#read through

[christiansorrell]

TTRPG Read-Through: Patchwork World

Here is a read-through I did last year (originally posted on Twitter) of one of the most unique PbtA games I've ever read: Patchwork World by Aaron King! - Christian

Credits up first. I know a lot of these folks and they are really cool! Excited to dig into this. I've heard good things, and it's been a while since I've read or played any Powered by the Apocalypse.

This is a cool, strong set up for me. I really like settings that ask characters to face a changing world and either take up change themselves or work to restore the old way of things. It's a headspace I find myself in a lot IRL these days so it's fun to explore.

I'm interested to see how the no stats, no playbooks angle of this game works, considering playbooks are typically such a staple of PbtA games.

Standard three-tired success, mixed success, fail forward resolution for rolls here and questions on the moves determine your bonus to the roll. Easy peasy. +2 is the max bonus.

Other types of rolls are described here. Interested to see how they come into play. I also love clocks and use them in pretty much every game I run so it's nice to see those laid out here too.

We just love a lil guy, don't we folks?

A good chunk of the opening here is spent on laying out a lot of solid foundations of roleplaying generally. It feels like a book (so far) that would work for entirely new players. It doesn't feel essential for me, but I never mind a game that supports varied experience levels.

Character creation is wide open, especially since there aren't playbooks and the text stresses that character creation is very much worldbuilding because of this. Fate-like concepts and tags are in here too which are things I generally enjoy. I like the Drawback mechanic.

Moves are in the playback I set in the other room so I'm gonna go grab those. You get two chosen moves and everyone has access to a number of default moves. You've got three other life/XP things to keep track of too. I'm especially interested in Hex.

There are a lot of moves! They seem quite varied and often very weird, fitting well with the titular patchwork world. You can have a duck's slick soul to dodge more easily or a magical space suit or speak to birds or be good at cartography. Overwhelming, but in an exciting way.

You also choose a community as a party. While PCs all have their original homelands (before the end of the old worlds), you know have a community that gets its own little sheet. This is a cool reshaping of the Gangs from Blades. I also like how the community can change over time.

Coming back to a PbtA game after months of more OSR-minded stuff, I think a lot of what these games contain are things that experienced players would say you could just do in any game at any time that it makes sense in the story, but I do find value in stating what's possible.

Esp since many players come to games with artificial limits on their options (whether that's from video games, more traditional RPGs, etc.). I just think good GMing here requires making sure that the players don't limit themselves just to the bevy of explicit options either.

GM moves (mostly to guide the response to failed rolls). I really think the community aspect of this set up is one of the biggest appeals to me so far. That and the wild list of moves, which I'm sure makes for amazing parties of characters.

I always feel like it's never something I should be in my own writing (for some probably unnecessary reason), but I enjoy the first-person, casual writing style throughout the book. Makes for a very chill read.

Good to see this game employs the Branson Reese style of NPC naming.

Stress acts as a single catch-all health and challenge rating for NPCs. Ideally, I'd hope this would help lead to the PCs approaching encounters with more than just violence.

Sections like this are what I'm referring to when I say this book feels very friendly to new players. It's got little anecdotes and thoughts like this throughout.

Look, it's been a while since I've seen A Christmas Story but... it didn't have ghosts in it right?

There's a sample adventure in the back (which I'll skip for this read-through) plus loads of random tables. Some wonderfully bizarre stuff in the characters and faction tables. Really gives you a good idea for how gonzo you can go with the setting.

Love these two in particular

Optional rules include hard mode (which I just think is kind of funny to see in PbtA, but could be cool if you lean heavy into the post-apoc setting) and some optional moves. I like that some moves focus on romance, something I enjoy IRL but never think to focus on in games.

I was wondering why this was the sixth edition!

That's all for the book itself. Going back to the packet to dig into the things I missed. Some expected bits in here but always one or two unique options I really enjoy. Leaking hex is cool (and could have some troubling cascade effects in certain situations).

I definitely wish, at least in sitting down to read like this, that the contents of the player packet was also in the book itself. I think PbtA has this tendency of leading to loads of pages on the table, but it can make them very easy to pick up and play or to learn as you play.

That element is definitely here, but I think the vast number of wide-ranging moves and the excitement that would drum up in my player group would more than makeup for that initial overwhelming feel of "whoa, that's a lot of papers out on the table".

Overall, it's the most I've wanted to play a game in this style in a while. I like that the base setup for the world is very much up to the players to determine via the characters they make. I like that PCs here will probably feel unlike any other folks have played before.

The community aspect feels like where I'd want to center my story around, as a player. Seeing that shift and change over time feels like it would be very rewarding and would help lean into the "the old world is dead, what do we want the new world to look like?" theme I enjoy.

Because Aaron King is cool and recently hit a lot of Twitter followers, Patchwork Worlds is now Pay-what-you-want over on Itch.

I'm not sure if physical copies are readily available. For full disclosure (guess I should have said this up front), I got this copy for free from Aaron! Not for the purposes of this thread or anything, just for fun a while back.

Thanks for reading more ramblings from me! If you like to do that sort of thing, check out my newsletter - Missives from the MeatCastle. It's got writings on my work, cool stuff I've run across the web in the last month, and exclusive rpg stuff! https://meatcastle.substack.com

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg #ttrpgs #rpg #fantasy #science fiction #pbta #powered by the apocalypse #aaron king #patchworld world #sixth edition #read through

[webby2007]

Hi! Me and my friends have a starcanwrecked discord server it's pretty cool I like it a lot it recently got approved by disboard so to celebrate I'm going to do a readthrough of The Case of The Gilded Lily woooo!!!! And I was wondering if any of the wonderful people here in the Shipwrecked fandom would like to join if you do just like join the server here's the invite https://discord.com/invite/z9gMeVQgnc

(please join we need more people so I can actually do this readthrough)

#shipwrecked comedy #the case of the gilded lily #discord #read through #starcanwrecked #starkid #tcb

[jerseyluck]

DC's Terrors Through Time (2022) Readthrough

In the spirit of Halloween, I believe it is time to crack open one of DC holiday specials. It is time for DC’s Terror Through Time.

The book starts with a Phantom Stranger Story written by Paul Levitz and art by Raul Fernandez. This is basically a story showing Phantom Stranger fighting all types of ghouls and goblins on Halloween. And that’s it. A very mid story to start the book off with.

The comic then goes to a Super-Sons story by Sholly Fisch with art by Luciano Vecchio. Now this is a fun story. Superboy (Jon Kent) and Robin (Damian Wayne) decide to go trick-or-treating together and wear each other costumes. The pair go to various locations throughout the DC Universe to get candy, but none of the superheroes are there. So, they go to the Hall of Justice where The Justice League are captured by some demons who escaped from hell for Halloween night. The Super-Sons have to distract the demons until the spell that will send them to hell kicks in.

The next story is Gotham City Sirens story with plot and art by Peter V. Nguyen. The story starts in Hawaii in 1995 (there is no reason for it to be 1995, except for a bad joke Harley makes) with Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy meeting up. The trio discover that animals are going missing/dying. To solve this mystery, the girls go out to the jungles of the big island.

When they get to center of island, they discover the island god Pueo and the marching dead. And he tries to attack the girls, blaming man of the sickness on the island. But when they calm down a little, the Sirens realizes that it is the cats causing a disturbance on the isle. The god makes a deal with Catwoman to get the felines out of Hawaii or else Pueo will take more extreme measures.

Nguyen has a very distinct style that won’t be for everyone. This is a story where art will make or break it for you.

Then the book tells a story with classic DC supernatural force Swamp Thing. It is written by Zac Thompson with art by Andy McDonald. And this is a post-nuclear apocalypse story. Two people are gathering food out in the swamp when a two-headed gator monster attacks them. Swamp Thing arrives and manages to stall the creature until the pair escape. Many years later, the girl comes back to swamp and is attacked by the swamp monster, but this time Swamp Thing manages to kill it. A very simple, but well-enough told story for the season.

We go to the old school with JSA story by Charles Skaggs and Tom Mandrake. This takes place in 1944, and the JSA are afraid that the Nazis will get a power mystical artifact. However, the group is too late because the artifact is already active, releasing all types of horrors. The team is split up to face challenges from the supernatural horrors alone, but Dr. Midnight arrives to assist in freeing the rest of the team. Before the JSA can stop this menace, they have to awaken Dr. Fate to break the spell. The JSA wins the day and it the terror is over… OR IS IT?

The book then gets a little cosmic with a Green Lanterns story by Jeremy Haun and art by Juan Doe. In the far-out year of 2447, a pair of lanterns explore an empty sector of space. The two come across a large creepy tower. When they enter the Lanterns come across mysterious chanting and sacrifices being made. But weird insect-like creatures attack the pair. They fight off the bugs, but they fail to stop the sacrifice. An eldritch creature almost escapes but a Lantern sacrifices himself to stop it. However, before surviving Lantern can get breath, she is alerted to 6 more signatures matching the creature that attacked them.

A very good use of the concept of Green Lanterns without using characters modern readers might expect. Touches on the emptiness that space can hold. A real highlight of this anthology.

We lose the dawn of man with the rise of Etrigan with story by Matthew Levine and art by Jorge Corona. We start in the medieval ages in a village where kids are going missing. Luckily a wandering Jason Blood comes to town to stop this demon. He manages to go to the lair of the demon. Blood releases Etrigan to fight the demon. Etrigan saves the kids and buries the demon under rubble. The demon alerts Etrigan he will be back in several centuries, assuming Blood would be dead by then. However, Jason Blood does not play like most mortals and arrives to finally slay the demon. A fun story but nothing special.

The anthology ends with a tale by the most famous creators, Tim Seeley writing and Kelley Jones on art. They tell a Damian Wayne and Deadman story together. And yup, it is a banger of a story, with amazing creepy art by Jones.

It opens on Deadman haunting Wayne Manor, and he gets stabbed by Damain with a silver spoon. Brand came to warn Batman that a vengeance demon is after him. But in a twist, when the demon attacks, it goes after Damain: the boy who killed him. Deadman and Robin try to fight the demon, but only succeed when Deadman when something more powerful claimed his soul. Damain thinks Deadman was bluffing, but the truth is something evil has chosen Robin to do its will.

Overall, this anthology was a fun read. It was a bad choice to start off with its weakest story (The Phantom Stranger), but this has many strong stories in it (Both Damian ones, the future Green Lantern). Overall, while not scary, the comic makes for a fun reading experience.

7/10

#dc comics #read through #damain wayne #jon kent #robin #gotham city sirens #deadman #swamp thing #catwoman #etrigan #halloween #jsa #green lantern

[dancepartyaroundthefairyring]

Reading p&p

And like, still don't understand why Lizzy got so upset that Darcy didn't know Jane liked Bingley when right at the beginning Charlotte even tells her it's hard for anyone but Lizzy to tell that Jane likes Bingley

Like girl you were warned by someone who has known your sister their whole life that it was hard to tell, how'd you expect the guy that's had maybe a few minutes interaction supposed to know?

To be honest, I'm with Darcy on this point. Mrs. Bennett made it all look waaay to mercenary and Jane did not help herself at all

#rant about a book plot 200 years old #pride and prejudice #read through #book #rant #elizabeth bennet #mr darcy #dont come at me #im just talking #into the abyss

[shakespearenews]

Which productions is he proudest of? He hesitates before offering: Hamlet (2008) with Tennant, adding that it “landed”. In a phone conversation with Tennant, I ask what he remembers about it and he says: “I was terrified, but having Greg there, you always felt safe. He knew how these plays worked. The first thing we talked about was that Hamlet would be a thriller. The challenge – with arguably the most well-known play in theatre – was to see if we could pull off the trick of making the audience feel they did not know what was coming next.”

...

Doran struggles to define his “process”, but one thing is crucial: he skips the traditional read-through on the first day of rehearsals. Instead, the cast spend days working through Shakespeare line by line: “There are a few rules: no one can read their own parts or comment on the interpretation of their own characters.” It is a great way to encourage collective responsibility for a production. He believes a director should not get between play and audience. This might involve “not knowing but exploring, trusting the play will reveal itself”. You need to “love the language. It’s a craft that doesn’t necessarily come naturally: you need to work at it”.

#gregory doran #royal shakespeare company #william shakespeare #antony sher #stage #rehearsal #read through #david tennant #hamlet #greg doran

[raitala]

SVSSS vol2, chapter 11 of my read-through is up!

Pass the body like a hot potato! 😆

#svsss #read through

[pufitaass]

I was born in September. The weather outside had been not only cloudy - there was a huge storm. After 4 days of pain my mom gave birth to me in that strange day. Not that is the strangest thing. The strangest thing is that when they showed me to the world, even before that, the weather had been starting to warm up. And when they were on a walk with their little baby on 30th September, they were with T-shirts. I won’t say the location, but in my country we have real autumn and my favourite tale is Snow White.

#artists on tumblr #meee #green eyes #short hair #fairytale #snow white #autumn vibes #life is strange #strangetown #life #writing #read my mind #long reads #tumblr girls #beauty #beautiful #happily ever after #give love #read through #read it

[ambustested]

I just think its interesting that its framed as "Hungry mecha fight for a hope of fuel and fame"

No comment other than Swindle!!! Love a good Swindle

FORGET SWINDLE ITS THE BOYS, TAX EVASION, IDENTITY THEFT, AND FRAUD

LOL, a promising start to a functional and wholesome partnership, I'm sure

Something I've been murky about because I don't remember Sentinel much, or early IDW's Cybertronian society, is what exactly Sentinel's role is. Interesting that here he seems to have the role of idk, police commissioner, or maybe something more militarized, like head of the national guard?

I'm not sure if there's a good way to put it but I think Megatron here has a considerably simpler philosophy than he does in later issues, even for being rather early in the series. Maybe that's because he really develops his philosophy later, but I cant help but feel like other issues kind of retcon how single minded and comfortable with violence he is here. He almost seems to glorify the battle arena here, implying fighting for survival makes one feel alive and gives them a sense of united identity.

Small note of restraint tactics

Sentinel and Megs first interaction. Fun and scathing

I don't remember Soundwave's deal, why he's a special boy.

Starscream be Starschemin'

#megatron origins 3 #read through

[zeero223]

(In the Barry Scott voice) Hi I'm Zeero! (No more Barry Scott (Scot?) voice)

I loveee jumping on tumbr every few weeks to plug my really cool and active starcanwrecked discord server which also has a pulp musicals chat and totally awesome mods (thewoodwhistler and webby2007 on here) that you should totally join

We're doing a Gilded Lily readthrough soon (I think all the roles are full by now but we'll be doing more afterwards) and one of the mods is currently setting up a Blood On The Clocktower game (I had literally never heard of it before he had brought it up), we also play Gartic Phone and Frantic Fanfic fairly regularly and casually since our voice chats are used almost every day. Also we do watch parties of starcanwrecked content (there are some movies on the list too), we take requests for stuff to watch as well as for other events because we like to have the whole server involved in decisions for stuff that we're doing

We also have a chat where you can share your art (any kind not just fanart but there's a lot of fanart there), cosplays, edits- and other creative things that you do, as well as gay and gender chats for all of the lgbts, and a hot people chat (also mostly used by the lgbts), AND a happy chat where people share their lovely lovely thoughts

We are currently at 77 members and us mods really want to do something fun when we reach 100 so it would be really cool if you could help us get there!!

Anyway I've been yapping long enough and this was far longer than intended (I never get to yap about it anywhere else that we can advertise) so if any of that sounds fun and cool to you then here's the link :)

https://discord.com/invite/mw3DWsc9kU

#discord server #starcanwrecked #starkid #shipwrecked #tin can bros #read through #blood on the clocktower

[thecompanionmoth]

"Book One: A Nice Little Family" Thoughts (Brothers Karamazov)

I think having that title for this particular book is quite fitting as the entirety of it pertains to setting up the main family of the story. In regards to the actual story telling, this is strikingly different from the other two works I have read by Dostoevsky, White Nights and Crime and Punishment. Those are similar to one another, whereas Brothers Karamazov stands out; not just because of its popularity, but what makes it popular—that is something that I not only will focus on, but have to focus on when reading. Family as a motif being relayed and explained through Dostoevesky’s compelling narrative in the Brothers K is immediately, in my mind, going to leave an impression upon me. Although it has taken almost a month for me to sit down and finish the first book, I have another feeling that it will be easier to read from this point onwards. 

Now, as for the actual story of Book One, there are some things that struck me as things that could contribute to the overall tale. But before I get into that, I want to say that the first couple of chapters are quite funny. This might have something to do with something mentioned in the translator’s note (Peaver and Volokhonsky translation, Bicentennial edition). Which is that their aim was to capture Dostoevsky’s original bleak comedy of the Brothers K. And immediately that goal came true. I had to take a moment to contain myself as I was in a library, when I was ready about Fyodor’s outrageous life and personality. 

That was really the only moment in the whole book that I laughed, though, because I ended up moving on to focus on the establishment of the brothers and their lives. The two that struck me the most are Dmitri and Alyosha. The former for his difficult life and aloof disposition, the latter for his contrast between his older brothers. Alyosha’s innocence or his youthful approach to life is something I can relate to. I can also really find myself understanding Dmitri as a person and the difficult relationship he has with Fyodor. With that in mind, I can see how Ivan would fit in nicely between them. He is definitely a character that my sister (the middle between me and our younger brother) would like. 

Not only are the characters and writing style interesting, yet echo Dostoevsky’s style that I am more familiar with, the combination of the two is a wonderful one, and I’ve enjoyed reading despite my slow pace. By having the story be told by—as far as I know—a local clergyman, that is a refreshing format than just third person narration. It adds ahe book where stage directions or other things were added to be a subtle nod to theatre in that book. But with Brothers K, it honestly feels not only cinematic, but actually Homeric. Me saying that could be a bias because that is a literary style that I am intimately familiar with as I have studied it in great detail. But the way that theatrical element that makes Dostoevsky’s work here much more cinematic than theatrical, which is something that I can attribute to Crime and Punishment. There were several instances in t the elder might be somehow influential and conciliatory.”

“Fyodor Pavlovich was apparently the first to suggest, apparently as a joke, that they all get together in the elder Zosima’s cell, and, without resorting to his direct mediation, still come to some decent agreement, since the dignity and personality of the elder might be somehow influential and conciliatory.”

To me, that echoes the gathering of followers and friends at Plato’s cell when he delivered his final few dialogues. I might be stretching, but even if it was intended, such a reference is rather cool and works well in the story and the Greek reference previously mentioned. There are some other things I highlighted regarding character details, fundamental things, that I feel might come up later. If they do, I will most certainly reference them. But for now, I am going to continue reading with Book Two, An Inappropriate Gathering!

#booklr #read through #brothers karamazov #russian lit #classic lit

[christiansorrell]

TTRPG Read-Through: Traveller - Book 1

Here is a read-through I did about a year and a half ago (originally posted on Twitter) of one of the all time classics: Traveller by Game Designers' Workshop! This read-through just covers Book 1 - Characters and Combat from the original Traveller box set trio of books. - Christian

This is the 1981 Second Edition printing of the classic Traveller three zine box set! Been wanting to read this for ages now. It's discussed A LOT in Mothership circles.

Really interesting to see GM-less and solo play options here. Didn't realize that was being done explicitly at this time. Also, nice to see "he or she" language here rather than the just "he" you see a lot in older games.

The UPP is clearly the creation of an utterly deranged mind. This seems like a huge overcomplication of just listing stats (unless all your players are proficient in hexadecimal).

[Hi, it's me from the future here (aka now - 2024): I've learned to embrace and love the UPP (or more specifically the planet stat version from one of the other books). It's complicated at first but really quick and cool once you know how to read it.]

I really like Social Standing as a stat replacement for charisma or charm or other social skills you tend to see. Feels like it would have more impact on the story and less of a "Roll to see if you convince him, I guess" sort of anticlimax social skills have most of the time.

I'm now into the "you can die during char creation in Traveller" bits. Really cool in some ways. Really comical in others. It recommends you enlist your bad stat characters into the Scout service because of it's high mortality rate (so you can roll a diff char before play), lol.

Essentially, you roll stats and that's your entire character but to give them some experience they can enlist in a Service. You have to roll to get in and may get rejected. If so, you submit to the draft (get into one at random). You can die. You can gain skills and promotions.

Honestly, the char creation feels like a solo game unto itself. Risk v reward of how far to push your enlistments to boost your skills and standing and benefits. You could have a whole story in your head by the end of it. Great Session 0 material.

As a 34 yr old, this hurts. Apparently, I have -1 Strength, Dexterity and Endurance now...

I admire commitment but asking GMs to use this full char creator for all NPCs (which means generating chars until you get one capable of filling the role you need) is truly too wild. Best part: at the end, it just says you can also pick whatever you want for stats and skills.

The weapons and intro text have much more of a space as a new age of sail vibe to them than I was anticipating. It's cool. Far more Dune than Alien (so far).

Interestingly (unless I missed something), skills are detached from your stats. Your base stats make getting into a Service easier and help you with Saving Throws and such, but skills have their own modifiers based on the situation and your expertise. It's cool (if a bit dense)!

In case you were wondering, there is absolutely no art in this entire book. I'm hoping we'll get some in one of the other two books with vehicles and ships and such but won't be holding my breath. Gives the whole thing a very Serious vibe.

Always interesting to see how older games chose to handle this (or not).

Here's the UPP in action along with quick listing of other character info. Interesting even if it is just too overcomplicated for my tastes.

Can't overstate how much char creation feels like a whole solo game of its own. You can roll a character at age 18 and have them go through seven 4-yr terms in a Service before retiring and having substantial cash, specific possessions, memberships and social standings. Wild.

The character sheet mentions PSIONICS which is exciting (but I'll have to wait till Book 3 for more on that apparently).

Combat is straightforward but has some unique bits: a focus on stealth as an option and movement/attacks occur by all parties simultaneously which means everyone (enemies too) gets to move and then everyone chooses who to attack and you roll them all. Sounds really fun.

Stats have cool effects in battle. Your Endurance stat is the number of attacks you can make before needing to rest (can you imagine if DnD just didn't let you do a base attack at a point?). Strength and Dex can boost or lower certain weapon rolls like you'd expect.

If trained in a weapon, you can give your expertise as a negative mod to your enemy's rolls to attack you to reflect parrying and blocking which is cool. The skills also add to your attack rolls. Skills just seem really useful overall here.

I just love that we get stats for broadswords, revolvers, and laser carbines. Plus, there are even special tables for archaic weapons for when encountering lower-tech civilizations. It feels like a really wide open interpretation of what space could look like. Feels exciting.

A few more equipment tables and a final quick reference page at the back and that's all for Book 1. I'll be back with Book 2 and 3 in the coming days!

Main thoughts: Character creation is very involved but really cool - its own game practically. Skills are very deep in a way that feels refreshing when compared to more stat-focused games. Combat has some fun, chaotic twists. Feels like a wide universe of possibility here so far.

I'll add Books 2 and 3 to this thread when I give them their own read-throughs. In the meantime, here's my newsletter (last two months have Mothership freebies): https://meatcastle.substack.com

And here's my website (with links to my games and modules and all that good stuff): https://shop.meatcastlegameware.com/

Thanks for reading!

#traveller #ttrpg #rpg #science fiction #scifi #long post #read through #ttrpgs #roleplaying #roleplaying games #tabletop #classic

[slimslamflimflam]

Forgot to ask 70 years ago but does anyone want me to start posting all the times I’ve screamed during my tgaa play through like epic live commentary

#genuine question I’ve only ever really talked about it on discord or occasionally in rb tags but do lemme know if that’s somethang you wanna #read through #I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM !!

[jerseyluck]

Justice League (2011) #1-6 Readthrough

Sometimes you want to read a bad comic. And spoilers, Geoff Johns’ Justice League does manage to meet that bar. It is a bad sign that this was flagship book for New 52, because it doesn’t sell you on the quality of the line.

The arc starts with an issue of Batman being hunted by the police while he chases after an alien criminal. And then Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) shows up because alien. The two heroes do not get along, and the alien uses a mysterious device to do a suicide bombing to stop the heroes. We then cut to Victor Stone, young football star, being sad. The two heroes go after Superman thinking that he can help with this mysterious alien situation.

And that is all that happens in Issue #1. You think that a launch of line would be big launch showing the power of heroes, but instead we get Green Lantern and Batman being dicks to each other, and a very paranoid DC universe to the new superheroes.

And Issue 2 manages to continue this weird paranoia from the citizens of the DCU by having The Flash (Barry Allen) being worried that the police are after him. But he doesn’t have time to worry because Superman is attacking Batman and Green Lantern. The fight is going poorly enough that Hal needed to phone a friend to get Supes to calm, and Flash goes quickly to calm everything down.

Better heads manage to prevail, and the group decides to hide away to discuss the mysterious alien attacks. Meanwhile, Victor Stone terrible day continues with him getting his father to admit that he does not want his son to play football. And when things start to advance, the mysterious boxes activate which leads Victor to be seriously injured.

Issue #3 starts with some Wonder Woman moments, and while these moments are one the highlights (especially the scene where Wonder Woman eats ice cream for the first time) it does seem to out of character for Wonder Women. Geoff Johns writes her more like Thor, as ancient being going to modern day but is hungry for battle. Anyway, the aliens come to attack Wonder Woman and Washington DC as well.

Victor’s dad goes to work to save his son’s life, while in Metropolis swarms of the aliens (they’re Parademons) attack Superman’s group. And weird complaint but heroes are a bit kill crazy for something that they don’t know if they are intelligent beings or not. Anyways, Wonder Woman shows up to join the group in battle. The heroes try to figure out what is going on with attack and the pinging devices when Aquaman shows up.

In the efforts to save his son, Victor’s dad has injected him with experimental nanotechnology. This has the side of almost entirely covering Victor’s body in metal, making him a cyborg. Thankfully this gives Victor the ability to talk to computers and use high-tech weaponry like a sonic cannon. Which comes in handy when Parademons attack.

Meanwhile, Aquaman makes a convincing argument that he should lead the group of heroes while also using his abilities to take out some more Parademons. But before much progress is made, the US military goes to attack both the Parademons and the assembled heroes. It does not go well for the military.

Cyborg is seen running from the stress of being more machine than man but the mysterious device teleports him to gathered heroes in Metropolis. And to make matters worse the pinging devices finally manage to accomplish their purpose. Darkseid is on Earth, and he is ready to conquer the planet.

Issue #5 starts with Darkseid quickly managing to capture Superman and have him beat the rest of the heroes. Green Lantern gets the worst of it with a badly broken arm. The moment seems hopeless for the world, so Batman steps up. Bats reveals to Hal that he is Bruce Wayne. Bruce says there is too much at stake, that Green Lantern has to step up and lead the rest of the heroes in battle against Darkseid. Batman has decided that his most goal will be to free Superman. That is harder than it seems for Bats because when searching for Superman he got transported to a hell planet.

Issue #6 starts with Darkseid walking through a wrecked Metropolis killing civilians. But then the Justice League work together and attack the evil god. Wonder Woman and Aquaman work together to stab Darkseid’s eye blinding him and stopping his Omega Beams from working. But Batman is having trouble freeing Superman from Darkseid’s henchmen.

Despite the injuries, Darkseid is still ready to fight the League. But the team gets good news when it turns out Cyborg can communicate with devices that brought Darkseid to Earth. He uses this connection to send the god and his army back to their home world. In the chaos of the arriving Darkseid, Batman frees Superman and the entire team fights Darkseid. With great effort Cyborg manages to close the portal and win the day for the heroes.

The seven heroes bask in their victory and are awarded honors by the president. They figure that might work together again, if only to keep the police away. Thus the Justice League was born…

But every great hero needs an opponent. We see some shadow figures say that with the rise of superheroes, supervillains will rise up to oppose them. And another mysterious figure, Pandora, talks to long-time DC figure Phantom Stranger saying that she can use these new heroes. Pandora will break her curse one way or another.

And that is the start of The New 52 Justice League. Boy, that was long disappointing story to start an entire new book, run, and universe. It took 6 whole issues but overall, there was very little story throughout. There are some decent characters moments but I think the team should have gotten together sooner. The paranoia against heroes is just not good starting place for the DC Universe.

But to give a nice mark, Jim Lee sures makes some pretty art for the book. But even the art has some problems. The breakdowns feel kinda bad for this book. And everything is glossy.

4/10

#dc comics #justice league #batman #superman #wonder woman #green lantern #hal jordan #the flash #barry allen #cyborg #darkseid #aquaman #new 52 #geoff johns #jim lee #read through

[comicavalcade]

Hmm, now that it's officially Summer, maybe I should do a Namor solo read through and do some posts about it, starting with "The Quest for Neptune's Trident" in Tales to Astonish. Have myself a Submariner Summer, so to speak

🤔

#namor #submariner #submariner summer #? #namor the sub mariner #read through #musings #tales to astonish #marvel comics #namor nation

[introvertedpedant]

A few behind the scenes photos from the filming of The Outrun have been posted on Instagram by Jack Lowden and look who is there 😍 Chocolate biscuits and crisps on the table but SD has brought an apple!

#stephen dillane #the outrun #behind the scenes #coming soon #love that shirt #look at the wifi password 😂 #read through

[chromatic-ren]

nona is so fucking funny "oh thank God Ianthe is just Coronabeth's sister and not her boyfriend *I* wanted to be the one to date her"

#nona the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb spoilers #nona the ninth #the locked tomb #probably-gideon's soul says I DO NOT CARE what freud has to say about this #read through