Got hit with random inspiration for an Alan Wake themed card. The reminder text makes it look super wordy, but I suppose that this would likely be higher rarity I could have done it without that. Oh well, still like this design. (This probably counts as Alan Wake II spoilers, so I'll tag it for that.

I mean, not explicitly. I was booping everyone I got a boop notif from. Sometimes more than once by accident.

I love Sentinels of the Multiverse. For those unaware, it is a cooperative card game where you play as a team of heroes against a villain who "pilots themself". It's set in the fictional comic universe (as in comics are fictional, and the existence of these comics is also largely fictional, you know, a meta fiction scenario) of Sentinel Comics which comes complete with all the comic book tropes and story lines you can find in Marvel and DC. They have amazing character concepts, each with their unique approach to playing the game. I love everything about it. They ended with a major multiverse threatening story line before calling that the end of the card game. Then, a few years back they announced that they would be re-releasing the game with some streamlined rules and updated illustrations. Okay, cool. I can get behind that. The first set released, not significantly different than how the original game played, but there are a few less ambiguities. That's always nice. Then they announced the first expansion for the definitive edition. This time with a new hero and new villains. I wasn't thrilled that they were adding new content when there was no indication this would be anything but a remaster of the original game, but it was also exciting that we would be getting new content for a game that I believed had ended. So a bit of a wash on that one and the excitement for new stuff won out for me. Now we are in the waiting phase of the second expansion. This one also brings with it a new hero (hero pair to be precise) and new villains. There was something that seemed off to me during the fundraising campaign and then as time went and I couldn't shake that feeling I kept looking at the card and art previews they had given us. That's when it struck me. What was bothering me was in the art. The game has art that pays homage to the general style of comics through time, but what I would describe as the "modern comic" art is where I continue to dwell and think about it. That particular style of art is doing what I can only describe as "homogenizing".

There are two particular characters where this really stands out to me. The first of which is Parse. Here is what she looked like in the original printing of the game.

I like her design, I think she looks super cool! Then in her alt art you can see she's a bit on the fatter side (by comic standards anyway, she realistically just has human proportions there). That's cool to see in a riff on the comic genre. Take some things that aren't seen as much and bring them front and center! I love that. Then there is her new art for the definitive edition.

I feel like her costume really just became "skintight female hero outfit". I think it really detracts from the character of her original costume. I also think she looks on the skinnier side, but the same could be said of her first art from the original game. Then there is the villain character, Apostate.

He's grizzled, he's buff. He looks like you're in for a bad time fighting him. Then updated:

What happened to his wrinkles? What happened to his extreme widows peak? The defining features of his face are gone and replaced with a younger, prettier man. This somehow makes him less sexy. My understanding is it's to display he's more about scheming than kicking your ass directly, but I also can't over the look he's giving the viewer. Now he looks like you would have a bad time fighting off the invitations to the bedroom he's trying to get you into.

These are just the examples that irk me the most. There seems to be a general trend in the game's art that leans into these young, pretty, triangular sexless men and these skin-tight suited, buxom, skinny ladies. It's homogenizing to the worst form of comic art. A style I would describe as "Liefeld-esque" It bugs me that all the character in the designs is being taken out and replaced with such generic "comic art". Anyway, just keep thinking about that and wanted to send it to the void.

I see the boop button. I click the boop button.