TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Moving the Furniture Around

Damn, this TV is heavy…

I am a furniture-moving whore. I’m never happy when it comes to the rooms in my home. The TV might look better here. The couch should swingaround to this wall. I don’t really want to move the bookcase, so I think I’ll work around it… You know, that sort of thing.

So you can imagine my excitement when my Economic Stimulus Package (thank you, China, as long as the missile you shoot at us doesn’t say “funded by the USA”) came in a week ago and my wife wanted a new chair. She picked it out a month ago and the wheels in my head started turning.

We get to the store the following Saturday and we head right to the chair and she sits down. I, of course, go walking around for other crap that I think we need, but don’t. I say, “Hey, Babe, check out this couch!” We didn’t come home with the chair. No, we got the couch. And the love seat. And the ceder chest coffee table. And the end table. He he, I get to rearrange the living room!

The furniture gets to the house on Monday and… it doesn’t quite fit. But I work at it. Just a few hours later and the living room looks awesome (if I do say so myself). My only casualty is the video game TV. We had two TVs in the living room. One for the cable and DVD, the other for the Wii and PS2. Sadly, if we wanted to get into our living room, the video game TV had to go. I left the Wii out in the living room and moved the TV and PS2 into my “hobby room” with my comic collection, my VS and Pokemon card collections, my Heroclix, and other various crap. Now I get to rearrange that room!

I’m never happy with anything. It’s probably why I keep trashing my decks, just to rebuild them. “Crippled Nagging Bitches” (The Oracle/Black Canary Dynamic Duo I mentioned in an earlier write-up) suffered that fate. But, as of Saturday, they are back and (I think) better then ever. I had an Injustice Gang deck receintly I called “Go Away” that I trashed. The deck was built around the Joker at 4 and 6 and “The Joke’s On You”. And “Total Anarchy”. and “Sunburst”. And Zazzala (Villains United/Injustice Gang) and Infernal Minions. Get the point? “GO AWAY!” I trashed it because I thought the Royal Flush Gang was going to replace the Minions, but they didn’t do what I thought they did. After I broke HeroComplex’s golden rule, “READ THE CARD, MORON!” I got pretty bummed, and I haven’t picked up an Injustice Gang card since. But they are coming back, with a little furniture rearranged.

I’m rearranging the furniture here, on BENDING STEEL, too. Last week, I changed my vote button to that excellent Jim Lee pic. I liked the MSE2 card, but it was just too big. >sigh< I also added highlights from Marc’s blog, “Arkham’s Asylum” (now if he’d only update it regularly…). I separated my links from the blogs (check out some of those links, I have some neat stuff over there). Whenever I stumble upon a blog in the VS Blogerverse that was nice enough to link to my blog, I link to their’s (and I throw you a vote!). Earlier this evening, I opened up some space in the form of new pages: my decklists, my trade stuff, and what I’m looking for. They are not filled just yet, but I will get to them.

But I am soooo fighting the urge to change the whole theme. ARRRGH!

TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Sex and the City

Say what??

Entertainment Weekly (whose parent company is Time Warner) sent out a double issue featuring the new movie Sex and the City, based on a HBO primetime series (HBO’s parent company is Time Warner). It’s a show featuring some half naked old ladies talking about shoes and who has had the longest orgasm. The show was, apparently, one of the most popular of HBO’s (a Time Warner own channel) prime time dramedies. Popular enough to covet a movie (co-produced by HBO Films, a Time Warner Company).

My complaint isn’t with this… uhh, I guess you’d call it a movie, but about Entertainment Weekly (Time Warner). This magazine cost me 2 issues of my subscription. Two issues for, what, SIXTY-THREE pages about this old chick worship. It’s full of all the ugly clothes, character breakdowns with all their favorite ugly clothes and Sarah Jessica Parker’s BIG hair. And then there is the essay pages about this show… ESSAY PAGES! My God! And an episode guide for people similar to me who didn’t watch the show, except I don’t care about the show and have no intention of seeing this movie.

Do you know the cover price of Entertainment Weekly (Time Warner has something to do with this product)? Neither do I, because I paid like $20 in a school fundraiser to get 10 issues. But this “double issue” counts as two issues of my subscription. What Entertainment Weekly (Time Warner still owns them) is trying to tell me is that Sex and the City (a movie produced in association with HBO films, a [guess what] Time Warner company) is the equal to the summer movie special, the fall movie special, the new TV season special, the Oscar special, and all those others.

What the whole point to this is Warner Bros. (a Time WARNER company) is producing the next Batman (TM DC Comics, Inc, a Time Warner company) movie, “The Dark Knight”. Dark Knight has waaay more going for it. First (and of course the most obvious) is the last performance of Heath Ledger. Christian Bale reprises his role as the Caped Crusader battling the madness infecting Gotham, this time in the form of The Joker (Ledger). This movies is loaded with great actors: Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal (her brother did it with Ledger in Brokeback Mountain [that line was funnier before Ledger died]), Gary Oldman (he will always be Ludwig Von Beethovan to me, see Immortal Beloved, one hell of a movie), Morgan Freeman, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (what?). The only thing the Sex movie has got going for it is that one old lady played a Vulcan in “Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country”.

All I got to say is this, Entertainment Weekly (Time Warner) hooked-up Sex and the City (based on a show on a cable network owned by Time Warner), they better do the same with the new Batman (a DC Comics character, which “Kevin Bacon”’s it to Time Warner) movie, The Dark Knight ( From Warner Bros., a Time Warner Company). I want an extra-size issue with all the cool clothes, character bios and “all of those wonderful toys”, and Cillian Murphy’s crazy hair. I want essays from Grant Morrisson, Adam West, and stubarnes. Then I want an episode guide for the 60s Batman, Batman, The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and The Batman (all owned by Time Warner. It’s only fair.

But with my luck, my subscription will run out an issue before the Dark Knight Special, because the Sex and the City issue was a “double Issue”.

A JELLY AND CHEESE SPECIAL REPORT: While doing research for this article, I stumbled across the IMDB page for New Line Cinema. One of the pre-production projects it is set to distribute is…

Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam!

The only actor listed is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam. I wet myself when I saw this.

GET BENT: Inadvertent Legends

What do you mean “Kyle Abbot” is your legend?

Back in January, in the infancy of the Arkham Asylum forum, I challenged the players at Emerald City to build a deck for a tournament. The challenge was “Build-a-Legend”… times two. I called it Dynamic Duo. Instead of building one legend, under typical UDE rules, they would have to build two. If a player chose Superman and Batman as their legends, then cards like “At Their Finest” would count as one card each for each legends card pool of 12. We saw our share of World’s Finest and Fantastic Four, yada yada. But I discovered something else when building the decks I brought to the store.

The Inadvertent Legend.

What I’d call an Inadvertent Legend is a character with at least three different character cards, or character cards that refer to the chosen name and no non-character cards that have his/her/its name on it. Generally cards before characters got the legend treatment. I wouldn’t say that Superman or Spider-man are Inadvertent Legends, because there are so many cards with these characters names on them.

My first Dynamic Duo deck involved two Inadvertent Legends: Barbara Gordon and Dinah Laurel Lance. Oracle and Black Canary.

(From a January 20 reply on Arkham Asylum:

Way Too Many Copies of Two Characters

I had to see for myself when I tried to build a non-legend legend– Dynamic Duo style. Here is the build for “Crippled Nagging Bitches”.

4X Dinah Laurel Lance<>Black Canary, New Wings
4X Barbara Gordon<>Oracle, Data Broker
2x Gypsy, Illusionary Operative
4x Barbara Gordon<>Oracle, Hacker Elite
2x Oliver Queen<>Green Arrow, Bullseye
4X Dinah Laurel Lance<>Black Canary, “Pretty Bird”
2X Wonder Woman, Ambassador of Peace
4X Firestorm, The Nuclear Man
4X Dinah Laurel Lance<>Black Canary, Cry in the Dark
4X Barbara Gordon<>Oracle, Inside Information

4X The Hook-Up, Team-up
4X Hero’s Welcome
3X Battle Training
3X Crisis Averted
3X Atomize
3X Reform The League
4X Bat Got Your Tounge
3X Hall of Justice

…the first deck I’ve ever built with 61 cards.
34 characters, 24 filling up the legend spots. Sounds dangerous, huh? All I got to say is that I took down the Lex/Joker DDuo (probally cause he missed his 5 drop and he put cards in my hand, so I didn’t have to draw.))

I cleaned-up the deck a bit and ran it in the tournament. I didn’t win, but I made it work. CARD DRAW GALORE!

Today, while I was delivering the mail, I was thinking of rebuilding ”Crippled Nagging Bitches” and tweaking it a little more, and then that’s when I started thinking about Inadvertent Legends.

Back in January, I was looking for alternative ideas for this tourney, in case a player came to the store that night without a deck for the game. I was flipping through my League of Assassins cards (’cause I just finished getting what I needed from DC Legends to start working on a deck) and discovered an Inadvertennt Legend. Kyle Abbot. Kyle has a 3-drop from DC Origins that wasn’t too terrible for his time. He recieved another 3-drop in the DC Batman vs League of Assassins Starter Set. But that is only two…

Cost: 1 Whisper A’Daire, Serpent-Tongued Seductress Team: League of Assassins ATK: 2 DEF: 1 Whisper A’Daire gets +1/+1 while you control a character named Kyle Abbot.He provides the strength. She provides the subtlety. DBM-022 Illustrator: Stuart Sayger Card is legal in: Golden Age, Random Punks Common

That’s the first time I copied and pasted from docx VS search engine… pretty cool.

Whisper makes Kyle an Inadvertent Legend. THAT IS SO COOL!

While I was thinking about what to write in this article, I started thinking about, believe it or not, Crime Lords. I played with the Crime Lords for, like 5 minutes waaay back at the beginning of my VS days. I remember Mr. Hyde and some other guy… what’s his name. I think his card said Mr. Hyde on it. Oh docx…

 

Cost: 2 Cobra, Klaus Vorhees Team: Crime Lords ATK: 2 DEF: 2 When Cobra enters play, you may search your deck for a card named Mr. Hyde, reveal it, and put it into your hand.“I need a new partner . . . one who isn’t obsessed with Victorian horror novels.” MMK-094 Illustrator: Rob Haynes Card is legal in: Golden Age, Random Punks Common

Mr. Hyde has both a Crime Lords and a Masters of Evil card, and Cobra makes him an Inadvertent Legend. How about that?

CHALLENGE TIME: I want you to look around your cards and pick somebody that falls into this catagory. Think about how you would build around this Legend. Remember: your choice shouldn’t be an army character, nor should it have a non-character card with his name on it, and it can either be the Barbara Gordon way (she has 6 character cards) or like Kyle Abbot and Mr. Hyde (a buddy card that makes them Legendrific). I’d like to hear your ideas. And if you do build something around you inadvertents, take it to your hobby league and then let me know how it played out.

TRUTH AND JUSTICE: Getting Philosphical

Yesterday, in the early afternoon, I saw a caterpillar. He was heading up the house. Just moving along, not a care in the world. He was an ugly, orange little thing. Zel (my wife) noted that she’s seen a few orange butterflies around lately. The baby was napping, so I didn’t get a chance to show him.

Later that day I saw him again. He was just working his way up a post attached to the roof. I thought, “How the hell did he get over there?” Later, I went back out to see where he was and spotted what I can only conclude, as the first one. There were two. The first one made it to the underside of the roof. The other was still on the post. The first one, who will from this point on be referred to as Rodney, was actually hanging off the roof underside. Looks like Rodney is getting ready to evolve (a reference from my Pokemon days). Charles, the caterpillar on the post, was still clinging, full body.

Sure enough, Sunday morning, there was Rodney, all wrapped up. Just hanging there in a bland gray overcoat. Nothing to impressive, at least from the outside. How cool is it that in that furry, orange body are all makings of a being made for aerial superiority. How does this change work (yeah, I know, look in a 3rd grader’s science book, that’s not what I mean)? What does it go through? Is Rodney in pain, or just asleep? Does he know what’s happening to him?

As for Charles, I didn’t see him. When I really started to investigate…

Charles is dead, mid-cocoon. The ants found him.

Zel thinks Charles was sick. Maybe he died in his cocoon. I don’t know. What I do know is Rodney will forever be in Charles’ debt. If it hadn’t been for Charles, the ants may have found Rodney. I know this because these ants love running all over that part of the house. They were Rodney’s vicinity when he was just hanging yesterday.

So I started pondering, “Do I protect Rodney?” I could spray the path on the house that would lead the colony to Rodney. Or do I let nature take it’s course? If I do, is Charles’ sacrifice in vain? I watched this little gray thing just hanging there and I think about my role as dominate species on the planet. Do I have a say?

While I was writing this article, Marc called me, told me someone solved the riddle: http://z15.invisionfree.com/Arkham_Asylum/index.php?showtopic=275 I went outside to discuss doing an Arkham Month between here and his blog (whoops, I let the Cat into the jewlery store), and I looked over at the side of the house. Charles’ cocoon was gone, it finally fell. Rodney was still hanging in there. After our call, I thought about my questions a little more. And then I saw her.

Sandy is on her way up the house. Maybe I’ll just leave it all alone and see what happens.

JELLY AND CHEESE: May 9, 2008

Thursday night hobby league was packed down at Emerald City… but there was only 8 of us. One full table was taken up by a game Risk between two players. One table was taken up by WOW players. I’ll never tell our store owner that we don’t want other games going on during our hobby league, but I reserve the right to be annoyed.

My cards are a mess. I pulled out a bunch of cards to build a couple of Galactic Conquest-legal decks, and, due to my lazyness, I didn’t put them back. I was hoping for some time Thursday to clean up at the store and work on some decks. Maybe even stir up some deck building conversation, but it was for naught. Oh well. I’ll get around to it sometime.

The first book I read this week was Rann-Thanagar Holy War. I have been really into the space epics from DC of late. From Adam Strange: Planet Heist all the way through Countdown to Adventure. I’m happy Jim Starlin is on this project and I like seeing the stars of all these arcs come together (and Bizarro thrown into the mix, too).

I don’t know the details behind the delay of the conclusion of the “Last Son” story arc in Action Comics, but I do know it was annoying. This may be my review… if I re-read books from a year ago.

Dini may not have pulled off Countdown the way he wanted to, but his work on Detective Comics continues to impress. I have always been facinated by Scarface, the dummy crime lord of the Batman mythos. I was sad when he became one of Harvey Dent’s victims in the first Batman arc after the one year jump. Again, I was sad at the end of this story, but don’t be surprised if he comes back.

I have my players working on making a Legend, using MSE2, for a tournament. This is the lead in to a store VS set. We chose DC vs Marvel, but after the DC licence fell through, we change to just DC. We are focusing on the Sinestro Corps War, with some love thrown at the other stories that happened around the same time. If you want to see my example legend, Booster Gold, head over to the Arkham Asylum forum.

Just think, if it wasn’t for OPERATION CHAOS, this political season might have been boooring. BENDING STEEL proudly supports OPERATION CHAOS.

The Tampa Bay Rays are holding down second place in the AL East and playing like they are a good team. Look out Boston!

The Illuminati are facinating. Just facinating. i don’t know if I hate the non-affiliation affiliation, or like it, but I am trying to figure out how to abuse it in the store DC set. I still think I want to build Hulk and the Warbound. And Nextwave. They look like lots of fun!

Made some changes to the site. I got rid of the vote card. I have a 20″ widescreen monitor, so everything looks normal to me. But I’ve noticed, as I introduced the site to others with smaller monitors, that the other two columns on the right end up at the bottom of the page. How annoying! Maybe these changes fixed that. Oh, and there is a pic of me now on THE MAN BEHIND THE GLASSES. I also added links to a blog about pictures of fat Wonder Woman and a site from Gail Simone (writer: Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, Secret Six) about abuse of women in comics. It’s called Women in Refrigerators. It’s under the link: Why my wife doesn’t want me to be a super-hero…

Countdown to Mystery is calling to me… See you this weekend.