Friday, January 25, 2008

And now for something completely different...

Now, I read the post on Carlos's blog today about his favorite comic moments of all time. Well, I figured that would be a good thing to do as well. You probably already know some of my favorites, so I am doing something different. I am going to pick storylines I like, and go over how VS has made them playable. Shall we begin?

I figured I would start out with something easy for me to do, but then realized this would be difficult. Meh, let's start with Dark Phoenix Saga.

Plot summary: First, Shadowcat and Dazzler are discovered. The X-Men go in teams to try and recruit them and are confronted by Hellfire Club members. Shadowcat is also recruited by Emma Frost, White Queen, who is able to take out Wolverine, Storm and Colossus, taking them prisoner, while Shadowcat discovered that she could phase, getting away. Meanwhile, Dazzler is attacked by Hellfire Club robot-things, and Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Phoenix go to her rescue. They save her and learn about the rest of the X-Men being captured. Then, they go after the White Queen, resulting in Shadowcat helping to break the captured X-Men out, and Phoenix going up against White Queen, easily defeating her. The X-Men triumph and go home. They do realize that the Hellfire Club could be a threat, so they go to Angel, who has money, in order to get into the Club. Then, it is revealed that Angel is actually a member (OMG!), but has no idea what the X-Men are talking about. Still, they venture off to fight the Hellfire Club, with Storm and Colossus going in, and Cyclops and Phoenix going in later, both just going as guests of the Club, looking for fun. Wolverine and Nightcrawler decide to take a different approach and go through the sewers. Once Wolverine and Nightcrawler get there though, they are attacked by Donald Pierce and Harry Leland. Pierce strangles Nightcrawler into unconsciousness, while Leland increases Wolverine's weight to make him collapse, although, with Wolverine's skeleton, he crashes through the floor, landing in a water filled tunnel, being swept away. Meanwhile, up above, Jason Wyngarde, Mastermind, takes control of Phoenix, like he had before, and dances her away from Scott, leading her upstairs, where she then takes out Cyclops. Storm and Colossus hear the noise, rush upstairs, where they are confronted by Sebastian Shaw, who takes some punches from Colossus before taking him out, and then taking out Storm, after she tries to flee. The issue ends with them being happy and Wolverine wanting to take them all out. Then, Wolverine busts in, working his way to where the Inner Sanctum is happily discussing their defeat of the X-Men, gloating away with Phoenix, who believes they are in the times of the Revolutionary War, where the X-Men are traitors to the British Empire. Cyclops tries to free Phoenix through their psychic link, although is met with Wyngarde, who takes Cyclops out, killing him in the mind, and almost killing him in real life. This shock frees Phoenix, who waits until Wolverine distracts everyone, and then frees the X-Men, who then take out the Hellfire Club. Phoenix confronts Wyngarde, who is trying to run away. She makes him one with the universe, making him insane. As they run away, and flee into the night, Phoenix then recites the exact same line as when she became Phoenix, except that this time, she blows up their jet, and changing into a Dark version of the Phoenix. "Hear me, X-Men! No longer am I the woman you kne!. I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever- I am Phoenix!" As they crash over Central Park, the X-Men have to face Dark Phoenix, who crushes them, and then flies away into space. In space, she goes off, is hungry, eats a sun, killing the D'Bari (obscure aliens from Avengers 4), and then destroying a Shi'ar vessel before returning to Earth, where the X-Men have been preparing. Beast rejoined with the X-Men and attaches a device that was supposed to neutralize Phoenix's power long enough for her to be defeated. Unfortunately, they cannot, and they are all captured by Dark Phoenix. Then, Professor X confronts Dark Phoenix, and they have a battle on the Astral Plane, and fight for a while, until ultimately, Xavier wins, with the help of Jean Grey who is fighting Dark Phoenix as well. Phoenix is supposed to have left Jean's body, and Cyclops holds her. Then, the X-Men, consisting of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Wolverine, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey took her yellow and green Marvel Girl costume for the upcoming fight), Storm, Beast and Angel all get abducted by the Shi'ar who have decided that Phoenix must die. Professor X challenges the Shi'ar to Arin'n Haelar, a Shi'ar duel of honor, which Shi'ar have to accept. This means the X-Men have to fight the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, who have a lot of random members. They get taken to the Blue Area of the Moon, where there is less gravity, although still a fair amount, and air to breathe. After a long battle, in which the Kree and Skrull interfere and help to take out the X-Men, only Marvel Girl and Cyclops are left. When Cyclops is hit, Marvel Girl panics and becomes Phoenix again. The X-Men and Imperial Guard fight her and Wolverine preforms a fastball special, throwing Colossus at Jean, who gets distracted and realizes that she should not live, so she goes and takes an alien gun and shoots herself, dying on the moon.

Whew, that was long. Any questions about it can be asked. Anyway, here are some cards that I feel make Dark Phoenix Saga playable:

(These are in no particular order)
Mastermind, Illusion Control (MXS-019)
Look at the art, and you'll understand.

Army of One (MXM-152)
This exact scene is from Dark Phoenix Saga, including the flavor text.

Dark Phoenix, Alien Life Force (MXM-128)
Come on, obvious much?

Dark Phoenix, Cosmic Entity (MOR-164)
Again, really obvious.

Harry's Hideaway (MXM-030)
When the X-Men first meet Shadowcat, they take her to an ice cream place, apparently called Harry's Hideaway. Yay, fun!

Mind Control (MXM-175)
Again, it is representing Wyngarde controlling Phoenix.

Psychic Struggle (MXM-179)
When Jean takes on Emma and crushes her.

Alter Density (MXM-191)
Whee, Wolverine smashing through the floor!

Mindtap Mechanism (MXM-198)
Man, they are obsessed with that image aren't they?

Jean Grey, Phoenix Force (MOR-014 and MVL-017)
Well, you can't have Dark Phoenix without Phoenix. Plus, one of the more flavorful cards of the first set.

Spider-Senses (MSM-012)
What? Why would this be here? Because when Dark Phoenix went crazy, all these beings felt it, including Spider-Man's Spider-Sense going crazy, Doc Strange noticing some stuff, scientists (I think) noticing weird stuff and Silver Surfer all noticing Phoenix going crazy. That's why.

Bamf! (MSM-109)
When they were attacking the Hellfire Club, Nightcrawler bamfed around, just like on the card, especially how he is taking out Hellfire Club goons.

Blue Area of the Moon (MHG-116)
It's where they fought, and where Jean sacrificed herself. 'Nuff said?

Intergalactic Summit (MHG-203)
When Dark Phoenix destroyed D'Bari, then the Shi'ar and everybody got together to discuss destroying Phoenix.

If you disagree with any of these, let me know. If you think any cards should be added, let me know. Basically, anything you want to say, let me know.

6 comments:

Rian Fike said...

This is the coolest aspect of the game for me, and this piece was really entertaining.

Awesome.

Pi_3.14159... said...

Yeah, it's pretty much my favorite too. By reading my blog, it is probably easy to understand that I am a comic fan before being a VS fan, so I love seeing my mythology put into a game I can play.

Rian Fike said...

Yeah, I really appreciate your deep hearted knowledge of the myths themselves. And I would have left alot more comments but I had forgotten how to log on to Blogger. I am always entertained here, please continue.

Pi_3.14159... said...

I do love comics and feel they are important to me. Other people collect and do other things, I read comics. Plus, I obsess over things, and comics have been an obsession that has lasted a long time.

Rian Fike said...

Pi, I need a pic of you for an article. I sent a message on Realms too.

Or I guess I could just use the Micheal Golden Deadpool if you wish to remain unspoiled.

Pi_3.14159... said...

I responded on Realms also, and I'll send you an e-mail with a pic.

slots
web counter