New Avengers #50

New Avengers #50
The New Avengers react to Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers (reviewed previously) with some smart dialog. The real gem is the 8 or so pages of guest artists giving each of the new avengers their due. Bendis is still tying together Dark Reign nicely, I'll be following more of the new avengers.

No Hero #4

No Hero #4
No Hero is a Warren Ellis project I've been reading, that poses the question what would you do to become superhuman? The anwser is playing out and by issue 4 things are getting pretty horrific for poor Josh after the process of him becoming superhuman has finished. The art takes a while to get used to but suits the terrifying subject. You would do well to pick this up from issue 1 but if not it would probably read better in trade paperback.

Green Lantern Corps #33

Green Lantern Corps #33
More build up and interaction between the now different coloured corps (The War of Light is coming). Slow burning character interactions, a new restrictive law for the green lanterns to follow and a prelude to a pretty good slugfest. Also at the end of the issue a pretty creepy and respectable Omens and Origins bit from a black perspective. All in all GLC is a great support book for the high drama that happens in the main GL line.

Secret Six #6

Secret Six #6
A good little villain book where you root for the nefarious team. Some good soap opera revelations and flashback histories this issue. The Orgins and Omens bit of the issue seems abit forced and leads to things feeling disjointed at the end.

RPG Review: In Nomine Core Book

In Nomine was and is the RPG I have run most successfully. It has a wealth of background and setting that can suit most tones, be they light, dark, comical and so on. The system is simplicity itself with 3 dice deciding most things.

The basic setting is a great premise, the world’s oldest war between heaven and hell continues on to this day as a cold war. Earth is a Casablanca with agents of both sides of the war influencing the humans.

The real shining gem of game design meeting fluff is the mindsets of the different sorts of angels and demons. It gives a great base for players to role-play from. A good example is the choir of Seraphs angels of truth they can see the truth in the universe and it hurts them to lie. By contrast equally interesting is the fallen Balseraphs, they too do not lie; they believe what they say to you and force you into their world view.

In the time I've been gming In Nomine I have seen it run zombie games, mythical games, action games, low powered humans games and high power American gods style games. On the whole it is extremely versatile for any genre you may want to run.

The only criticism I have is the art. The original soft cover had a beautiful piece of art of a flaming feather and the layout of the book was also spot on. But I really dislike SJ Games line art that is through out the rest of the book, it's overly simplistic and cheesy and gives the wrong visual tone to the entire book. It you want to make your eyes bleed have a look at the GM Screen.

PC Death

Due to a technical problem updates will not be as frequent over the next week or so. My PC has died a death and is to be repaired.

As such I'll be post some reviews of a collected edition of something and maybe an rpg system in the next week to keep things flowing somewhat.

Holidays

As I am away on holidays until mid next week, there will be no reviews until then.

Damien

Superman, Faces of Evil

Superman #684 Faces of Evil Issue- Parasite

Mostly a statement of intentions for where the writer wants to take it from the New Krypton plot arc. A reintroduction of Parasite and what he's been up to, the mindset is written fairly well (but this doesn't warrant a Faces of Evil Issue). I still don't know whether the outcome of New Krypton has left in a good place to continue on from.