#then over time his attacks change to more robotic based ones like axis’s or something to show his change in priorities/profession

[stuffyflowers]

Wait ok monngos ask is also making me think in general abt kanako and chujins magic. I want to know what type of bullet patterns they have. Whether they have any cool abilities like cerobas hp depletion or starlos slow-motion. Whether they even HAD strong magical abilities at all. I must know.

[paulsebert]

Secret Empire #0 Thoughts (Spoilers)

Previously: The Red Skull used Korbik (a sentient cosmic cube that sometimes takes a child's form) to turn Captain America into a bad guy. Captain America is now a loyal agent of Hydra an evil organization that is sometimes Nazi affiliated and sometimes not depending on who is writing. Captain America planned a bunch of bad stuff behind everyone's back.  Captain America turned on his evil master.  Red Skull desperate to make Cap stop admitted that Captain America that his new history (that we saw in extensive flashbacks over many issues) was all lies he made up. Captain America doesn't care because he's EEEEVIL! He kills Red Skull and sets out to take over the world... his way! This took 15 fricking issues to get to.  Meanwhile we learned that Nick Spencer should really stay off twitter.

Notes: Despite the bad reaction Spencer's Cap run has gotten I'm actually a fan of most of Nick Spencer's work. Superior Foes of Spider-Man is of one the best comics of the last decade and the The Fix is hilarious. His run on the two Captain America runs are really mixed bags.  The first two arcs of “Captain America: Sam Wilson” are really good but Spencer struggled trying to deal with real life politics in the later issues. As for the eeeeeevil Captain America book well... it's better than painful fever dream of Rick Remender's Captain America book. I'm going to try to be fair and optimistic going into this one.

Our story opens with a World War II flashback in of Hydra Cap in the mountains of Japan meeting with Kraken an obscure villain from Jonathan Hickman's Secret Warriors. Hydra's secret base looks like the Legends of the Hidden Temple set. Kraken tells Captain America that the Allie will use the Cosmic Cube (not Korbik but another one) to change reality so that Hydra doesn't take over the world. He says they're going to change his memories and no matter what he must not forget he's a Hydra Agent. Of course we know all of these new World War II memories are bullshit so... they're either illusions or maybe Kraken was manipulating Steve the whole time or... uuuugh. I am three pages in and I have a headache!

We now have a flow chart of characters. I know Secret War did the same thing but... hoo-boy. That's a bad sign.

We cut to modern day.  Cap is at S.H.I.E.L.D command with Sharon Carter.  We learn that a Chitari (those aliens from the first Avengers movie) invasion is headed towards Earth.  But the Planetary Defense shield is down.  Wasn't there a whole other organization called S.W.O.R.D that handled this? Where is Abigail Brand?

We see the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Ultimates fighting aliens in space.  I am wondering why most of the focus isn't on this and is instead on S.H.I.E.L.D HQ?  Daniel Acuña draws pretty fight scenes. Let him do that!

Meanwhile a boatload of supervillians lead by Gravitron are attacking New York and the Defenders are fighting them.  Unfortunately more of the focus is on S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. So we’re mostly watching EVIL Cap and Sharon watching all the action.

Meanwhile Hydra has invaded the country of Sokovia the country that Ultron completely destroyed back in Kurt Busiek's run.  I know it’s played a role in Specer’s run but shouldn't it just be all empty space and dead Ultron drones now?

The narrator is REALLY going out of his way to tell us what a brilliant strategist Hydra Cap is and how all of these couldn't have happened by coincidence.  It's sort of like how every three pages in Avengers Arena someone says “gee Arcade is really a clever villain now. He sure thought of everything.”

Back in space Quasar is eaten by a space whale.  I should be upset at the apparent death of a new superhero but like... this HAS to be a set-up for her to punch her way out of the belly of a space whale an issue or two later. Right? I mean why would you waste an opportunity for an awesome action scene?

I just realized that Hydra Cap planning his scheme while the heavy hitters are in space is a LOT like the plot of Infinity.  Also the whole novelty of an EVIL Captain America story would have been a lot more at home in Axis.  Remember how Tony Stark was eeeeeevil for a year and no one cared?

Now Nitro shows up while the Defenders are fighting and Jessica Jones throws him high into the air while he triggers an explosion that looks like a homage to the opening of Civil War.  This comic is turning into a greatest hits album of other comic crossovers.

The Secretary of Defense gives Captain America full control over the U.S. Military and Law Enforcement thanks to a new act of congress so everything bad from here on out is caused by an ill conceived piece of legislation... just like Civil War!

The defense shield is turned on locking aliens out and the Defenders get backup from the Uncanny Avengers. Things are looking up for the heroes.

Suddenly a heli-carrier crashes into S.H.I.E.L.D HQ and a bunch Hydra mooks show up. Only the S.H.I.E.L.D guards aren't fighting back because Dr Faustus is brainwashing everyone.  I should have mentioned before this whole mess started that the Red Skull had psychic mindscrew powers and dude whose sole power was brainwashing people working for him.  If you really wanted to do a Captain America is EVIL story the whole cosmic cube and prolonged elaborate false history flashbacks are kind of superfluous.

Captain America orders the Hydra Guards and the mind controlled S.H.I.E.L.D guys to take Sharon Carter prisoner.  Sharon is not under Faustus' control despite the fact that if I had a drink for the number of stories where Sharon Carter was mind controlled I'd be drunk.  Sharon thinks Cap is being controlled by Faustus but...

 A Hydra guy is just standing there and has this slackjawed look like “I can't believe this shit.”  I'm going to pretend he's Bob from Deadpool. Bob's presence is the most entertaining thing about this book so far.

I could be reading “The Button” right now.  That comic has Batman fighting Professor Zoom AND Flash fighting Samurai Robots... Samurai Robots!  And it doesn't have walls and walls of exposition text...

Iron Men Riri Williams and Force Ghost Tony Stark (it's a long story) discover someone has sabotaged the planetary defense shield and Hydra guys attack them. Just as it looks like we're going to get a good fight it cuts away.

On Space Skype Captain America reveals to Captain Marvel that wave after wave of Chitari are coming and he's keeping them walled off outside with fierce alien warriors to their doom.  Cue Cliffhanger #1.

Tony Stark and Riri Williams just beat up all the Hydra Guys OFF CAMERA!  We've got like a bazillion action scenes going on and NONE of them are given any time to breath under these unending walls of exposition text.

Hey it's HELMUT ZEMO!  Which Zemo is it... the morally complex anti-villian/anti-hero from Thunderbolts? Is it the Cobra Commander-esc idiot from Avengers Undercover? A combination of the two? I don't know because he has all of three panels in this issue.

Zemo and a guy named Blackout (not the Ghost Rider Villian) have stolen the book of Darkhold.  Does anyone remember Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins?  It was like this early 90s quasi-horror comic about this cursed book whose pages granted evil monkey paw wishes and the people who made those wishes usually turned into monsters. Plus there was an evil dwarf.  Like that you should be revamping that into something so if you wanted Peter Dinklage to be a villain in a Marvel movie.  Oh and there were people called The Darkhold Redeemers who were trying to stop the Dwarf and one of them was a lesbian and this was like long before LGTB representation was anywhere near common in comics.  Dude I want a Darkhold Redeemers comic.

So Zemo and an obscure Avengers villian named Blackout (who looks like the poor man's Electro) use the Darkhold to banish New York City isolating it under a Dark Force dimension dome.  It's like when the Hand sealed off Hell's Kitchen in Shadowland but bigger.  ANOTHER crossover callback.  Cliffhanger #2.

Tony deducts that the next target of attack is going to be Washington DC he calls for The Avengers (several teams worth), The Champions, and Spider-Man (who I guess wasn't in New York.)  We get some big epic hero arrival poses that would look great if they weren't crammed into TINY... TINY panels.

Back in Washington an army of Hydra Helicarriers loom ominously over the White House. Hey do you remember the C-Plot from Fear Itself.  When Skadi's Army attacked Washington but no-one cared because the rest of the book was about fighting monsters with Evil Thor Hammers? ANOTHER CALLBACK!

This the B-side of a Marvel Comics Crossovers Greatest Hits Album. Side A is about 70% tracks from Secret War, the Worthy stuff from Fear Itself and a trio of tracks from Civil War, Secret Invasion, and House of M. that were popular at the time but doesn't hold up.

The nicest thing I can say about this comic is that Daniel Acuña's art is really good and if anything this is one of the best looking bad comics I've ever read.

Despite the involvement of Hydra and the 40s flashback EVIL Cap doesn't really come across as a Nazi at all and just a generic “take over the world” badguy.  On one hand that kind of seems to be Marvel backing away from the obvious “Cap is a Nazi” angle that was making people uncomfortable and angry and yet on the other hand it's also backing away from the “America is more messed up than we thought” allegory that could actually make a point this time.  Spencer isn't the guy to be doing that kind of project though.  Not sure who I could see doing that and making such a gut punch work. Grant Morrison or Kyle Baker maybe?

If this is any indication it's going to be a loooooong six months.  Maybe I should be polishing off my “Rikki Barnes: The Winter Soldier” pitch.

[rnrmarineservices-blog]

Boat test: SEAir foiling RIB

Could SEAir's foiling RIB change boating forever? We head to their HQ in France to test it out. Read all about it and watch the video here

Within the boating fraternity, foiling is the word on everyone's lips at the moment. Be it the spectacular AC45s raced in the last America's Cup or recent confirmation that Princess will be pioneering the use of a new high tech Active Foiling System on its forthcoming R Class superboat. Yet even in the realm of powerboats, hydrofoils are nothing new. Italian inventor Enrico Forlanini began work on them in 1896 and when Alexander Graham Bell and his chief engineer Casey Baldwin first tested Forlanini's hydrofoil over Lake Maggiore, Baldwin is said to have described it as being “as smooth as flying.”

What is it about the SEAir RIB, then, that moves the game on and demands closer attention? The company's mission is to bring foiling to the masses and dispel the notion that it is a dangerous way to travel, only to be attempted by professionals and race-hardened sailors.

Carbon-fibre foils

  SEAir is based in the hotbed of sailing innovation that is Lorient, Brittany, and was founded 18 months ago by Richard Forest, Bertrand Castelnérac and Benoit Lequin. As CEO, Forest is an engineering enthusiast responsible for bringing in investment whereas Castelnérac and Lequin are sailors through and through. Lequin, who is in charge of engineering, holds the record for crossing the South and North Atlantic in an open catamaran and it was Castelnérac who, while watching the support RIB struggling to keep up with the foiling racing yacht, had the light bulb moment.

We meet the trio inside their ramshackle workshop near Lorient's port, the office walls plastered with technical drawings, graphs and equations all dedicated to the art of hydrofoils. Inside the shed are the hulls of three Zodiac RIBS, two 7m versions and a 5.5m identical to the one we are here to test. SEAir is not a boatbuilder; it is a producer of foils and the associated technology. The company decided to start with a RIB and approached Zodiac, who agreed tentatively to take part in the project. Zodiac has since described the SEAir as the greatest innovation it has seen in 20 years of RIB building. The foils are 100% carbon fibre and take two weeks to make by hand. There are over 100 layers of carbon- fibre weave in their construction and they are infused with resin before being oven-cured. SEAir also has the use of a five-axis robot that can make two foils in three days using prepreg carbon-fibre strands. Prepreg, as the name implies, is carbon-fibre matting that has been pre-impregnated with a resin, often epoxy, so that it is ready to lay straight into the mould. This process is faster but more expensive. One of SEAir's major obstacles is producing the foils to an incredibly high standard yet ensuring they remain affordable enough to appeal to the mass market. A tough brief. The foils, which weigh only 17kg each and are incredibly strong, are then slotted through the hull into a reinforced composite box and held in place using a pair of Dyneema cords and the sheer force of water pressure. Such is their inherent rigidity, two fully grown adults could stand on a deployed foil and it wouldn't budge an inch. Given the extreme forces coursing through these ornate structures as the RIB glides out of the water, it's a comforting thought. The engine is a standard 115hp Yamaha outboard, though it is the long shaft version, and it's fitted with a pair of extended fins to increase the amount of lift produced at the stern. There is a smaller plate fitted about halfway up the outboard shaft to deflect spray from the propeller, as it rotates at a shallower depth than usual. The yard believes the standard 115hp outboard that comes with a Zodiac 5.5m is overpowered for the more efficient foiling version so the 100hp or even 90hp alternative would be a better match. “It is key,” says Forest, “that the foils integrate seamlessly with how the boat operates and do not detract from the original product or alter the way the boat has to be used in any way.”

The million-dollar question

We've heard the back story and seen how the hydrofoils are made but most importantly, do they work? Lorient's harbour is renowned for its protection from the moody Atlantic, but days of squalls ensure that there is some fierce residual swell to have a play in outside the protection of the port.

The SEAir RIB is rafted alongside a standard 5.5m Zodiac with the same engine, which will act as a chase boat and handy back-to-back comparison with its foiling cousin. To look at it, you would have no idea that the SEAir is any different to the standard RIB, especially as the murky water means you can't see the foils. The only clue is a trio of rocker switches on the dashboard that raise and lower the foils and control their angle of rake. I stand in front of the helm, clip on the kill cord and take hold of the wheel and standard Yamaha throttle – so far, so normal. Even though the foils can be lowered and retracted in 20 seconds,  I leave the berth with them deployed to see if the sensation is any different to normal. It isn't. There's no sensation of the appendages jutting down below the waterline and the boat behaves at slow speed just as it would normally. On this prototype version, the rake of the foils has to be set before you increase the speed as the actuators aren't beefy enough to do it on the move. We begin with the rake set to zero, which optimises the angle of attack for a cruising speed of 20-25 knots in calm conditions. The pitch of the outboard is important in this process and the trim is set at 60% (100% is the outboard tilted fully up) to get us started. The foils begin to work at around 15 knots but aside from the bow rising noticeably (but not alarmingly) higher than normal, it doesn't feel all that different to easing on to the plane on a regular hull. By 20 knots, the foils are in full effect and we are gliding over the surface of the water with the forward sections of the hull gently brushing the surface in rhythm with the light swell running through the harbour. The sensation is strangely anticlimactic, which can be viewed as a positive in this context. I expected the boat to feel more precarious, as if it could topple off its carbon-fibre stilts at any moment and crash back down to sea level without warning. This is not the case and in these calm conditions at least, the whole process feels entirely natural. We top out at 32 knots without adjusting the  rake, though the team tell me that they have achieved 42 knots in their own tests with the thrill-seeking Lequin at the helm.

  Getting to grips with foils

There are some handling characteristics to be aware of, however. Though the boat reacts to outboard trim in the same manner as a regular hull (trim up to raise the bow, down to lower it), the foils are much more sensitive to the adjustments. Tiny changes to the trim of the outboard engine will make a significant difference to the running attitude and it takes time to get the balance correct. There isn't a right or wrong way of doing it; it's about setting the rake of the foil for the conditions and playing with the trim to find the most comfortable running attitude for the conditions. The steering is much more sensitive at speed than it would be on the normal Zodiac and even small adjustments to the wheel prompt fly-like reactions. There is so much lateral grip generated by the foils that you need to brace yourself for the speed of the turn. This is all well and good in a short chop, where the foils allow the boat to fly over the waves in remarkable comfort, but how does it cope in the rough stuff? We head outside the harbour into the rolling swell and find that a boat of this size can't avoid following the peaks and troughs altogether, but the foils act like a pair of shock absorbers, dramatically reducing the vertical acceleration and softening the landings (as you can see in our video below). As we run alongside the regular RIB, it's clear that its crew are having a much harder time than us and can't keep up with our pace.

As well as the significantly better ride comfort, particularly in a short head sea, SEAir also claims an average 30% increase in fuel efficiency and as much as 50% in some conditions. We weren't able to ratify these figures ourselves in the time available but French magazine Moteur Boat did manage to take measurements on both the standard RIB and the foiling version fitted with an identical 115hp engine, and have kindly agreed to let us share their findings in the table on the previous page. They also took two sets of readings at a steady speed of 20 knots and 25 knots. In both cases, the engine on the foiling RIB was revving 250-300rpm slower to achieve the same speeds, reducing fuel consumption by 28% and 24% respectively. The ultimate dream for the boundlessly enthusiastic SEAir team is for mainstream boatbuilders to start offering a 'foiling pack' on the options list that customers can tick, just as they would an engine upgrade or teak decking. Adapting this foiling system from a small RIB to a large cruising boat is fraught with difficulties but we've learnt enough from our sea trial of this remarkably effective prototype to believe that this could be the start of something truly transformative.  Contact: SEAir 

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This article Boat test: SEAir foiling RIB appeared first on Motor Boat & Yachting.