House of Mystery is an occult-horror comic published by DC Comics under the Vertigo label. Originally appearing in the 1950s and then again in the 1980s, House of Mystery laid dormant for years until writers Matthew Sturges (Shadowpact, Blue Beetle) and Bill Willingham (Fables) revived the series once again in 2008.

The House of Mystery is a place filled with interesting people. These are people from all walks of life, from all times — and timelines. Bethany “Fig” Keeler is one such person. She, like The House’s other residents, would like nothing more than to go back to their previous lives, but she is trapped. There are attempts at escaping made, but the harsh truth is that their only means of egress is when a mysterious man simply called “The Coachman” arrives at the front gates, in his own timing, to take them away. So the occupants of The House of Mystery, along with The House’s numerous visitors, must resign themselves to drinking their days and nights away in the bar room, where the drinks are free, so long as you have a story to share. And herein lies what makes The House of Mystery, as a comic book, so special: the stories. Sturges, Willingham, and/or the occasional guest writer, treat us to an average of two sub-stories per issues. Representing genres including fantasy, horror, science fiction, or sometimes even autobiographical accounts of events in the various characters’ lives, these stories have the capacity to disgust, frighten, fascinate, sadden, and warm the hearts of readers.

Though there is much history behind the House of Mystery series to which I am, regrettably, largely ignorant, I’ve absolutely loved each and every issue of this latest incarnation. The over-arching storyline is almost completely auxiliary to the sub-stories told by the characters in each issue, though that’s not to say I find the pages in between uninteresting. The whole book is magical. Even the paper used in printing feels right; I only hope that it’s also being used in the trade paperback collections being published, of which there are two, so far. “Room and Boredom” collects issues #1 – 5 while “Love Stories for Dead People” collects #6 – 10.

Valley Forge, Valley Forge features two stories in one which parallel each other throughout the book. On one hand, and foremost, there is the story of Frank Castle who, with the help of Nick Fury, discovers that the source of the recent attempts on his life are eight senior Army and Air Force officers that have been trying to recover some damning evidence which Frank has come to possess. On the other, there’s a story told through a book from which this story’s name is derived, “Valley Forge, Valley Forge: The Slaughter of a U.S. Marine Garrison and the Birth of The Punisher”. Therein, author Michael Goodwin tells a Vietnam story as the brother of a soldier who served in a platoon under the leadership of Captain Frank Castle.

Though it was difficult to choose which Punisher story to feature, I was sure it would end up being one of Garth Ennis’. This may well be my favorite Punisher arc that he’s written, rivaling even those done with Steve Dillion. Valley Forge, Valley Forge marks the end of a sixty issue run on Punisher MAX, so although it ties up much of what Ennis laid the groundwork for over the years, there aren’t many references made that will go over your head. It’s a story that can stand alone, and it’s a must-read if you’re at all a fan of The Punisher.

Transhuman is a story about genetic engineering in humans told in the style of a mockumentary. Think This Is Spinal Tap, but not hilarious. Although a certain dark humor is apparent throughout, Transhuman takes a more serious tone as narrator Heinrich Dowidat guides readers through the story of two corporations racing to upgrade Humans to Posthumans. Along the way Heinrich gets first-hand accounts from the scientists, the suits, and test subjects that were involved in the genetic enhancement projects. Ultimately, Transhuman is a story about people, their ambitions, their hidden agendas, their politics, their spite, and their greed. It’s about capitalism.

Transhuman, just as Jonathan Hickman’s other works, blew my mind. Though beautifully illustrated by J.M. Ringuet, the book also features several of the signature layouts that Hickman’s books are famous for. Just as is the case with The Nightly News and the unfortunately scheduled A Red Mass For Mars, I can’t recommend Transhuman highly enough.

Games

I’ve managed to finish some more games. My Xbox 360 and Playstation 2 have occupied most of my gaming time on the singleplayer front. After finishing Final Fantaxy XII I attempted to do things nice and backwards and move on to Final Fantasy IX. Using an LCD HDTV, however, PSOne games don’t look too hot. FFIX, as well as several other PSOne games I tested, were all plagued by gigantic dots which I think must be blown-up pixels. Pushing that aside until I could acquire an old SDTV, I moved on to Rogue Galaxy for the PS2.

Rogue Galaxy (Playstation 2)

Rogue Galaxy was a mixed bag. I loved the cell-shaded art style, the music and the voice acting. The story was interesting at first, but i felt myself getting fatigued about half way through. Long dungeons with minimal assets and very few story elements sprinkled throughout didn’t do much to keep me invested past Chapter 3 or so.

The inventory management, item/weapon crafting and upgrading systems in Rogue Galaxy are somewhat groundbreaking for a JRPG, though the skills system is ripped straight from Final Fantasy X. I don’t think there was enough emphasis on utilizing the crafting feature, though. I was able to get by without it for the most part. As it was a time consuming, albeit rewarding process, I decided that I just wanted to finish the game if I could.

While the real-time combat is implemented well and makes for fun and interesting battles, I found that the pace of battles was often times bogged down by the frequency and way which items had to be used. With using items being the only way to heal your party during battles, I found myself with battles paused more often than not while trying to keep myself and my party alive. Because of this I ran away from the majority of encounters in the final dungeon, which is obscenely long. My trek took about 45 minutes through a series of copy-and-pasted ramps, tunnels and cliffs. It’s fortunate that the game’s ending sequences were very cool and interesting.

Because of some pretty revolutionary mechanics and spectacular ending events, I didn’t walk away with a completely bad taste in my mouth after 74 hours of Rogue Galaxy. I wouldn’t be opposed to playing a sequel.

Bully: Scholarship Edition (Xbox 360)

Next up I played Bully: Scholarship Edition on the Xbox 360. I bought it before the PC version came out, but honestly, I don’t think I’d have played it on PC anyway. Even though it was developed by the same team that did the 360 version, which received several post-release patches for game-breaking issues, the PC version doesn’t seem to be receiving the same support. They just don’t seem to care. Anyway, I think this game is a known quantity at this point. It’s a T-rated Grand Theft Auto on a much smaller scale, and it does what it sets out to do very well. The Xbox 360 version performs and plays fine once patched. I have only one real complaint: MUSIC CLASS. It requires you to play the beat to simple songs on a drum by pressing LT or RT at specific moments, but they’re completely unresponsive. Single notes work fine as long as you don’t have to push them in quick succession, but the times when you have to hit two notes at once are ridiculous; even if you’re spot-on, it’ll usually register as a miss. LB and RB would have been better choices than analog triggers; the mini-game really needs digital input. It’s because of this I gave up on trying to get 100% completion and stopped at 84% once I finished all of the main missions. As long as you’re cool with possibly being too frustrated to get 100% completion, Bully’s worth playing.

Dark Sector (Xbox 360)

Finally, just last night, I finished Dark Sector. I picked this up for $10 during a sale a couple of months ago. Though I wouldn’t recommend purchasing it for much more than that, I am happy that I played it. Obviously taking some cues from Gears of War, Dark Sector was released in March of ’08 during a more dormant release season. It received fairly good scores of around 73 – 77 from the bigger review sites, but I think a person would be surprised to hear that based on the reputation the game seems to have. Complaints I’ve read seem to boil down to the fact that it incorporated elements of Gears of War, but it isn’t Gears of War. I’m okay with that, and Dark Sector did some things differently anyway.

Early on, during the game’s tutorial, you’re infected by some virus that begins to take over your body and you’re eventually able to manifest a glaive (which isn’t a glaive at all!) that will be your main weapon throughout the game. At first you can just hack at people and throw it at them, but later on you can manipulate its flight, light it on fire, freeze it, or electrify it and pass the effects on to your enemies. Achievements are attached to each of these uses to encourage you to use them, and they’re actually quite attainable. Despite the glaive being really cool, guns still manage to stay useful and interesting. Guns that enemies will drop are usually military-issue and, as such, are programmed to self-destruct after a short amount of time if an infected person is hold them. They’re good for a clip or two and then you discard them. There exists however a black market where you can purchase guns of your own as well as upgrade them with attachments you find along the way. A pistol will be available in your offhand when using the glaive while you carry a rifle on your back.

Unlike the combat, the story in Dark Sector is pretty uninteresting. I felt like they could have fleshed it out a bit more had they not spent time on the multiplayer, which nobody plays, but it’s a fine game regardless. I think it was reviewed and scored fairly, but perhaps not talked about fairly. It’s worth a play through if you can pick it up on-the-cheap.

Comics

This week I also spent some time catching up on comics as I am a few weeks behind. Two mini-series’ by Jonathan Hickman that I’ve mentioned before came to completion just before the year ran out: Transhuman and Pax Romana. Though I haven’t written proper recommendations for these two books yet, you should go back and read some the issues and/or look for trade paperbacks to be coming out early next year. Both Transhuman and Pax Romana deal with some mind-blowing concepts, feature fantastic art by J.M. Ringuet and Hickman, respectively, and are simply testaments to storytelling in comics. A five-page preview of Transhuman #1 as well as the entire first issue of Pax Romana can be found at Jonathan Hickman’s website.

Finally, issue #5 of Air, last week’s comic recommendation, came out this week. You really should be reading that. Just wanted to give it another mention!

Jonathan Hickman has completed one mini series so far, however, called The Nightly News. The original 6 issues first shipped between November of 2006 and July of 2007. Unfortunately, I was late to the party and didn’t find out about the book until I visited Hickman’s website, but I immediately put in an order for the trade paperback. It arrived this week.

The Nightly News is what I would describe as a thriller/conspiracy/mystery graphic novel about corporate media and one group’s desire to see it crumble by any means necessary. I have just finished reading for the second time since Wednesday, and The Nightly News is what I wish all comics could be. It’s daring, beautiful, artistically acute, intelligent, honest, and it defies convention. Every page is memorable. There is no filler. I apologize for gushing, but I really couldn’t get through this post without it and to expand on the plot would be to do a disservice to your experience with it.

I cannot recommend The Nightly News enough if you are somebody looking for a breath of fresh air from their comics. Or maybe you just enjoy a good conspiracy story; you won’t be disappointed. Really, it’s worth buying for the artwork alone. Be aware that it is intended for mature readers, however. You can probably find it at your local comic shop. Failing that, it’s currently available from SciFi Genre.