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Back in high school English classes, there was this trend amongst my peers and I that after we learned about some common literary technique or archetypal type of character, we couldn’t help but begin seeing those techniques and characters in every piece of media. Of course, it’s not too difficult to draw a line between the hero Odysseus making his epic journey through the isles to return home versus the Superman stranded on a red planet after being teleported their by Toy Man in that one Justice League Unlimited episode.
That said, one of the things that we humans are likely to do when exposed to the underlying structure of a thing is to attempt to understand other things through that particular underlying structure. As such, one of the things I’ve become fascinating with is analyzing the different learning techniques involved when it comes to video game design.
Whether it’s Super Mario or Tetris, video games employ different styles and methods of learning techniques to help their players understand the game. This is no better exemplified than with the Destiny franchise, which due to the new aggressive cadence, releases end game content on a three-month cycle. During this Season of the Haunted, said endgame content was the Duality Dungeon, a three-person activity that tests the might and mettle of one to three Guardians and employs several different pedagogical methods to help guide players without explicit instruction.
A Brief Introduction to Learning Theory
Before we do a level by level break down of the mechanics of Duality Dungeon, we’re going to quickly go over two different learning models. The first is behaviorism, something that you may already be familiar with in some iteration or another. Behaviorism is a learning theory rooted in conditional training. If A happens, do B. If X happens, do Y.
Behaviorism is best exemplified with the classic Pavlov’s dog example, where a dog learns to associate the sound of a bell to food, or the related Skinner box where an animal has to do a task to get food. Both of this showcase the core of behaviorism, the Stimulus / Response model. When presented with a thing, the learner has to respond to the thing to see the outcome. Desired responses are rewarded, unwanted responses are punished.
The other learning theory I think would be prudent to briefly review before getting in Duality Dungeon is schema theory, which builds off the concepts of behaviorism. Schema Theory is a really fancy way of saying that our brains create hierarchical relationships between concepts and that we are able to insert/delete/replicate/modify these relationships to help us parse out new concepts when we are presented with new stimulus. The technical terms don’t matter for the purposes of this article, but just imagine schemas like branching roadmaps that we follow.
And with that, we can start digging into the design elements of the current endgame endeavor of Destiny 2.
Obvious spoilers for the mechanics and some of the lore of the Duality dungeon ahead.
The Bells
When you first start Duality Dungeon, you eventually end up in a locked room with a grated window. Off in the distance, there is a bell and given the lack of any other interactable components, eventually you’ll shoot the bell. Doing so will teleport you to a red nightmare-ish world. The colors are mono-tone, the contrast is high, and the environment is slightly different. You then may either shoot the bell again from a distance, only to find that the “Darkness Consumes” and you’re back in the starting room, or you may be patient and wait to shoot the bell when you’re right next to it, at which point you find yourself teleported back to the normal realm, alive and well.
This presents the principle mechanic’s Stimulus/Response. You need to shoot to bell to navigate the world, however, you’re not allowed to shoot the bell from a distance lest you wipe. It plays into the player’s natural schema (Wiping is bad, progressing is good) as well, and the dungeons requires you to repeatedly demonstrate a mastery of this concept before continuing. And when you do, you’re also expected to do a little bit more.
Deja Vu and You
As you eventually work your way to the first encounter, you dropped into an arena and several things happen from a learning perspective. For long-term players of the game, they will recognize four iconic images in the four corners of the room and immediately begin recalling their schema about the last time they saw these icons. Newer players also benefit from the schema, since these are the symbols that are utilized in the Derelict Leviathan, although it won’t necessarily be as strong. The familiar bell calls to the player, and the encounter begins in proper when players shoot.
Upon being teleported to the Nightmare realm, those veteran players will recognize Gahlran from the Crown of Sorrows raid and immediately connect that some sort of ritual is required to get rid of the immunity shield, and newer players will similarly make the connection insofar that getting “immune” probably means something is up.
Upon exploring the arena, eventually the guardians will stumble upon a Standard Bearer (Stimulus) and upon defeating them, they drop a standard (Response). These standards have names like Axes, War Beast, Chalice, and Sun, which connects them to the holographic symbols and helps with memory.
However, the players have to contend with Bellkeepers (a new stimulus), whose death allow the bell to be rung (an old stimulus now part of a new response), a countdown timer (stimulus) which if it ever gets to zero wipes (response), and it may take an iteration or two, before they piece together the sequence. Upon the standards placement, the door to that side opens. This marks the first leap of logic that the players have to make, in that they need to ring the bell in the recently openly room to enter that locked room in the Nightmare realm. At which point, enemies appear so the natural schema kicks in, and after felling shades on both sides, a text prompt appears indicating vulnerability, and thus the players have learned the cycle and through repetition, they are able to apply what they learn to get loot.
Effect/Cause
As the players continue to descend downward into the mindscape, they continually apply these same fundamental principles to progress in the interstitial. They are continually asked to interact with elements in the Nightmare realm in order to illicit the desired response from something in the standard realm.
By the time they get to the second encounter, they have familiarity, and thus the challenge of the second encounter is less learning mechanics, but learning how to execute them in a high stress environment with an added twist. In this encounter, there are multiple standard bearers that can spawn, and killing the wrong one deducts precious seconds from the minute of Nightmare time. Not enough to completely make it impossible to complete, but enough to reinforce that correctness is crucial.
It was at this point in my first run through of Duality Dungeon, I also made another connection thanks to my schema. The bell mechanic here was not unlike the Effect and Cause mission of Titanfall 2, one of the most iconic campaign missions in a first person shooter, where the protagonist also had to switch between interconnected set pieces to progress. Another neat part of learning learning theory.
Final Exam
Of course, the final encounter of Duality has a couple more twists. There is a giant bell (stimulus) so immediately the question becomes how to ring that belt and as you approach, the Nightmare of Caiatl emerges from the amorphous form with a familiar red immunity aura. The holographic symbols once again appear and the arena has clearly marked balconies, and bell holders, so the recurring schema comes into play (including the part of the brain that knows to kill the bellkeepers to make the bells usable, and that killing an incorrect standard bearer comes at a time cost), although the last crinkles in Duality‘s design leave a little to be desired.
Firstly, after successfully depositing the four standards, the environment shifts, but it’s not immediately evident what the new stimulus is to progress the fight. You have to be at the right angle to see the purple jeweled locks that can be destroyed to ring the bell, but they are easily missed while you try to survive the onslaught.
Secondly, after doing all of that, you entered into a hectic DPS phase involving killing the bellkeepers and keeping track of Caiatl. Given the lack of a timer, you can maybe infer that the bells are interactable in some given that if the boss gets to one, she absconds leaving you with wasted time, and even if you do infer that you have to be at the correct bell to get a damage buff since unbuffed, you do next to do no damage, it will take a few cycles to realize that you can stall her approach by baiting a stomp (a relatively new mechanic in Destiny‘s schema) and even more few cycles to realize that to properly stun requires Caiatl to be within a certain radius of the bell.
But nitpicks of the final taught sets of stimuli/responses aside, the dungeon itself is a master craft of how pedagogical theory interplays with game design.
Lessons Learned
Behaviorism and schema theory are far from the only applicable learning models that can be found in video games. However, they serve as a solid foundation to beginning to uncover all of the tricks that designers do to help guide as long through difficult encounters, and it’s these same techniques that also help us learn how to do things. And we didn’t even touch on the different ways that the designers made their mechanics accessible via strict color coding, particle effects, and even the standard names for the different standard names. Nor did we go over how various content creators approach making their guides.
There’s an incredibly staggering amount of effort put into the design of these games and the subsequent analysis of said design, and I have a perpetual appreciation to the skill it takes to translate the abstract into an actual activity.
All images of the Duality Dungeon courtesy of the Bungie Press Site.
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The post Dissecting the Design of Destiny 2’s Duality Dungeon appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Back in high school English classes, there was this trend amongst my peers and I that after we learned about some common literary technique or archetypal type of character, we couldn’t help but begin seeing those techniques and characters in every piece of media. Of course, it’s not too difficult to draw a line between the hero Odysseus making his epic journey through the isles to return home versus the Superman stranded on a red planet after being teleported their by Toy Man in that one Justice League Unlimited episode.
That said, one of the things that we humans are likely to do when exposed to the underlying structure of a thing is to attempt to understand other things through that particular underlying structure. As such, one of the things I’ve become fascinating with is analyzing the different learning techniques involved when it comes to video game design.
Whether it’s Super Mario or Tetris, video games employ different styles and methods of learning techniques to help their players understand the game. This is no better exemplified than with the Destiny franchise, which due to the new aggressive cadence, releases end game content on a three-month cycle. During this Season of the Haunted, said endgame content was the Duality Dungeon, a three-person activity that tests the might and mettle of one to three Guardians and employs several different pedagogical methods to help guide players without explicit instruction.
A Brief Introduction to Learning Theory
Before we do a level by level break down of the mechanics of Duality Dungeon, we’re going to quickly go over two different learning models. The first is behaviorism, something that you may already be familiar with in some iteration or another. Behaviorism is a learning theory rooted in conditional training. If A happens, do B. If X happens, do Y.
Behaviorism is best exemplified with the classic Pavlov’s dog example, where a dog learns to associate the sound of a bell to food, or the related Skinner box where an animal has to do a task to get food. Both of this showcase the core of behaviorism, the Stimulus / Response model. When presented with a thing, the learner has to respond to the thing to see the outcome. Desired responses are rewarded, unwanted responses are punished.
The other learning theory I think would be prudent to briefly review before getting in Duality Dungeon is schema theory, which builds off the concepts of behaviorism. Schema Theory is a really fancy way of saying that our brains create hierarchical relationships between concepts and that we are able to insert/delete/replicate/modify these relationships to help us parse out new concepts when we are presented with new stimulus. The technical terms don’t matter for the purposes of this article, but just imagine schemas like branching roadmaps that we follow.
And with that, we can start digging into the design elements of the current endgame endeavor of Destiny 2.
Obvious spoilers for the mechanics and some of the lore of the Duality dungeon ahead.
The Bells
When you first start Duality Dungeon, you eventually end up in a locked room with a grated window. Off in the distance, there is a bell and given the lack of any other interactable components, eventually you’ll shoot the bell. Doing so will teleport you to a red nightmare-ish world. The colors are mono-tone, the contrast is high, and the environment is slightly different. You then may either shoot the bell again from a distance, only to find that the “Darkness Consumes” and you’re back in the starting room, or you may be patient and wait to shoot the bell when you’re right next to it, at which point you find yourself teleported back to the normal realm, alive and well.
This presents the principle mechanic’s Stimulus/Response. You need to shoot to bell to navigate the world, however, you’re not allowed to shoot the bell from a distance lest you wipe. It plays into the player’s natural schema (Wiping is bad, progressing is good) as well, and the dungeons requires you to repeatedly demonstrate a mastery of this concept before continuing. And when you do, you’re also expected to do a little bit more.
Deja Vu and You
As you eventually work your way to the first encounter, you dropped into an arena and several things happen from a learning perspective. For long-term players of the game, they will recognize four iconic images in the four corners of the room and immediately begin recalling their schema about the last time they saw these icons. Newer players also benefit from the schema, since these are the symbols that are utilized in the Derelict Leviathan, although it won’t necessarily be as strong. The familiar bell calls to the player, and the encounter begins in proper when players shoot.
Upon being teleported to the Nightmare realm, those veteran players will recognize Gahlran from the Crown of Sorrows raid and immediately connect that some sort of ritual is required to get rid of the immunity shield, and newer players will similarly make the connection insofar that getting “immune” probably means something is up.
Upon exploring the arena, eventually the guardians will stumble upon a Standard Bearer (Stimulus) and upon defeating them, they drop a standard (Response). These standards have names like Axes, War Beast, Chalice, and Sun, which connects them to the holographic symbols and helps with memory.
However, the players have to contend with Bellkeepers (a new stimulus), whose death allow the bell to be rung (an old stimulus now part of a new response), a countdown timer (stimulus) which if it ever gets to zero wipes (response), and it may take an iteration or two, before they piece together the sequence. Upon the standards placement, the door to that side opens. This marks the first leap of logic that the players have to make, in that they need to ring the bell in the recently openly room to enter that locked room in the Nightmare realm. At which point, enemies appear so the natural schema kicks in, and after felling shades on both sides, a text prompt appears indicating vulnerability, and thus the players have learned the cycle and through repetition, they are able to apply what they learn to get loot.
Effect/Cause
As the players continue to descend downward into the mindscape, they continually apply these same fundamental principles to progress in the interstitial. They are continually asked to interact with elements in the Nightmare realm in order to illicit the desired response from something in the standard realm.
By the time they get to the second encounter, they have familiarity, and thus the challenge of the second encounter is less learning mechanics, but learning how to execute them in a high stress environment with an added twist. In this encounter, there are multiple standard bearers that can spawn, and killing the wrong one deducts precious seconds from the minute of Nightmare time. Not enough to completely make it impossible to complete, but enough to reinforce that correctness is crucial.
It was at this point in my first run through of Duality Dungeon, I also made another connection thanks to my schema. The bell mechanic here was not unlike the Effect and Cause mission of Titanfall 2, one of the most iconic campaign missions in a first person shooter, where the protagonist also had to switch between interconnected set pieces to progress. Another neat part of learning learning theory.
Final Exam
Of course, the final encounter of Duality has a couple more twists. There is a giant bell (stimulus) so immediately the question becomes how to ring that belt and as you approach, the Nightmare of Caiatl emerges from the amorphous form with a familiar red immunity aura. The holographic symbols once again appear and the arena has clearly marked balconies, and bell holders, so the recurring schema comes into play (including the part of the brain that knows to kill the bellkeepers to make the bells usable, and that killing an incorrect standard bearer comes at a time cost), although the last crinkles in Duality‘s design leave a little to be desired.
Firstly, after successfully depositing the four standards, the environment shifts, but it’s not immediately evident what the new stimulus is to progress the fight. You have to be at the right angle to see the purple jeweled locks that can be destroyed to ring the bell, but they are easily missed while you try to survive the onslaught.
Secondly, after doing all of that, you entered into a hectic DPS phase involving killing the bellkeepers and keeping track of Caiatl. Given the lack of a timer, you can maybe infer that the bells are interactable in some given that if the boss gets to one, she absconds leaving you with wasted time, and even if you do infer that you have to be at the correct bell to get a damage buff since unbuffed, you do next to do no damage, it will take a few cycles to realize that you can stall her approach by baiting a stomp (a relatively new mechanic in Destiny‘s schema) and even more few cycles to realize that to properly stun requires Caiatl to be within a certain radius of the bell.
But nitpicks of the final taught sets of stimuli/responses aside, the dungeon itself is a master craft of how pedagogical theory interplays with game design.
Lessons Learned
Behaviorism and schema theory are far from the only applicable learning models that can be found in video games. However, they serve as a solid foundation to beginning to uncover all of the tricks that designers do to help guide as long through difficult encounters, and it’s these same techniques that also help us learn how to do things. And we didn’t even touch on the different ways that the designers made their mechanics accessible via strict color coding, particle effects, and even the standard names for the different standard names. Nor did we go over how various content creators approach making their guides.
There’s an incredibly staggering amount of effort put into the design of these games and the subsequent analysis of said design, and I have a perpetual appreciation to the skill it takes to translate the abstract into an actual activity.
All images of the Duality Dungeon courtesy of the Bungie Press Site.
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The post Dissecting the Design of Destiny 2’s Duality Dungeon appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Blumhouse makes some of my favorite movies to watch with my siblings because we love horror films.
The Blumhouse company has produced iconic genre film franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge. They have produced culture-changing films like Get Out and BlacKkKlansman. Now, they give us The Black Phone, a film I knew I wanted to see right away the first time I saw the trailer.
The film did not disappoint. You don’t know how it will end. You start to draw conclusions about what is actually happening. The film keeps you on the edge of your seat. What starts off giving Stand By Me vibes finishes strong with a story all its own.
The Black Phone is directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister) and based on the short story by Joe Hill. Already, a prime combination. Joe Hill has written some cool ones like NOS4A2 and Locke & Key. The screenplay is written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (Doctor Strange).
The film at its core is about a smart 13-year-old boy who gets abducted by a sadistic serial killer of children and is locked in a soundproof basement. The basement has a broken black phone that rings with the killer’s previous victims on the other end. They try to help the boy escape so he doesn’t become another name in the newspaper. The film stars Mason Thames (Walker) in his first feature film role, Madeleine McGraw (Secrets of Sulphur Springs), Jeremy Davies (Sleepy Hollow, TV Series), James Ransone (It Chapter Two), and Ethan Hawke (Moon Knight).
The last horror film I saw four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke in was The Purge (2013). He was a victim then. Now we see him in what could easily be considered the most terrifying role in his career. Ethan Hawke plays The Grabber. It is a chilling performance, complete with masks and a personality disorder. There is no gray area when it comes to The Grabber. He is evil. There is no room for an explanation of why he does what he does — a fact left out that makes it even more chilling to watch. You don’t know what he will do next. You sit there wondering, why would a man do this to kids, to young boys? Only bad thoughts. Hawke portrays a character that makes this horror film feel like it could happen to anyone. Children are kidnapped all the time. Every 40 seconds, a child goes missing or is abducted in the United States. It’s a scary story where the villain isn’t the supernatural element. Hawke does a great job of making us think we are witnessing something truly evil.
There is an underlying tone of mental illness in The Black Phone. Finny (Thames) and Gwen (McGraw) have a family history of mental illness. There is a murky link between a mental illness that is bad and a mental illness that can be spun as supernatural-like and seen as a positive. Gwen has dreams that sometimes come true, but can it save her brother in his time of need? Finny is hearing voices on a phone that does not work. But his time in the basement is almost like therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to be precise.
CBT treatment can involve efforts to change behavioral patterns with strategies like facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them, using role-playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others, and learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body. It is also used to change thinking patterns with strategies like gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others, using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations, and learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s abilities. The Black Phone is set in the 1970s, a time when cognitive and behavioral approaches were combined resulting in cognitive behavioral therapy. It’s masterfully incorporated into the film.
A theme in The Black Phone is family and, more importantly, the ties that bind us. The values, beliefs, characteristics, etc. that are shared between people can and often do result in a unique and unbreakable connection. Finny and Gwen are brother and sister who have that connection. They come from a complicated home. They are bullied, beaten, and almost loners, save for one friend, but they have each other’s backs constantly. The relationship portrayed on screen makes it hard to think they are not brother and sister in real life and that this is just for the cameras. Their chemistry is perfect. I could watch these two young actors all day.
It’s always so hard watching child abduction films because I have a gaggle of kids in my family. The idea of one of them going missing is beyond something I want to think about. Supernatural I can deal with — evil people are another story. There are rules to the supernatural. Serial murderers have no rules (unless you’re Ghostface from the Scream franchise. That killer is all about the slasher film rules). The Black Phone follows no rules or gimmicks. It’s just horrifying. Entertaining, but horrifying. Viewer beware.
The Black Phone will hit theaters on June 24, 2022.
WHAM! BAM! POW! These are the words comic book readers have grown accustomed to that represent hitting, smashing, and getting knocked on your ass, amongst other things. They’re a staple of the medium as they give us a way to envision what things sound like in an otherwise very quiet medium. But what if we didn’t have to imagine anymore? What if we could hear the ruffle of a cape, the pounding of a fist, and the exasperation of a desperate scream when engaging with our favorite comics? This is a question that Batman Unburied, a popular new narrative podcast, asks its listeners.
Okay, I’ll be real with you, it doesn’t ask that question at all. I’m asking that question because all I could think about when listening to Batman Unburied was how dope it would be if there were visuals to go along with it. I’m talking glowing white eyes in a shadowy corner, a long draping cape inching toward a criminal, or a Dark Knight perched atop a gargoyle. Sure, I can envision these images in my head, but that’s never gonna be as good as an artist’s interpretation.
I won’t blame you if you’ve never heard of Batman Unburied. Not only is there an insurmountable amount of content out in the world to be consumed, there’s also an egregious amount of Batman-specific content. For better or for worse, Batman is DC’s most milkable product, and it’s why you see him in countless concurrent comics, television shows, movies, games, and now with Batman Unburied, the aforementioned narrative podcast.
This podcast brings you the Caped Crusader as you’ve never seen him before: Completely in your mind! But let me be the first to tell you if you haven’t already experienced it for yourself. It’s an instant classic that does a wonderful job carving itself a comfortable space in the overall canon of the character.
This Batman is Begrudgingly Good
At this point, you might be wondering what the hell Batman Unburied is about. The wholly original story takes place in a Gotham that’s slightly different than the one that we’ve come to know. Bruce Wayne is a forensic pathologist, and his parents are shockingly still alive. But deep down, Gotham is still Gotham, and the freaks and weirdos still run the town. Things come to a head when Bruce and The Harvester, a new serial killer in town, come to psychological blows when Bruce tries to take him down.
Listen, I’m often unapologetic about my disdain for the overabundance of this deeply troubled, bat-obsessed man in all of our media, but there’s really a lot to like about his first foray into this burgeoning medium. It’s a project that so fundamentally understands its characters, that it never felt like I was engaging with something new, even though this is an entirely fresh space for this character. Never once did I say to myself “That’s not Batman.” It really just felt like I was tuning in to a new issue of a monthly comic or going to see the latest movie. But enough of my uncharacteristic fawning over the Bat. You don’t need my opinion, I’ll just give you the facts.
For starters, the talent behind the scenes is absolutely incredible. It’s produced and written by David S. Goyer who is no stranger to adapting comic book characters for other mediums. He wrote the screenplays for Batman Begins and Man of Steel, as well as being the creator, executive producer, and writer of the upcoming Sandman show on Netflix. My guy knows his stuff.
The cast of the show is as surprising as it is talented. We’ve got Winston Duke as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Hasan Minhaj as The Riddler, Gina Rodriguez as Barbara Gordon, Jason Isaacs as Alfred Pennyworth, Lance Reddick as Thomas Wayne, Sam Witwer as the Harvester, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Kell, Jessica Marie Garcia as Renee Montoya, Jim Pirri as Arnold Flass, Toks Olagundoye as Martha Wayne, John Rhys-Davies as Dr. Hunter, and Ashly Burch as Vicki Vale.
I can talk about the heavy hitters providing their vocal talents for hours on end, but all I’ll say for now is that everyone really brought their A-game. Each one completely embodies these characters in a way that feels unique to their performance choices, as well as respecting what came before them. Also, Winston Duke is the Black Batman that we deserve, and the one that we need right now. Even if I didn’t particularly like Duke’s Batman voice, his portrayal of Bruce Wayne is one for the Mount Rushmore of Batmen. What’s really dope is that none of these actors have played these characters before, so they had some big shoes to fill. But they all did a phenomenal job.
Listening to Batman Unburied was an experience unlike any other. If you’re looking for a slow-burn mystery to keep your mind racing for hours on end, or if you want to know what it was like for your parents or grandparents when they were young and didn’t have television, look no further. The Harvester embodies all the aspects of a serial killer that keep people engaged in murder podcasts and documentaries. He’s as intriguing as he is creepy.
Not only were the story and characters incredibly engaging, but the score and sound design also had me hooked from start to finish, which is something I was worried about, to be honest. I have a short attention span and wasn’t sure I’d be able to listen to full episodes without getting distracted by something, but the cultivated atmosphere transports you to this other world, even if it’s just in sound only.
Marry the Mediums!
I’m always looking for ways to enhance my experience when reading. That’s why when reading comics, I try to match the tone of the story with some great instrumental music to elevate my engagement, and I like to listen to audiobooks alongside the novels I read. But because Batman Unburied is based on a comic book character, I couldn’t shake that itch to want to read along with the dialogue and narration. And once I thought about that for a while, the question dawned on me: Do audiobooks for comics exist, and if so, why don’t we see more of them?
The short answer is yes, they do exist, and I feel like they’re on the verge of blowing up. At least I hope they do. Batman Unburied isn’t the first time a comic book character has had an episodic audio series. Just two years after his debut in comic books, Superman debuted in The Adventures of Superman, a bi-weekly (twice a week) radio show. The show adapted story arcs from the comics, as well as told original stories over the span of eleven years. So comic books, specifically DC Comics, have roots in audio storytelling.
The Adventures of Superman had a famous series of episodes called Clan of the Fiery Cross, which took aim at the KKK and their racist exploits. With insider information from The Anti-Defamation League, the show shared an unapologetically judgmental view of the Klan, through the lens of Superman to show their many listeners where they stood on the side of right and wrong.
Just a few years ago, Gene Luen Yang adapted those episodes into a graphic novel called Superman Smashes The Klan, which I highly suggest you read if you haven’t. Anything Yang writes is gold.
While Superman Smashes the Klan borrows and takes some liberties in its craft of the story, it’s still an instance of two mediums sharing aspects with each other. It isn’t word for word the same as the original series, but it’s only a small leap to see where the potential for a more direct marrying of the mediums could yield some really fantastic and engaging results.
That brings me to The Sandman, and its audio adaptation. Still ongoing, there are two series on Amazon’s Audible that are working to adapt the entirety of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Just like Batman Unburied, the cast is stellar, featuring James McAvoy as Dream, Riz Ahmed as Corinthian, and even Neil Gaiman himself as the narrator. It’s billed as a version of the story “how it’s meant to be heard.”
I think what gets me excited about something like this is that it’s a wholly new experience. It’s not strictly audio, and it’s not strictly comics. It’s something in the middle that both elevates and creates a unique way for the audience to participate. And what makes it even better is that the two separate mediums can still exist on their own. You can still read a comic with the voices you provide in your head, just as you can listen to an audio narrative with the images you come up with on your own. Choosing to combine the two doesn’t invalidate their singularity, and that’s really beautiful.
Accessibility
Speaking of The Sandman, I’d have to say that a big reason why I haven’t read it yet is that (at least from my limited perspective) it seems pretty dense, even for a comic, and I can just feel the exhaustion without having even read a single word. Knowing there’s an audiobook with stellar production is something that’s going to convince me to finally read it.
That’s what makes audiobooks a beautiful thing. Purists like to talk about how it may invalidate the reading experience because it takes away the agency and participation from the reader, or that it might be a distraction, but what I really think it does is make reading more accessible to people who either have a harder time reading, or don’t get the same things out of the experience as others. If it helps bridge the gap between someone’s affinity for reading, I think it can only be a good thing.
Why Not More?
So, why don’t we see more audio adaptations or companions to comics? The easy, and most logical answer is money. It’s always money.
I think where comics can explore this still fertile ground is by doing exactly what The Sandman did. Take an existing, marketable classic, and build something around that. It gives the publisher a reason to put out new editions of the book. The demand for that book will be higher because of this new experience. And because it’s already a proven hit, it essentially sells itself.
GraphicAudio is a studio that adapts a lot of audiobooks for novels. They’ve even done so for the first two volumes of Ms. Marvel, as well as a slew of Vault Comics titles. They may not have the big A-list Hollywood names attached, but they adapt the stories with just as much passion and all-around production. These publishers need to be funneling more money into studios like GraphicAudio.
Imagine audiobooks for Daredevil: Born Again, Chris Claremont’s X-Men, or even Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Panther. Already popular comics with a new flair. I think it’s a lost opportunity to not explore this.
I don’t envision ever getting audio versions of monthly comics. It’s simply too much of a monetary risk in real-time. And that’s okay. But giving it to a tried and true popular story just adds new life and wrinkles to the legacy of that story, and brings new eyes to it that otherwise may not have been aware or concerned about its existence.
I even think it’s a more bankable route than a full television or movie adaptation for a comic book. Or at the very least, it’s a good testing ground for an audience’s desire. When you can keep the integrity of the original story intact without changing things, but add aspects of movies and television by including audio, you can see more clearly how something might fare if it were adapted. But it can also stand on its own as well. I’m of the mind that not every single thing needs to be adapted into a movie or television show. This could be a dope middle ground.
It pains me to admit that I’ve gone down this rabbit hole because of Batman, but when I really think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Batman was a pioneer in American comics, and with Batman Unburied, he’s spearheading himself into another new medium, inspiring ideas about how we can push the envelope even further. I can’t be mad at that. All I ask for is that if we do get more audiobooks for comics, they aren’t overwhelmingly dedicated to the Dark Knight.
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The post ‘Batman Unburied’: The Bridge to Audio Comic Books appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that I have a weakness for period piece films, may it be drama, romance, horror, action, etc. I have a particular fondness for everything Jane Austen. Color me surprised when I find there’s a fairly-new book (2020) that gives Pride and Prejudice vibes with a twist. Now, this book has been adapted into a new film by Bleecker Street (Wild Mountain Thyme). Mr. Malcolm’s List is a welcomed addition to the 19th-century rebirth that we have been enjoying as of late.
Mr. Malcolm’s List is directed by Emma Holly Jones in her first feature-length film and written by the author of the titular novel Suzanne Allain. Jones also directed the short film version of Mr. Malcolm’s List (2019). The story opens in 19th century England. Ms. Julia Thistlewaite is being courted by Mr. Jeremy Malcolm, one of London’s most eligible bachelors.
After one night at the opera, Julia is jilted by Mr. Malcolm after failing to meet an item on his list of requirements for a bride. Humiliated and determined to exact revenge, Julia convinces her friend Selina Dalton to play the role of his ideal match. What started as a game of payback turns into a messy, romantic game of who’s courting whom? The film stars Zawe Ashton (Velvet Buzzsaw), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù (His House), Theo James (Divergent), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Haunting of Bly Manor), and Ashley Park (Emily in Paris).
Ever since the global phenomenon of Bridgerton, people realize how enticing, cool, and successful it can be to put people of color in roles that have, historically, been portrayed by white people. The cast is everything in this film. Move over Mr. Darcy because Mr. Malcolm, portrayed by Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, is the new heartthrob of the 19th-century romance. He plays the role perfectly.
You may call him arrogant at times, but you never fully dislike him. There’s an air about him that is pleasant and lovable. There’s also sadness and loneliness that you connect with right away. Zawe Ashton, as Julia Thistlewaite, played her part well. So well in fact that I believed her to be a bad actress. That is not the case. Her character is just the most ridiculous person ever and should be seen as comic relief.
The message was delayed but eventually received. It was great to see Freida Pinto as Selina Dalton. I know she’s been working, but I haven’t seen her in a film since 2011’s Immortals. She portrays the witty friend with ease. She has chemistry with all of her co-stars. The only odd man out was Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who played Lord Cassidy, Julia’s family and friend of Mr. Malcolm, who is part of the ruse from the beginning. He could be cut out very early on. He doesn’t do a bad job in the film — his character is just unnecessary. He is almost as unnecessary as the help, who serves as bad comic relief.
In the beginning, Mr. Malcolm’s List is very reminiscent of the popular shows and films that have come before it. For that, it is a bit tedious in the beginning. The voiceover parts should have been cut from the beginning because you know people will bring up Bridgerton every time. At this point, it’s over-familiar.
The film does have an enjoyable story with a full arc of romance, sabotage, and lessons learned. The resolution came far too quickly. All was forgiven, and love was ignited in minutes it seems. What was also missing was a sense of the space they were inhabiting. The cinematography was lacking where the visual aspects of the story could have been improved with camera angles and a variety of wide shots.
I enjoyed director Jones’ approach to keeping it simple with the clothes, decor, and manners. Nothing was too over the top apart from a feather headpiece used for comical effect. Even the color pallets of the film seemed muted and matte-like to keep perspective. I was not overwhelmed by the costumes, but they were very period-appropriate and added a nice layer to the characters.
It was all very practical, which was nice because it left it to the actors to bring out the best in each scene. It was also nice to have the only risque thing done is a kiss or a woman being alone with a man for a moment. Sometimes in romance period pieces, it’s the simple things that draw the audience in.
Mr. Malcolm’s List is a friendly church hug that gives you comfort and a nice smile at the end. Another one to add to the collection when you want to watch something that encapsulates its original text with warmth and pleasantry.
Mr. Malcolm’s List will be in theaters on July 1, 2022.