Text Play: Pokémon Zeta #19

Hello, and welcome back to the Vesryn region! This is entry number 19 in my Text Play of Pokemon Zeta!

Wow, it's hard to believe we're almost at the big 2-0 already. I know, I'm surprised by it, too. It's quite amazing. I never imagined I'd get this far in this game. As usual, I want to warn you all that I will be spoiling this game.

As such, I suggest you play the game for yourself before reading this Text Play. You can dowload the game for yourself at the game's wiki here. And with that, let's go!

Since the last Text Play, I've been doing a bit of grinding up. There's going to be some tough battles coming up, and I want my Pokémon to be ready for them. In the meantime, I thought I'd explore the mountain a little bit. Do you remember this area of Mt. Press? 

Of course you do! That's the hive where we added Combee to our collection! Well nearby, there's this area.

The thing is, we need a Pokémon that knows Rock Climb to go to the next level here. It's not a key area to explore if you want to go forward in the game's narrative, but the Pokémon games are all about exploration, so we might as well explore it. I headed back to the Pokémon Center to grab a Pokémon that knew Rock Climb. Unfortunately, I don't think I had any Pokémon that knew it. And unfortunately, I do not have the TM/HM that teaches it, either. Sadly, that means we can't explore the mountain. We have to stick to the main path.

However, I do have the HM that teaches Waterfall. Remember the waterfall we encountered in the last entry inside the mountain? Well, we can use it to literally climb the waterfall and move forward. 

And knowing this game, as soon as we use the HM to get up the waterfall, we'll find an item that lets us scale waterfalls without having to use a Pokémon that knows the move. It's a regular pattern with this game. I've gone on rants before here about how annoying that is to me, so I will not do that again here. It's one of the main things that annoy me about this game. Anyway, I grabbed my Tentacool (No particular reason, I just chose it at random), and taught it Waterfall. Although I will admit, the mental image of a jellyfish climbing up a waterfall is rather amusing. And when we get there, we arrive at a lake.

It's not much of a lake, but there it is. From here, we go to the right. There are a couple trainers here, but they can be avoided.  

This lake has two waterfalls here. The one on the left leads to a nurse.

I like that there's a nurse here. It's a nice little anti-frustration feature. The waterfall on the right leads to a...ledge?

Is ledge the appropriate word here? There is an item behind that rock, but don't worry about breaking it. We don't have the badges for it yet. I know. We need a certain number of badges to break a rock. Pokémon is weird.

The area with the nurse leads to another external path. You have to battle a couple of Trainers to get through here. The first one is pretty funny.

He kind of reminded me of Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z Abridged after I clobbered him. "What kind of juice did your Pokémon drink?!" Ha ha! Yeah, that's one of the fun things about this game, the trainer and NPC dialog. Some of it is pretty darn funny. This part of the mountain is a very good place to grind up your Pokémon. Lots of Audino here. Since they're Normal-type, you can use just about any Pokémon in your team against them. And they're pretty generous with the XP, as far as I can tell. Anyway, we head upwards on the external trail to re-enter the mountain.  

Once inside, we head up a pair of staircases. They lead to a trainer nearby.

Up above her, there is an item.

It's TM64 (Explosion). After grabbing the item, we head upwards over a couple more staircases. In the way, we met this woman, who had something interesting to say.

...I had honestly forgotten there was a Daycare Center near Onega. We first encountered it all the way back in entry #3! I do want to go back there and breed some Pokémon. I do have a Ditto, so I should do that some time. We continue upwards, battling a trainer that uses Psychic-type Pokémon. Near her is a ledge.

Don't worry about that, we don't have Rock Climb. We can get that another time, and you don't need a Pokémon that knows it to make the main way through the mountain anyway. We end up on the exterior of Mt. Press again. From the exit, we turn right and battle a trainer on the way.

We can use the Machete to cut our way back inside the mountain. Once inside, we go to the left and battle a Hiker. Then we head up and take the exit back out to the exterior. 

That seemed...rather pointless. Anyway, it's snowing! We must be getting close to the peak if we're seeing snow everywhere. Although I will admit, it's a good thing we have that Pokémon Trainer constitution, because it can get quite cold up here.

There are trainers to battle here, but I do have to warn you. Because of the snowy conditions here, your Pokémon will get hit by hail, causing them to suffer a little extra damage every turn. Anyway, during my stay in the mountain, I figured I might as well train up my Tentacool. 

Let me explain. As I said earlier, I needed a Pokémon that knew Waterfall to get through Mt. Press. As such, I decided to teach it to my Tentacool. I didn't want to saddle my Kingdra with it if I could help it. Kingdra was one of the fully evolved starters of this game, and I do not like the idea of sticking it with an unremovable HM move. Unfortunately, Tentacool is very underleveled compared to the other Pokémon on my regular team. The rest of my main team are nearly at level 50 right now. I got a lot of grinding to do.

Yeah, that's a pain. But it has to be done. I wish I could go quickly back to Onega Town and breed another Horsea to equip with Waterfall here. That would be handy. But I have neither time nor the desire to do that, so Tentacool/Tentacruel is taking Kingdra's place on the team for this. Sorry, Kingdra. I'll hopefully be able to make it up to ya, buddy.

Continuing on the mountain! After you emerge here, you go up a staircase and battle a pair of twin trainers. After them, you head right and go up. If you go right from the staircase, you find an item.

Don't worry about that now. You need Rock Smash to get it. And I think right here is where we'll stop for now. It's not much further until we're forced into a major battle, and I want my team to be ready. I also want to maintain a regular schedule with these entries. You know, I don't know if I really managed to describe the route through the mountain very well. If anything confused you, here's a link to the Pokémon Zeta/Omicron wiki's description of Mt. Press. I think it did a better job of describing the mountain than I did. Anyway, I got grinding to do, and I gotta prepare for a major brawl with Team Olympus...not to mention another surprise.

Wish me luck! Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get vaccinated! See you next time!

Pokemon Obtained:
(Mt. Press)
- Garchomp (evolved from Gabite)
- Quagsire
- Spiritomb
- Cloyster
- Golbat
- Audino
- Snover
- Tentacruel (evolved from Tentacool)
- Piloswine
- Snorunt
- Metang

The Suicide Squad Trailer, My Thoughts

Back in October of last year, I gave my thoughts on the roll call teaser for the DC Cinematic Universe's upcoming 10th film: The Suicide Squad. I remember being quite excited for this movie thanks to that teaser. Well, now...there's a full trailer! Let's take a look!

Now, before we begin, I must warn you all. This is a red band trailer. That means this trailer will likely not be safe for work, if you know what I mean. There's gore and some characters using adult language.

Peacemaker isn't wrong here. Harley's a bit...unstable.

It is kind of hilarious seeing Peacemaker in civilian clothes, but still wearing his big silver helmet. I think John Cena's having fun being this guy. 

...Blast it, Harley! You always gotta ruin it!

I still think Savant will bite it. James Gunn is not afraid to kill of Michael Rooker. He's done it before.

Yeah, Blackguard is totally dead.

I think for Weasel, death will be a mercy.

Hey, that's John Ostrander as one of the doctors! Ostrander and his late then-wife Kim Yale co-wrote the run on the Suicide Squad that made the series famous. They also revamped Barbara Gordon into Oracle during that run.

James Gunn is either a god for some kind of film sorcerer. I can't imagine convincing Sylvester Stallone to not only voice a shark-man, but also say the words "NOM NOM". That's just amazing to me.

Heh heh, Peacemaker taking notes.

...I'm actually hoping King Shark makes it now. 

I would not be surprised if Polka-Dot Man spends the entire movie trying to get killed, only to make it through. That would be hilarious.

A personalized license plate beat up Harley's parents once. At least that's what she says.

Eh, Harley's more understandable about coughing without covering your mouth. Especially these days. It's not only rude, but dangerous.

Yeah, Peacemaker is going to be a breakout character. Again, you can tell John Cena is just having fun playing this guy.

Steely Dan's "Dirty Work". Gunn's got great musical taste.

How many King Sharks does it take to rip a man in half? Just one.

Harley Quinn's ballet ideas were rejected by the Bolshoi for a reason.

Aww. I hope those two make it.

OH. MY. GOD. WAS THAT...STARRO?! FREAKIN' STARRO THE CONQUEROR?! THE FIRST VILLAIN OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE?!

...JAMES GUNN, YOU ARE A MADMAN! YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL MAGNFICENT MADMAN! IF I COULD, I WOULD HUG YOU!

Oh, this film looks to be quite a lot of fun. I can't wait for this! 

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves, and each other! Stay safe, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask! See you next time!

Solo Avengers #1 (December 1987)

In the late 80s, Marvel released a little book called Solo Avengers. Solo Avengers was a "split-book". What this meant was that the book told two tales, focusing on various characters. The book lasted a surprisingly long time. With issue #21 (August 1989), the series' name would be changed to Avengers Spotlight, which was a better name in my opinion. The title would last 40 issues, the "split-book" format lasting for 35 of those issues.

Hawkeye was the "main" star of the book, often being the focus of the first story. The second story would give focus to a variety of characters, like Moon Knight, Hellcat, and the Scarlet Witch. The book would also be used as a "try-out" book for new talent like writers and artists. For example, artist Amanda Conner's first comics work was in this title. She worked on issue #12 (November 1988), which had a story focusing on the Rita DeMara Yellowjacket.

The comic we're going to look at here is the debut of the book, which gives solo stories to Hawkeye and his then-wife at the time, Mockingbird. Will we see the First Couple of the West Coast Avengers shine in the solo spotlight, or wither like dying plants? Let's look at Solo Avengers #1!

The cover is a Mark Bright and Joe Rubinstein piece. It depicts Hawkeye and Mockingbird leaping into action against some unknown assailants. It's a nice cover, basically showing who the stars of the comic are.

"Here Comes Hawkeye"
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Mark Bright
Inker: Joe Rubinstein
Colorist: Ken Feduniewicz
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The story begins with the Avengers' Ace Archer preparing to unleash a storm of arrows on some implacable foes, while riding a horse like a boss.

What are these villainous targets of his? A bunch of...targets. Yup, he's practicing for a benefit performance he's going to be doing for charity. The charity is a local orphanage. The cause is something that is close to Hawkeye's heart, as he grew up in one alongside his brother Barney.  I like this. I like seeing superheroes do stuff like this. I think it makes sense some of the more famous ones would do this. It not only helps them win over the public, it helps underscore that they are good people under the masks, despite their flaws.

Anyway, after the Barton brothers ran away, they ended up joining a traveling carnival. It was there that Hawkeye met Jacques Duquesne, aka the original Swordsman. It was under his tutelage that Clint Barton became the master archer that he is today.

"But wait!" you ask. "Isn't the Swordsman's whole gimmick that he's a master of swords? How could he have taught archery?" 

Well, that's the same question that fellow West Coast Avenger Simon "Wonder Man" Williams asks to another WCA member (and Clint's wife at the time) Bobbi "Mockingbird" Morse. She herself is unsure of that question. She does later on try to ask him, but...

Yeah, it's hinted that he did that deliberately, almost as if the question set him off in a way. The two departing Avengers are observed by a man who goes to report to another archer. This archer is training some assassins.

It seems this mysterious archer wants Hawkeye's blood, and in comic book fashion, he's going to sabotage the Avenging Archer's performance tonight. How is he going to do this? Well, Step One: Sneak into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and use a gas arrow to knock out the clowns Hawkeye is working with. Step Two: Dress up as the clowns. Step Three: Use the performance to kill Hawkeye. Step Four: Profit.

The disguised assassins try to take out our hero, but he's got on his Plot Armor today. He's able to defeat them, despite getting his bow broken in the process. Backstage, Mockingbird arrives late, so she decides to go visit her hubby in his dressing room. It's here she finds the gassed clowns...and an unusually-bent arrow.

It's not one of Hawkeye's arrows. And it seems someone wants to prevent her from investigating further. Meanwhile, Hawkeye is able to finish taking down his potential killers. Mockingbird was able to escape her assilant, albeit getting her costume torn-up in the process. She shows Hawkeye the bent arrow, and Hawkeye realizes who it is. You see, someone else actually trained Hawkeye in the fine art of archery. And that man vows to show Hawkeye that there is only one World's Greatest Archer...and that man is him: Trick Shot.

"Listen to the Mockingbird"
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Jim Lee
Inker: Al Williamson
Colorist: Ken Feduniewicz
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The second story begins with the Mockingbird leaping through some traffic.

The heroine uses her acrobatic skills to hitch a ride on a helicopter to the Los Angeles Coliseum. We get a brief recap of Bobbi's origins. She was a scientist who eventually became a SHIELD agent, and then went solo. This story ties into the Hawkeye story as we see her enter the dressing room to visit her hubby and find Trick Shot's bent arrow. A costumed man attacks her, but she deals with him easily. However, he's got friends.

Bobbi is able to fight this crew off, mocking them the entire time. It's how she became known as "Mockingbird", you see. They flee, with Bobbi overhearing how their compatriots should have managed to finish off Hawkeye earlier. They're able to get the ex-SHIELD agent to back off by taking a hostage. They try to flee in a van, but Mockingbird is able to catch up with the help of a bit of polevaulting.

She's able to rescue the hostage (causing the getaway van to crash in the process) and fight off the remaining goons. She is watched by Trick Shot, who shoots a fiery arrow from his limo at the crashed cars. Mockingbird manages to catch the arrow with her feet, but the limo gets away. We then see her return to Hawkeye, showing him Trick Shot's arrow. We get a bit more to the ending with Mockingbird making Hawkeye promise her he won't face her alone.

Yeah, he's totally going to go face Trick Shot alone. Clint Barton is kind of an idiot like that.

I liked this issue. I really enjoyed that the two stories linked together. It made sense in this case, as the two leads were romantically linked at the time. I also liked that the Hawkeye story fixed a bit of a flub in the Avenging Archer's backstory. After all, when you think about it, it would seem odd that an expert on swordmanship would teach archery. I also think the titular characters were given good characterization. Both Hawk and Mock were shown to be very skilled and capable heroes. 

The art for these stories was done by Mark Bright and Jim Lee. They both turn in fine work. I was surprised to see Lee's name on the credits for the Mockingbird story, as his art didn't resemble his style that would make him famous on X-Men. It looks much cleaner, with much less hatching than in his X-Men work. I'm not sure if that's because of art style evolution or Williamson's inking. But still, it's good stuff.

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2012 trade paperback Avengers: Solo Avengers Classic Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! take care of yourselves, and each other. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, and wear a mask! Join me next time, when we look at a team of Asian heroes brought together to stop a world from burning...

X-Men Red #1 (February 2018)

When it comes to the X-Men, most see them as another group of superheroes wearing colorful costumes with superpowers. But at heart, the X-Men always saw themselves as civil rights activists, fighting to promote peace between humans and mutants. 

However, despite this, it seemed that the X-Men didn't seem to actually, well...do any of that. But in 2018, one of the original five X-Men, a Ms. Jean Grey (formerly Marvel Girl and Phoenix) decided to change that. She needed to assemble a new team of X-Men for her cause. This team would be known as X-Men Red.

X-Men Red was a short-lived title, lasting only 11 issues, and one annual. But still, it was a fun title, so I thought I'd show it some love here. Let's look at X-Men Red #1!

The cover is a Travis Charest piece, and it's neat. It's a basic cover, just showing Jean Grey in a field of white surrounded by energy discharge. But it stands out as the white cover forces the eye on Jean Grey herself. I also admit, I do like the costume Jean has here. It alludes to her famous 90s costume, but is more armored and has a better color scheme. I also like that she's in a pose you normally don't see superheroes, especially female ones, on covers. Makes it more unique.

"The Hate Machine - Part 1: Heal the World"
Writer: Tom Taylor
Penciler: Mahmud Asrar
Inker: Mahmud Asrar
Colorist: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editors: Mark Paniccia, Christina Harrington
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski

The story begins with a young girl being telepathically woken up. There's a mob coming, and they're after her. She has to run. Make like Christopher Cross and run like the wind!

The girl trips and falls on the ground. The mob closes in on her, and she screams that she is not a mutant. She notices her own mother is among the mob, pulling a gun on her and saying she's an abomination. The mob fires at her, and it seems the kid's last meal is going to be hot lead. 

Well, not if Jean Grey has anything to say about it. The First X-Woman stops the bullets with her telekinesis, and she's backed up by Nightcrawler and the Laura Kinney Wolverine. Kurt teleports the young girl away. Unfortunately, it seems his aim is a bit off.

“Nice work, Kurt. She's shark food." Naw not really, she's fine. She's in Jean's X-Men team's new headquarters. And the little girl gets a full view of them.

Meet Jean Grey's new X-Men team: Jean, Nightcrawler, Wolverine II, Honey Badger, Gentle, Trinary, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. I do like this roster. More on that later. The girl is at Searebro, a facility 3,000 feet below the Earth's surface. We then go to Roosevelt Island in New York City, a couple of months earlier. A pair of carjackers make off with a woman's car...with her baby still inside. The baby is crying, much to the carjackers' annoyance. It's only going to get worse for them as the crying turns into supersonic screaming a la Banshee or Siryn's mutant abilities. The screaming grows more powerful, blowing out windows in nearby buildings.

Wolverine and her little "sister" Honey Badger are on the case, and Laura is able to quiet the child with a gentle hand over the mouth. However, the baby has one extra trick.

Huh. Kid is a future opera star. His performances would bring the house down.

Jean and Kurt arrive, and she's able to telepathically calm the baby. His name is Toby, and he's a mutant. However, unlike most mutants who tend to manifest their mutations in their teenage years, Toby's powers have manifested early. She returns the boy to her mother, and Jean has made arrangements with Hank McCoy to get a special dampener device made for him. ...you think he'd have made one for Rogue back in the day to help with her powers!

Jean warns that there will be public fallout over this, but she'll be keeping an eye on them. And if they need somewhere to stay for safety reasons, Wolverine and Honey Badger lives nearby, and their apartment is a safe place. And true to Jean's prediction, we see a pair of talking heads debate the baby, one of them insisting the baby is a ticking time bomb about to destroy humanity at any moment. It's here that we see Jean floating over the city, her mind tuned into the town.

She can hear the thoughts of the people below. She has never heard the world so angry and divided. She doesn't know how to help here. But she will learn, as she does want to help. So, she comes up with a plan.

She travels around the world and gathers up some of the greatest minds on Earth. Not just scientists, but also artists. When she has them gathered, she explains to this group that she wants to borrow their minds. She uses her telepathy to enter these thinkers' minds. What is she looking for? An idea.

Later, she summons Kurt to a cliffside. She explains that she found the idea she was looking for. And she wants to change the world. But that won't be easy. You see, she's had a bit of a revelation. To her, the root of the hate of mutants is simply because...mutants are the living embodiment of change. And people fear change. Jean wants to ease that fear, show that change is nothing to be afraid of. And she needs a team for that. And she wants Kurt on it.

Why does she want Kurt on her new X-Men team? Well, besides the fact that she's known him for years and practically considers him family. Kurt has been known as the soul of the X-Men, and this team will need that. Kurt is all too happy to join up. Who's the next person she needs for her team? Well, she'll find him under the sea.

Yup, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's "first mutant". In-universe, there are mutants that predate Namor, like Apocalypse and Selene. But that's another story. Namor points out that he's a king, and he doesn't have a lot of time to play superhero. But that's the point. Jean needs a nation backing her up, and Namor has Atlantis. We then shift scenes to the United Nations. 

Jean speaks about how mutants need to have a voice due to there being places where it's perfectly legal to detain or even kill anyone who is even suspected of being a mutant. The ambassador to the UK points out something: Mutants don't have a nation. Not yet, ambassador. Wait until Jonathan Hickman takes over the X-Line. Jean answers that since people like to speak about mutants as a massive group, so mutants need to speak as a group.

She also points out something else: Jean Grey is a known telepath. And one of the most powerful telepaths in the world. What's to stop her from using said power to force people into recognizing a mutant nation? Jean points out that as powerful as she is, she would have even needed to be in the area to do that. She's doing this as a sign of trust. She wants to show that human-mutant peace is possible. Her words seem to have an effect, as Wakanda and Atlantis both stand and recognize the mutant nation.

Later, the UK Ambassador approaches Jean Grey to talk. She assures Jean that the UK will vote for the mutant nation. It still has some standing, and voting against mutantkind would not help that. But, she puts out a warning. 

The ambassador warns that you should not mess with the status quo...because it will fight back. Jean realizes there's something up with the ambassador's mind...like there's someone else in it. And then the ambassador's mind gets blown. Quite literally.

Whoever was in the woman's head did it to frame Jean, making it look like she deliberately murdered the ambassador simply for kicks. Namor, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler get Jean out. So, who was the one who caused the frame-up? 

Meet Cassandra Nova. She first appeared in New X-Men #114 (July 2001), created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Nova is a "mummudrai", a parasitic life form composed of psionic energy. She originally had no body, but created one and tried to kill Professor X in the womb. Yes, you read that right. I did not make that up. Grant Morrison's X-Men stuff can be pretty weird.

Weirdness aside, Nova is pretty much Xavier's dark mirror. Whereas Xavier is generally portrayed as dedicated to the ideals of human-mutant peace and building a better world, Cassandra desires genocide and destruction. During Morrison's run, she caused a massacre of 16 million mutants on the fictional island of Genosha. 

I really liked this comic. One of my favorite things about it is the roster. It feels unique, despite having stalwart members like Jean and Nightcrawler. It makes sense that Tom Taylor would bring over Wolverine II and Honey Badger as he was writing Wolverine's book back when Laura was the lead. It's neat to see Jean take up a leadership role. 

I also liked that the focus was on actually trying to create human-mutant peace, like with Jean addressing the United Nations about the mutant issue. I do like that it touches on the politicking the X-Men would have to do to achieve their goal. 

The only real complaint I have is that it doesn't quite feel like a first issue should to me. It does feel like we're in the middle of this team's adventures and not really seeing how they started.