Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Versus: Superboy (DC Comics) Vs. Invincible (Image)
Neither has reached their potential.
Both are destined for great things.
Both could pulverize a mountain in a flourish.
Both are battle tested and battle hardened.
One is a clone of comicdom's greatest superhero, The Man Of Steel. He is also the clone of comicdom's greatest supervillain, Lex Luthor.
The other was a alien/human hybrid who was born to take over The Earth. He'd reeeally rather not, though.
Both are destined for great things.
Both could pulverize a mountain in a flourish.
Both are battle tested and battle hardened.
One is a clone of comicdom's greatest superhero, The Man Of Steel. He is also the clone of comicdom's greatest supervillain, Lex Luthor.
The other was a alien/human hybrid who was born to take over The Earth. He'd reeeally rather not, though.
SUPERBOY
VS.
INVINCIBLE
Second Printers, YOU DECIDE!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
More NHL Guardians than you can handle
Sunday night at the always lackluster game of shinny that was the NHL All-Star Game, the NHL Guardians made their debut in a 3 1/2 minute true multimedia extravaganza. I had spent the previous week really ragging on the design of these characters, but I have to say that the CGI effort was actually tremendously solid and I think the majority of the characters work better (if they work at all) in the CGI design as opposed to the comic illustrations. See for yourself.
As for the content, well, it's about as engaging as a Super Friends cartoon, in that it's juvenile and patronizing. Devon Dark is as silly a villain name as has been perpetrated in the modern age of superheroes (although I didn't catch all the villain names on "The Cape" during the 20 minutes I could bear watching that show, so there could easily be plenty worse) and the leader of the Guardians decreed as "Mike Mason" in the presentation was equally groan inducing (either that or leading to hockey fans questioning "You mean the Columbus goaltender?" "No, that's Steve Mason." "Oh, so the Atlanta goaltender, then." "No, that's Chris Mason." "So who the hell is Mike Mason?") But damn if there weren't some cool things going on in that presentation... the transformation of the RBC Centre into a giant nondescript weapon of sorts was pretty cool, and the on-ice projected display must have been pretty impressive in person (same technology that was used at last year's Vancouver Winter Olympics closing ceremony I imagine).
With all the Guardians revealed and the big debut at the All-Star Game the Guardian Project website went totally live, and as with their presentation on Sunday, this effort, in fact is generally exceptionally well done (if the nuances are cheesy and/or painful).
Entering the site gives you two options: "The Vault" and "The Chronicles"
The Vault is a visually impressive flash-based interface that boots up what it must be like to sit doing JLA monitor duty. A grid of all the Guardians pops up, with most currently displaying "ALERT: Unable To Locate", with a few others' images appearing but greyed out ("Guardian Not Online"). The Hurricane is currently the only clickable Guardian which leads to an interactive page centering around a CGI display of the Hurricane, with clickable areas to discover his powers, learn more about him, download wallpaper, comics and posters. As well, you can register yourself to the sight and receive "private" messages from Mike Mason about the status of the Guardians if you're so inclined. There's an impressive music score backing the Vault, full of intensity and gravitas. They've made a really great effort, so it's quite unfortunate that everything it hinges upon, the validity of these characters as actual superheroes falls so flat.
"The Chronicles" provides access to some of the elements of the Vault but in a less Flash-intensive setting. But there's more product in the Chronicles at this point, with excerpts from the Guardians novel (yes, apparently there's a novel) providing background on Mike Mason and Devon Dark (I haven't read these excerpts yet, so I'll refrain from comment). There is a 6-page comic (one title/spash page and 5 story pages) for each Guardian scripted by Chuck Dixon but conceived by Jake Shapiro and/or Tony Chargin (presumably behind-the scenes guys at the Guardian Project... Chargin it appears in co-founder of Guardian Media Entertainment and EVP Creative Affairs).
Dixon, a workhorse writer and usually solid and dependable, gives an effort here that is clearly for-hire and passionless, the result being that most of these stories are ridiculously painful to read. It's clear that he was given a list of things to touch on for each character, such as a clear display of each of their powers (and as we've said before, the Guardians are overloaded with powers, like a role-playing game creation session gone horribly awry) and the involvement of city-specific landmarks and/or character attributes for that city that sometimes border on hoary cliche. What was forgotten, or not at all allowed, was character. There's very little distinctive personality from Guardian to Guardian or villain to villain. They're not even cartoonishly fleshed out, because they're not fleshed out at all. Each Guardian reads like the other with awful puns (I imagine Dixon had fun seeing how bitingly painful he could make these puns) or beyond cliche closing sentiments ("Whenever I'm needed, Sabre will be there.").
The purpose for each story is to show a previous adventure each of the Guardians have had, and they're all stock golden-age style plots: villain up to no good, hero intervenes, the end. There's nothing to say that one hero is more of an adventurer than the other or that any of them have secret identities or that they're interested in anything but lame jokes and foiling poorly constructed villainous plots.
If you tally it up, there's 150 pages of story here. It would have been brilliant to give Dixon free reign to write his own adventure(s) to fill the pages and develop/distinguish at least some of the characters. Alas.
On the art side, there's some recognizable talent, like Matt Haley (Blackhawk, Duck, Flame) and Sal Velluto (King, Ranger, Red Wing, Senator) dropping some less than enthusiastic work. Kevin Stokes (Coyote, Maple Leaf, Predator, Penguin), Mike Lilly (Devil, Islander) and Nathan Massengill (Sabre) actually provide something intriguing (or at least really good looking) but it's actually Tevor Von Eeden, an artist who I've never been too fond of, that really shines here (Bruin, Canuck, Canadien, Capital, Star, Flyer and Thrasher), with some really inventive panel designs and generally going above and beyond the call of duty here with some insanely cool sequences (at least, relative to the content).
(If you must, recommended are the stories for Bruin, Capital, Star, Devil, Islander, Coyote, Predator, Sabre, Duck, Ranger, found under the "Guardian Battles" section)
Elsewhere the site is a section for "Guardians in their Cities" which currently has videos for the LA King and the Philadelphia Flyer. These are 30-second CGI animations, parts of which appeared in the All-Star presentation but with descriptive tags.
Overall, the design of the website is a winner, navigation is easy, it's just truly unfortunate that the characters are so generally weak.
Of all the characters, in design I think I like either the Calgary Flame or Dallas Star the most (of a very short list), while I think the Oiler and the Coyote are the most horrendous (though in practice by way of the comics, the Blue Jacket is truly an abomination, as the Coyote story is fairly decent and the Oiler quite forgettable).
I'm horrified, yet curious, somewhat offended but intrigued by this whole thing. There's grand commercialism at play, and I haven't decided how it's any different than what goes on with mainstream comics, except that, I guess, the popularity of comic characters is determined organically as opposed to shoving a character down a particular city's throat by association.
Next week... reaction from geeks, kids, hockey fans and the totally unaffiliated.
As for the content, well, it's about as engaging as a Super Friends cartoon, in that it's juvenile and patronizing. Devon Dark is as silly a villain name as has been perpetrated in the modern age of superheroes (although I didn't catch all the villain names on "The Cape" during the 20 minutes I could bear watching that show, so there could easily be plenty worse) and the leader of the Guardians decreed as "Mike Mason" in the presentation was equally groan inducing (either that or leading to hockey fans questioning "You mean the Columbus goaltender?" "No, that's Steve Mason." "Oh, so the Atlanta goaltender, then." "No, that's Chris Mason." "So who the hell is Mike Mason?") But damn if there weren't some cool things going on in that presentation... the transformation of the RBC Centre into a giant nondescript weapon of sorts was pretty cool, and the on-ice projected display must have been pretty impressive in person (same technology that was used at last year's Vancouver Winter Olympics closing ceremony I imagine).
With all the Guardians revealed and the big debut at the All-Star Game the Guardian Project website went totally live, and as with their presentation on Sunday, this effort, in fact is generally exceptionally well done (if the nuances are cheesy and/or painful).
Entering the site gives you two options: "The Vault" and "The Chronicles"
The Vault is a visually impressive flash-based interface that boots up what it must be like to sit doing JLA monitor duty. A grid of all the Guardians pops up, with most currently displaying "ALERT: Unable To Locate", with a few others' images appearing but greyed out ("Guardian Not Online"). The Hurricane is currently the only clickable Guardian which leads to an interactive page centering around a CGI display of the Hurricane, with clickable areas to discover his powers, learn more about him, download wallpaper, comics and posters. As well, you can register yourself to the sight and receive "private" messages from Mike Mason about the status of the Guardians if you're so inclined. There's an impressive music score backing the Vault, full of intensity and gravitas. They've made a really great effort, so it's quite unfortunate that everything it hinges upon, the validity of these characters as actual superheroes falls so flat.
"The Chronicles" provides access to some of the elements of the Vault but in a less Flash-intensive setting. But there's more product in the Chronicles at this point, with excerpts from the Guardians novel (yes, apparently there's a novel) providing background on Mike Mason and Devon Dark (I haven't read these excerpts yet, so I'll refrain from comment). There is a 6-page comic (one title/spash page and 5 story pages) for each Guardian scripted by Chuck Dixon but conceived by Jake Shapiro and/or Tony Chargin (presumably behind-the scenes guys at the Guardian Project... Chargin it appears in co-founder of Guardian Media Entertainment and EVP Creative Affairs).
Dixon, a workhorse writer and usually solid and dependable, gives an effort here that is clearly for-hire and passionless, the result being that most of these stories are ridiculously painful to read. It's clear that he was given a list of things to touch on for each character, such as a clear display of each of their powers (and as we've said before, the Guardians are overloaded with powers, like a role-playing game creation session gone horribly awry) and the involvement of city-specific landmarks and/or character attributes for that city that sometimes border on hoary cliche. What was forgotten, or not at all allowed, was character. There's very little distinctive personality from Guardian to Guardian or villain to villain. They're not even cartoonishly fleshed out, because they're not fleshed out at all. Each Guardian reads like the other with awful puns (I imagine Dixon had fun seeing how bitingly painful he could make these puns) or beyond cliche closing sentiments ("Whenever I'm needed, Sabre will be there.").
The purpose for each story is to show a previous adventure each of the Guardians have had, and they're all stock golden-age style plots: villain up to no good, hero intervenes, the end. There's nothing to say that one hero is more of an adventurer than the other or that any of them have secret identities or that they're interested in anything but lame jokes and foiling poorly constructed villainous plots.
If you tally it up, there's 150 pages of story here. It would have been brilliant to give Dixon free reign to write his own adventure(s) to fill the pages and develop/distinguish at least some of the characters. Alas.
On the art side, there's some recognizable talent, like Matt Haley (Blackhawk, Duck, Flame) and Sal Velluto (King, Ranger, Red Wing, Senator) dropping some less than enthusiastic work. Kevin Stokes (Coyote, Maple Leaf, Predator, Penguin), Mike Lilly (Devil, Islander) and Nathan Massengill (Sabre) actually provide something intriguing (or at least really good looking) but it's actually Tevor Von Eeden, an artist who I've never been too fond of, that really shines here (Bruin, Canuck, Canadien, Capital, Star, Flyer and Thrasher), with some really inventive panel designs and generally going above and beyond the call of duty here with some insanely cool sequences (at least, relative to the content).
(If you must, recommended are the stories for Bruin, Capital, Star, Devil, Islander, Coyote, Predator, Sabre, Duck, Ranger, found under the "Guardian Battles" section)
Elsewhere the site is a section for "Guardians in their Cities" which currently has videos for the LA King and the Philadelphia Flyer. These are 30-second CGI animations, parts of which appeared in the All-Star presentation but with descriptive tags.
Overall, the design of the website is a winner, navigation is easy, it's just truly unfortunate that the characters are so generally weak.
Of all the characters, in design I think I like either the Calgary Flame or Dallas Star the most (of a very short list), while I think the Oiler and the Coyote are the most horrendous (though in practice by way of the comics, the Blue Jacket is truly an abomination, as the Coyote story is fairly decent and the Oiler quite forgettable).
I'm horrified, yet curious, somewhat offended but intrigued by this whole thing. There's grand commercialism at play, and I haven't decided how it's any different than what goes on with mainstream comics, except that, I guess, the popularity of comic characters is determined organically as opposed to shoving a character down a particular city's throat by association.
Next week... reaction from geeks, kids, hockey fans and the totally unaffiliated.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Introducing the NEW New Guardians (day 5)
Welcome back to the Old People Be Hatin' blog, where we're looking at the genius/ridiculous/mad genius concept of the NHL Guardians Project, wherein each of the NHL's 30 teams has been re-invisioned as a super-hero. Each day in January a new Guardian has been unveiled, so today we present the final six. Also, I just noticed that there are extended descriptions of each hero on NHL.com, which I've retroactively linked to. Some are outright hilarious (the Blue Jacket was a particular high point with his time-stopping flag).
The Florida Panther
Powers: night vision; light refraction; carbide claws; super-agility; dark matter manipulation
Remember in "52" when Booster Gold was running around with corporate logos all over his costume like a spandex version of a NASCAR racer? Well, this is just the start of things for Black Panther, as this, seriously, looks exactly like the late-90's Christopher Priest-scribed Black Panther, only more blue tinged and of course sportin' the NHL belt bling and Florida Panther's emblem on his chest like Flava Flav might a clock.
The New York Ranger
Powers: narcoleptic confusion, titanium cable, shockwave bomb, hover horse
There's a definite Judge Dredd vibe going on, although "dread" is a little too strong a word... let's call him Judge Superpro. Weak. Anyway, with exception to the fact that he looks like a character out of Rollerball (James Caan 1970's version) there's nothing all that wrong here. There's definitely worse... much, much worse.
The Anaheim Duck
Powers: innate genius level IQ; water breathing; chi; hydro pulse jet propulsion; omniscientific weapon creation
Jeebus Chrimbus, they actually did something cool with the Duck. Either they've really done a phenomenal job or I'm delusional with extreme lowered expectations, but yeah, I think this is cool. I'm not certain about the boogie board, but this guy's like a black and gold version of GI Joe's Wetsuit, with a weird metal duck bill. But yeah. Impressed. I'm also hoping that's Patrick Swayze's Bodhi under that mask.
The St. Louis Blue
Powers: mind control; dissolution; teleportation arch
At first he seems pretty cool, with his cold blue Firestorm-esque hair and his bad-ass trenchcoat, then you find out that his mind control is a result of his trusty saxophone which he keeps by his side. Oh no, heading into "Shadowman"/"Night Man" territory here, an extremely well trod landscape.
The New York Islander
Powers: Super strength; altered composition; grappling hook; oceanic manipulation
And here I was afraid that the Islander would be wearing a banana-yellow slicker and sporting a white beard, instead they delivered a mammoth, armored, anchor-sized grappling hook-toting badass who actually looks pretty cool. Both the Islanders and the Oilers sport blue and orange here and both characters are tanks, but for some reason this really works for me and the Oiler is the lamest of the bunch. They went excessive with his powers (he doesn't need oceanic manipulation) but otherwise...groovy.
The Atlanta Thrasher
Powers: flight; aeronautical empathy; ionic hand cannons; supersonic flight; cruise missiles; stealth technology
Our last Guardian doesn't mean he's the worst. As has occurred throughout this process with many other Guardians the CGI maquette and the illustrated images offer two completely different perspectives on the Thrasher, and I think the illustration is right horrible but the maquette is pretty cool.. a human steath bomber? Hey, it actually works.
And that's 30.
Tomorrow, we'll examine the big 10 minute multimedia/Stan Lee-hyperbolic reveal from the All-Star Game and later this week some special Guardians coverage... from a different perspective.
The Florida Panther
Powers: night vision; light refraction; carbide claws; super-agility; dark matter manipulation
Remember in "52" when Booster Gold was running around with corporate logos all over his costume like a spandex version of a NASCAR racer? Well, this is just the start of things for Black Panther, as this, seriously, looks exactly like the late-90's Christopher Priest-scribed Black Panther, only more blue tinged and of course sportin' the NHL belt bling and Florida Panther's emblem on his chest like Flava Flav might a clock.
The New York Ranger
Powers: narcoleptic confusion, titanium cable, shockwave bomb, hover horse
There's a definite Judge Dredd vibe going on, although "dread" is a little too strong a word... let's call him Judge Superpro. Weak. Anyway, with exception to the fact that he looks like a character out of Rollerball (James Caan 1970's version) there's nothing all that wrong here. There's definitely worse... much, much worse.
The Anaheim Duck
Powers: innate genius level IQ; water breathing; chi; hydro pulse jet propulsion; omniscientific weapon creation
Jeebus Chrimbus, they actually did something cool with the Duck. Either they've really done a phenomenal job or I'm delusional with extreme lowered expectations, but yeah, I think this is cool. I'm not certain about the boogie board, but this guy's like a black and gold version of GI Joe's Wetsuit, with a weird metal duck bill. But yeah. Impressed. I'm also hoping that's Patrick Swayze's Bodhi under that mask.
The St. Louis Blue
Powers: mind control; dissolution; teleportation arch
At first he seems pretty cool, with his cold blue Firestorm-esque hair and his bad-ass trenchcoat, then you find out that his mind control is a result of his trusty saxophone which he keeps by his side. Oh no, heading into "Shadowman"/"Night Man" territory here, an extremely well trod landscape.
The New York Islander
Powers: Super strength; altered composition; grappling hook; oceanic manipulation
And here I was afraid that the Islander would be wearing a banana-yellow slicker and sporting a white beard, instead they delivered a mammoth, armored, anchor-sized grappling hook-toting badass who actually looks pretty cool. Both the Islanders and the Oilers sport blue and orange here and both characters are tanks, but for some reason this really works for me and the Oiler is the lamest of the bunch. They went excessive with his powers (he doesn't need oceanic manipulation) but otherwise...groovy.
The Atlanta Thrasher
Powers: flight; aeronautical empathy; ionic hand cannons; supersonic flight; cruise missiles; stealth technology
Our last Guardian doesn't mean he's the worst. As has occurred throughout this process with many other Guardians the CGI maquette and the illustrated images offer two completely different perspectives on the Thrasher, and I think the illustration is right horrible but the maquette is pretty cool.. a human steath bomber? Hey, it actually works.
And that's 30.
Tomorrow, we'll examine the big 10 minute multimedia/Stan Lee-hyperbolic reveal from the All-Star Game and later this week some special Guardians coverage... from a different perspective.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
We're BAAAaaack
Has your life been feeling empty, incomplete, hollow, shallow, unfulfilled, adjective, thesaurus these past few months without your regular dose of verbose reviews from the two remaining perpetrators of this here occasiablog?
Well, now life is complete once again as THOR'S COMIC COLUMN is back @ CHUD.COM!
Trumpets!
Fanfare!
Yawn!
Huzzah!
Well, now life is complete once again as THOR'S COMIC COLUMN is back @ CHUD.COM!
Trumpets!
Fanfare!
Yawn!
Huzzah!
Introducing the NEW New Guardians (day 4)
I've been trying to figure out who the illustrator is in the pictures that I've cribbed from the Guardians' Facebook page. I originally thought it might be Phil Jimenez, but it's not quite his style or level of detail, so next I thought Ethan Van Sciver, but it's not him either upon closer inspection. Devon brought up Neil Adams in his comment to my first post, and that's left me scratching my head. Is it Adams? If so you figure they might advertise that a little louder. Or is it some work-for-hire artist who doesn't really do comic work, or someone I just can't pick up on.
Thoughts?
Today:
The Calgary Flame
Powers: pyrokinesis, flight, heat vision, fire resistance, flaming stampede
Holy, not only do I think this design is good, it's actually quite attractive. It's a simple luchador-style get up (given Calgary's history with wrestling - the home of Bret Hart amongst others - it's not a bad nod) but it... yeah, it looks good. Wow. And his powers make sense fully, with the exception of a "flaming stampede"? Really. You were doing so good there for a moment...
The Dallas Star
Powers: flight, hydrogen blasts, EMP ripple, space travel, solar storm
Two winners in a row. This guy looks like a Masters of the Universe figure. And not a reject figure but an honest to gosh popular one... a cool one even. And unlike other armored figures in this line, this one is really quite restrained both in design and colour use (not sure about the toes though). I like him, quite a bit, actually, and a great, logical, and not at all obtuse power set.
The Colorado Avalanche
Powers: chryosuit, oxygen control, traveling chrystasis, chryokinesis, chrystasis,
Holy poopies. A third winner. There's something about this guy I actually really like. But to me he looks like he should be an aquatic explorer rather than working the peaks of the Rockies. He's also the first (only?) non-caucasian character (or obvious non-caucasian) or animal-based character I've seen so far. Yes, hockey is a fairly whitewashed sport, but that's been slowly changing over the past decade. But I digress... I think there's maybe even a Kirby feel to this... love it.
The Phoenix Coyote
Powers: elemental manipulation, night vision, tracking, interdimensional summoning, venomous quills
Oooooooh, Guardian Project, no. No, no, no. And you were doing so well today. What would it look like if Wolverine, Gambit and Grifter were all mashed up into one monstrously ugly superhero? This would be it. Jesus Chrimbus, this is everything wrong with the 1990's swirled up in a shit stew. Sorry Phoenix. They should have really went with a hybrid Phoenix/Coyote thing... that would have been interesting... but likely just as ugly. And that power set... so messed up. "Venomous quills"? For a coyote? I think maybe this is even worse than the Oiler. Hard to say.
The Toronto Maple Leaf
Powers: molecular elasticity, mass manipulation, chlorokinetic communication (!), regeneration, sap bombs
The "Swamp Thing" character of the group, which is all well and good. I really don't have a problem with this character conceptually. In fact I was wondering how they were going to make anything bad-ass out of a Maple Leaf, and a living maple tree is about as good as you're going to get. But really, does a living maple tree need a mask (what identity is he really protecting), or a t-shirt and shorts? If they were smart, they would have just had the Leafs and NHL logo carved into him... as is he looks a little silly. I AM GROOT!
The Ottawa Senator
Powers: power negation, channeling, mind control, gladiator skill, super agility
Okay, LA King... take a look here. This is pretty much done right. It's a flippin' gladiator, no real flourishes beyond that. Straightforward, fairly kick-ass looking, and not a hint of spandex. Not bad. I think they were trying too hard with the power set though.
Wow... that's like 4 and a half quality characters in one day. All hope may not be lost for this project after all. I look forward to finding out more about the Flame, the Star, and the Avalanche. Really.
So it all ends tomorrow (or perhaps on the weekend, I may have timed this incorrectly). The final six are The Florida Panther, The New York Ranger, The New York Islander (who I'm hoping isn't a Captain Highliner look-a-like), The St. Louis Blue, The Atlanta Thrasher, and the one I'm most curious about... The Anaheim Duck. Maybe that last one can just be Emilio Estevez... or Joshua Jackson.
Thoughts?
Today:
The Calgary Flame
Powers: pyrokinesis, flight, heat vision, fire resistance, flaming stampede
Holy, not only do I think this design is good, it's actually quite attractive. It's a simple luchador-style get up (given Calgary's history with wrestling - the home of Bret Hart amongst others - it's not a bad nod) but it... yeah, it looks good. Wow. And his powers make sense fully, with the exception of a "flaming stampede"? Really. You were doing so good there for a moment...
The Dallas Star
Powers: flight, hydrogen blasts, EMP ripple, space travel, solar storm
Two winners in a row. This guy looks like a Masters of the Universe figure. And not a reject figure but an honest to gosh popular one... a cool one even. And unlike other armored figures in this line, this one is really quite restrained both in design and colour use (not sure about the toes though). I like him, quite a bit, actually, and a great, logical, and not at all obtuse power set.
The Colorado Avalanche
Powers: chryosuit, oxygen control, traveling chrystasis, chryokinesis, chrystasis,
Holy poopies. A third winner. There's something about this guy I actually really like. But to me he looks like he should be an aquatic explorer rather than working the peaks of the Rockies. He's also the first (only?) non-caucasian character (or obvious non-caucasian) or animal-based character I've seen so far. Yes, hockey is a fairly whitewashed sport, but that's been slowly changing over the past decade. But I digress... I think there's maybe even a Kirby feel to this... love it.
The Phoenix Coyote
Powers: elemental manipulation, night vision, tracking, interdimensional summoning, venomous quills
Oooooooh, Guardian Project, no. No, no, no. And you were doing so well today. What would it look like if Wolverine, Gambit and Grifter were all mashed up into one monstrously ugly superhero? This would be it. Jesus Chrimbus, this is everything wrong with the 1990's swirled up in a shit stew. Sorry Phoenix. They should have really went with a hybrid Phoenix/Coyote thing... that would have been interesting... but likely just as ugly. And that power set... so messed up. "Venomous quills"? For a coyote? I think maybe this is even worse than the Oiler. Hard to say.
The Toronto Maple Leaf
Powers: molecular elasticity, mass manipulation, chlorokinetic communication (!), regeneration, sap bombs
The "Swamp Thing" character of the group, which is all well and good. I really don't have a problem with this character conceptually. In fact I was wondering how they were going to make anything bad-ass out of a Maple Leaf, and a living maple tree is about as good as you're going to get. But really, does a living maple tree need a mask (what identity is he really protecting), or a t-shirt and shorts? If they were smart, they would have just had the Leafs and NHL logo carved into him... as is he looks a little silly. I AM GROOT!
The Ottawa Senator
Powers: power negation, channeling, mind control, gladiator skill, super agility
Okay, LA King... take a look here. This is pretty much done right. It's a flippin' gladiator, no real flourishes beyond that. Straightforward, fairly kick-ass looking, and not a hint of spandex. Not bad. I think they were trying too hard with the power set though.
Wow... that's like 4 and a half quality characters in one day. All hope may not be lost for this project after all. I look forward to finding out more about the Flame, the Star, and the Avalanche. Really.
So it all ends tomorrow (or perhaps on the weekend, I may have timed this incorrectly). The final six are The Florida Panther, The New York Ranger, The New York Islander (who I'm hoping isn't a Captain Highliner look-a-like), The St. Louis Blue, The Atlanta Thrasher, and the one I'm most curious about... The Anaheim Duck. Maybe that last one can just be Emilio Estevez... or Joshua Jackson.
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