So you say you like Iron Man?

[dave_littler]

As anyone who pays attention to such things knows, the recent (and still-in-theatres) movie Iron Man is magnificent. It honestly stands comfortably shoulder-to-shoulder with such Super-Hero movies as X-Men 1 & 2, Spider-Man 2 & 2, and Batman Begins. It is a nearly flawless execution, not only standing on its own merits as a film, but (and herein

Comments

[hako_neko]

Funny enough, I don't like Iron Man comics so much, but Director of SHIELD looks promising. I've seen a few issues in some bins at my work, but haven't given them much of a chance.

I honestly think the movie kind of saved Stark's reputation, as it's hard to like him after he and Reed were kind of dicks to every other superhuman in the Marvel universe.

You have some good, well-thought out recommendations, though. I'll probably check out some samplers myself sometime soon as I now kind of want to get into Iron Man comics to understand his universe some more (I'm more into X-Titles and Ms. Marvel).

[dave_littler]

You know, it's strange: I've been reading the core X-Men titles for about twenty years now, and yet I have almost nothing to say about them in my journal. Iron Man? I liked him when I was a kid, drifted away from him in favour of X-Men shortly thereafter, and have only in the last few years come back into really liking him as a character and a property

[hako_neko]

Of course the scumbag element is what generally makes him unique-- if anything, he's someone who latches onto control as high as he can get and always comes back with a new strategy (in the form of armour) and overcomes his problems, changes what he can in the world to bring forth his ideals. It may not always come out in everyone's favour, but he's a remarkable character that has gone through so much that you can't help, but respect him. I may not agree with his side on the Superhuman Registration Act, but he's an interesting character to watch

[dave_littler]

See, I've taken the time and trouble to convert all of my friends to comic book friends. My collection is so vast and so varied that there's always something I can lend someone in order to get them hooked. Thirteen long boxes full of quality reading material is enough to hook just about anybody. I do know what you mean, though; most of the people who are familliar with the characters are familliar with them only through TV and movies. It's a sad thing that literacy is so scarce that most people don't have it in them to actually read the source material

[hako_neko]

I've converted a few friends, but not very many. It's difficult as a majority are too afraid to pull away from their Japanese obsessions to try out something more close to home and relevant to North American society. For those that I do get into it, I usually find something more "character centered" to get them hooked. Preferably, I look for the character in a team in hopes of creating a connection to other series.

Most recently, I usually have been recommending series included in House of M and Messiah Complex to encourage new readers to familiarize themselves with multiple fronts and characters that relate. Since I've worked hard on creating a super nerdy Xavier's School roleplay board, I've basically conned people into reading some series just so they can get a feel of life on the institute. I hope to hook in more and get them away from familiarizing with only TV/Movie versions of the characters

[dave_littler]

You know what I think I'm going to do? I'm going to do a sort-of ongoing feature in my journal here, somewhat in the style of this Iron Man post: ''If you like [thing a], then you should read [comic book series b]''. And just post about one series every few days or so. I read some thirty or so series every month, and I know that of the sixty or so people who have friended me (some four or so I actually know!), there will be some who will be receptive to this approach.

Where's this roleplay board of yours, if I may ask? I wouldn't mind getting in on a game run by someone who knows the source material. I tried getting into a movie-based RP some time back, and I just couldn't handle it. There was just no common ground.

[hako_neko]

http://xavierrpg.proboards101.com/index.cgi

Feel free to join if your interested, but be warned that it's just starting out, so we're making changes as we go along before we set it into complete motion. It's fairly tame and focuses more on the student life style than being an X-Man with original characters and a setting in a world without M-Day. If you liked the early issues of New X-Men and such, you might enjoy it; and feel free to totally give any recommendations you might have.

I, personally, would love that feature.

[dave_littler]

It's odd: I've seen so many X-Men RPGs where it's all just school-based drama. It's not that this isn't a valid approach, it's just strange that the thing which sort of defines the franchise doesn't play a big part in these RPs. I suspect that more than anything, it's just that it's hard to RP combat in the absence of rules and in a text-only setting. Not impossible, but difficult. I've found the only way to handle it and make it fun is for the person running the game to be an absolute fascist and just dictates 'this happens then this happens then this happens. Reactions, everybody?'. It requires a lot of trust and maturity from everyone involved.

Still, I'll give it a look in a couple of hours; I'm at work right now, and while my crappy handheld device is fine for typing out comments and checking e-mail, it's crap for actual browsing.

[hako_neko]

I understand how strange it is, but it's not so much more built on drama, but for having fun and trying to build up a promising character. The way we set it up is so that a character can have a goal and work towards it, while interacting and creating friendships, rivalries, etc.-- Okay, there's some drama, but it's not so much of a main focus as I'd say other roleplays have been.

The bad thing about me is that I'm not much of a facist, so I'd really be unwilling to control every aspect. I enjoy seeing other people work it out on their own. That does sound like a good idea, though... I'm kind of disappointed that I'm not really the type of person to pull a battle-centered setting properly. I know it works well with DnD-like games, but so far our's is more focused on character interaction with subtle user-controlled battle on the side.

No problem. I should warn you, though, that you won't be able to see much, as we have basically all the actual roleplay boards hidden from creeper view. Your application has to be accepted in order to

[dave_littler]

Yeah, I'm the head of security for a building complex in Vancouver; I'm here from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM five days a week. What about you? I noticed, glancing over your details, that you're in BC. Where are you at, and what keeps you up all night?

[hako_neko]

I'm down in the Southern Langley area just next to the border, but I work in Langley center at an awesome Toy Store you should check out since you're a comic fan.

I was staying up late mostly because I was too buzzed on coffee and way too bored to go to sleep.

[dave_littler]

Ugh. I lived in Langley for about a year and a half. It was a terrible experience. Granted, it was a crappy part of Langley (google map 20433 80th avenue for reference), but I prefer to avoid contact with Langley if I can.

For my part, most of my comics-related collectable purchases these days are statues. I've acquired statues of the New Avengers, Rick from The Walking Dead, and Ryuk from Death Note. They're expensive, but make for better decorations.

I actually have a couple of reccommendations for you: check out an LJ community called scans-daily, an RSS feed called mightygodking, and an LJ user called papajoemambo (all of which you can find in my user profile). All three are great for LJ-based comic book content.

[hako_neko]

Langley's pretty horrible, but my work's pretty good for comics, so it's not that bad anymore. If you like statues, you might like my work, too.

I've seen scans-daily, but I'll check the other two out later today. Thanks. :)

[dave_littler]

Very well! Name this establishment for me, then, that I may visit it and do commerce there. The only comic book store I can think of from my time there was a little place down by the bus loop, the Value Village and the Seven-eleven. Mind you, that was back around the year 1999 or so, so it's possible things have changed.

[hako_neko]

I think I recall which store that is, but they only sell Vintage comics. My work's called Toy Traders. In the back area, we have Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe and Super Hero stuff. It's really quite neat.