The name's Bonds. War Bonds.

I saw Captain America: The First Avenger today. I don't know if I'm in a headspace to write a detailed review/analysis, but I'm going to try.

I'll start by saying that I'm pleased at having almost exactly called what they were doing with the "classic" costume.

I didn't predict just how meta they would go with the classic shield and the comic books and the staged Hitler jaw-socks. The theme song belongs in the same pantheon of retrokitsch tunes with Make Way For Tomorrow Today. The reactions of the soldiers overseas to the "star-spangled man with the plan" was an unexpected but very on-point way of ending the booster montage and getting Cap involved in the action.

Focusing the action on a purely comic book conflict between a multinationally-staffed SSR and the forces of HYDRA at the very moment when they've split off from Germany entirely to become their own world power is more than a bit of a dodge of the issues involved in making a WWII movie, but... well, pitting superheroes against supervillains nicely answers the question of why neither side makes much of a difference to history.

Captain America couldn't go sock Hitler on the jaw because he was busy with the Red Skull, and they ultimately neutralized each other. It's the sort of thing that the OSI in Venture Bros. exists to arrange. I find, as a meta-structure in superhero stories, that I prefer this sort of set-up to the escalation theory. Superheroes and supervillains keep each other busy so that everyone else can go on living their lives.

It was a fun enough movie. The major criticism that stuck with me is that the supporting cast was underdeveloped; the Howling Commandos, for instance, were never introduced to us by name. If Dum-Dum Dugan didn't have such distinctive headwear, I wouldn't have known they were supposed to be the Howling Commandos at all.

Now, if you're not a big enough 616 geek to know who the Howling Commandos are, that in itself doesn't sound too bad, but to break it down: Cap trusts these guys with his life and vice-versa and we don't even know who they are.

Couldn't we have dipped into the "war booster" montage or the "destroying HYDRA" montage a bit to give them a bit more characterization? Okay, I know they're not likely to be on stage for a Captain America sequel or the Avengers movie, but that means this was probably their only time to shine.

The connections between movies/characters is probably about on the same level as it was in Thor. Fewer Avenger cameo/references, but the decision to tie the Alien Power MacGuffin directly to Asgard (prediction: it's not Asgardian tech, that's just where it came from immediately before reaching earth) and continue the science-is-magic-is-science angle is probably going to do a lot to make The Avengers more coherent as a movie. We now have Tony's father having studied the cube and its properties, Thor the Asgardian, and Captain America having seen it in action.

This coupled with the seeming-inert cube's appearance at the end of Thor makes me optimistic that we'll get more than "I drafted all you people and here's something threatening the world for you to face." as the plotline for The Avengers

Anyway, it's no Thor and I'm not even sure how I'd rate it against the Iron Men, but I wouldn't relegate it to the shelf of Hulks.

(Sidenote: Saw The Amazing Spider-Man trailer... are they trying to trick people into thinking it's a horror movie for the first half?)

One bullet I've managed to effectively stay out of the path of:

Playin' D&D

I had a short D&D session tonight. It was only the second session with a new IRL group and only two players were able to attend (nasty stomach bug going around our circle, apparently)... by coincidence, they were the two least experienced players in the group so we did an out-of-continuity session with quick combats to help them better learn the system and their characters' powers.

It went pretty well. New players can be either resistant about using their encounter and daily powers because of the "What if I need it later?" syndrome, or just throw them out there with little to no tactical concern... like using Elven Accuracy to re-roll the first strike of a Twin Strike against a minion. I think the latter is a better newbie habit than the former, because then at least you do learn how to use them and you might start spotting patterns. And when Daily Powers have ongoing effects, then even if the "attack" portion is overkill for whatever purpose they put it to, they might get some use out of the effect for the rest of the fight. On the other hand, hoarding the powers means that you not only never really become conversant with their use, but you miss out on a real sense of your character's full capabilities.

So for this session, once I'd pointed out that there were no consequences to losing these battles and they didn't have to worry about saving things for the next fight because they'd start each one fresh, the players started cutting loose a bit more.

It kind of makes me think that a "tutorial combat" might be a good idea in general.