Injustice Book Review: Jack Del Rio by Richard Paolinelli

Cower not, fierce reader! This day we look at an action series from one of our friends. This review is for the entire trilogy, which was just finished, and is available as an ebook omnibus for the uninitiated, which I was one prior to this.

Now, I went and read the whole series in order, and  I think the last book might make sense without the prior books, though I wouldn't recommend it. There's a great amount of emotional journey that Del Rio goes through that just won't come across in the small mentions contained in the final volume.

I joked in my Amazon review that Richard had created Jack Del Rio simply to torture him. I say this due to the recurring loss that follows this character in each volume. I won't spoil any of the plot this way, but simply say that his parents being killed years earlier is just a start.

Each story features an investigation that spreads far further than what it initially looks like. The first is on an Indian Reservation, the second goes into DC, and the third spreads into the UK, DC and more.

There's conspiracy, action(but not too detailed), shadow governments and more. If you want non-sf action and adventure, this will scratch that itch and quite well.

8 of 10 fell deeds.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

Injustice Anthology Review: Paragons

Cower not, fierce reader! This day we have a collection of heroes, some tragic, some triumphant. Some are simply happily out of the game. Let's take a look at the woven words within.

Medusa by Steve Beaulieu- This is most definitely a tragic tale. A hero with no control of her power, forced into isolation, or risk the rest of a world she has already lost.

Nightsick by Kai Wai Chea- An ex-cop engages in a brutal fight with organized crime. His former partner still has her role with the law, but traps and snares make things more flexible.

Blackout: A Serenity City Story by Morgon Newquist- I get the feeling Serenity City might be a grand place to visit, with heroes taking the roles of Arthurian Knights, Greek Gods, and mysterious fae. 

Like Father by Jon Mollison- This is a generational story of a father and his son and the day the training wheels came off. The dread an tension of watching, being there JUST IN CASE something goes wrong. And the son surprising the father.

Blue by John Milan- A man who's been given an experimental technology is haunted by his mistakes from action. His despair has held him captive in a dead end life. A chance meeting, paired with a villain that wants the power push him to change.

Crisis Counseling by Jon Del Arroz- It figures he would write the story that might be unpowered in here. But this is about the power of the imagery of comics, the inspiration and hope it can give.

The Weight of One Girl by Richard Watts- A powered cop is searching for a missing girl. She gets sidelined when the investigation leads in the direction of a Senator she's had dealings with before. How is she to save someone when banned from the investigation?

Low Man by M. Earl Smith- A combat vet with PTSD who has chosen to stay homeless is nearing what he believes is his end. He takes his one friend where he hopes he'll be cared for, a place that may or may not remember what he's done.

A Soldier Out of the Desert by Paula Richey- An alien warrior is tasked with protecting and helping a human hero, after his people betrayed him. The hero is tasked with helping him learn to fit in human society, despite her own problems.

Someone is Aiming for You by J. D. Cowan- A hero that avoids the government limitations hunts a trail to the men that destroyed something precious. What attacks of conscience can do is remarkable.

Deadly Calm Returns by Dawn Witzke- A retired hero gets called in to handle a villain who really just wants a date with the young hot thing that normally protects the area. But action, adrenaline, and fame aren't everything.

Weather Witch by Declan Finn- A girl in Africa is part of a group rounded up for human trafficking in an attack by a powered being of force. In resisting him, she comes into power to protect herself.

Stalina by Sam Kepfield- After an accident in careless areas of t nuclear research in the Soviet Union, a patriot learns some inexplicable powers. She is tasked with protecting their projects in the space race.

There are some serious gems in this collection, and I would not say any are bad. Now I gotta wonder when I get to see some of these in proper panels. 9 of 10 fell deeds.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

Alt*Hero nears a quarter mil

It's less than 13k away. and sure, I could be precise and state it's got $238,712 as of this writing. But it's less fun than saying quarter million. Corporations see numbers like that and start thinking about money they missed, especially if it's something they already produce.

I'm sure Disney and Time Warner are starting to take notice. Sure, there's a lot of material involved. But, you look at these kind of numbers over time, especially with comments like, "I quit reading comics X years ago", and somebody might start crunching some numbers just on that one guy, and realize that if they could have had him for those years, we'll say 3 titles(small), and talking to friends, becomes a lot of money eventually. Especially as he's not unique in his experience. X can be 5, 10, 20, 30, or 1.

One is a dangerous guy to the SJW crowd. Not only is he more willing to be check out an alternative, he's more likely to be mad about what they did to the fictional world he loved. People that love Star Wars are getting dissatisfied, because the material is rehashed. Wait til real alternatives show up: STD is losing to The Orville. If the timing had been there, Galaxy Quest would have blown it out of the water already.

At any rate, while I have some book reviews to do this week, I'm going to try to go through a few Chuck Dixon comics I have as well. Besides, I want to revisit Winterworld a bit.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

Well, somebody at DC animation still knows what they're doing

And I'm not talking about the animated films. Nope. Nor that horrid looking Teen Titans reboot. Nope. There's a newer show out featuring a version of the Justice League. There's no deconstruction here, and the animation well, it's not Justice League Unlimited, but it's pretty good.

Oh, here's a little clip because the show also has a sense of DC's animated history:

It remembers some things about the earlier cartoons that even Bruce Timm seems to have forgotten with his last venture. First, that heroes need to be good and heroic. Second, that the story needs to be fun. Third, that funny does not preclude treating the material seriously.

They also did a fun Halloween episode, with Cain and the House of Mystery. Here's a little clip from that:

Yes, we once again get kid versions of the Leaguers.

I have two small things I take issue with. One, that they went with the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship angle. I simply don't care for it, it feels like lazy writing. The Batman/Wonder Woman angle in JLU was interesting. Yes, I know New 52 went there. I gave up on DC for awhile with that.

Two, they dropped a character called Space Cabbie in the mix. It feels very Golden Age goofiness. I will say the writers make it work, but I just don't care for the idea.

There are a couple of semi-feminist bits, but I can excuse those just for the fact that they are dealing with Themiscyra. Of course, most rampant feminists don't look like Amazonians, either.

At any rate, it's fun. Not quite the genius of Bataman: The Brave and the Bold, or JLU, but it does know what it's doing.


When you play Social Justice, the world loses.
  

Injustice Magazine Review: Storyhack issue 1

Cower not, fierce reader! Today we take a look at the first  regular issue of another pulp action magazine(there is an issue 0). We've got contributions from authors reviewed here before, so let's take a good look at what we have.

New Rules for Rocket Nauts by Michael DeCarolois- Way to open the magazine with a bang. Yes, it's a longer story, but we've got a young cast aside adventurer, mysterious aliens that nobody can communicate with, officials who too easily believe in peace without understanding, loss, and fighting to save humanity.

Retrieving Abe by Jay Barnson- This is interesting, as it's a bit slower, but filled with tension throughout. One might argue that it's a bit strong female character in nature, but I didn't find it unbelievable. There's no Mary Sue here, she pursues out of duty to her husband, not a desire to be independent. The sense of knowledge of the work from one's youth brought in helps greatly.

The Price of Hunger by Kevyn Winkless- Oh, my. A story of greed and Indian legends. And cursed gold. Yeah, this might be a good late night read.

Protector of Newington by John M. Olsen- This steampunk superhero story has a lot of fun pieces. I did say steampunk and superhero together, right? Cause that's exactly what we have. A mysterious bad guy, child slavery, and sacrifice  and redemption.

Brave Day Sunk in Hideous Night- Initially I was meh. Werewolf, PI doesn't do it for me. Throw in a time criminal and law? Ok, you've added enough to the mix that this is worth reading. Especially as the werewolf has PTSD, it's a nice touch.

Taking Control by Jon Del Arroz- Well, I for one am pleased to see my friend dabbling in Weird Westerns again. This is certainly a bit lighter than the Doomtown material was on the weird factor, but that's fine. This has some nice touches of cons, holdup artistry, and magic, and there's even a hint of possible future pieces(somewhere in that writing time, maybe).

Some Things Missing from Her Profile by David Skinner- Mars. A blind date gone bad. Martians have been conquered. A woman with less past than she should have. A segregated society. And a main character with a family history of not respecting the law.

Dream Master by Gene Moyers- Woah. Um. This felt like something out of some of the old pulps. Ripped right out, even. We've a series of mysterious deaths, strange behavior beforehand, and a psychologist trying to figure out the how and why against a secretive sinister being.

Under the Gun by David J. West- Hey, I know this guy. I know Porter Rockwell. But the story doesn't follow him, for the most part. We've a weapon that urges killing, and a newly made killer. We have an old killer who has learned to stay his hand. Fire away.

Circus to Boulogne by Mike Adamson- As one who likes to occasionally visit old war comics like Enemy Ace and Sgt. Rock, this is pretty cool. I'd say it's a touch slow here and there, but then, there's plenty of tension to help balance that.

There's a lot of pulp here, from the cover to the illustrations before each story, to the little filler bits. Variety pulp, and while there aren't serials, there's plenty of argument against too many. 8 of 10 fell deeds.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

Injustice Book Review: SJWs Always Double Down

Cower not, fierce reader! Today we look at the second volume on SJWs in the world. As it is, his mere existence triggers many, so let us look at the tome, and after, I'll have the results of the drawing.

First, there is a pretty good history of many incidents within the last year. I think some of the Hugo/Dragon timeline is off, but, for the unacquainted, there's good background. Unfortunately, very little of this material was new to me, and while good in detail, I had read most of it before with varying levels of detail. The previous book's history section was honestly much more useful to me, though this does provide reference for the future, and for those who join later.

This history is more focused on group actions and corporate signs and signaling than the previous one, and includes here discussions of the NFL and comics as well as some tech history.The history is spread throughout, instead of as a single portion of the book.

Somewhat more universally useful is the section on sequence of convergence and the tactics used. As with the previous volume, they are expanded on with examples.  One thing we can be grateful for with English is that our language mostly denies one tactic, that of Accent, which was a problem with the Ancient Greeks, and I suspect might be with several other languages, especially Chinese, which has recently had moves to ban puns, a long tradition based on the proximity of vastly different words.

But, if one has read the previous volume, much of this can be extrapolated from those premises, even if one does not have the exact vocabulary. Sad to say, in this regard there is little to surprise his experienced readers. This is no insult, merely  that one's mileage will vary based on experience, perspective, and observation. That said, some are more fortunate in their life dealings and locations, and have less opportunity to witness, to say nothing of the younger generation.

The next section, of individual tactics, is in many ways more useful than the overall tactics. While the information is far from new, it does serve as a potent reminder of the specific attacks, especially if one has only witnessed a few. Again, the vocabulary is possibly more useful at a universal level.

We have following this a section on SJW mindset and psychology. This section is actually very good, as to most readers it will be like a foreign language, even after experiencing attacks. A general explanation of r/k theory is here, and makes one wonder if our abundance is not indeed a hindrance to proper society. To complement this, Vox also includes a detailed list of his socio-sexual hierarchy. While I'd read a good bit of it before, here it is laid out in a detailed manner, with relation to SJW psychology.

Vox also presents a chapter on building SJW proof institutions, based on his experience with Castalia House and now Infogalactic.  These processes are informative, and in some ways might be worth the price of admission alone.

Three Appendices are included, one is an interview on SJWs in Open Source software communities, and the other a section on identifying Gamma Males. Both of these are good, and the final, a draft of the Code of Merit for software projects will prove helpful to that front.

I do not put any blame on Vox for this book being less unique; I'm not sure it was intended there be more than one initially. There are many that have written him already for the help the book has been to them, and I hope it isn't for me. 7 of 10 fell deeds.

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Now for the drawing, a day late, but here it is. The winner of the Max Allan Collins Crime and Comics trilogy is....


Dominika Lein! I'll be sending those off soon after contacting you.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.

Bad Movie adaptations: Screamers: The Hunting

Well, I took one for the sake of research. That and love of the story Second Variety by Philip K. Dick. I found a copy of this film at a local used movie shop running a buy 5 get 5 free sale. This made the second time I'd seen a copy, and there was enough  other stuff around to let me go for it. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

Now, the original story is honestly creepier than either film. This is because the movies have robot hunters for the most of their length. In the story, they're not clear robots, they look like people, and there are three VARIETIES   of android. One's a child, another's an injured soldier, and then there's the second variety: a woman.

We actually see that at least in the first movie, Screamers. We have a lead actor that should have been an A lister in Peter Weller. (It's hard to say how much was hindered by Buckaroo Banzai and how much his love of painting, which he teaches). There's some scenery chewing, and quotable bad dialog. Intentionally bad dialog. At least I hope it was.

The second movie has some really big inconsistencies from the first film. While both take place on the same planet, the first one has a great feel of not being on Earth. There's no cohesion in the squad movement and tactics, not to mention a lack of willingness to follow the chain of command. There's a spot where some people are chained in place. Bad decisions are made.

Some of the actors from the second move have gone to have pretty decent careers, or had them already. A paycheck is a paycheck. And you can laugh at an early Stephen Amell(Green Arrow) performance, as well as a lot of predictable moments.

At any rate, if you like the occasional bad movie, or PKD adaptations, or both(especially both), go ahead. watch them.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.