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What's in store for our heroes this issue?
Omlevex is primarily a Mutants and Masterminds Superlink supplement
(rather equivalent to a D&D d20 supplement; written by someone other
than the main company but properly licensed). Within one can find game
stats for heroes and villains, world background, the occasional new game
mechanic, and a revised timeline for the supers age.
What makes Omlevex different from other such supplements (other than
being hard to pronounce) is the way in which this material is presented.
Omlevex is written in much the same way one might expect to see a DC or
Marvel RPG (or Crossgen or Image; isn't is about time, folks?) to be
written: it talks not only about the characters, but about their writers
and artists, and the Omlevex company as a whole.
Was there ever an Omlevex Comics? Nope. But after reading this, you
might be convinced there was.
Parenthetical note: astute and regular readers of the reviews may
have noticed that Cynthia (this book's writer) did a review of my game
as well. There's no mutual back-patting agreement here; we agreed to
review each other's products before they even came out, and if they
suck, we let people know it. What follows is an honest review.
Brave Heroes!
The heroes of the Omlevex universe are as varied as those of any
comics world. There's a stuck-up actor whose friend builds him high-tech
gizmos, a monster who loves his country, a superheroic superspy, a woman
who fights monsters out of horror movies and fairy tales, and a
three-member team that looks like they were taken off a random hero
generator. (That's not a put-down, by the way: the Avengers look that
way too. Example: "I'm a Norse god!" "I talk to ants!" "Let's hang out
together!" Whee!)
There are a good number of sidekicks, love interests, and supporting
characters listed for each of these heroes, None of them are statted
out, but that's ok; they don't really need to be. If one of them ends up
in combat, it's because someone's holding onto them and saying, "Now you
must do as I bid you; else your girlfriend will fall into the Pit of
Doom! Bwahahahaha!" A few brief character notes are what they give you,
and that's all you really need.
All of the characters have a strong Silver Age feel to them, from
their sample dialog to their motivations to their tactics. Notes are
given for "modernizing" the characters; see my comments on that below.
There's not too much in the way of innovative heroes, but then again
there's not supposed to be.
Dastardly Villains!
This is probably what most people want out of the book; a bunch of
foes to throw at their heroes. There are 38 statted out here, and each
hero also has about 5 minor villains whose stats aren't listed. Again,
the Silver Age feel is strong in most of them, especially people like
Grunn ("Bridger of a Thousand Worlds!") and The Russian Gargoyle. Some
of the villains are a bit wacky for my tastes, but then I flipped
through some old JLA issues and found Kanjar Ro and his Gamma Gong, so
I'm gonna shut up about that. There are a good number of innovative
villains in here, from creepy to tragic to just messed in the head.
I have to give special recognition to American Gargoyle's concept
here. His comic supposedly featured the main villain almost as often as
it featured the hero, and with a villain like Jonah (and that freaky
little living voodoo doll that follows him around) that would make for a
pretty cool comic. I wish the major companies out there would
do that sort of thing more often.
The notes for "modernizing" the characters (both villain and hero)
seem a bit extreme to me. It seems to take them into the dark early '90s
of comics instead of to the modern-day renaissance of heroism. Most of
the modernization notes would make the characters suitable for inclusion
in Punisher, a Vertigo comic, or any of the old Image blood/death/kill
titles. Maybe in Authority or Ultimates.
Kirby Buttons!
That's a comics fan in-joke, that is. See those big buttons on Thor's
outfit? On Mister Miracle? Them's Kirby buttons. Jack Kirby, one of the
great early artists of the Silver Age (now sadly passed away), did that.
And while no one in the book has those buttons, you can still feel his
influence on the art. Basically all of it would fit quite well as a
comic book panel or cover.
The layout is rather good too. There are practically no glitches,
the headers stand out nicely (and their font fits well), and everything
is quite legible.
Gushing Fanboys?
Interspersed in all this material is comments about the "creators" of
the Omlevex universe; those who (never) wrote and (couldn't have) drawn
the characters in their early appearances. While it might seem like this
is just a gimmick, it's actually kind of useful. You get more of an
insight into the characters and the world this way, and find out why
Man-Cactus looks so friggin' goofy. My god, so friggin' goofy.
The Stan Lee-esque hype is... well, I have no great love for Stan Lee,
but it's certainly appropriate to the period.
It's also nice to have the notes about the early "issues" of these
comics. Why? It helps establish a timeline, and gives your own heroes
places to interact with these guys.
But wait, there's more!
Omlevex is primarily a Superlink supplement, thus it has stats for
Mutants and Masterminds games. However, those who look at the top left
of the cover will also see the Silver Age Sentinels and Champions logos,
and that's not just for show. The final pages of the book have stat
blocks, for every single character, for SAS and Champions. That's a
really nice touch for fans of those games.
There's a chapter about the country/protectorate/whatever of
Metazon, where a lot of the action happens. It's a chain of islands off
the coast of Georgia. It's also the size of Colorado, according to the
map (which shows Alaska smaller than Texas). It's an acceptable setting,
I suppose, but there's far too much happening in not enough area. The
central island (largest of the chain) is spooky and dangerous and
lawless. The eastern one is modern and industrial. The western one is a
tourist trap. The southern one is a continuous battleground between the
US and (of all places) Cuba. The northern one is a magical nexus. Oh,
there's a floating high-tech capsule city between the central and
southern islands, too. There's just too much happening nearby for me to
believe that tourists would risk their lives flying near a magic-tainted
war zone.
There's also a good section for Players and GMs about games set in
the Silver Age. The best part of it, in my opinion, is an excerpt from
the Comics Code and the reduced version of it that Omlevex followed. A
page worth of suggested source material follows.
Will Our Heroes Survive?
Here's what it all boils down to:
Style: 5. Excellent composition, solid writing, proper art.
The only way this could have been better is if it were in color... and
on shoddy newsprint. Just kidding about the last one. Good work.
Substance: 5. Very solid work. I was considering giving it a 4
because of the setting, but the inclusion of SAS and Champions stats
boosts it back up.
In general, this is a really good supplement if you're planning on
running a game in the Silver Age. Golden, Bronze, and Modern Age games
won't get quite as much use out of it, but it certainly gives you a lot
to work with. Worst comes to worst, you have over three dozen villains to
fill up the ranks of the Masters of Doom. Well worth it.
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