Burning Archet, Burning Phoenix, and Cold Offense

Daily Ramble 238: Burning Archet, Burning Phoenix, and Cold Offense

My LOTRO experience moved through the end of the tutorial yesterday and we finished off the Battle of Archet. Some good friends were lost and the town took some significant damage but we survived to fight another day. In my Modern Marvel reading the heroes lived as well to fight another day after the Phoenix kicked their butts pretty easily. Finally, my Angels are back to their old home gameplay and it’s sad to see such a good team struggling.

The Battle of Archet

Yesterday, Galadriel showed Kat and I some hints of what may be in store for us as we journey through Middle Earth and from what we saw, we need to stay on our path to protect the weak from the evils of of the Nazgul and Cargul. And from the look of things, it seemed to me like things were certainly heading in the wrong direction. Kat and I will have to work hard to correct that. In the more immediate situation, we decided to stay the night at the Hunter’s Lodge so we could be ready for the coming battle.

It was a good thing too because the Blackwolds attacked that night. They had brought in not just Calder Cob but the men of Angmar and the defenders of Archet were struggling to defend themselves by the time we made it to the gates. Actually, many of the buildings were on fire and things were not looking good.

Jon, Kat, and I fought a ton of brigands. Kat showed off her Warden Gambits by not only causing significant injury to the Blackwold troops, but by ensuring she was healthy by using her shield to good measure. With my guidance, she took down Otto the Brigand and saved many residents of the town.

But then Calder Cob shows up with a couple of Cargul. The wraiths once again call to Amdir and because of the injury he took from the morgul-blade when we were escaping captivity, he’s helpless to resist them…poor Amdir followed the evil servants most likely to his doom.

And as Amdir leaves in a trance, Calder Cob strikes down Captain Brackenbrook. If only he’d listened to me this time rather than ignoring all my warnings. At least he got to reconcile with his son, and once we were freed of the Cargul influence, Kat put a spear through that traitor’s gut.

With the Cargul gone and Calder Cob dead, the Blackwold’s were routed. We then had to assess the damage.

Nearly every building in town had been burned to some extent and there were defenders down everywhere. The biggest loss was Captain Brackenbrook, I just wish he would have listened to Kat and I earlier – we could have been more prepared.

We also lost Amdir…

I’m not sure what the Cargul have in mind for him but I can’t imagine it’s any good.

Next time Kat and I see what we can do to help the town in the aftermath of the fighting and start thinking about our next step in our journey through Middle Earth.

First Look at Secret Avengers #26

Operation Phoenix: Part 1 by Rick Remender and Renato Guedes. Published by Marvel Camics in 2012.

Featuring Thor, Beast, Valkyrie, War Machine, Captain Britain, Vision, Protector, and Ms. Marvel, this is a pretty potent team. And this is the team that has been sent out to confront the Phoenix before she even gets close to Earth. If they can stop this force of nature there’s really no need for the Avengers and X-Men to fight each other. But of course this is a force of nature so it’s not easily stopped.

The scary part about the Phoenix Force is that it really doesn’t care or think about any of the people or worlds it destroys. We see it decimate the entire Dre’Lnn civilization without a second thought as the force continues it’s trek towards Earth. And then our heroes take a stand and confront the unstoppable.

Beast developed some kinda gizmo that was supposed to contain the Phoenix energy as long as Thor could distract the creature and War Machine could get close enough to turn the device on. At least that was the plan…the Phoenix proved too powerful for even Thor to slow down and he and War Machine are hurt bad before retreating. Captain Britain makes a second attempt at using the device but is only saved from his failure by the Kree luring the Phoenix in their direction.

I’m not exactly sure what the Kree have in mind (I don’t think their plan included saving our heroes) but they somehow use the Phoenix Force to bring Captain Mar-Vel back to life. He shows up on the Kree homeworldand it looks like he’s enlisting Ms. Marvel and Protector in some kind of plan to keep the Phoenix alive and to defeat the Avengers.

This is really turning into a battle royale with the Kree, the Phoenix Force, the X-Men, and the Avengers all on their own sides.

I’m enjoying the build up and with this issue’s venture into the cosmic realm I’m getting more of a sense of how all encompassing this Marvel event is. It’s definitely more than just the Avengers vs. the X-Men.

With that said, I rate this issue a B+ and am definitely looking forward to the continuation of this storyline.

This issue can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book retailer.

Angels take on the Rays

At the quarter point of the season I see the Angels as a team on the cusp. They’ve certainly shown signs of good play. At times, the offense has been terrific with Trout and Simmons providing a solid foundation and support from Upton and Ohtani. With improvement or at least regression to their typical production I think Kinsler, Cozart, and Calhoun can really push things in the right direction as well.
As for the rotation, there have been some great signs that the starters have settled down and are starting to shine. Ohtani has been a standout and we’ve seen solid outings from Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano. Tyler Skaggs has really been the surprise leader in my book with a 3.07 ERA and 46 strike outs. But then I also look at rookie Jaime Barria who’s gone 3–1 with a 2.13 ERA and see an up-n-coming star. I just wish they were able to pitch further into the game, 6 innings out of a starter is good but I’d like to see at least 7 so the beleaguered bullpen didn’t have to work so hard.
And that leads me to the biggest issue I see with the team – the bullpen. These guys could use some help. At this point in the season, every time I see Scioscia pull out the starter, I groan. I really don’t trust any of these guys right now since it seems without a 4 run lead, they end up giving the game to whoever we’re playing. And with Keynan Middleton on the DL I worry we don’t even really have a closer since none of the relievers seem to want to step up and distinguish themselves.
It’s a bit over 1/4 through the season and the team is doing well, I just know they could easily be doing better and they’re already doing well at 25–18.

As far as doing better, I really though Tyler Skaggs was on his way to doing well yesterday but even with his strong start, the bullpen did him no favors. He only gave up one run over 6 innings but then the relief corps gave up 6 in 3. The only highlight was Ohtani hitting a home run in the 9th and since that was the only scoring the Angels put together, he gets my Player of the Game.

This team really needs to shake off this home game curse…particularly because I’m going to the game tonight and am hoping to see a victory.