Lore of the Forsaken

I was a big fan of Werewolf: the Apocalypse but now that's changed to Werewolf: the Forsaken I'm having a harder time figuring out what would make a good character or a good story. I picked up Lore of the Forsaken because it promised to delve into what it means to be a werewolf by focusing on their spirituality.

Werewolf has always been a game about spirits but what Lore tries to do is to take the nature of spirits and turn it into a kind of religion. There are four chapters detailing totems, auspices, gifts and rites and loci and fetishes. I think the first two chapters were the strongest. I especially enjoyed reading about the roles auspices play in what is expected of the werewolf. Too often it's easy to simply skim the surface of the auspice traits and create a character that is a caricature. The last two chapters had some helpful suggestions but devolved into a list of "items" you could give a character, some of which struck me as game breaking.

I judge a rules supplement on whether it gives me ideas. This one started off idea rich but fizzled out about halfway through. I'm giving it a 3.

Ultimate Power

This book made me wish that Brian Michael Bendis was writing the Ultimate Fantastic Four as well as Spider-Man. Ultimate Power has some great pacing. He knows when to write it quick and when to let the characters have a moment. The exchange between Nick Fury and Spider-Man alone as to how to deal with what happened to Reed was enough by itself to make me like this book.

Unfortunately, as I have no idea who these Powers people are, I would have liked a little more information up front. Maybe a quick introduction before the massive fight scene. The massive fight scene was a bit problematic as it was easy to lose who was who and what was going on. Finally, if this is where Nick Fury has disappeared to in Ultimates 2 then Spider-Man ought to have had a better idea where he was in the later volumes of the Ultimate Spider-Man. Perhaps there'll be more information whenever Ultimates 3 comes out.

I'll give it a 4.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 6 Frightful

I don't like the idea of making superheroes. I do think that the first story in Frightful was a good example of what could happen (though one wonders how Thor becomes president as he's not a natural born US citizen). And I did like the resolution but ultimately this volume is about the conclusion of the Zombie crisis.

It takes a round about way to get there: infecting Johnny with an alien parasite, traveling to Latveria to ask Doctor Doom for help. Huh, it seems that Doctor Doom has mystical powers for some reason. What? Mind switching? And then...? That makes no sense. So really, what was a very promising story line turned into kind of a mess. It's too bad. I guess I'll give it a 2.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 5 Crossover

OK, I get it. Sue's hot. I don't understand why she can't wear a shirt that covers her midriff. It seem impractical that every thing she owns exposes her abs. Actually, with a new artist every member of the team looks great. Except when he tries to show surprise. With surprise they sort of look like a blow up doll.

Once again, Crossover contains two (relatively unrelated) stories. I think these volumes would be a lot better if Miller used more space to tell his tale. The Zombie storyline could certainly have used two more issues to resolve so there didn't seem to be so many leaps in the action and the Namor story could have been jettisoned almost entirely. He's just another guy that'll hit on Sue and end up in a big fight when I'd think the zombies in the basement were a more pressing situation than exploring Atlantis.

The zombies were great and Namor was OK so I'll give this one a 3.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 4 Inhuman

What a shame that Inhuman followed N-Zone because this one was just terrible. The Ultimate series was supposed to be a way for new readers (like me) to get involved with long running series without having to know the huge back history of some of these characters. Inhuman takes that concept and completely throws it out the window.

There are two stories in this volume, one about an old acquaintance of Reed's who now wants to kill him and one about Johnny meeting a girl who's essentially a goddess. I guess. If the second story hadn't been so terrible the first might have passed as OK but together they're just a mess.

The Thinker had no set up. None. They just kind of threw her at them. Her motivations made no sense and the story felt like it was missing pages. It seemed like it needed more time to tell the story it was trying to tell.

The Inhuman story was even worse. First, just how old is Johnny supposed to be? Reed, Sue and Ben are all 18-19 and Johnny is Sue's younger brother. So really, 16, maybe 17? How is he getting into bars? Sure, he's one of the beautiful people but it'd be nice to see the bouncer wave him in or for him to try flashing a fake ID, or something to acknowledge that these characters are supposed to be in their youth. Then to want to follow this girl home because he loved her? I was expecting to find out that Crystal's powers involved some kind emotional manipulation because it seemed so out of character.

This one was terrible, it's a 1.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 3 N-Zone

Awesome.

That's all that really needs to be said about N-Zone. Just awesome. This has been my favourite so far (obviously) but the reason is that it's just written so well for super-high science fiction.

I really liked the way Reed was using his powers outside of the box. Being stretchy is about so much more than being able to tie oneself in knots. I didn't like what they did with Johnny in the N-Zone. To me, his exotropic powers seemed to be reacting to the endotropic universe and it made sense. Instead, he was shedding his skin like some kind of snake?

There was great tension built up with the escape and while it ended with the obligatory fight scene I still really liked it. I'm giving it a 5.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 2 Doom

Warren Ellis takes over the writing duties in Doom to introduce the Fantastic Four's greatest villain, Doctor Doom. The finale of the The Fantastic had them all wondering what had happened to Victor after the accident that turned them into superheroes but here we find out that he's been teleported to Denmark, grown a skin of metal and is insane. It's the insane part that really sets things up.

I really liked some of the dialogue in this volume. Especially the reveal of the fantasti-car. Ellis got the pater of teens down with just the right touch and the result is really funny and very real. I'm giving it a 4.