Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

DC has solicited their new line of Red Circle characters (Hangman, Web, some other guy and flaming Gung-Ho) and I already hear people poo-pooing them.



I don't get it.

Apparently some people don't think the Red Circle heroes are the finest the Golden Age had to offer!

Why?

Just because they were epic failures in the golden age, and their 60s revival, and their 80s revival, AND their 90s revival they don't think they're great characters?

Don't they realize there a literally dozens of 70 year old men who've been waiting for the Hangman to return?

Don't they know the number of good characters is a finite resource and we must reuse them whenever possible?

You know who doesn't keep reusing the same characters again and again and keeps making up new ones?

THE JAPANESE!

You don't want your industry to become like theirs do you? WIth books selling millions of copies a week and people from all walks of life reading them? That would destroy everything DC and Marvel have worked to build!

The only thing that bugs me is that they're reimaging them so they can be all cool and 2000y. I mean Sheild getting his powers after being wounded in Afghanistan? WTF! THis is not the Nazi-busting Sheild my grandpa read about! I want DC to bring back the real Shield, the one my grandpa might possibly have picked up for a dime at the candy store, not some poser 21st Century Shield!

DC stop raping Grandpa's childhood!

You see, this is why the only comics I read as a kid were 2000AD. I never got into the spandex US comics scene.

Judge Dredd is still a dude - and Cassie Anderson is still a babe. Sure, they had lapses of conscience and the "Am I doing the right thing?" moments, but they were transient ephemera. JD went back to busting heads - I don't recall what happened to Anderson.

chromedog wrote:You see, this is why the only comics I read as a kid were 2000AD. I never got into the spandex US comics scene.

Judge Dredd is still a dude - and Cassie Anderson is still a babe. Sure, they had lapses of conscience and the "Am I doing the right thing?" moments, but they were transient ephemera. JD went back to busting heads - I don't recall what happened to Anderson.

I always enjoyed 2000AD, it's amazing how much great talent came out of it, including 40k which was basically GW retooling their Judge Dredd games to make their own IP.

But really for the life me I cannot understand what DC is thinking these days...

They didn't own the Red Circle characters, they had to go out and BUY THEM, for like MONEY. Characters who were never popular. Ever. And they bought them and they acting like this is the greatest thing in history. It's like paying money to remake BJ and the Bear.

Speaking of 2000AD, does anyone remember the character Rogue Trooper? I played the game on the PS2 and I'm interested in reading up on it.

Yeah, he's been going for many years in several incarnations. I've got some of the Titan Books compilations of the stories (5 volumes), and one of the "Friday" collections.

The game is based off the original RT, though and his biochip buds. When I saw the game trailers for this, I was amazed by it. I'm still trying to find a copy of it. It looks more 40k than 40k does.

The only reason half this stuff is published is that if the publisher doesn't put something out every few years, the property goes public domain.

chromedog wrote:Yeah, he's been going for many years in several incarnations. I've got some of the Titan Books compilations of the stories (5 volumes), and one of the "Friday" collections.

The game is based off the original RT, though and his biochip buds. When I saw the game trailers for this, I was amazed by it. I'm still trying to find a copy of it. It looks more 40k than 40k does.

The game is great fun. It's short, but satisfying and gets pretty hard on the higher difficulties. There's some nice concept art and an encyclopedia on Nu Earth. By the way, it's a third-person shooter, and you can see how Gears of War drew a bit of inspiration from it. There's an accurate and clever cover system, and you die really fast without your medpacks. You gather 'salvage' from dead enemies and scrap piles which Bagman (your backpack) uses to upgrade and make weapons, ammo, and medpacks. Gunnar is your gun, hurr durr, and is your only weapon, but you can still use your pistol and get underslung guns with limited ammo like shotguns. Helm is your helmet (surprise, surprise), and hacks stuff and makes holodecoys.

Great fun. And yes, it looks pretty GRIMDARK, more so than 40K. It all looks dirty and industrial, and the city level has lots of shady places like gun stores and strip bars. It's very tactical too; if you don't manage your supply of salvage, you die.

Yeah.

Your buddies deaths are pretty much out of the comic, too (as is the "you've only got 60 seconds to extract the chip." "My gun, I want to be part of my gun" other bits of dialogue and voices).

I've seen a lot of the cutscenes and gameplay videos, and know how it plays, I've just got to find a copy.

Bah I used to read Conan. That was a mans man. People either ended up on the end of his sword or the end of his @#$%.Depending on gender of course.

sexiest_hero wrote:Bah I used to read Conan. That was a mans man. People either ended up on the end of his sword or the end of his @#$%.Depending on gender of course.

now we know why you voted the way you did!

Wasn't the Hangman in the Watchmen series (as a part of the original group)?

That was Hooded Justice. I mean, a totally different 'wears an executioner hood and carries a noose' character.

Ah ok. Gotcha. Wait is this a joke? Web looks like Banshee, the flaming guy is the Human torch, and the other guy is Captain America.

I'm calling shenanigans.

No, they're just reworked versions of old characters. See here for a bit more info.

.... some of the old Impact comics line wasn't too bad, I kinda dug The Comet.

Thanks for the link. Looks pretty interesting.

As I said, they are ANCIENT characters. Shield I think predates Captain America and might be the first patriotic superhero.

But old don't mean good. They've been revived twice in my time and both folded in a year or two.

Given enough time those characters will, just like all the other Marvel and DC characters have enough emotional baggage and DRRRRRRRRRRRRAMA to put a Jewish Holocaust survivor convention to shame.

Nemesis was awesome. ABC warriors too.

The problem with comics is generally that it's run by fans and arrogant eejits.
Fans want their little pet characters to do well, the arrogant eejits don't listen to critisism, or, in fact, reality. DC has been in the toilet for a long time, Marvel had some good times but dropped the ball with the new editor in chief and are now swirling round the plughole.
2000AD rocks.