Tony-Man's 4000th page view-maganza!

Happy 4000th pageviews!  ...I'm closing the site down until further notice.

Without material, there's no motivation, without motivation, there is no desire, without desire, there's no passion... without passion, there's no material.

Tony-Man vs Lady Thor

A Lady Thor?!  That's unpossible!

It was announced on the view that the Marvel mainstay and icon known as Thor is going through some major changes.  And one such major change is that he, is no longer a he.  But rather a She.  There is of course a lot of controversy over this change, and while I can certainly understand on a purist level that this can be unsettling, or even maddening, my question is really, "what took them so long?"  Let's think about this from a comic book standpoint.  Spider-Man has both a Spider-Woman and a Spider-Girl, Iron Man has Rescue, Hulk has She-Hulk, Batman has Batgirl, Superman as Supergirl, Magneto has Polaris, and there are many different examples both in the Marvel Universe, and in the DC universe.  And while yes many of these female characters originally started off as their male counterpart's female doppelgangers and little more, most of these characters have evolved into their own unique entity and have become rather successful.  (I mean Hell... even Deadpool got a Lady Deadpool.  Go figure that shit out.)

I want to make something clear.  I am not a big Thor fan.  I don't have any especial dislike for him.  He's powerful, he's inspiring, he can do many amazing things easily.  He's arrogant, he obviously has a swagger about him, he's faced many impossible odds and has come out on top, but in my opinion... he's simply just not all that interesting of a character.  I think a lot of the reason why I simply just don't think he's all that interesting, is because of the way he looks and the way he comes across.  But now that I know that all of this is going to be put inside of a female shell, well it opens up new possibilities.

Just how will a female be able to use the power of Thor?  How will she cope with the struggle that many superheroes have to cope with, when she has to choose between humanity and godhood?  How will she view her former self once she has attained the power of Thor?

"But Tony-Man, the inscription of the head of Mjolnir clearly states Whoever holds this hammer if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of... THOR."

See?  Told ya.

So, okay.  Yes, I will not deny the fact that on the hammer of a Norse weapon, English words are written which seems to point to the fact that only men can be worthy.  And if we lived in a world where there was no gray area, I'd be inclined to agree.  And yes, there was the time when Jane Foster held the hammer and became worthy and changed into Thordis... which at the time I felt was novelty gimmicks and lazy writing... but when thinking about it now in a retrospect, while the events that occurred during the whole Thordis saga, if it could really be called that... I had to refer back to the evolution of the English language.

I don't know much about other languages or how the words in such languages coincide with one another, but over the course of the English language, especially with pronouns, masculine pronouns have usually always described people or things in general whether they were masculine in nature or not.  As society became lazier, masculine pronouns have all but lost their masculinity for something a bit more gender-neutral.  After all typing or even saying "his or her" just feels cumbersome and it muddles up the flow of conversation or written script.  Over time, "he" simply became an acceptable convention when referring to an unknown person, while "his" became an acceptable convention for describing an unknown person's belonging.

Which brings us back to a Lady Thor.  Does Thor really need a lady counterpart?  Not really... It is going to be interesting to see what will happen, because unlike Batgirl, Rescue, Polaris, and Spider-Girl and the other female counterparts.  I'm working on the assumption that this particular Lady Thor is not a separate entity from Man Thor... but Lady Thor is going to BE Thor ...as a lady.  With lady parts and everything.  All I know is that if Lady Thor becomes enamored by a Jim Foster, or something like that, I'm going to throw the bullshit card out there.

As I said before, I'm not particularly a Thor fan, but the prospect of a Lady Thor (or whatever they're going to call her) is an intriguing and fascinating one, and one that I certainly hope pans well for the Thor galaxy in the Marvel Universe.  Me?  I'mma stick with my Lady Deadpool, Atcha cha cha cha!

Tony-Man plays One Night Ultimate Werewolf

I hope I don't get a werewolf... Arooooo!

It feels like forever since I've done an actual review on something that I actually like!  And while I know people have been asking, "Where's the July 4th editorial?"  Here's what I have to say on that.  Fuck the July 4th editorial!  I don't like the fireworks, I don't like the obligatory cookouts and our inflated sense of bullshit entitlement, I don't like the noise.  I do like the freedom, and the day off from work.  The End.

But, on July 4th, I did get to play a game that I actually really enjoy.  But before I go on, let me tell you some things about me.  I am a gamer.  But most people when they think of the word "gamer" they have a tendency to limit themselves to video games.  Now, in a way, that is part of what being a gamer is... is playing video games.  But the entirety of gaming is memory games, its board games, its video games, its computer games, its gaming when you have no games in which to game with.  The thing I like about board games, role-playing games, and other such games as these that video games typically do not have, is a physical social interaction with other people.  That's where board games and role-playing games have a distinct advantage over video games.

One of my more favorite games that I've been hearing about and reading about before finally getting to play is a game called One Night Ultimate Werewolf.  The concept is pretty simple to understand.  Every player is dealt a role card that they should only look at once.  For those who were dealt a werewolf role, the object of the game is not to be killed.  For those who drew a villager, the object of the game is to kill at least one of the two werewolves.  Sounds easy enough, hmm?  Well... there are a few twists to the game that makes it more interesting.

There are some villagers who get to do special things.  For example, the Seer when prompted is allowed to look at one player's card, or two cards from the center pile.  The Troublemaker can exchange two other player's cards.  The Hunter can choose to kill any player he wishes if he is the one killed.  The Minion serves as a distraction for the werewolves, and will win if the minion is killed and both werewolves survive.  There are a couple other cards that have different roles, and other instructions, but you get the idea.

Gameplay is very simple and you can learn how to play the game by the first or second time you play.  If you download the app, it will walk you through everything.  The game plays in three phases: Sleep phase, Suspicion phase, and Kill phase.  The game plays anywhere from 3-10 people, and this is a game where the more people there are, the more fun you can potentially have.  When I played the game, there were three people and from there we had fun, but we all agreed that more people would have made the game better.

The Sleep phase is the simplest phase in the game, especially if you have the app downloaded.  The Sleep phase consists of two parts, which are knowing your role and closing your eyes.  Each player is dealt out a card that has the particular role on it that the player assumes.  When prompted to close your eyes, each player closes their eyes.  Then prompts will go out to those who have drawn the werewolves, and the special villagers.  Once every player with a special role has gone, you will be prompted to open their eyes and the Sleep Phase is complete.

The Suspicion Phase comes next.  In this phase, all the players have a total of up to 10 minutes to try to figure out which player, or players are the werewolves.  Of course, the werewolves have up to 10 minutes to try not to be caught.  In this phase, the players can talk to the other players, try to figure out which roles have been dealt out, or even try to figure out if there even are any werewolves within the bunch.  This is the most fun part of the game and can lead to pretty interesting rationalizations, accusations, and psychological mind-fucks.  At the end of 10 minutes, or when all players are ready to vote, the Suspicion Phase is complete.

The last phase is the Kill phase.  After the Suspicion phase all players get to vote on who they think is the werewolf.  In the event of a tie, all players involved in the tie are considered to be killed.  In which case all players involved in the tie must reveal their card to figure out if they have killed the werewolf.  If at least one werewolf was killed, the villagers win.  If no werewolf was killed, the werewolves win.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fun game that's also reasonably simple, but that's the beauty of it.  I encourage anyone who like bigger games but also short games such as this to play it at least once.  I know that I intend to play it more than once, hopefully with a bigger crowd.  Aroooooooo!