Marvel Legends - Clea

 The long time love, now wife, of Dr. Strange has finally been immortalized in plastic in the Marvel Legends line! Apparently she's a hot commodity if eBay prices are anything to go by. I got lucky and ordered her from Amazon UK for just $5 over retail with free shipping.

If you've been around long enough, you'll know Dr Strange is my absolute, all time favorite Marvel character...well, maybe my favorite hero. On any given day Doctors Strange and Doom could be holding the top spot.

I've been a fan of Strange for I don't know how long so finally getting Clea is such a treat. You can read more of me reminiscing about my history with Strange here. Clea has been around almost as long as Strange himself and she's the niece of one of his oldest, most notorious foes: the Dread Dormammu!

Star Wars Bounty Hunters Card Game (2024)

 I happened to see someone post about this in a Facebook board game group and pretty much ordered it immediately. Who wouldn't want to play a game where you get to play bounty hunters?

The other reason I ordered it is that I really like the art style they used. Some of the characters have a very manga-esque look to them.

Here's a few of the bounty hunters in the game. All the ones from Empire Strikes Back are in there as well as a couple from The Book of Boba Fett. Below them are some of the droids you can "purchase" to help take down your targets.

And these are the targets and contract cards. To "capture" a target, you have to play hunters and/or droids on them to beat all three color shields. Bounty points (top left) start high but each hunter you play reduces the score. Droids don't have an effect on score but cost credits.

Contract cards are a way to earn more points for your bounties. For example, with the first one, each time you capture Qi'ra or Solo, you get one point. (Yes, you can capture targets more than once, they must be pretty hard to lock up!) If you have them both, you get a total of five points, one for each and three for the pair.

I haven't played yet but did read through the rules. It seems like it could be fun but a little weird that bounty hunters negatively impact scoring. Wouldn't it make more sense to have to pay the bounty hunters credits? That's what they do!

 

Also, the contract cards have odd pairings of characters. But these are minor complaints from someone that wants the game to stick to the lore of Star Wars as much as possible.

You can read a review, and detailed explanation of how to play, over at BoardGameGeek.com.

 

If you want to pick up the game, please use this Amazon affiliate link.

Star Wars Hunters Mobile Game

 Launched last week on June 4th, Star Wars Hunters is a free-to-play, squad based 4 vs 4 game for iOS, Android, and Switch. Between the various game modes, playable characters, and customization options to unlock, there's plenty to keep you busy!

I didn't know if I was going to be into this initially but I always check out new Star Wars games. I haven't had great experiences with shooter type games like this on mobile in the past but after a couple rounds to get my virtual footing, I was really enjoying it! 

 

Check out the trailer

Monthly Media Recap - May 2024

May was an odd month for movie watching. It was front loaded with the second weekend of Salem Horror Fest and a couple of other films. There was a long lull and then I packed in a couple more at the end of the month.

 

There's a lot to cover but I promise if you stick to the end (or just skip there) you'll see something truly original and wild.

 

Series

Bad Batch (S3, Disney+)

What a great way to end the series! Star Wars animation has been knocking it out of the park, mostly...see below. I really hope they continue to do long form story telling because it gives the characters time to shine and grow. I'm a little sad to leave this crew behind but knowing Dave Filoni, they'll probably turn up again.

Tales of the Empire (Disney+)

This was good but much like it's predecessor Tales of the Jedi, I don't enjoy the less than 20 minutes episodes telling a fragmented story to fill in some blanks as much as the ongoing series format.

X-Men '97 (Disney+)
I'm still trying to catch up on the 92 series but man this was amazing! And my boy Nightcrawler finally gets his moment in the animated spotlight. My only minor complaint is that it felt like they crammed in too comic story lines without really giving them time to breathe.

Cult-tastic! Tales from the Trenches with Roger and Julie Corman (Tubi)
This 13 hour (!) series is more Corman than even I could want. Each hour long episode is dedicated to a specific type of Corman flick like SciFi, Fantasy, or Monsters. It's fun not only hearing stories about these movies but also seeing clips from unfamiliar ones. I finally finished the series just a few weeks before he passed.