. Also, those uniforms are like a gift to cosplayers everywhere. I want to see some cosplay group take this on. The humorous nods to Mad Max and 50 Shades of Grey via Harley and Ivy’s trip to the movies were also pretty delightful. Harley and Ivy’s BFF/FWB relationship has been pretty fun to watch play out.
8. Daredevil – I liked it. I didn’t LOVE it, like some people seem to. It was very well executed and surprisingly meaty for a superhero show. My takeaway quip was that it was the Breaking Bad of superhero TV Shows. That didn’t make it into the article, but that would be my one sentence summary. If you liked Breaking Bad, you will probably like Daredevil. If you did not (I wasn’t a huge fan), you might find it’s serious approach a little much. Although, in fairness, this is the show Gotham should have been. A hard hitting crime drama with occasional super hero elements. Why didn’t I love it then? I felt like the Kingpin was not handled very well – it seemed like Wesley was in charge of everything most of the show, with the Kingpin seeming more like an idealistic figure head he was indulging, and Wesley seemed way more evil than the Kingpin would ever be capable of. Also, it was just really… dark. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it’s mainly a circumstantial evidence thing. See, we’ve binge watched A LOT of shows at this point. When something is really good, really grabs us – Battlestar Galactica, Lost, the first 5 seasons of the modern Doctor Who – you cannot drag us away from the TV. We will reschedule everything to squeeze in just one more episode. With Daredevil we found excuses to take frequent breaks, rarely able to sit through more than two episodes without suddenly needing to make a coffee run, go to the pool, or deciding to go out to dinner with friends. That’s not a great sign to me that I’m enjoying something. Would I watch a second season? Yes. Would I watch it all in one weekend again? Nope.
9. Witcher III: The Wild Hunt – I was not expecting to geek out on this one, but we watched the trailer last night and this video game looks AMAZING. I’ve been waiting for someone to give me a Skyrim sequel for years now, and while this isn’t exactly that, it looks pretty damn close. Close enough for me to be super excited to play it!
10. Community – I don’t know why it took me this long to watch this show, but I finally started it three weeks ago and… I’m already caught up. You see what I mean about devouring a show if I really like it? I think I literally watched all of Season 5 in one day. (Ok, it’s only 13 episodes at 22 minutes each, but still, I have a day job!) The show is really funny, and has that absurdist, pop culture aware sense of humor that I’ve loved since The Young Ones or The State, and currently love on Archer. If you are fan of either of those shows, or have ever been back to college as an adult (which I have), or just love geeky absurdist comedy that would make Weird Al proud, you should totally catch up on Hulu or Amazon, and then check out the new season happening on Yahoo.

End of An Era

4 years ago, I picked up the Mirrors book for World Of Darkness, a collection of alternative rules that let you run “outside the box” games in the WoD setting. That led to a one shot that centered around 7 characters reprsenting the 7 deadly sins being trapped in a mirror maze by a fae and forced to find their way out while also in a “last man standing” situation because the fae wanted to know which sin was the deadliest. Much fun was had and I decided to rework the idea into an ongoing campaign, wherein players would be allowed to bring in characters from any of the WoD arenas (except Mage, for reasons too long to get into here).

Over the next 4 years we managed to stay more or less in the same timeline, despite major changes to the players at the table, venue, and changes in the base of operations. This past Sunday I ran the last game. Of the “first season cast” I had 2 players still at my table, plus 4 more we had picked up along the way (Mirrors has always had a full table). When we started we were at Dice House, moved to the International Coffee House, and eventually wrapped up at the new home of one of my long term players. The first three “seasons” the characters were in Seattle, this last season we explored Las Vegas, then a post-apoc Mohave Desert.

My original story arc, involving pitting the players against a fae determined to bring about a neverending winter, a powerful Changeling determined to stop her, and the vampires who were caught in the crossfire was really completed at the end of the second season. Everything else has been about consequences of that explosive and emotional season finale. Last Sunday, things finished much like they began, with a bloody fight with some vampires after an escape from a manipulative fae. It seems befitting, but also confirms to me that I made the right decision to finally bring things to a close.

It’s time for new adventures. In January, I will finally commit myself fully to running Changeling, instead of just borrowing from it on a regular basis, and we will be turning back the clock to Victorian timess. Things should be interesting.

November has been a busy month, so here’s a brief overview of things since my last post:

We visited Comikaze, had a great time, spend too much money, and wrote a whole article about it for Topless Robot, which you can read here.

Speaking of Topless Robot articles, we also posted a gift guide for that RPG geek in your life. Or you. Whichever. Check that out here.

We attended the very geeky wedding of some friends of ours, which involved custom dice as keepsakes, fandom themed tables for the rehersal dinner (we were at the Doctor Who table), and a Portal themed wedding cake. We wrapped up the wedding weekend with a screening of Big Hero Six. Super fun and highly appropriate to the bride and groom.

As previously mentioned, we attended the Nerds Like Us screening of The Crow. Bai Ling did a Q&A at the event, which was much fun. There was a cosplay contest, which was also much fun. But the most important thing is our daughter LOVED the movie and is now going to read the original comic it was based on. Geek parent win on that one.

Thing I’m geeking out on this week: 90s era trade paperbacks.

Alright, if you’ve been paying attention, I’ve been geeking out on those since I started rebuilding my Transmetropolitan collection a few months back. But picking up The Crow TPB for the Boo reminded me how much good obscure stuff is out there some of you might not even remember or never got to experience the first time. So, I’m working on a list for you. I think I have a venue for it and I will drop the linkage on you when that’s posted. In the meantime, go pick up The Crow, some black eyeliner, and a copy of The Cure’s greatest hits. You can thank me later.