Iron Fist: Stealing the Names of His Kung Fu!

One of the fun things about martial arts, whether its real ones or those from fantasy, ranging from books to anime, is the naming conventions. Even Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition and its monk
class, had the quivering palm attack after all.

So taken from the Epic Collection of Iron Fist, the Fury of Iron Fist, are some of the names, suitable
for using in games like Champions or just yelling them out for your own monk characters.

Punches

Blow of the Hammer
Double Sword Hand
Hammer Blows
Knife Slash Blow
Leopard Paw Blow
Monkey Blow
Pounding Wave Blow
Ram's Head
Rock Smash Blow
Scorpion Blow
Sword Hand
Tiger Claw Blow

Stances

Basic Horse Stance
Cat Stance

Kicks

Cresent Kick
Dragon Stamp
Dragon Stomp
Elephant Kick
Elephant Stomp
Lightning Kick 
Ram's High Kick
Spinning Whip Kick

Elbows

Locking Block
Monkey Blow
Reverse Smash

Blocks
Boulder Block
Heel Palmed Parry
High Line Block
Leaping Deer Block

Throws

Cross Arm Throw

Reverse Shoulder Throw

To see all of those crazy moves in action, they're all collected in the collection of Iron Fist.

Iron Fist Epic Collection: The Fury of Iron Fist

Iron Fist, Epic Collection, The Fury of Iron Fist, collections from 1974 to 1977. It includes Marvel Premiere 15-25, Iron Fist 1-15, and Marvel Tema Up 62-63. Totals some odd 400 full-color pages.

Much of the continuous work is done by John Bryne, well known for his work on X-Men, Avengers, and later, his title, Next Men. There are a few other who's who of artists included in this volume including Gil Kane and Patrick Broderick,

These tales focus on Iron Fist origin and introduce many of the enemies and allies that would become main streams of the Marvel Universe, some of them taking on a much larger life than their initial introduction here would indicate.

Part of that is due to the author and writer combo of Chris Claremont and John Bryne. For example, when Sabertooth makes his introduction here for the first time in comics and appears in later volumes of Power Man & Iron Fist, few would suspect that Sabertooth would probably become more popular than Iron Fist himself (arguably) and have more appearances in X-Men comics.

For those unaware, Iron Fist is a martial art comic that took advantage of the martial art craze in the 70s. It was not the only comic to do so. There was also Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, and the black and white magazine, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, where Shang-Chi and Iron Fist met and battle.

Some of the other characters introduced in the series include the Daughters of the Dragon, Colleen Wing, and Misty Knight; the latter can be seen in Sam Wilson's new Captin America titles.

For villains that are introduced and updated at a later time, we have such favorites as the Steel Serpent and the already mentioned Sabertooth.

Many of the other villains, though, some off as one trick ponies such as Scimitar whose only made a handful of appearances in the 40 years since the comic came out.

There is a nice play off of the character's original motif through the original story. Iron Fist is not only a deadly warrior, but he gained his skills to avenge the death of his father and mother. They were both killed by a friend during a trip to the mystic city K'un L'un, and only Danny survives it.

Danny undergoes a series of trials and tribulations cumulating in fighting a dragon and gaining the dragons' 'heart' and becoming the Iron Fist! This is an ability that still hasn't been fully explored, but it's primary use? Danny can summon his 'Chi' into his fist and strike very hard with it.

He's also been known to heal, meld minds, fight off radiation poisoning, fight off magic attacks, and other little cat out of the bag tricks.

But Danny became the Iron Fist to kill a man. When he finally finds that person, a wealthy tycoon who's surrounded himself with death traps and unique individuals to destroy Iron Fist, he discovers that this old man has suffered the ravages of time, lost his mind, and even his legs.

Iron Fist cannot bring himself to take that vengeance so instead, a newcomer, the Ninja, not just a ninja mind you, but the Ninja, comes out and does it. This leads to the daughter of the man Iron Fist came to kill, thinking Iron Fist is the murderer and set up a long sequence of events where Iron Fist has to discover what the Ninja wants, how to convince others that he's not a murderer, etc...

In the 30+ issues, the reader gets in this volume, there's some solid groundwork laid for future authors and writers.

If you're excited by the Nextlix series, this is an excellent trade to add to your collection.

Anime Three Quick Shot Reviews

I happened upon a list of horror appropriate anime. This was based on graphic violence and the whole October Halloween Theme.

Not so good. Watched three series. Let me quickly go through them.

High School of the Dead

12 episodes, censored, on Hulu.

The idea of the Walking Dead in Japan is an interesting one.

This is not that.

Starts off in a similar manner. Sick individual (actually a zombie) pounding on a private school gate. Student witnesses the staff attack said individual to remove him from the property; only that doesn't go so well.

In this zombie setting, the disease spreads quickly.  The kid figures out there's something wrong. He goes to grab his ex-girlfriend, a spearfighter, and well, it quickly goes from there.

It's a harem style anime where there are multiple women main characters, one 'desirable' guy character. There is another male character, who at least in this sequence of events, despite his aptitude with all things projectile, including nail guns and high powered assault weapons, is the comedic relief.

Is it violent? Yes.

Is it pandering to men, probably young teens? Yup.

Worth watching? Nope.

Blood C

I've seen a few series in the 'Blood' vein. The original movie, Blood, The Last Vampire, is my favorite because I saw it many moons ago. Then there was the first TV series, Blood +. I enjoyed, although it did tend to drag.

Then there's this 12 episode bit.

Watched it on Hulu, where again, it was censored. The ultra-violence was white lighted out. You can catch the clips on Youtube if you're so inclined.

Story wise, at least it tends to be aware that the main character, Saya, has some awareness problems of her own. Saya's issues come home in the last episode, but the build up to it has zero resolution in the series. If you want to watch the fighting sequences, which are okay but on Hulu, edited, its worth watching.

Btoom!

Also on Hulu and of these three, the most enjoyable.

The main character, Ryuta,  starts off not knowing where he is as he wakes up on a tropical island. He's suffering from short term amnesia and he's sarmed with timed grendaes. Ryuta's main skill in life? He's a great player of a game called Btoom. It's an online game where you play against others, but its big draw is you use different types of grenades as opposed to guns or swords.

The corporation that makes the game, kidnaps people volunteered by someone else. The main character, Ryuta for example, is volunteered by his own mother for money. These kidnapped people are then flown onto a tropical island, armed, and have to play a real life version of Btoom!

It's like Sword Art Online but in reverse. Instead of getting sucked into a video game, the video game comes to the real world.

You have to get eight crystals to get off. Said crystals are embedded in a person's hand and can only be removed upon that person's death.

While it does have a bit of fanservice of its own going on, it's not obnoxious about it, unlike High School of the Dead.

More interesting to me is that Ryuta grows quite a bit during these 12 episodes. His flashbacks to his home life showcase him as a loser with no job and rude to his parents, selfish to the point of excluding them from his world, which is boiled down to being good at Btoom. Seeing him acknowledge that is powerful.

The series also has more use of common sense and strategy than the other two. There are deaths, surprises, and other events that made it far more interesting than the others.

It, like High School of the Dead, ends on an appropriate note which if sales and viewership warrant it, could easily lead into a new season.

I've never seen any of these before nor have I read any of the anime.

As the Halloween season isn't over and I'm still loolking for work, I suspect I'll be able to knock a few more of these anime series off of my Hulu watch list.

Anyon love any of these or think I'm way off base?

Have any Halloween anime series to recommend?

Hit me up in the comments!

Back In The Saddle Again

With apologies to Aerosmith.

So one of my friends was running a Rolemaster Fantasy Game. That's the Rolemaster version after the Rolemaster Standard System. But he wanted some more time to get some ideas fleshed out and get some more world building done.

I volunteered to run either Pathfinder in the official setting or 3.5 in the Forgotten Realms.

A bit of debate and some sidebars and blah blah blah, and it went with 3.5 in the Forgotten Realms.

I generally know what I like when I put together my campaign ideas. So some of the first things discussed were starting level, 3rd, starting gold, official for 3rd level, hit points, max, no rolling, character creation, 32 point buy per the Dungeon Master's Guide.

With that out of the way, I started to organize my collection. I haven't run anything in any real capacity in years. My books are vastly out of place. Some of them in storage even. So while I'm organizing, I'm also brainstorming ideas.

I like the Sword Coast. I like the North. Not a big fan of the Dales, Cormyr, Thay, or the whole Amn region. I decide on the Sword Coast. Hey, turns out I bought Murder In Baldur's Gate many moons ago and never had a chance to run it or even open it.

Awesome screen. Two booklets, one adventure, one campaign setting information. Read over the adventure. For first level players. I throw some of the things that happened in the adventure into the background ideas I'm weaving together. The setting booklet I keep as a reference point for the good stuff like bars, churches, important characters, important bits like Little Calisham, etc...

During my clean up, I also run across the Solomen Guild. I really need to do a 'real' review of that one day because it's a fun little thieves guild product. While Baldur's Gate does have an "official" guild, who cares? I throw some of the ideas of what these thieves do into the city and plot to have the characters harassed as an early encounter.

I suspect that the players will not give the thieves a few gold to be left alone and rather, attack the guild members. This allows me to get the game rolling with some combat encounters as well as refresh my memory of how the game MOVES as opposed to how it reads. It's been years since I've run a game after all.

By the way, this worked perfectly. The party realized they were being observed, called out the thieves; thieves asked for a small donation from the newcomers to the city and glorious combat ensured. A few of the thieves escaped and now the players are 'wanted' men by the Solomen Guild.

Another thing I did while cleaning, organized my books by companies. One of those companies is Green Ronin. I used to buy pretty much everything Green Ronin put out in the day. Well, to be fair, a lot of that was review products when I was doing a ton of reviews. One of those items? The Secret College of Necromancy!

Baldur's Gate has a long association with Bhaal, one of the 'evil' gods of the setting. So why not a college of necromancy? Even better, one of the already existing NPC's is always on the lookout for adventurers to guard him/escort him while he does his research.

And one of the notes in Murder in Baldur's Gate? Some tombs have recently been unearthed on the cliff face! Instant scenario. A little exploration, a little fighting against some ghouls, a little exploration of the city, and bam, first game session done.

Several NPCs introduced to the party, several ideas put out, several future adventure options put out. Oh, and I also threw an evil sword from an old Role Aids supplement, Blood & Steel, into the mix to give the players a bit of punch and worry about what others are looking at when they look at the characters.

In between the organization and reading, I've also been painting up miniatures. By skipping the first few levels, I'm trying to move away from goblins, kobolds, giant rats, orcs, and other too familiar foes. I've got gnolls, bugbears, ogres, and minotaurs on the painting block along with some gargoyles, so I already have an idea of where I'm "pushing" the new few encounters.

Hope everyone else games are going well!

Luke Cage, Hero For Hire Marvel Masterworks Vol. 1

Luke Cage, Hero For Hire Volume 1 Marvel Masterworks
336 color pages
Currently $3.99 for Kindle, $75 for physical copy

Unless you've been hiding from the internet, you know that Netflix has a new Marvel series, Luke Cage, the Hero for Hire!

That started off as a comic in the early 70's to take advantage of blaxploitation trends thanks to movies like Shaft. I know some are outraged over the whole exploitation trends but it wasn't just limited to black, as evidenced by the huge amount of martial art material from the 70s, and it didn't stop in the 70s as the 80s would give us Dazzler and modern trends try to latch onto whatever is popular.

Right? No.

Ongoing? Yup.

But out of such origins, we get characters like Luke Cage and often, good stories and often, an evolution of the character.

I originally owned many of the later parts of the Hero for Hire bits, especially when it dovetailed into Power Man and Iron Fist. For me as a young person at the time, that was an awesome combination. It also started art by John Bryne. Back in the day? That meant something.



But what about this particular volume? Well, Amazon has it on sale for $3.99 to take advantage of the hype and as the hardcover is $75, I leapt at the chance to get the kindle version.

Reading the series I'm struck by the evolution of Cage. In modern comics, he's essentially invulnerable. In these comics? While he's bullet-proof, he is still bruised by the shots he takes. Mind you this varies even here as there are times when Cage is facing high caliber weapons and will duck and other times take it and exclaim how much it hurts.

There's a sequence in one of the later issues where he's fighting some of the big cats and they tear him up! These days in modern Marvel comics? They'd be more of an annoyance than anything by themselves.

Several of Cage's original foes reach back into his origin story. For example, Diamondback, the original one at Marvel at least, was Willis Striker, a former friend, later rival, who was responsible for having Cage framed in the first place.

He'd make a great 'Batman' style foe in that he has a inventory outfit him with numerous different special knives that go a long way in overcoming Luke's invulnerable skin.

As far as I can tell, he's one of thos bad guys who gets 'done in one' where he 'dies' but we never see a body and with Marvel's almost inability to leave a character dead, with the Netflix series on now, I wouldn't be surprised to see him make a comeback.

And hey, if he has, leave a comment with the issue and title! I'm a collector but even I get behind!

Many of the other foes introduced in the series put a 'hurt' on Cage through their size. For example, Black Mariah or Big Ben Donovan. No super powers, just like the Kingpin, in a weight class of their own and use that size and weight to smash Cage down.

Mind you since Cage is not only a hefty three hundred pounds himself and super human. The ability to throw your weight around only goes so far.

Like many of the tales told before, let's say the late eighties, these comics are often done in one. You get a full story and while the characters may move forward like those old serials of Doc Savage, the tale itself is done. Handy for when you're in a hurry. The writers and letterers, also know how to space the text.

I don't know if it was a 90s thing, but man, I read the revised Cage series, Second Chances, and wall to wall text in some panels. Like they didn't know how to break it down to readability. That problem doesn't happen here.





One of the sad things about reading the series? Look at the covers.

Solid art. Often better than the interior. but man, that price? Twenty cents? Sweet Christmas indeed.

Some of the foes, like Mr.  Death he faces, and who were 'one offed' as often happened, have appearance later on through relatives. In this case, Mr. Death was often referred to as "Death" or "Luck" depending on what aspect of him you were dealing with. In future Power Man and Iron Fist issues, the relatives of the original make their debut, one as Luck, the other as Death.

When you look at some of those Cage faces, though, you have to wonder about their motives. Like Chemistro. A guy who has an alchemy gun that can turn anything into anything else. Yeah don't know if I'd go the superhero route with that one, but hey, this was before the internet, and he makes a real foe, one with a weapon Cage can't be hit by or else! Chemistro is reinvented later on for future encounters.

Outside of the original foes that Luke faces, he does get to integrate himself into the greater Marvel Universe a bit in a two-part storyline that's famous for one panel so well known I'm not putting the image here, but will share the cover:

Yes! Dr. Doom and Luke Cage go head to head and whereas the Thing and the Hulk often failed to beat Doom, Cage focuses on one part over and over again and reveals a weakness in the armor.

It's not as bad as Squirrel Girl beating Doom, it's pretty bad.

But overall it's an interesting story that modern audiences get carried away with that one panel. It's also the lead in for Luke to work temporarily for the Fantastic Four at a later date in the Fantastic Four's own comic when Ben is turned human.

A lot of the early material is rough but the groundwork is there for numerous things that would happen to Cage at a later date and several of those characters are still in use and getting reuse thanks to  new media.

This volume? For $3.99, there's a lot of tales to take in.

Plague of Shadows by Howard Andrew Jones

Plague of Shadows
Written by Howard Andrew Jones
Pathfinder Tales
350 pages

I've never read any of Howard Andrew Jones work before. After this book, I'll be sure to keep an eye out. The author's own website can be found here: http://www.howardandrewjones.com/

Plague of Shadows is well written high fantasy. It includes numerous nods to old favorites, such as showing the otherworldly nature of the elves as Tolkien might as well as villain redemption and other good bits. If you're looking for a fast-paced fantasy, Howard Andrew Jones delivers.

One thing I enjoyed about Plague of Shadows more than most of the other Pathfinder Tales books I've read, is that there is an actual group of characters to follow. There's also a bit more history here than I'm used to seeing.

In terms of the party of adventurers, we have the following:

Elyana: An elf ranger raised by human parents. I like how the author brings in the Pathfinder Tales specific naming for such an event, a 'Forlorn'. Howard's description of how Elyana's magic, that of a ranger, differs from other types of magic, is also a nice touch.

Drelm: A half-orc warrior, a captain of the guard for the small barony that Elyana works at.

Renar: The son of one of Elyana's old adventuring companions, a warrior by trade and a noble son by birth.

Vallyn: A bard who's also an old adventuring companion of Elyana.

Kellius: A young court wizard comfortable in his own skin and not afraid to throw the magic around.

The nice thing is that while these are the main characters, there are numerous flashbacks to the "good old days" showing Elyana, Vallyn, and their other comrades, including Renar's father. It works well and allows the setting to feel more than it's just a duo or three people wandering a huge setting.

Howard Andrew Jones also makes good use of the Pathfinder setting itself. The setting is a huge one and Howard shifts us through enough of the region to understand the local politics and the effects that actions in the past have on the present. His nod to the deities of the setting and the power of piety, even when it keeps those who love each other apart, is also handled well.

The mix of Pathfinder setting specifics, the party of adventurers, the nod to classic fantasy tropes, and the done in one approach, make Plague of Shadows one of the stronger entries in the Pathfinder Tales line.

The Wizard's Mask by Ed Greenwood (Gaming Notes Edition)

The Wizard's MaskWritten by Ed Greenwood
400 b & w pages
High Fantasy
Pathfinder Tales
$9.99

Below will be some things that ticked in my brain when reading The Wizard's Mask in terms of gaming inspiration. There will be spoilers so if you don't want any spoilers, read no further.

Named Items: I actually mentioned this in the book review portion but named items tend to have more personality. When you make the items actually intelligent like The Whispering Blade, a blade that speaks to its victims and informs them of how sweet it's razor sharp touch feels, well, then it gets more interesting.

This doesn't always click though as, on the cover, the "Masked" is holding up a gauntlet, a specific magic gauntlet, and it has what I'd consider a boring name: The Fearsome Gauntlet. Mind you, if the Gauntlet didn't throw around numerous force effects and instead actually did 'Fearsome' things, I might have a different opinion on it.

And here's the thing, names are personal taste. Some people might be going, "Man, Joe, you're crazy! The Whispering Blade is so lame and the Fearsome Gauntlet, now that's awesome!" You'll have to wing it on your own names but if I may add one suggestion. Give them a 'real' name and then the generic moniker. Tarakul, the Fearsome Gauntlet for example.

Limited Charge Items: Turns out that the Fearsome Gauntlet wasn't that fearsome. After an epic battle, the gauntlet's magic simply runs out and it falls apart. In addition, during the course of the novel, the duo manage to drink numerous potions.

If you want your players to hit above their weight level on a temporary basis, throw them some cool magic items that only work for a limited time. Or even some 'mundane' items that they might need to overcome an specific enemy that only work for a set number of times. Creature needs a +4 magic item to effect? A wand that grants items a cumulative plus for 10 rounds at a time can help that out and be drained quickly.

But keep in mind that by hitting above their weight level, the characters are going to be gaining more experience and access to things that they might not normally have.

Cursed Items: One of the heroes, The Masked, is known so because he stole a cursed magical mask. It is slowly eating away his face. If the mask suffers damage, he suffers damage. Note that this last bit isn't necessarily that rare even for non-cursed powerful items.

For example, after Marvel comics killed off Thor in the Avengers Disassembled storyline, when they eventually brought him back in Michael Straczynski's run, his hammer was damaged. With the help of Doctor Strange, the hammer was repaired and bound to Thor's life force. If the hammer was damaged, Thor could die as a result.




Inherent Goof: Consider this a near off topic ramble. During the story, Tantaera, the short halfling, loses her hand thanks to the kiss of the Whispering Blade. Remember how I mentioned that the Fearsome Gauntlet simply ran out of juice? It turns out that after spending a great deal of money, Tantaera was able to replace her hand with the Gauntlet which will still probably retain some powers that she's unaware of in this novel but may come into play in future novels.

I call it a goof because when you have specific magic items that people are looking to chop their own limbs off and replace them with, having the option to have one of your own limbs replaced with a magical item seems like it'd be MORE expensive than having a spell to replace the actual limb cast.

But that's why I call it an inherent goof. You see similar things in comics all the time. "I'm a bad ass cyborg!" or "I'm just going to run around WITHOUT an eye because I look cooler with a patch!" And usually, it's part of the torture porn you see in comics.

For example, Wolverine has a healing factor and despite being a 'great fighter', gets tore up all the time. Vision and Red Tornado? Poor bastards. Machines so they get destroyed all the time.

 Even Cyborg whose FACE is still human gets put into situations where you're like, "Uh, why wouldn't you always have a faceplate on dude? You're not an actor, you're a guy in the comic. We don't need to see your face." But they rarely go for that instead destroying an arm or leg or something.

Just keep it in mind when you're putting the players in a goofy situation that's dedicated in part by the rules that the players will go with those rules.

The Wizard's Mask is high fantasy and high action with some focus on rogues that tends to be rare in a world where every series is about a farmboy destined to save the world.