050 Way back when....

White Dwarf issue 141. Now I had been involved in the genre for a few years prior to this with HeroQuest, Space Crusade and Fighting Fantasy novels but this was when the whole Gamesworkshop, Warhammer and 40k dream began.

That gorgeous pink front page with the Eldar battling the encroaching hordes of the Orks will stay with me for years to come I am sure. Back then White Dwarf was packed, stuffed and chokablok with stuff. This one had a Battle report of Blood Angels vs Eldar, an epic too and fro which to my tender years seemed to have the balance of power teetering on the brink at every dice role. It had rules for Space Fleet, the precursor to Battlefleet Gothic of many years later, it had wood elves and conversion ideas and Golden Demon winners and countless other things besides.

This one magazine sparked years of 40k adventures and a Blood Angels army… then an Eldar Army…. then strangely an Imperial Guard army…

Over the years I ordered up as many earlier White Dwarfs as I could when pocket money allowed and while there was still a back catalogue to order from but 141 was always my first, where the fever started.

033 Thoughts on Super Humans

When I started out in the hobby it was off the back of Fighting Fantasy Books leading me to HeroQuest and Space Crusade, which led me to Space Hulk so perhaps it’s not surprising that my first forays into 40k where Space Marine orientated. This was helped along somewhat by my introduction to WhiteDwarf and at the time the pages were awash with the red of Blood Angel Space Marines.

Alongside this I always had a hankering for the Imperial Guard and as time went on I shifted more and more to the Guard in place of the Marines. Beyond 40k my tastes always seemed to lean towards the normal man, never a fan of Super Heroes I was more on the side of Agent Coulson than any of the Avengers.

I found myself wondering why and on reflection I think I came to a conclusion that probably says a lot about how I matured over time.

Super-humans, Superheroes, Aliens and all the variations on the theme have none of the frailty of man, they have strange powers, super strength, hearing and a range of other things and as such their deeds need to be even more spectacular for me to feel they are justified. For a normal man life is short, brutal and hard, it’s a life of fear and depression and so when he does something spectacular its completely opposite to his nature and all the more impressive because of it.

I feel a stronger connection to the frail “normal” guys, I understand their fears and revel in their achievements against the odds. Space Marines? Pfff they were DESIGNED to be amazing, to have no fear of death to be stronger, faster.. If you have no fear of death your actions in the face of death lose their merits, if you have super strength your feats of strength become shadows of what they are. If you are weak and fearful? Well your actions are magnified.

I see the normal man doing spectacular things INSPITE of his deficiencies and limitations. Space Marines need to do godlike things to justify their built in abilities.

Now don’t get me wrong there is some great fiction out there showing Marines being exactly that but all too often they are doing things only slightly better than a normal guy does but with a rake of physical improvements, better training and better equipment. Brothers of the Snake is a good example of getting it right, a single marine is sent to sort out the problems of an entire world, that is what these guys should be capable of…