MadCap At the Movies - "Ant-Man"

Ant-Man is not one of Marvel's bigger properties.  Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is known for two things - being an Avenger and creating Ultron. And since Marvel elected to take that away from him for that one movie that just passed, we have him now as neither of those things.  Yay. However, the beginning of the film clears up Pym's involvement in the plot as having been a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent back in the day, chastising Howard Stark (John Slattery), Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), and Mitchell Carson (Martin Donovan) for trying to replicate his work on "Pym Particles" and shoving a resignation letter down their throats before storming out...

...which opens the door for Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a down on his luck ex-con fresh out of prison who just wants to do right by his daughter, Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), to be our protagonist. And what a good choice this was by Marvel, due to the fact that Scott is a great, great deal more relatable to the general public than Pym would be.  Having been sent to prison for screwing over the company he had previously worked for, distributing millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains back to those the company had taken them from, Scott finally gets out and is determined to go straight.

However, he eventually cracks when he flits from job to job due to his criminal record and is convinced into a heist by some of his friends...to rob the house of one Henry "Hank" Pym, during which he steals a suit right out of  some astonishing tales...and prepares to make a few of his own, though not without a certain scientist hanging on his ear and asking him for some help in dealing with a problem that has spouted up at Pym Tech.

The problem being Pym's former protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) coming close to replicating Pym's work on the Pym Particles - which can shrink a person or object and increase their density, meaning (in the case of Ant-Man) small size, big punch.  With this technology in hand, Cross could send the entire world into chaos.  Rather than do the logical thing and call the Avengers (which is actually brought up and shot down with two lines), Pym decides he needs to get a hold of Scott Lang and have him take on the mantle of Ant-Man.

What follows is, essentially, a heist film.  Of course, that's not before Scott goes through some heavy training to use the suit as well as communicate with the ants for which Ant-Man is known for communicating with.  But once he's done so, they plan to infiltrate Pym Tech and stop Cross from selling off his "Yellowjacket" prototype to HYDRA (who are totally not evil now, honest) and causing chaos throughout the world.

Let's get the characters out of the way.  Paul Rudd plays an amazing Scott Lang.  I had only ever seen him in comedic roles before this (such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), but I have to admit this guy can pull serious drama when he needs to. You can see his anguish about not being able to see his daughter and provide for her, his love for her - indeed, before he goes into the final battle, one of the last things he does is visit her. He's not perfect by any means - more Iron Man than Cap - but he is trying. He wants to do right and is determined to do anything he can to be the man his daughter sees him as.

Hank Pym fits into the mentor role, and I do like that Marvel didn't just cast him aside or relegate him to a background or flashback-only role in the story.  The original inventor of the Ant-Man suit and the Particles after which he's named, Pym was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent until Stark and others crossed him...though his disassociation with them began long before that with the disappearance of his wife, Janet van Dyne (Hayley Lovett) due to his technology. This makes his desire to not want to call in the Avengers to solve his problem all the more poignant, and also feeds into the third of the main trio of the film.

Evangeline Lilly plays Hope van Dyne, a new character who is the daughter of Hank and Janet.  She's capable, witty, and tough, all the things you'd expect from a child raised by two superheroes. However, she's become estranged from her father and thus worked with Cross to remove him from Pym Tech's board of directors...until she realized Cross was a homicidal maniac with a god complex and started working with Pym to take him down. She even says herself that she'd be better suited to put the Ant-Man suit to use than Lang (which he agrees with), though Pym refuses due to the loss of his wife years earlier. Nevertheless, she forms an integral part of the plan due to being in Cross's inner circle.

And, at last, we come to out villain - Darren Cross.  Now the CEO of Pym Tech, he wants to sell off weapons to HYDRA because...profit.  No, really. That's his motivation. He's basically the same character that Ezekiel Stane was in Iron Man (he even has the Bald of Evil going on!).  The former assistant of Pym, he became resentful of his mentor for excluding him from the secret of Pym Particles, and so began work on trying to re-discover the secret himself...which has driven him to an obsessive insanity not helped at all by his exposure to the Particles which has driven him even more insane.

One also should consider Scott's three partners in crime (Michael Peña, David Dastmalchian, and T.I.).  Of many nationalities as we know all gangs in the world must surely be, they serve as the comic relief for the film, but also a handy group of Chekov's Gunmen when their skills are needed to help Scott in the final heist.  Unlike many comic relief characters who do nothing but take up space and shoot off corny one-liners, they're at least useful to the plot with said skills, so I won't give Marvel too much grief for them.

I would also like to give props to the crew's work with the shrinking, which as not used in a gimmicky way as I feared it would be.  Much like the comics of yore, it's actually used to make relatively mundane environments - such as a bathtub, a child's train set, or the inside of a suitcase - seem very big and grandiose, playing on their former mediocrity in some rather amusing ways, especially later on in the film.

It's a rather enjoyable film, even if the plot is very Iron Man in its delivery - simply swap out Pym Particles for the Arc Reactor and Cross for Stane - but if they're going to copy any of the Marvel films that have come before, it should be that one given how it still remains universally beloved.  Though it is greatly spiced up by Paul Rudd in both drama and comedy, and the rest of the cast rounds out nicely what is overall a very enjoyable film.

Oh, and the post-credits scene...

Marvel, Civil War better not suck...the slippery slope is a whole lot more slippery...

Ant-Man is now in theaters from Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Motion Pictures.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

From MadCap's Couch - "Sliders: In Dino Veritas"

With those tossed salads and scrambled raptor eggs...they're callin' again...

Who doesn't love a good dinosaur story? I remember the first Jurassic Park fondly from my childhood, growing up in the 90s being an awesome time for dinosaurs (see also: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers).  And what with Jurassic World already out at the time of writing this (doesn't matter, had review), there couldn't be a better time for me to get back into the realm of the dinosaur.

...y'know...except a month ago. When Jurassic World actually came out...

...

...anyway, let's get the ball rolling.

We begin with Arturo and Quinn waiting in a park for Wade and Rembrandt. The Crying Man has hooked himself up with a foxy lady that he is apparently incapable of lying to - because everyone on this world is equipped with one of those bomb collars from The Running Man with a thankfully added difference, even the tiniest of white lies gets you an electric shock. This comes back to bite Wade, however, when her inability to lie brings up the greatest foe the Sliders have yet faced...the media! They roll up in a van, coming to witness the oncoming Slide and have intimate knowledge of the group thanks to Wade's electroshock therapy.

But leaving the snarky news reporter and his camera man behind, the group slide through the vortex...and Wade gets her hands into some scrambled eggs. Or rather she makes some as she falls right into a nest of them upon leaving the vortex. She's squicked, but they're quick to note that this is unlike any San Francisco they have been in yet. In fact, it's a forest that seemingly goes on forever. Quinn theorizes that it could be a park, backed up by the fact that they can hear no urban noise or see any cityscape.

The first look at a familiar dinosaur...sadly not our last...

Before they can ponder the meaning of the lack of a city further, they hear a beastial roar from within the foliage and decide to start running off in a random direction. Through the trees, we get our first glimpse of the Tyrannosaurus Rex just before the opening title sequence...and I'm sorry to say it's not our last, because this is going to be a very, very shameless low-budget ripoff of Jurassic Park.

While this won't become a thing until the third season, when producer David Peckinpah will be brought in by FOX to murder the show, this is really the first of the episodes of Sliders that is a shameless ripoff of another property just to use that popular movie or show's brand recognition in a way that skillfully avoids copyright infringement. This will move Sliders from being a more cerebral show about things like a world where Penicillin had never been invented, or posing questions about how intellectual superiority does not equate to ethical superiority into a more action oriented one that turned many viewers off and nearly killed the show.

...and then did kill the show.  But that dumpster fire awaits us going forward.

Escaping the woods with the Faux Rex's roars still being heard in the distance, the group seems to be getting far enough ahead...only for Arturo to fall and injure himself. Unable to continue alone, Quinn and Rembrandt assist him.  However, none of the Sliders noticed that they've left something behind...the Slide timer! They have a few more concerns, however, when the T-Rex first comes into view...and it's just...well, see for yourself...

Worst. CGI. EVER!

...I have no words. I'm aware it was 1996. I'm aware this was a fairly low-budget production. I'm aware that FOX goes with science-fiction like oil goes with water. But really? Was an attempt even made to make this thing look anything but absolutely ridiculous? Giving the main four actors credit, they do express their horror at seeing it...though I prefer to thing it was more a fear of having seen the effect and being shocked that such a thing could exist.

The T-Rex avoids them, because plot, and the group continue their way through the woods. They decide to head for a cave, Quinn asking Arturo to check for the time until they slide...and then they realize no one has the timer, Arturo must have lost it when he tripped.  Quinn decides to go after it, reasoning that they might only have a few minutes before the next slide. While Remmy stays to help Arturo, Wade goes to get some water from a nearby river. And once more, the T-Rex shows up to muck about and (I preumse was intended to) look menacing.

And of course, Wade doesn't sound remotely frightened by it as she runs off to tell Remmy and Arturo about it, the three running off to a cave with Wade saying that Quinn will find them. Thus, they settle in and start discussing before Wade decides to go look around...because she's not afraid of the crappy CGI T-Rex.

No, I'm not letting this go. Get over it.

As Wade is scoping out the cave, she notices a few items of interest - a cot, some large tusks, several crates with dino eggs and bones. When Remmy comes to check up on her, she brings to him her belief that there are other people here, which I'm sure they're all grateful for beyond belief. Around the campfire, they discuss who these people might be. Arturo mentions that sliding is never time travel, time in every universe remains consistent. So the question isn't why there are people here so much as it is why dinosaurs are here, seeing as dinosaurs and humans on their Earth are separated by about sixty five million years.

Arturo also brings up the theory that dinosaurs might not have been cold-blooded, saying that there's no conclusive evidence that they were - except, y'know, there has - so they could potentially have lived in any environment.  Before they can make science cry some more, however, a woman comes into the cave. A Dinosaur Perservation Ranger, she is here to arrested them all for poaching. All of San Francisco on this world is a gigantic biological preserve for dinosaurs.  Some might call it a...park? Heh heh.

They protest their innocence, saying they've got a friend who ought to be able to corroborate their story, but the Ranger tells them they don't anymore - she found a man's body not too far off. Arturo tries to get them not to panic, but Wade pulls a Tea Leoni and runs out to call for Quinn...only for Remmy to stop her and talk her down.

Back in the cave, the Ranger and Arturo talk - the Ranger identifying the dinosaur that has been pursuing the group as an Allosaurus, not a Tyrannosaurus...because just barely avoiding completely being a rip-off. Arturo begins to explain, but she tells him to save it for the trial - an arrest team is already on the way. Remmy tries to grab her to talk some sense into her, but his hand passes right through her...she's a hologram! Arturo tries to use this to their advantage, bringing up that they have never seen a holographic guard before. And thus, he gives the outline of the series thus far.

Because Hologram Ranger is firmly on the sanity train, she doesn't believe them. And she claims that she's been seeing them for weeks and seen the trouble they've caused...which puts me into mind of her seeing their doubles from this world, but it's not quite time to revive that counter gag yet. For the time being, Wade tries to use the fact that they're wearing the True Collars as proof that they're not lying, and even allows herself to get shocked several times to prove their innocence.

We get a bit of the "humans are genocidal monsters" talk from the Ranger - and shockingly not from Wade - before they discuss that Quinn is still missing and needs to be found. Remmy moves to head out, wanting to identify the body and see if it's Quinn. The Ranger assures them that they will not be able to escape and she can track them anywhere. In one of the redeeming moments of this episode, Arturo, Remmy, and Wade all share a laugh over that statement before Remmy heads out to find Quinn.

In the woods, he calls out for him, looking about as we hear the ominous roaring the Allosaurus in the distance. Back at the campfire, Arturo and Wade talk about the naked folks world from the end of "Gillian of the Spirits", and Wade talks about her crush on Quinn from before and admits for the first time that she unconditionally loves Quinn, even to the point of giving her life for him.

Remember that. It's going to hurt later.

Arturo reminiscences about the first time he ever met Quinn. He looks upon Quinn as a first class mind, He's certain that he's well, completely and utterly believes it to the point where his Truth Collar doesn't even go off when he makes the statement. And from the smile that Wade gives as a result of realizing that, it seems she believes it, too.

Don't move...can't see you if you don't move...

Back in the woods, Remmy's still looking around in what is clearly not night for Quinn. The Allosaurus catches him and he holds perfectly still, thinking that that will save him. Back in the cave, Arturo and Wade hear two whooshes that they believe are gunshots. Remmy, in the meanwhile, uses the gunshots as a distraction to pull a Usain Bolt and run run run! Wade runs out to him, but they both head back toward the cave and decide not to stick around to find out what caused the gunshots...until they get back to the cave and find that the real poacher has returned.

They get Arturo's leg in a splint and the Ranger and the Poacher have an argument with raptors being brought up that we are unfortunately not going to see...presumably because there was only enough money in the budget for the CGI-Rex. The Poacher wants to cut a deal with the Sliders, seeing that his partner was killed. They help him haul his goods out of the park, he gets them out of the park and gets Arturo help for his leg before he has to lose it. The Ranger insists that he's lying, though he retorts that he's been able to run around in the park and the poaching that he's doing is bringing in a lot of help to various medical applications.

Their bickering back and forth goes nowhere and the Ranger begs them for help. The Poacher refutes it, though, saying that they would never bring the helicopter out to the park before he uses a device to disrupt her hologram projection.  Remmy, Arturo, and Wade discuss the deal and Arturo's state, which has only improved marginally. They have three options before them - the Ranger, the Poacher, or the timer. There are all in agreement that they cannot leave until they learn of Quinn's fate.

Wade goes to tell the Poacher, but he's not having any of it. Because of them, he's potentially going to become the most wanted man in America, so they owe him as he sees it. They all head to get some rest...more or less at gunpoint thanks to the Poacher threatening them with his hair trigger. While Remmy is able to get some sleep, Arturo and Wade aren't and stay up and prepare to hatch a plan to turn the tables on the Poacher.

Wade sneaks over and removes the device he used to jam the Hologram. They activate it, but she does not reappear. Going with Plan B, Wade heads out after being shocked by her collar for insisting that she knows what she's doing. In the woods, we hear the sounds of nature but alas see no dinosaurs as she skulks around searching for Quinn. The Poacher catches up to her, insist that Quinn is as good as dead if he is out here. The Allosaurus finds them...though we don't see it this time because I presume the budget ran out. And suddenly, Quinn arrives after having spent nearly the entire episode offscreen and pulls a George McFly before fling rocks to distract it.

Quinn and Wade escape as the Poacher readies his gun...only to realize, what do you know, no more bullwets! The Allosaurus has a tasty snack as Quinn and Wade watch with apathy. Back at the cave, Quinn explains where he's been and Quinn gets their collars off again. Quinn also reveals that in all the time he was gone...he still didn't miss the timer, so they very well could have missed the Slide.

That's right...we're in the last five minutes of the episode mode.

Remmy starts digging around for anything that would be useful against the Allosaurus and the Ranger reappears. Apparently, she's been trying to get them to authorize a helicopter...but it's apparently a no-go because of dinosaur mating season. She did, however, find the timer - they have about an hour and a half left. They being frantically looking through the Poacher's belongings, finding attractants and repellents but they're not labeled. They also find a flare gun, a rope...and a grappling hook, noticing the hole in the roof of the cave they could climb out of.

The Sliders set their plan into motion, Wade climbing out while the others go through the front door. Quinn heads out with the Ranger to get the timer while Remmy and Arturo give commentary from the doorway. On Quinn's signal, Wade fires the flare gun to distract. By the time Quinn gets the timer and finds out the Ranger was wrong - they now have only two minutes.  The Ranger pops back to the cave to warn Remmy and Arturo, who take off running. Wade, likewise, is also running for it. At the foot of the hill, Quinn opens the vortex as the other Sliders and the Allosaurus all make their way to it.

Nope, still dumb...

Quinn gives another signal, Wade shatters the tube of repellent, which distracts the Allosaurus long enough for everyone to make the Slide just in the nick of time and Quinn narrowly avoiding being eaten before he jumps in. We cut away to an archaeological dig, where one of the people on site says that they've unearthed the best Allosaurus skeleton he's ever seen just before the Sliders fall in from their vortex, Quinn getting a jump scare as he falls right toward the skeleton's mouth..and then accidentally steps on and shatters a bone...earning him an irate look from the archaeologist. So we can presumably have one more laugh before the credits roll...

This is one of those episode that I don't like (go figure), but not for the usual reasons. It's not a terrible episode, in all honesty. The pacing is a little wonky, but its Sliders, and complaining about pacing in Sliders is kind of like complaining at the sky for being blue. The message of "humans are genocidal maniacs" is a drum that is far too often beat on, and doesn't really work in this situation. The Sliders are not a group of hubris-driven maniacs out to play God or kill dinosaurs for profit, they're a bunch of people that go lost in a biological preserve with creatures that want to eat them. Now for the Poacher, yes, but he ends up getting his just desserts anyway. So...who exactly is that message for?

Even the Poacher is using some of the gains from the hunts to help with various medical applications such as skin grafts and heart surgery (even if he makes a profit with some of it - after all, he says, he's no saint). So, that message doesn't really work here except for just being one of two generic ones that one uses in a "man meets dinosaur" story.

Quinn's absence during this episode is also rather confusing, and I would attribute it to other dinosaurs becoming involved...except that we don't see any. Some other species get mentioned, but otherwise there's no appearance by anything but the Allosaurus in a biological preserve of some creatures. And of course, I do understand the limitations of budget, but not seeing any others in an entire park devoted to them is just depressing.

We do get some good character moments, particularly the scene with Arturo and Wade in the cave when talking about Quinn. But this is really one of those situations where if they couldn't bring their A-Game to the table, then the they shouldn't have made the attempt.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Goat Simulator"

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Ba ba ba! Ba ba ba ba! Ba ba ba! Ba ba ba ba! Ba! Ba ba ba! Ba ba ba! Ba ba ba! Ba! Ba ba ba! Ba ba ba! Ba! Ba Ba!

Ba ba! Ba!

...okay, now I know why they say not to leave your laptop out near goats. I thought that watermelon was a little suspicious.

But yeah, that's pretty much it. You're a goat, you wreck shit. If it were a Bethesda game, people would be rolling their eyes in disdain and calling for the dev team's heads. What else could I possibly say about it?

Goat Simulator is now available from Coffee Stain Studios for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Tabletop Tales - "The Lyre Story"

Hello and well met, fellow adventurers!

It is I, the MadCapMunchkin, with a brand new segment called "Tabletop Tales".  I've made it no secret that I'm an avid player of quite a few RPGs, the most common that I've referenced being the legendary Dungeons & Dragons. In what is not a shameless rip off of The Spoony One's "Counter Monkey", I wanted to bring in this segment to share my experiences with the world of tabletop, maybe entertain and inform others.

...I said it wasn't a shameless rip-off, I never promised the premises wouldn't be suspiciously similar...

So, on Thursdays - if I have something funny or insightful to share - I will and happily do so.  And here comes the first edition of Tabletop Tales, where I'll share a tale from one of the first campaigns I ever played through to completion - the Apophis Campaign.

You'll likely hear me referencing this a lot and with good reason - it was one hell of a campaign.  We started out in the most clichéd way possible and ended up kicking all the asses on our way through the world. I'll have to hammer out all the details again some day, but basically put it was a great campaign, I absolutely loved it and it had an immensely satisfying conclusion.  The best part, of course, being that we earned it.  The DM probably gave us a few more breaks than we deserved, but ultimately never gave us anything.  We fought tooth and nail and eventually we came out on top. Certainly no cake walk, I can say that for certain.

This story, however, comes from early in the campaign, not too long after we had already started. We had a group of about three of us - protecting the innocent with alternate names - myself, Keith, and Eugene and our DM Ripley.  This was Ripley's first campaign as a DM, and we had started up with our characters. Keith ended up pulling a Sorcerer/Ranger (which ended up working quite well for him), Eugene had made your stereotypical dwarven fighter, and I had made my first bard - Aion Moonblade.

Bards were a class I had never played before. We were going by 3.5 rules and I was thumbing through the player's manual and I kind of dug the whole aspect of "jack of all trades, master of none", being able to fight, do magic, or sneak around without having to be stuck doing just one of those things.  However, when one tends to look at Aion Moonblade they...didn't really get that impression from him. Or, at least, that was my intention.

I believe "Bunny Ears Lawyer" is the correct trope to define Aion Moonblade. He's often off in his own world, thinking to himself and working out things, never his mind on where he was and what he was doing, all that mess.  This is one such story of Aion's (and, coincidentally, my own) scatterbrained antics. Luckily, this one wasn't particularly lethal to anyone, but in any other situation I imagine it really would have been.

To set up the actual campaign, our group had been brought together by a priest wanting to get his daughter out of a mausoleum.  We faced some low-level monsters and even a couple of undead before we faced the "Man in Black", an antagonist we'd been introduced to early on, and ended up finding a portal to another plane...which might have been one of the Hells, though I'm not certain that we ever got confirmation on it.  Journeying around the placed we'd slid out of the vortex into, we eventually faced some of the local residents and got some tasty magical items off their corpses - namely Aion scoring a Lyre of Building.

For those of you who don't know, a Lyre of Building is a magical stringed instrument that...well, builds.  With the right combination of chords, a player can do things like make ditches, mines, tunnels, and even full buildings depending on how long the playing goes on.  And Aion having Perform (stringed instruments) pretty much saw it as perfect for him, so he yoinked that right away and didn't even look back. It made a nice replacement to his common lyre anyway...or so I had intended.

But, I made a rookie mistake.  I had Aion put it in his pack...and then completely forgot it was there.

It's a good idea to remember what you have, regardless of the class you're playing. You never know what might come in handy.  While I wasn't the guy who kept track of who had want and how it would be useful in practice, we had Keith who absolutely excels at that sort of thing, and it's a skill that I appreciate a good bit more even if it's a wee bit intrusive. But Keith remembered,  and Keith kept that little nugget in the back of his head for a bit.

And I think I used the Lyre in one other instance, but Ripley came to realize he might have given a third-level character a bit too powerful of an item. Eventually we ended up coming back out of the Hell Dimension and got back into a lower level of the mausoleum, finding ourselves face to face with a trap that made the ceiling lower and the floors rise to crush anyone without the Reflex save to avoid them.  Your standard Indiana Jones trap.

Unfortunately, none of us had a bag of sand to swap out for the Idol, and the bard is the one reigning authority on picking locks and disarming traps...neither of which he does well...so we're stuck at an impasse...until Keith suddenly has an idea and taps me in the shoulder, telling me "Dude, use your lyre".  And sitting there as I was, lost in thought of what we could do, I didn't realize what he was talking about so I looked over at him...and completely confused by the statement, I asked...

"You want me to throw my lyre at it?"

And I sit there for a minute...and I'm looking around the table as this awkward silence passes over us.  Keith's eye has started twitching like his rage is about to break, and both Eugene and Ripley are laughing their asses off.  We finally decided it was an in-character moment, since Aion is rather a left-handed monkey wrench, but it was just hilarious incompetence on my part that I'd completely forgotten I even had the item.

And inevitably, it didn't work for one reason or another - as I said, Ripley had caught on that he had probably let an item that was too powerful fall into my hands too soon (which will be kind of hilarious later on, but that's another story) - but now I pretty much take it as a lesson to remember what I have on me and keep that in mind. Even for characters that wouldn't do that as a rule, I usually will just to be able to tell other players that would do that and have them sort of tip me off in character about that.

Even to this day, we still occasionally tease Keith with it and "Throw a lyre" has been a recurring in-joke in our games every now and again.  But yes, if anyone who games takes anything away from this - remember what you have. It can save your life.

Or it can save your fellow adventurers a brain aneurysm. Either way, it's a win-win.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Lando #1"

"He's a card player, gambler, scoundrel.  You'd like him."

Better words have never been uttered to more accurately describe Lando Calrissian.  Administrator of Bespin's Cloud City, Rebel Alliance hero, and lovable rogue. Even more so than Han Solo himself, Lando Calrissian as played by Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is absolutely awash with charisma and it just oozes through in his performance. Sure he's a conman, sure you're not entirely positive you can trust him, but damn it if you don't want to root for him.

Apparently, when Marvel bought up the Star Wars franchise, they figured this out and set him up with his own comic series.  Set years before he joined the Rebels in their quest to save the galaxy, it is destined to follow Lando as he goes from conman to respected administrator of the Bespin mining facility of Cloud City.  Normally, I'm against prequels, especially in the case of Star Wars, but I have to admit I was suckered right in.  And how could I not be? I mean, it's Lando Calrissian.  The guy's as cool as ice!

The comic starts up with Lando on the planet Castell, somewhere between the Inner Rim and the Core of the Galaxy (it's a planet, in a place, in the galaxy. Don't be a nerd) admiring a mysterious and intricately designed orb.  Like a certain Guardian before him, Lando steals it...but by smooth-talking his way past a foxy Imperial Governor who he's been involved with for some time.

Afterwards, he explains to Lobot about his con.  Lobot, if you remember, was the guy in Empire Strikes Back who had the funky futuristic earmuffs and never said anything.  Here, he's a bit more chatty, giving Lando grief for taking too many risks despite the fact he did win out in the end (despite staggering odds).  Lando presents the Orb to Papa Toren, a crime boss who Lando's in quite a bit of debt to thanks to his gambling.  Instead of calling the debt even, though, Toren cuts off ten percent much to Lando's dismay.

However, if Lando does want to clear up the debt, then Torren has another job in mind...

Cue Gone in Sixty Seconds in Space. Boom.  Torren wants a pleasure craft belonging to some rich Imperial, so Lando and Lobot get a team together to pull the heist. It's a great little story, leading into a massive cliffhanger when we learn just who the stolen craft belongs to.  And without wishing to spoil, I'm afraid Lando and company will be in quite a bit of pain when he finds out...

The opening issue gives just enough to whet the appetite for future issues, with an excellent story written up by Charles Soule, and work on the art and coloring by Alex Maleev and Paul Mounts that faithfully recreates the futuristic feel of Star Wars.  I can't wait for more, and if you haven't picked this one up, you most definitely should.

Star Wars: Lando #1 is now available from Marvel Comics wherever fine comic books are sold.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

From MadCap's Couch - "Sliders: Time Again and World"

"I'm the bearded lady! Who are you, one of the freaks?!"

Oh, goodie, another episode using an important document in U.S. History as a plot device. Raise that bar, Sliders writers! Oh, I'm sorry, I'm jumping ahead, let me jump back forty-four minutes...

We begin with an opening narration from Wade, as we did back in Luck of the Draw. Apparently the Sliders have been stuck on this one world for two weeks and are all at their wits end, lashing out at one another. Rembrandt and Arturo talk in a bar, the Professor lamenting that they're still sliding after all this time. Rembrandt apparently believes that it's God's will that they're in this mess, and His will to get them out of it.

Of course, Rembrandt hasn't actually seen what is to come, but if he did he'd know that if there's a kind and loving God overlooking the Sliders multiverse, he's taking a long, long vacation...

Wade arrives to tell them about the Slide, Rembrandt paying a bearded woman for his and Arturo's drinks. On a street near where the four plan to undertake the slide, several figures in black sunglasses wait around.  The air is tense as the Sliders reunite and have some quips about the world they've landed on, then suddenly a car accident sees a woman in purple and several others take notice.  One of the drivers laments his wrecked car...and he gets shot for his trouble.

Since the writers threw some darts at a board to decide which of our main characters should get involved, Wade runs up to help the gunshot victim. With his last words, he tells her "Elsie. The Rock. 4. 5." and then tells her it's dangerous to go alone, giving her purple matchbook. They hear the sounds of sirens and Quinn pulls her away so they can slide.  Arriving just before the nick of time, they head through with Rembrandt and Arturo...and the opening credits roll.

Out of the vortex, they arrive in the same park that they just left because budget and have their traditional falling out of the vortex banter. Wade examines the matchbook, finding a black chip inside. Arturo brings up point that the last time they became involved in the affairs of a world, Quinn got a bullet in his back. Of course, this is completely discounting the following: when they helped Quinn's double the Sorcerer find the person leaking information about slide technology from his organization, when the three male Sliders were kidnapped and forced into a breeding program, when your group exposed a corrupt lawyer/gunfighter for what he was and saved a woman's company, and caused a massacre that would have made Jason Voorhees proud at a maximum security prison.

Continuity? What's that?

Wade snaps at him for chiding her for becoming emotionally invested, being pulled away by Quinn. He checks the timer, saying they have thirty-six hours on this new Earth. They wander off and, because budget, they end up in the same place where the accident occurred in the previous world...save for the fact that it hasn't happened yet. Which is odd, considering we were told in "Pilot" that the time on all worlds goes at exactly the same speed. So, strictly speaking, it should have already happened...but if that were the case, we wouldn't have a plot.

"What's a Siri?" "I don't know, Wade. We're from 1996..."

This world apparently lacks bearded ladies as well, as evidenced by some quick cuts to various people and fixtures in the area. Quinn notices the woman in purple passing by, and they call deja vu. Just as they are, the two cars from before come twisting around and the accident occurs as in the previous world. This time, Wade warns the man (apparently called Judge Nasa by bystanders) who was shot before...who shoots his shooter before getting back in his car, giving the Woman in Purple a meaningful look, and taking off.

Unlike the previous world, Wade runs up to the fallen shooter, who repeats the same words that Nasa did on the other world "Elsie. The Rock. 5. 4.." An examination of the body shows that the man was a cop. Which means that Judge Nasa just murdered an officer of the law. Uh-oh!

Later that night, kilted policemen arrive and interrogate the Sliders, led by Police Chief "The guy who played the Springwood Chief of Police in Freddy vs. Jason". The Sliders insist they didn't see anything, but the police were apparently told that Wade gave a warning to Nasa, so they decide to keep an eye on her. The Sliders are released and head off to the Dominion Hotel on this world, meeting the hotel owner who I hadn't realized until now is and always has been a young Will Sasso. Huh.

He gets them to do a fingerprint scan so they can be admitted, but is a bit uneasy about some of the things he overheard them saying, so when they head upstairs he decides to call the police about it. Upstairs, Rembrandt find a copy of Not-TV Guide telling them about "Dragnet: The Next Generation", which leads into a short conversation where Arturo takes a few jabs at the Scottish, but does mention they invented Scotch Whiskey, a definite plus. Wade, however, is not up for the jokes and jibes and still lamenting how Nasa could possibly be a cop-killer.

Rembrandt brings up the very obvious point that this is a different world, and the man might be completely different here than he was on the previous world. Of course, this ultimately is wrong, but it's a point that the writer at least bothered to bring up, so kudos there. Luckily a pissing match between Arturo and Wade is stopped when a man and a woman in trenchcoats arrive to hold them at gunpoint, telling them to forget what they saw that afternoon. One wrong move, and they'll be sleeping with the fishes, etc.

Beware, Sliders. For tonight...Curly Howard will betray you...

Rembrandt immediately gets his coat and is ready to run for the hills. The others agree...except for Wade, who apparently wants to stay behind. A man is dead and she might be able to help...somehow. Rather than knocking her out and dragging her along, however, the three leave and then come back...because reasons...and of course Wade has to be right because, as the mouthpiece for the writers' "honor before reason" agenda, she is never wrong. Also, we'd have no plot.

So following the emotional blackmail, the group get taken to the station and Wade tells the tale of how they were assaulted in their room, and of the words the man who had been shot whispered. Apparently, Agent Tyler "found the rendezvous" and it means that the police will now have "them", whoever they are. They thank Wade for being a good American, though Quinn still wants to know what this is all about.  The cops tell him of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. On our world, they were known as the A-Bomb Spies, and were executed for selling state secrets of the United States to the Soviet Union - particularly those of the atomic bomb.

On this world, though, they killed President Kennedy. Bit of an upward career move. Maybe they were on the grassy knoll.

Realizing they might have screwed up (and realizing the two who assaulted them in their room were undercover cops), Quinn and Wade return to the Hotel to learn that the cops are there. The group ducks into the bar and they learn that apparently the world diverged from there's in 1962...when J. Edgar Hoover got elected to the office of President, and we get some background on Judge Nasa - apparently he was a former California Supreme Court Judge who went against the FBI and is a "free thinker", which have both put him at odds with them.

"Hey! You can't do this! I haven't even been in the Three Stooges movie yet!!!"

Seeing that the same computer chip she was given before seems to exist on this world, too, Wade and Quinn hit up the Electronics Store where they worked on their world in "Pilot" and discover that the chip holds an encrypted copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. Rembrandt also discovers, much to his dismay, learns that Rock and Roll doesn't exist on this world (though Kurt Cobain has a Christmas album).

And now, because I am hilariously snarky, I shall now and forever more call this world "Footloose Earth".

But Wade has come to the horrible realization that they've set Nasa up to walk right into a trap and need to correct the problem. Thus, Wade and Rembrandt a bar...that looks a bit like a high school prom (or as Remmy puts it, full of squares)...and ask the bartender about Elise. He says he doesn't know of an Elise who works there.  Wade and Rembrandt leave, thinking the whole thing a wild goose chase, but fail to notice the woman in purple.

In the park, the group reunites and Arturo tells about the group J. Edgar Hoover's cross-dressing to explain the dress code with policemen wearing skirts. Wade begins to connect "the Rock" with Alcatraz, since that's the nickname it went by on that world. Asking a bypasser, they learn that Alcatraz is open to the public...and is where several political prisoners such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are kept. When Quinn asks who's in cell 54, the bypassers think they're Secret Police and they shove off after telling them about Radio Free America and to ask for a "Natalie".

Quinn needed a friggin' drink...can't blame him after the last few episodes...

Back at the bar, Quinn asks for someone named "Natalie" and finds out that it's the woman in purple - now no longer in purple. He pops over and they have a side by side discussion, Quinn telling her that that Judge is about to be set up and shows her the disk as proof. He and Wade follow her to the back...with two men in suits not far off watching menacingly. Backstage, there's a much more lively nightclub feel going on as Natalie leads them to speak with Roy Clark, the voice of Radio Free America.

However, before they can put the Constitution over the airways, the cops bust in and a firefight ensues. Quinn, Natalie, and Wade escape, Quinn pulling a Cannonball Run to get them out in spite of the cops who forget they have guns. But with the party broken up and Clark arrested, it seems that all hope is lost. The Judge, too, is arrested...who the group passes just in time to see them arrested. It is also revealed the Calhoun is a double-agent for the Resistance...but has been turned.

At the bar, Rembrandt and Arturo are drinking away their sorrows and fearing that Quinn and Wade shared a similar fate. Eight hours from now, they'll be sliding...but luckily, the two arrive and all is well for the moment. Wade, it seems, has a plan much to Arturo's irritation.  The plan begins with Rembrandt marching right into the police station with a confession - they have an unabridged version of the United States Constitution. The cops are less than willing, but eventually agree to his terms after he reveals that killing him will see the Constitution sent over the internet in it's entirety.

Of course, being that it's 1996 even on this world, the police and FBI might have problems in...oh...two, three weeks?

Quinn lamenting the worlds where "I'm Jerry O'Connell" is not a pick up line...

But since the police haven't installed more firewalls, they do agree. And so, with around seven minutes left, the Sliders plus Natalie wait on a bridge in the dark. Quinn and Arturo take the time to wax poetic about the nature of freedom and democracy. Quinn brings up that good ideas only work if there are good people to fight for them. Arturo counters with the fact that while the idea of freedom is reborn with each generation, only one generation ever created the U.S. Constitution. Something to consider, considering what they're giving up so one man can be free.

But the fuzz arrives with the armored SUVs of doooom. The hand off occurs, Nasa being released into their custody. Wade hands over the disk. Quinn gives a muscle-bound lunk head of a cop who can't speak well some lip about destroying the Constitution. But the cops head off, Nasa thanking the Sliders for what they've done and each of them getting a word with him in turn (Wade still having a rather creep-ish Father-daughter moment) except for Quinn, and they slide. Quinn, as we expect, gets a word with Natalie before he slides, never bothering to ask her about her fur coat.

...okay, that was a bit of an obscure reference, sorry.

But it seems that all hope is lost even as the Judge and his daughter will continue the fight...at least until we cut to the Electronics Store. A customer calls over the Salesman, all the people in the store reading...the preamble to the United States Constitution, just as Wade intended it would seem...

The people of 1996 were utterly baffled at the thought of high-speed internet. All that porn!

This is actually a pretty good episode. The pacing isn't all that bad, the main characters are very consistent as we've come to know them, and the ending is a pretty good one showing of Wade's computer savvy and providing some hope for the future. While I'm still confused as to why they had to go to a different world for this one and didn't just arrive on the world to begin with. That coupled with the use of a document of U.S. History as a plot device again after we just had one in an episode not long ago does kind of make it a bit of a drag, but no real major problems.

Next time...dinosaurs!

...sadly, no space ship.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men" (1989)

Let me go ahead and get my thoughts out of the way for the TL;DR crowd: This. Movie. Kicks. All. The. Asses.

Okay, so I'm technically cheating with this one as it isn't a movie in the strictest sense.  It's a pilot produced by Marvel Entertainment in 1989 for a series that never materialized, but because the series was never picked up, it could be easily counted as a stand-alone TV movie.  Just with a signficantly shorter run time.

You can watch it right here. And let me go ahead and warn you, it's pretty damn epic - especially for a twenty minute show.  Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants seek to redirect a comet to Earth, and the only ones who can stop them are the X-Men!

After a PSA from Spidey and a kickass intro to prepare us for what we're about to see, Stan Lee himself narrates the opening over a New Mexico desert at night, where a military convoy is transporting Magneto, Master of Magnetism and the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants.  However, the White Queen herself - Emma Frost - arrives and frees him with some mental manipulation.

At a familiar mansion in Westchester, however, a lone taxi drives up to bring young Katherine "Kitty" Pryde to the front doors of Xavier's School for the Gifted.  If you're one of the seven people one Earth who don't know who Kitty Pryde is, she's a mutant with the ability to walk or "phase" through solid matter. She is to the 1980s comics what Jubilee was to the 1990s comics, a character for the younger readers to identify within the X-Men books.

This pilot, as well as being titled on a pun of her, is her introduction to the team.  Greeted by an astral projection of Professor Xavier, she is brought to the Danger Room and introduced to the team.  Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine (the last of which is hilariously voiced with an Australian accent).  Naturally, Kitty being the new kid means she doesn't fit in that well by default - Wolverine in particular doesn't much care for her - but when the X-Men are sent off on a mission, only she and the Professor are left to defend the mansion when Magneto and Juggernaut come calling...leading into further adventure!

The story is largely Kitty looking in on the team, giving the viewer a similar perspective on the team as would someone who has no idea about the world she has stepped into.  She does come off as a bit whiny, but I hold (like many do) that this was to be the beginning of her character arc and - again, with Rule of Adaptation - she's not going to be exactly the beloved character we know and love from the comics right away.  Character development does have to be gotten out of the way after all.

The rest of the team besides Nightcrawler doesn't get much development - with him sort of. sort of not being set up to be Kitty's love interest - which works well enough for everyone save Dazzler, who I still don't know anything about and really don't much care to (give Jubilee credit, at least her powers don't stop working in a noiseless environment).  The rest though, most comic fans would know, especially those who are familiar with the John Bryne and Chris Claremont run, seeing as the lineup is virtually the same.

Some people would call it hokey, some people would nitpick. I'm not one of them.  Sure, I'll mock the raw cheesy glory of it and laugh at the rather stupid plan of Magneto and the Brotherhood (using a comet to plunge Earth into an Ice Age because...reasons?), but I admire the work that went into the animation, the voice acting is pretty good (if a little hilarious for certain Canadian members of the team), and it's just a pretty good twenty minutes overall.  If you've got the time, definitely follow that link and give it a watch.

And it made a thumb-bleedingly good Konami arcade game, so I suppose we ought to thank it for that if nothing else.  So yeah, check it out!

...and tell 'em MadCap sent ya!

X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men is brought to us by Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Productions, and New World Pictures.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.