Toaster's Ramblings - The Lex Luthor Casting Edition

So they cast Jimmy Olson as Lex Luthor.

I really want to give Snyder, Goyer and Warner Brothers the benefit of the doubt on this, but I am having a really tough time. I'm not some die hard internet hater. I didn't cry out in venomous rage when Ben Affleck was cast as their Batman... I would rather wait and see. Gal Gadot was not my my first or even second pic to play Wonder Woman, but I think she will do fine (hopefully she follows through on her decision to 'build some muscle' for the role). But this one I am having a tough time with.

First of all, I think Jesse Eisenberg has the wrong look. He is skinny, scrawny and looks really young. Luthor is usually portrayed as being muscular. After all, by his account, Lex Luthor is the pinnacle of perfection for the human race... his body is at the peak of fitness, he is one of if not the most successful man on Earth and his intelligence is second to none. (This in turn fuels his hatred of Superman. The people love the alien and treat him with the reverence that Luthor thinks he should receive.) Now I can let the muscular body go; Luthor is known more for his mind that his brawn. However, Lex Luthor is supposed to be intimidating as knows he holds all the cards in any situation. Even in The Social Network, when Eisenberg was playing the super rich Mark Zuckerberg, he still came across more weaselly than confident. Likewise, his character in Now You See Me seemed to hide behind a wall of self-inflation and arrogance. Above those points though, he looks too young. He looks like a kid! He doesn't look like he would be a ruthless corporate mogul at the command of a multi-billion dollar enterprise. He just doesn't look intimidating to me... or believable.

Secondly, I just don't think Jesse Eisenberg has the acting chops to pull of Lex Luthor. I have seen him in several films and in every one he has that same fast talking monotonic voice. I understand that he has played characters with similar personality attributes to Luthor in both The Social Network and Now You See Me, and he did well in both films. But Lex Luthor is very complex. He needs to come across in a charismatic way in public and like a manipulative bastard in private. I have never seen Eisenberg pull off such a multifaceted performance. I will admit that he has about one more gear than his celebrity doppelganger Michael Cera, but that's not saying much.

I don't want to be the hater (that's Jonny Prophet's job), but I can't get over this weird casting. Does Zack Snyder know something that nobody else does? I had heard a couple of rumored names that would have both been better choices to play Lex Luthor. Bryan Cranston may be a little too old for the part, but his amazing performance as Walter White leaves me with no doubt he would have been excellent. Joaquin Phoenix would have also been great for the role. Anyone who saw him in Gladiator could attest to that.

The reality is, I could name over 20 other actors that I think would have been a better pick to play Lex Luthor than Jesse Eisenberg. Don't think so? Challenge accepted! Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortenson, Kevin Spacey (yeah, why not?), Bruce Willis, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (it would be like a Tudors reunion!), Johnny Depp, Stephen Lang, Bruce Greenwood, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Campbell, Matt Damon (mostly to have him fight Affleck), Gerard Butler, Joel Edgerton, Clive Owen, Guy Pierce, Jon Hamm, Dominic West, Karl Urban, Kyle Chandler, Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Idris Elba.

Yes I would accept a black Lex Luthor played by Idris Elba over Jesse Eisenberg...because at that point, the haters may cry foul but at least I know we would have an awesome Lex Luthor.

By the way, the other casting of Jeremy Irons as Bruce Wayne's butler and confidant Alfred Pennyworth is amusing to me. Beyond his professional scenery chewing abilities, I think Irons will prove the creepiest Alfred ever!

Toaster's Ramblings - Trinity War and Forever Evil edition

Jonny and I bitch a lot about DC’s New 52 relaunch. It’s not that we’re just perpetual haters; it’s that they took a universe that we had come to know and love, flaws and all, and restarted it under the pretense three factors. The first is that DC wanted to make their comics easier to access by their fans. Instead of having to pick up a comic with a decade or more of back issue continuity, fans could start with issue one. The second reason was to erase the mistakes of bad writing as well as de-age all the characters to keep them younger and more relatable to the target demographic. But the main reason was of course to make money… and in that respect the New 52 has been a huge success. However, there have been tons of problems that we have had with the relaunch and its subsequent storylines.

This leads me to my main point. From the literal beginning of the New 52 and for two years since, DC has been building to the “Trinity War,” this huge battle between Justice Leagues that was going to rock the universe. I decided to give the storyline a chance. What a friggin’ let down.

The Trinity War offered little in the way of the all-out war between the Leagues (as was promised by the Free Comic Book Day promo comic). Instead, it was really just a lame wild goose chase centered on a red herring. I did, however, like the ending of the Trinity War storyline of introducing the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 into the main DCU. But this in turn had me questioning, much like I did with Marvel’s Ultimate line ten years ago, how many new ways can you tell the same old story? How many times now has the Crime Syndicate of America been “introduced” into the main DC universe?

Moving on, there was a confusing jump where the CSA claimed that the Justice League was dead and that they (or evil) had taken over the world. Funny, I thought evil just took over the world a few years ago during the Final Crisis storyline. Huh. Obviously they aren’t really dead or else DC will have to pull something out of their asses like replace them with another alternate reality Justice League or even have to do another reboot.

Of course this lead to the new gimmick of releasing a month’s worth of villain-centric issues in place of the regular monthly titles. And just so we know that the spirit of the 90’s is still alive and kicking, DC offered those issues in neat 3D lenticular covers. I will admit that many of them looked really cool, even if they did tend to give me a headache.

I didn’t read all of the villain issues, but I have thumbed through those not in my pull box at the comic shop. They were pretty hit or miss. Some were pretty interesting, like the issues dedicated to Deadshot, Penguin, Relic and Doomsday. Others, like Deathstroke’s, Solomon Grundy’s, Darkseid and Desaad’s… not so much. The best one I read was Black Adam’s. That one not only explained his resurrection but also featured him kicking some serious ass! 

The best thing to come of these villain issues, at least with some of them, is the chance to learn what their current origins are in the New 52. Some are pretty much the same, while others like Bane’s, Cyborg Superman’s and Creeper (who apparently is now a villain) have been changed considerably. My point is that some of these issues are filling in the ambiguous origins of these villains post-reboot. That has been a major issue Jonny and I have had with the New 52.  Instead of beginning the reboot at, I don’t know… the beginning, they started the universe about 5 years in and didn’t bother to tell us what was already canon and what hadn’t “happened” yet. Worse yet, it seemed that the continuity of the Green Lantern books have carried over from before the reboot, despite much of that history not likely to have occurred? For instance, was Coast City destroyed and cause Hal Jordan to go insane and become Parallax? If not, why is Kyle Rayner around? If so, how was the universe restarted without the “big bang” created by Damage, who doesn’t seem to exist in the New 52? See what I mean? These villain issues at least give us some idea of this “lost” history.

Where the Forever Evil storyline is headed seems to be a big showdown between the Crime Syndicate versus Lex Luthor and whoever he can scrape together to back him up (shades of the original CSA story). Will it be any good? Probably not as good as what Marvel’s doing with their Infinity event. Since the Marvel Now rebranding (I don’t know what else to call it… it’s not a reboot) they have been doing some cool stuff. I find myself far more excited to read Uncanny Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova and Deadpool than I am any of the DC titles I have subscribed to at the comic shop. Maybe it’s time for another reboot.

Prophet and Toaster's Weird Heroclix Teams

So in this installment, I present an idea for a team that is composed of both Marvel and DC characters. Both comic book universes feature heroes and villains who run their own corporations and as such are extremely rich. So in a build that represents “the 1%” of the comic book industry, I present:

Big Business

So we begin with the hero who is probably most well known for having his own company, Bruce Wayne AKA Batman. There are a ton of Batman pieces in Heroclix, but I have narrowed it down to one of my favorites… the Justice League: New 52 Batman. First thing’s first, he comes with Indomitable. This is a must for this team as there isn’t a lot of permanent willpower to go around. For 119 points, he is a true force to be reckoned with. This Batman also features Outwit and Perplex at various points in his dial (both powers seem to be a running theme to this team). His movement powers start with Charge, continues with mid-dial Flurry and ends with 2 clicks of Running Shot. What I like best is that this Batman begins with a 17 Defense with a Special Power granting him both Toughness and Combat Reflexes which combined with the stealthy Batman Team Ability this Batman will be very tough to beat. 

(For one point more, if you have the piece, you could use the Arkham Asylum chase “Lamp-post” Batman. It is awesome and being a true chase, like 1 per several cases, 'The G-D Batman' (as Jonny calls the piece) is very pricey so not many will have it.)

The next piece to this Big Business team is also its powerhouse… Iron Man. I am going with the veteran version of Tony Stark’s “bodyguard” from the Marvel 10^th Anniversary set. This Iron Man is, in my opinion, the best available due to his vast variety of powers. First and foremost, he has Indomitable. He also has an 8 range with 2 targets, which will come in handy with Energy Explosion, Psychic Blast, a Special Power that grants Pulse Wave and Perplex and another that gives him Outwit and the Sharpshooter ability. Combine that with serious damage reducers and Running Shot, this Iron Man is easily going to take a bite out of the opposition.

Now we move on to the most well known villain to run his own company… Lex Luthor. There are several Luthors to choose from and I had a hard time deciding on the right one. I considered the one from the old Justice League set, which is decent but expensive by modern standards. I also considered the Robot Suit Luthor from DC 10^th Anniversary, but I figured with Iron Man being a better robo-suit guy, I would go more basic and support oriented. In the end, to keep the total build under 1000 points, I went with the Fast Forces Superman Luthor. He’s simple, but brings a lot to the force. Stealth helps him stay in the shadows while providing Enhancement, then Perplex. His last two clicks have a combination of Charge and Exploit Weakness with Willpower, for when “shit gets real.”

So we move from one mad scientist CEO to another with Dr. Sivana, the arch-nemesis of Captain Marvel or as he is now known… Shazam! Sivana was at one point the CEO of Sivana Industries, but I am unsure if he runs a company in the New 52 reboot. However, this piece represents him from the previous continuity as a creepy, evil, gangly old man. The only Heroclix appearance he has made was in Crisis, but it is a vicious piece. In addition to Perplex and Outwit, Dr. Sivana has a Special Power that grants Barrier, Energy Explosion, Phasing/Teleport, Psychic Blast, Pulse Wave, Quake, Smoke Cloud, and Support. So anything he needs to bring to the fight, he pretty much has.

Next is Marvel’s apparent version of Lex Luthor, Norman Osborn. Rather than doing the Alter Ego thing, I decided to just go with a Green Goblin. Despite the 2 clicks of Earthbound in the middle of its dial, I went with the Marvel 10^th Anniversary veteran version. Why? Because that Green Goblin has a Special Power that gives him Energy Explosion with penetration damage. Using that with his 5 range and 2 targets, that is a Goblin that can do some serious damage! Plus, he has Outwit, Perplex and Blades/Claws/Fangs at various points on his dial. He should definitely be effective.

Changing gears a tad, we move on the boss of Kord Industries, Ted Kord AKA the Blue Beetle (the dead one). I don’t really get why DC decided not to resurrect Ted for the New 52 since it seemed like they regretted killing him off, but whatever. He lives on in Heroclix! This version, again from the DC 10^th Anniversary set (I seem to go to this and Marvel’s 10^th a lot, don’t I?), is only 55 points. However, this Beetle brings some serious hurt to the table. He has a 7 range with 3 targets, the Sharpshooter ability and Energy Explosion! So he can mess up a whole bunched together group of enemies, even when adjacent! 

In speaking of sharpshooters, we can’t forget the man behind Queen Industries, Oliver Queen… the Green Arrow. I am torn between the Crisis version and the Justice League: New 52 one. I lean toward the latter because the New 52 version is 95 points and offers more. For one thing, the Sharpshooter ability didn’t exist back in the Crisis era. (Honestly, if you use the Crisis Green Arrow, you will probably want to drop an additional 20 points on the Elite Sniper feat, pushing his cost 29 points over the New 52 version.) The New 52 Ollie starts out mobile with Running Shot, a 7 range, 3 targets and the choice of Energy Explosion or Ranged Combat Expert. On the back end of his dial, he becomes a sniper with Stealth and a Special Power to make a second free ranged attack on a single target. With all the Perplex on this team, Green Arrow could make for a serious threat.

Of course, we can’t forget the self-made billionaire from the Watchmen, Ozymanias. For this piece, I go straight from the Watchmen boxed set. At 83 points, Adrian Veidt doesn’t bring a lot to the fight in terms of offense, but this super-genius does have a Special Power allowing for up to two uses of Outwit! Either have him hang back to weaken your opponents (and be possible Mastermind fodder) or use his Leap/Climb to get into an enemy’s face and tie him up. Plus, the Watchmen team ability should be very useful to your wildcards.

Lastly, we have one of the richest mutants in all of Marvel, Warren Worthington III AKA the “high flying” Angel. For this piece, I decided to go cheap. I went with the 50 point rookie from Giant Size X-Men. Yes, I could have gone with the lethal Archangel, but I kind of wanted to focus on happier times when Warren was more of a playboy thrill-seeker than a brooding weapon of death. Plus, 50 points helps keep the cost down. For 50 points you get a cheap “taxi” to take your less mobile fighters in or out of battle. Plus his Special Power of not halving your Charge speed, with a boost from someone’s Perplex, can go a long way toward making Angel an overlooked threat. The healing powers of the X-men team ability also will aid your wildcards.

We now go to a lesser known corporate millionaire, Danny Rand AKA Iron Fist. Secret Invasion gave us an awesome 70 point piece of this super martial artist chock full of devastating powers like Exploit Weakness, Flurry, Close Combat Expert backed with

Combat Reflexes, Willpower and Leap/Climb. Perhaps the ultimate tie-up and beat-down Heroclix piece, do not underestimate this Iron Fist; he is built to destroy opponents twice his cost!

So the Big Business build looks like this:

Batman (JL52)             – 119

Iron Man (M10A)         - 225

Lex Luthor (FF:SM)      – 50

Dr. Sivana (CR)           – 111

Green Goblin (M10A) – 117

Blue Beetle (D10A)       - 55

Green Arrow (JL52)      – 95

Ozymandias (WM)        – 83

Angel (GSX)                 – 50

Iron Fist (SI)                  - 70

-----------------------------------

Total: 975 (out of 1000)

That leaves 25 points for feats or relics. If using feats, I would recommend using Armor Piercing on either Green Arrow or Blue Beetle to take advantage of their Energy Explosion with three targets. Now I have not had a chance to play this team yet, but I can see that it would be a formidable group full of Outwit and Perplex to boost ranged attackers and close combat attackers alike.

Now I did omit someone that I had almost forgotten about… Gideon. Don’t remember Gideon? Neither does the majority of comic book fans (sorry Rob Liefeld). He was this 90’s enemy of X-Force that was one of the rare breed of immortal mutants known as the Externals. So during his abnormally long life, Gideon founded his own corporation and became rich. An 85 point piece was made of Gideon in Giant Sized X-Men. His stats are decent and he has a Special Power that allows you to copy nearby character’s powers every turn. If you want to use Gideon, though, you have to play an 1100 point game, but at that point, I say lets just go 1200 to be a more even number. To get there, I would upgrade Lex Luthor to his aforementioned battle-suit version from DC 10^th Anniversary. That gets you up to 1170, leaving 30 points for feats or relics.

Until next time, stay strange.

Prophet & Toaster's Weird Heroclix Teams

Jonny Prophet and I both play Heroclix. We love to create unique teams based on weird ideas or themes and then try them out… often times against other weird teams. So I thought every so often I would share one of these forces to give all you Clixers some new ideas and inspirations next time you want to play a fun game. I am starting with one of our favorite teams… the Dark Justice League.

Not to be confused with the New 52’s Justice League Dark, the Dark Justice League was inspired by Marvel’s Dark Avengers. Jonny and Prophet and I have debated and play tested many candidates to join the team and this is the best one we came up with. So let’s imagine that DC went the same direction as Marvel during the “Dark Reign” event and the bad guys took over. Who would join a villainous version of the Justice League posing as their heroic counterparts? This is our line-up:

First off, I would assume that this new version of the Justice League would be formed by Lex Luthor (much like how Norman Osborn is now Marvel’s Lex Luthor). I have gone with the soon to be released updated version of Lex Luthor in his Battlesuit in the DC 10^th (Heroclix) anniversary set. This allows him to be a threat when on the battlefield and also brings a similarity to the robo-armored Iron Patriot.

Now Luthor would need to find someone who hates Superman to be his field leader and Man of Steel imposter. I imagine he could convince Zod to not so much work for him but to work with him. Plus, you just know that both would be plotting their own betrayal. I have gone with the only true Zod made in Heroclix, the super rare from the Superman set.

I am not really sure if Luthor could convince the Wonder Woman hating sorceress Circe to work for him, what with her hatred of men. However, Luthor is good at striking deals with powerful beings (i.e. Brainiac). I bet he could sign her on as a Wonder Woman imposter, perhaps with the promise that she could punish some loathsome males in the process.

The imposter for Batman was a topic of lots of debate and uncertainty… then it dawned on me. Lex Luthor could totally hire Deathstroke to work as his Batman and get him to dress in an interpretation of the Caped Crusader. Hell, Deathstroke is a mercenary after all. Plus, he hates Batman! Not to mention, few on the planet (save for Batman himself) can go toe to toe with Slade Wilson. It’s a slam dunk if you ask me, especially when you use the amazingly effective new Deathstroke from the Justice League 52 gravity feed set!

Zoom is kind of a no-brainer for Flash, being the Reverse Flash and all. Luthor could convince him to “replace” the Scarlet Speedster with ease. Now, I’m not sure if he would be “Professor Zoom” Eobard Thawne or Wally West’s version of Zoom as Hunter Zolomon. But both are similar in power to the Arkham Asylum Zoom, so I would just go with that.

For a while I went with a yellow ringed version of Sinestro as Green Lantern, but in the New 52 he is a Green Lantern, so now I am going with the great movie version from the Green Lantern Gravity Feed set. I’m guessing Luthor could sign up Sinestro if it meant he could disgrace his former protégé and nemesis Hal Jordan… or get some semblance of power over humans. That way Luthor can say he’s the Green Lantern of the new Justice League and guess what? He is.

I’m going to be honest here… the weak link of this team is making Ocean Master the new Aquaman. I didn’t want Black Manta because he just isn’t right, plus I don’t think he can do what Arthur Curry does anyway. I had considered King Shark, but Jonny brought up that Luthor needs to pass him off to the public as the ‘new’ Aquaman. You can’t do that with a big shark man. But Luthor could easily convince Arthur Curry’s jealous half-brother to usurp his Aquaman persona and being basically human, he could look the part. So we went with the DC 75^th Anniversary set’s Ocean Master. He’s alright, not great though. The best he has to offer is probability control if he is in the water.

Lastly, since he is now a part of the New 52’s Justice League, I have to replace Cyborg. One might suggest Brainiac, but Luthor would want someone he can control. He would know that Brainiac would just be bad news. (The way Osborn should have known that convincing the Void to possess Sentry to do his dirty work would end badly. But hey, nobody said Norman was as smart as Lex!) So the easiest fit and most logical would be someone who has worked for Luthor before… Metallo. Now what’s great is that the newer Metallo isn’t just a cyborg with a Kryptonite heart. He can morph his body, meld with machinery and even control computers! He is basically an evil version of Cyborg! And the Brave and the Bold version of Metallo is plenty evil enough to round out this team.

So here they are… your Dark Justice League!

(D10A020) ‘Battlesuit’ Lex Luthor (analog to Iron Patriot/Norman Osborn) – 160

(SM053) Zod (as Superman) - 188

(AA045) Circe (as Wonder Woman) – 149

(JL52020) Deathstroke (as Batman) – 120

(AA036) Zoom (as Flash) - 130

(GLGF005) Sinestro (as Green Lantern) - 135

(AN027) Ocean Master (as Aquaman) - 65

(BB033) Metallo (as Cyborg) - 182

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1129 out of 1200 (71 points left for feats)

Try having them go up against the New 52 Justice League (probably minus Lex) or have them all fight the theme worded (1183 point) Dark Avengers team.

Until next time, stay strange.