TV: The Secret of Doctor Who

It’s been an eventful time for Doctor Who, both on and off screen. Russell T Davies, now an OBE, the man who successfully updated Doctor Who after nearly 20 years off our screens, is stepping down from the series runner position. He will be replaced by Steven Moffat, who has written some of the best episodes of the past four seasons (The Girl In The Fireplace, Blink, Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead), which bodes well. Catherine Tate, more famous for her ‘comedy’ characters, was a surprise choice for the new companion, especially after being seen as a one-off in the Christmas special, and has been battling fan criticism throughout. And Billie Piper was making cameos throughout this series, suggesting something big was being planned.

This pales, however, compared with what happened at the end of The Stolen Earth, the episode shown on Saturday 28 June 2008. Because, at the end of the programme, there was a genuine, out-of-nowhere cliffhanger [SPOILER ALERT] – David Tennant’s Doctor Who was shot by a Dalek and started to regenerate.

This was completely unexpected – not even the smallest hint that this might occur appeared anywhere; not newspapers, not the web, nothing. To keep this secret in today’s world of exclusives and gossip and insider info is nothing short of amazing. I haven’t felt this energised about a cliffhanger in years – thank you BBC and Russell T Davies for this wonderful feeling.

What does this mean? Are we getting a new Doctor? Wasn’t the gap of three specials next year supposed to allow Tennant to do Hamlet in the theatre and then come back? Is it all a bait and switch to get us excited? Is it to do with alternate timelines and Donna Noble? Was the shot of the Doctor’s hand from his first appearance a hint? Or will he just regenerate back into himself? All I know is that I’m really looking forward to the season finale and hoping that it lives up to the promise. Well played, Russell, well played …

Comic Book Shops: Orbital (Number 4 In A Series)

All the shops in Central London I’ve talked about so far, Orbital is the newest on the block that is still doing business. Like Forbidden Planet, it too has moved location, upgrading from Old Compton Street in Soho to the Tottenham Court Road end of Charing Cross Road. However, its front is the ugliest of the shops shown – a door with a logo next to a barber’s shop on a very busy road (in fact, almost around the corner from the original Forbidden Planet shop).

When you enter the small doorway, down the stairs with the walls covered with comic book/film posters (evoking a studenty feel), you are not filled with confidence. This is confirmed when the first thing you see when you get down there is a battered old sofa – Borders this place most definitely isn’t. I assume this is for people to sit down and read, but I’ve never seen anybody use it.

The shop is a single, wide-ish basement split into the new and the old – on your left are the new comic book and trade paperbacks (the cheapest in Central London) in shelves against the wall. The selection is wide and kept updated (Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse), matched by the large selection of back issues at the far end of the room, two layers of long boxes from most companies. To separate them, there is the till on the left and some posters and old cheap books (20 pence each or mix’n’match sets for £1) on the right.

The other factor that is a draw, to which I can’t attest because of the fact that I don’t frequent Orbital, is the friendly staff – always chatting and welcoming; they even used to do a Top 10 list, although I’m not sure they do it anymore. Rich Johnston always talks them about them favourably, and they did get Alan Moore there recently (to be fair, Gosh! did as well) but who am I to say.

Comic Book Shops: Comicana (Number 3 In A Series)

Comicana is a small shop on a small joining road between New Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, about halfway between Gosh! and Forbidden Planet. There are few shops in the actual vicinity, so you’d really have to go out of the way to go to the shop. The only thing, when compared with those two shops, there isn’t a really compelling reason to go there.

This shop is all comics; from the posters in the window (which don’t let in much natural light into the interior) to the long boxes and shelves and those on the wall. The only non-comics space is the small till area to the right. To the left are lots of long boxes, in front of you is an aisle of boxes of ‘hot variant’ comics’. To the right are the shelves of new comics, extending to the back of the room. There isn’t a great selection or variety of trade paperbacks – just modern Marvel and DC and some of the hotter indies. The lone chap on the desk is helpful – well, there was nobody else in the shop at time – but the cramped feel to the place isn’t enticing and you don’t really have the urge to linger.

I have a connection to Comicana, other than hoping that they do well and survive: they had a bigger sister shop out in the north London suburbs near where I grew up, but only after I had gone away to university. When I came back to start a job in London and stayed with my folks, I was able to spend one of my early pay cheques on something really important – comics. They had a sale on – 60% off – and a huge back issue selection, so I bought £250 worth of comics for £100. I brought back a huge long box of old comics (my mum was so happy): the best way to commemorate a new job, in my opinion. Unfortunately, they didn’t last much longer, but that’s nothing new in the world of comic book selling. Their little shop in Central London is still going – I just don’t know how that’s possible.

From A Library: Punisher War Journal (Civil War)

Punisher War Journal #1–4 by Matt Fraction, Ariel Olivetti and Mike Deodata

First off – this trade is a complete swizz: four issues and then a repeat of the first issue but in black and white. That’s not on, Marvel; if it wasn’t so enjoyable, it would be a complete rip-off.

The first three issues (‘How I Won The War’) are the story of the Punisher during the early issues of Civil War. We meet him when he is killing Stilt Man and a kiddie porn mob guy, avoiding SHIELD, finding the Tinkerer and hooking up with Stuart Clarke (aka Rampage) who has a small coterie of Iron Men robots that are the cutest thing in the world – Clarke gives Frank him a machine that detects supervillain tech. This leads him into issue three of Civil War, where he kills the guys beating on Spider-Man and joins up with Captain America’s side.

The scene where he saves Spidey has a great exchange:
Spider-Man: I can’t pay your fare.
Frank: You don’t have to pay me, jackass.
Spider-Man: Oh, awesome. Action is my reward, too.

This is just an example of Fraction’s great flair with dialogue – ‘My favourite sound in the world is the silence after a gunshot.’ He has a great handle on Frank Castle, getting the balance between the psychosis and the black humour that is required for the Punisher to work. He is matched with the heightened reality created by the exaggerated cartoony art of Ariel Olivetti. He gives Frank excessive muscle that mixes realism with the cartoon strip, as well as an extreme widow’s peak. It’s interesting, with hints of Bill Sienkiewicz in mainstream mode and the British artist Colin MacNeil. He also includes nice touches, such as the SHIELD logo on bullet casings when they eject from the gun. A very nice mix.

The second issue sees Frank providing an alternative point of view in the anti-registration team, a great exchange with Captain America (until Cap punches him through a wall). Then they go to work, Cap and Frank working on missions together: ‘Good work, soldier’, as he salutes Frank after a successful mission. The next crossover with issue four of Civil War sees Frank killing the supervillains who want to hook up with Cap’s team. Issue three is the punishment of Frank from Cap – but Frank won’t hit back (providing us with a flashback to Frank as a marine before Punisher, where he wouldn’t hit Cap when he was being trained). So Frank has to leave, causing him to go back to Clarke for tech – this sees Castle staring down the Rhino and shooting him in the face, and then punching him with Satan’s Claw: ‘Tell them all I’m back.’

Issue four (Small Wake For A Tall Man) sees Fraction have fun with Marvel villains as they gather to mourn the loss of Stilt Man, who is laid out across pool tables in a bar. Someone has even organised a Doombot (‘Kneel before Doom!’) to make him look big among the fraternity. They drink, tell war stories, get drunk, fight (‘Oh, it is on.’). Then Spider-Man shows up to pay his respects, and has to take them down a peg for fighting at the wake. For his trouble, Stilt Man’s wife pukes up in front of him – didn’t his Spidey sense tingle? Then the punchline – Frank was the bartender and he’s poisoned them all. Coldblooded. This story has a nice mix of Garth Ennis and someone who actually likes superheroes – Fraction has the Punisher down to perfection and he has a lot of fun with the supervillains of the Marvel universe. Deodata joins him on art duties for this issue, doing his usual thing with a bit more shadow and darkness.

Four issues of Fraction’s Punisher returning to the Marvel universe isn’t enough, hence my annoyance with the trade – a larger collection is definitely warranted. This is enjoyable stuff and shows that Frank Castle can be used in the modern Marvel universe, after the definitive feel that Ennis has stamped on the character. This is helped by the funky art style of Olivetti, which gives the book a unique feel.

Book – Where Did It All Go Right?

By Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins – journalist (various magazines, including NME, Q, Empire), editor (Empire, Q, Radio Times film reviews), broadcaster (Radio 1 show, movie review show in ITV, 6 Music), television writer (Eastenders, Not Going Out) – obviously likes doing different things. He has become a blogger after all of this, and he’s even written some proper books that are not related to the blog; in fact, he started the blog after writing the trio of memoirs of ‘growing up normal’ that start with the first, Where Did It All Go Right?

Collins decided to write the book because he had a perfectly normal upbringing that wasn’t scary, sad, strange or in any way abnormal, and felt that this should be shared to make up for the autobiographies that detail the hardship of other authors. This is something I can relate to – I come from a happy family that grew up in the suburbs of London around the same time. Whereas my memories are not as sharp, Collins is aided by the fact that he kept a diary from a young age, diaries which he has kept.

The book is a collection of selected diary entries and a distant view of those years, in chronological order. The diary entries start off cute, although they get a little tiresome (something he readily admits) in the teen years, where normal and annoying teenage angst fills what few entries are published, hating the people he had previously liked and talking about girls. As a journalist, Collins has the ability to distance himself from the diary to analyse and contextualise, but the fondness for his family and the years growing up with them still shines through.

For the most part, he lived an ordinary life – he played in the local field with his brother and friends, he read a mountain of comics, even drawing his own, watching loads of films (he talks about a job being the ‘coolest since being Barry Norman’, something I was fond of saying), along with going to school and going on holidays. He had a good relationship with his family – mum, dad, brother, sister, both grandparents (who lived nearby) – and had normal childhood friendships. The only distinguishing feature seems to be his artistic talent (he had a talent for art that appeared early on, and he practised a lot and won contests and had things published) but, apart from that, it is a normal life from the 1970s.

He takes us through the school years (he did well academically to start with, but he did worse in his teens because he wanted to fit in the with cool kids, who frowned on such achievement), the holidays in North Wales, his conversion to punk music and the discovery of girls. In all these things, he is very honest, including his attitudes of the time – casual homophobia, the use of the word ‘spastic’ – which only makes the book more special. His reflections on his life are a delight to read, with a light prose style peppered with humour and insight that is thoroughly engaging. I look forward to the later books reflecting on his time at college and working in the media.

Cartoon Thoughts (Or British TV Needs More Superheroes)

As a fan of superheroes and cartoons, I tend to feel cheated here in the UK. Unless I pay a subscription to Sky or Virgin, I can’t get the cartoon channels, particularly Cartoon Network and its Toonami section. Terrestrial channels occasionally get some cartoons but never the really good ones. DVDs don’t seem to be collected here in the UK either; for example, the Justice League series has a handful of collections of two-part episodes, but not the entirety of the seasons. And although I can watch them on YouTube, I’m an old fuddy-duddy who prefers being able to watch television programmes on, you know, the television, the specialist piece of equipment I have purchased for this specific task.

It’s mainly due to the purchase of a PVR that I’ve been able to see any cartoons on a regular basis. The Batman and Fantastic Four are on at ridiculous times, but the series link means I don’t have to worry about that. The Batman is an updating on the Batman concept, which you’d think wouldn’t be needed after the near-perfect job done by the Batman: The Animated Series, but I know that times change.

This is obviously for the youth market because of the ‘funky’ visual updating of certain characters, such as the Joker and Clayface, and because everyone has to fight Batman, even the Penguin (who, although still short and podgy, is somehow a wushu expert who can go several rounds with Batman in a gymnastic fighting style). The strangest change to the mythos is giving Bruce Wayne a best friend who is a black cop (but who later gets turned into Clayface), which just screams tokenism. There is no Jim Gordon, and the cop’s female partner (who always seems to wear the same shirt and jeans combo for work) is a prominent character who becomes Batman’s inside help in later episodes.

The animation style is quite nice, neither manga or derivative of Bruce Timm’s Batman, and it’s weird to hear a theme tune written by The Edge, but a lot of the stories don’t really hold up, the popular characters get recycled too often and the new villains (such as the rather pointless Firefly – a flying character is not really a Batman villain and just gives them an excuse to do Batman in a flying device that essentially makes him a flying superhero, which misses the point) don’t warrant repeated appearances. They've only reached season two here in the UK, so perhaps things perk up in the later seasons (a quick Wikipedia search reveals Commissioner Gordon and Justice League appearances)

The Fantastic Four cartoon is a bit of a mess, taking the same approach of The Batman and updating the concept for the youth market but going one step further of having a very manga-influence animation style. How the characters don’t stab themselves to death with their pointy chins is beyond me. There is also the fact that they don’t feel like a family, just people who stay together, and the relationship between Reed and Sue doesn’t have the feeling of love that should be there.

The cartoon also mixes old villains (updated for kids) with newer ideas without getting the balance right. The stories don’t connect or grip, and there is never a sense of danger or wonder at the marvel of what they get up to. There are occasional nice touches (I liked it when She-Hulk turned up to sub for the Thing for an episode) but other things are completely distracting, like Doom’s Latverian embassy building in the middle of Manhattan. Johnny is relegated to one-note idiot, drooling over girls and cars and shouting stupid things. Sue’s powers are expanded to exponential levels, allowing her invisible shields to do practically anything. Reed always gets the weakest use of his stretching powers, always having him stretch his head to look at something in his lab to remind you that he can stretch. The Thing comes off best, but you can’t really mess him up. I’m not sorry that they aren’t showing this on ITV anymore, except for the fact that I want superhero cartoons on terrestrial television.

I’ve been sampling other stuff via my online DVD rentals, but the pickings are slim. I’ve watched some old Justice League cartoons (with the really lame 3-D credit sequence and John Stewart acting like a total dick most of the time) but only the early season one episodes appear to be available. The thing that freaks me out is the size of the chest and shoulders on the male heroes – they are as wide as they are tall at the shoulder region, and I’m amazed then can get their hands together. It’s nice too see bits of the DC universe, and animation has a suitably heroic feel to it, but the stories always seem to involve these accomplished heroes not paying attention and getting easily beaten up to allow the story to have dramatic focus for the fight scenes.

Another show that appears on actual DVDs is X-Men: Evolution, but not in any kind of order or sense behind the episodes, and seemingly only seasons one and two (would it kill them to have the later seasons over here?). I really like the animation style for the show, and I have to confess to being an X-Men fan of old, but this misses the mark on several points. The choice of characters who are artificially older or younger for the sake of having the series set at a school seems particularly bizarre – Charles, Logan, Storm (and later Beast) are adults, while everybody else is high school age. Having them at the same school as the ‘bad’ mutant kids (Avalanche, Toad, the Blob, Quicksilver) seems to require a huge willing suspension of disbelief in mathematical distribution of mutants. The show is also hampered by it’s desire to make every show have a message about being kids and how things affect them – nothing is more off-putting than trying to be relevant. However, the worst offence is the character of Spyke – a black skateboarder whose mutant power is to grow spikes from his body. The other characters in the show are from the comic books and feel like they belong whereas Spyke just feels like Poochy – look kids! He’s got a skateboard! Isn’t he radical? – and hampered with the lamest and most embarrassing power ever seen. What’s worse is that he’s not TOO black, in case that scares off the white kids watching – they give him this ridiculous blond haircut with shaved bands in it that makes him look stupid. Poor, poor Spyke.

The gist of this email is: I want to be able to watch Justice League Unlimited and The Legion of Super Heroes (but not The Teen Titans – that was a bit too manga and cute for me) on television. They look good and are stuffed DC universe people (although I am amazed that Bouncing Boy got into the main team on LSH) and look like a lot of fun, but I can only watch them online – where are the DVDs for us Brits? Bring me superhero cartoons on a regular basis – is that too much to ask?

From A Library – Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again issues #1–3 by Frank Miller

Frank Miller is undoubtedly one of the few big creators in the world of comic books. Whether or not he has created anything of note that hasn’t descended into unironic self-parody is another question. Although The Dark Knight Returns is a seminal piece of work in the transition of the superhero into the modern world in the mid-1980s, the same level of history will not be applied to its sequel. The only question to ask now is whether it’s entertaining.

The comic starts with one of Miller’s loves: television screens. He plasters the page with them, full of chat shows, news programmes, vox box, adverts, the easiest way to discover that the world of this comic book has gone to hell – no superheroes, the world controlled by the government but with the illusion of choice, and Superman is still working for the man. So Batman has to return. He rescues the Atom, we see the Question, Batman rescues the Barry Allen Flash (who is being used to power the east coast of America). There is some nice prose, as Catgirl talks about the Atom: ‘There’s laughter in his voice. not a trace of fear.’ Combined with some nicely constructed action scenes, and this is shaping up to being quite interesting. Admittedly, Miller’s art is gone beyond even the extremes of his Sin City style and the characters can look quite ugly, but the page composition compensates for this.

Back in the world, we discover that Hal Jordan left Earth, and that Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel are still around but working for the man – who turns out to be Lex Luthor and Brainiac, who have taken over the USA and keep Superman hostage with the threat of what they will do to the millions of inhabitants of the Bottle City of Kandor (they do similar with Mary Batson and Captain Marvel, and Themyscira and Diana). They order Superman to stop Batman – which goes spectacularly badly for Superman (seemingly because Miller really, really doesn’t like him) as Bruce gives him a beating in the Bat Cave (with a little help from the Atom and the Flash).

Book two starts with more television screens, followed by three completely unnecessary double-page spreads to show Bruce attacking Luthor and the men of his administration, having the time of his life: ‘Life doesn’t get any better than this. God, I love my job.’ While smacking him about, Bruce tells him that he has destroyed all the databases that let him blackmail and terrorise the people who would oppose his hostile takeover of planet Earth. This is then followed by five splash pages of Clark and Diana shagging in the sky – you stay classy, Frank Miller: ‘The Earth moved. I’m pregnant again.’

With the aid of Elongated Man, Batman rescues Plastic Man from Arkham Asylum (Miller describes him: ‘He could kill us all, for him, it’d be easy.’ – this is very weird for Miller, talking about Plastic Man in this way; is he taking the piss out of superheroes?). I’m not sure why he did this, other than to allow Miller to draw Plastic Man in assorted shapes. Meanwhile, someone who looks like the Joker kills Guardian and the Creeper, the Question finds Martian Manhunter, and we discover that Diana and Clark have a daughter, Kara, who they have kept secret from Luthor, who now returns to help Clark in his time of need. At the same time, after a message from Bruce, Hal Jordan returns (on hearing the message, he says: ‘And he looks happy. That can’t mean anything good.’).

Book three is a huge mess of stuff – Kara and the Atom rescue the inhabitants of Kandor, who kill Brainiac. The Joker is revealed as Robin, who has been genetically altered so he can’t die after Batman gave him the boot. Catgirl nearly dies, Hal arrives to save the day, the son of Hawkman and Hawkwoman kills Luthor and everything is back to normal. It’s a hodge-podge and even uglier and messier than the rest of the book. The art is even blockier than Sin City, with the only the attempt at iconic imagery saving the visual style of the book. But it’s not pretty and extremely inconsistent – it starts out in an interesting way but gets lost in Miller’s personal fetishes and issues to grind. He does a good, tough Bruce Wayne, enough to match the hard-boiled dialogue (‘Striking terror. Best part of the job.’) but it doesn’t blend well with the superheroics and especially the classic characters. I can understand why this isn’t mentioned in the same breath as his original take on the character. God help when he gives us the Batman versus al-Qaeda …

No Time For Blog, Doctor Jones

In the time-honoured tradition of other, better bloggers, I warn you of the possibility of my less than 100% dedicated to the blog in the near future after the arrival of my copy of Lego Indiana Jones. I hear the theme music calling …

From A Library: Agents of Atlas

Agents of Atlas #1–6 by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk

The spy, the spaceman, the goddess, the robot, the gorilla. Aren’t comics cool? FBI agent Jimmy Woo, Bob ‘Marvel Boy’ Grayson, the goddess Venus, M-11 the human robot, Ken Hale the Gorilla Man, brought together in 1958 to save President Eisenhower from the Chinese villain Yellow Claw. Cut to the present day, Woo is working for SHIELD, investigating the Atlas Foundation. Ken works for SHIELD’s Irregular Ops section, and rescues a comatose Woo from SHIIELD with the aid of M-11 and Marvel Boy (and his spaceship). They proceed to bring Jimmy back to life using Marvel Boy’s alien machinery but it is the younger version of him (based on the last time he physically contacted Grayson) with no memories of the past 50 years. And so the team needs to be reformed to investigate the Atlas foundation again …

Behind the haunting and funky covers by Tomm Coker, the clean soft lines of Kirk’s extremely pleasing artwork combine with the loving and funny writing of Parker. Some example dialogue between Derek Khanata, Wakandan SHIELD agent, and his boss Dum Dum Dugan: Derek – I slipped up and let a double agent infiltrate our Mojave vase … and I’m being promoted. Dugan – Welcome to America.

Woo gets the team together, which allows us to learn their origins, and collect Namora so that they can fight the Atlas Foundation assets, with the Yellow Claw appearing along the way. The final issue is the reveal (which is really cool, so I won’t spoil anything) but it turns things around by not being a big fight (of which we have had plenty throughout the rest of the story): it’s a conversation about the lineage of Genghis Khan and the Atlas Foundation. This is very different from the normal Marvel comic; as Ken says, ‘This is not how I managed all this going down.’ We even learn the origin of M-11.

This is an utterly charming book, completely out of place with current Marvel and using old Marvel history in such a fabulous way. Added to this, the hardback is a thing of beauty – the back-up material includes sketches and profiles (from a CBR news item) and the first appearances of the characters from old Marvel comics (and it is very old-school Marvel comics). Also, there is the ‘What If’ story of the 1950s Avengers (Venus, M-11, Marvel Boy, Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man and 3-D Man – glad they didn’t use 3-D Man in this update, because he is a bit naff). Even though I’m not a great fan of the old stuff, it is still nice to see; it completes the nostalgia history of the group and shows the love that has gone into this package. Top marks all around.

Book: Our Gods Wear Spandex

The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes By Christopher Knowles and illustrations by Joseph Michael Linsner

This is a book that tries to unite all comic book superheroes into a common theme; in this case, that they are all derived from occult origins. This is an unusual idea, but I’m willing to read if presented clearly and coherently. The first chapter is background, but does it with a slight bias from the author – do fans refer to the ‘Chromium Age’ for the dark times of comics in the mid-to-late 1990s? Knowles talks about Image and Acclaim ‘pushing a sort of crack-cocain version of superheroes’, and blames Rob Liefeld who ‘developed a garish vocabulary of visual gimmicks calculated to excite gullible fans.’ So much for impartiality …

The second chapter is titled ‘Kingdom Come’, which indicates the next piece of bias: ‘In 1996, two creators decided they had had enough. One was Alex Ross, an astonishingly talented painter.’ His art makes ‘all other superhero comics look ugly and cynical by comparison.’ If that wasn’t enough, there is ‘His 1996 epic miniseries Kingdom Come’ and ‘Kingdom Come marked the end of the Chromium Age’ to indicate the fact that Alex Ross is the new messiah in the world of comic books. He also makes strange leaps: ‘It is probably no coincidence that two other pivotal creators, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, began their careers writing for Captain Marvel’s British counterpart, Marvelman.’ – erm, excuse me? He even blames The Dark Knight Returns as the catalyst for Liefeld and his ‘mob of conspirators’. His interpretation can be off, such as saying that the recent Formerly Known As The Justice League only parodied D-list characters because ‘Superman and Batman must be treated with the utmost solemnity.’

The essential tenet of the book is the symbolism of superheroes is from the pagan age, via secret cults of the late 19th century (Theosophists, Rosicrosians, Golden Dawn, etc.). Knowles provides a condensed history of well-known myths that are pertinent, plus some history before the creation of comic books, which is actually interesting. He talks abut secret society stuff (e.g. Freemasonry), the Victorian occult explosion, and occult superstars (Aleister Crowley and Harry Houdini). He also talks about the authors of the time (Conan Doyle, Verne, Wells, Stoker), the pulps (Tarzan, The Shadow, Doc Savage, etc.), and the pulp authors (Burroughs, Rohmer, Lovecraft, Howard, etc.) who all provided the inspiration that were the soup of early comic books.

The next section provides a brief overview of the start of comics and the early characters with their occult links (Mandrake the Magician, Doctor Occult), as well as the return of odd commentaries, such as the word krypton comes from the Greek ‘kryptos’, meaning hidden or secret, and the Latin translation is ‘occult’ – well, there’s obviously a basis for a book there … The rest of the book is dedicated to splitting the pantheon of comic book heroes into broad categories that are based on occult origins – The Magic Men, Messiahs, Science Heroes, Golems (apparently Batman, Daredevil, Hulk and Punisher), The Amazons, The Brotherhood (i.e. all teams), and Wizards. I’m not convinced but it’s an interesting grouping method.

The book finishes with discussion of creators and their ties to the occult: Kirby, Englehart, Moore, Gaiman, Morrison, Mignola. But he leaves his hero worship for Alex Ross again – ‘By age 12, he was already more talented than most of the nineties hacks whose work wounded him so deeply.’ – plus the limitless and slightly embarrassing praise for Kingdom Come. I know that authors have a point of view, which must be a driving force behind the writing of their books, but it would be preferable if it didn’t overpower the thesis. As I said, I don’t think that all comic book heroes have their origins in the occult (which seems far too restricting in my opinion), but I did enjoy Knowles’ attempt to classify them in this way; the background stuff was an interesting read (Knowles’ prose is perfunctory but unpolished) and thesis is put forward in an easy to understand fashion. Shame about the Liefeld hating/Ross praising, though.

Comic Book Shops: Forbidden Planet (Number 2 In A Series)

When talking about comic book shops in London, particularly the central London shops that have flown the flag for the medium for so long, Forbidden Planet dominates the story.

Forbidden Planet was the first ‘proper’ comic shop I went into. I had previously bought comic books from newsagents (back when they sold the new issues) but was told of this treasure trove by a friend in school. The original Forbidden Planet was a small shop on Denmark Street (also known as Tin Pan Alley, due to all the guitar and music shops on the same street) and it was packed with comics – I was in heaven. I gorged on their plentiful back issues and tried not to buy everything in the shop.

I only have dim memories of this shop because it expanded into a new shop on New Oxford Street, just around the corner. This was a much larger floor space, with a big area for toys, sorry, I mean action figures and merchandise, but the back section was still packed with comics: they had many shelves which seemed to stock every single comic book that came out that week (as well as the last month issue as well). But it did suggest that comics were of secondary importance, something that was made clear when Forbidden Planet moved again around the corner to Shaftesbury Avenue.

This is a huge store, and deserves the ‘mega’ title – I couldn't fit the whole of the storefront into photo, as you can see. It is now on two floors – the upstairs is devoted to geek culture merchandise: lots of superhero statues and busts, movie props (light sabres, Lord of the Rings swords, etc.) and just about anything you can think of, in glass cupboards up to the ceiling. Round the back of them are Star Wars figures, Star Trek figures, Doctor Who figures, Buffy stuff, anything that Todd MacFarlane sells, Simpsons stuff – you get the picture. There is also a selection of bizarre geeky things, such as manga statues and Kubricks and things I don’t recognise. Of course there are lots of superhero action figures and all the geek magazines you can think of.

Downstairs is enormous and has vast amounts of comic books, manga, trades, European books, and coffee-table editions. There is also a huge geek DVD section, science fiction books, fantasy books, Doctor Who books, even a separate Terry Pratchett section. Basically, anything you can thing of that is genre-related, Forbidden Planet has it and in abundance. You can also get lost looking for it downstairs, it’s so large; the only annoying thing is that they have a separate cash register downstairs (in addition to the four upstairs) but I have yet to see it in use.

The latest Forbidden Planet is not the shop I remember from my youth – I don’t have any connection to the current version – but I’m happy that it still exists, even if I don’t actually buy anything from it anymore (except for that Usagi Yojimbo calendar two years back). But good luck to them – you can check out their blog.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #1

By Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk

I’m not trying to turn this into a blog solely about Captain Britain, after the previous two posts, but I had to talk about the first issue of the new series starring Marvel’s idea of the equivalent of Captain America.

First off – is it ‘MI13’ (without the colon), as on the cover, or ‘MI:13’ (with the colon) as on the legal box on the first page? The MI5 website doesn’t have a colon, and I guess this is supposed to be the equivalent. I’ve gone with the colon because it looks tidier (the I and the 1 looking too similar), but I need to know.

Secondly – the font for the title. It’s not very … interesting, is it? Rather dull, it isn’t punchy or visually intriguing. The font doesn’t say ‘British’, it’s just non-descript and modern. The logo is okay, but the colours don’t blend with the cover, which makes it seem out of place.

Thirdly – is it me or is the cover rather bland? It is Bryan Hitch, isn’t it? Is he embarrassed because the Captain is so associated with Alan Davis, the man he based his career on in the early days? The soft inks on the faces in the background washes them out, making them less distinct and thereby subduing the power of the image, which is not a good thing.

Fortunately, the inside art is sharp (although Delperdang’s inks fluctuate from sharp to hazy on some pages) – Kirk has a good handle on all the characters and is able to draw the talking heads and action with aplomb.

I have a slight issue with the use of ‘Britain’ as in ‘Why are they hitting Britain this hard?’ because people don’t say that. Cap wouldn’t refer to his country in that way – was it a suggestion from the American editors? Or just to keep consistency with the title? Maybe it’s just me.

The story is straightforward and a good introductory first issue: the UK is under attack from the super-powered Skrulls (they had infiltrated MI:13 through its head, Grimsdale) and MI:13 is the forefront of defence. Peter Wisdom is made head of MI:13, although he seems to be hearing a chanting voice in his head. We are introduced to the characters who will be playing a part in the book: Wisdom, Cap, John the Skrull, Black Knight, Spitfire and Dr Faiza Hussain – she must be somebody because she has a surname (I've included links to the CBR profiles of each character, just in case you needed more introducton). There is a specific threat – the Skrulls are after The Seige Perilous, where Captain was given his powers and is the gateway to Otherworld: the Skulls want the magic. So the team has to stop them, which gives us the action scenes (including the ‘punching a Skrull’s head off’. And then it ends on a cliffhanger – good comics.

I really hope that this book does well (Cornell talks about the comic selling well in the UK so that’s a good sign) but it’s still a risky proposition. Fortunately, it’s off to a flying start, with good writing and good art. I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Journalists Are Stupid And Lazy (Number 753)

It's hard to be a fan of superhero comic books sometimes.

For example, the Associated Press release (which you can see here at Newsarama) – about the appearance of Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Captain Britain and MI:13 #1 – was picked up (and reported in an identical fashion) by the British press: The Sun, The Mirror, The Mail, The Telegraph, The Metro, The London Paper. This is mostly done for comedy effect of juxtaposition – the papers don't like Gordon Brown at the moment, so they can laugh at someone suggesting that he is a good guy.

Some of the items are more embarrassing than others (The Mail is the only one to stoop so low to use the 'Kerpow!' subhead) but, unfortunately, you get used to that when it comes to dealing with how comic books are treated in the mainstream, especially the press. The worst was the following bit from the (free) London Paper, which is a subsidiary of The Sun.


It should be pointed out that the 'Watercooler Moment' is a regular item that is supposed to be a 'funny' look at a piece of news. I know that a journo isn't going to actually read a comic, but to completely the wrong end of the stick from a short Associated Press piece is something else. 'plays a superhero'? 'cartoon strip'? 'renamed Captain Britain'?

Dear London Paper Twat

Gordon Brown isn't an actual superhero in the comic book you haven't read, and he hasn't had his name changed Captain Britain because there is another character (the star of the actual book, with his name in the title) who already has that name. Please don't be so fucking stupid and try to remember that your job is supposed to be concerned with facts. Oh, and by the way, jokes relating to Dad's Army, which was first shown 40 years ago, are considered extremely dated.

Yours sincerely
Brigadier Photosynthesis Molybdenum Jones (Mrs)

It's just so depressing sometimes …

The Greatest Character Ever

I've been re-reading Alan Davis' Excalibur again, after the ClanDestine mini-series crossed over with it. In doing so, I saw the greatest character that doesn't appear in a regular series of his own:


Captain Britain as Iron Fist – what would he be called? Captain Iron Age UK? I was never good with names – perfect design, perfect concept. Why didn't Brubaker and Fraction pick up on this in their Immortal Iron Fist stories?

This comes from Excalibur 50, where dimensions are intersecting at the same point in space (the lighthouse that was Excalibur's headquarters).

I demand the further adventures of Captain Kung Fu Britain. And so should you.