Geek Snacks

With every good geek event or hobby there is almost always a few good snacks to be eaten. Here are a few of mine....what are yours?


Doritos - My fascination with these chips began in high school while playing board and card games with my friends. At that time Nacho Cheese was one of the few flavors and remains my favorite to this day. I am careful eating these while game playing though, as they can leave a lasting cheese imprint on game pieces and cards. 






Cheez-Its: White Cheddar - Coming in a close second to Doritos would be these little snack crackers. The extra white cheddar flavoring makes them far superior to the regular cheddar in my opinion. I enjoy these while playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Red Vines Licorice - These are great snacks for any geek occasion. No mess and fairly portable. If you do not realize it, they can also be used as a straw to add cherry flavor to your favorite pop/soda.








Oreos: Double Stuf - A little messier than the other snacks I've mentioned. I usually eat these when I'm taking a break from the geek action.

Lords of Light!

Thundarr the Barbarian: The Complete Series from the Warner Bros. Archives Collection, available exclusively at http://www.wbshop.com/. From the back cover:

"Man's civilization is cast in ruin when a runaway planet speeds between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn from the ashes with a savage landscape, strange creatures, and a primitive sense of justice. But one man fights to spread peace throughout the land: he is Thundarr the Barbarian..."

Those of you who are cartoon geeks like me remember this series, probably with some fondness; straight-up adventure cartoons are and always have been a rarity, and Thundarr was a great one for the average five-year old proto-geek to discover on Saturday morning (which is what I was in 1980, when it premiered). One of the very few cartoons to feature a post-apocalyptic setting, Thundarr combined elements of science-fiction and fantasy to great effect, and sported character designs by such greats as Alex Toth and Jack Kirby. I've debated just how much of the actual episode content I should review here, and come to the conclusion that such a review is pointless; if you didn't enjoy the series when it first came out, or you aren't currently under 12, I really doubt you'll enjoy this series much. It was made when television cartoons were still considered entirely the province of children and the writing, while imaginative and energetic, keeps that firmly in mind. Still, if you can still see cartoons through the eyes of your inner 9 year old, then you'll love this series.

This collection, as mentioned above, is an exclusive from the Warner Bros. Store, as part of the Warner Bros. Archive line, a line I applaud WB for creating. The idea behind it is to take properties that have a limited customer appeal, that might be only of interest to collectors or, let's face it, geeks like you and me, and release them on a limited basis, exclusively through their online store. The packaging for Thundarr, while well made, is stripped down and utilitarian. The cover art looks like the kind of image you'd find on a bootleg at a comic book convention, and there are no special features at all on any of the four discs. It would have been nice if WB had included the mini-documentary on the creation of Thundarr that they included on their Saturday Morning Cartoons:1980's collection, but again, this is a collection without bells and whistles of any kind. These aren't complaints on my part; if on-line exclusive, no frills productions are what's necessary to get the more obscure stuff on the market then I'm all for it. One bone of contention though; the discs can only be played on a "play-only" device, which is to say they cannot be played on any machine on which they might possibly be copied. I have no issue with WB protecting their material, but they don't inform the consumer about this anywhere on their site. I have no interest in pirating exclusive WB DVDs, but I play most of my geeky cartoons on my computer in my office, so as to spare my wife the horror of my absolute geekiness. A little warning would have been nice.

One other point, and this one not so minor: WB tags Thundarr as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. Thundarr the Barbarian was produced by Ruby-Spears, not Hanna-Barbera. For those of you who don't know, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears got their start as sound engineers, and later writers, for Hanna-Barbera. Their credits for that company are many, among them the creation and production of Scooby-Doo, Where are You? They started their own production company in the late '70's, giving us such fare as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mr.T and the T-Force, and the first post-Crisis Superman cartoon, as well as many of the animated offerings for ABC's Afterschool Special (which, oddly, aired on Saturday mornings). Given that their names are prominently listed as producers in the credits of every episode in the series, one has to wonder at the error. Credit where credit is due, after all.

In short, if you loved Thundarr the Barbarian, then you're in luck! Hop on the ol' interwebs and pick yourself up a copy. I can't wait to see what other geek-candy the Warner Bros. Archives'll release next. Oh hey, they've just come out with a Pirates of Dark Water collection! Awesome sauce!
Intro video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk





Ryan Here.

I thought I would add to this awesome post from Rob.

For those Thundarr the Barbarian Freaks out there, you may be interested in this.

In 1982, Milton Bradley published;  Thundarr the Barbarian Game (the exact title)
This actually illustrates just how bad the 80's were for American board games.  This stands as one of the most laughable games from the era, due to the fact that it has nothing to do with the theme of the show.   I can't imagine it would be that hard to design a passable game for something with such a beloved license.









And we might as well cast the Thundarr the Barbarian movie;

Thundarr:

Alexander Skarsgarde   •    Scott Speedman  •   Micheal C. Hall

Princess Ariel: 

Natalie Portman   •   Krsiten Kreuk   •   Aishwarya-Rai

Ookla the Mok: 

Anyone really.

MCBA FallCon - Saint Paul Comic Book Convention

This weekend I attended the largest comic book convention in the Twin Cities area, Fall Con. This was the 23rd annual event for the MCBA (Midwest Comic Book Association) and was located at the State Fairgrounds. Each year a spring (May) and fall event is held, and I have attended the last few events.

http://www.midwest.comicbook.com/

I admit I am not as into the comic scene as I used to be, but I do still enjoy reading them when I have a chance. Unfortunately school has cut into my geek time considerably in the last year. Instead of reading weekly/monthly series I prefer to read limited runs or graphic novels, including older titles. I usually read Marvel comics, mostly because I am more familiar with the characters but I enjoy DC and Image as well. I recently finished the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

At this event I met up with my two comic geek friends Doug and Stuart. Both of them are much more into comics than I am and it's great to see their inner geek shine at these events. I walked in through the front doors anticipating great things inside.

The $7 entry fee is a small price to pay for the high level of geekness which hangs in the air. As usual the crowd was heavy early in the day, as the first 500 people attending received a free bag of goodies; unfortunately we did not make it there in time.

The building was lined with various vendors. Of course most of the vendors were selling comic books and graphic novels, but there were a variety of other items including; action figures (super heroes, Star Wars, He-Man, etc.), video games and stuffed geek toys. In the center of the building, a large number of artists were setup. All of them seemed to be friendly and more than willing to talk to people. Most of them were selling prints and were working on sketches and selling those as well.

A couple of the most notable vendors a the con were The Source (the Twin Cities largest game/comic store) and Half-Price Books. As usual, The Source was handing out coupons for their store which were good for 20% off everything for the current weekend. Half-Price Books is one of my favorite vendors since they have many bundles of comics, graphic novels and cart full of RPG/Game books and some board games. Unfortunately this year they did not have anything I was looking for.


The highlight for me of every con is the costumed super heroes and other characters. This event had some of the best I have seen yet. Iron Man, Nova and Predator were my favorites. Iron Man's costumer was superb, made of mostly metal. Nova's costume was custom leather and quite detailed. The regulars, Superman and Batman were in attendance. These two guys always give me a laugh as they are so serious when someone ask to take their picture; and neither one are in shape to play the role.
So if you are into comics or any of the other geeky things I mentioned, this event is for you.

Prelude to a Geek.

Not everyone carries the Geek Card..  thankfully.  No one is born a geek…  unless we're talking about the circus version…    So at some point in life all of us found something that tickled that geek nerve… 

I think that at some point everyone is on a path to geekiness and there tend to be singular moments in our lives that push us over the edge.

First off, what does it mean to be a Geek?  I think there are multiple definitions really, and often it boils down to the same types of behavior.  Wether it's comic books or quilting…  a Geek is the person that takes their involvement, knowledge and devotion to the media or hobby to a near compulsive level. 

Your a Geek if;

•you can speak about any hobby or medium ad nauseum.  You will know this when the eyes of your audience glare over or they look at you like they can't believe anyone would love something that much.

•you constantly find your self correcting people when your beloved topic erupts in conversation…  this usually results in you trying to convert one or more non-geeks to your way of life.

•you are on a crusade to increase the mass of geekdom and often find yourself with a go to list of how best to initiate a member of the masses.  Finally converting someone usually causes you to go into Geek over-drive for at least a week if not a month.

•you get nervous in a group when your secret identity as a geek is exposed…  your fear of the term Geek is equal the pride you feel for being one.

At any rate, you know who you are, and Im wondering momentary event tweaked that nerve and changed your life forever.

I am a cliche.  My Geek birth was the result of reading The Hobbit in 5th grade.

Lets back up a little….   In some ways I was a geek sooner than that, but in truth, I think most kids are…  as a kid…  when you love something…  you LOVE something…  cartoons, comics… Dukes of Hazzard…  (I know…  I just dated my self.)    I was a comic book kid.  I loved them.  In the small town I grew up in, there was one place to get them.  Granny's Nook.  More a Curio for the elderly ladies of a farming community, Granny (Egg's Grandmother) also carried magazines and on the bottom shelf of the rack, she carried a hodgepodge of comics.  I can remember sitting in that shop, surrounded by the musky smell of old-lady perfume and small collections of wooden furniture cover in doilies, reading as many issues as I could…  since I could only afford 2 or 3, I had to narrow my options…. 

…but really,  millions of kids have similar stories, an not all of them make the leap to geekiness.

Flash forward to 5th grade.  I am a decent student…  like most boys, I enjoy math and science, struggle with spelling and English in general and can't seem to pay attention during social studies.  I wasn't  aware of it at the time, but I'm pretty sure I was in a reading class due to my lack of interest.  I didn't like to read…  the stories forced on us were dry and common place.

Flash Forward again to Christmas of that year (1982.)  I am a my cousin's house…  Doug is 2 years older and his geek drug of choice was Star Wars…  We sit down to play a game with my dad and uncle.  I belly up to the table and watch in awe as they open a Milton Bradley box up and start setting up The Dark Tower.  Dark Tower, an electronic Fantasy adventure game was an experience i had never had…  you wander the circular map of the game, fighting brigands and seating for treasure in hopes of finally defeating the evil Black Dragon.  On the 2 hour drive home, I could not contain myself and talked, to exhaustion, about how cool the game was.  I realize that in a way The Dark Tower could be considered the catalyst for my Geek, but in truth, it remained just a neat game and I mostly forgot about it…

My Dad had taken notice of how much I enjoyed the game, however and had decided I was ready for a true initiation.  Perhaps a week after the visit to my cousins, on a rainy winter Saturday, I was basically bouncing off the walls in sheer boredom.  My father, who was in desperate need of a break from my incessant yammering, handed me a worn yellowed copy of the Hobbit.  

"Here," he sighed, "I bet you'll enjoy this…  its kind of about a Dark Tower." 

I grabbed the book.  It stunk…  (I later learned to love that smell)  I thumbed the pages and saw how small the words were…  my immediate reaction was disbelief…

"No way!" I said, curling my nose in disgust.

"It's got a dragon in it.  You'll like it." was all my dad said as he returned to his work.

I read the back of the book and I assume it was enough to finish convincing me I should give it a try.

I sat down and started to read.  30 minutes later, I was actually enjoying the act of reading a book…  my imagination was being guided through the most awesome story I could imagine…  Hobbits, dwarves, trolls, and huge flying eagles…  I was loving it…  My mother actually had to pry the book out of my hands for dinner.

That was it.  I was hooked.  I loved reading from that point on, and couldn't get enough of it.  As my inner geek incubated, I started to find comfort in the world of fantasy and often dreamt about how much better suited I was to that life than my own.  That Christmas I Santa brought me the red Dungeons and Dragons box and before long I was desperately trying to get my friends to share in the wonder.

I'm still a geek and I can honestly say that, many of my successes in life are because of the Hobbit… my love of reading and thirst for knowledge have served me well.

When was your geek born?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

While not a geek topic, breast cancer does affect many geeks....whether directly or indirectly through family members. I missed out meeting a wonderful woman (my wife's mom) who was taken by breast cancer before we started dating.

Please be aware of this special month and participate in any events if you can (even turning in yogurt tops goes towards breast cancer research).

So remember....save the boobs (now that's a geek thing!)

www.nbcam.org

Right WIng Radio Duck!

I personally consider myself a cartoon geek, and this particular piece gave me a bit of a giggle. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfuwNU0jsk0&feature=player_embedded

Wednesday Game Session

This week I was finally able to get in a board gaming session with Rob.  With only two of us, our choices were limited, but we had plenty to choose from.

After playing some Small World and Nueroshima Hex (review forth coming) via the iPad, we settled down for some analog gaming in my game room, which included;

Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League
Battlefields of Olympus
Defenders of the Realm.
and The Isle of Doctor Necreaux (review forthcoming)

First up was

Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League

My initial impression was fairly unimpressed…  though I recognize why others would enjoy it more.
This is a "pick up and deliver' game set in what is apparently a very popular German Space Opera SciFi series.
Basically players, who have the same decks of cards, try to pick up and deliver goods from one planet to another while using cards to either gain advantages or thwart their opponents plans for said advantages. 

I think the game plays fine and can certainly be a challenge.  The process seems polished in that there are clumps of goods to strategize around and the cards fit those strategies well.   However, winning seems to come down to having the right cards at the right time and catching your opponent lacking.

While I found my first game of The Cosmic League mediocre, I feel like it shares some similarities to a set of games I do enjoy; Blue Moon.  In both games, I feel that you must first understand the exact composition of your deck of cards, and modify your play according to what has come out and more importantly, what will come out.  I don't plan to buy this and would probably not initiate a game of it, I look forward to playing it with a little more knowledge of what is possible.

Battlefields of Olympus

This game sucked. 
Advertised as a turn-based strategy game, this game is little more than an annoying version of War mixed with Rock, Paper, Scissors…  only you only have a functional hand of 4 cards.

The best part of this game is the art…  The art is edgy and well done…  too bad the lack of different cards results in the visuals becoming commonplace quickly.
For me this game was simply too simple and not compelling at all.  Your choices are so limited that the game quickly stagnates and I found myself wishing it would just end.   When I play games like this, my friends and I inevitably discuss the multitude of ways you could fix the short comings…  I have learned that it is often not even worth the effort, as the game, in this case, would only be mediocre at best and the time spent de-bunking the problems could be spent creating an entirely new and more robust game.
Avoid this turd if possible.  You'll thank me later.

Defenders of the Realm.

I liked this game in spite of not wanting to….  in retrospect I am finding some faults with the game, but still can't deny my initial enjoyment.

Defenders of the Realm is a cooperative fantasy board game in which 1-4 players take a role as one of the King’s Champions (Choose from Cleric, Dwarf, Eagle Rider, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Wizard). You, as one of the King's Heroes make use of strategy, special abilities, cooperation, card play and a little luck for a unique experience in every adventure. As each Enemy General is struck down in battle, the remaining dark forces only grow more difficult to vanquish and their march to Monarch City gets faster with each Hero victory.

Defenders of the Realm (from Fred Distribution) is a Fantasy based coop game that borrows heavily from the more popular Pandemic from Z-Man games.  The amount of 'borrowing' nearly requires a mention of Pandemic in the rules, but there are several departures and additions to the flow of the game.  
Many of these editions make the game more difficult and serve to frustrate the players and dissolve any real sense of cooperation.  In our initial game, the two toughest Enemy Generals were close to Monarch City after turn 2 and our choices became very static as we had to tailor our strategy to defend against loosing the game.  Though we were able to defeat them and in the end win the game, I have several issues with title in general.
1. This game may borrow from pandemic, but albeit in the most sterile way.  Yes, the evil forces will multiply and you must keep them from chain-infecting the areas, and the game quickly feels frantic, but there are important things missing from Pandemic's design.  Players are unable to trade resources, so in almost every case several of the players need to be in one single location in order to have a remote chance to defeat the generals.

2. This game, like so many other coop games suffers from the same problem.  Usually the common threats are such that several of the players need to gang up and do the same action.  This always results in one player trying to master play the entire game.  Instead, these games should require players to defeat several lesser threats at the same time.  Games like Shadows over Camelot and Lord of the Rings have the right idea.  In my experience, Defenders of the Realm is probably the worst in this regard.

3. Art and General Design.  On a scale of 10, I give this game a 2.  The art and designs are atrocious.  Larry Elmore is at best a recognizable fantasy artist from the late 80's…  and if you like fantasy, you have seen ALL the art this game uses.
For me, Larry Elmore has always looked like an ammeter…  his style is clean to a fault and his color schemes are localized and sterile…  Look at the cover…  the blue dragon stands out like a sore thumb…  it's hard to imagine any thing being that ridiculously blue in reality.  His characters are boring and his women have tragic non-fantasy hair-do's that scream the 80's.  I would much rather have seen Keith Parkinson's art if they had to dive back into D&D history.  The general design is less than lack luster and the board is boring on an epic level.  It is hard to find areas with names like Gryphon Woods or Minotaur Valley.

I put the fault here squarely on Fred Distribution's Management.  I've dealt with them in the past and my opinion of their publishing style is less than flattering.  As a company they seek out compelling games and ruin them with terrible design and boring art.  In today's market, I think it is obvious that art sells games.  Yes there are always going to be exceptions to this, but generally, great art will sell a mediocre game.   This is especially true if you take the heavy theme approach to a title.
Fred Distribution has a lot to learn about the over-all product when it comes to games.  Take for instance Roll Through the Ages.  Great Game, Terrible art.  Look at how much better the iPod version of the game looks.  ;)

In the end, while I did enjoy playing Defenders of the Realm, I feel like future plays of the game will only lead me to find more fault with it.

We ended the night with

The Isle of Doctor Necreaux.

This is another coop game that is known to be chaotic and often overly difficult.  My experience of the game is just so, as I have won the game several times and other times, been defeated so soundly and quickly that it is laughable. 

The Isle of Doctor Necreaux is a cooperative card game for 1 to 5 players fighting the diabolical mad scientist Doctor Necreaux. You’ll find yourself wondering what in the world is worth saving when the world itself is held hostage.

Rob and I got some decent character cards for this and eventually made it through with a win, though in truth that 'W' comes with an asterisk since we misplayed one of the cards. 

Until next time;

Good Luck and Good gaming-

River

Madden 11 - Positives and Negatives of Gameplay

Let me start off by saying I have been a fan of the Madden series ever since I bought a copy for my Sega Genesis many years ago; yes I’m old. Through the years the EA development team has made significant strides to make this game quite realistic. With that said, there still are some negatives to the game. I’m going to cover what I like and do not like about the latest release in the series. This week I finished my third season playing as the Dolphins and finally won the Super Bowl (with a 12-4 regular season record).


Just to inform you, before Madden 11’ my last copy of the game was Madden 09’. This was due to my switch-over from my PS2 to Xbox 360 and not wanting to buy a game last year for my outdated system. So, some of the changes I mention may have been included in Madden 10’, but they are new to me.



I do not want to discuss the intro or any of the other fluff; I’ll just get right into the game play. The most advertised new feature for Madden 11’ is Gameflow. Before any play a player can choose this option and the game will automatically choose a play which is suppose to be best suited for the situation. The best part about this addition is it shortens the length of games considerably, since less time is spent scrolling through plays. The first few times I played the game I used this option all the time, but I noticed when I was on offense the computer would call pass plays about 70-80% of the time. I enjoy running the ball so after I was comfortable with the controls and game play I stopped using this option. To go along with the play calls, offensive and defensive coordinators actually talk to you after a play is called. A player can get the full affect by wearing their headset. The AI seems to be tougher than in past versions, as all my games have been fairly close, with only a few blowouts.

Running plays and yards after the catch have improved a lot in this version of the game. A new feature named Locomotion takes the majority of the ball carriers controller moves away from the buttons and onto the right stick. Now with a push of the stick, the ball carriers juke, plow forward and step back. After some practice I was able to pull off some wicked moves while running down the field. Another helpful change was making the ball carrier’s speed burst automatic. In the past, players had to push a button to give the runner an extra boost. I enjoy this new feature as I can focus more on getting past the defenders. Ball carriers are especially tough to bring down, much as in real-life. Players cannot give up on a play just because a defensive player is in contact with a ball carrier (like previous versions of the game); this is especially true with players like Adrian Peterson of the Vikings. At times it takes 3 or 4 defenders to bring him down.



The final major positive I noticed was the receivers actually try to stay in bounds after a catch. In the past a receiver would just keep running after sideline/end zone grabs, but as in real-life they now attempt to get two feet in. They also seem to be more aware of the ball when thrown too, well most of the time. I have seen many more diving catches by the receivers than in years past.

Unfortunately I do not notice many improvements on the defensive side of the ball, not that I had any real complaints in past versions. The defensive backs are probably a little more aggressive when trying to knock the ball away or going for the interception.



No video game is perfect and Madden 11’ has its share of mistakes. A constant mistake
I notice is the announcer saying the wrong down (usually stating it’s 4th down when it’s only 3rd down) or the wrong player name (with the Dolphins they say my punters name when I kick field goals). While these are not anything major, they are annoying. A video clip of defensive players celebrating after a touchdown is scored or big play made against them also appears at times. Defenders tend to drop easy interceptions while grapping the more difficult ones. This can mimic real-life at times though. Instead of the first player to reach a fumble gets it, this year if members from both teams go for a loose ball then the player must repeatedly push the controller button to try and get possession. While an interesting concept, I have only gotten the ball once in over 15 tries (maybe I’m just slow to react). I can overlook all the mistakes/negatives mentioned so far but this last one I cannot. When I first played the game twice it locked my system up during games and I had to shut the power off to my Xbox 360. Since then, it has not locked up but occasionally the game freezes for a few seconds then continues on. The freezing put is very annoying because it interrupts the flow of the game and may cause a player to miss a receiver or avoid a sack. I have read some online forums with other users having the same issues.

Overall I really enjoy this version of Madden and believe it is the best one yet. Without the locking up/freezing it would be close to perfect.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is the ninth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the story "The Supergirl from Krypton," by Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner, which appeared in DC Comics' Superman/Batman # 8-13. It stars Tim Daly as Superman/Clark Kent, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Andre Braugher as Darkseid, Summer Glau as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, and Edward Asner as Granny Goodness.

It's probably best to warn you going in that I am neither a fan of Supergirl, the focus of this particular movie, of Jeph Loeb, who wrote the story it adapts, or of the late Michael Turner, on whose artistic style the character designs are based. I should point out, too, that I haven't read the story in comic book form, and so don't know in what, if any, ways the movie differs from the original version. If, knowing all of these things, you feel I can still turn in a fair assessment of this film then please, read on.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse begins when a chunk of meteorite, part of a kryptonite meteor destroyed by Batman at the end of last year's Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, crash-lands in Gotham Harbor. Batman arrives to investigate and encounters a naked, frightened girl who speaks in gibberish, exhibits Kryptonian powers, and creates the kind of havoc you might expect from someone in that situation. Superman arrives on the scene, and it is soon  discovered that the girl is his cousin, Kara Zor-El.

 

Characterization here is spot-on, and remains so, for the most part, throughout the movie. Superman is hopeful and optimistic, and thrilled that, after years of being the Last Son of Krypton, he at last has a blood relative. Batman is suspicious and cynical; he questions the convenience of Kara's arrival, the veracity of her story, suspects she may be part of a plot to harm Superman, etc. Kara herself radiates a perfect blend of little-girl-lost and feisty teenager. All well and good, but what is Batman even doing here? At all? He moves from scene to scene with little to do but stand around being Batman. He can be lifted out entirely without damaging the story, which leaves me to think the only reason he was included is because his name's in the title.

While Wonder Woman's name is not in the title, she suffers from the same problem as Batman in that she feels like a pointless addition, though she is given a little more to do. She and a contingent of Amazons arrive, at Batman's request apparently, to forcibly remove Kara to Paradise Island for training in the use of her powers. That's right. "Forcibly remove," as in they attack Superman (in Clark Kent mode) and Kara in a Metropolis park in an attempt to kidnap the girl. If you're shaking your head in incredulity, you're not alone. There's so much wrong with this scene that it's hard to explain it all without charts, and it illustrates what I feel is the essential flaw of this story. It's forced and artificial. Why on Earth don't Batman and Wonder Woman feel Superman is capable of training the girl himself, given that he has the same powers and taught himself to use them fairly well? Why, if Wonder Woman wanted to train Kara, didn't she just call Clark up and ask? Did they really need a fight scene that badly? Meh.


Speaking of forced and unnatural, let's talk about the villain of the piece, Darkseid. He's one of DC's best villains, one of the richest among their pantheon, but here it seems as if his name was drawn out of a hat. His reasons for wanting to kidnap Kara make sense given his personality, but his presence isn't a natural development of anything in the plot. He's simply dropped in a little before the story's midpoint because they needed a villain. I take back what I said before; Darkseid wasn't picked out of a hat, he was chosen deliberately to add star power and conflict to a story that, by itself, is short on both, which is probably the same reason Batman and Wonder Woman were shoe-horned in as well. I won't bother summarizing the rest of the story; given what you already know, I'll bet you can figure out much of what follows. The movie's final fight scene does come as a bit of a surprise, given some well done misdirection, but once it starts you can predict how it will go, pretty much blow for blow.

Given the tone of this review, I can understand if you think I dislike Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, but that really isn't the case. I'm just seriously underwhelmed by it. All of its flaws might be forgiven in a really great story, but this unfortunately isn't one of those. The original story that introduced Supergirl back in the sixties is about discovery rather than conflict, and reads a little dated and dull by today's standards, so we might forgive our current crop of writers for spicing things up a bit. I just wish they'd done a better job of making it feel a bit less contrived.


On the technical side of things, the animation is smooth and polished for the most part; the action scenes are visually exciting, though the animation in less frenetic moments is a bit stiff. Director Lauren Montgomery is an excellent artist and a top-notch animator but, while she's a capable director, I feel that she hasn't quite found her voice yet. Apocalypse is visually solid, but there isn't much to set it apart from any of the other DC films. As I said above, I was never a big fan of Michael Turner, and his style informs the character designs in this film. They didn't do much for me, as you might expect. While I haven't disliked the look of any of the DC Universe animated films, I'm getting a bit bored with all the angularity present in their character animation. One of my favorite animated series is Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, which displays more rounded, naturalistic figures. It'd be nice to see a DC Universe film done in a similar style.


Superman/Batman: Apocalypse isn't my least favorite DC Universe Animated Movie (that honor goes to Batman: Under the Red Hood) but I can't say I feel it's worth the price of admission. Put it on your Netflix list if you're bored some weekend but otherwise, give it a miss.


---Rob'ry