#and Mook’s character who for some reason I can’t recall the name

[scrumptiousstuffs]

So, I’m going to hold on Joong’s comment that main characters from GMMTV series DO NOT DIE and go into the finale of Peaceful Property with the mind frame that HomePeach will survive and live happily ever after (they also better not kill my man Suradech - literally the only good man in that household so far)

Peaceful Property, episode 12 (finale)

13/11/2024

[thevindicativevordan]

Mongul

Wanted to chat about another Superman Rogue who has been around a while: Mongul.

Background

Now this guy enjoys something of a mixed reputation. On one hand he, unlike many other Superman classic Rogues, has actually been in some good stories. There’s the iconic For The Man Who Has Everything by Alan Moore which is the perfect encapsulation of his core character traits. There he’s a hulking brute, with enough raw power to go toe to toe with Superman and actually hurt him with physical force alone. He’s crude, making misogynistic comments to Wonder Woman, and gleefully reveling in the conquest he plans. Yet he’s also clever, using the Black Mercy to incapacitate his foe, and has an air of faux affability to him that only adds to his menace. 

It should come as no surprise that an Alan Moore story is still Mongul’s best showing, but there are other stories worth mentioning as well. There’s Superman: Exile, the first meeting between the Post-Crisis Superman and Mongul and personally one of my favorite Post-Crisis Superman stories. There’s Mongul’s debut Pre-Crisis issue where he and Warworld first appear. There’s his attempt to hijack the Sinestro Corps during the Johns era of Green Lantern. Finally there’s his usage in Bendis Superman, which has been the first time in ages he’s been treated as a serious threat, and given an interesting way to serve as a contrast as Superman.

So why does he suffer from a mixed reputation? Well...

He sure does look familiar doesn’t he? He was created by Len Wein and Jim Starlin, and Starlin you might recall was the creator of Thanos, who was a ripoff of Darkseid. So Mongul is a copy of a copy, lacking the grandeur of Darkseid and the ambition of Thanos. He and Apocalypse are both cast in Darkseid’s mold, and have both gotten one really great and iconic storyline that guarantees they’ll stick around, but have also not traditionally fared well outside that one story. Also like Apocalypse:

He has a really bad habit of jobbing and being used by writers to prop up their characters. Jurgens used him to prop up Hank Henshaw in Reign of the Supermen and Henshaw again along with Zod in the Rebirth arc Revenge!, giving him a reputation as a joke. He also got killed by Sinestro pretty easily during his coup attempt.

Besides that he’s also unfortunately been treated as a generic tyrant for Superman to beat up, lacking much in the way of characterization, or in being a meaningful contrast to Superman beyond “Superman uses his strength to serve others, Mongul uses his to oppress them”. For a while I kind of wrote him off as a lost cause, someone that really didn’t offer anything as a Superman opponent beyond that one Alan Moore story. But recently I’ve changed my opinion; I’ve come to believe Mongul does in fact serve an important purpose and should be treated as an essential part of the Superman Rogues Gallery. Part of this turnabout was caused by really enjoying his usage in Bendis’ Superman run, which caused me to do a reread of Mongul stories, and got me thinking about who Mongul is, what he’s about, and what role he plays.

What Role Mongul Plays

A crucial realization hit me while I was rereading Mongul stories: Mongul is The Bully of the Supermythos.

He’s the guy who doesn’t delude himself into thinking he’s the hero like Lex does. He doesn’t consider himself above petty emotions or notions of right and wrong like Brainiac. He doesn’t have a sympathetic background like General Zod does. He’s the guy who enjoys pounding people into the dirt, who doesn’t mask his desire to lord over the populace behind pretenses of noble intentions. He’s gleeful as he crushes his enemies beneath his heel, he’s petty in that he enjoys forcing people to fight for his amusement, he’s dangerous in that while Darkseid can be bargained with, Mongul is always going to prefer to take what he wants via force and is powerful enough to do just that. In other words, he’s the exact kind of guy Superman started out wanting to take down, just living in the cosmic space where Superman can actually kick his ass without it feeling like punching down. 

That core ethos, beautifully summed up in All-Star Superman, is in direct opposition to Mongul’s entire lifestyle. When the United Planets starts to form in Bendis’ Superman, Mongul is outraged, not just because it may pose a threat to him, but because the very idea of the “weak” uniting into a stronger whole downright offends him. He runs Warworld to cull the “weak and unfit” of the universe for his own amusement and entertainment, the petty schoolyard bully who has turned a planet-sized Death Star into his own playground, and he climbed to the top via crushing anyone that stood against him with his own two hands or outwitting them with his brain. He’s got no time for others who think they can rise above their station in life without the physical/mental power to back that desire up. If Superman believes that everyone is capable of greatness, Mongul is a firm believer that greatness is the sole purview of the very few (and really only himself). 

This core conflict allows writers to bring back the bully hunter of the Golden Age and early New 52 t-shirt and jeans Supermen. Here’s a guy, a foreign ruler no less, who is actively oppressing people. We get to enjoy seeing Superman taking on a foreign dictator because he’s off in space instead of doing so here on Earth where thorny parallels to American interventionism abroad would be raised. Superman can be the Champion of the Oppressed again, and that’s always something I enjoy seeing.

I’d also like to bring up why Mongul was originally created. Len Wein wanted a foe for Superman who could match him physically. In other words, Mongul is like Doomsday if Doomsday actually had a personality. Mongul offers the opportunity for deeper exploration of Superman that Doomsday can’t. We know this literally because Mongul’s best story isn’t just a slugfest between the two the way Doomsday’s is. For The Man Who Has Everything is one of the best explorations of just how damn lonely being the Last Son of Krypton is for Kal. Exile explores the ethics of Superman’s no kill rule, his belief in the sanctity of life, his struggles to hold onto that belief in the face of the cruelty of others. His usage in Bendis’ run is to illustrate just how fragile the United Planets is, how easily it can break apart, and how hard Superman is going to have to strive to make it work. PKJ used Mongul in his Future State Superman: Worlds of War stories to show the lengths Superman will go to liberate others, his defiance in the face of Mongul’s attempts to break him. There’s an opportunity for psychological evaluation of Superman when Mongul shows up that just isn’t there with Doomsday. That alone is reason to keep him around, but he also brings a bunch of cool shit in addition.

Cool Aspects Mongul Brings to the Supermythos

He’s got a Death Star that doubles as a gladiator coliseum, where we get to see Superman compete with other gladiators from across the cosmos. Mongul lets Superman channel that Conan brutality in a very entertaining way, putting Superman in a setting where he’s facing lots of foes who can go up against him with raw strength and numbers alone. 

It’s a place that channels that pulp science fiction that Superman was borne from in a very entertaining way in my opinion. Also they should set a Superman video game there (but that’s another blog post). The gladiators are also useful, either as oppressed prisoners for Superman to liberate, and showcase directly how he makes life better, or as bloodthirsty mooks that can actually challenge Superman without dimishing him.

The Black Mercy is an awesome science fiction concept. While it’s been overused in relation to Mongul, it’s also the embodiment of the unknown wonders and threats of DC Cosmic. In the right hands it’s a great tool for exploring characters’ psychology. 

Bendis and Fraction reestablished that the name “Mongul” is a legacy one. The current Mongul is from a long line of Monguls, the sons killing their fathers when their fathers show weakness. Given how Rebirth has established the importance of legacy to Superman with Jon, something continued by Bendis, this may be a very crucial aspect to play off of. The way “Mongul” as a mantle is assumed is a dark contrast to the way the “Superman” mantle is taken up by others after Clark. Exploring the Mongul father-son relationship in contrast to the Clark-Jon relationship may be in the cards for the PKJ run given Mongul will be the first classic Superman Rogue appearing in PKJ Action. If not I hope some other writer will take a chance to explore the way the two contrast and compare with one another because it could be very interesting.

What I Would Change About Mongul

I think there’s already a pretty damn solid base to build off of with Mongul, but some aspects that I would play up to better establish him as separate from both Clark and Darkseid:

Making him more of a hedonist. This is a guy who eat, drinks, and fucks, and enjoys himself while doing so. He loves being a bad guy and isn’t “weighed down by his sins” or any such nonsense

Showcase his knowledge more. Mongul is smart, he’s been all over the cosmos, he learned about Warworld and the Black Mercy, show that he knows other dangerous secrets as well. Weapons, planets, florua, fauna, Mongul knows stuff not even the Guardians do

Establish some underlings. Instead of having Mongul job, use some of his gladiators, elite ones raised above the riffraff who can pose a threat and hold off Superman while Mongul accomplishes his goals

Appearance wise I’d like to make him look more different from Darkseid. I’d want to draw on dinosaurs for his look. If you need to justify it, just have another son replace the current Mongul and become the new Mongul, or have Mongul modify himself with enhancements in order to beat Superman

Mongul is cool and brings a lot to the table, DC just needs to stop treating him as a jobber and more as a legitimate threat. I was happy with how Bendis used him, and I am hopeful that PKJ will continue to treat him well. He’s a villain who actually has stories that showcase why he rocks, and not just cool ideas that have never come together like other Superman Rogues. Hopefully he’ll get more opportunities to showcase that.

[asuccessfulbusinessman]

This is my Gundam Build Divers OC-

Alright, I’ve already jokingly made an OC- Leo Greatfang, who pilots a straight build Leo and knows the 48 Killer Moves- Finishing Move 01, Finishing Move 02... etc. They’re all wrestling moves, if you still haven’t caught the referen-

Anyway, Gundam Build Divers episode 23 had a really bad fight scene between two mooks and Riku, where Riku loses his full armor to a surprise attack, gets called selfish, curb stomps the mooks, and then cries- implicitly promising he won’t destroy GBN, and explicitly promising to save Sarah. And I thought... how could we make that better, without changing anything else about the show? I mean, it is an isolated mook fightscene, so this is one area we can change without affecting anything else. Also, my muse is telling me to write, and I want to write about mobile suits.

Well, the easy answer is, make the fight more animated- with less “stills,” less beams. But that would add to the cost of production, so let's presume they’re saving their budget, and assume any fight scene we do make can’t be that well animated. A better answer would be, have the Tequila Gundam we saw in, like, episode 4 show up and have the pilot go “can’t let you do that kid...” This allows Riku to curbstomp an enemy he had troubles fighting at the start of the show, showing his growth, and allows the Tequila Gundam pilot to show that he too cares about GBN- which makes sense considering how much he worked to rank up.

But, that’s still fairly shallow. The ideal fightscene would have an opponent who really truly cares about GBN, but who isn’t too hamfisted about it. So let me introduce my Gundam Build Divers OC-

Daryl Lorenz. Well, not the real Daryl Lorenz, but rather, someone with his face. We only ever see him from the chest up, and he doesn’t wear the Zeon uniform. Thanks to the Colasour easter egg, this doesn’t interfere with the narrative at all, especially for kids who probably have not watched Gundam Thunderbolt. Anyone who has watched Thunderbolt can connect Rommel’s line about “some people can only walk in GBN” if they think about it hard enough, but as this is already simply a reference, it becomes a “Eureka!” moment for discovering it, and not hamfisted characterization/moralization.

Anyway, let’s handle the fight scene. Daryl doesn’t speak all that much, no “you’re being selfish” to undermine his point. And we only see his face when he gives a battle cry near the end of the fight. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Daryl pilots a Zudah painted Orange and Yellow. You could call it the “living dead” Zudah, as the Zudah is likely an MS that would be used by the living dead squadron, but if I had to give it a name it would be the Pheonix Zudah. All the standard armaments of the Zudah, plus it appears to have two Vulcans coming from the chest. More on that later.

If there’s anything Star Wars Episode 7 taught me anything, it’s that mooks who defy being cannon fodder are cool. And so, Daryl gets Riku’s attention by shouting “You!” at him, before landing on the ground with a thud and throwing his ranged weapons aside. He pulls out a HEAT Hawk, and assumes a stance. One-on-one baby. Not only is this cool to me, a melee freak, it implicitly gives Riku a choice- to try and run past a mobile suit with no ranged options, or to fight him. Logically, if he wants to “win,” he would try to avoid getting bogged down. However, that would go against the whole reason to have a force battle- to let the Gunpla decide things. And so, Riku fights. And by that I mean, lands and draws a beam saber before we cut to a different scene.

Now, as an aside, I said this scene wouldn’t change anything else about the show, but if the creators planned all this out ahead of time- you’d see the brightly painted Pheonix Zudah in the background as part of the big Coalition Battle against the Break Decal users that happened earlier in the series. This would cement Daryl’s passion in the “You!” he shouts, as he had seen the wings of light firsthand. It also adds a layer of perceived betrayal. That is, if you sifted through the series with a fine-toothed comb.

Back to Riku’s scene- a still where Riku and Daryl are having a beam saber-HEAT hawk clash, and Riku is able to keep Daryl at bay. So, after Daryl jumps back, we see the Zudah freeze (gotta save that animation budget) in a “DBZ powerup stance,” and then the afterburners kick in- the Zudah engine roaring.

Now, Riku doesn’t know much about the more obscure mobile suits, that’s Yuuki’s domain; but he is smart/intuitive enough to recognize when someone is about to go all out. We hear his thoughts (because he’ll likely vocalize it), as contemplates whether to use TRANS-AM to counter, but decides against it, as using it too soon would make winning the force battle impossible. However, while he’s contemplating, we see the Zudah swing his arm back, flipping out the blade on top of the shield, and charging straight at Riku. Ideally, we’d see a still of the Zudah flying straight ahead, with the legs “obscured” by the body- more on that later, the shield blade lodging itself into the 00 Sky’s full armor, and then a cut to Riku’s cockpit.

Now, we know there is one technique the Zudah can use in GBN that would be too prohibitively expensive to use in Gunpla Duel. That is, the nature of the Zudah to self-destruct due to the engine. This choice of mobile suit, then, furthers Daryl’s characterization two-fold. He is grateful to GBN, because it’s the only place where the Zudah can realize its true potential, so he is willing to use his mobile suit to the fullest and sacrifice it to protect GBN. This is in stark contrast to Riku, who would refuse to use TRANS-AM if it “hurt” the mobile suit- and still wears a scar in memoriam of the 00-Diver.

Speaking of Riku, he’s a smart lad. Intuitively, he knows that trading 1-for-1 in this situation effectively makes it his loss. He‘s realized, or at the very least, can assume Daryl’s plan is to self-destruct and jettisons the full armor, allowing him to escape the blast zone as it goes off. Riku starts to apologize, but then we see Vulcan fire dispersing the smoke cloud. 

Meet the Raptor, the lower half of the Pheonix Zudah. It’s basically a cockpit with legs. And, of course, those two chest Vulcans we mentioned earlier. That’s right, we using Bawoo technology with this custom! Except, the Bawoo had the legs be the automated part, and gave the legs a hilariously stupid name. Anyway, the cockpit does a minor transformation, folding out forward to look less like a brick on legs and more like a wingless bird. If you want a reference to visualize this, look up MechAssault’s Corvus (not, ironically enough, MechAssault’s Raptor). Anyway, the cockpit now is glass, or at least see-through, and we (and Riku) see Daryl’s face as the smoke clears. 

Another scene switch. When we come back, we see 00-Sky shrugging off Vulcan fire like it’s nothing. You see, a big problem I have with the Coalition Volunteers is that they often aren’t characterized (recall that Rommel’s men are cut down without so much as a voiceline earlier in the episode) and when they are, they come off as cocky, so sure they’re going to win. As much as it pains me to say, Riku is a top pilot of GBN, and many of these Volunteers should be desperate in fighting to stop him. And so, we see Daryl’s desperate fighting spirit, using a walker whose only armaments are a desperation weapon that, in many Gundam series, can barely even scratch a Gundam. This is also where we hear, and see (because we’re zooming into a cockpit view to save animation budget), Daryl giving a battle cry. Because he doesn’t just have the Vulcans.

He has his legs. That’s right, after some fancy footwork used to avoid fire while charging, Daryl goes for a running kick- hell make it a running kick combo. If you haven’t guessed, I really like “walker”-esque mechs, and love it when mobile suits actually run instead of just flying 24/7. 

“But Businessman,” you may be asking, “how can your characterization be so grossly hamfisted? Isn’t this taking the whole ‘only walk in GBN’ thing a bit too far?”

You are like little baby, listen to this.

How, do you think, is Riku going to win this battle? Is it with a beam saber? With a rifle? Or with the sky leg guards, and a “shoot” kick that sends the Raptor flying? Obviously, the last one says something, but I am not entirely clear about what it says. I think this one might be something left up to individual interpretation. Anyway, now we can have Riku crying, now that he’s earned those tears after seeing someone go all out to stop him, even if he does not over analyze the fight as much as I have.

Now, while I may have called the original fight scene bad, it wasn’t really that bad- too many people seem to love to hate Build Divers- I just wanted to see if I could make it better.

Or, at the very least, premiere my own completely original character Baryl and his cool as heck ace custom that I wish I could make-