4Everybody at one point in their life wanted to be a super hero, or a super villain, so what if you could get a loan that would allow you to live those fantasies? For some the temptation is too great to pass up, while others have their own personal quarrels to deal with. A shadowy figure named Mr. Pierce is willing to loan people the money they need, all they have to do is pay him back according to their contract on time, or they’ll get a visit from The Paybacks. The Paybacks are Mr. Pierce’s personal collection workers, at one point every member on the team made a deal with Mr. Pierce for a large loan and they couldn’t pay him back. The only way for these members to pay off their debt is to work off the debt, or die trying. The rules for being a Payback is simple; you go out on collection missions to reposes valuable assets and forcefully recruit the person(s) that owe Mr. Pierce and you do as you’re told, least you feel like being blown up by your ‘leash’.
The first instalment follows a small group of people that eventually ends up on the same team. Alpha team consists of a vampire named Emory Rains, a giant Russian man named ‘The Soviet Nunchuck’, a particle manipulator named BloodPouch and a Sasquatch named Skisquatch. Beta consists of Miss Adventure, a young heroine who still holds up that she is a hero and is just trying to do the right thing, there are other members of Beta but they hold little importance compared to Miss Adventure. During a mission Beta team gets nearly wiped out, only Miss Adventure survives, and then discovers that the target she and her team were after has been killed before they were able to retrieve them. Meanwhile Alpha team successfully ‘recruits’ a new member, the British hero ‘Night Knight’. With her team gone Ms. Adventure is added to Alpha team along with the aforementioned Night Knight as they are sent out to collect more debts. The Paybacks comic has a great blend of humor and characters, everybody feels like a real person, even the Sasquatch has a story many can relate to.
As you read the comic you’ll quickly realize that the story is more than a one note ‘lets see how many comic references we can fit into an issue’, a deeper plot appears in the form of the mysterious deaths of people that owed Mr. Pierce. The writing by Donny Cates and Eliot Rahal is brilliant in the humor department, spoken references are a blast and the interaction with the characters are fun. Night Knight has a unicorn sidekick that he never rides, instead they run on rooftops and crash through windows together like it’s a normal thing to do. Oh, and just to add, the Unicorn talks. So that’s a thing. On the art side of things I’m going to assume artist Geoff Shaw had a blast with this job. Riddled throughout the comic are fair use versions of known comic heroes’ gears. Colors were done by Lauren Affe, Geoff’s art is complemented with Lauren’s heavy use of ink. I say complement because when blood spills, and blood will spill, the colors blend in well and doesn’t look over done like in other comics.
The Paybacks Volume One: Payback’s A Bitch is a simple collections of issues 1-4, there are no extras like sketches or a forward by the team, although there is a short comic called ‘Space StepDad’ at the very end. The Paybacks Volume One: Payback’s A Bitch, available on April 27, is a fun collection and is a worthy addition to any collection shelf. This Comic Review is based on a review copy provided by Dark Horse Comics The Paybacks Volume One: Payback's A Bitch Pros The writing is fun The art is filled with fun references Cons No fun extrasLEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles It’s my week for LEGO games, obviously.LEGO Star Wars follows Yoda in his quest to save the galaxy from an unspecified danger, which does involve, however, General Grievous, one of Star Wars’ cooler looking characters who really wasn’t given enough and also, incidentally, should have had far more lightsabre-to-limb accidents.The game is played almost resource collection-style, in that you have a birds eye view of your tiny Star Wars characters, and you control several units at one time, without any particular control of individuals and their powers – so if Yoda’s in your team, he’ll hack and slash with his light sabre, rather than using any special powers.
You play through various capture-the-flag missions, such as liberating bases, finding people and defeating enemies. You can build a variety of Star Wars units, such as star ships, infantry and machines, and whether you get 501st Clone Troopers or Storm Troopers, X Wings or TIE Fighters, depends on which side you choose – Light (Jedi) or Dark (Sith). I’ve never found resource-building games that enthralling (think Command and Conquer) but the missions are short and easy enough, with bonus missions such as finding C3PO, to keep your attention sufficiently hooked that you’ll risk missing your bus while standing around at 10pm in the rain (not to get specific or anything).The main reason for playing through, however, just like the Star Wars LEGO games of yore, is for the cut scenes. What Warner Bros didn’t quite get right in the LEGO Batman game recently, Star Wars: Yoda Chronicles have re-captured fantastically; the cut scenes are priceless, including various shots of C3PO fussily trying to restrain baby Jedis (“I forbid you to take off” *Ship takes off* “Oh!
I forbid you to cheer!” *Kids cheer*) and said padawans trying to stop General Grievous by throwing themselves onto various body parts, who flails and shouts in righteous indignation, small Jedi clinging to his four limbs.Gameplay occurs by tapping the screen to move, on enemies or brick piles to fire and collect studs, and approaching ‘build stations’ to heal your units and build more, with the game allowing up to five at a time (which is sensible – five AT ST walkers or X Wings is enough for a smaller screen). This is where the game falls down a bit, since your tapping will often be taken for a movement command, not an attack; this is particularly annoying when defending an object or person, as your units merrily wander off screen while said person is attacked by various Sith (or Jedi) troops and you frustratedly stab at your screen.The game takes an age to load but flows fairly smoothly from there, and includes various extras like bonus levels which, once unlocked, can be played online to upgrade your units, different Star Wars worlds to play through, bonus missions such as time trials and, one of the more awesome bonuses, the Star Wars theme as background menu music.