Posts Tagged ‘DC’

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Jimmy Olsen’s Jungle Bride

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Ginger Jimmy. Intrepid Daily Planet photographer and wannabe reporter. Superman’s pal. Back in the Silver Age, Jimmy was the perfect fodder for wacky adventures and farce filled fests no matter if he transformed into a werewolf, Elasti-Lad, or dolled himself up as a woman. Now we all know just because Jimmy looked good in a dress and heels and all the slash that he was 100% straight. That time Superman got Jimmy drunk on a couple Kryptonian six packs doesn’t mean a thing. When he wasn’t chasing after Lucy Lane and trying to find ways to impress her, he had women like the giant Allura, the protoplasmic Dialla from Platonia masquerading as a human, Duo Damsel, Light Lass, and Saturn Girl in the future (at least he thought so) and the magical imp Miss Gzptlsnz trying to corner him into some 5th dimensional canoodling. And then there’s the time that Bruna, simian goddess of an unnamed African group living in the jungle, fell in love the redheaded boy from next door, thanks to writer Leo Dorfman and Pete Constanza.

Cover art by Curt Swan

Yes, marriage is indeed a sacred institution!

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Hello From The Batman Family

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Are you feeling a little verklempt about the second delay with the ongoing Batwoman title as I am? Here’s a charming (and that can be taken in a couple senses) little gem showing Batwoman, Bat-Girl, and the other important Batman family members from the summer of 1964.  Please forgive the scan quality.

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Pionic Man & Head Dollie

Monday, February 21st, 2011

The Pionic Man and Head Dolli have a connection in that each of them were used by Henry Hewitt, founder of Hewitt Industries, who used his industrial resources in an experiment to recreate Firestorm, thus giving birth to Firehawk. Due to a successful cloning experiment to repair his body, Hewitt went on to create a series of clones that he dubbed DOLLIES, which referred to the successfully cloned “Dolly the sheep”. Working behind the scenes, Hewitt created “accidents” at various nuclear test sites across the world in which he placed his DOLLIES fitted with devices to siphon and contain any released energy for his own purposes.

Dr. Julius Hastur was in charge of one such test at the Large Proton Collider Facility at Lowrance University. Hewitt’s plan went awry when Firestorm, who was touring the college campus in his Jason Rusch identity, stepped in to avert disaster. Though unknown at the time, Hastur was trapped inside the facility during this event, and Firestorm’s transmutation powers inadvertently bombarded Hastur’s body with radiation, turning his mass into pions, short lived, sub-atomic particles. Hastur is disoriented and in extreme pain when he emerges later that night, and quite susceptible to Hewitt’s offer to help with a containment suit in exchange for fighting Firestorm. The hero takes a gamble by turning the containment suit into helium and using a STAR Labs device to hold his pionic form.

The DOLLIES first appear in #23. Four are dispatched to abduct Jason, whom they secure in their surprise attack. In turn, they’re surprised by Lorraine Reilly who turns into Firehawk and engages one clone who distracts her long enough for the others to speed away with Jason, and thus unknowingly causing an explosion since the pair must be within one mile proximity of the other to remain stable. This same clone attained a level of self-awareness (and speech) from the fight with Firehawk, a fact that piques the curiosity of “The Pupil”, a former intellectual thorn in Martin Stein’s side and villain du jour who’s “borrowed” the DOLLIES from the still secretive Hewitt. This particular DOLLI asserts will when he prevents the Pupil from inflicting pain on Gehenna, Jason’s girlfriend, during an attempt led by Firestorm to rescue Stein. He continues to protect her during the fight and disappears when faced by Firestorm.

A phrase tossed out during another fight between the DOLLIES and Firestorm leads Stein to believe there may be a connection with the Pionic Man. After some discussion, Stein builds a new containment suit and with Firestorm and Firehawk on hand, the former scientist is released into it. He rushes forward, unexpectedly hugging Firestorm and thanking him for the imprisonment which led to an intense self-reflection (he had been quite unhappy in his human life). In appreciation, he informs Stein every thing he knows about his unknown benefactor. It’s sufficient intel to lead them to Hewitt Industries, and of course, the obligatory confrontation between Firestorm and crew and Hewitt in his guise as Tokomak.

The last time Pionic Man is seen is in the company of the rogue DOLLI (now calling himself Head Dolli) as the sit at a New York diner discussing the woes of apartment hunting. They’re joined by Firestorm and we learn that Head Dolli approached the Pionic Man during the fight at Hewitt’s lab and persuaded him with the logic that “…one needn’t jump straight into every civil war or crisis that comes along” so the pair left and began “[to make] plans for a quieter, more sedate life.” Firestorm asks them: “Is this a ‘Brokeback Mountain’ thing, or a ‘Felix and Oscar’ thing?” to which Pionic Man exclaims “What a rude question!” Gehenna interrupts the conversation before more can be said. They appear in a few more panels and disappear; the book is canceled with the following issue. Hopefully they found happiness and a great, yet reasonably priced apartment!

Pionic Man appears first in Firestorm #14 (vol 2). Head Dollie first appears (as an anonymous cyborg) in Firestorm #23 (vol 2). During a fight with Firestorm in #16, Pionic Man recounts spending a summer in France with a young undergraduate student named Giselle, who then dumps him. While no longer referring to himself as Hastur, the Pionic Man gives no indication he thinks of himself as genderless, in spite of the Ken doll anatomically correctness of his containment suit. As a clone of a man, it can be presumed he has some genitalia. How or if they express themselves sexually is left to the imagination. While not explicitly stated by either character, I believe inclusion for both is warranted based on my reading.

© and ® DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Piper

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Formerly known as the Pied Piper and a member of the Flash’s (Barry Allen) Rogue’s Gallery. Hartley Rathaway was born deaf, but his wealthy parents paid for costly medical procedures to ultimately restore his hearing. When he could finally hear, a whole new world was opened up for him – and he became enamored by music and the science of sonics, much to his parents’ chagrin. Bored by other pursuits, Rathaway put on a ridiculous looking costume and decided to become a criminal – just for fun. Ultimately, he retired from crime, and became a trusted friend of Barry Allen’s successor, Wally West. Rathaway “came out” to the usually conservative West, who has surprisingly been very acceptive to his friend’s sexual orientation. Piper now channels his energies into championing gay rights and aiding Central City’s homeless. He has a current boyfriend named James.  James’ current status in regards to Hartley is something I can’t recall.

Piper was one of a cast of recurring characters in the year long, weekly Countdown (later Countdown to Final Crisis) series. He and Trickster had been implicated in the murder of Bart Allen at the time in which he became the Flash after Wally’s disappearance. Others in the Rogues’ Gallery doubted their avowed return to crime, forcing them to prove their loyalty through extortion and subsequent murder of a rich man through some hypnotically induced order on Piper’s part. Appearances were deceiving as Piper discretely made some special allowance to keep the man alive, and Trickster saw through the ruse.

They became an unlikely and reluctant pair on the lam from the Rogues, police, and superheroes and the situation becomes more literal when they’re cuffed together at the wrist after being captured by Deadshot (who’s working for Checkmate) as part of the effort to send all villains off-world. What follows is what seems to me a poorly executed attempt to put Piper and Trickster in a “bro-mantic” light as they continue their efforts to fight and escape various heroes and villains out to get them. Most of Piper’s part in the story is forgettable, as is the case with other events and characters from both reader and publisher viewpoints.

Of the few notable incidents was the story Piper recounts as his few days of survival on the run in the desert becomes dire. Piper began to lose touch with reality after Deadshot killed Trickster, and he was forced to carry and drag the body along until he finally came to the awful realization he had to sever Trickster’s hand from his dead body in order to survive a little longer. The trauma and stress have gotten to Piper and he acts as if Trickster is still alive, and tells how he first realized he is gay while watching a teenaged Rod Lauren play a character in the 1960s cult sci fi movie “The Crawling Hand“. This segues into what Piper mistakes as a portent of a “light at the end of the tunnel” death experience as a Boom Tube opens in the sky above.

Transported by the Boom Tube, Piper finds himself on Apokolips, always a harrowing experience. This time the danger is much worse as the planet and its people are under attack by Brother Eye. In a nutshell (because I don’t plan to re-read this mess of a storyline) Brother Eye is intent on neutralizing inhabitants to take over. Basically, Piper falls into Desaad’s clutches, which has been the sadist’s plan from the start as he apparently discovered and now reveals to Piper that he holds the Anti-Life Equation. One would’ve preferred an explanation of how Hartley became, according to Desaad, a “rare human vessel for the Anti-Life” rather than the simplistic statement that Piper’s abilities were related to his being said instrument.

In any case, while Darkseid and Solomon, the rogue Monitor, continue their grand game of chess with human and meta human players and Apokolips is burning, Desaad shouts at Hartley to play his flute  as the means to defeat the Omac which is threatening their lives. Desaad is blasted by the Omac, hurtling his body away, while Hartley prepares to die, only to surprisingly be taken prisoner. Piper escapes during an attack initiated by a number of the other main heroes, only to fall again into Desaad’s clutches, who forces him to play his flute and “Let the music flow through [him]! Unleash the Anti-Life Equation…” Piper’s making his last stand though and instead causes Desaad’s apparent death by head explosion. Not backing down, Piper’s next tune seems to drive away Brother Eye and then to hasten or be the sole cause for the explosions wracking Apokolips.

Hartley’s fate is a mystery till Countdown’s finale when he finally resurfaces in an alley way on Earth and he’s quite happy to be greeted by a small pack of rats.

He’s next seen in the 3 part Rogues’ Revenge mini series that sported a “Final Crisis” trade dress. The remaining Rogues have decided to retire in the aftermath of Bart (Impulse/ Kid Flash/ Flash #4) Allen at the hands of the rogues’. This plan is soon aborted when they discover a group of new villains are taking their places with the blessing of villain-du-crisis Libra. While these two groups are playing off each other, Hartley is busy lifting old pal James Jesse’s last will and testament. Jesse was the original trickster and had reformed like Hartely. The will was important for the information it contained about the rogues’ tech, safe houses, family members, etc. — everything Hartley would need to take the Rogues down them down and clear both his and Jesse’s names — written in (wait for it!) invisible ink. Piper’s appearance in #2 is even briefer as he simply observes Inertia (the villain ultimately responsible for Bart’s death) and Zoom, the reverse-Flash training and plotting against the Rogues as well.

Zoom and Inertia (now calling himself Kid Zoom) attack the Rogues for their own reasons and Hartley, who’s been hiding, jumps into the fray and uses his super duper tuning fork to create vibrations to immobilize the villains. He begins to take out his anger physically on them and is in turn surprised by a trident spike through his shoulder, courtesy of Libra who wants to punish the Rogues himself for refusing to join his super criminal network. Piper lies bleeding on the ground while all hell breaks loose between the Rogues, Libra, Zoom and Kid Zoom. The younger Zoom as he races like a crazed berserker seems on the verge of defeating them all until Hartley, using the harmonics of his flute, causes him to stand still abruptly, thus providing a perfect target for a five way killing blow dealt by the Rogues. Captain Cold confronts Hartley by calling him an accessory and threatening to spread this info if Piper doesn’t leave the Rogues alone. Piper’s only response is to turn away his face. Cue exit.

Using his uncanny knowledge of sound, Piper has created an array of sonic weapons, including a melodious flute which could enthrall all save the Piper himself with it’s strange notes. He has assisted the Flash (Wally West) on many occasions with various hearing and sound devices, and other technological wonders.

Piper (AKA Hartley Rathway) first appeared in Flash #106 (volume 1) and is revealed to be gay in Flash #53 (volume 2). After reforming himself, Hartley became a social activist and worked for the FBI though he never gave up his equipment or costume.

© and ® DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Queering The Legion

Saturday, February 5th, 2011

Giffen riffing on Kirby

A few months ago (October 20th, 2010 to be exact) Paul Levitz teased Legion readers with a two panel scene hinting at the return (or re-establishment?) of the relationship between Vi and Ayla. It may not have gotten a lot of attention because Phil Jimenez drew some serious man candy in the second story with a modern Grell inspired costume on Legion Academy recruit Gravity Kid. And his rendition of fellow recruit Chemical Kid and Legionnaires Ultra Boy, Lightning Lad and Timber Wolf are drool worthy too.

The tease became solid confirmation this week in Legion of Super Heroes annual #1 by Levitz and artist Keith Giffen. When last seen in Legion #6, the women were on their way to Imsk for the holidays. In the annual their ship has been violently pulled from space near Orando by the Emerald Eye and its new host, a young woman who was forced to be the sex slave of Duke Pharos. Found unconscious by the Empress, Vi and Ayla awake to find themselves imprisoned, which doesn’t prove to be an obstacle in the least. What does prove to be dicey is facing down this new Empress. Even when Sun Boy, Sensor Girl, and Gates arrive in the palace (got to love Gates’ teleportation!) containing the Empress is a huge challenge. Motivated by love and concern for Ayla’s welfare, Vi shows she’s not to be underestimated by using her ability to sever the connection between the Eye and the woman. Of course, this is comics so there’s a hint of something troubling in Vi’s future, and I think the possibility will be make for a good story and character development.

Major props to Levitz for giving back the Vi – Ayla relationship to readers and to Giffen for his artistic input. The way I see it there are two challenges ahead for Levitz and the Legion artists. One is easy. Continue developing Vi and Ayla as a couple. The other less so: create a gay male Legionnaire. The idea isn’t without precedent. Just see here, here, here, and oh, here, too. Bonus points if the character isn’t chronically single or doesn’t fall in love with a straight male character. Double bonus points if the boyfriend is a superhero too though it isn’t necessary. I think Levitz is up to the challenge.

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The Art Instructor

Friday, January 28th, 2011

In volume one of the Batman Archives is the Batman story originally printed in Detective #41. It’s the third appearance of Dick Grayson and Robin who plays an important role in this untitled story. One night a homocidal maniac escapes from an asylum. Even before Arkham it seems Gotham had trouble keeping villains incarcerated. The same night at Blake School For Boys (ahem) the superintendent is murdered outdoors on school grounds and student Ted Spencer is kidnapped from his bed. All of these events catch Bruce Wayne’s attention in the following day’s newspaper, requiring Batman’s involvement, with the help of Dick. One day later Bruce enrolls Dick in the private school.

Mr Blake himself shows Bruce and Dick around the school, and introduces Mr. Graves the art instructor. Graves caught my attention for several reasons and led me to wonder if Bill Finger and Bob Kane intended Graves to be gay. One reason is because art teachers (at all boys schools!) aren’t often shown in comics, though his art background figures in to the plot, and most importantly because of the way he’s depicted. He wears a frilly neck scarf, which may have had some contemporary popularity of which I’m unaware. His hair is upswept and appears more feminine in comparison to how the other male characters have their hair drawn. Lastly, in two panels his hand gestures seem more typically feminine. While he is an older character, to my eye it appears he was drawn to look less attractive. Aside from his appearance and mannerisms all we know is he’s excited to have a new student and his artistic eye is for engraving, which requires a good eye for detail and a steady hand.

Fresh faced and eager, Dick settles in to the school all the while investigating. As Robin, he finds the missing diary of the kidnapped boy, which the police just couldn’t find because (gasp!) it was in a jumble of school books on his desk. A masked man fights Robin for the diary, and quickly disappears after stealing it away. Minutes later, he comes across the homocidal maniac (remember him?) trying to stab a janitor he thinks is an asylum guard. They tussle, and Robin disappears at the sound of policeman who capture the unstable man, leading everyone to assume the perp is captured. Not so, thinks Dick, who that night discovers Blake is murdered and trails the masked man through secret tunnels after finding him in a class room. Thank goodness Batman appears from nowhere to help Robin fight the thugs who’re part of the masked figure’s gang! Sweet victory belongs to our youthful crimefighter when he slingshots a rock at the mystery villain. Batman unmasks the fallen rogue and reveals the bad guy to be Mr Graves, our fussy, otherwise mild-mannered art instructor. It seems he and Blake had a counterfeiting operation and the boy saw the costumed Graves one night.

In decades past gay characters appearing in media were usually coded and burdened with any number of stereotypes, including being evil, unworthy of love or happiness, fussy and effeminate, and predatory. Oh wait, some people still think these are true today! Proclaiming Graves a gay character representation may be a stretch, but he does seem a curiosity to me.

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Hello, James Robinson. I Never Hated You.

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Art by Tony Harris

“It’s ironic because in Starman – and I believe this to be true. And I’m willing to be called a liar. I’m not 100 percent sure of this. But I think within mainstream comics, be that Marvel and DC basically – I think in Starman, I had the first main, male gay kiss ever. So for me to be called a gay hater is ridiculous.”

James Robinson in Newsarama’s “2011′s Hot Buttons p.3: ROBINSON on DC’s Gay JLA’ers”

Yes, it’s true. Robinson’s statement about presenting the first gay male couple kiss in mainstream comics (Starman #45, cover dated August 1998) is correct, at least to the best of my knowledge. The scene was beautiful, unpretentious, and unexpected. I remember very well reading the comic and crying because of the love and tenderness that was conveyed and also because there in the pages of one of my favorite comics were two gay men – men who were in love with each other. My already high appreciation of your writing jumped to a new level.

To say my appreciation of your writing declined with reading your Cry For Justice mini series is an understatement. I never hated you though.

There was the off panel death of Tony, Mikaal’s boyfriend shown in the image here; both of them unseen for years, as has often happened with LGBT characters in DC and Marvel comics. I recall thinking Mikaal’s reaction to Tony’s death was unrealistic in that there was little grief, only a desire for vengeance.

Then Blue Jay was murdered. Or it seemed that way at the time since now Jay has recently been seen alive and well, and you revealed that he wasn’t dead in the first place. Here was another character, barely seen in years, one that many gay readers have claimed belonging to our tribe though we admittedly have little proof, senselessly contrived as dead.

As if to prove the cliche that death comes in three’s, you write a scene in which yet another shuffled off to limbo gay character is murdered. And not just murdered. You have Prometheus using his flayed skin as a fur rug.

Yes, other characters were murdered too. Straight characters. All killed as plot devices to make Prometheus a super bad ass villain.

Did it work?

For some readers I’d say yes. Not for me though, and not because I consider LGBT characters to be off limits in any way. My criticism of Cry For Justice, Mr. Robinson, was for what I took to be poor writing, plotting, and characterization on your part. At least that’s how I thought I criticized your story when I first wrote about Cry For Justice.

So, no, I was never one of the people who said “James Robinson hates gay people (or characters)”. Whether you included me in your statement is something only you can tell me. In case you didn’t read my comments here (and why should you have?), I’ll say it again just in case: Thanks for the script that kept my interest and gives me cause to anticipate more of the same, Mr. Robinson. And sincere appreciation for undoing Taz’s grisly and pointless death. Plus, advance kudos for creating another relationship for Mikaal. Just don’t tell me that Tas’ last boyfriend was killed!

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Bat Lash: The Dandy Cowboy

Monday, January 10th, 2011

A small stack of comics mostly from the Silver Age that I picked up here and there throughout last year sits on the floor next to my bed. Many of them are worn reader copies, not too precious to take out of their bags to enjoy. Among them is a copy of Showcase #76 which debuted Bat Lash in the summer of 1968. A full year of superhero comics by then, my ten year old self just wasn’t interested in a western comic. A few years later things would’ve been different. Besides, there was no way a comic could have the same appeal as the often shirtless Robert Conrad (minus the bondage themes) in Wild Wild West had for me.

That's Nick Cardy art!

Forty two years later, I have to say that may have been wrong. Reading Bat Lash last night before turing in was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

“Will he save the West or ruin it?” was the question posed in DC house ads for Bat Lash. He was an atypical Western character, from his colorful vest, flower adorned hatband, a horse named Daisy to his gastronomic tastes for fine food and wine, and an aversion to violence. If not for Lash’s interest in women he could possibly be taken as a forerunner to the gay version of Rawhide Kid. The connotations of these affectations weren’t lost on writer Sergio Aragones which as you can see he addressed  in these panels with Bat encountering some of the local men from the town of Welcome, a place that proves to be just the opposite.

Despite the aversion to violence, Bat makes quick work of the mocking men, but only after removing the flower from his hat and doffing his hat to a woman to politely excuse him from their conversation. Surprisingly, after the fight ends Lash’s thoughts return to his gourmet pheasant dinner (and the woman he wants to share it with)!

A couple points seem remarkable to me. First, the portrayal of a heroic male lead with non-traditional masculine traits in the stereotypical masculine genre of Westerns and a comic at a time when content was held to strict Comics Code guidelines about sex and showing “deviant” elements specifically. And this happened 35 years before a gay Rawhide Kid caused such a media sensation. Sure, Bat isn’t a gun slinging sodomite as these good ol’ boys believe but neither is he John Wayne. So even though the words and mannerisms of the big blond guy are derogatory, it’s pretty clear by Aragones’ story that Lash doesn’t tolerate crap and he doesn’t see anything wrong with his behavior or appearance. That seems to be a positive message in a comic over 40 years ago, one that might have come in handy for a 10 year old.

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Welcome Back, You!

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

At one time James Robinson was one of my favorite comic writers. That was when Robinson was writing Starman throughout the 90s. His return to comics was an event for which I’d hoped, until it happened and his Cry For Justice and most of his JLA left me either disappointed, confused, or angry as was the case with the transformation of Tasmanian Devil from a D-list hero to a floor rug for inflated bad ass Prometheus. Well, saying that C4J had me angry is trying to paint me in a good light.

Honestly, I hated the writing and most of its aspects and I hated that reading the comics in question felt like the old cliche of watching an awful car accident.

I tried to put those feelings aside when adding the Starman/ Congorilla one shot to my January pull list. Even so, keeping expectations low was the best I could do in anticipating this special.

And then I read the story, and was really surprised by Robinson’s work here. The dialog between and characterization of Mikaal and Congorilla was a real joy to read, which made some of the less successful plot elements less of a problem for me. Robinson advances Mikaal’s emotional state of mind in the wake of his boyfriend Tony’s murder and sets the stage for future love prospects. Best of all, Robinson manages to bring back to life Tasmanian Devil! How Taz returns to the four color world is something I’ll leave for you to find out.

Art by Brett Booth

Thanks for the script that kept my interest and gives me cause to anticipate more of the same, Mr. Robinson. And sincere appreciation for undoing Taz’s grisly and pointless death.

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DC Universe Online

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Not necessarily final box art

Review by Liam

The NDA has finally been lifted on DC Universe Online and as promised here are my first impressions. Please keep in mind that the game is technically still in Beta so none of this is finalized.

Let’s start with the storyline that is shown in the video I am sure most of us have seen. The basic idea is that a Future Lex Luthor has come back to enlist the help of today’s heroes in cleaning up his own mess. Seems in his timeline he actually defeated all of the Super Heroes. And the moment the last one fell, the true enemy surfaced (Brainiac!) and destroyed the planet. Lex survived by living in the air ducts. He’s come back and insisted that we need a much larger super hero force to defeat what lay ahead. He brought something to help, modified Brainiac spores that contain the powers of heroes from his timeline. He has released these on to our unsuspecting world to create new heroes. Obviously this is where you come in. You take the role of one of these newly created Super Beings who has been captured by Brainiac and the tutorial is your escape.

The character creation is very lacking when compared to other Super Hero Multiplayer games. The idea is you should created a “base” costume (you are a prisoner after all) and as you get drops from doing missions and beating up on people, you will get more specialized gear. This incorporates the MMO standard of “phat loot”, while still allowing you to choose if you actually look like you are wearing the item or not. The major problem here is even with the drops and styles of costumes, you could collect every piece of it and still come nowhere near the offerings of City Of Heroes or Champions. Many people have begged for more costume options. It’s one of the biggest complaints in the beta.

The second biggest complaint is the power sets. First off allow me to explain a rather complicated combat system. First off, everyone has a Base Attack and a Ranged Attack. Even if you are a “Pistol” user, you still hit people with your pistol or shoot them. The choices for the Attack Styles are decent enough and with the loot in the game you can quickly change your choice of weapon into something you can live with. You have basics like Brawling, Martial Arts, Pistols, Rifle, One Handed, Two handed, Staff and Hand Blast. Without even getting into the actual Power Sets, let’s look at combat with just the Attack Styles. On the PC your Melee attack is the Left mouse button. So to hit something you click. To hit it again, you click again. Now let’s say you want to mix it up and use your ranged attack. Well that’s the Right mouse button. So combat soon becomes a carpal tunnel educing combination of right and left clicks to take down your foes. After just one day of playing, I went to my local game store to purchase a game pad. There really is very little way you can play this game with mouse and keyboard and expect to be able to use your hands later. As a side note, the game is being released on PC and PS3. However, when it comes to controllers on the PC, the PS3 controllers will not work. You must get a wired Xbox 360 controller. Since that’s made by Microsoft, it’s plug and play with Windows 7. Again, the game is in no way ever going to released on Xbox 360, but the only controller you can use is an Xbox 360 one plugged into your PC. As a result, the game indicates you should push your standard PS3 buttons (since it knows you are using a game pad), but since you are using an Xbox controller, none of the buttons are labeled with those symbols! In other words you must know the layout of a PS3 controller just to use a 360 controller on your PC. Sound convoluted? Yes. Yes it does.

Now that you have all that, let’s add in the actual Power Sets. These come in only three flavors. Two powers for each flavor. You can choose to be Defensive, Controller or Healer. As Defensive you have Fire or Ice. Controllers have Gadgets and Mental. Healers have Magic and Nature. That’s it. The way these powers play out is as follows. Let’s say you took Staff and Nature. When you hit something with your staff, you will get nature graphics and colors to your attack. Then once you gain super powers, you will do things like Vine Whip to pull things closer, bloom to heal yourself and team mates. Or you could go the other way with it and transform yourself into a gorilla (a la Beast Boy). There are options, but they are very limited. Which is the real draw back to any sort of creation in the game. There simply are not enough choices when you compare this game to any other Super Hero game out there.

To make things more complicated, each side (Hero and Villain) has three story lines, depending on who you choose as your Mentor. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman will lead you on the Hero side, while Joker, Lex and Circe are your choices for Villains. Not only do these define your storyline but they also define your “gear”. Joker/Batman are Tech, Lex/ Superman are Genetics and Wonder Woman/Circe are Magic. I played through most of these up to the first “Boss” battle. They are designed to let you “live” in that character’s world. For instance Batman sent me to first fight off some Scarecrow bad guys, Superman was after Parasite, etc. This part of the game is the most confusing for new players because they are asked to make a choice that is not clearly defined in the creation process. Go with your gut, choose who you like. I spent more time in Batman/Joker than anyone else because Gotham is my city of choice. The Tech,Genetics and Magic parts really just effect the vendors you will use in game.

The story is interesting and the characters you run into are a fans wet dream. Within moments of signing up with the Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill!), I was talking to Catwoman and Two Face. My big boss battle was with Huntress (Catwoman fighting by my side). The flavor of the game is dead on and plays directly into the fans wanting to interact with the people we know from the comics. However traveling through the city (Flying, Acrobatics or Speed are your only choices. I suggest Acrobatics. It’s a lot of fun, but actually plays more like Spiderman than Batman), it feels empty. Unless you are in the middle of a hot zone, there never seems to be much going on in these huge cities. You see a few people on the streets but nothing like what you’d expect in a major city. Not a huge deal but it feels much more like you are playing on an abandoned movie lot than a thriving city.

The real problem here is the combat and game system itself. The first rule of this game is to forget everything you know about MMOs. If you try to compare it to any other MMO you will simply fail. This is not a “Target, Click, Wait” kind of game. It’s much more of an arcade game or an action title. If you played any of the X-men Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, you will feel right at home. It’s basically those games taken to a single character perspective (instead of a team of four). From punching and kicking to using your powers, this is action game play. If the game had been made into a single player, stand alone game this would be fairly on target. But as a “pay per month” Multiplayer game, it’s very repetitive and dumbed down. Your success in the game has much more to do with your ability to mash a button faster than your opponent than your “power” as a hero or villain. The game does look great it’s just a shame that it doesn’t play as well. Since this is in Beta, there are several voices missing, several missions that don’t work and other small issues, but it’s very easy to see these things being polished off before release. I don’t see the actual game play, costume selection or Power Sets getting an overhaul any time soon and these are where the main problems are.

If anything I could see someone buying it and using the free month to see what there is to see. What I can’t see is paying $15 a month for something that is sub par to many of the other (Free To Play!!) MMOs now flooding the market. If not for the subscription fee, it might be worth it just for the fan service. As it is I can’t see myself paying money for a game that simply doesn’t offer what I want in an MMO. Even with my pre-order, I don’t think I will see the launch of this one.

PSN Premium Members will get an offer to test the PS3 Beta after the first of the year and the PC PreOrders should already be in the game. By the time it releases anyone who was interested in the game should have had a chance to look at it. I don’t think this will be as bad as All Points Bulletin (an MMO that has already closed it’s servers only a few months after launch), but I don’t see it putting much of a dent in City Of Heroes or Champions Online’s memberships. And with Champions going Free To Play next year, if anything I see their numbers growing.

I am a disappointed fan. I love Jim Lee’s work. All the voices I expect these characters to have are in game. I love the universe this thing is set in. But there just isn’t enough actual game here to keep me interested more than a few days. Nice try though.

Visit DC Universe Online

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