Only the best for comic dystopia...

Hey guys! Missed a full week for the first time this year. Not too shabby for me, actually; I've almost done more posts in 3 months than I have over the course of 2008 - 2010 (scary...). Other projects took precedent and I found I had less to blog about while I was at work. I had slipped back into my consumer role instead of remaining a reviewer. Let me tell you, it is tough to keep this up regularly AND keep the quality of the posts high. It may seem like a cop out, but I would rather not post if I don't have something worth posting. I don't want to fall back onto 'Top 10 list of X' or any other trick done to keep my numbers up. There is nothing wrong with lists in blogs; I have seen other blogs who rely on them too much when there is a lack of actual content though. I just don't want to be 'that guy'...

Anyways, onto the real deal. As an avid fan of graphic novels and collected editions of comic, I have quite the collection (probably not as big as you might think; that crap is EXPENSIVE...) which grows each year. And one of my favorites is Kingdom Come. In a nutshell, it's about DC superheroes in a future where the tensions of super beings are nearly bursting and the aging heroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman...) come out of retirement to restore sanity to society before it is too late. Bad stuff happens, lots of heroes die, but in the end, order is restore and all is (relatively...) well. This graphic novel was done by the most excellent Alex Ross (check earlier comic posts for some Ross love [photo realism, baby...]...) and Mark Waid, who doesn't have the rep of Ross, but has been in the business for quite some time and holds weight on his own. Following the success of Kingdom Come, Ross wanted to do a similar situation with the Marvel Universe, albeit different enough that it didn't turn into Marvel's Kingdom Come. The end product was the Earth X series (spanning across the titles Earth X, Universe X and Paradise X...), which was piloted by Ross, writer Jim Kruger, and interior artist John Paul Leon...

This series (unlike Kingdom Come...) is too large and expanding to encompass into a paragraph or so, but it does break down a bit like it's DC predecessor: Society is spinning out of control (EVERYONE has superpowers now...), no one in the current generation is stepping up to reign it all in, so over the course of the series more and more old heroes step up to do what they do best; save the world. However, this series spans the ENTIRE Marvel Universe, hopping into alternate realities and possible futures and uses celestial beings, such as the Asgardian Gods, Galactus, Mephisto, and even Death itself. It is/was a treat for comic trivia nuts out there, but I would imagine that it was sort of confusing or overwhelming for the casual reader (this may be why it was not as successful as Kingdom Come...) since there is so much to take in. Even though they do recap the heroes origins and how previous events played out (at least those that lead to the current story...), there is still too much to take in for some...

That being said, I love the series. Not in the same way as I love Kingdom Come (that was a glorious love note to the DC Universe...), but the Earth X series is a great ride and I AM a Marvel trivia buff (specifically trivia that pertains to Marvel circa 1993 and before, which is what the X series relates to...). Because of the grand scope of Earth X and the look of the individuals, I have given some thought to who would fit into these aged hero roles if (in my own fantasy world...) they ever wanted to make it into a movie. They never will (much like the never will for Kingdom Come...) actually make a film of this convoluted and niche storyline, but it does get my movie imagination running to think of it. So let's get to it...

Captain America - Bruce Willis: In this reality, Cap is roughly 100 years old and fights for a dream that no one believes in anymore. He has become jaded over the many years fighting what he sees as an ever-losing battle, but fighting for the American Dream is all he knows. I picked Bruce Willis as he plays the action hero type well and retains this ability even as he ages (Sin City, Red, Live Free or Die Hard...). Actually, the real bottom line is that Bruce is a great actor and has a knack for playing this kind of character...

Iron Man - Anthony Hopkins: Tony Stark has sealed himself off inside his mansion as he is the only person left without 'mutant' super powers and has rebuilt robot versions of the Avengers as they have died in combat. He is a paranoid old man, trying to hold on to a past world that has been long gone. Mr. Hopkins is a fantastic actor who can play a wide variety of roles. Playing a grizzled and paranoid Tony Stark would be a cinch as well as a treat to see. Several of Anthony's characters (Zorro, Hannibal, etc...) have been given an obsessive quality which would serve him well as an aged Stark...

Namor - Robert Patrick: Cursed by Franklin Richards for killing the Human Torch, half of The Submariner's body burns without killing him when he is in contact with the air. The only thing that can stop it is constant submersion into the ocean, which prevents him from interacting with the surface world without constant, agonizing pain. I have thought for some time (ok, shortly after T2 came out...) that Robert Patrick had the chops to be Namor and he has aged gracefully enough that he would fit the demeanor of an aged Namor. He's sinister and sly enough that it would be quite fun and a pleasure to see to say the least...

Black Panther/Panther-Man - Tony Todd: Due to the population of Earth being mutated into super beings, Black Panther had been mutated into an actually animal man: along with the power and savagery of a panther, his head now is that of his namesake. He still rules Wakanda with Storm by his side as queen, as well as with Hank McCoy (the Beast...). As this would be completely CGI, you need a great, powerful voice to go along with the Panther-Man. You could pick several mighty voices for this (Michael Dorn, Keith David, etc...), but my pick is Tony Todd, a veteran of many horror and thriller movies. He has the right delivery and tone to match the kind of role while adding an unknown and unexpected quality to the character...

Spiderman/Peter Parker - John Ritter: After the people of Earth all gain powers, Spiderman retires and is revealed to be mild-mannered Peter Parker. He lives a life of despondency as no one needs a man with spider powers if everyone can just save themselves. At this point in the story, Mary Jane has died, but after they had a daughter, May (more on her in a minute...). This will be one of the few instances where I will pick a dead actor, but I think this one fits well. Before John's death, he played a slightly dumpy dad on a prime time sitcom so this juxtaposition fits well. Mr. Ritter has always felt like an everyman to me, and that's really what Spiderman should be (you know, minus the spider powers...). John proved to his audiences that, while he may not be one of the great actors, he is a solid one and gave consistent and enjoyable performances whenever he was on the screen...

May 'Mayday' Parker/Spidergirl - Olivia Wilde: The daughter of Spiderman and Mary Jane, she inherited her father's powers, if not his sense of responsibility. Before the events of Earth X take place, May has become bonded with the Venom symbiot, but professes to her father that she is in control, rather than the suit controlling her. I'll admit it: I picked Olivia Wilde after seeing Tron: Legacy and thinking that she was great in it. She is athletic enough to fill the role as well as being able to portray the attitude of the semi-estranged daughter of a super hero legend. The fit feels natural...

The Skull - Tom Felton: Integral to the beginning and the end of the Earth X series, this young teen is the most powerful telepath to exist. When his powers manifested, it destroyed every active telepath on Earth (Prof. X, Jean Grey, etc...) as well as activated a need to conquer and control. He took the Punisher's symbol, painted red, and set out on a crusade to conquer everyone on the planet. Ignore what you have seen earlier today as it was a spoiler, but now it is gone. This one is kind of a cheat as Tom Felton (you know him as Draco Malfoy...) already played a sadistic blonde teen, but honestly I couldn't think of anyone better. He's got that domineering bully stereotype down pat...

Wolverine - Danny DeVito: In this reality, Wolverine and Jean Grey left the X-Men after Xavier's death and started a life together. This was mainly due to the fact that Cyclops was in love with the Phoenix Force rather than Jean herself. Unfortunately, once there was no need for the X-Men, Wolverine began leading a life of laze and the 'happy' couple began to resemble the cast of 'All in the Family' rather than hardened heroes. I picked DeVito because, well, look at him. That's Danny DeVito. Period. He's belligerent, he's uncouth, he's short, he's heavy. DeVito...

I will stop there as this post has gone MUCH longer than anticipated. I will create a second (or more...) post for other character/actor combination for this same topic. But, for now, I hope you've enjoyed this beginning piece of fantasy mumbo-jumbo. If you are familiar with the Earth X series and wish to add your own thoughts, feel free to. I'd love to know who would fit where...

Hee-Haw ::clank, clank:: Hee-Haw...

Hitting it early this week with a video game review and an odd little game it is. In the 80's, the video game field was dominated by a few main types of game: You had your action platformers (Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Castlevania, Metroid, etc...), your top down adventure/puzzle games (Legend of Zelda, Bomberman, Final Fantasy, Fester's Quest, etc...), and your various sports simulators (Pole Position, Tecmo Bowl, Jordan vs. Bird: One on One, Excitebike, etc...). Granted, that is an over simplification of the field, but an appropriate one never the less. However, there were a handful of games to break this mold do something uniquely different (yeah, I said it...). One game in particular is a great love from my childhood (you too, tall guy...) and that game is the simply titled M.U.L.E...

M.U.L.E. is an economic strategy game with cooperative elements. The setting is that the players are settlers (aliens, humans, even robots...) on a distant planet and need to not only make a good settlement for yourself, but also increase the overall productivity and value of the entire colony. The game play goes as follows: you are granted a plot of land to which you will work for a resource of your choice (Mining for Smithore, Crystite for Crystite, Energy for Energy, and Farm for Food...); to do this, you purchase a M.U.L.E. (Multiple Use Labor Element) and outfit said M.U.L.E accordingly and place it in the plot. After this point, you can hunt the mountain wampus (???), assay the land for crystite levels, or go to the pub for gambling (this ends the turn...). The turns are timed so you must be quick to make sure you get everything done you need/want to. After this, the plots' resources are gathered and the players take part in the auction phase. Each resource is bartered for 'cash' from either the store or the players who are in need of a particular resource. Resources can also be bought from the store (if it has any to spare...). Lacking particular resources causes bad things to happen during game play (less time in a turn, higher M.U.L.E. prices, etc...). Finally, the leader board is displayed, showing the ranking order of each of the players. Scores are determined by land amount, total number of resources, and cash level. The turn then starts again. Over the course of the game, players can receive beneficial or detrimental messages that affect everybody or just an individual player (Pirate raid the store, M.U.L.E. goes crazy, solar flares, receive an inheritance, etc...). The total point level at the end of the last round determines how well your colony has done and how often supply ships will return to your colony with supplies...

I first experienced this game in the 90's after moving back to Maryland and befriending my buddy, Brian (that's two shout outs in one post, sir...). His dad had it and it was an excellent breath of fresh air after playing games like Super Mario and Tetris religiously. The strangest part of it, even at the tender age of 8 or 9, I really got into it (as did Brian and his siblings...). We got into this strange habit as the messages at the beginning of the turns scrolled across the screen (with dial-up buffering slowness, it seemed...), we would read the messages like a jerky robot. For some reason, even though there wasn't a lot of hilarity in that, that aspect of the game stuck with me almost more so than any other part of it (only slightly more so than the 'walking in place' glitch during the auction scenes...). I would even speculate that my love for complex and intricate board games can be traced to extensive playing of M.U.L.E. It was definitely my gateway game (suck it, Settlers of Catan...)...

The competition in M.U.L.E. is a much more cerebral challenge and requires a different skill set than what is required for platformers or puzzle games. In effect, this game played much more like a board game than a 'standard' video game. The level of resource management and economics within M.U.L.E. had not been seen before in a video game and, while the concept did not take off from here, the ability to effectively create a multiplayer game on the NES and that you could create a dynamic and interesting game in this era video games without the need for enemies flying at you, laser blasts, or power ups. While very easy to get into, M.U.L.E. is a layered, if not complex, 8-bit game whose influence can be seen in other games, video or otherwise down the line. It is the grand daddy to many games of its genre, even if they don't realize it (Will Wright even dedicated The Sims to its creator!)...

A last point: M.U.L.E has proven popular enough (even in cult-ish status...) that individuals have created their own clones of M.U.L.E. to varying success. My personal favorite: Planet M.U.L.E. It has excellent slick graphics and the people who created it really took the time to fine tune the details. I very much enjoy the modern remix of the M.U.L.E theme at the beginning (I do enjoy some techno...) and everything I have played with it, it is a perfect recreation of the mechanics and game play. If you are interested, please click here and give Planet M.U.L.E. a download. You won't be sorry (but your free time will...)...

The Midnight Sons ride on...

It's time I did another comic review and pulling from my most often read binder-o-comics, what do I come across? Spirits of Vengeance #2 from 1992. I came across this particular issue before the tender age of 10 and, due to the local librarian being a friend of the family, she would give me a bunch of comics when they cycled their stock (yes, my Lodi library branch used to carry semi-current issues of comics back in the 90's...). I have a bad feeling most of their 'stock' was recycled back then, but at the time, I was just stoked to get free comics. My copy even still has the check-out date stickers still attached (if anyone cares...). Enough pointless nostalgia; on to the issue...

A little backstory for this one; during the 90's, Ghost Rider was revamped and rebooted with a new human host (Dan Ketch...) and a trendy, 90's look (read: bulkier and spikey...). This new Ghost Rider proved so popular that a whole line of comics dedicated to the darker characters of the Marvel Universe sprung up (at least for a couple years...). We had the Nightstalkers (Blade, Frank Drake and Hannibal King...), a revamped, edgier and hipper Morbius, the Living Vampire (who you have seen as an on-again, off-again Spiderman villain...), the aforementioned Spirits of Vengeance (Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, and [ugh...] Vengeance...), and some fairly obscure or non-characters known as the Darkhold Redeemers (look 'em up if you are honestly interested...). Their biggest thing was an event that put them head to head (with Dr. Strange backing them up...) with the demon queen Lilith who wished to plunge the world into darkness. In the end, these 'Midnight Sons' saved the day with little losses, but none of these individual series (save Ghost Rider...) never attained the awesomeness that was attained at this time in Marvel history. The art was all solid (we're talking pre-Chapter 11 Marvel here...), most of the characters were dynamic, gritty, and very cool, the storylines and dialogue weren't forced compared to most other comics, and the whole of them (especially Spirits of Vengeance...) felt very natural on the whole. I still have this feeling even today; nearly 20 years after the issues debuted...

Anyways, onto the issue itself. We begin with a hitchhiker getting nabbed by our villain of the issue, Steel Vengeance (have we picked up on the theme of 90's comics yet?), and killed so she could paint with his blood (why else?). She is the sister of another Ghost Rider villain, Steel Wind, who had been rendered comatose due to GR's penance stare (a little dab'll do ya...). After the killing, we skip to Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze (the 'first' Ghost Rider [don't ask...]...) racing towards Blaze's carnival where his family is atop of fiery motorcycles (it was the 90's...). After getting there, Ghost Rider falls into a coma-esque state where his flames went out but he remained in skeletal form (read: a skeleton in biker gear...). While Blaze was checking in with his carnival family, Steel Vengeance showed up and started blasting the carnival with her assault motorcycle (they never say that, but it's the only thing I can call it...). Blaze is knocked out, so she proceeds to beat up on the non-responsive GR and getting increasingly frustrated doing so. Eventually, Blaze awakens and demands of his family to locate his gun (did I mention it spews Hellfire rounds? Cause it does...) and, while he searches, the carneys distract her with a small TANK(!) and the acrobat midget nearly gets killed fighting her. Blaze shows up at that point (gun...blazing...) and takes Steel Vengeance down and is about to kill her, but Ghost Rider awakens and wants to give her his Penance Stare (tm...). This attack fails, as she has sold her soul for power and is unaffected by GR's stare. She breaks away with the Rider and Blaze in hot pursuit and ends up driving off a cliff, swearing to return (go with it...). We end with a panel of Lilith and a clairvoyant servant watching the action from a city with a dark and pithy remark...

Bottom line, this is by far one of my favorite comic book issues to own. I actually own two copies; my beat up one from when I was a kid and a better condition one that I keep with the rest of the Spirits line. The art is fantastic and comes from a time in comic art that was nearly the last of its era before the Chapter 11 bit. The interior art is penciled by Adam Kubert, while the cover was done by his brother, Andy. These guys' father is the well-known comic artist Joe Kubert (another day, another time...), so good comic art is in their blood. I have a lot of the Kubert's issues (as well as their contemporaries...) and this one doesn't disappoint. The story itself made me want to hunt down other issues as a kid to see who Steel Wind was, who this Lilith character was at the end, why Dan Ketch was missing INSIDE of Ghost Rider, and why was Johnny Blaze a carney? The ending is silly (just keep driving but away from the ravine OR use some of those spikes to hang on to the wall...), but whatever; it doesn't detract for me. Also, I have to mention the layout of the issue as I draw a great deal of inspiration from, not only this issue, but others of this era of Marvel as it's very well done. The pacing is very well done and I aspire to that in my own work...

I recommend this particular (and several others of this time...) for their artistic quality if not the story. The art itself is very well proportioned (give or take...) and lends itself to believability of the characters. Ghost Rider, Blaze, even Steel Wind to a point, while products of the time period they were released, they have a high level of sophistication in their design and realism in their quality. If you want to know what the Witte would aspire to be like (at least in the realm of comic creation...), look no further than Spirits of Vengeance vol. 1 #2. It's definitely worth your time to pick it up...

(Disclaimer: The third image is not from Spirits of Vengeance #2. I just liked the picture and the quote...)

Ah, faeries, dancing under the moon\ A Druid land, a Druid tune!

Falling behind in general, but chew on this, non-believers...

Day 6

A much better morning, indeed. Not only was it comfy and dry, it came with a full traditional Irish breakfast (with an amazing view...). And when I mean full, I mean FULL. Check this:
-cereal...
-toast...
-juice...
-French pressed coffee...
-English style bacon...
-sausage links...
-an egg (fried...)...
-black pudding...
-scones...
-tomato...
Damn, that's good...

The itinerary consisted of three goals:
1)See Queen Maeve's grave...
2)See W.B. Yeats grave...
3)Get to Tara's friend Catherine's home in Strabane...

So, first things first: Queen Maeve's grave. After finding the area, getting to the site was a challenge in-and-of itself. I can imagine that many of the pagan persuasion would consider the trek up the steep (very in some parts...) hill as a pilgrimage of sorts, and I don't blame them. I felt I had accomplished something once I reached the top...

The Queen's grave itself was more like a cross between a tomb and a cairn (size plus materials used...). Regardless what the monument was, I was suitably impressed and satisfied with the site/sight. It was at this point I did two things a stereotypical, ignorant tourist would do. One, I ignored the sign saying, 'Do Not Climb the Grave' and went to the top. This, again, was worth it. To see a stormy panorama of Ireland stretched all around me; the feeling was nothing short of magical. I'm not much for religion, but it was as close as I've come in a long time. And two: I took stones from the grave. I really shouldn't have, but they were small and not all for me. I can now say I have 'The Bones of Maeve' (By the way, if you don't know who Queen Maeve was, look her up...)...

On to Yeats. I only know this figure by reputation, as I am not usually for poetry. I do know W.B. Yeats was, and is, a highly respected and regarded author and poet in the literary world. After my experience at Maeve's, one might think I'd have a similar experience at Yeats' grave. I didn't...

So, with the two major sites to see out of the way, it was off to see Tara's friend, Catherine, in Strabane for the weekend. Catherine knows Tara through an online RPG within the Pern universe (years before the term 'MMORPG' was popularized...), as well as another Irish native named Marion. Catherine, and her husband Colin, were gracious enough to open their home to us free of charge for three days, so I was looking forward to getting to know some new people fairly well (the two bottles of wine we brought should help...)...

It was quite a long drive to Strabane, so Tara and I had to amuse ourselves. Our main topic: concepting a new addition to the Tycoon computer game series, Wine Tycoon. Due to our love of wine these days (thank you Ithaca and the Finger Lakes...), it was an easy topic for us to jump into, but a very in depth idea once we got going. We think we covered everything: Grape types, soil content, hazards, equipments, world regions, customer needs, and a bunch of other things as well. To put it in perspective, we talked about the whole idea for over an hour and a half. That feels like a long time to brainstorm a computer game...

Meeting Catherine was neat, I'd have to say. While we waited for her husband, Colin, to return home from work, we played the get-to-know-you game. Apparently, Catherine knows more about me than I could ever realize (she follows Tara's blogging...). She made us a nice dinner and we actually went through three bottles of wine between the four of us. Being tired, we made light conversation till evening's end, sharing a few more drinks and then retiring. Good people, though it's shaping up to be an alcohol-filled stop. It behooves me to mention that our hosts are 35 and 42, so their tolerance is a bit higher than Tara's or mine. Hang on, liver; it's going to be a bumpy ride. Zzzz...

June 18, 2009
Nicholas C. Witte

Enjoy these other pictures of the day:

Insert Irish Joke Here...

Day 5

The Witte is grumpy. The weather was unbelievably bad last night. Combine a leaky tent, an absorbent sleeping bag, wet clothes, and little sleep, grumpy is really an understatement. To top it all off, the car had a flat tire due to a slow leak (yet another victim of Ireland's deceptively treacherous roads...). Thankfully, by 9:00 AM, we had a new tire and were fairly none the worse for wear. I also discovered how widespread (and parasitic...) Tim Horton's truly is...

It seems ironic then (or at least weirdly coincidental...) that we would see some of the more depressing parts of Irish history. Lunch was taken in, after yet another (however unappreciated this day...) picturesque example of Ireland's landscape, at the memorial of the Famine Walk. For those unacquainted with the event, in the 1840's (during the Great Potato Famine...), 600 starving Irish walked 12 miles to beg for food from the lord of the land, and were subsequently denied. 200 or more died on the return trip, hence the memorial. Many, many years later, Nelson Mandela made the same walk to honor the dead and for all the symbolism that the distance meant. You may think it's a little odd to stop and have a meal at the site of dead and starved Irishmen. It is...

Our journey took us to the town of Murrisk, where another Famine memorial had been erected. This one, rather than the standard, respectful cross monument, was a stylized, artistic bronze ship, laced with floating skeletons. I have to say, I took the standard memorial much more serious than the artistic one. To each their own...

Due to the inclement weather the previous night, a B&B was in order and boy, were we looking forward to it. We spent at least an hour hunting one down on our route (probably more than an hour...) and we finally settled on one in Drumcliffe (the town W.B. Yeats is buried in...). A little pricey, but after last night's disaster, the B&B comforted us, both physically and psychologically. Hopefully, the next day will be better than the last...

June 17, 2009
Nicholas C. Witte
Guinness Count: 4

P.S. European TV has lots of boobs...

As usual, more bonus pictures for your enjoyment...

DROP IT!!!

Let's dial it back one more year to 1987. Aretha Franklin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a squirrel shut down the Stock Exchange by burrowing in a phone line (awesome...), both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted to great success, and Paul Verhoeven unveiled his dystopic crime film, Robocop (also to great success...) set in a slightly futuristic, crime-ridden Detroit (at least the future as viewed through 80's style Ray-Bans...) and features the aforementioned (and quite possibly the most famous...) cyborg crime fighter laying down the law...

We enter a world (set in an ambiguous near future...) where the crime rate in Detroit is basically an epidemic, cops are being killed every week and are threatening to strike, and the overall management of law enforcement is being handled by the mega corporation, OCP. It is revealed that the company is planning on releasing an automated policing unit as the human police force is seen as unable to handle the job. After a disastrous unveiling of the ED-209 (an AT-ATs smaller cousin...), the Robocop program in accepted and begins production. This leads us to our tragic hero, Murphy, who is gunned down the first day on the job in Detroit (kind of a reverse to the cliché'...). His still (barely...) living remains are claimed by OCP and integrated into the Robocop hardware, allowing a human brain to operate what amounts to a man-sized tank. Robocop then goes about the city and prevents many crimes, both big and small (ripping off a convenience store [look for old Marvel comics in this scene...] to stopping a hostage situation...). Eventually, the human side of Robocop reasserts itself and he begins remembering his old life, his old family, and those who brutally murdered him. So, after hospitalizing one hoodlum and tracking down another gang member of tried to kill him, Robocop busts into a cocaine processing plant (god, I love the 80's...) where the rest of cop killers are. He nearly kills the leader of the gang (the dad from That 70's Show...) before being reminded that he is a cop first and cannot take the law into his own hands. Also revealed is that the head guy at OCP is the money behind the crime lords in Detroit, which leads Robocop to attempt to arrest the head OCP guy. Unfortunately, a protocol in Robocop’s programming prevents him from arresting OCP members and a functional ED-209 was waiting to take him out. Fortunately, Robocop outsmarted the machine by toppling it down the stairs but was then greeted by the remaining police force (under OCPs payroll...) and was shot up, forcing a retreat to the steel mill where he was nearly killed at the beginning. OCP guy hires the rest of the cop killing gang, arms them with futuristic grenade launchers, and sets out to kill our hero. But, through cunning and smidgeon of good luck, the gang is whittled down to the leader. Robocop becomes trapped under scrap metal, but the leader becomes cocky and gets close enough for Robocop to stab him in the neck with a spike, killing him. Afterwards, Robocop returns to OCP to deal with the money man. Revealing proof to the board that he killed the creator of Robocop, the villain tries to take the owner of OCP hostage. But, the owner fires the money man which removes the OCP protocol and allows him to take him down by blasting him out the window. As Robocop leaves, the owner asks his name and his simple reply is, 'Murphy'...

This movie is a science fiction staple for me and I pass it on to anyone who enjoys the genre. Robocop is more subtle science fiction though as it takes place in a near future, it is based in a recognizable city, and there is no mention of space travel, aliens, and the like. It is especially fun for those who dig realistic fiction and dystopia vs. utopia universes. While the contrasts between the two aren't as pronounced as in other films (The Matrix, Demolition Man, etc...), it is a more logical progression into the future as there are no laser guns, no flying cars, etc. It's just regular people being put down by 'The Man'. Because of the amount of bloodshed and bullets, this typically gets lumped in with the general action movie genre (due to the aforementioned sci-fi subtleties...) but that is a bit of over simplification of the kind of movie Robocop is...

It warrants mentioning that Robocop can be perceived as an early pop culture champion of the cyberpunk movement. Let's look at the facts: Robocop exists on an Earth where a giant corporation wants to change their environment (read: Detroit...) to fit their ideal of perfection and go to many lengths to do it. Murphy is first a normal working Joe (read: lower class...) and then is dropped further in status (read: near dead...) before being changed by the corporation to bear their standard into the future. Robocop then turns against the 'overall' wishes of the corporation and becomes an autonomous unit, capable of free thought, judgment and actions. He is still bound by his prime directives (Serve the public trust, Protect the innocent, and Uphold the law...), but is able to act more heroically, meaning more compassionate and human. Granted, we don't really get to see this until the second movie, but the principle holds true. He's a plugged-in rebel who fights for the good of the public and that makes him a cyberpunk hero in my book...

One last point of note: There have been several articles written to point out the biblical metaphors within Robocop. I've read a couple of them and can (sort of...) see where they are coming from. List them in the comments what you picked up on...