[UA] New artifact and ritual as an urban legend

[Timothy Toner]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Pfeifer" <robinpfeifer at web.de>
To: "Unknown Armies Mailinglist" <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 7:13 AM
Subject: [UA] New artifact and ritual as an urban legend


> As just another urban legend, I agree completely, but this urban legend is
> going to kill one of their NPC colleagues. the overarching theme of my
> current campaign is finding out about the UnAverse the hard way (and if
that
> sounds X-Files cheesy, so be it - it's what my players wanted, and they
> don't even know what they are playing), so they don't encounter this urban
> legend as such, they first find out that a highly unusual bullet killed
> their colleague and then experience what happens to their reports etc.

I recall reading that one of the secret fears of the FBI and ATF is that
CAD/CAM will develop to such a point where bullets and guns can be
manufactured with relative ease and safety at home, thus nullifying the huge
amount of data they can draw just from a slug found at the scene of a crime,
regarding the origin of the bullet, what type of weapon fired it, etc.  An
off-caliber round with 'odd' properties would probably make the boys in the
forensics lab freak.

Some more recommendations (the first of which came to me as I was thinking
of the above):

Hitman, written by Garth Ennis
    The story of Tommy Monaghan is one for the record books.  Created as
part of a crossover event, linking several popular comics with
not-so-popular comics to boost sales on the latter, he should have been dead
right out of the gate.  In fact, I think he's the only character created for
that storyline that's still bouncing around (Synopsis, to indicate how
preposterous his survival was:  Alien race lands on earth and starts
munching on the native population.  They shoot this spiky thing in your
brain, but if it doesn't kill you, it gives you super powers).  Tommy's
power?  The ability to see through walls, which came at the price of making
the entirety of his eyeballs jet black.  In a universe where Superman will
one day decide that the fastest way (most direct route) to the Batcave is
actually tunneling through the earth, this is a wuss power.  What's
interesting, though, is that DC apparently had enough faith in Ennis to let
him write a book where the title character was a contract killer.  No, not a
contract killer with a heart of gold.  A man who kills for money.  Oh, and
then goes to the local bar and gets drunk.  It shouldn't have worked but it
did.  Brilliantly.  Ennis' stated goal was to knock the stuffings out of the
idea of superheroes, and their real impact on the common folk.  As an
example, a big-ass earthquake destroys most of Gotham, the enitre area is
declared no-man's land and effectively abandoned by the Federal Government,
and Bats decides that he doesn't need help from the spandex crew.  Problem
is, Hitman takes place in Gotham City, so Ennis kinda sorta has to play
along.  His solution?  Eh, nothing much has changed.  So they pack an extra
piece and a few spare clips of ammo before heading over to Sean's Place.  As
far as furious action goes, you can't beat this book.  One of my favorite
issues involves an aquarium that gets a shipment of whatever crap reanimated
the dead in Return of the Living Dead.  So for the latter half of the book,
the 'heroes' are going after mutant zombie baby seals, armed with 2x4s.
Unfortunately, I don't think the book will be collected in graphic novel
form.  I bring it up only because the book has completed its run, ending
with a brilliant coda.  If you can get 'em cheap, do it.  By all means.

Stranger Kisses:   The sequel to Strange Kiss, a sort of stupid comic, IMO.
It's like a fanboy artist-type with far wodges of cash meets Warren Ellis at
a bar during a convention, and convinces him to collaborate on a comic book
series.  Sobering up, Warren realizes he really doesn't give a good
god-damn, and proceeds to script the entire first mini-series while sitting
on the loo, waiting for Montezuma to have his revenge.  And then I got to
the last page of the last issue.  And that was neat.  But not in a good way.
It's a bit like discovering that "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane was not, in fact,
a sled, but rather Roe's Butt, the secret code word that reveals the
machinations of the Illuminati in America.  Okay, that could be neat, but it
probably should have come a little earlier in the narrative (and certainly
not on the last page of the book).  I picked up Stranger Kisses because the
ending really did get my curiosity, and while the writing and plot are
nowhere near Ellis' best work, it entertains.  Especially the most recent
issue, #3.  Man, is this UA.  I hesitate to give specific examples of the
grand high coolness, for fear of spoiling some of the better moments.  If
you're in a comic book store, and the book isn't Sealed For Your Protection,
flip through the book.


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