Sweet Christmas! Thoughts on Luke Cage

Quite definitely contains spoilers. So don't read any further if that bothers you!!

The Netflix adaptations of the Marvel Universe go from strength to strength. Riding on the back of the success of Daredevil seasons 1 and 2, and the incredible Jessica Jones, there was a fair bit at stake with the Luke Cage series. But, all credit to them, they made a superb job.

We'd met Luke Cage as a key character in the Jessica Jones series, where his erratic romance with Jessica de-railed following the revelations that The Purple Man, Killgrave, had compelled Jess to kill Luke's wife. In that introduction we learned a few key aspects about Luke, namely he'd acquired his powers via some experiment, and that he was a remarkable principled and moral character. (The origin episode is superb, as is his retro- afro/ tiara/ yellow shirt).

Following his intro in JJ, Luke's left Hell's Kitchen and gone to Harlem. This is a cool dramatic move for two reasons: one it avoids excessive cross-over with Hell's Kitchen heroes such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and --I suppose--The Punisher. Secondly, there's few areas that typify Black American culture as Harlem. And this focus, this placing of the narrative against a backdrop of Black America is expertly done.

The plot follows a fairly predictable arc: we start with Luke being a reluctant hero in Harlem, trying to keep his head down to avoid attention and thus linkage with his custodial past. Then trouble finds him, and his mentor/ friend is killed, prompting him to declare 'war' against the first villain of the piece, Cottonmouth. He's a well written psychopath, whose origins emulate those of Fisk in Daredevil, and whose aspirations run parallel to his cousin's, (Mariah) who is a local politician. I liked Cottonmouth as villain--he has a charismatic style that you can't help be drawn towards, and even though you know Luke's power level totally outclasses him, he provides an effective foil for the first half of the season.

In the second half of the season we get to meet the key villain, Diamondback. Buffed with tech from Hammer corporation (the rival to Stark in Iron Man  2), the flamboyantly insane Diamondback is set on destroying Luke for what I thought was a smooth plot twist. Their ultimate clash, after a few well set build-ups, was excellent, and cleverly used flashbacks to their respective childhoods to add to the drama.

Luke Cage follows Daredevil in that respect, with the emphasis on the childhood experiences moulding the characters into heroes and villians. In Daredevil we had both Fisk and Murdoch having adverse childhoods, with poverty, violence and loss of fathers. In DD these similar origins produced two different characters, one a hero (albeit conflicted) and one a villain (with a strange ethical code hidden in him). In Luke Cage, we have the childhood link between Luke and Cottonmouth that draws them into conflict. The commonality of the preacher father figure is then evolved with Diamondback's religious quotes, and obsession with biblical verse and teachings. It was a slightly contrived touch, after all the Bible-quoting psycho villain paradox isn't exactly original, but with its tie-in to the past, I'll forgive it as a device. Naturally it is there to illustrate that Luke, evidently not religious or ever alluding to Bible teaching, is admirably moral throughout, whereas Diamondback is distinctly opposite.

Luke's character is nicely portrayed. His almost naïve heroism stands in opposition to the less mortally robust Jessica and Daredevil, and I look forward to the dynamics in the Defenders when it arrives. The strong female characters often tease Luke about his corny lines, and social awkwardness, and it really made me like Luke perhaps more than any other of the Marvel-Netflix heroes so far.

Three more things about the series really leapt out for me. The series felt far more a part of the MCU than the prior three series. The Avengers were referenced repeatedly, although clearly this series is set (as is DD1 and 2 and JJ) between Avengers 1-2 and Civil War, as there's no mention of Registration. The dude with the hammer, the big green guy, and even Captain America by name, are all mentioned. The use of Justin Hammer's tech is a great inclusion. The character of Claire provides a link between the other Netflix series (she's in all three, I think), and I seem to recall Patsy's voice on a radio show debating Luke's effects on Harlem. More than the other series it examines the nature and effect of a hero, and a vigilante, whose identity is not a secret. The awesome Misty Knight, and yes I did squee like a fan-boy, provides the gradually adapting face of authority, and Claire the proponent for vigilante-heroes. This conflict is exploited by Mariah in latter episodes, and the Judas rounds (using Avengers 1 fall-out alien debris tech) in the hands of the police a nod to the philosophical arguments from Civil War.

The second stand-out is the music. Just superb. Ideally chosen for the setting of Harlem, it mixes soul with rap with funk. The guest appearances by Method Man and Delfonics set the tone, and the soundtrack had some excellent songs from Issac Hayes, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Rakim, Wu Tang Clan, Gang Starr, and even Nina Simone and John Lee Hooker. Given that the soundtrack was such a big deal with Stranger Things, Netflix's huge success of the summer, and also Marvel Cinema's Guardians of the Galaxy, I think that we'll find that the soundtracks become significant features in these series.

My final love of the series was the representation of black American culture. Given the style of the series, a black superhero, it could have so easily gone wrong. I was expecting a portrayal of gangstas battling Luke with escalating tech, and some black stereotypes tossed in. But the portrayals in this series were some of the best I've seen since the Wire, with well rounded and intricate characters providing enough variety. Sure there were some slight stereotypes--Mariah, the Councillor, was
tricky to gel with for me, and Pops and Bobby Fish edged on the obvious--but generally the characters felt very alive and very vibrant to me. And the writing was saturated with pop culture references, whether the jokes about kung-fu films, Shaft, Different Strokes, Dr Seuss, The Warriors, or the answer to 'who you goin' to call?' being... well... Ghostbusters! And Diamondback's reminiscing about being the Son of a Preacher Man, with Dusty Springfield playing. Just little touches that lifted the entertainment level above Jessica Jones and DD for me.

So, hope you agree with me on these points, but if you don't then comment as to what you think of the series. Next up is Iron Fist, in March, which has the tricky task of maintaining the standard. And the Defenders... well that's going to be so cool, especially as Sigourney Weaver is on board!!

Also Known As... Thoughts on Jessica Jones

Unlike many others I didn't binge-watch Netflix's latest Marvel offering, Jessica Jones, but savoured it like a fine wine (despite it being more ultra-strong Alcopop). Netflix had raised expectations with the phenomenal Daredevil, and in the interim I'd succumbed to watching Gotham- and loved that too.

So does it live up to expectations? Almost. For a start, I had lower expectations: my experience of the character was from her appearance as Luke Cage's missus in Bendis's New Avengers, rather than from Alias the distinctly mature series that preceded it. So I had a grasp of the character as a troubled, failed superhero who worked as a PI and had a thing with Cage.

And the essence of that character is here: Jess is a PI, with a rather jaded cynical outlook, who drinks hard and obsesses about Cage from afar. This is linked to actions she undertook whilst under the influence of Killgrave (the Purple Man), and this complex dynamic between her, Cage and Killgrave is the core of the series' story arc.

The acting is great: not everyone has taken to Krysten Ritter, but I really liked her portrayal (I liked her in Breaking Bad, before her ignoble end). She captured the anger, vulnerability and gallows humour well. Cage, played by Mike Colter, was a good contrast to Jones, and very well cast in the role. But it was David Tennant, as expected, who stole the show- grinning, joking, screaming and leering through the whole series in some demonic amalgamation of Dr Who and Barty Crouch Jr. He steals the scenes with such awesome menace that I weep for the Dr Who fans that can't dissociate David Tennant and his mockney accent from the Time Lord.

The plot is suitably adult: the sex scenes are a little heavier at the start, then back off a bit, but are distinctly 15+ and the violence escalates through the series from initial gun shot wounds, moderate gore, to rather more graphic by the end (head shot brain splat, as seems the vogue in TV at present; limbs being sawn off and fed into blender... Yes, really). It pushes the 15 certificate a little, moreso than Daredevil and Gotham, and indeed the sub-text is more adult: Killgrave is a psychopath with mind control and warped humour, so the theme of rape and abuse is key to the plot. In some ways I was disappointed that the attempts to take it down a legal route were doomed to failure, but I'm uncertain the Marvel Universe as depicted here would suit that.

Which brings me onto the Marvel Universe. Now the idea is that all the Marvel Franchise occur in the same world. At times you wouldn't know: the events seem to happen oblivious to the costume shenanigans of the high profile heroes in the Avengers. There are references to Avengers 1, references to big green Dude and Thor, yet nothing more. I presumed it happened prior to Avengers 2, but there was no TV background of superheroes (which would've been really easy to do). I'd forgive all of that if they tied it to Daredevil more- after all, it's in the same neighbourhood. There's a nice enough link in the last episode, but given the (i) finale of Daredevil and (ii) the Killgrave body count and crime, surely DD should be linked to this series more. I hope by either DD2, or Luke Cage, they'll get a grip on it as it would have made this series better if they did that well.

Overall, well worth a watch, and a bonus feature of Patsy Walker (Hellcat, miaow!!). Look forward to the next Netflix offering...

Re-Boots

Despite my earlier assurance that I would dedicate more time to maintaining this wondrous blog, I find myself yet again with a gaping hole between posts. The obvious excuse is that life has been crazy busy. It’s not a bad one—work has been bonkers since I took on a management role; my workplace has been under Torquemada levels of scrutiny from outside agencies (nothing to do with my practice, honest); my mum’s been ill; got three kids; wife working hard and trying to sell our house (click on link below to buy it on Paypal)... blah, blah.

 

Yet the truth of the matter is motivation, eroded by weariness. I simply ran out of things to write about. Blogging is something that needs continual inspiration, and what little time I could free up for leisure pursuits not involving the family, were spent editing and writing the latest instalment in my fantasy opus. The longer you leave it the more... meh you get about it. And then you think, does anyone really want to read about my thoughts? Most thrills in my life revolve around work in Intensive Care and Anaesthetics and confidentiality stops me going into too much detail. I could write about my family, but I’m not certain that anyone beyond close friends would really want to read it.

 

So the inspiration faded, and I’ve taken a hiatus to work on Darkness Rising 4 and 6 (yes, there is a five, but it is on a back-burner). I’ve picked up (or rather rekindled) a new hobby in the interim. And... well, I’m back.

 

With a fresh approach. As Jack Nick said in Batman 1 (the cheerier 1980s version)- ‘This town needs an enema.’ And indeed, this blog does. So what am I going to do in this re-boot?

 

Well, first of all I sort of separated out my writing/reviewing interests into another blog- The Roaring Mouse. When I was flush with time that was cool, but if I ain’t got time for one, then I certainly ain’t got time for deux. So from now on this blog will have any book reviews, interviews, book features, cover reveals, blog tours, guest posts that previously went to the little mousey blog.

 

Secondly, I think its important (as I acknowledged in the Mini-me post I did last year) that I am a geek. Utterly. For many years I skirted around the idea, playing down my love of fantasy role playing games and DnD. The other week I was chatting with the husband of one of my wife’s oldest friends and we discovered a common love of geekdom. And I got to thinking if you can’t shout it from the rooftops at 41 then when else are you going to do it?

 

So this re-boot is also going to focus on comics (which I did already), fantasy, RPGs, Warhammer, Sci-fi, gaming, Dr Who, nostalgic sci-fi from the 80s, music. Me, in other names. Films, less so, because I never watch them anymore. Television not so much, as I only watch soaps and housing programmes at the moment.

 

And of course rambles about nostalgia, the kids, what bits of work I can talk about, family life, holidays, middle-life crises... all in a random dissociated manner, with no theme or cohesion whatsoever.

 

As I see the followers leaving in the manner of the men dressed as women heading for the boats on the Titanic, I might have a quick ponder on re-boots.

 

What is it with Hollywood? Do they consider the viewing public to have the attention span of Dori in Finding Nemo? Can they not come up with ideas beyond re-invention? Now I say this in the face of not having seen the Superman re-re-boot. My bruv has seen it and says it was a good film, although scanty on the laughs front in the current fashion of dark broody angsty superhero movies (presumably designed to make a flying alien story that bit more believable). It’s on the see when out on DVD list which actually is all the films I see at the moment that aren’t made by Pixar.

 

But its getting irritating. New Spiderman movie... liked. Liked the skinny kid. Liked the classic hard-luck Spidey story as it fitted with the comic’s style. The Lizard, well, OK... finds Spidey identity... yawn. Can we have a Spiderman film where they don’t find out who he is? Otherwise we’ll have to have a really naff cop out, like they did in Dallas where Pam found Bobby in the shower and it was all a dream. I used to write stories like that as a kid at school.

(What did you do this weekend? (Cue Fineas and Ferb music) I wrestled with alligators, found a lost Inca Temple, designed a nano-bot and gained spider powers... then I realised it was all a dream)

Child Psych referral...

I digress. Oddly in the Spiderman comic, when they wanted to REBOOT, they decided he would make a pact with zee Devil (an extra-dimensional demon called Mephisto, who has crazy hair for Satan) who just altered reality, got rid of his wife, and made his identity secret again.

 

So, back to Spiderman. I did like the film, and the way they stuck with him been a teenager (although too cool and lacking in round glasses Ditko nerdiness) but, damn it, I liked the first three films. I liked Toby Maguire, and Kristen (stand me beneath a deluge of water and kiss me) Dunst, and Dafoe, and Albert Octopus. They were great, and they followed an arc, and... why not continue that arc? Show him maturing, fresh challenges? Spidey with a kid. All those villains that could be used, without having to spend half a film telling an origin story again, slightly differently.

 

Do we only get three films this time? And Batman. He’s done his 80s versions (first two great, third starting losing the way, fourth... Mr Freeze... ‘Ice to see you.’), then his hose-pipe in car exhaust trilogy (still need to see number three, loading up on Prozac before hand). What next? Another re-boot? Another reimaging? The Darker Knight? And what will they do with the Justice League film. I read today that they might have a Bats vs. Supes dust-off (as per Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, but presumably without the incontinence pants).

 

See, re-boots create problems. What do you regard the prior ones as? How do you avoid copying parts, and drawing comparisons?

 

I like what they’re doing with the X-man Franchise. We have three good movies, then two prequels, plus a solo Wolvie movie. Then we have a way of bringing the prequel set-up and the modern set-up together with a nod to one of the best story-lines in the comic book. Well thought out, and fresh. And Marvel also coming up trumps with the films orbiting around the Avengers franchise—Thor 1-2, Iron Man 1-3, Captain America 1-2—now Guardians of the Galaxy (with Dr Who’s Amy Pond and her shaved head!!!!). It feels fresh, not repetitive. I’ll even forgive them the re-imagining of the Hulk in the Avengers, as he was finally done to perfection, without re-booting.

 

My honest worry is that they will seek to re-boot films that I hold dearly. I fret with the idea of Star Wars, or Indiana Jones, or Back to the Future 1 being re-done. Because it says, ‘I’ve run out of ideas.’

 

And the re-boot of this blog was prompted by such a period, of ideas (and time) running thin. But my palate is colourful, and there so much to talk about, even if I’m the only one listening.

 

Next time... perhaps some Warhammer and models... perhaps some book stuff and covers... or perhaps something about lyrics in songs.

 

S’good to be back.

Alternative Guide to Alternative Reality 3... Comics!

Read Part one of the blog at Life in the Realm of Fantasy

And hop over like an excited Bunny to part two at Fresh Pot of Tea

 

And now for part three.....

 

If I were a dishonest man (and the admission that my previous Movember moustache makes me look like the Village People indicates I am utterly honest) then I’d claim that some awesome seminal sci-fi story created my interest in alternate reality. The truth is far from that- it was a combination of the awesome old-school Star Trek, and Marvel comics that take the blame.

For those who follow my blog that’ll come as no surprise. I’ve rambled about the key influence of comics in my fantasy writing before, and its impact on my current book, The Infinity Bridge, is glaring. The whole plot begs for a graphic novel, and the pace, dialogue and action is very comic book style in places.

One of the fundamental aspects of the book is the idea of alternate reality, that history/evolution/physical laws of the world could have diverged at some stage from our own. It’s a wonderful plot device—the possibilities are endless, and range from the divergences of individuals (think It’s a Wondeful Life and Sliding Doors) to entire worlds and their structure (think Wizard of Oz and Narnia in more extreme examples). So it is no surprise that the theme is a massive one in the world of comics.

The first mainstream use of alternate worlds was over in DC-world, back in the Wonder Woman and Flash comics. Wonder Woman kicked it off with our hot pants heroine falling through a dimensional rift and meeting a double called Tara Teruna (two Wonder Women... and so the fantasy begins...). But the Flash story, Flash of Two Worlds, was the seminal moment where we have a true ‘alternate.’ It used the great idea that the Golden Age Flash, a comic book character in our Flash’s world as well as ours, existed in a parallel world (called Earth-2 in later series). DC expanded this idea again and again, using the tool to resurrect Golden Age incarnations of their characters, and ones acquired from other publishers over the years.

It all got a little bonkers in the end, and DC started to wrap it all up with the series Crisis on Infinite Earths... and then rebooted and rebooted and wrote Infinite Crisis and 52 and... bleh...

But I’ve never been a DC boy (although my moustache again may infer otherwise), I’m Marvel through and through. For me the series ‘What If’, which was serialised in UK comics was my first exposure. It was a series where the light-bulb headed Watcher told a yarn about a reality that had diverged at a significant historical moment in the Marvel Universe. There were so many good ones, the memorable ones for me (probably because his was the most popular comic at the time) being the Spiderman ones: what if Aunt May had been popped instead of Uncle Ben?; What if someone else had been bitten by that radioactive spider?; What if Spidey joined the Fantastic Four?; What if the Spider clone lived? (it did, much to the groans of multitudes of Spider fans).

Yet those tales were only ever short spin-off ideas. The parallel worlds and alternate history as actual plot lines in Marvel comics really took off with the X-men. My era of the X-men was the classic Claremont-Byrne run, reprinted in the UK in wonderful monochrome which made some parts rather tricky to follow. Towards the end of their run together, the pair did a story Days of Futures Past, in which characters from an alternate future travel to the mainstream world of the X-men to try and avert a key event that created their divergent reality. It was massively and deservedly popular (not least because you got to see Wolverine toasted by a Sentinel...bub) and Claremont returned again and again to that alternate, often bringing characters and villains across (Rachel Summers Phoenix; Nimrod; Forge etc).

The idea grew and grew over the years, and there’s an awesome geek out list on the web with all the alternates numbered (from a 2005 summary I think). I found myself reading like a sad-o through it and nodding at the ones I recognised....

You can see the appeal as a writer, especially if you write a series. Alternate realities allow the writer to screw around with characters, about what we know or think we know about them, without upsetting the mainstream ones. It also allows the rather tired concept of evil versions of characters to be used (none may live up to the glory of evil-Kirk and his guy-liner).

It would be difficult to write anything on comics and how they influenced me without doffing the cap to Alan Moore’s Watchmen. Watchmen runs with the concept of how history would be altered if superheroes existed in our world—so how would the presence of a superhuman impact upon the Vietnam War, or international relations/politics, or day-to-day living, or technology. The influence of the Watchmen comic on the genre is vast, and it deservedly maintains its status in comic book history. If you are not a particular comic fan and wanted to see what could be done differently with the genre then this is a great place to start (the subtleties to the plot-lines are marvellous).

 

So that wraps up my ranting on alternate worlds, taking it back to where it all began for me. I haven’t broken any new ground in my book, using the alternate history model as an excuse for Steampunk fun. Oh, and its meant I could have an ogre pop up in some woods near York. In the sequels to the book I’m planning a few weirder ideas... and, yes, at some point I’ll need an evil version of a character. Its just got to be done...

 

The Infinity Bridge is up on t'Amazon, both in print and in Kindle. If you want a peek then click on the links...

 

Amazon UK

Amazon everywhere else, like the USA and Oz

 

 

 

 

Stainless Steel Style

My first exposure to Harry Harrison's writing was actually via an adaptation of his work for the UK sci-fi comic 2000AD. The Stainless Steel Rat appeared in issues in the late seventies early eighties, written by Gosnall and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra (who drew Jim like James Couburn). It was quite different to a lot of 2000AD stories, as it captured the irreverent humour of Harrison well, and I loved the idea of a space-age thief (because let's face it we all wanted to be Han Solo, not Luke Skywalker).
A few years later, when I started to read a bit more sci-fi (mainly Heinlein) I decided to try the SSR books, and from there got into Deathworld, Bill the Galactic Hero, and the Eden books.
Harrison was a skilled writer. His style was easy to devour, avoiding the pomposity of many sci-fi writers and he managed to write humour without deriding the genre. I found it interesting that Harrison's origins were in the comics field- he was an illustrator and a writer of syndicated comic strips in the 1950s.

Deathworld was Harrison's first SF novel. It was originally serialised, as were many of the fantasy and SF books of that era. Its hero, Jason dinAlt, is a typical Harrison rogue--he is a gambler with some psychic ability--and he meets and accompanies Kerk Pyrrus to the planet Pyrrus (the Deathworld of the title). When I read the book first time I was blown away by the mixture of action and humour that typifies Harrison's work. Harrison wrote three Deathworld books in the sixties, but it was the Stainless Steel rat series that produced the greatest output.

After discovering them in 2000AD I read the first seven books through the 1980s, four of which had been written when i got into the series, and three after (SSR for President, SSR is Born and SSR gets Drafted). The decision to write SSR books about Jim's youth was a great idea, in my opinion, as the series was turning into a little of a family affair by the fourth book.

Jim DiGris was a perfect anti-hero. He was a moralistic thief and con-man who abhorred killing, justified his thievery by saying it provided the galaxy with something to talk about, and was dedicated to his missus and kids. His love, Angelina, has less compunctions about bumping people off. The concept of the Special Corps (a group of largely ex-criminals who now fight crime) formed the basis for the early books, and highlights Harrison's love for the rogue in SF.

Harrison lived until 87, which is fair going, and its hard to be too sad about his passing as he leaves an astonishing catalogue of work behind. I'm planning to catch up on the SSR books that I never read, and indeed the Bill, Galactic Hero sequels. There are so many books and so little time!

Byrne, baby, Byrne

Of the dozens of influences that have snuck into my writing (and by that I mean not just the published fantasy stuff, but the unpublished sci-fi and contemporary fiction pieces) comics have to be a major part.

Those who read my sporadic blog posts will have ascertained this, from my posts on Stan Lee, Superhero movies and Bryan Talbot. There are plenty of literary comic examples which would make the comic  devotee nod with agreement: Gaiman, Moore, Morrison, Wagner, Ennis. But (bar the 2000AD writers) most of those I loved as I matured. The stand out for me as a kid was John Byrne.

I got thinking about this after two 3 star reviews for my book on Amazon US. They were fair reviews- both liked the book, but commented that it jumped about a bit and spent time on characters who didn't seem to feature much. Part of that is the fact Volume One, of which book 1 Chained is only the first half of, was written as a larger book and then divided. But, to be fair, the other reason is that's my style.

I always loved stories where minor plot lines  and characters were introduced, hinting at a larger future sub-plot, which developed later and linked in with the main plot threads. The comics author and artist John Byrne was a master of it, and my love of his work in the 70/80s has stayed with me since.
I first recall reading Byrne during his X-men run with Chris Claremont. Inked by Terry Austin his style was awesome: he defined the look of what was to become the most popular Marvel title of the decade. Such great stories then too: Dark Phoenix, Days of Future Past, Arcade, Alpha Flight, Prometheus. Stunning. I read both US and UK reprints back then, so also caught the reprints of Iron Fist, plus his Captain America work (Union Jack and Baron Blood sticks in my brain).
So when Byrne took on Fantastic Four I was really pleased- I started collecting them around the time they went into the Negative Zone, catching up the older issues as I went. To me the FF run (perhaps 60 issues) was his greatest work. I adored what he did with the characters. The sub-plots, the acknowledgment of the rich supporting characters and prior stories. He loved both the cosmic tales (Galactus especially was done well by him) and the human (Sue loosing the baby springs to mind).

It had a huge influence on me. I compared all other writers to his style, and felt few came up to scratch. His art was excellent, irrespective of the inkers, and when he wrote Alpha Flight I was hooked on that as well (though my brother bought that one). It had the same style- the sub-plots, the evolving story-lines, almost soap opera in style.
I followed Byrne for a while after FF and Alpha Flight. He was becoming a bit of a victim to his own success. West Coast Avengers was good, but he tried to screw around previous writer's work too much; Hulk didn't work for me (Hulkbusters...?). When he bounced to DC I bought a few, but I never liked re-boots and never really liked DC heroes.



My tastes in comics changed around then, becoming more interested in mature readers titles. I lost track of JB, although I saw his New Men in Forbidden Planet the other week and was tempted.
His influence is obviously double-edged. When you read his work in one go the plots work great, building over time. If you read them as isolated issues then it's frustrating. My Prism fantasy series will run to six books, and when read together all the little strands knit together. I think of a few fantasy writers who do the same: George RR Martin and Erikson are two. And to be fair, not everyone likes that style. But I enjoy it, and it seems to work for me. And I have JB's influence to thank for it.
Perhaps I need a new sub-genre, like Space Opera, but fantasy style. "Soap Fantasy" comes to mind, but that sounds a little too late-night naughty TV channel for me....any (clean) suggestions welcome.

On stretchy trousers, shark-repellent spray and ZOD

There’s a scene in the new Avengers movie where Captain America is sat feeling like a man out of time, not getting the cultural references around him. Then someone says a line about flying monkeys (as in the Wizard of Oz) and he smiles and says, “That one I get.”

It’s a scene slightly reminiscent of a great piece in the Civil War: Frontline comic where Ben Ulrich and Sally Floyd interview Cap in his cell and point out all the things about modern day America he doesn’t know about or doesn’t get. That’s an aside, as this blog isn’t about the comic (although I do love the Avengers franchise dearly)—it’s about the changing nature of superhero films.

When I came out of the Avengers last week, with my two eldest kids (9 and 8) we were buzzing about the movie. What was so special about it? My son hit the nail on the head as we drove home (as he often does). “Dad, that was awesome... it was just like the comic.”

And there you have it. The reasons it’s so good is that it was just like the comic. From the dialogue, to the plot, to the action, to the depiction of the Hulk. It was spot on. Now that’s no great surprise—Joss Whedon, amongst many things, wrote for Marvel (The Runaways was excellent, and his run on X-men was OK). But he carries something more to it... an understanding of how to translate what looks good on the comic page into something that doesn’t look like CGI cheese on the screen. It’s not simply a matter of special effects- Transformers 2 proved that. It’s the actors and the plot not coming across as too daft that makes it work.

Of course Avengers can’t claim to be the first to achieve that. There have been some amazing superhero movies over the years—but it made me think, when did they really start to reflect the comics? As I supped a glass of red wine I pondered the question, with the world becoming as fuzzy as a James T Kirk love scene

I grew up (well got chronologically older) in the seventies and eighties. It was an era where special effects really came into being, and marked the boom in sci-fi films and series (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner, Alien, Buck Rogers etc). There were attempts at fantasy films that hit or missed (Hawk the Slayer, Excalibur, Sword and Sorcerer, Conan, Krull... a rather mixed bag). And there were superhero films.

 I adored the sixties Batman re-runs as a kid, and indeed the film, which was shown fairly regularly in the pre-VCR days. Ironically it reflected the comic at the time it was made, but by the time I watched it Batman the comic was undergoing a re-birth with darker stories and grittier characters. And I was never a big DC fan. Then the big screen played host to Superman, and the little screen to the Hulk and Spiderman.

They just weren’t right. Superman was a great film, as was Superman 2, and I got the duvet cover, the posters, the bubblegum cards, and so forth. Superman 2 had the super-villians (kneel before Zod!) but it still didn’t feel like the comic, which was far more cosmic and on a different power scale. Similarly the Hulk series gave us great lines about not making me angry, and the eternal debate about stretchable trousers, but it was a different kettle of (green) fish to clashing with The Leader, The Abomination, Doc Samson, The U-Foes etc. And Spiderman? Loved the wall crawling, could cope with chunky white bracelets, but here was a dude with the best roster of villains ever in comics. And he spent most episodes battling hoods with pistols. Sigh.

The effects, the costumes, the stories just couldn’t match the comics. When did that change? I’m tempted to say with Batman, in the late Eighties. Yet even with the wonder of Tim Burton, and I do love those first two films, there is a vibe of underlying campness to it, a sort of silliness, that didn’t reflect what we were reading at the time (Batman in late eighties had seminal works like The Killing Joke, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One).

It was Spiderman who saved it for me. The X-men was close, and in retrospect probably turned the tide, but Sam Raimi’s trilogy was perfect. I’d loved Raimi’s Evil Dead films as a student, mainly for the brilliant Evil Dead 2, which has the best lines ever in a horror film... and a chainsaw grafted to a stump of an arm. With Spiderman he got it perfect—the effects, the story, the acting. The sense of pity you had for Peter Parker that pervaded the comics from day one was captured, as was the menace of the Green Goblin and the tragedy that follows. Spiderman 2 was even better—I can watch and re-watch the scene in the bank where he pulls Aunt May down as the vault door hurtles overhead.

And they’ve gone from strength to strength. The X-men trilogy was well done, as were the two prequels. The two Iron Man films were also great, and I loved Thor. Less certain about the two Hulk ones, Daredevil and Elektra and I’ve never been a big Batman fan so the Dark Knight style films have left me feeling a bit despondent. The prospect of a Spiderman re-boot isn’t thrilling me, I’ll admit, perhaps because I’m sick of re-boots and liked the previous films so much.

Of course, other (non superhero) comics have had the big screen flourish. They are a mixed bag too: Alan Moore’s have struggled notably, sadly as he’s probably the best comics writer alive (Watchmen was OK, as was V for Vendetta, but League of Extraordinary Gentlemen contravened the Geneva convention); 300 was cool, Wanted I’ve not even seen (although the comic was a let down). Kick Ass is on my to be watched list (the comic pushed the taste boundary for me too).

Now they’ve got it right, from a comics fan perspective, I hope they stay on track. The worst thing in the world would be to get carried away and let shite stories slip in. I’m hoping for an awesome Avengers 2, and given the popularity of the current film I’m certain they’ll do one. And despite all I’ve written, I loved those superhero movies/series when I was a kid because it was still a buzz seeing characters you love coming to life on the screen—even if they weren’t quite right.

Which would lead perfectly into talking about The Hobbit....

But that’s a blog for another day....

A funny Spiderman clip to finish with... Kenny Everett's take on the Web slinger...

I shall call him...Mini-me...

I took the lad (Charlie, my 9 year old) to Leeds yesterday. The main purpose of the visit was to go to a book signing by Will MacMillan Jones, who's an author I've met through (initially) Authonomy. His book The Banned Underground- The Amulet of Kings is a comedy fantasy that I thought my son would enjoy (although I was never a massive Pratchett fan myself).

After seeing Will I asked Charlie, as we furthered third world exploitation by trothing a MacDonalds, where else would he like to visit before we went home. His reply- Games Workshop and Forbidden Planet. Going into Games Workshop was fantastic- the dude in there played a quick Warhammer battle with him and his eyes were like saucers throughout. Ever since he's been fixated on Warhammer, mentioning it every third sentence and giving my wife palpitations as she realises how expensive the hobby can be.

It was a similar experience in the comic shop, although mainly it was me getting giddy given that I order almost totally off Amazon now and forgot you can actually look at comics before buying them still.

It struck me as we sat on the train home and he played his PSP Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 that Charlie is becoming a mini-me. It's strange in the sense that he looks like the missus, rather than my ghoulish countenance, and has hair down to his shoulders (not an option when I was 9...) but his passions are duplicating my own.

Now this, I suppose, is fairly obvious. Being feet firmly in the 'nurture' (vs. nature) camp I accept that you are very much a product of your up-bringing. This isn't strictly a bad thing, at least with regards our version of it. Charlie, and Evelyn (daughter, virtually 8) love reading, fantasy (books and film), Dr Who, DnD, comics, video games and indie music. With regards the latter, the daughter has branched out into listening to shite, whereas Charlie has remained resolutely dedicated to decent tunes. He's big into Green Day and is learning guitar... I may as well buy the hair dye and guy-liner now for the inevitable EMO phase. But what about more typical boy-stuff? Well he plays football on a Sunday but has homeopathic levels of interest in it, much like his father. He does swimming and it's 'alright.' Cubs is a winner but I think that's because his burgeoning OCD likes collecting badges and a few of the other kids are into Pokemon there.

Why am I bothered? Well firstly I fret about not giving him an open choice about what he'll get into. My folks had minimal influence on all my tastes, from music to Dr Who, to fantasy and DnD to comics. Sure they supported them--Dad took us to the 20th Dr Who exhibition at Longleat in the early Eighties, and to comic fairs. But they weren't shared interests. Dad liked football, cricket, rugby and I had less then zero interest in them. I never really had anything (until I could drink beer) to share with him. Charlie has the opposite--all his interests are shared with me and I worry that's stifling in some way...too controlling.

The second worry is that I know that liking my nerdish hobbies is going to cause grief in High School. For my daughter I'm less bothered as (i) she'll move onto other interests (ii) her self-confidence is like Plate Mail +5. But for Charlie, whose dyspraxic quirkiness already makes him not fit in to 9year old identikit boy, it's a genuine concern. But I'd be being dishonest to guide him towards cool interests that aren't interesting (to either of us) and I'd also be giving him the wrong message... that you should change your passions, what you like, to suit others. But it's easy being an indvidual and standing up for your beliefs at 40--it's rather more challenging at 11 in a new school.

So it's a conundrum and I think that, as tough as it is, the right thing is to carry on. Because sharing interests, especially ones that encourage imagination, literacy, creativity can only be a good thing in the long run. And anything which promotes time together whilst your kids still want to spend it with you is also worth maintaining. And in the interim we work on the self-belief that will bolster him when, inevitably, the bullies turn their attention towards him.

Luther Arkwright- my first journey into Steampunk?

When I was a wee lad 'punk' was a term designed to generate raised eyebrows in my grandma as she cooly flicked past images of Mohawks and bogey chains in the Daily Mail. Then I learnt it could be used to describe any perp not fitting in with (a) Dirty Harry's concept of lawful conduct or (b) grubby muggers in superhero comics.

I can't remember when precisely I heard the term Steampunk. I assume it was around the time I heard of Cyberpunk, so probably a few years back. As a term it's really exploded and is seeping through the media into the mainstream now.

For those not au fait with it, it is essentially like retro-sci-fi, namely sci-fi stories set in the age of steam/clockwork. Generally this means Victorian, although I suppose it could apply to late Georgian and Edwardian periods too. In some cases it is a historical setting, in some it is an alternate world setting- perhaps where technology developed along steam/clockwork lines. It's replete with automatons, brass, cogs, airships and so forth.

The actual term was coined by Jeter in reference to his books Infernal Devices and Morlock Nights and, I think, about Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (an awesome book). But there were books that would fit into the genre description well before Jeter and when I first heard the term the first one I thought about was Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright.

I recall my first encounter with Arkwright (this sounds like a Yorkshire sit-com already). The RPG magazine Imagine ran an issue on him, with a Traveller adventure in it. We tried it two or three times and never got past some mutant dogs, but that didn't matter. The concept of alternate worlds hooked me and soon after Talbot began work for 2000AD and got the credibility he deserved.

Luther Arkwright started life in some small press mag in the UK and I read it later when they were collected then added to in the first Titan books volume. My mate Nik bought it and I followed suit. It was probably my first mature comic, except maybe for Sandman.

It tells a complex story of alternate worlds all put in danger by the existence of a doomsday device that is procured by a race called the disruptors. To flush the disruptors out, Wotan (the central advanced alternate) send Luther Arkwright, an agent, to an alternate wherein the English civil war has been perpetuated for centuries. The idea is for Luther to cause a hubbub and draw 'em out.

Luther is unique in his ability to cross alternates. Naturally this is due to a higher purpose which comes in later. The story is told in a very complex style of flashback, jammed with iconic imagery, stream of consciousness prose, symbolism etc. The art varies in quality, but still has sections that are breathtaking in their design.

The violence in it shocked me when I first read it, and even now packs a punch. The characters are great, especially Fairfax and Cromwell, and even the sexual content is well done (although Talbot was never great at drawing women).

The graphic novel is often brought up in discussions around Steampunk. So is it? Well it has some relation to the genre- it is sci-fi in an alternate world setting that is largely historical. Technology is mainly diesel-based (air-ships, motorbikes) but the feel, certainly of the European scenes, is very Imperial- with a Prussian Empire and appropriate attire. In the UK part everything is puritanical - monotone, austere, miserable. The book begins in a Victoriana alternate, which seems to be Arkwright's preferred home. So there are traces of Steampunk in there. Talbot credits Moorcock with a big influence - a tiny bit of Jerry Cornelius, a bit of Oswald Bastable (from Nomad of the Air series)- and the Bastable books were probably one of the pioneers of the genre.

In the end it is academic, and borne from a strange OCD desire of mine to categorise everything (too much reading the NME as a teen). Whether it's steam- diesel- alternate-headexploding punk or just bloody great, Luther Arkwright is one of the best examples of UK sci-fi of the Eighties and a great demonstration of what a graphic novel can achieve. Talbot went on to write comics on child abuse, Lewis Carroll and animals doing film-noir, all of which are amazing. He remains probably the most talented 'all-rounder' in the UK comic scene.

Time to put some Damned on the I-pod and have some ...er...punk-punk.

Quaequam Blag! How 2000AD shaped my life...

I'm still into comics, although not to the degree I was as a lad, rooting around the Merrion Centre market looking for the missing issues of Jon Byrne's Fantastic Four. I did the collector thing for a while, buying first editions before Marvel cottoned onto it and brought out fifty covers of the same issue. In fact Sandman number 1 is probably the only valuable comic I still have (other than an early Lee-Kirby FF with the best letters page ever).

Tastes have matured over the years. My first 'mature' comic was probably Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright books, possibly Watchmen (collected) or maybe even V for Vendetta or Sandman, I'm not sure. I still buy a mix now- I enjoy the regular Marvel titles like New Avengers/ Secret Avengers/ FF/ Captain America as much as the 'mature' ones like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Boys, The Filth, Neonomicon etc.

Now some of that has been enhanced by son #1 getting into comics. I started him off on the Essential series (reprinting all those issues we used to get in Pocketbooks) then moved to the latest Marvel titles. Seemed good. They have a rating system now- the 'A' rating is kind of the same as PG and the 'T+' like a 12-ish. Thought, well he watches 12 at the cinema, so same applies- off you go.

Then we had a bit of a run of violent scenes in one or two comics that got me fretting. The Secret Invasion; New Avengers had a bit of skrull heads exploding off (green, but still obviously heads exploding) and then Sentry ripped Ares in half, viscera and all in Seige, and I thought... shit, this might be a bit full-on.

So I hit that parent quandary. It's the angst about what and when to let them see stuff, or do stuff, and you start to reference your own upbringing and your own dislike of censorship. Its a nightmare being a softy liberal type. As a teen I'd gravitate to records that said 'fuck' in them, now I synchronise my turning the care stereo down to them. I'd listened to all sorts of stuff as I grew up and Parent Advisory Records didn't make me go shoot up MacDonalds.

Am I fretting needlessly? The staple of lads comics when I was son#1's age were war comics (like Battle). The violence in those was in your face, mixed with a healthy dose of anti-German insults (Fritz, Adolf, Krauty etc).

But the pinnacle of violent comics of my childhood has to be 2000AD. I came into the comic when it merged with Starlord, which I read at primary school (and starred Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters). Me and my brother read it ad-hoc for most of the early progs, with faves being ABC Warriors, Flesh, Invasion, Inferno and of course Judge Dredd. It was really taking off in the early 200s and I think around then we started getting it weekly and stayed with it way past prog 400. Those were seminal years in the comic- Alan Moore and Grant Morrison both wrote stuff, as well as Mills, Wagner and Grant. I loved Slaine, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, Dredd, DR & Quinch, Nemesis the Warlock, Robo-Hunter... the list is endless. The future shocks and the time twisters stick surprisingly in the mind. There was no doubt the sheer quality of the writing and pace of the material had a massive impact on me and my writing, and also in my playing Role Playing Games (the Judge Dredd RPG was superb).

And the violence? Well I got hold of some of the reprint editions that Rebellion published (The Case Files). Bloody Hell- no messing! Head shots, knives, perps minced up, incinerated, chopped- you name it. And that was without reading Flesh (which I bought my brother Dan, and he's hidden from the kids). It's unapologetically violent, ridiculously funny (especially Ro-Busters and Strontium Dog... Mek-Quake's 'Big Jobs?' anyone?) and politically incorrect (I still chuckle about the League of Fatties and their belly-wheels). Did the violence screw me up for life? Ha, not yet. I wonder now what ratings some of the 2000AD stuff form the early 80s would pull in? I suppose now its all in shiny red technicolour so it seems more visceral.

So I felt reassured and did the only responsible thing. I let son#1 read the Dredd comics. He loved them. Who wouldn't? Dredd is the ultimate security figure for a child (in the early days at least). He is the personification of boundary setting, what every child secretly seeks for reassurance. Dredd is hard but fair, and the early comics very noble and heroic (he hasn't got to the later more facistic ones, where he nukes the Sov-block with a Carlos Ezquerra 'Request denied!' shot). I think when I buy them he'll love the Strontium Dog even more (The Styx Brothers...sigh...genius...'Heart shot, I loose, but so does Alpha...' and Middenface McNulty....great stuff, lost on kids!!!).

I hold many of the US comics I read when i was younger in high esteem and with great nostalgic affection. But they pale when I think of the buzz of reading 2000AD weekly--original, funny, violent and a massive prompt for creativity in me.

"Splundig Vur Thrigg," as Tharg would say before eating a polystyrene cup and battling the thrill-suckers.