StarCraft Printed Media Thread

[thebrowncloud]

To be honest, I don't know where they are going with this series. It's obvious the War Pigs won't kill Jim Raynor and that Mengsk is going to inevitably turn on them (well, technically, he already has). Like, they aren't really showing us anything new. We've seen Mengsk betray people before. He's a scandalous, shady bastard; that's old news. Any theories on how the series will progress constructively? All I see is a random, tangent story that doesn't tell us anything.  :-\

[Pr0nogo]

It's cool and it sells. Thus, Blizzard wins. It doesn't have to make sense.

[thebrowncloud]

It's cool and it sells. Thus, Blizzard wins. It doesn't have to make sense.

Meh, idk. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, I'm just saying that they aren't really showing us much that we didn't already know, except maybe the lifestyles of troubled, mislead mercenaries. I enjoy reading them, but it's such an insignificant series of events that it doesn't really matter whether they included it or not. Nevertheless, in my hunger for more SC lore, I will continue to buy them because I am a consumer whore. I'm gonna get the third issue tomorrow.

[thebrowncloud]

My main complaint actually has been the extreme overreliance on the terrans.  The zerg get like 3 panels in the first issue, and so far its like the protoss don't even exist.  Come on, the ultralisks and hydras and zerglings are the money shots, I don't want to see mengsk's sidekick going "mwahahaha look at how 1-dimensional of a character I am!!!!" for 10 damn pages.

Extremely true! They act as if the zerg invasion barely even happened! The first page with all those marines fighting that one (or maybe there were two; it's hard to tell) ultralisk(s) and getting absolutely obliterated was so satisfying. I want to see more stuff like that! I've heard that a protss character is going to be introduced in the next few issues (I think it's in issue 6), so that should spice things up a bit. They are also supposed to meet Raynor kinda soon, so as far as I'm concerned, that will be when the series actually starts. Hopefully they will then start giving us new developments.

I was rather disappointed that they brought the Cerberus Recon Squad back for the role that they have. They are supposed to be the ruling government's black ops, barely exists, TOP shady activities guys, not some mercenary hunter program. That's stupid! They could have sent anyone else to do it and they send a black ops unit? But why? That's ridiculous! It doesn't do their role in StarCraft: Loomings justice one bit!

Yeah, Tamsen Cauley really is a shitty character. Everything about him is the biggest cliche, half-assed material in the world. They could have done so much better. Sure, he is a corrupt politician that would do anything to save his own hide,  but he doesn't do anything legitimately scandalous except betray people. Anyone can do that! He's not unique. He's kinda like a shitty Mengsk clone with emphasis on the shitty.

[Church]

I was rather disappointed that they brought the Cerberus Recon Squad back for the role that they have. They are supposed to be the ruling government's black ops, barely exists, TOP shady activities guys, not some mercenary hunter program. That's stupid! They could have sent anyone else to do it and they send a black ops unit? But why? That's ridiculous! It doesn't do their role in StarCraft: Loomings justice one bit!

Or there role in Precursor. (from what I can tell. I have not read the comics.)

[Legion]

I was rather disappointed that they brought the Cerberus Recon Squad back for the role that they have. They are supposed to be the ruling government's black ops, barely exists, TOP shady activities guys, not some mercenary hunter program. That's stupid! They could have sent anyone else to do it and they send a black ops unit? But why? That's ridiculous! It doesn't do their role in StarCraft: Loomings justice one bit!

Or there role in Precursor. (from what I can tell. I have not read the comics.)

Starcraft: Loomings IS the precursor. And it's 'their'.

[thebrowncloud]

So I got Issue #3 today and I must say that it was better than the others, but there are still some things that I don't particularly care for. For one thing, everyone on the crew seems to have their own dark past.... and that's all they've really been talking about since the series started. Another thing is people show up out of nowhere. Who the hell is Pyrius? And Houston was just spontaneously added to their crew as an informant. Where did he come from?

But all I'm gonna say is

Spoiler

Lol, Zeratul

EDIT: My bad. Pyrius is actually Romy's last name.

[thebrowncloud]

But all I'm gonna say is

Spoiler

Lol, Zeratul

I'm probably not going to buy it at this point, so please expand

Hehe, okay.

Spoiler

So Romy, the drug addict War Pig, also apparently deals in smuggling ancient alien artifacts of a sort. He somehow came into possession of a crystal that he believed to be of protoss origin and sold it to Houston, who apparently is also a drug addict. Eventually Houston is killed and, at about the same time, the General Lee is boarded by protoss with a ship far larger than that of the War Pigs. One of the protoss (apparently all of them on their ship were dark templar) grabbed Cole from behind with his psi blade out and demanded that he lower his weapon. Then another protoss who looks EXACTLY like Zeratul (he didn't introduce himself, but he had the same armor, same cloak, same cloth over where his mouth would be, same eyes, same head design, etc.) and took the crystal, explaining that it is of xel'naga origin and is capable of bringing people's darkest memories out so they are haunted by their own deeds, etc. (which is why everybody seemed to be thinking about their dark pasts and were so restless). Zeratul leaves soon after, warning the War Pigs that there will be grave consequences if they do any harm to Jim Raynor. Romy then says that the crystal was among Houston's things, so it must have been his (lying, of course).

Apparently the Dominion has sent a (female) ghost after the War Pigs in case the Cerberus Recon Squad fails. It isn't clear where she started looking, but her current location is Bhekar Ro where she decided to kill a lot of people and animals, for some reason. The issue ends with her saying "Where next?"

I didn't tell you everything about the issue. Those are just the highlights that will affect the future of the series.

[thebrowncloud]

I picked up the new issue today (making me at #4) and my mixed feelings continue to grow. It was a fairly interesting issue, but more because you get to see some of the earlier troubles of Agria, the planet that Dr. Ariel Hanson is from. Again, it brings up a short-lived character to explain what is going on in the issue and the history of it still remains clouded and mysterious.

The most interesting development is that the reader discovers Turfa Dei (the big black guy with boobs) has the powers of a wrangler. That is to say that he can detect psychics. It's different for everyone that is able to do that, but Turfa's way is apparently through his ability to smell them..... somehow....

The issues continue to focus on character's backstories and all that jazz. It's interesting and all because it builds character development, but I feel like it's a bunch of filler. In this issue, they made absolutely no progress in finding Jim Raynor. NONE. It's like watching an episode of Pokemon. It's a mildly entertaining story with some new characters, but you will never hear from this particular episode EVER AGAIN.

Another trend that I have been noticing is a new mysterious character is introduced at the end of every issue except the first one and you never hear from them again. There is Lars Trakken at the end of #2, the protoss guys at the end of #3, and some unnamed Dominion officer at the end of #4. I feel like they are getting a little ahead of themselves with all of this. The first arc only has 8 issues left and they keep digging themselves into a deeper and deeper hole. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if all the new characters they introduce don't end up reappearing until the second or third arc starts (if they even make it to a third).

The next one comes out in only a week or two, so I'll have more details soon for anyone who cares to discuss. I'm sure that they have the issues available for torrent somewhere for people who are interested but don't want to spend the money. I'll try to find one if there are any.

[thebrowncloud]

I stopped reading when the second comic had like 0 zerg.

Yeah, the zerg part is taking a while to get here, but it is coming. Raynor is on a zerg-infested world (which one is still ambiguous), so they will be getting to that soon. I think they find Raynor in issue 6 or 7. I'll let you know when I get there. 

[thebrowncloud]

Issue #5 came out yesterday and I finished reading it just now. The War Pigs have finally located Jim Raynor on the planet Urona Sigma. There are some nice panels of the zerg, and they attack the War Pigs, but none of them die (or even get injured, for that matter) because they escaped. Very anti-climactic, but the artwork looked cool.

The "dark pasts" of the characters have been handled in a different way this time around where they cut the main plot of the issue short by a few pages and then dedicated the excess to a mini flashback. This issue featured Nuura Joss, the only female member of the mercenary band. Details on that in the following spoiler tab:

Spoiler

It turns out that Joss was an agent in a branch of what could be considered the Confederacy's version of the Secret Service. She was responsible for protecting a Confederate senator, Elliot Canon, who was speaking out against the Senate and their shady dealings. Of course, some pissed off former resident of the destroyed Korhal IV is in the crowd and tries to kill Canon. Nuura saves him and they become romantically involved (which may have been pre-existing). One morning after a night of getting it on, Nuura tries to get reassigned because she doesn't think she can act professionally enough to continue protecting him. During the middle of the call with what would supposedly be her supervisor, a ghost operative knocks her out and she wakes up to the blood-soaked body of Elliot Canon, having been stabbed at least six times. She is sentenced to life imprisonment and we discover that Tamsen Cauley (or someone that looks like him) was responsible for the incident and has plans for Nuura in the future.

Back to the regular issue at hand here:

Spoiler

So it turns out that the War Pigs stumble into an underground layer that the Raiders have set up and they are soon caught. Raynor knew they were coming because of the Dark Templar that the War Pigs ran into in issue #3, so it wasn't surprising to him that they would find him. After a semi-dramatic greeting from the Raiders, Raynor warmly welcomes Cole Kickson (the leader of the War Pigs, if you have forgotten) and reveals that the two of them were buddies from the prisoner of war camp during the Guild Wars (mentioning that he was still in service the the Heaven's Devils at the time). However, Nuura discovers from a source she has in the Dominion intelligence department that Hickson, at some point, was subjected to an experimental form of neural resocialization that leaves him seemingly unchanged, but his desire to kill Jim Raynor is fabricated by Cauley. The last we see is that Hickson apparently still intends on killing Raynor as he is seen reaching for something in his pocket.

TO BE CONTINUED...

On a side note, I discovered an interesting fact in this issue: CMC power suits (the armor that marines wear) are fully functional underwater. Also, it is possible to land dropships underwater as well, but I don't know about taking off... 

[thebrowncloud]

Issue #6 finally came out on wednesday, so here's the update (it's every detail of the story this time, so if you don't want to have the whole issue spoiled for you from start to finish, don't read on):

Spoiler

Alright, so Hickson pulls his gun on Raynor, people freak out and panic, but Raynor doesn't want to jump the gun here. As mentioned in the previous issue, the two of them were buddies in a P.O.W. camp during the Guild Wars, so he is trying to remain calm so nobody kills anyone. Right as they are trying to talk Hickson down, a bunch of zerg bust through the cave wall and all hell breaks loose. Right before Cole lets a shot fire at Raynor, Turfa smacks his arm causing him to miss. As a bunch of the Raiders fight the zerg off, a zergling jumps on Turfa's back and almost kills him, but Raynor puts a hole through its head. Cole runs off ahead to the exit and Raynor, Iggins, Romy, and Turfa follow soon after, leaving a bunch of Raiders behind.

Meanwhile, Nuura is up on the General Lee in orbit, fighting off Lars Trakken and the rest of the Cerberus Recon Squad. I forgot to mention that they boarded the ship at the end of the last issue, so yeah. She is fighting them off, but there are too many and she has to take an escape pod to the surface (as a reminder, they are on Urona Sigma), leaving the ship behind. Lars is pissed, referencing his mysterious past with Cole Hickson again and goes off to ask Tamsen Cauley what he and his men should do.

So the whole surface crew makes it out of the caves, barely, and Turfa seals the exit with a grenade, which, again, almost gets him killed. Outside, Cole pulls his gun on Raynor again and Nuura happened to be there, ready to take a shot on..... someone... (I think she was aiming at Raynor, but it was also in the general direction of Cole, so who knows). Raynor talks her down and then begins to talk down Cole, reflecting on a technique that he taught Raynor in the P.O.W. camp that he called "dislocation". The technique was a way of him shutting his mind away from everything around him by placing himself in only his happiest of memories. Sounds like something out of Harry Potter, but whatever. Anyway, he gets Cole to fight the resoc that has been done to him and he breaks it. Happy fun-time for everybody. But they aren't out of the frying pan yet. As it turns out, the protoss are in the area as well and were trying to fight the zerg infestation on Urona Sigma. It turned out to be a lost cause and they decided to deal with it the way they always do: burn the whole place to hell. The purification of the planet commences and the War Pigs and Raynor appear to be doomed, as they have no ship to escape in. Meanwhile, Tamsen Cauley replies to Trakken's request for orders by simply telling him to do nothing, since the protoss will likely take care of the whole thing.

So that's as far as we are in the series. But wait! There's more! It's time for this month's flashback sequence! Hooray! Here you go:

Spoiler

As mentioned before a couple times, Raynor and Hickson served time at the same P.O.W. camp on Turaxis II. Since both of them fought for the Confederacy during the Guild Wars and their captives are torturing them for the knowledge of neural resocialization (a Confederate technique), it is apparent that they are being held by the Combine. At first, it is just Hickson in there, getting tortured daily to the brink of death just so they can bring him back to life. Blah, blah, blah, he talks about his dislocation technique as being how he gets by in the camp. He reflects that his whole life has been one big failure except for one skill he has: killing. Very depressing, tragic character so far. Then Jim Raynor is brought into the camp as well. For a while, Hickson doens't say much to him. But, through conversation, he begins to develop trust in him and sets out to teach him dislocation so that the both of them can make it through their time in the camp. THE END.

Fun facts:
1. Turaxis II is where Jim Raynor met Tychus Findlay and the 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion (the Heaven's Devils) formed. It was also here that Tychus and Raynor were charged with desertion and manslaughter of superior officer. It's unclear where exactly during these events that Raynor arrives at the P.O.W. camp.

2.Cole Hickson also served a very brief time at New Folsom Prison at the same general time that Tychus Findlay was there. It is possible that Hickson knows both Findlay and Raynor from his days in prisons.

Predictions:

Spoiler

In their current situation, there are really only two ways out for the War Pigs and Raynor. One case (and the more likely one at that) is that Matt Horner will swoop in with the Hyperion and save the whole group. The other possibility is that a protoss ship will actually find them all before they finish incinerating the planet and bring them to safety, but that is as likely as a monkey writing Shakespeare. Since the next issue is gonna be the group assaulting Cauley and his forces, the former seems much more likely because the protoss have very little issues with the terran politician.

It is revealed to us in the description of the 8th issue that one of the War Pigs will die in the 7th. If I had to guess, my top choice is Iggins because he only has one arm, has come into some pretty serious close calls already, and seems to have the least to live for out of the group. Plus, he's old. If not him, then I'm going to have to say Turfa Dei because of his over-abundance of near-death experiences in the past couple issues. His loose end has also been tied off with the execution of his teacher in the ways of terrorism during issue 4, Castor Mezzo. Curious how I've picked the handicapped man and the black guy...... I swear I'm not discriminating! Really, picking any of them could be seen as discrimination. Iggins is handicapped, Turfa is black, Nuura is a woman, Romy is a drug-addict, and Cole is psychotic.

Tune in again next month for the finale of the story arc!

Also, as a little bonus heads-up, the first portion of the new StarCraft manga, StarCraft: Ghost: Ghost Academy, is coming out January 1st, 2010. The series will feature Nova as a main character as well as Gabriel Tosh and three new psychic characters. One of them, Kath Toom, is said to be featured in the upcoming SC:G novel, Spectres, as well as Nova and Tosh again, but that isn't to come out until November, 2010....

Edit: Something I forgot to mention: The art direction for the current issues (5 and 6) has taken a noticeable change and I actually like it a lot better. So if art threw you off early, you may want to give it a second chance.

[thebrowncloud]

Somewhat mixed news came out today about the StarCraft comic series. Apparently, with Wildstorm getting some sort of revamp recently, the company and Blizzard have decided to cancel all of their comic series (including the WoW ones) after their next issue. This means that issue #7 will be the last issue of the StarCraft comic series. However, this doesn't necessarily mean the end of the War Pigs. On the flip-side. Wildstorm has said they will be pursuing graphic novels for both StarCraft and WarCraft and there should be several announcements for upcoming projects in both series in 2010. So, in summary, we arre trading out relatively mediocre comic series for more in-depth graphic novels. IMO, smart move on their part, but I hope this isn't the last we see of the War Pigs. 

Source (courtesy of the wiki): http://comics.ign.com/articles/105/1055759p1.html

As for the remaining comic issue, the release date has been pushed back to January 20th, so StarCraft: Ghost: Ghost Academy will be the next printed media to be released.

[thebrowncloud]

Just found out this was out there. I don't think I've ever seen a trailer for a book before, let alone a manga. Again, courtesy of the wiki.

Edit: The boy that is being monitored on the operating table in the trailer is Colin Phash from the Frontline stories, War-Torn, Weapon of War, and Orientation.

[Death_Wing]

I now see why no one ever makes book/comic/manga(they are different, kinda) trailers... they fail. A trailer makes you want to buy the product, no? Well the only reason why I would buy that is cause it said 'STARCRAFT' otherwise I would be uninterested.
Imho.