LNH/REVIEW: Kid Review's Roundup - June 2014

[Andrew Perron]

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PREHISTORIC PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS

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   ><><><> | <><><><  || K I D     R E V I E W ' S ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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   ><><><> | <><><><  || R * O * U * N * D * U * P ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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   ><><><> | <><><><  ||       June     2014       ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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   ><><><> | <><><><  || By:     Andrew     Perron ||  ><><><> | <><><><
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In This Issue:
     The Continentals (June)
     Journey Into #19
     Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have an
Ending #10
     New Bosnia #2
     Nonfiction #3
     The Super Wizard From Space #45-47

Also Posted:
     Biblical Avengers #2
     Chevalier: The Queen's Mouseketeer (June)
     Godling's World #9
     Mighty Medley #6
     Orphans of Mars: To Bell the Cat #3
     Powernaut 1969 #2-5
     Ripping Off King Arthur #188-192

     "So y'know, I've been reading old issues of End of Month Reviews,
and I've noticed that I've neglected an important tradition of Saxon's:
an introductory ramble about matters of import, especially those
pertaining to the output of the group.
     Therefore, I'm going to use this platform to make what I feel is a
necessary call: More reviews, please.
     As I've said before, feedback makes communities stronger, and we
have some people in our commuity who are *really good* at feedback.
Saxon, I love your opinions and how you express them. Tom, I've also
been reading *your* reviews from 2006, and they're great. Scott,
you're... kind of already doing that; good job, keep it up.
    You don't have to do a bunch of reviews each month; I'm holding down
the fort on that. Instead, what RACC needs is more specific reviews,
more reviews from different viewpoints. There are some titles that get
slighted fairly often because I just don't have anything interesting to
say about them - but someone else, coming from a different perspective,
might!
    I'd like to challenge everyone on RACC to do either one review or one
substantive reply to someone else's story per month. And that includes
you lurkers out there! I see you!
    Probably we won't all be able to keep that up, but I think it's worth
a bit of a try. What do you think, sirs?"

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The Continentals
"The Fire Next Time"
A webcomic [WWW] series
by Darryl Hughes and Monique MacNaughton

"Let's check in with our local penny dreadful that's available for less
than a penny (depending on local rates for electricity and Internet
usage)!"

"Now that Smythe and Fiziwigg (those names!) have revealed that there
were not one but two killers behind the 'Mangler' name, we get into some
good old-fashioned classism, as the Inspector refuses to believe that
the well-respected Dr. Daniel Abbeline is the other killer. Our
sleuthing duo lays out the evidence that a combination of familial love,
scientific ambition, and straightforward revenge has driven him to
kidnapping, unlicensed experimentation, and muuuuurder, but the
Inspector isn't having it - yet..."

Journey Into #19
"Wobblies on a Train!"
An Eightfold [8FOLD] series {HCC46}
by Tom Russell

"This is just plain fun."

"In essence, two of the Eightfoldiverse's B-listers accidentally run
into each other on a train, and almost come to blows before discovering
each other's identities (in what looks like an homage to Superman #76
and/or Superman/Batman Annual #1) and teaming up against the *real*
villain."

"Hotspur's a good villain for this. He's not just a maniacal destroyer;
he's also a gimmick-based theme villain perfect for a Modern-Age-
interpretation-of-the-Silver-Age story such as this one. And the Modern
Age-iest part of the story, the shifting between Dr. Metronome's
viewpoint and Knockout Mouse's, does exactly what the best of such
interpretations do - gets into the head of the characters and brings
their emotions to the forefront."

Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have an
Ending #10
"Good Duck!"
A Classic Legion of Net.Heroes and Superhuman World [LNH/SW10] chaotic
add-on cascade
by Scott Eiler

"The big-ticket cascade and PRETTY MUCH the only thing that's going on
in the LNH right now returns!"

"The basic idea behind Just Another Cascade is to get people to finish
the storylines that they've left dangling. This is pretty common among
LNH writers; as amateurs doing it for their own enjoyment, it's easy to
get distracted or get bored. But it also happens outside of the LNH, and
Scott has taken advantage to return to a storyline last visited in 2011 -
itself involving elements from The Super Wizard From Space!"

"I'm actually worried about Psychovant now. He's grown on me! But this
status quo update is fascinating - an excellent use of the larger
cascade, reminiscent of Rob Rogers using Bad Forms or the Infinite
Leadership Crisis to push his characters into new areas."

"(Also, I'm *itching* to do another chapter of this. Ahhhhhh, must let
someone else first...)"

New Bosnia #2
"The Land of Coins and Diners"
A Superhuman World [SW10] miniseries
by Scott Eiler

"What the Heck Is This: The Super-Savior and 143,999 others planned to
escape the Twilight of the Superhuman World with a land grab in an Earth
claimed by the Turkish Empire. The Turks were ready, but then a third
party intervened - Gavrilo, the Super-Wizard Monster Bee!"

"Ah, I shouldn't have worried - even sans most of his power, Psychovant
can take care of himself. Also, Scott's reactions are pretty dang
adorable. I'm looking forward to #3!"

"Nitpick: Shouldn't Gavrilo's servant-bee be more careful about saying
his name, due to the 'if you know a Super Wizard's name you're immune to
their Super Wizard powers' rule? Indeed, how does said servant know the
name in the first place?"

Nonfiction #2
"The New War"
An Eightfold [8FOLD] story
by Tom Russell

"I'm reminded of a comment about Star Trek, and about various episodes
that revolved around playing by a specific planet's weird rules (for
instance, the one where all crimes were punished with the death penalty
in a random part of the planet, and then Wesley like broke a greenhouse
or something?) or they wouldn't join the Federation. And about how, if
the Klingons or the Romulans or basically anyone else in the Trekverse
were trying to add that planet to *their* empire, the conflict between
politeness and saving their crewmate would be... well, much less of a
conflict."

"Of course, the difference here is that the Pulse Collective are, or
seem to be, much more powerful than these one-planet civilizations.
Still... usually, single breaches of politeness aren't the real reason
for a war; they're excuses for a war that one side or both already
wanted, or they're part of a larger pattern of behavior. So I'm
wondering if the Pulse Collective already had designs on Earth, and was
counting on the Earthlings to screw up one way or another..."

"...oh, hey, I kept reading and the story itself came to that conclusion
as well. Well! Very good then!"

"...right, moving right along. The story(ish) makes some very good
points about the different kinds of alien invasion. (I note that the
'universal locusts' model is explicitly how the aliens from Independence
Day were described - coincidence? Inspiration?) I already made points on
Burton's commentary in the thread. And I note that the idea of 'the last
story' is an interesting one - but hopefully, not what Tom's aiming for
just yet."

The Super Wizard From Space #45-47
"The Red Hand of General Dragutin" Parts 2-4
A Marlo Vivo [MV] series
by Wil Alambre

"MAN but Super Wizard is good writing. Better than a lot of professional
writing. In fact..."

"Just a couple days ago, I was reading The Quantum Thief, by Hannu
Rajaniemi. It's a novel with its ups and downs, the downs mostly being
when it focuses too much on transhumanism tropes. The ups, on the other
hand, include some really fascinating work with the society of this alt-
future Mars. But not a bit of it introduced its worldbuilding as
thoroughly or with as much seeming ease as Super Wizard does in every
issue."

"'I can't weaponize the moon again for at least twelve minutes.' What a
perfect line. It doesn't feel like it's *trying* to impress you, it's
just - wow. This whole storyline - wow."

"Wow."

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, whew, just short of late.