Also Carl Sagan
Remember the ill-fated Destructoid magazine? Jeez, that was fun while it lasted, but it’s a darn crime that we didn’t get to make more. While it may have died practically before the first issue ever went to print, a lot of good things still came of it. One of those things is Arem’s Undersea Adventure, the second story in Corey Lewis’s ongoing Metroid parody/tribute. Arem Lightstorm is basically Samus Aran but with the bounty hunting swapped out for alien nature photography. Picture a Metroid game where your main goal is to scan and photograph everything with your visor, then post your pics online. That’s pretty much Arem in a nutshell.
Arem’s Undersea Adventure was originally commissioned for Destructoid Magazine, but it’s now been reprinted in full for the Sun Bakery: Fresh Collection, published by Image comics. It’s a whopper alright, weighing in at over 200 pages; the bulk of which are dominated by Dream Skills, a +70 page epic taking place in a world where guns are rendered totally useless, thereby bringing on the return of sword play to everyday life.
Not only that, but everyone who wields a sword can also level up by beating other fighters, who are all protected by auras of spiritual energy that prevent them from being instantly killed by what would otherwise be fatal wounds. In short, the story uses the same kind of logic found in sword-based fighting games like Samurai Showdown and Soul Calibur, though overall the tale feels much more like Rival Schools. That stands to reason, as Lewis wrote and drew the Rival Schools comic for Udon years ago.
I originally asked Lewis to collaborate with us on the magazine because his explosive energy, passion for games and comics, and willingness to take risks on bizarre, unheard of ideas reminds me so much of the culture that Destructoid has fostered over the years. If you like the community here, I’m pretty darn sure you’re going to enjoy Sun Bakery.
