Hello, denizens of the internet jungle! Are you ready to get primal? Because it’s time for another installment of… …in which I use the character creation rules in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG’s Ultimate Powers Book to roll up a random batch of powers and abilities, then sit back and watch as some incredibly talented [...]

This, my children, is Ultraa… …who should not be confused with Ultra, Ultra Boy, Ultragirl, Ultraman ( Japanese or American version), Captain Ultra, Ultra the Multi-Alien, the Ultra-Humanite, Gary Concord the Ultra-Man, Ultraforce, or Lords of the Ultra Realm. Ultraa was the first superhero of Earth-Prime, which was the plane of existence where we readers dwelled in [...]

(from Adventure Comics #394, June 1970; by Cary Bates, Win Mortimer and Jack Abel)

I don’t know (or really care) what triggered the latest round of the recurring “Superman is boring/Superman is cool” debate, but it has made for some interesting reading. Superman has never been one of my favorite characters, though I’ve read and enjoyed many comics starring or featuring the Man of Steel in my 35+ years [...]

Are you ready to hack some gibsons, my little droogies? Because it’s time for another installment of… …in which I use the character creation rules in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG’s Ultimate Powers Book to roll up a random batch of powers and abilities, then sit back and watch as some incredibly talented folks work [...]

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this Chris Mautner piece about the “dangers of nostalgia” since some well-meaning pals sent me a link to it yesterday afternoon. As someone who has spent a significant portion of his adult life trying to unravel the complex relationship between nostalgia and history, I found Mautner’s rant [...]

Sometime back in the summer of 1985, I came home from a D&D all-nighter to find my little brother hovering over a massive pile of funnybooks stacked in the middle of our bedroom’s orange shag carpet. The bewildering haul was a gift from my uncle, who’d discovered Jesus and/or the realities of married life and [...]

(from Adventure Comics #394, June 1970; by Cary Bates, Win Mortimer and Jack Abel)

Can you feel the winds shifting, true believers? Because it’s time for another installment of… …in which I use the character creation rules in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG’s Ultimate Powers Book to roll up a random batch of powers and abilities, then sit back and watch as some incredibly talented folks work their creative [...]

There was a time when I used to post long rants about current trends in superhero comics, but that era has long since passed. Complaining requires caring, and I stopped giving a shit somewhere around the Civil War and Identity/Infinite/Final Crisis debacles. As my dad is fond of saying, “when something gives you more headaches [...]