What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger

This weekend I was occupied with the Army so I have blogging to make up for. I would like to point out this weekend that our commander sat us all down on Friday and wanted us to brainstorm any ideas we might have on how to entice people to join the CT National Guard. My two-cents involved changing the name of the Army to “The Justice League Of America.” It sounds way cooler and the name implies you could be issued a cape with your rifle. While in Iraq, I even saw a group of Blackhawks with Superman’s symbol painted on the Engine Covers. This goes to show a preponderance of DC support in Military aviation. Even my dad’s P-3 unit back in the 90s used Batman’s “batwing” symbol on their unit patch. Whenever I can I try to push “geek friendly” initiatives within the unit.

Last night (and Sunday before it) FOX aired the Terminator TV series. I’m not sure why it’s called subtitled “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” since John tends to be more important in the long run, but you’ve got no complaint from me. The series in the timeline of Terminator takes place a couple years after Terminator 2 and appears to completely ignore Terminator 3. I love time travel stuff because they tend to weave intricate threads of plot and timeframes to the point of self contradiction. Even in Back To The Future 2, Doc Brown had to explain stuff on a chalk board. Let’s not even mention Doctor Who. So far I like the show. I could watch Summer Glau all day. There are some creative ideas that are defining the show beyond its movie origins and it may become more of a serial than a “Terminator-of-the-week” drama. Hopefully the writers have mapped out a plan and aren’t here to insult our intelligence. With a fourth Terminator movie in the works, slated for summer 2009, the whole timeline threatens to become even more confusing with this line I read on Wikipedia; “Executive producer James Middleton confirmed in Variety that the series will contain a link to Terminator 4.” I guess pick your flavor of time line and prepare to be entertained. As odd as the fractured timeline the franchise is creating sounds this isn’t without precedent. The anime series Space Cruiser Yamato, aired in America as Starblazers, is made up of 3 TV series, 5 movies , and an OVA. Depending what order you watch them in creates a different timeline. The movies are all sequels to the first TV series, but tend to kill most of the characters. The later TV series are retellings of the movies but half the crew survives, where they originally died. Then new sequels are made from these altered versions and the timeline splinters more. It’s not as confusing as I make it sound, so track them down and watch them, already.

To understand the future lets see where The Terminator series has been:

1963: A bank is founded and is modified, by operatives from the future, to contain an isotonic weapon and a time machine for use by future Tech-Com resistance. (from TV)

May 12, 1984: The Terminator.

February 1985: 9 months after the main story of The Terminator, John Connor is born.

1995: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. John is age 10. New timeline created when Cyberdyne is destroyed, pushing Judgment Day from 1997 to 2004.

August 4, 1997: Skynet goes online in original timeline.

August 29, 1997: Judgment Day in original timeline.

1997: Sarah Connor dies of Leukemia in the new, post-T2 timeline, but only in the T3 timeline.

August 24 – September 10, 1999: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Pilot. John is 14 (he appears a little older). John, Sarah, and Cameron (a new protector) fight a new Terminator (T-888) and travel to the future.

September 11, 2001: A time point mentioned in the TV show explaining why it’s harder to "stay off the grid."

July 24, 2004: Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines. John is age 19. The new Judgment Day. (This time reference doesn’t occur in the TV show.)

2005: Sarah Connor dies of cancer in the new, new post T2, pre-TV timeline, if she didn’t jump to the future.

September 2007: Terminator: TSCC TV series. Sarah, John, and Cameron reappear in the timeline to bring the war to Skynet.

April 19-21, 2011: Skynet activated, bringing about the next new Judgment Day (ignoring T3).

2013: Assuming Sarah Connor doesn’t die during Judgment Day, she’ll die of cancer, as she only has 6 years to live when she jumped to 2007. (From the TV show)

2014: Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. John is age 29 (21 on the TV show). He leads the war between Tech-Com forces and Skynet.

2027: Cameron is sent back to protect John in 1999. (This is two years before Skynet started sending back units in the movie so something must have happened in the TV series to speed up the creation of the time machine.)

2029: Skynet creates a time machine, the “Continuum Transporter,” and begins sending Terminator units into the past to kill key personnel. The human resistance, led by John Connor, succeeds in defeating Skynet and sends operatives into the past to protect himself and his mother. Note: Kyle Reese sent back in time and becomes John’s father (take that Doc Brown).

2032: John Connor, age 48, is killed by a Series 800 Terminator unit. His widow, Kate Brewster, reprograms and sends the unit back to “New Judgment Day 2004” to save John.

I don’t know if the above is more confusing or less confusing. John always seems to be older than he should be, but having the weight of humanity on your shoulders probably does that to you. The TV series has seriously F’d up a linear sense of the Timeline, but is easily accommodated by ignoring T3. One can also say that by removing John and Sarah from time for eight years changed Judgment Day a second time. I’d like to know how Salvation will reference both movie and TV timelines. Arrgghh. Inconsistencies are slowly cropping up but could be easily dealt with if the writers are paying attention. It seems to me that Sarah is fated to die, no matter what. In fact, I don’t think John can become the man he should until his mother dies. Now, thanks to the show, our present time (in the South-West anyway) is littered with Tech-Com resistance fighters and Terminator units. The FBI has it’s work cut out for it.

It seems to me though that every time the Connor’s try to save humanity they just keep pushing Judgment Day a little farther in the future. At this rate John could die of old age before the war even happens. These people just need to stay off the grid for a couple years and let it happen. Then John, and his wife(?), can go about saving the last billion people on Earth. If Terminator Salvation represents John’s first successful actions against Skynet then the war must last about fifteen years, (13 if the TV show date is now correct). I’m still curious as to why Skynet developed time travel to begin with. That seems an odd choice of weapons do use against your enemy. It’s a great choice, actually, don’t get me wrong, but I got the impression from the first movie that Skynet develops and deploys time travel only when it realizes its losing. So, what prompted it to do that? The Machine Intelligence in The Matrix didn’t employ time travel, but Neo didn’t really defeat them, either.

If you like future, AI-controlled post-apocalyptic worlds, check out an old Manga that was translated in the late '80s called Grey. Same idea is The Terminator, in that an AI named Toy becomes sentient, changes its name to Big Mama, and forces what few humans are left alive in towns to fight each other. Trust me on this, it's better than it sounds. It very dark toned manga, and it was also made into a movie in 1986, Grey: Digital Target. One of my favorites in high-school. See you next broadcast.

Saturn - Lord Of The Other Rings

Saturn is the only outer planet (from Jupiter outward) NASA has a probe around, known as Cassini. This is arguably the most beautiful planet we have. And there is a lot we don't know about. Saturn is the Roman god of agriculture and harvest. Not a very prophetic name, but harvest might be applicable since we have now discovered a bounty of 60 moons orbiting the ringed planet. I love astronomy and I love a good mystery. When the mystery is astronomical, even better. The big mystery of Saturn revolves (pardon the pun) around the rings. When did they form? What are they made of? etc. The basic thought has been some odd millions of years ago a couple moons and/or comets collided producing millions and millions of icy particles that eventually formed the rings, so they are pretty new. Not so, says Cassini, that has been studying Saturn, rings, and moons since the end of 2004. According to this recent news article, the rings may have been there since the beginning of the solar system and are self perpetuating. In other words, the moons of Saturn help "feed" and shepherd the ring particles. Awesome.

Monday I forgot to put in a viral video of the week so here is my belated entree, Indian Superman. All I can say is "wow." Speaking of masked heroes,Yahoo has these new pics of The Dark Knight including first shots of The Joker. I am so looking forward to this movie.

Philip K. Dick has written so many different kinds of Science Fiction and even invented the Cyberpunk genre. The movie Minority Report has been one of my favorite adaptations, even though Spielberg made it his own. Then comes A Scanner Darkly. With little of the expected trappings of sci-fi (especially PKD's sci-fi) this is incredibly engrossing once you let yourself go in the story. The "Scramble Suits" just look made for the animation and make the conversations that much more interesting. I swear, Keanu Reeves is the poster child for future controlled societies. To me the animation style is a reflection of the drug addled minds of the main characters. And I found the dialog more entertaining than the plot itself. I had a feeling I knew where the plot was going but to have the two characters, played by Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson, constantly feeding each other's paranoia really made a lot of sympathetic characters out of drug addicts. And was it their fault or not their addicted? There are good questions asked, but not asked, by this plot that shows a police agency with unlimited powers in the near future. I hated to see Fred/Arctor end up the way he did but I want to believe his actions will still lead to a better tomorrow.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth is my current read. Much easier on the brain than Frankenstein and equally as good, I have only explored the first ten (10) chapters. This has been no more than a character study of the two (2) mains and a travelogue about going from Hamburg to Iceland to the volcano that leads to the Center Of The Earth. And it is so well written I don't mind the extraordinary time taken to explain locations and peoples and languages. An excellent insight into the minds of the 19th century. The book is written from Axel's first person point of view as he (and you) embark on a journey with his/your uncle Professor Lidenbrock. For those that haven't read Jules Verne before I found he hooks you immediately in the story and keeps feeding you little tidbits until the big story happens. I haven't been this absorbed in a novel since reading Michael Crichton's older works, like Sphere, Jurassic Park, or Prey. Since this is translated from the original French I'm impressed that a certain poetic touch remains in the language when read in English. I'm also a fan of the the 1959 movie. There have been a few attempts to remake the story for TV, but they never impressed me as much as the movie. Maybe the new 3-D movie will do the story justice. We'll have to see August 8th, 2008. Get it? 8-8-8? Whatever. There's probably a code game online or something to be planned next year, something like the rune code in the beginning of the book, but I'm just guessing here.

One of the questions I've asked myself many a time is why I like Manga over American comics. I enjoy reading our comics but something always stands out and gets my attention in Manga. Maybe it has to do with a single story written and drawn by one person in Japan versus our design by committee ideas, but I think it is the willingness of Manga artists to take chances. Sure, American comics take chances but a status quo is general kept intact, except for the past few years worth of Marvel plotlines. I'm referring to the titles I used to read in the 80s. Not only did Manga feel foreign but they told more epic stories that felt large, like Space Operas. I'm reading two (2) such titles now. Parasyte and Death Note I've mentioned before so time to insert some SPOILERS.

In the first volume of Parasyte a quiet invasion of (you guessed it) parasites invades cities all over the world but one in particular attacks Japanese high-schooler Shin. The parasites normally attack the head taking over all functions of the human body and feed on other humans. Shin lucked out and the parasite only merged with his right hand, leaving his human brain intact. They both form a friendship and decide to try to eliminate other Parasytes in the area. Shin is forced to carry a large burden in trying to rid his town of these things and manages to kill a few, and finds one in particular that leaves him alone out of curiosity. You see, Parasytes are territorial and will kill each other on sight. On the surface this seems like a disruptive take-over but the Parasytes are just looking for hosts, not take over the world, however humanity is threatened in the long run. Shin learns much by the time his parents decide to take a vacation to the country. In the second volume is where the story throws Shin a curve ball. A parasite's human body is killed but it manages to detach from the corpse and finds Shin's mom, killing her. It then injures the Father and heads back home to kill Shin and his sister. Eventually by the end of the volume Shin and another half-parasite/half-human kill the Parasyte/Mother. It changes the tone of the whole story and I applaud the character development. There will be eight (8) total English volumes to match same number of Japanese volumes. Only up to Volume 3 has been released by Del Rei. BTW I like Del Rei's Manga covers. From design to paper stock they actually feel like your reading something special.

As I said before, Death Note is a about a human, named "Light Yagami," who is given the power to kill anyone in the world by writing their name in a book called a Death Note. As a top grade A student and son of the head of the Japanese version of the FBI, he feels he's destined to make the world a utopia without crime. He then sets out to kill hundreds of criminals worldwide to test the powers of the book and scare others straight. A cult grows around these deaths that are blamed on a "fictitious" person, Kira. INTERPOL gets involved and asks a mysterious super-sleuth, named "L", to track down Kira. This series is part "Fugitive" and part "No Way Out." Both sides are rather sympathetic but there is an edge to Light that hints towards a certain amount of insanity. In the second volume, Light may have slipped up, when "L" gets the FBI involved, investigated the Japanese police and Japanese FBI personnel. Light decides to get super-clever and gets the FBI agents to kill each other, using a torn out page of the Death Note and forcing an agent to write names on it. Little does Light know an agents fiancee is in Japan (and she's former FBI that worked a case with "L") and she decides to hunt Kira. Light for the first time is on the defensive and kills her using the book, hoping to draw attention from himself, since she figured it out. Light has now shown he's willing to kill anyone to stay hidden and "L" finally showed his face to the police in an effort to draw out Kira/Light. An intense story but I now feel Light is beyond redemption and has slipped to the Dark Side. I'm now looking forward to "L" capturing him. The Manga produced 12 volumes in Japan, all of which have been translated, so I know the story is no where near being complete by vol 2.

I've been letting the fingers on my fret hand/left hand rest for a couple days before mushing on through Hard and it looks like the crazy British dude is reviewing Guitar Hero III this week. Enjoy. See you next broadcast.

Absent With Out Leave

That time of the month for me again when I become AWOL from the "blog-o-sphere." My Army duties kick in and I have to disappear from the "Geek Grid" for a while until after the weekend. Saturday I received my mandatory flu shot and by today (Monday) I felt it working as I think I had a fever or something. This gave me the opportunity to stay home and catch up on some more Geek related things.

Today I watched Children Of Men. I have had a hard time summing up this movie but I realized as a Sci-Fi movie that treads old conceptual ground, this story is incredibly fresh. It's the "Saving Private Ryan" for future-fascist post-apocalyptic Brittain. The movie could even be told today from the streets of Isreal or Syria, but by combining the familiar trappings of "civilization," in London, with the harsh realities of war torn neighborhoods of Middle Easters cities. Children Of Men takes cues from all of this to create a setting that is as much a character as Kee, the first pregnant woman in almost two (2) decades. Brilliant stuff. The hand-held cinematography is never too jarring, and looks more real than most home movies. One of the documentaries on the disc described the look of the future as the "anti-Blade Runner," which occured to me early on as many scenes show some technical advancements but are never pushed to the "Blade Runner" extreme because society is about to end. It's fascinating and horrifying to watch the future unfold before you throught he eyes of Clive Owen who is quite believable, with incredible events thrust upon him he never shirks responsibilty once the stakes are understood. Even Michael Cain is a believable "hippy" off the grid that helps keep Clive Owen sane during this trying times. Another excellent movie in the pantheon of future dustopian story telling. I could see this being the precursor to the Mad Max series.

I've started reading a Manga that recently cught my attention, Hunter x Hunter. I would place this in the catagory of "pre-teen protagonist that has rediculous adventures" such as Pokemon, Yugi-oh, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Dragon Ball (Goku is 6), etc. I generally don't like these stories aimed at the "younger" crowd because I just can't suspend belief enough to think any of these kids could survive the tasks put before them in their respective Manga. Dragon Ball is a large exception in my book because the saga, told over 42 graphic novels, is writen by Akira Toriyama, a master story teller. And Hunter x Hunter (the "x" is silent, just say "hunter" twice) is closer in tone to Dragon Ball in the wonder and excitement of a strange new land to explore than what new card/creature can Ash/Yugi defeat the bad guy with this week.Yoshihiro Togashi wrote HxH after establishing himself with YuYu Hakusho (aka The Poltergeist Report) which aired on Cartoon Network a few years ago.

Hunter x Hunter starts on familiar ground, main character Gon wants to be just like daddy Ging who is a Hunter, by taking the Hunter test, even though his Aunt and Uncle tried to hide the truth of his father from him. Hunters in their society seem to garner much fame, money and responisibilty and Gon meets a couple other candidates, Kurapika and Leorio, who more or less begin to work together to survive the tests. These tests are brutal, and the first volume of the Manga details the 405 candidates that make it to the test and a countdown of the survivors and the numbers dwindle. Creatures in this world are violent and "messed up," like the human-faced monkey and the hypno-butterflies, that had me hooked. I want to know what world they're in and why the ecology of their planet is so scewed towards carnivorous behavior. That's the Star Trek scientist in me, but there is a lot to like in this story and I hope the anime comes to our shores if it hasn't already.

The other Manga I've been reading is a much more adult (not Adult with a captial "A" you pervs) story that I would equate to a supernatural version of "The Fugitive," except the protagonist Light Yagami really is commiting a crime of sorts and the cops are after him. The supernatural in this tale surrounds the mythology of the Shinigami, the Japanese angel of death, and is called Death Note. This is the debut work of Tsugumi Ohba, which has been so well received as a first time story that many think this is a psudonym for a more famous author. The story itself is about a Shinigami who leaves his Death Note in the human world and a high school student finds it. The book has the power to kill anyone whose name is writen in it. There are limits but Light learns them as he decides to kill all the criminals in the world. A cult forms around him on the Internet, refering to Light as Kira (derived from Killer), and Interpol asks a top detective, only known as "L" to investigate the hundreds of criminals that are dying of heart attacks daily. As L gets closer to discovering the true identity of Kira, Light must manage to learn all the powers of the book to save himself and create a crime-free Utopia for humanity. This is not a black and white, good vs. evil, plot. Each viewpoint is rationalized but Light sometimes goes over the edge by killing the odd Law Enforcemtn officer that's getting to close to him, but L has his share of vices too. One of the best Manga I've read so far to come out of the 21st century.

My Guitar Hero career is still moving ahead strong and I've moved on to Hard. The learning curve from Easy to Medium is much steeper than from Medium to Hard, but not by a lot. I finally defeated Slash on Hard and that was an accomplishment. This didn't feel cheezy at all. I had to work at for a while, which is how it should be. I doubt I'll see him on Expert but I know he won't go quitely there either. My next hurdle is Cherub Rock on Hard. Those three-fingered split-cords are murder on the fingers. See you next broadcast.

My God, It's Full Of Stars

By 1990 our understanding of the sky at night was simple. We have nine (9) planets (Pluto was still a planet then) and the rest of the galaxy does not. We might have seen evidence in Infra-Red of primordial discs around younger stars but there was no evidence of planets. Flash forward five (5) years and a team of astronomers made an extraordinary discovery, a planet around another star. And it was like no other planet in our solar system. This planet was bigger than Jupiter and "hugged" its parent star so tight that it orbits it about every four days. This, however, was the tip of the iceberg. Every month since then teams of planetologists and astronomers have been discovering new planets. The smallest mass planet so far found is about 5 times Earth mass all the way up to more that 15 times Jupiter mass. These are all heady figures but I wish to impress upon you the menagerie of planets goes well beyond our comfortable eight (8) into new realms never dreamed up by sci-fi. Hot Jupiters, Water Giants, and Super Earths to name a few.

Growing up as a Star Wars and a Star Trek fan (not mutually exclusive fandoms) I believed there was no way our solar system had the only planets in the galaxy, let alone the rest of the universe. My teachers and superiors patronized my "delusion" and told me our solar system is it, the galaxy is empty. The same old crap the likes of Galileo had to deal with. In fact since the beginning of our endeavours to understand nature by science, they are always opposed by those that declare Humans the center of the universe. And each scientific revolution proves them wrong. We aren't on a flat Earth, the sun and stars don't revolve around us, the universe isn't static and forever. My reasoning for writing this is not to "toot the horn" of science, merely show a connection from the past and the learned scholars and teachers I dealt with in my youth. With a certain feeling of vindication I can say, not including our solar system, there are 264 confirmed exo-planets. That is way more than the zero of just 20 years ago. To keep track of these new discoveries JPL & NASA run a helpful website. Included is a 3D interactive map of the planetary systems within 300 Light Years of us. Science Fiction predicted other planets for at least a century, and here we are with new worlds to explore, someday.

I tracked down a re-released copy of the manga Parasyte, as well as a lesser known Japanese horror Manga, Uzumaki. Meaning "Spiral" it is a story of the Japanese town's obsession with anything spiral, to the point of dementia. The main character, a high school girl, watches as her friends and family are consumed by spiral, or Uzumaki, obsession. A fascinating read with strange, grotesque imagery: a student turning into a snail, a father who wants to be one with the wash tub, and a mother so fearful of uzumaki she begins to cut spirals off her body. A live action version was made in 2000 and subtitled in North America. An untranslated preview is available on YouTube. More creepy than horror, I recommend this movie for any fan of the manga, or any movie fan who likes Asian cinema. I especially like the spirals that form out of the screen as you watch the movie, very subtle.

Two geek events filed me with joy this passed week. I took a co-worker out to buy his first Xbox 360, and the other I introduced to Guitar Hero. I love the fact I'm in the future (relative to when I was younger) but some things should become better, not more confusing. When Christmas rolled around in the past kids wanted an Atari or a Nintendo or a SEGA Genesis. Parents (usually the ones buying) payed little attention to the console market (with exceptions I'm sure) but wanted happy kids and blindly bought their kids a system. And it was easy; go to store, trade money/credit for Nintendo, take Nintendo home, happy children. I had the honor this week to help a co-worker buy an X360 for his son. I'm always spewing game information so he came to me for help picking out which 360 to get, splurge on the Halo edition, buy the Elite, or get the 20GB joint with two (2) free games. It occurred to me later to ask, why did he need help? Why isn't it simple to go buy a system? He would have had the same problem buying a PS3, but Nintendo only has one Wii and that makes sense. When Neo-Geo came out it was just as expensive as a PS3, at that was in the early 90s. They didn't make multiple types depending on budget, there was one, buy it or don't. I didn't. I'm a little more annoyed with the "Goldilocks" effect, trying to find the mix of technology and price that's just right for you. WTF! I had a great time helping my co-worker figure out which X360 wasn't too hot or cold, but I shouldn't have to. Anyone buying an X360 or a PS3 has to juggle info on gaming specs, backwards-compatibility, HD connections and TV specs, and wireless options. Back in the 80s the deciding factor was, "which console has Pac-Man?"

On the Guitar Hero front, an ultra geek moment occurred when I found out there is a Halo battle music mix, set to guitar, for free download. And it actually sounds good. I am 2 songs shy on Medium for all 5 stars, but I've also worked my way into Hard. I think Hard will be where I wash up. Cords are not my friends and unless I grow a sixth finger like an inbred kitten I won't be getting even four stars. Not looking forward to facing Slash this time. The first two times were straight forward (and a let down) but this time he's armed and fully operational. I introduced a friend to the game and it's awesome to watch him slowly figure the buttons and eventually transition to listening to the beat and getting coordinated. I was there last month, stabbing at three (3) fret buttons trying to "play" music. Now after playing for three (3) weeks I've started playing hard. Its amazing how the game preps you for later levels. Still looking forward to Rock Band for christmas. See you next broadcast.

Technical Difficulties

Last night I intended to write a new post in between sessions of Guitar Hero III. Luckily (or not) my laptop wasn't wirelessly communicating with my router. Usually they have a spat for about ten minutes every evening but they're right back talking like old friends. But last night my laptop as in the "doghouse" and I couldn't get online. So, more GH3 for me. I beat Medium and have transcended to hard. You would think that with four skill levels the differences would be minor, but they are not. Adding another button each level is a huge spike in difficulty. However, trying to go for 5 stars on all songs does help subconsciously prep you for harder levels. Kind of like the "wax on, wax off" of plastic guitar prop playing. I even played a song on expert and I beat it, bearly.

I haven't talked much about anime and manga since I started this. After getting addicted to anime watching Star Blazers, Voltron, Battle Of The Planets, Tranzor Z, and (my personal favorite) ROBOTECH, I wanted more. Being an unemployed junior high and high school student I needed a quick fix of something Japanese and manga was just hitting the comic book store shelves. Akira, Area 88, Mai: The Psychic Girl, Legend Of Kamui, and Xenon all became parts of my obsession with Japanese story telling. My love affair with manga lasted many years until I could afford anime tapes, then DVDs, and sadly I haven't looked back. There are many good titles I have never even read and some I never finished. One such title is Parasyte, Kiseijuu in Japanese.

Parasyte is a story of an insidious alien takeover of people on Earth. The parasites quietly landed on Earth and began taking over people by eating their heads and assume control of the body. Not like zombies, but with a taste for the flesh of the species they inhabit. The main character is wearing earphones when he is attacked and the parasite merges with his hand. They both become strange friends and begin to hunt down all other parasite-infected humans. The original English translations have been out of print and even harder to find on eBay. Del Rey Publishing just bought the license to reissue it and it is for sale once again. The art style is unique and a great horror story , with elements of The Thing, Terminator 2, and lots of original style. Very visual even though it was never adapted to anime. A Live Action movie has been reported, with a release time somewhere in 2008.

On with my video game musings. #88 is the Star Wars arcade game. The original wire-frame Death Star attacking arcade game. As far as I remember it is the first first-person perspective game of the whole franchise, and you attack the Death Star, with the voices from the movie talking you through it. Released when Return Of The Jedi hit theaters, in 1983, this was the only thing I ever wanted to do, fly an X-Wing, destroy TIE-Fighters, and blow up the Death Star. Even Obi-Wan tells you, after the Death Star is reduced to wire-frame debris, "the Force will be with you always." This is a great game for anyone who grew up with the Holy Trilogy. And after you blew up the Death Star, you got to do it all over again, with a harder Death Star. By the third time through the trench is filled with obstacles akin to the Second Death Star. If I owned arcade games this would be on top of my wish list with Star Castle, TRON, and Tempest.

#86 is Perfect Dark. The company that brought you (and me) GoldenEye made another perfect FPS. The single player "story mode" was intelligently written, with plenty of surprises, and made you (and me, as well) want to keep playing 'til the bitter end. A point I've mentioned before in this genre is about the amount of killing. Some games become a work in tedium to kill everything to move on. Moving from fight to fight never gets boring with Perfect Dark and walks the line from movie plot story telling to FPS moments, never over-doing one or the other. Then comes the multi-player, as deep as the single player game. With so many options, even giants like Halo pale by comparison to GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Time Splitters multi-player. Why doesn't Halo have bots? Why doesn't Halo have random weapons? All I can say is Laptop Gun. Throw it on the ground and it becomes a machine gun auto-turret. And to top it off, you didn't need a Dual Shock to play it, just an N64 controller with one analog stick. Perfect Dark Zero is another matter. Don't confuse the two.

#81 is Space Invaders. A game so simple, the reason I loved it as a child is the same reason everyone still loves it and the genre it started. I could go on about how it started the overhead and side-scrolling shooters of the 90s. Its not only the precursor to classics such as Xevious and Zaxxon but it was the first game you played as a "survival mode." It's strange to think about but there wasn't a name for "playing as long s you can on one quarter." All arcade did this, and Space Invaders was the first to track a high score (and have music). For those that may not know, Survival Mode is just a term for holding out in a game as long as possible until the bitter end. Trek fans would refer to this as the Kobayashi Maru test. As a child I played this and Radar Scope little realizing they were Japanese. I apparently had no choice but to fall for all things Japanese even from an early age. The most import thing I can say about this game is the psychology of the people (Japanese) who invented it back in '78. There were whole arcades in Japan that only had Space Invaders. This is an un-winnable game about holding the line until you are stomped on. Sure, you have a couple extra lives and some bases to hide behind but it won't help. Sooner or later it'll be time to pay the piper. This is a game created by a country that lost a war and a people who are shamed by the loss. This may sound mean, but we won the war and invented Space War and Pong using oscilloscope circuits from ICBM targeting computers of the 60s. I don't think it would have occurred to us to make a game you lose, until Pong started making money in bars, and the Japanese sucked all our quarters out of our pockets and into the Space Invaders coil slot.

Look at the early games of the Atari 2600. Air-Sea Battle, Combat, Circus Atari, Football, Maze Craze, Indy 500, and (one of my favorites) Adventure. All these games either pit one player against each other or gives you a goal to achieve. Sure you could die, every conflict has losers, but you weren't guaranteed to lose. Play well enough and you win every time. Asteroids and Missile Command, both Atari games and seminal works themselves, still were created after Space Invaders. And to nitpick, Asteroids is you against Mother Nature (uhhh... Mother Space) with a little space ship thrown in to shake things up. Missile Command is the American version of the Space Invaders mindset, and certainly points out it's cold war origins.

I love the Terminator franchise, but I only like the third movie. Nothing really against it but Rise Of The Machines wasn't exactly on the caliber of T1 or T2. Not only do we have a Terminator TV series in the works, with River from Firefly as a Terminator, that ignores the third movie, but there is news now of a fourth offering to the theater gods. Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins hopefully will finally show us a complete future when John Connor totally kicks SkyNets ass. The whole reason for the first movie is that John Conner, and humanity, beats the AI and returns the Earth to flesh-based intelligence. Not even Neo in the Matrix could do that after three movies, and John Connor is pre-destined to win. And who is John this time around? Christian Bale, someone used to fighting for humanity in the future. Picture Reign Of Fire with a leader like Maximus from Gladiator killing Androids, Robots, AI Tanks, AI drop ships, and whatever else SkyNet has. It better be that cool. Sadly James Cameron is once again not attached to the project, but at least he's helping NASA out with the Mars program if he's going to waste my time not making movies. So it looks like we have two (2) different Terminator Time Lines to follow. Along with Back To The Future and Bill & Ted, this 80s movie helped define the current trend in pre-determination, time travel plots. Watch the new Time Machine movie to see what pre-destiny does to the original plot. See you next broadcast.

Here There Be Spoiler Warnings

Today I returned to Clockwork Comics, of Orange, CT, (get it, "Clockwork" in "Orange", hahaha) to further my library of titles. There is something irresistable about 40 to 50 pages of sequencial art presented in a slightly-smaller-than-magazine size that I must own. In the mid- to late-eighties Manga was introduced by various companies (Viz, Epic, Dark Horse) that decided to stick with the American traditional format of comics. They flipped the images, translated them, then resized them to our size if need be. Something you have to understand about Manga is it is sold in Anthology form, roughly our comicbook size, that is intended to be chucked at the end of the day, like we would a newspaper. If a title becomes popular the publishers reprint them in a smaller book size. This size is now the prefered size of Manga in America, and strangely I'm not enjoying it. I love my Japanese collection, in Japanese, in small book form, but now in English it looses something. They even leave it "backwards" to preserve Japanese integrity. The smaller size also shrinks the beautiful art that shines in its proper dimension. I think, as an American, I'm just wired for my stories to be released 40 pages at a time once or twice a month. I used to consume Manga like breakfast cereal in its monthly form but now I can't even find a single title I truly enjoy. Nothing like Akira, Appleseed, Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Inu-Yasha, Guyver, Fist Of The North Star, Silent Mobius, Area 88, Mai: The Psychic Girl, Xenon, Dagger Of Kamui, Lone Wolf And Cub, 3x3 Eyes, Gunsmith Cats, Venus Wars, and others on the tip of my tongue. This must mean I'm "old school," or just old.

However, the Hulk has a fascinating story to tell. The "Planet Hulk" story arc shows SHIELD asking the Hulk for a special mission in space. A weapons satellite near the moon had gone rogue and the Hulk was needed to wrangle it in. The Hulk did just that and boarded a shuttle from the Moon to the Earth. Suddenly a viewscreen comes to life telling the Hulk he's a danger to Earth and he'll be sent to a planet with no intelligent life but plenty of indiginous plants and animals (kind of like Kahn). He never arrived. His ship diverted through a wormhole and he ended up on Sakaar, a planet ruled by a Tyrannical Emperor who enjoyed gladiator games. the weakened Hulk was made a slave and forced to join the gladiator games. The Hulk fought and won, even helping to liberate Silver Surfer who was also stuck there, and created a loyal army, The Warbound, against the Emperor. He eventually won and proceeded to rule the planet. He took a wife and had the top scientists fix his ship. The ship, designed by Reed Richards with a booby trap, exploded when they tried to fix the engines, destroying half the capitol city and killed his wife and unborn child. He vowed revenge on Iron Man, Reed Richards, Wolverine (for some reason), and many others he blamed for this. He aquired another ship, a derilict that had been on Sakaar, and left the planet for Earth, completely unaware of the "Civil War" that had erupted in the mutant/superhero community. And he doesn't care. This leads to World War Hulk.

Also in deep space some little used Marvel characters were about to get theirs. Drax, now an intergalactic criminal, crashes his prison ship on Earth, is killed by escaping prisoners, gets reborn as something else, mistakes a girl, Cammi, as his daughter from his human life, kills the prisoners to protect Cammi, and the two (2) head off into space. Thus starts "Annihilation," a deep space epic involving the Drax/Cammi duo, Silver Surfer, Kl'rt (aka Super-Skrull), Nova, and Ronan.

Out at the edge of the known universe the Negative Zone opens and lets out an alien insect race, on "Annihilation Day", that spreads across the galaxy, and dubbed the "Annihilation Wave." It is eventually learned that the mastermind behind Annihilation Day is an old enemy of the Fantastic Four, Annihilus. Nova leaves Earth to rejoin the Nova Corps (an intergalactic police force) but is nearly killed on Xandar when the Wave destroyes the NC. He eventually forms a resistance group with Drax, Cammi, Quasar, and others, finally defeating Annihilus. The Silver Surfer, having escaped Sakaar, gets caught up in events and becomes a Herold of Galactus again after the Wave kills all the other Herolds. Super-Skrull decides to defend the planet, Zaragz'Na, by entering the Negative Zone and destroying the Harvester Of Sorrow (think Death Star). He succeeds, but sacrificies himself in the process. Finally, The Kree known as Ronan, trying to take over his people due to corrupt leadership, is exiled to a planet thats in the way of the Annihilation Wave. Upon returning to his planet, he becomes ruler but the Kree are so weakened from the battle with the Wave they are easily defeated by the Phalanx. Suffice it to say, all these people do their part and defeat the Wave and Annihilus before Earth is affected, setting things up for the sequal, Annihilation Conquest. And Nova heads back to Earth to rejoin the New Warriors, who are part of a reality TV show to promote mutants/super humans. He, like the Hulk, knows nothing of the Civil War.

On Earth, the New Warriors are being filmed for their reality show when they get word some minor B-List bad guys, who just escaped from "super-criminal" prison, are hiding out in a house near a school in Stamford, CT. Ratings being down for the show, they decide to "solve" the situation themselves instead of letting the more well known "heroes" come in. During the skirmish a mutant named Nitro decides to live up to his title and blows Stamford up. Among the deaths were a few hundred children and all the New Warriors, save for Speedball (and Nitro survived, too). Speedballs lucky ass was found in Upstate New York, in a crater, unconscious and without his powers. Once the authorites figured out what happened, Speedball became the scapegoat for the event, and is now the most hated person in America. Lucky for Nitro everyone forgot about him. This time a Superhuman and Mutant Registration Act (see the first X-Men movie) passes, and America changes forever in Marvel comics.

It looks like this recap just became a three parter (sorry). As much as it looks like I'm giving up years of Marvel Soap Opera plot I really have left out a lot of details worth reading up on. So, think of this as the roadmap to the Civil War. The whole Annihilation plot doesn't seem to directly affect Earth in the Civil War but lots of people no one's heard from in a couple decades get to duke it out on a galactic scale and that helps Earth in the long run. I do like how Marvels Superheroes have different areas or tiers of responsibilty. Daredevil, Spidey, or Punisher don't really work on the same level as X-Men or Fantastic Four. Ant-Man would never go up against Galactus and the X-Men would be overkill for dealing with the Green Goblin. However, I hope the crossover potential from the comics leaks over to the movies. I'd pay good money to see a Wolverine-Punisher crossover, I tell ya. See you next broadcast.