Comic Book Review: Aetheric Mechanics

By Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani

This might be a week late, but I wanted to talk about Ellis' graphic novella from Avatar (under his Apparat label), Aetheric Mechanics. The basic premise is Ellis' version of Sherlock Holmes – this is a good thing: I remember an Ellis-written draft of his take on Holmes and Watson, in his unique style, which had an excellent grasp on the characters and even made Watson an ally worthy of Holmes, rather than a bumbling idiotic sidekick (I wish I could locate it to provide an excerpt – it had Watson meeting Holmes in a hospital where Holmes is bashing a fresh corpse just to see what the bruises would be like).

London, England, 1907. Britain is at war with Ruritania (the fictional central European country from Anthony Hope novels of the late 19th century, which has been used in other fiction since), and Doctor Richard Watcham (our Watson analogue) has returned from the front and returns to his lodgings in Dilke Street with Sax Raker (our Holmes analogue) – they even have a Mrs Hudson, Mrs Archer (with lovely phrases such as 'ha'porth' and 'his nibs'). He's not even settled in before Raker drags him back into another case (although there is enough time for some post-traumatic stress syndrome, as he recalls escaping from a giant Ruritanian robot destroying a city).

All the usual Holmesian aspects are present. He has an Inspector Lestrade (Jarrat, although he requests Holmes' help via a televisor – using 'aether', the substance once thought to fill all space that allowed electromagnetic waves to pass through it; as Raker describes it, 'It is akin to keeping the world's most objectionable goldfish.'), there is a Reichenbach Falls, a Moriarty, even an Irene Adler, in the form of Inanna Meyer, who turns up as an agent of the Secret Service Bureau (via Sax's brother, Dunmow, keeping up the connection with Mycroft). But there is more attention to detail: Sax looks like the best Holmes (Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone) with the high forehead, thin eyes, always smoking; Watcham is a man affected by the war, and the army (at one point, he says, 'God's fucking balls, Raker, who killed the man?), as well as being intelligent and literary, as his occasional journal entries suggest.

The story cracks along, filled with great dialogue and bits of Holmes analysis and little hints of other details (such as the use of Cavorite and mention of Einstein, and Ellis' favourite detail about someone being invisible, namely that they would be blind) which all add up to a wonderfully entertaining story, told in a very appropriate black and white art style with a European sensibility but reminiscent of Victoriana. And then Ellis turns things completely around with the revelation of the identity of 'The Man Who Wasn't There' and why he was killing aetheric engineers, explaining the entire conceit of the book itself and the details therein and providing the ultimate dilemma for Sax Raker. It is one of the most compelling tales Ellis has told in pure genre fiction, and shows how good he is when constructing fiction for entertainment. Highly recommended.

Comparing Memoirs: Steve Martin vs Rupert Everett

As I've got older, I'm reading more non-fiction for pleasure than I used to – I always thought I was a fiction-only chap – which includes more autobiographies/memoirs; for example, I've recently been enjoying Andrew Collins' books.

The interesting thing about reading biographies is the differences in writing style and focus. The contrast was particularly strong in two I recently read concurrently: Steven Martin's Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life and Rupert Everett's Red Carpets And Other Banana Skins.

Steve Martin's book is a relatively short volume with a very specific focus: examining his life as a stand-up comedian until he stopped in 1981, at the height of his fame and popularity (selling out arenas on a nightly basis and selling multi-million copies of his albums). As he describes it, 'Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success', something that doesn't do justice to the sheer hard work that he put into it. He talks about vast amount of practice and analysis required to achieve his goal. His prose is also very focussed and concise but a delight to read; his word choice is exquisite. He is also very honest and able to look at his life with a dispassionate eye; it's a fascinating examination of a life in comedy, revealing the behind the scenes and life as a stand-up comedian.

Rupert Everett's book is a more traditional autobiography, going from the early childhood to the time of writing (or perhaps dictating). It is a more rambling affair, flitting around all aspects of his life – to be fair, Everett has had a rambling life, fitting a lot into a short time, living in Paris and the south of France and Italy and New York and LA and Miami, as well as the life in theatre and cinema and even as a model, and of course the hectic life of being a gay man in a tumultuous period. Everett has a flair for the English language (like Martin, he has written fiction) and one of the other reasons for the length of the book is his lengthy descriptive passages. He is also very honest about all aspects of his life, including how much of a monster he could be in his working life and what he would get up to when he would get bored when things stopped being 'fun'. He certainly lives up to some of the stereotypes of the luvvie, as he talks of becoming 'fast friends' or 'great friends' or 'best friends' with people he didn't know and never appear in the book again. The only relationship that seems to last in his nomadic wanderings is with his beloved black Labrador, Mo, and he seems to never quite achieve the success and career that his good looks and talent suggest he should have. However, he doesn't seem bitter and always is honest in his appraisal of himself and the work he did, including the Hollywood years (something of a rarity, where nobody wants to reveal the truth or say anything bad about anybody).

Everett's jumping narrative and disregard for brevity is completely different to the focus and determination of Martin's memoir – there were times I thought that Everett would never stop – and there doesn't seem to be any reason for Everett to tell his story other than he can. Note to self: if I ever write my autobiography, be focussed and tell a specific story.

Live Comedy: French and Saunders – Still Alive

I've seen most of the comedians who had an impact on my burgeoning enjoyment of comedy in a live setting – I saw Ben Elton while he was still funny, I saw Rik & Ade doing Bottom on stage, I saw Newman & Baddiel (although not in the notorious Wembley gigs), I saw Steve Coogan doing Alan Partridge live (hearing him ad lib in character is a delight), to name a few. Yet I hadn't seen Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders doing a live show.

French and Saunders, dubbed the godmothers of alternative comedy, were the first female comedians to impact on my consciousness. Part of The Comic Strip Presents, appearing in The Young Ones, and doing their much-loved sketch show, French & Saunders. They might have become more populist than their alternative roots would dictate, Jennifer with Absolutely Fabulous and Dawn with The Vicar of Dibley (can't say I was a big fan of the latter), but the important thing was they were funny – the spoofs on film/television/popular music may have become an albatross around their necks, but only because they were funny in the first place. Therefore, when they brought their 'not a farewell tour' show to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, it was time to cross them off my list.

Firstly, I would recommend the Theatre Royal – it is a very large and very nice theatre, spacious and comfortable. Also, the box we had was almost as big as our bedroom – the room outside it had more space and chairs for relaxing in the interval. And, because there are hardly any other people going to boxes, the pre-show ambiance is quiet and pleasant. I don't think we could go back to sitting in the stalls ...

Jennifer and Dawn came on to huge applause – their populist status was in no doubt – and the show was a mix of pre-filmed pieces, old sketches and new pieces. For performers used to the luxury of television to get it right, they were very well-oiled in their routines, which involve a lot of talking over each other, their faux-bickering and monologues. They also made plenty of jokes at each other's expense – boasting about whose show was more impressive or more popular, at one stage bringing on a giant vicar of Dibley to demonstrate the point.

They did one of their classic routines about contraception, as well as some of their popular characters. Jennifer did her Madonna bit (Jennifer and Dawn are the same age as Madonna) and Dawn did an hilarious pre-taped Catherine Zeta Jones piece. They also did a version of the original sketch that was the inspiration for Ab Fab. They even did a song and dance bit at the end. The biggest laughs were for the 'encore' routine of the two old men, who urinate on a wall and then both turn around with their trousers still undone, with fake yet realistic-looking genitals flapping about. The audience, who consisted mostly of older women (including Alison Moyet and Ruby Wax), were screaming with laughter.

Was the show ground-breaking? No. Was it alternative comedy? No. But was it funny? Yes. Nearly two hours of funny sketches performed by funny people, it was a delight to be entertained by two women who knew what they were doing and doing it well. It was great to see the bickering in the flesh, especially as we were so close to the action in the box (the one we were in isn't usually open for shows because they are covered with lighting, but they were available for use for this show), with Dawn doing her over the top thing and Jennifer being more controlled. Entertaining and celebratory, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Comic Book Shops: Mega-City Comics (Number 8 In A Series)

Mega-City Comics (I've used the hyphen based on the shop sign), named after the cities in Judge Dredd, has been around for over 20 years, selling comics from its location in Camden to the huge number of people who come to visit the market. When I was a younger man and lived in north London, I would visit Mega-City Comics on my way back from visiting Gosh, Comic Showcase or Forbidden Planet, so it was nice to seeing it still going strong (and with the obligatory and packed website).

On a market road just up from Camden Town tube station, the shop is dedicated to comic books. The shop is full of them, and there is hardly any merchandise – this is a strange decision based on the proximity to Camden Market and the people who are primed to buy things, especially funky different stuff to do with pop culture, but I applaud their dedication the comic book medium. As you enter the shop, the left side is lined with tall book shelves, with six ledges, all full with a diverse selection of new and recent comic books from all the main publishers. In the middle of the shop, there is central double aisle of old comic books, including sale comics and packs of series, in long boxes with clear indicators. On the right wall there are shelves of trade paperbacks and graphic novels, mostly the Marvel/DC books, but a good selection of other books (including Asterix and Tintin). There is even a smattering of more arty books aimed at specific markets (such as the Suicide Girls book for the goths – goths are drawn to Camden like, well, goths are drawn to wearing black; in fact, when trying to take a photo of the shop, there were a couple of foreign goths drooling over the Sandman 20th anniversary poster in the window).

Even though I went there on a weekday that wasn't new comics day in the UK (i.e. Thursday), the shop was full and there were several people working there and it had a nice ambiance. There was a mix of people who were serious comic book fans as well as people who were having a rummage around because they were in the area or came there to see what it was like. It's nice to see it surviving outside of the central London location, and it does it with passion and professionalism.

From A Library – Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman?

Wonder Woman issues 1–4 and Annual #1 by Allan Heinberg and Terry & Rachel Dodson

Wonder Woman, the DC-mandated component of the 'trinity' of DC superheroes with Superman and Batman, suffers from not having a consistent concept throughout. From the early days of bondage Wonder Woman of William Moulton Marston, through the invisible jet days, the 'spinning into costume' television series, then the George Perez mythology revamp post-Crisis, it seems that different writers bring something different without a coherency. I've read John Byrne's run and Greg Rucka's West Wing version (in a good way – I always felt it a shame that his run got poleaxed by Infinite Crisis, especially the character of the Minotaur), and the character doesn't feel the same, which I believe is why DC is constantly relaunching Wonder Woman. Perhaps this is why her film hasn't come to fruition ...

This latest attempt is by television writer (and writer of Young Avengers) Allan Heinberg – reading this collection bypasses the long delay between the final issues that always seem to happen to certain writers in other media (such as Damon Lindelof's Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk series) – and he does a good job. He tells an action story that is about characters, while defining who Diana is as a person. This is a tough trick to pull off, but he does it with aplomb. After killing Max Lord on television for the world to see, Diana took time off to find herself. Therefore, Donna Troy (former Wonder Girl and sister of Diana) takes up the mantle. She is trying to rescue Steve Trevor, now Deputy Secretary of Defense, held in a hostage situation by 'anti-Themysciran terrorists' who are asking for the real Wonder Woman. In reality, they are the supervillains Cheetah, Giganta and Doctor Psycho, who capture Donna. Because of this complication, Sarge Steel (Director of the Department of Metahuman Affairs) put Nemesis, who was disguised as Trevor, on the case with his new partner, Agent Diana Prince (i.e. Wonder Woman in disguise, who looks fabulous in the white catsuit, trying to accomplish her mission – that of peace in man's world – in a different way than before).

In the course of the investigation, Diana meets up with Wonder Girl, who becomes involved in the situation, which is looking so bad that Diana decides that she must become Wonder Woman again – until stopped by Hercules as Wonder Man (not the Marvel version, but a male Wonder Woman). However, the villain behind the scenes is revealed as Circe, the sorceress and adversary of Wonder Woman, who performs a spell on Wonder Woman (who she believes has given up on her role) that turns Diana human and takes all the power from Diana, Hercules, Donna and Wonder Girl – she becomes the new Wonder Woman and does so by freeing enslaved women and killing lots of men.

So Diana has to get her powers back by reversing the spell, which requires an Annual special where she fights Giganta, Gundra the Valkyrie, Osira, The Mask, Kung the Assassin, Cheetah, Duke of Deception, Angle Man, Silver Swan, Doctor Cyber, Minister Blizzard, Doctor Poison and Doctor Psycho – obviously, Heinberg got his wish list of the villains he wanted to use for this issue. Fortunately, she is helped out by a coterie of superheroes, before she comes to an agreement with Circe, who blesses her with the gift of being completely human when she is Diana Prince and truly Wonder Woman when she is in costume. Thus, the new status quo is set up for the new writer.

These five issues tell a good story that is about something and tells it in an exciting and dramatic fashion. There is good dialogue and seamless slipping past of back exposition (explaining the origins of Wonder Woman, Donna, Wonder Girl, Hercules and anybody else of importance in the story in a sharp and concise way). The Dodsons are the perfect choice for the art on Wonder Woman – it is sexy without being exploitative, dramatic, dynamic, good storytelling, good facial expressions, excellent composition (and they don't use famous people as likenesses for the characters, unlike Gary Frank in the back-up story, who has George Clooney as Sarge Steel and Brad Pitt as Nemesis). Diana in particular is a strong character in face and form, as well as being beautiful and sexy, and the Dodsons bring this on every page. Who Is Wonder Woman? is very a enjoyable story and a good start for a new interpretation of the character; I just hope it sticks.

DVD Review: The Incredible Hulk

How do Marvel solve a problem like the Hulk? A fondly remembered television series, a film by a renowned arthouse director, and a character on t-shirts and lunchboxes and underpants. But is the character himself worth effort? The film critic Mark Kermode calls him a character who essentially doesn't work, and he has a point. Representing the uncontrolled violence of man, the simmering beast beneath the intellect and civility (and the fantasy of power) – this doesn't make for an actually interesting character. Yet, seemingly, all people want is 'Hulk Smash!' and nothing else.

I've never been a great fan of the character – I have only read Peter David's excellent run on the book, where he made the largest evolutionary leap in the character's development by building on Bill Mantlo's story that Banner had been abused as a child by his father, and the expression of the three psychological states (id, ego and superego), which is the basis for Ang Lee's approach to the character. If ever there was a film that a company would prefer people not to remember, it is the first Hulk film. It's not completely awful – there are some good pieces and the visual stylings were impressive – but there are some terrible bits in the film and it is very uneven (and Nick Nolte and his Hulk dogs are best forgotten) and is not what people were expecting.

Edward Norton thinks he knows what people want – he believes that the television Hulk is the template for the character: a haunted loner looking for a cure to his condition, trying not to get angry. The opening credits give us this film's version of the origin sequence, being the television idea of gamma rays directed into his brain (echoing the very same visual from the show), i.e. please forget everything you saw in the first film. Now, Norton, as Bruce Banner, is hiding in Brazil, in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, working a menial job while he works on a cure, with the help of a scientist in the US with the codename Mr Blue (with that name, I'd hoped it could be Reed Richards, but film rights prevent that sort of thing). Of course, the army (led by General Ross, played by William Hurt) eventually catch up with him, leading to Bourne-style chases through slums and an eventual emergence of the Hulk. The CGI on this Hulk is pretty good, no better or worse than on the first film, but more visceral than the softer-looking green giant employed by Ang Lee.

The plot has Ross 'power up' a British soldier on his team, Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth, so they have to say that Blonsky was born in Russia but raised in the UK, so that he doesn't have to worry about the accent), while Banner comes back to the US and eventually meeting up with Betty Ross (Liv Tyler in full breathy mode). They meet up with Mr Blue who turns out to be Dr Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) who tries to help, even though he seems a little mad (because all scientists are doolally, obviously). He ends up helping Blonsky to Hulk-out, turning him into the Abomination (as well as getting some Hulk-juice in a cut in his head, which starts swelling his head in preparation for becoming The Leader for a sequel that I don't think will happen) to allow for a full on CGI Hulk vs Abomination fight.

This film does what it says on the tin – it's the Incredible Hulk, with lots of fighting and some story to keep the actors happy. Although it prefers the television version (with a cameo from Lou Ferringo), there are nods to the comics (such as Betty's current boyfriend is a psychiatrist Dr Samson, the crowd-pleasing use of the phrase 'Hulk smash' and even the use of the Hulk clap to put out a fire) and there are lots of CGI of Hulk smashing things up in an entertaining manner. The action scenes are handled with aplomb by the director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter films and Danny The Dog show that he knows what he is doing) but there isn't much more to the film than that. It's more enjoyable than the first Hulk movie but I think that the character of the Hulk doesn't really allow for anything more. The scene at the end, where Robert Downey Jr cameos as Tony Stark talking to General Ross about putting together a team (SHIELD was mentioned twice in the film), suggests that the only reason for this scene is that they want to have the Hulk as the villain for the Avengers movie (otherwise, I can't see why Stark would be talking to Ross about the Avengers). And turning the Hulk into the villain of the piece isn't exactly characterization and doesn't bode well for future Hulk films.

From A Library – The Spirit Volume 1

The Spirit issues 1–6 and Batman/The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke and Jeph Loeb & Darwyn Cooke

Confession time – I haven't read any of the original issues of The Spirit by Will Eisner. Being versed a little in comic book history, I am aware of the character obviously (and not just because Frank Miller is doing the film) and the influence of Eisner's work on the field. I just haven't got round to actually reading any of the books. I've read more of Alan Moore and Rick Veitch's homage, Greyshirt, in Tomorrow Stories, than the original so when this volume appeared on the book shelves of the library, I felt duty bound to read it.

Darwyn Cooke is the man responsible for this version of The Spirit – with the deserved acclaim for The New Frontier behind him, he is obviously up for the challenge of following Eisner on his most well-known creation. From my understanding, I thought that the composition and panel layout was a crucial aspect to The Spirit (certainly based on the interesting panel design in Greyshirt), but Cooke opts for a traditional style of grids to tell the story, with the exception of the title splash pages.

I have nothing to base any comparison against, so Cooke can do what he wants, but he starts out with a lot of humour to bring you onside – the ticker tape along the bottom of the television screen of the news show has some hilarious lines: '-ited Nations officials finally admit they're “basically useles'; 'oil prices up ... no, down ... and up again ... wait ...' – and tells entertaining done-in-one crime dramas about Denny Colt and his cast of supporting characters, rogues gallery and femme fatales.

The first story concerns a newsreader being kidnapped by The Pill because she was going to blow the lid off the crime cartel of Central City. The Spirit rescues her (after a symbolic rebirth, as he escapes from a slit in the back seat of a car, to demonstrate that this is something new), only to discover that she was broadcasting from her mobile throughout, thus alerting the bad guys to their location.

The second issue is about Madam P'Gell and her quest for revenge, while the third issue is about the origin of The Spirit, as a character from that fateful night of his 'death' reappears. The fourth issue involves Silk Satin, special agent, and an adventure in the sand. Issue five goes for jokes, when Spirit brand pork and beans hit the market – the cover for this issue if particularly funny – due to Mister Carrion, perhaps the oddest villain, and his vulture Julia. The final Cooke-written issue is an odd story about a musician who is changed by rainwater dripping from a blue space rock – this tale feels out of place next to the previous stories, but it demonstrates the range of genres The Spirit can inhabit. However, Cooke tells the stories with wit, energy, warmth and control of the characters, and these six issues are well constructed and thoroughly entertaining.

The collection finishes with the Batman/Spirit team up, written by Loeb but drawn by Cooke. This is a little silly, which might be the point, but jars against the previous stories. The respective rogues galleries band together to destroy the Policeman's Benevolent Association's Annual Law Enforcement Convention (where Batman's Commissioner Gordon and The Spirit's Commissioner Dolan are in attendance) and all the police who are there. Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Riddler, Scarface, Penguin, Catwoman, the Joker, P'Gell, Carrion, Cossack and Octopus all appear in this tale from back in the early days of both heroes. It feels a little forced and pointless (unless you really wanted to see this team up), which is a shame compared with the rest of the book.

Talking About Serious Comic Books

VERSUS

Do you have a demarcation in your comic book tastes? By this I mean, can you split the books you buy into different categories? For me, I can distinguish between the comics designed to entertain and amuse, and the comics that are about being more serious, more adult, more heavy.

I mention this because my haul of regular comics for the last two weeks consisted solely of what I consider the serious books – No Hero #1, Doktor Sleepless #9, 100 Bullets #96, The Boys #23 (although I picked up Mini Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors and Power Pack: Day One [as this tweet reveals], perhaps as a counterpoint).

Normally, the collection of books I bring back from the shop are a mix of the two, and I tend to read the entertainment ones first before building up to the heavier fare. This time, I wasn't sure where to start.

The Boys was the least heavy because it spends most of its time taking the piss out of the X-Men (nothing wrong with that, even if Ennis can be a little blunt sometimes). No Hero, Warren Ellis working with the ideas of super teams, might seem to be starting out at the entertainment-only end of the spectrum, but it's also about the concept of vigilantism in the superhero comic and its ramifications, and it's an Ellis Avatar book so you can guess the rest. 100 Bullets is entertainment in the HBO television drama mode, but it is nearing the end of its run and has a lot of death and ugliness among the beauty of the art and the dialogue. Doktor Sleepless is a lot more thoughtful, Ellis taking a novelistic approach to the serialised comic book form and his ideas about technology and social networking and the future, and isn't something that one just dips into, requiring (like the three other books) more attention to be paid than just the straightforward read through.

When differentiating the two types of comics, I'm not talking about the quality of the material – I believe that all the books I buy are excellent quality. It's a distinction I have in my DVD collection – I've got both Taxi Driver and X2, but they are at different ends of the entertainment spectrum, and there is a different mindset when deciding which to watch of a Sunday afternoon.

Does anyone else have this continued seemingly schizophrenic split in their comic book reading habits? I enjoy superheroes and action stories, but also like the books that are more intense or considered (by some) to be more literary. The stereotype of the comic book fan is either the superhero fan, living in his mum's basement, complaining that this week's issue contradicted continuity from thirty years ago, or the arthouse fan, presumably wearing a beret and sporting a goatee as they read autobiographical comix and sneering at the fanboys. I am neither; I don't have an identity – am I the only one? What name shall we find to describe me?

Blogging Holiday In Gotham City

In the tradition of legitimate excuses for not blogging, the arrival of an anticipated video game aimed at children means that my dedication to telling you my opinions on comic books, films, television shows and books wavers for a short while. I hope to maintain my irregular schedule, but there is a lot of crime to fight using Lego ... It should be noted that the UK version of the game has a better cover image than the US version, wouldn't you agree?

Make Mine Marvel, But With Errors

For Christmas, my lovely girlfriend got me a Marvel calendar – a thoughtful gift, with each month highlighting a different Marvel hero or villain or team. At the side of the diary section, there is a classic cover with an introduction to the character (for those who don't know anything about them). For some reason, I read the entry for October in detail and discovered that the makers of the calendar are either lazy or they don't care.

Highlighted in red on the image (click to enlarge) are three typos – the first word is spelled incorrectly! - in a total of 56 words. I know that words are not considered as important as the pictures when it comes to comic books, but come on – they couldn't even be bothered to get somebody who could spell to look at this. It's insulting. I'll let them get away with the ungainly length of the sentence (were they scared of punctuation?), but not proofreading a product that contains words is disrespecting your audience. People learn to read from comic books and related products – allowing typos just confirms the negative image associated with reading comic books. Bad show, Marvel.

Films/Books: Do Not Seek The Seeker

I'm not the sort of fan who feels so passionately about something that I could come up with the infamous remark from the Star Wars fan who, on coming out of The Phantom Menace, remarked, 'George Lucas raped my childhood' (apocryphal though it may be). It's only fiction, after all, but people do get rather attached to the things they grow up with, developing almost unhealthy obsessions with these ephemera, be it films, comic book superheroes, fantasy trilogies or science fiction television shows ...

Perhaps because I was trained as a scientist, or because I tend towards the rational rather than having the ability to allow myself to become completely involved with entertainments, but I don't get THAT obsessed (apart from writing a blog about my genre enjoyments, possibly). However, I did get an inclination of the sensation when I watched the film The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, and (nearly, but not actually) wept at watching a film totally missing the point of the book I loved that they were adapting.

Susan Cooper's cycle of five books, called The Dark Is Rising, is a sequence of books that my parents were suggested to buy for me by an English teacher, perhaps exasperated at somebody who liked English but wasn't connecting with it. He thought that these books of contemporary fantasy, written in 1960s and 1970s, would be more palatable to my sensibilities AND give me an entry point into the world of literature. And he was right.

I was about 13 at the time – I devoured them and still have those original copies to this day. My teacher had recognised that I preferred genre, and these books reignited my passion for reading (for which I am eternally grateful). The first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, set the tone for a modern tale based on Arthurian legend and British folklore, which carries through the remaining books. It also has a slightly Enid Blyton feel to it, as does the third book, Greenwitch; the fourth and fifth books, The Grey King and The Silver On The Tree, are more connected to magic and Celtic legend. But it is the second book, The Dark Is Rising, that really captures the imagination of a teenage boy reading them for the first time (they are children's books) and is to my mind the best book; in it, a young boy discovers he is an Old One, the last in a line of magical beings who protect the Earth from the forces of darkness. The story is a wonderful journey of discovery and it really captures the mood and atmosphere of the particularly British folklore, connecting the Arthurian legends with specifics such as Herne the Hunter.

When I discovered the book was being made into a film (and it is the most cinematic of the sequence to start with), I was bemused but happy. However, when I saw the film, the emotion turned to bemusement and disappointment. Because the film completely misses what the book is actually about, and it does this because they didn't want people to think it was a copy of Harry Potter.

Both books have a young boy discover he has magic powers on his eleventh birthday, discover a world he doesn't know, gain an old man as a mentor figure, and save the day at the end. Therefore, the film goes out of its way to change the story to distinguish it and, in doing so, eradicate all that made the book so magical (if you'll pardon the expression). What's worse is that the screenwriter is John Hodge, the man behind Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. He knows a thing or two about constructing a script but his differentiating The Dark Is Rising from Harry Potter has gutted the heart of the story and removes the aspects that set it apart (and made it so popular in the first place).

In the film, the hero, Will, is now 13 years old and he and his family are Americans living in England, in a contemporary setting (rather than the 1960s and 1970s of the book). His father, a jeweller in the book, is now a former physicist who was studying dark matter, which is linked to The Dark, the bad guys. The Walker, an important character in the book, is gone completely. There are more action sequences to keep things interesting for the kids. They even give Will physical powers (he knocks two of his older brothers across the room), which just seems a bit sad. For me, the worst change is turning the death of his twin brother when he was young (which he didn't know about, and didn't realise he was the seventh son of a seventh son) and switching it to an abduction – the abduction is now the result of The Dark, and so Will's victory in the end is to save his twin brother from The Dark. This is just awful, awful, awful. It's such a Disney turn of events, with their obsession with family and glorifying the family unit, and it's not even a Disney movie.

I want to eviscerate the film itself, but it's just very ordinary (which is sad for something that is supposed to be magical). The director comes from TV and, although he handles the camera and CGI okay, it is uninspired and flat. The people who come out worst are the actors. Ian McShane and Frances Conroy don't come out well, but not as badly as poor Christopher Eccleston as The Rider, the personification of The Dark in this book – an actor of repute in serious pieces, as well as bringing Doctor Who back to life and enjoying himself in Heroes, he seems to come off really bad in US films (he was so painfully out of place in Gone In 60 Seconds) and this is no difference. Pity poor Eccleston. He's not as bad as the child actor playing Will, who makes you realise that Daniel Radcliffe is rather good, but you don't expect anything from him. But they are not at fault – the people responsible are the screenwriter and the executives who agreed with the decision to adapt the book so incorrectly. I wish they had done a better job so that people would have realised what they'd been missing. Now they'll never know. And I have to ignore the actors when I read the books, and try to remember the faces I first saw when I read them and loved them over twenty years ago ...

From A Library – Thunderbolts: Faith In Monsters

Thunderbolts #110–115 by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodata Jr

Warren Ellis' work-for-hire books for Marvel falls into the category 'wait for the trade'; when he is brought onto an ailing title for the purposes of boosting sales in the wake of a crossover, this is a confirmed decision. Thunderbolts was always in the lower tier of Marvel's titles – the book started off with a bang, with the great reveal of who the Thunderbolts were – but the idea of bad guys pretending to be good guys apparently didn't seem enough.

As part of Civil War, the Thunderbolts are still bad guys pretending to be good guys, but this time they are sanctioned by the CSA and their job is to hunt down unregistered superpowered individuals. They are Songbird, the Swordsman, Penance, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Venom and Bullseye, under the control of Norman Osborn (drawn as Tommy Lee Jones with the silly Osborn hairstyle), who is brilliant but mentally unstable. The story intersperses the initial interviews between Osborn and the new members of the team, with the heroes who will be hunted by the Thunderbolts. In this way, Ellis is able to introduce us to the team and humanise the the D-list characters who might otherwise be a joke. Jack Flag, who once fought alongside Captain America (something that Ellis treats without disdain, even including a flashback scene), is unregistered and his girlfriend doesn't want him to get into any trouble. When the Thunderbolts come to take him, you care for the character as he fights for his life, and cheer for him as he fights back.

Ellis has a lot of fun with the idea, having the Thunderbolts being feted as heroes by the media (with a camera crew on full alert at their base, Thunderbolt Mountain) and their action figures being sold in the commercials (with a screaming Captain America for them to capture). There are snapshots of television shows of various idiot commentators barking their opinions on the matters in hand ('[Tony Stark] could be watching us through the cameras in the studio right now'). He also has a lot of fun in the dialogue, such as between Osborn and Radioactive Man ('Educate them? See, that's foreigners' talk. Joke.) Best joke is probably the Who Wants To Be A Thunderbolt? with Stan Lee advert, talking about previous winners such as Stabbity Jones. However, against the belief that people have of him that he hates superheroes, he treats the scenario seriously as well as the characters, making them real and giving them believable characteristics. We spend four pages with the Steel Spider as he returns from a night patrol, taking off his gear and feeling pain. He even treats Penance, possibly one of the stupidest ideas at Marvel at present, with equal seriousness as the rest of the story.

Deodata works well on this book, toning down his cheesecake elements (except Moonstone's enormous breasts on his cover for the second printing of issue 110, which his reworking of the Combined Young Guns Variant cover for issue 111, which combined the Young Guns individual variant covers into a gestalt cover – wow, this seems even more complicated when I explain it) and telling the story well. His art has evolved since he and Ellis first worked together on their four-issue Thor story all those years ago, and he draws dynamic action as well as the facial expressions and camera angles of the talky scenes. There is even thought behind the work – in a shot of the Thunderbolts walking towards Jack Flag, he has Moonstone wiggling her hips more than Songbird, because Moonstone would be using her femininity on Flag in the fight.

As usual with Ellis, even though it is work-for-hire, he does a professional job and tells a good story with skill and efficiency. I came into the book not expecting much, but I was rewarded with a well-told tale, good ideas, action and humour. The rest of the book is filled out with some small tales that are notable more for their art (Steve Lieber, Francis Leinil Yu, Marc Silvestri) than the stories themselves. I didn't think I'd say it, but I'm looking forward to more Thunderbolts (at least, from Ellis).

From A Library – Wolverine: Death Of Wolverine

Wolverine #56–61 by Jason Aaron (#56), Marc Guggenheim (57–61) and Howard Chaykin

I reserve books from my library using their online search facility – I searched for Jason Aaron after discovering how brilliant Scalped was, and this collection was listed under his name. It was only when I got it that I found out that it was mostly the TV writer Guggenheim's show. Fortunately, it was Chaykin's art all the way through.

In Aaron's issue, 'The Man In The Pit', the story is about the man who routinely shoots Logan while he sits at the bottom of a pit, with Logan a supporting character in his own book. Aaron has a great way with dialogue and first-person narrative, as the story is told from the viewpoint of the ex-cop who know works for an anonymous company keeping Logan prisoner and subduing him with a heavy-duty machine gun. Until Logan starts talking to him and chipping away at his psyche, which affects the job and him. Aaron is complimented by Chaykin on art duties – isn't it weird to see this hellraiser and rule-breaker working on a mainstream Marvel superhero? - who gives the book a thoroughly snazzy feel. Small things make all the difference – when our protagonist is walking through security, Chaykin even draws the air holes in the plexiglass separating him from the woman behind it. We all know Chaykin is capable of drawing beautiful women, snarling men and exquisitely designed art, but he doesn't quite get Wolvie's claws quite right, as you can see on the cover of issue 56 (which is also the cover of the trade, and much better than the covers of the rest of the individual issues, which are quite ugly). They don't quite look right, more like flat metal blades going to a point, rather than the usual claws, but it's only a minor point.

The bulk of the trade is Guggenheim's 'Logan Dies', which is a big idea behind it that doesn't quite work: essentially, the story posits that Logan fights Azrael, the Angel of Death, in a sort of limbo whenever he has been effectively killed so that his soul can return to the land of the living. This is a very silly notion, and not one that fits in with Wolverine as a character – he simply doesn't need it as part of his story. It's an unnecessary addition. He needs it for this story so that Logan has something to fight against; seemingly, a female Atlantean cover operative called Amir (dressed in an outfit that could only be designed and drawn by Chaykin, of what look like pieces of plastic rope interlaced in a vast string catsuit effect) is the new object of Logan's heart and he simply didn't have the will to live when he was killed after she was killed in action with him. This is another stupid step – I don't know if she has been in the book before, but it is totally implausible that Logan loves this unknown so much that he just gives up.

Still, Guggenheim constructs a decent enough story, with nice moving backwards and forwards in time – we first see Logan fighting in the First World War (which is the first encounter with Azrael, and the source of Guggenheim's other misstep – he decides to have Logan fight in the trenches with bayonets attached to his forearms, which he thinks is 'Like I was born to fight like this.', which is just embarrassing in its desire to be link to the claws and highly implausible as an effective method of combat) before switching the current time period – before putting him in limbo, where Dr Strange comes to help him. There is some good stuff between Strange and Tony Stark when Stephen goes to collect the body, with some choice dialogue in just two pages between them.

There is a fair bit of mumbo-jumbo in explaining this stuff, which is the usual arena for Dr Strange, but at least Guggenheim has a nice line to explain it: 'The metaphysical doesn't lend itself to English.' Essentially, Logan has to confront his soul in order to come back to life, which does some provide some fun as this Logan fights previous aspects of himself, starting with James Howlett on the fateful night, himself in the trenches of the First World War, Weapon X, the version that first fought Incredible Hulk in issue #181, Logan in space before the death of Jean Grey story, the Wolverine of the Claremont/Miller mini-series, even when he lost his admantium. There is lots of links to Logan's history – the story has him go to Japan, where he fights The Hand, seeking a woman he saw in his memories while fighting for his soul (oh, spoiler alert – Logan wins and doesn't actually die), who in turn is connected to Mariko's father, whom Logan killed. And there's a link to the Millar Agent of SHIELD story arc. Quite a bit of research and joining of dots by Guggenheim.

The whole point of this story is to reduce Logan's healing factor down to believable levels, rather than the practically immortal levels it had reached in recent history. It goes a long way to achieve this, and the solution is credibility stretching to say the least, but there are some enjoyable parts and Chaykin's art looks like he's having a lot of fun – it's great to see his design and strong line work on superhero action, even if it does seem a little beneath him. Entertaining stuff, if a little odd in places and fairly lightweight.

Comic Book Shops: 30th Century Comics (Number 7 In A Series)

Along with They Walk Among Us and Avalon Comics, 30th Century Comics is a comic book shop in London that is south of the river, in Putney ( a few minutes' walk from the train station, a bit more from the underground stations). Seeing as only 10% of all London Underground stations are in south London, three comic book shops in south London is quite a high number. Like the others, it is in a nice part of south London (yes, there are nice parts of south London), on a quieter road away from the main high street.

30th Century Comics, apart from lacking a grammatically correct hyphen in its name, is a shop that sells comic books, and proud of it. It's not a very big shop, as you can see from the photo, and it is quite snug on the inside. However, the shop makes good use of the limited space by using every bit for new comic books, of which there is a good selection, and new trade paperbacks. The staff, although busy with other customers, made a point of asking if they could help us and were friendly.

The secret to 30th Century Comics is their basement – going down the stairs at the back of the shop, you descend into three basement rooms completely packed with boxes of old comic books. It's quite stunning – in rather cramped aisles, there are several shelves of long boxes with a huge range of different comic books (apparently >50,000 according to their website). There's Marvel and DC, of course, but also a huge selection of old British comic books, from 2000AD to old war comics like Commando. It is quite an impressive collection, and you could spend hours perusing the vast diversity (as long as you leave your bag upstairs behind the desk). You can use ebay and internet-only services, but there's nothing quite like the physicality of rifling through old comics looking for a gap in one's own collection.

There is a lot to like about 30th Century Comics (such as its location near the river), which means I worry for their continued existence, like the other comic book shops that exist in London. It charges a little more for new books, as do the other shops outside central London, and it has a huge back issue library, which it presumably keeps well stocked. How does it survive? I'm glad it does, and wish them all the best.

Comic Book Cameos

You can call it cameos. You can call it Easter Eggs. You can call it in-jokes. Whatever your name of preference, it is one thing that comic book art can do better and easier than just about any form of entertainment I can think of. The artist can tell the story but put in little references to other things, if you look at it close enough.

Take Excalibur #14 by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. This is the first page.


Can you spot all the people hidden in the crowd shots? I can see Dr Strange at the top, the Black Knight, Thor, what looks like Dani Moonstar, even Grandma from the Giles cartoons in The Daily Express. What other medium could get away with that? Throwaway jokes but fun for fan of the art.

Alan Davis always had a sense of humour in his art, which was allowed free reign with Excalibur. This can be seen in the back cover of Excalibur #14, with alternate world versions of nearly superheroes.


The in-jokes come thick and fast in this issue. Claremont mocks all the versions of Wolverine that exist, with Davis aping the art styles of Logan's first appearance, Patch, the Wolvie of Havok/Wolverine: Meltdown, John Buscema's Logan in Madripoor, and his own version when he started drawing the X-Men.


There is even time to include a Dalek in the issue – the first Doctor Who crossover?


My favourite bit is the self-mocking of Claremont and Byrne, sitting at computers surrounded by Hellfire vixens and She-Hulk respectively, gently chiding the slight troubles that developed between the two creators after their time together on the X-Men.


Don't you just love comics? The sense of fun (which might be missing a little nowadays, but that's a topic for another post) and the feeling that the artists are putting a little extra into their work, providing more for your money, sharing in-jokes with the (small) community who enjoy it and feel the connection. Perhaps it's one of the reasons I like Spaced so much, which does a similar thing in sitcom form, I don't know, but comics does it best. God bless you, comic books.

TV: Watching Heroes season 3

Heroes is back. Try to contain your excitement.

Despite the anti-climax that was the end of the first season, and the dull hiccup that was the writers' strike-interrupted season two, I'm back watching Heroes again, with the first two episodes on BBC2 and BBC last night. It's nice to be watching the episodes so close to actual transmission (although I'm not sure what the Beeb will do when are no new episodes from the US), because at least I don't have to avoid discussions about the show on the internet for a year.

The BBC must have paid quite a sum to keep Heroes, and to put on so soon, so they've been pimping it hard. It's a shame that the final product isn't worth the time or money.

As righteously mocked by Tom the Dog and discussed at the Empire Blog, the problem with the show seems to be the total lack of logic and intelligence in the show. Sylar, after obtaining immortality from Claire, tells her that he can't kill her – thus negating the entire 'Save the cheerleader, save the world' idea of the first season. Why is a future 'dark' Claire trying to kill Peter 'You do know I have every power, right?' Petrelli with a gun? Is Hiro so retarded that he would open the safe and look at the formula? Characters being deliberately stupid for the sake of plot is really annoying.

Talking of Hiro and the speedster – how can she still move if time is stopped? Am I missing something here? 'She must move faster than sound'? If she can move when time stands still, she must be tapping into the Speed Force – when she punches Hiro at that speed, she should have splattered him all over the office. I have a lot of problems with the way speedsters are handled in fiction – if they are that fast, then there are practically no stories. In the Justice League cartoon, they always had Flash be fast enough only when it was needed for the plot; they seemed to forget this fact for the rest of the cartoon so that bad things could happen which he could clean up in an instant. Heroes maintains this by having somebody who is so fast they can move when time is frozen suddenly not be faster than thought when Hiro is holding up her medal and time-jumping out of her way. Sigh ...

The influence of Chris Claremont is demonstrated by the fact that everybody has to have powers: Mohinder is now Jeff Goldblum in David Cronenberg's The Fly (and why would Maya sleep with him in his laboratory? Don't tell me – she's Latina, so she's hot-blooded, is that it? Oh, Heroes ...). Nathan Petrelli is doing a Quantum Leap, being the only one able to see Linderman. It looks like Niki, I mean Tracey, is seemingly Crazy Jane from Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, with a different power for each personality. And they're still using Days of Future Past as the basis of the series, with the fear of a future where heroes are hunted down causes one of them to go back to the past and try to change events (at least Peter isn't wearing a studded red-leather cat suit ...).

I really want to enjoy Heroes – there are moments that hint at something special, and the simple fact that a drama series on mainstream television is all about super-powered individuals portrayed in a 'serious' fashion – but the creators seem to be going out of their way to make that very difficult. Especially if they're going to keep the annoying and pretentious Mohinder voiceover. But, like Angela Petrelli, I can dream, right?

From A Library – New Excalibur TPB 3: Battle For Eternity

New Excalibur #16–24 by Chris Claremont and various artists

I don't know why I do it sometimes. I used to like Chris Claremont's writing growing up; I'd been re-reading old Excaliburs because of the ClanDestine mini-series; and Paul Cornell was bringing back Captain Britain to his own title. Put all these together, and the appearance of this collection on the shelves of my local library, and I thought I might find out what Captain Britain had been doing. Serves me right, I suppose.

'This was marked as Claremont's 'triumphant return to New Excalibur' – err, really? Wow. I don't want to be harsh, especially after he had a cardiac illness that kept him away from writing comic books for some time, but there is nothing triumphant about this.

New Excalibur are Captain Britain, Pete Wisdow, Sage, Dazzler, Nocturne and Juggernaut, which is a strange group of people to have as a team. There is no reason for them to exist other than Claremont wants to write them. Dazzler, an old Claremont favourite, is looking strange, with the pink crop cut, and her powers have escalated so that she now has a light sabre and light shields. And she gets shot in the head, and then returns from the dead. And, apparently, this is not the first time in the series either – doesn't that cheapen death in stories?

There are a lot of annoying things in the book, perhaps none more so than having Wisdom say 'Petal' ALL THE BLOODY TIME. I wish that certain American writers, such as Claremont, didn't believe that all British people talked like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. FYI, we don't speak like that. In fact, nobody speaks like that. You could have yourself a drinking game with the embarrassing regularity that 'Petal' appears.

The book starts with a story that is a blatant 'Claremont dealing with his issues', as we deal with Nocturne having a stroke and her recovery. Reading someone recovering from a stroke does NOT make for riveting comic books. I can understand the impulse for an author to write about what he knows, but I don't think that superhero action is the place for talking about the process after cardiac illness.

The villain of the piece is Albion, who is an ersatz Captain Britain who chose the sword rather than the amulet when offered the choice by Roma and Merlyn; therefore, he must be bad. He is plugged in with a history of a war-ravaged planet, and that's all you need to know. He teams up with what seem to be an 'evil' version of the original X-Men (Why? Dear God, why? Chris, why did you do it?), who seem to be evil because they wear tight black leather, as far as I can tell.

More awfulness in the form of Juggernaut meets a villain mate in 'Old Arsenal Stadium, North London'. Oh dear. Are Marvel comics not allowed to talk about Highbury, the actual name for Arsenal FC's former home? And why hasn't it been turned into new accommodation after it was sold off in the Marvel universe? And why, if we allow for all this, are Juggernaut and his mate allowed to wander around the pitch and the stands freely, as if it's a public park or something?

And so it goes on, and on, and on. Another Claremont favourite, the Shadow King (who is apparently the 'master' of the bad X-Men), makes an appearance, then the leather-clad X-Men fight New Excalibur, and then Albion switches off technology in the UK – planes fall out of the sky, panic in the streets, that sort of thing (didn't Claremont do this with the X-Men and Kulan Gath?) – so he can claim London. There is even a rather blatant Tony Blair lookalike, giving orders and staying calm in the face of adversity and speechifying (they didn't mention that in the UK papers, did they?).

Another Claremontism rears its ugly head in the form of Sage pretending to be a bad guy (albeit accelerated in the story, due to the fact that the book was cancelled after the last issue); good guys are bad guys, bad guys are good guys, don't you see? It's all reflections and parallels and ... yawn. He keeps this up with the evil X-Men turning good at the end, before killing them (a two-page death scene for the evil Beast? Two pages? Of him saying really stupid things as he dies!), because no matter what evil dimension X-Men come from, they are intrinsically noble and die heroically. And with the final reveal – Albion is Brian Braddock from another dimension! Wow, what an amazing twist [Sarcasm Overload] – we see that Claremont is just doing the same thing over again, without any progress in his style or delivery. It's quite sad, really – it makes you wonder how this got to the published stage, rather than an editor looking at the story notes and saying, 'Chris, shall we take another run at this?' I shall have to be more stringent in my future selection of reading material, and not rely on any whims.