Fantasy Fridays: Atlantis The Second Age

 Today's game is not something I am proposing as a D&D replacement, which is interesting given the game and the history of the games that led up to it. I was thinking about it after going through the Barbarians of Lemuria RPG a bit ago. These two games, though, are a good addition to your current Fantasy games. And maybe, for the right table, it is the game they need.

Atlantis: The Second Age

Morrigan Press Edition, 2005, 411 pages
Khepera Publishing Edition, 2014, 368 pages

Atlantis: The Second Age, both versions, is the spiritual successor of the classic Atlantean Trilogy and Talislanta by Bard Games, which, of course, were developed after the Complete Adventurer, Spellcaster, and Alchemist books.  Those books were written to be used with "any fantasy role-playing game," but the obvious choice was AD&D 1st Edition. 

The book is titled “Atlantis, the Second Age,” so it is Atlantis, after the Flood. A bit odd, but I’ll go with it. Plenty of information on the world, and despite the name, you could run it as a pre-flood/pre-sinking Atlantean empire. Tons of new races, spells, and magic, all pulled from the old Bard Games books and a variant of Talislanta’s rules. If you've played Talislanta before, you'll feel right at home especially since this is a spiritual descendant. 

The game uses the Omni System for the 2005 edition and the Omega System for the 2014 edition. I'll get to the Omni System after a bit, but both are very similar to each other. The systems are similar to True20, and can be used in conjunction with True20 with some adjustments. Well. Some radical adjustments, but it can be done. For a bit in 2005 I tried a short Atlantis based game using True20, it worked out well. 

The 2005 edition was originally published by Morrigan Press and is the one I was most familiar with. Though here on out I'll focus mostly on the 2005 Morrigan Press version, with bits from the Khepera Edition as they come up. Khepera Publishing, which is Jerry D. Grayson, published the revised and updated edition in 2014. Both editions are now published by Khepera Publishing. 

Atlantis

Let’s start with the world, because that’s the real star here. This is mythic prehistory, a time before the oceans swallowed everything, when man fought serpent-men and sorcerers whispered to gods that had no names.  These are set in the Atlantean Age world, which is similar to the Hyborian Age, but maybe a bit before it. It has a solid Conan-esque feel to it. Except there are a lot of non-human species here. 

Think Conan, but written by Clark Ashton Smith and Michael Moorcock and published in Heavy Metal.

What I like about this game is the Greco-Egyptian feel to this world. Obviously, this is due to the stories and tales of Atlantis. It also feels like a world out of mythology. If you never play this game, the background is something I keep coming back to time and again. I recall reading the Morrigan Press edition while holding my oldest son when he was a baby.  The Khepera edition is an improvement over the Morrigan Press edition, but both are great. There are enough differences between the games to warrant discussing them as different games, but enough similarities that I am keeping them together. The setting remains the same, and the basics of the rules are sufficiently similar.

Background

The game begins with a background familiar to many who have played D&D or read any of the Appendix N books. It is a Mythic Age before recorded history in a world that looks like ours. As I mentioned above it has a solid Conan/Pulp feel to it. Ophidians are the bad guys at the start of this and can be an ongoing threat. I also can't help but get a little Edgar Rice Burroughs / Mars feel from this. Lots of different species/races all living on the same planet. It feels like a Conan game, only with more Greco-Egyptian elements.

The 2005 Morrigan Press version has more background on the geography of the world, a little more than half the book to be honest. For this reason, it makes it a good buy if you want to play in this Atlantean world. The 2014 Khepera version has more historical background and a good timeline of events. 

The games are set up in similar fashions. Choose your background, race/species, and then select either a profession with some skills (Morrigan) or a set of skills with a profession (Khepera). Both get you the same places in the end. If you are familiar with the old Arcanum books, then you know what sorts of "classes" and species you have choices of.  While there are professions/classes of sorts, it is skills that really define what your character can do. 

The species, in particular the Andaman, are particularly fun. The Ahl-At-Rab make for a very playable Lizard Man species and this might even be the origins of my Saurian-Ophidian war in my current games. Feels right even if I can't fully recall it.  An aside: This is one of the main reasons I enjoy revisiting these older games; it's the memories they stir up in me. 

Of note. The 2005 Morrigan Press edition does have Elves and Dwarves. The 2014 Khepera Publishing one drops them in favor of focusing more on the unique species of the lines and adding the "First Born" the Djinn. All of these can be ported over to your favorite D&D-like with little effort. 

The Khepera Publishing version has their "Walk Life Paths," which help define who your character is since you are already starting out as a hero among normal humans. It is quite interesting to be honest, and easily adaptable to pretty much any game. 

Magic

While there are magical professions, there are also magical traditions. Witchcraft is one, as are shamans and practitioners of the Dark Arts. Both games have you build your spells based on the different Modes of spellcraft, and some traditions are better and worse at some modes than others. It this sounds a little like Mage and their spheres then you have the right idea, though it is not as complicated as that. 

It can be a dynamic system, and there are some example spells to get you going.

Omni & Omega Systems

The system for each is similar. Close enough that broad strokes will suffice. Both are d20-based systems. Roll a d20 add modifiers from abilities and skills, look for a target number. I mentioned they are both very similar to True20 in this respect since all you need really is a single d20. 

The Omega system has characters that are slightly more powerful than a standard normal person. So more powerful than say a 1st level AD&D character, but maybe not as powerful as a 1st level D&D 5e character. The Omega system also features a lifepath system that helps to flesh out a character's background, providing them with a history and motivations from the outset. This also informs how your character moves forward, or maybe a better phrasing is how they could possibly move forward since the options are still up to the player.

Both systems, though, are easy to pick up. Morrigan Press still sells the Omni System as a separate generic system. 

Larina Nix for Atlantis: The Second Age

A dedicated witch tradition and a funky magic system? You know I am going to try that out. Though stating up Larina for an Atlantean game is really not a stretch. Back in college, in the last days of AD&D 1st ed, I ran an off-and-on "Atlantean" campaign. I would later supplement the lore with bits from the Talislanta RPG that was released later (90s). It was largely divorced from my high school game, except at two points. First, my necromancer "Big Bad" Magnus was there before he turned completely evil.  It was in a sense his big origin story. Additionally, the "very first" incarnation of Larina was also there. While her first version was my AD&D 1st ed version, I was coming up with the idea that she was reincarnated many times, and her first incarnation was a priestess or witch who died when Atlantis sank below the waves. I do not recall if I ever had Magnus and Larina meet in Atlantis. Nor even if I ever had planned them to meet. Magnus was always more an enemy of the Werpers and the occasional ally of my assassin. Magnus and Larina knew of each other in AD&D and beyond, but she avoided him. 

So yeah, I really just took a lot of late 70s Atlantic Lore about psychic powers, energy crystals, an episode of In Search Of, a cheesy documentary I had watched in the early 80s, and the Doctor Who episode The Time Monster. A heady brew to be sure.  The point is, if there was questionable scholarship about any sort of occult topic, I was going to try and add it to my games and somehow, somewhere, one of my witches was going to be there. 

Working through the character creation was a lot of fun and really shows where the  2014 Khepera edition grew. It also highlighted the similarities and the differences of the two systems. To be fair the differences are subtle and you could play either system and switch to the other with only a few problems. The differences are akin to Basic D&D and Advanced D&D 1st ed. My opinion that both games would work well together still stands. Each has something to offer the other. 

I don't remember everything about Atlantean Larina. I knew she was not an Atlantean native. I was using my own experience of going away to college to say she had also left her home to study magic at Atlantis. So I kept that bit and said she comes from Alba (England/Scotland). As I was generating her stats I opted to have her at age 25 for the 2014 Khepera edition and 35 for the 2005 Morrigan Press edition. I used 35 because that is how old I was when I originally created her stats for the Morrigan Press edition. I do remember she was in Atlantis when it finally sank beneath the sea, and she died with everyone else. Hey, death is a part of the life-death-rebirth cycle, and no one knows that better in my worlds than witches. 

I am taking scans of her sheets to show what they look like. I particularly like the 2014 Khepera version. It is colorful and there are page numbers on the sheet to help find where the rules for that section are. That is a rather nice touch. Click to see larger.

Khepera Publishing (2014), Larina age 25

Morrigan Press (2005), Larina age 35

I am rather happy with these. I have filled out everything, but you certainly can get the idea. She would be a good witch in this game. I am going to say in the 10 years she has been in Atlantis, she has picked up more skills and the Astrology and High Sorcery traditions of magic work. This is a subtle nod to the crazy 70s and 80s "documentaries" I watch on Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle, and related topics. 

Given the image I created (thank you, Hero Forge!) I think that the Orichalcum pentagram she is carrying must be important. Maybe a quest for a different incarnation of Larina.

Who Should Play This Game?

There is not much here that can't be found in other games, really. Nearly every Conan game does something similar, and Wasted Lands does the best job of all. BUT that is not a reason for you not to play. Some fun things are going on in this game. The 210+ pages of geography in the Morrigan Press edition are engaging, and the history and backstory in the Khepera Publishing edition are also great. Together, they create a compelling world. 

The system is easy to learn and flexible enough for most gamers. 

Essentially, I have been using them both, along with my Bard Games Atlantis books and The Arcanum as another campaign world for D&D. This was my campaign world in the last years of the 1980s when I first went off to college. Both Larina and Magnus were prominent NPCs in that campaign. 

No one will leave D&D 5e for this system. But I can see people coming from 3e or even 1st ed to give it a try. 

Khepera Publishing has quite a few products for their version and the Morrigan Press one. I am still a fan of the Atlantis: Bestiary, even if it is full of creatures I have seen many times over. 

Both games are excellent Sword & Sorcery games of the old cloth. They were criminally underrated when they were new, and that is more true now. 

The Morrigan Press edition is largely a Fantasy Heartbreaker, albeit one with a good history and an interesting idea. The Khepera Publishing one elevates into something else above a heartbreaker.

It has been a decade since the last edition of this game came out, and from what I can tell, it is still supported. 

This one would be fun to see an update for, especially if Jerry D. Grayson continues the evolution of the game. In fact, I think we are overdue for an update.

Links

Khepera Publishing

• Main website
• Atlantis section
• DriveThruRPG
• Facebook
• Twitter/X

Occult D&D: The Coven of the Shattered Crowns

 Work continues on my ideas for occult D&D. There are a lot of ways I could crack this nut, but in true occult fashion, I just took everything I was working on and followed where it led me. It led me to a very interesting new coven. 

While trying to figure out a Grand Coven that would have Rhiannon and Briana Highstar as members, as well as Moria, Amaranth, and maybe others. All have different patrons, come from different traditions, and none share any alignments. 

They all did have one thing in common, though.  Each of their patrons had been cast down by the gods. So demons, devils, old gods, and other things, all gone from their seats of power, and "new gods" sat on them. They combed through every old text they could find, borrow, or steal. All leading them to the same conclusion.  

The Gods need to be cast down.

The Coven of the Shattered Crowns

Yesterday I talked about Rhiannon and Briana's "great works," this is it. They found the texts and gathered other witches to their cause. Right now, I am at the stage of the start of this cult, but I have some good ideas.

We were not born in shadow, nor forged in ancient fires. We were not whispered into being by crones in the wood or scribed into dusty tomes. We are new, terrifyingly new. And yet, every stone we unearth bears our mark, every sealed vault cracks open at our touch, and every false god flinches when we speak the names They tried to erase.

The divine order is a lattice of lies. The gods did not shape the world, they conquered it. They did not bring wisdom, they buried it. And those They cast down, the dragon mothers, the star-wives, the daughters of dust and light, those are our Patrons. Their crowns were broken, their thrones scattered, their names struck from prayer. We will restore them, not in temples, but in ourselves.

This is the Grand Work. Not resurrection, but replacement. Not worship, but ascent. Let them tremble on their gilded thrones, for we walk paths They cannot follow. And we walk together.

No God rules where witches walk.

- The Manifesto of the Shattered Crown,
Penned by Briana Highstar, Archwitch

That is what I have so far. 

Here are some of the occult ideas going into this. It's not everything yet, but it is what I have written so far. A lot of this should look really familiar to regular readers.

The Witch-Cult Hypothesis (Margaret Murray, Aradia Mythos)

• Key Theme: Pre-Christian pagan religion suppressed by patriarchal churches. 
• Parallels: Witches worship ancient goddesses and spirits that were demonized.
• Application: The Coven of the Shattered Crowns doesn’t want to restore the old religion; they want to become the new pantheon, using what was lost to rewrite the future.

The Witch-Cult hypothesis is a perennial favorite of mine. While Margaret Murray's anthropology is in question, her ideas are highly relevant to my writing here. This new Coven takes the Witch Cult and Aradia myths to the next level. 

I'll likely add in bits of James George Frazer here as well.

The Gnostic Traditions

• Key Theme: The Demiurge (false god) created the flawed material world, while the true divine lies beyond, or within.
• Parallels: 
• The ruling gods are deceivers.
• The soul contains divine sparks trapped in flesh.
• Salvation comes through secret knowledge (gnosis), not worship.
• Application to the Coven of the Shattered Crowns: Each witch could view her ascension as liberating the divine within, unmasking the false gods of law, light, and judgment.

I have been dying to use more Gnostic ideas in my books, but never found the right hook.

Luciferianism (Occult/Philosophical, not Satanic)

• Key Theme: Lucifer as a symbol of rebellion, enlightenment, and personal divinity.
• Parallels:
• The rebel angel is not evil, but a bringer of light, cast down by an authoritarian god.
• Emphasis on self-initiation, wisdom, and apotheosis.
• Application: Many of the witches' Patrons are seen in this light. Their “fall” is a misinterpreted liberation, and the Coven of the Shattered Crowns seeks to reclaim their truth.

This one is obvious, at least to me. I am focusing on the occult and philosophical aspects, rather than the satanic aspects. I did that already. I like the idea of using Luciferianism here too. More than a couple of my witches here are "diabolic." The fit is good.

The Hermetic Tradition (Hermeticism, Alchemy)

• Key Theme: Ascent of the soul through the Great Work—uniting opposites, becoming one with the divine.
• Parallels:
• “As above, so below.” The microcosm (witch) reflects the macrocosm (god).
• The world has fallen, but can be transmuted.
• Godhood is attainable through discipline, knowledge, and inner purification.
• Application: The Coven of the Shattered Crowns' path to godhood could be Hermetic in structure—alchemical steps, planetary correspondences, sacred geometry.

If I am going to explore occult themes, then I will incorporate the Hermetic Tradition. More than once in fact. Hermetic Wizards, brotherhoods of occult scholars, and ideas like this. 

The witches of this Coven of the Shattered Crowns are very much like members of the Hermetic Orders.

The Qliphoth (Kabbalistic, Inverted Tree of Life)

• Key Theme: The Qliphoth are shells or husks—cast-off divine powers that became demonic or chaotic.
• Parallels:
• These are exiled forces outside the Tree of Life.
• Some occult traditions seek to traverse the Qliphoth in reverse to regain hidden wisdom or godlike power.
• Application: The witches’ Patrons could be seen as Qliphothic beings, those cast out by divine order, but still holding fragments of creative force. Traversing the “Tree of the Cast Down” could be part of their Grand Work.

I have talked about the Qliphoth before. I think they are a great idea, and I have wanted to use them more. I am not using them here, really, but the idea is similar. Plus, if you were an occultist reading about this, you would apply it to your own situation. 

Chaos Magick

• Key Theme: Belief is a tool. Identity and metaphysics are mutable. Personal reality can be rewritten.
• Parallels:
• The gods are constructs. Power lies in will, not worship.
• Ritual is a lens for self-transformation.
• Application: The Grand Coven may not want to return to any tradition—they want to overwrite cosmic order using the same chaos the gods feared. Each witch becomes her own “god-form.”

I LOVE Chaos Magick. Back in the 90s I really got into Chaos Theory and related topics. The result is why my Tiâmat is Chaotic Evil. Some of that has been added here. 

A bit scattered, but that's typical of many occult writings. I am really thrilled with where this is going. 

Witchcraft Wednesday: The (Second) Return of Rhiannon and Briana Highstar

 I was doing some cleaning in my office yesterday. Partially cleaning, partially avoiding work, but also gathering up everything I had been working on for the last few years (spoiler, it has been 5 years of solid work and 12 total of "picking at it") for this new project I playing around with. I have been thinking I need some good examples of an Archwitch and a Witch Priestess. When in a stack of characters, I found my versions of Grenda's, witches Briana Highstar and Rhiannon. 

They are both featured in my new The Left Hand Path - The Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft Traditions, as "Basic-era" Witches of the Diabolic and Malefic traditions, respectively. Both are listed as 8th-level Witches. But I was thinking, what if I "advanced" them? And by that, I mean move them over to Advanced D&D and have them take my new Advanced classes. I mentioned a while back that they did not know each other, but in my AD&D game, I am thinking they met up and decided to form a coven. 

While covens are typically made up of the same traditions, they don't have to be. I have even talked about a "Grand Coven" that includes witches, warlocks, and other members. This marks the beginning of their Grand Coven, dedicated to evil. Since I have already decided that they are in my Forgotten Realms game there is no reason why they can't meet up with my other witches Moria and Amaranth. Though neither of them are exactly evil, they are different kinds of "hellspawn."

This will give me more chances to pleytest these new classes. I think one change I am making, if these Advanced Classes are taken after 7th level, the witch still gets their 6th level Occult Power.  It didn't dawn on my until last night while working up their new sheets that an Advanced class is a good way to bring a "Basic" character over to AD&D. For example, with this idea I could make a Paladin or Ranger an Advanced class, starting off as a fighter first. I'll have to play around with this idea. 

In the meantime, here are Briana Highstar and Rhiannon again, with their new classes in place.

Briana Highstar
Human Female

Archwitch 8th level
Diabolic Tradition
Patron: Mephistopheles
Alignment: Lawful Evil

STR: 12 
INT: 17 
WIS: 15
DEX: 16
CON: 13
CHA: 17

Paralyze/Poison: 11
Petrification/Polymorph: 11
Rod, Staff, or Wands: 12
Breath Weapon: 14
Spells: 13

AC: 5 (Leather +2)
HP: 24
To Hit AC 0: 18

Weapon: Whip
Armor: Leather +2

Occult Powers
Familiar: Cat 
Minor: Evil's Touch

Spells
First Level: Burning Hands, Charm Person, Far Sight, Sonic Blast, Spirit Dart
Second Level: Burning Gaze, ESP, Grasp of the Endless War, Invisibility, Suggestion
Third Level: Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic, Scry
Fourth Level: Arcane Eye, Divination, Phantom Lacerations

Hair: Black
Eyes: Grey
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 136 lbs

Languages: Common, LE, Elvish, Goblin, Diabolic, Abyssal, Giant, Orc

Rhiannon
Human Female

Witch Priestess 8th Level
Malefic Tradition (Previously Craft of the Wise)
Patron: Ereshkigal
Alignment: Neutral Evil

STR: 11
INT: 17 
WIS: 17
DEX: 16
CON: 15
CHA: 16

Paralyze/Poison: 11
Petrification/Polymorph: 11
Rod, Staff, or Wands: 12
Breath Weapon: 14
Spells: 13

AC: 5
HP: 32
To Hit AC 0: 18

Weapon: Dagger of Venom
Armor: Leather

Occult Powers
Familiar: Mourning Dove
Minor: Impure Touch

Spells
First Level: Blight Growth, Charm Person, Chill of Death, Sleep, Touch of Suggestion
Second Level: Agony, Beastform, Disfiguring Touch, Evil Eye, Protective Penumbra
Third Level: Bestow Curse, Bleed for Your Master, Scry
Fourth Level: Fangs of the Strix, Spirtual Dagger 

Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 114 lbs

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OGL Section 15: COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Character Clip Art & Color Customizing Studio Copyright 2002, Elmore Productions, Inc.; Authors Larry Elmore and Ken Whitman, Art and illustrations by Larry Elmore.

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So obviously Rhiannon forms this coven and become the high priestess of it. Briana provides the "great work" they all must do. What is that? No idea yet. 

I would love to include Amaranth in this, but I tend to refer to her as a "cotton candy Tiefling" that is she is light, fluffy and sweet. At least that is how I have presented her in The Witch - Book of Shadows for ShadowDark. Still, the prospect of her joining this coven is a fun one. Maybe something happens to make her choose to embrace her evil side? I wonder what it will be?

I also need to figure out what sort of Grand Coven would have both Ereshkigal and Mephistopheles (and maybe even Lilith) as patrons? The intersection of these two (three), witchcraft mythology-wise is Astaroth (by way of Sumeria to Astarte), which I do like as an option. And their coven needs a name. I have wanted to use Astaroth more. Maybe I can bring in Babylon into this too!

Projects Day (er...week)

 Been kinda busy today already.

Reloaded Python and a new IDE for it to refresh my skills. Plus I am entering into what I call "Secondary Research" mode for a new project. In this case I am rereading some fundamentals to make sure what I want it to do (Primary Research) does what the rules say it can do. 

So, yeah...nothing new to post on that yet. I also have a bunch of half-finished projects I'd like to finish.

If you are interested in my "day job" at all, I am starting a series of posts on LinkedIn about the Ethics of AI in the Educational space over on LinkedIn. Up first, the Ethical Failures of Grok.

Hope to have something to show off soon!

Countdown to Superman: Superman (2025)

The newest Superman is now out, and I have seen it. What did I think? I loved it! It was a fantastic. I am not going to spoil anything here but I will go over the broad strokes. 

The DECU is dead, long live the DCU. 

David Corenswet is a great Clark Kent and Superman. He is bright, optimistic, and hopeful.  He carries the movie on all of this. There is a lot of "All-Star Superman" here, at least in tone and optimism, not so much in plot. 

Rachel Brosnahan is a great Lois Lane. She is smart, observant, and tough. This is a Lois who will get into trouble.

The standout has to be Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. He is evil, and brilliant, and you want to hate him but he is just so good really.

I loved the "Justice Gang" of Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, played by Isabella Merced, Edi Gathegi, and Nathan Fillion, respectively.  They played their comic roles fantastically. There are good reasons why we have Guy and not Hal, John, or even Kyle. Merced is channeling the DCAU Hawkgirl more than just a little bit.

But the winner is really Krypto. 

I also loved Milly Alcock as Supergirl for the brief time we get to see her. Now I want to see Melissa Benoist as Power Girl.

My theatre was packed and all the showtimes around it were sold out. People seemed to really love it. I can't wait to talk about it more.

It was great. Go see it.

Cameos

John Cena makes a brief appearance as Peacemaker. Not a shock, given it's a James Gunn show. It was also a DCEU show (1st season), and he was in the second Suicide Squad movie. So that counts as a previous series.  Related is Frank Grillo as A.R.G.U.S. director Rick Flag Sr. from the animated DCU series Creature Commandos.

Michael Rosenbaum, Lex from Smallville and Flash from the DC Animated series voices one of Lex's Raptar guards.

Will Reeve, the son of Christopher Reeve, appears as a Metropolis TV News reporter. Looking every bit like his dad. 

The big ones, though, are the opening and closing credits. They look just like the Salkind movies, and the John Williams' score is back.

Countdown to Superman: The DCEU and the Snyderverse

 As I wrap my coverage of the Superman movies, I want to take an aside and talk about DC's first big-screen attempt at an extended universe. Called the DC Extended Universe, or more often, the Snyderverse, this era produced some fun, some good, and some terrible movies. 

Suicide Squad (2016)

While not a great movie, it is fun one. It introduces us to Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, one of many perfect castings in the DCEU, and featured one of my favorite characters, Enchantress. Don't go into this movie looking anything but comic book action and plot. I mean one of my favorite scenes is when Harley sees her old Harlequin costume in her box of things and gets all excited about it. Ok, the scene where El Diablo fights Incubus is also pretty cool.  

Wonder Woman (2017)

Honestly, this movie is a masterpiece and is easily in my top-5 superhero movies of all time. Patty Jenkins was great as the director, and Gal Gadot WAS Wonder Woman. She had huge boots to fill from Lynda Carter, and she did it. She gave us a Wonder Woman who is strong and powerful without loosing a gram of femininity; exactly like she should be from the comics. I know the family of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman's creator, was thrilled with it. This one might be the best movie in all the DCEU.

Sadly, Wonder Woman 1984 just could not live up to its predecessor's heights.

Aquaman (2018) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Both of these were fun and were excuses for Jason Momoa to give us his brand of Arthur Curry. They are also fun, but fall just short of great, really, with the 2018 movie being a bit better.

Shazam! (2019), Black Adam (2022), and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Shazam, aka Captain Marvel, "the Big Red Cheese" is a difficult character to get right. He is a kid in the form of a god really. Zachary Levi did a great job of this in the 2019 and 2023 movies and Shazam! was a really good flick. You have to be a fan of the character though I think. Kudos for the cameo of Michael Gray from old Filmation Saturday Morning Shazam! series. The 2023 movie also has Wonder Woman in the end.

Black Adam was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's dream gig in the DC Universe. So much so he was a producer on all three movies. As expected it is darker than either Shazam movie. Nice post credits scene with Amanda Waller and Superman at the end. 

They are not great movies, but fun ones.

The Flash (2023)

Pity the poor Flash. It might go down as the movie that killed the DCEU. It didn't, but it certainly didn't help. 

Let's talk about what is good. LOVED seeing Michael Keaton back as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Wonderful, worth the price of the movie. As janky as it was, the Flash running through the Multiverse and seeing ALL the old Supermen, especially Christopher Reeve and Helen Slater, standing side by side as Superman and Supergirl was amazing. Even the Arrorow-verse, which the DCEU always seemed to ignore as an annoying kid brother, gets a nod. Though it does it in a way that shows they are either ignorant of the characters (most likely) or are being purposely disrespectful. NICHOLAS FREAKING CAGE as Superman with a mullet fighting a Thanagarian Snare Beast! If you are a DC fan, you know what this means, so while I would like to give them a pass on being ignorant on the CW-DCU (Arrow-verse) this shows they did know the deep lore. So maybe they were not allowed to use any Arrow-verse characters as their Arrow-verse character...DC does some strange things at times.  The end with the big "Batman twist" is fun. BUT it was also a sign that they knew the DCEU was ending. 

Now the bad. Erza Miller turned into a bit of a dumpster fire. I mean, he was kinda fun, but never really right as Barry Allen. Plus, we had a GREAT Barry Allen. Grant Justin was amazing. The script is a bit of a mess. Though the Flash having the Flash as the big bad does fit with the comics. Sasha Calle was great as Supergirl, but we never got to see enough of her, and she was gone before we could know her. 

There were other movies. Blue Beetle was fun. There was a soft-reboot, sorta-, sorta-not of The Suicide Squad. I enjoyed the Birds of Prey movie, even if most didn't.

There were some fun times here, but by and large they did not measure up to the successes or the storytelling of the Marvelverse. Trust me, as a DC fan, those are hard words to write. 

I am hopeful for the new James Gunn helmed DC Studios and the new Superman and DCU. Does this include the newer Batman movie? I don't know really. 

Countdown to Superman: Justice League (2017, 2021)

 Now, here we are at what should have been the crowning achievement of not just the DCEU/Snyderverse, but also of DC comic movies.  The freaking Justice League. The ultimate in superhero team-ups, the royal family, as it were. 

Sadly, real life plagued this production, and director Zack Snyder had to leave the production due to the death of his daughter. So, a replacement was brought in. I mean, on paper, it sounds fine. Bring in the guy who had a successful run of genre TV shows and who directed the Avengers movie (you know the #2 team-up), and let him wrap up filming. Well...the problem is that the guy they brought in was Whedon. Now my own personal issue with the guy aside... no, actually not. But I'm jumping ahead of myself here.

For tonight's viewing, I want to cover the 2021 Snyder Cut of this movie. I can appreciate Superman II with both the Lester and Donner cuts. Each one is a good movie on its own with strengths and weaknesses. Each one is enjoyable and cringy in equal measure. I prefer the Donner cut, but the Lester one is still good. I can't say the same for Justice League. 

I enjoyed the 2017 Justice League, but things felt off. I knew it the moment in the interaction between Steppenwolf and the Amazons. These didn't feel like the elite warriors that took out Nazis in Wonder Woman. These were bikini-clad pulp fighting women. Was it Whedon? Was it Snyder? I don't know, but the dialog was Whedon. It was also not the only thing. We know that after Snyder left Whedon reshot a lot of the movie. He also rewrote the script. There were also allegations of abuse, racism and sexism on the set from Ray Fisher (Cyborg), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman, though she shut him down), and Kiersey Clemons (Iris West, who's skin was lightened in the Whedon cut, that is where she was left in it). This opened the door for other actors to share their tales of Whedon's long-standing misconduct on set. 

I detailed his fall from grace already, so no need to go over that again. It was reassuring to hear some of my long-time critics tell me, "Wow, you were right back then."  So yeah I really can't watch the 2017 cut anymore, all I see are his attempts to "improve" the movie.

Now, I am not a big Snyder fan boy, but I do think the 2021 cut is superior. It explains things better, the pacing is better, and the character development is much better. 

There is only ONE thing in the 2017 cut that I enjoyed that is not in (nor would it fit in) the 2021. After defeating Steppenwolf Cyborg says "Boo-ya" as a nod to the Teen Titans show. I am sure Whedon's kid watched it, he is the same age as my kids and they loved that show. So did I. 

Oh, yeah, the plot.

Ok, Superman is dead, even though it looked like he might come back to life at the end of BvS. Bruce is feeling guilty and perceives a new threat. So he is gathering up a team of super-powered people, Meta-Humans, to help. Ok, kudos to writers Chris Terrio and Zack Snyder for having Batman build the league. That is a new one and it works here with Bat-Fleck. We get the Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Cyborg.

In the 2021 cut Cyborg is our focus hero. He is the newest and in recent versions of the comic Justice League (New 52 and beyond) he is also the newest member. This was drastically reduced in the 2017 cut.  but it makes sense to have Cyborg, Victor Stone, as our way of seeing the League.

Anyway...Parademons are attacking, Motherboxes, Darkseid, Steppenwolf. All BIG THINGS you would want the League for. Steppenwolf attacks the Amazons to get the Motherbox they are guarding. Then he heads to Atlantis to get their theirs. The third Motherbox is being studied by Victor's father. 

The new League decides they need Superman back, though Diana is reluctant. They devise a plan and bring him back. In the 2017 cut they just come out and say it, in the 2021 cut it is built up more. There is more gravitas to it. More, "is this something we should be doing?" It's not quite the same as The Return of Superman in the comics, but it...no, it really doesn't make much sense in either version. I would have done it differently. But he is back, black suited (like the Return) and they are off to battle Steppenwolf and the three Motherboxes.

The ending battle is fun no doubt. Both Cyborg and Flash prove their worth to League as the youngest members. Superman and Cyborg prevent the Unity of the Motherboxes, and Diana shows how she "takes care" of her enemies. She is a warrior with a sword after all.

Watching the two side by side again (and that's six or so hours, was up till 2:30am), I am left feeling a bit worn out, to be honest. Whedon's 2017 version comes off as creepier, a little more sexist (any scene with Wonder Woman and/or the Amazons), and honestly, like he has something against Cyborg. Is that my post hoc knowledge in the way? I don't know, but I will say this for certain: the 2017 version is weaker by any measure you care to employ. 

Though I will say this, Snyder needs to figure out how to trim down his own stories. 

In the end, the differences are best summed up for me in the scene where Steppenwolf attacks the Amazons. In the 2017 cut, he is creepily referring to the Motherbox as "Mother" and telling the Amazons they will love him.  In the 2021 cut, he is threatening them with annihilation and telling the Amazons they will fear him. To which Hippolyta asks the Amazons to show him their fear and to a woman they shout, "We have no fear."

Mera pulling the water and blood out of Steppenwolf was also pretty cool too. 

I am going to say it. If there was a scene with a woman being a complete bad-ass on her own (not counting Wonder Woman) Whedon pulled the scene from the 2017 cut.

Cameos

As I mentioned before, Marc McClure, who played Jimmy Olsen in the Salkinds/Christopher Reeve Superman film series, has a brief cameo as a police officer in the 2017 version and a different police officer in the 2021 version.

Synder himself makes a cameo appearance in his cut. He is sitting in the coffee shop Lois is leaving right before she sees the resurrected Superman. 

Another "cameo" and one very close to Zack Snyder's heart, are the billboards for the AFSP, or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. His daughter committed suicide while filming this movie. He dedicated it to her in the end credits.

I know I said I'd talk about Wonder Woman today, but it is late, and my eyes are killing me. I'll have some more to say on the the other films, Wonder Woman, and the end of the DCEU later.