Fractal Matter

Doctor Who issue 1

The Masked Magician

Voyage of the Damned

Another year another Doctor Who Christmas special. Who would have thought that this would become a tradition?

Initial Thoughts?

Mo - When the ‘Titanic’ crashed into the TARDIS, I thought this might’ve been some kind of 9th and 10th Doctor team-up (especially after seeing the excellent ‘Time Crash’ mini episode), but alas it’s a Titanic space-ship instead, hovering over present day Earth. Another Christmas themed tale (a Christmas special so fair enough I suppose), but again more robotic baddies involved - and aside from some jokes about previous Christmas perils and the “I’m the Doctor, I’m a Time-Lord..” speech, the story felt underwhelming. This combined with the return of Donna Noble doesn’t bode well.

Russell - Well, after the initial let-down of realising that it wasn’t actually the Titanic we were dealing with, just a space-going ship with the same name, I settled into this quite nicely. It’s not the best thing that they’ve ever done, but it was still an enjoyable little Christmas adventure.

James - I found it enjoyable though, a bit like last year’s, elements of it fell a bit flat. Using the formula of “The Poseidon Adventure” crossed with “Titanic” meant that everyone was going to get something out of it, but it didn’t really hold any surprises for myself. The whole introduce a character give them a little background and then bump them off was a little tired, but I’m sure kids found it highly entertaining. I liked the concept of the Titanic being a spaceship, and it proved that when it comes to cruises, you can’t even have a good time on one operated by extra-terrestials – if it isn’t meteors killing everyone, it would probably be a norovirus that would have everyone puking and shitting. Hmm, I’m surprised RTD didn’t go for that approach instead.

Overall, it did pretty much what I expected it to do – provide great entertainment for all the family. It was good to see Who doing something so ambitious.

Mark- As a disaster movie homage it worked fairly well assembling a mismatched group and then killing them. I’m hopeful that now even RTD has voiced that his specials have taken on similar elements that next year he stops playing it so safe and tries something new.

Kylie - we should be so lucky?

Mo - She wasn’t that bad but I didn’t see what the fuss was all about, the money could’ve been better spent, perhaps in creating a Christmas special that isn’t set on/around Earth and doesn’t feature killer robots and a space-borne menace descending to cause some killing. (I’m a misery this year, aren’t I?)

Russell - The combination of Doctor Who and Kylie Minogue was always going to appeal as they have a reasonable crossover among their respective fandoms. Thankfully, she quickly dispelled the memories of some of her less-appealing acting roles (Street Fighter, much of her time in Neighbours, those awful sketches on her recent ITV special) and went out to prove that, actually, she can act. A good cast all round, although I’m still undecided about Bernard Cribbins being an occasional recurring character though.

James- Really, her character could have been played by anyone, the only reason she was in it was so the BBC could chuck her name out every five minutes on the run up to the programme. This may be more a problem of the script, although I don’t think her acting was spectacular, whereas Tennent continues to chew scenery (in a good way).

Mark- I have to agree with James that Kylie did her role fine, but she was just there as stunt casting to get the media interest. I hate to say it, but Catherine Tate made more of an impression last year.

CGI/Special effects?

Mo - Very good, the ship design especially, and the ‘Host’ looked ok, but kept reminding me of Axons (bring them back!).

Russell - A few weeks back, I bought myself a very large television, which suited this episode perfectly. The shots of the ship in space were very impressive, and The Host worked quite well, even when flying.

James - The Titanic looked fabulous, full marks there. The Host were pretty good as well, although the budget restrictions still show when you have them flying around.

Mark - No real clunkers and the Titanic really did look good. It was also nice to see that they could do industrial stuff in the lower bits of the ship even now their favourite factory has been demolished.

London - a dangerous place?

Mo - This scene was good I thought, with Bernard Cribbins turning up and the joke about Londoners not hanging around - never mind London folks, the whole of England is getting dangerous whenever the TARDIS turns up…

Russell - London has always been a dangerous place, and Doctor Who reflects this. If it’s not Sycorax flying overhead, it’s the Ice Warriors, or it’s War Machines in the Post Office tower, or the Cybermen in Camden. Good to see that RTD has acknowledged that he’s done the same thing three times in a row with the Christmas special – now, can you please do something different next year?

James - Well, London is a dangerous place, although we didn’t bloody leave when the Germans were bombing us, so I’m a bit put out everyone legged it just because aliens keep trying to kill you one day of the year. Bernard Cribbins doesn’t count, how sane can a man be whose job is to sell newspapers when there is no-one to sell them to?

And I prayed for the ship to smash Buckingham Palace; is that heresy?

Mark - You’re not the only one. To be fair though only London and Cardiff exist in RTD Who.

The intro.

Mo - Revamped again, the guitar riff might’ve annoyed if not for the ooo-eee-ooo that harks back to the lovely weirdness of the older version of the tune.

James - I need to listen to it a few more times I think, although I’m not sure why they bothered to change it in the first place?

Russell - On my first few listens, not too keen. More and more conventional instruments (or samples thereof) seem to be making their way into the theme, and they don’t belong there.

Things that someone orchestrating a new arrangement of the theme should listen to:

- The original version (or, at least, all the versions up to pre-JNT)
- Orbital’s version
- David Arnold’s version from the audios
- Orbital’s live version
- Spread Your Love by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- Strict Machine by Goldfrapp
- Empire by Kasabian
- The original version again

Listen to that lot, go into the studio and make something bloody weird. The original version, even when you hear it today, makes you think “I don’t know what the hell this is, but I want to watch this show”. That’s what the Doctor Who theme should be.

Hopes for Season 4?

Russell - Firstly, I hope that the BBC can bring back the downloadable commentaries on their website. Secondly, I hope Donna is a lot less annoying than she was in the worst moments of last year’s Christmas Special (Note to Catherine Tate and David Tennant – the word acting does not start with the letters o-v-e-r) and that she’s not another bloody companion with a crush on the Doctor. Can we also please not have her popping back home every five minutes to see her family? The return of the Sontarans and U.N.I.T. (and the Brigadier? PLEASE?) pleases this old-school fanboy, and the Pompeii episode looks suitably grand.

James - Catherine Tate is probably going to be the balance as to whether the series will be as enjoyable as the previous. The trick may well be how well defined the character is and how well the writers understand that. Apart from Tate, I have high hopes for the series. I expect it to be a lot of fun, and with a bit of luck have some episodes the quality of “Human Nature” and “Blink” and less Dalek nonsense.

Mark - There’s no chance we’re not going to get Daleks again. Catherine Tate needs to be allowed to develop as Donna and not just be shouty woman. At least RTD has realised that having someone moon over the Doctor is a disservice to their character. I want to see Martha showing her skills and her brains when she shows up. No family please. Even though RTD has said they are backing away from the darkness I’m still hoping we’ll see more because that’s when Tennant shines.

Hopes for Torchwood?

Mo

- Less profanity and sex just for the sake of it and better stories. Judging by the teasers there is some hope.

Russell - I hope that Torchwood will be watchable and enjoyable, or at least bearable, with characters who you want to follow. (They don’t have to be likeable, but they shouldn’t make you feel like you want to pull your eyeballs out of their sockets). The best review I’ve ever read of Torchwood season 1 said “Imagine a sci-fi franchise that somehow skipped the stage of being a proper TV show and went direct to fanfic, and you get the general idea.” – This year, I want the actual show.

Mark - I want a team that actually functions like a team. I want to see a Torchwood that doesn’t make me go “and you set this bunch of losers up to honour the Doctor”. I’d like to see the other Torchwood offices. I want good stories and Chris Chibnall to grow up and stop running a show that thinks mature storylines involve boobies and swearing.

James - Erm, not be shit?

The Doctor Who Roundtable will return. God help us all

WRITER: GARY RUSSELL
ARTIST: NICK ROCHE
PUBLISHER: IDW
PRICE: $3.99

The history of Doctor Who in comics goes back almost as far as the show itself. In fact, the comics adventures of the Doctor continued throughout the time that the show itself was off the air. For the last 28 years his thrilling adventures in time and space have been serialised in Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly/Magazine, and have been worked on by some fairly well known creators, including Grant Morrison, Steve Dillon, Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch, Dave Gibbons, Alan Grant, Pat Mills, John Ridgeway, Paul Cornell and Dan Abnett. Now, in addition to those stories (and the TV series, the books, the audio adventures…), IDW are publishing the first ever all-new full-length Doctor Who comic.

Quite frankly it’s doubtful you’ll be reading this review if you don’t already have some interest in Doctor Who, so there’s not much point in filling in you in on the history of the show. IDW’s adventures take place at an as-yet-unspecified time in the show’s most recently transmitted season and features the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (as played onscreen by David Tennant) and his companion Martha Jones (as portrayed onscreen by Freema Agyeman).

We start the story with a brief introduction of the most basic back-story (Time Lords, Doctor, TARDIS), including the first visual depictions of anything relating to the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey, and then we’re off into the story proper. The Doctor and Martha are engaged in a quest to find the most perfect chocolate milkshake in the cosmos, as one might do if one had access to a time machine. A stopover at a diner on a space station leads to an encounter with a shape-shifter, and then to an encounter with one of the Doctor’s recent foes – a Sycorax (from The Christmas Invasion).

To say that Gary Russell has previous experience with the Doctor is an understatement – he’s written for the DWM comic strip, the Virgin Publishing New and Missing Adventures ranges, the BBC publishing Past and Eighth Doctor ranges, has written several behind-the–scenes books on the series, edited Doctor Who Magazine between 1992 and 1995, produced the audio dramas from Big Finish productions from 1998-2006 and is the current Script editor on the show itself. The man knows his Who. As such, the Doctor and Martha remain perfectly in character throughout, from the better moments, such as his usually overly talkative nature coming to the fore in a confrontation with the Sycorax, all the way down to the lesser moments, such as his gurning opening splash-page appearance which recalls cringe-inducing moments such as the Doctor’s singing of the Ghostbusters theme in season two’s Army of Ghosts. Right and wrong, this is the Doctor we’ve been watching onscreen.

Nick Roche is probably best known for his Transformers work, so seeing him drawing wall-to-wall humanoids is a bit of a change. His Doctor captures both the lively energy and enthusiasm of David Tennant and his more thoughtful side. It isn’t always perfect but it’s pretty good – Tennant appears to have a face that translates well into comics, as most artists that have tried seem to have nailed him pretty much straight away. His Martha Jones is not quite as strong, although again that seems to be in keeping with the attempts of others to translate her into artwork – even the makers of the recent animated Doctor Who episode The Infinite Quest couldn’t quite master that. Although much of the earliest online opinion on the art seems divided, overall Roche has done some very strong work here.

The weakest aspect of the entire issue (apart from the gurning, which is at least in character) is the ending. There’s no final page reveal, no shocking cliff-hanger designed to induce the sound of the closing theme in your mind, it just seems to stop.

An interesting first issue, and definitely worth picking up if you’re a fan of the show – although those of you outside the USA are going to have to find your own way of getting hold of it due to the wonderful world of licensing issues.

Happy times and places.

Discuss this topic here.

Russell

Favourite Comic of 2007

The Immortal Iron Fist

Like a vast majority of people currently buying and loving this title, if you had told me 18 months ago that this would be my favourite title, I’d have laughed in your face. Sure, I had enjoyed Essential Iron Fist and his appearances in Bendis’ Daredevil run, but this is IRON FIST.

Hands down, this is the best title on the stands. There’s an energy to it, a pure comics joy that takes me back to how I felt reading comics as a kid. Like so many have said before, this is the natural successor to Robinson’s Starman. Pick up the hardcovers, the trades, the singles on the back issue market, whatever. You should be reading this title.

Hopes for 2008

My first hope is that IDW can find a way to get their Doctor Who title out over here in the UK. I have high hopes for The Incredible Herc and Millar’s Kick-Ass. Marvel’s big summer event, Secret Invasion, looks like it might actually be worth reading. Oh, and when it comes around, Paul Cornell’s run on Excalibur. That’s going to be incredible.

Frank

Favorite Comic of 2007

The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba, James Jean, Dave Stewart and Nakt Piekos is the type of comic that I would love automatically. Way’s high watermark of Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol is a high place to shoot for for challenging, daring, emotional storytelling and Way and company out do themselves. The first story of the series is addictive, entertaining, smart, but not smarty pants and somberly beautiful. It is a project that I am glad to see, read and want to see more of. It is a prject that proves that Dark Horse is on fire when it comes to good comics and is a book that holds it’s own to the quality of the Dark Horse publishing scheme and what comic creators should try to aim for every month.

Hopes for 2008

Planetary 27 to be published, so I can retire from heavy comics consumption. Monthly Goon, BPRD,The Boys, and Buffy. Yay!
Howard Chaykin to write and draw a creator owned book again or the American Flagg trades to ship.

More Criminal, Desolation Jones, newuniversal, Doktor Sleepless and Fell.
New League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Umbrella Academy, and Hellboy.
The launch of Greg Rucka’s Stumptown. Also, I would like it if the crossover bug stopped being so prevalent that it makes comics no fun.

Mark

Favourite Comic of 2007

Got to go with Iron Fist too. A series that works with an artist who can’t quite do a full monthly book and turns it into a bonus for the storytelling rather than let it slow it down.

It still seems a silly idea, but Iron Fist is the book of the moment at Marvel even with fierce competition.

Hopes for 2008

Starman Hardcovers being done right. My favourite comic of all time in Hardcover. DC better not use crappy paper.

Paul Cornell on Excalibur - here’s hoping this gives Iron Fist a run for the best monthly at Marvel.

Hitch and Millar on Fantastic Four. Jeff Smith’s RASL - he’s done wonders for fantasy and now it’s Sci-fi’s turn. Zorro - I was already interested when it was Matt Wagner writing this, but now with Francesco Francavilla on art I cannot wait.

Ross

Favourite of 2007

I have to confess that the comic I get most enjoyment from each month is probably also Iron Fist…In the interest of variety though Black Summer has been some ultra violent Ellis fin, The Boys has been quite a fabulous breath of OTT fresh air and Suburban Glamour was a nice surprise.

Hopes for 2008

That some of the new Vertigo series stand out in the same way Y or 100 Bullets did way back when they starrted. That secret invasion doesn’t suck, and that against all odds the WSU actually becomes good again.

X-Men Messiah Complex: Chapter 6-9
Writer: Ed Brubaker/Peter David/Craig Kyle & Chris Yost/Mike Carey
Artist: Billy Tan/Scott Eaton/Humberto Ramos/Chris Bachalo
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $2.99 (x3)

Well, here I am again with the monthly Messiah Complex round up, taking in the latest issues of Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New X-Men and X-Men. After Carey’s previous issue of X-Men injected a bit of umph into the proceedings at the end of last month, I had high hopes going in this month. Sadly however, I’ve come out of the experience rather ambivalent and with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.

This month kicked of with Brubaker’s Uncanny issue, and, like most of his Uncanny issues to date, it isn’t bad. It’s just not that great either. Brubaker gets the luxury of a fairly focused issue this month, something the other writers certainly don’t. Almost all of the pages are taken up with a massive sentinel attack on the Institute, which both Tan and Brubaker handle competently, but you can’t help feeling you’ve seen it all before; literally and several times. The end of the issue sees the formation of the much touted new X-Force team, which I have to confess seems like a recipe for utter drivel to me, but I’ll withhold judgement until a final product appears next year.

Chapter 7 sees us return to the pages of X-Factor, and as usual the quality is fairly high. Peter David gets to focus about 40% of his time on Madrox and Layla as they explore the apocalyptic anti-mutant future they find themselves trapped in (again…). Another 40% is taken up with the new X-Force tracking Cable, and to be honest some of my worst fears regarding this group were actually belayed. In David’s hands at least, the team works, there’s a balance of personalities and Wolverine is as an effective leader for this kind of team, which is a role we rarely see him in. The remainder of the issue sees a brief Predator X scene, just to remind us we care, Cable runs into a bit of trouble when the Purifiers catch up with him and we get yet another confrontation between the Professor and Cyclops. These arguments were quite worthwhile the first few times, but at this point it’s just driving the point of conflict home a little too hard. We get it already, Scott has had enough, the Professor is on his way out, we don’t need a reminder every other issue. Scott Eaton’s art is as always a fine balance between detail and deadline meeting. It does it’s job but it’s not going to blow any minds.

Our penultimate chapter this month is in the pages of New X-Men, which ironically doesn’t actually feature many of the New X-Men. Almost all of this issue is taken up with the confrontation between Cable, Lady Deathstrike, the Purifiers and X-Force. If someone had described that to me as a story for almost a whole book, I would have told them it was trash, in the execution though it’s pretty entertaining. In no small part that is down to Ramos’ art. I realise a lot of people can’t stand him but personally I think he’s fabulous. There’s an energy to the art in much the same way there is with Bachalo, only with Ramos you can actually follow what is happening. In this issue in particular there are some great single and double page spreads that really made me smile. This issue may not be anymore original than the others this month, but at least it has a sense of fun. I have to say though the death of a team member seemed utterly pointless to me. It served no valuable purpose as a story telling mechanism and it isn’t a character anyone cares enough about for the shock value to be valuable in and of itself. If I hadn’t been paying attention I might have even missed it.

Once again we finish up in the pages of X-Men, and once again most of the story progression seems to have been saved for Carey. This issue kicks of with us back in the future, where we get a bit more of a sense of setting and tone for the apocalyptic future as Madrox is tattooed and dumped into a concentration camp. Progression of the story in this X-over has in general been slow, but for the Madrox/Layla thread in particular it has been achingly so. It’s been fed to us in a drip drip fashion and at an inconsistent speed, which makes it very hard for the storytellers to maintain a sense of tension and difficult for the readers to maintain any sense of interest. The remainder of the book, happily, works a bit better. Cyclops and the X-men seniors join up with the X-force team in the aftermath of their battle, while the Cuckoos and the X-men juniors fix up Cerebra (probably should have done that earlier) and locate Cable, who is with the mutant baby and en route to Forge. The physical meeting up of the two senior teams, together with the communication from them to the junior team in the house and the mental tracking of Cable by the Cuckoos serves to create a good flow between the different threads of the story, and really this issue is one of the few times, since the X-over began, that those threads have really pulled together in any way. In that respect this issue at least feels like a coherent story, rather than a disjointed collection of 4 different stories. I won’t spoil the reveal at the end of the issue in case you haven’t read it yet, but like Carey’s previous issue it serves to inject a sense of impact that is distinctly missing from all the other chapters so far. You can at least leave this issue with the sense that something has happened, and against all my previous prejudices I actually found Bachalo’s art totally clear, digestible and at times quite beautiful this month.

I’m not sure anyone is still caring about, or indeed reading, Marvel’s massive X-over at this point, and to some degree I can see why. The format of multiple story threads told in bite sized portions over several months hasn’t really worked well for maintaining tension. I can’t help feeling that it would have worked better if New X-Men had been canned before the event began, the main X-men story line could have been compacted down and published in X-Men and Uncanny, each released on alternate weeks. The Layla/Madrox story could then be held by itself in X-Factor, which could be released weekly with issues having been prepared up front. In that format the event could have been compressed down to 5 weeks, rather than almost 3 months, less writers and artists would have made for a greater sense of artistic identity, the change in publishing schedule might have grabbed the attention of some new readers and the whole thing would have been more coherent, punchy and engaging. What do I know though?

To be fair, despite these complaints, the quality of dialogue and art in all four of the X-books has been consistently acceptable, and more often good throughout Messiah Complex; probably the best the line has seen in years in fact. The problem is that in terms of storyline we’ve all been there before: Sentinel attacks; apocalyptic future; cameos by every x-villain in history; almost pointless character deaths. At a time when characters like Captain America, The Avengers and even Iron Fist, of all people, have been given a fresh lick of paint and a contemporary direction, it’s sad to see a flagship line like the X-men still choosing to re-hash the same storylines. I think a lot of people really felt that this X-over might actually see Marvel push these characters in a new and inventive direction. I guess at just over half way through that still might happen, but for now it’s all a bit of a let down.

Writers: Greg Pak/Fred Van Lente
Art: Khoi Pham & Stephane Peru
Price: $2.99
Publisher: Marvel

With the Hulk out of commission after the events of the World War Hulk miniseries, the task of keeping his title going falls to two of his supporting cast members over the last few months – seventh smartest person on the planet Amadeus Cho and hard-fighting demigod Hercules.

We open the story with our heroes being confronted by (and surrendering to) the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the issue deals with their interrogation and (yeah, not exactly a spoiler here) eventual escape – not to mention setting up just who will be going after them.

Regular Hulk writer Greg Pak is joined for this storyline by Fred Van Lente, writer of the recent Super-Villain Team-Up/MODOK’s 11 miniseries. Between them they craft an appealing opening chapter, with a good mixture of unfolding events and re-capping of Hercules’ pre-superhero life – specifically, his labours and the death of his wife and children.

There seems to be a movement at Marvel over the last couple of years to push Hercules in a different direction to his standard portrayal. The hard-drinking, hard-loving, Brian Blessed-voiced (in my head, anyway) amusing character best shown in the classic Prince of Power miniseries seems to be almost gone; replaced by a more serious take on the character – effectively giving him the same makeover as the current take on Thor, right down to the distinctive speech patterns being replaced with a more standardised, formal speech. The old Hercules would never have said “Whoa”, as this one does. The old Hercules was a lot more fun, but that’s not to say that this version is totally without merit.

Despite the above reservations about “New Herc”, this tale is off to a good start, and it will be interesting to see where they take the Lion of Olympus next.

Discuss this topic here.

Writer: Various
Artist: Various

Price: $3.99

Another year, another Holiday Special from Marvel. If you’re the kind of person who likes a little bit of silly fun in their comic books, and doesn’t immediately recoil in terror from stories set at Christmas, these titles have turned out to be a dependable favourite. The last two years alone have given us tales of the Mole Man’s Moloids kidnapping Santas, Wong and Fing Fang Foom versus the hordes of Hydra, the AIM Christmas party, and the incredible tale of the Avengers versus “Santron”, a favourite of both Chris Sims over at Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog and of myself, which is about the highest high praise combo you’re going to get.

So, what does this year’s Christmas special bring? Well, we open with an incredibly uncommercial pairing – Spider-Man and Wolverine. Written by Shaenon K Garrity (who gave us the Moloid and AIM tales mentioned above) and Andrew Farago (Garrity’s co-writer on the AIM story), with art from Lou Kang and Craig Yeung. It is the tale of Spider-Man’s attempt to get a cake across town for Aunt May’s Christmas Eve party, and how it gets interrupted by Wolverine’s battle against a rogue Sentinel, which is being piloted by a fired department store Santa Claus. It’s not the most essential story in the history of either character, but it’s a fun little tale.

A reprint of a two-page Fred Hembeck spread (from a 1984 issue of Marvel Age!) is followed by the standout story, a Christmas epilogue to the recent Loners miniseries. The team have gathered in Turbo’s apartment to exchange Secret Santa gifts and to take stock after recent events. Written by C.B. Cebulski with art by Alina Urusov, this little treasure is the perfect conclusion to the latest chapter in their lives, and at the same time begs to be followed up by another miniseries… or maybe even an ongoing? Note to Marvel: More Loners, please. Thank you.

Just like the previous two specials, the final tale is by Mike Carey. Unfortunately, also like the previous two specials, it is the weakest of the three stories. A lowly Daily Bugle reporter hops around the universe in order to question many and various of the great and the good (or otherwise, on both counts) about the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not too bad, but it isn’t anywhere near the standard set by the rest of the book.

By the time you’ve read this, it will be January. You won’t want to read Christmas comics. Still, this one may be worth picking up and stowing away for next year – unless you’re a Loners fan, in which case it’s nigh-on essential.

Merry Chri… oh, wait. January. Yeah. Forgot, sorry.

Discuss this topic here.

SCRIPT: MIKE MADDOX
ARTIST: PRADEEP INGALE

PRICE: $4.99

The Masked Magician is the star of the Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed TV specials, made by Nash Entertainment, the people behind such series as Who Wants To Be A Superhero? and Court TV’s “Most Shocking. Originally portrayed by Val Valentino, the identity of the current man behind the mask is unknown.

Until now. Virgin Comics, together with Nash Entertainment, bring us the story of the Masked Magician. His name is Tom Worley, and he helps to design tricks for a big, flashy, slightly outdated magician. To put it another way, he’s Jonathan Creek without the quirky personality. The magician he works for, Mark Swain, is secretly a very bad man indeed. He’s attempting to assemble a collection of four magical statues that will enable him to rule the world.

Sounds OK, doesn’t it? Could be a reasonably entertaining made-for-TV movie, like an American Jonathan Creek meets FX, meets those Librarian movies with Noah Wyle.

Well, it isn’t.

This is absolutely the worst comic that I have ever read.

We start ten thousand years ago with a statue that falls out of the sky into Britain. It gives the finder the ability to control the world. His wife eventually tricks him and steals it away, channelling the power into four statues and sending them all over the world. These statues are guarded by a group that becomes known as The Society, hiding in plain sight and using their tricks to distract us away from the real magic. Swain wants to get these statues together, and The Society has to stop him – and Tom Worley ends up being the man to do it for them.

The basic storyline is reasonably good. Like I say above, it could work reasonably well as a TV movie. The execution is where it falls down.

The dialogue is often clumsy, to the point where lines such as “The whole world saved through the healing power of light entertainment.” make an appearance, and you genuinely can’t tell if it’s the character being silly, or if the writer thinks it’s deep and profound. Odd comparisons are made – a Minotaur enters the scene, and is told to “Take off the ‘Freddy Vs Jason’ head”. Characters move from location to location at an alarming and needless rate, almost as if the artist was attempting to get as many different backdrops in as possible.

The artwork is among the worst that I have seen in a professional publication. Poor anatomy, wonky perspective and some of the most amateurish CG work ever. There is a single panel which features two cars passing one another that appear to have been drawn by a 12 year old learning to use the 3D drawing program they’ve just picked up… back in 1998. The background of the panel is a poorly photoshopped-in shot of London, which is amazing considering that the cars are on a single-lane motorway where the signs are in the central reservation, and they are written in both English and Welsh (and we’re somehow only 20 miles from Cardiff on the M4).

I cannot make this point to you strongly enough – please do not buy this book. Those of you that read my Howard the Duck review may recall that the poor quality of the issue made me lose interest in picking up Essential Howard the Duck. This title has made me lose what little interest I had in reading anything else from Virgin Comics at all – it’s so bad that it has turned me away from an entire publisher.

I read this as a free .pdf format review copy, and I still want my money back. Avoid.

Discuss this topic here.

Writers: Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, Ron Marz, Alan Burnett, John Rogers, Peter Tomasi
Artists: Ethan Van Scriver, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Angel Unzueta, Adriana Melo, Patrick Blaine, Pete Woods, Gerry Ordway, Pascal Alixe, Dustin Nguyen, Rafael Albuquerque, Jamal Igle, Michael Lacombe

Now I look at it – that’s quite the creative roster when listed and for what? Arguably DC’s biggest and best story of 2007 though you may not know it! Within the Green Lantern title Johns had been laying the foundations for this epic over the course of some 15 or so issues, but the first pieces were laid right at the start. Meanwhile over in Green Lantern Corps Gibbons also laid a couple of pieces, especially in the arc leading to this tale. And after that? All that remains was to light the fuse and get to a safe distance…

Exploding out of the Green Lantern Special: Sinestro Corps Special, this tale of a galactic confrontation wound its way through Green Lantern 21-25 and Green Lantern Corps 14-18. There were also a number of specific character one-shots focused upon major characters, mostly villains and one tie-in with Blue Beetle. All in all, given DC’s tendency to link things together, Sinestro Corps was remarkably restrained as a crossover.

The story? Sinestro, who was once a Green Lantern himself and an upholder of galactic law but who fell due to taking too hard a line, has assembled his own corps. Never lacking ego he has named them after himself and organised them around the principle of fear. His plan is simple, having assembled an army twice the size of the Green Lanterns, he intends to kill them all, destroy their base, Oa, and take over the universe. Were that not enough, in his opening strikes he frees both Parallax and Superboy-Prime from Oa, slaughtering a number of Lanterns in the process. He’s also secured the services of the Cyborg and the Anti-Monitor. Oh and did I mention he infects Kyle Rayner with Parallax?

With such a gathering of villains Sinestro Corps throws down the gauntlet early – this is going to be a big deal, it’s going to involve huge fights and the good guys are in serious trouble. Not only that, but Sinestro has an overall strategy of which the strike on Oa was but the first step. As the Lanterns are reeling from the strike and the deaths, he sends his second, Arkillo, to assault the planet Green Lantern Mogo. In that battle Gibbons draws together various elements from the Green Lantern Corps title – notably the city of Ranx that despises the Lanterns.

Not only is there a massive amount of power arrayed against them, but the Lanterns are held back by their own rings, which do not have the ability to kill. Are they capable of it? Certainly, but they’re not permitted to. Johns poses the question: What is ultimately worth more: upholding principles to the point of extinction or compromising in order to survive to return to the higher ground later? Despite it causing great unease amongst some of them, the Green Lantern’s Guardians rewrite the laws that govern the rings, and grant the bearers the permission to kill. This enables the war to begin to turn in the Lanterns’ favour though they still lack the initiative.

If this were all the Lanterns lacked, things might be OK but they, and the Guardians, have miscalculated: They assumed the ultimate objective for the Sinestro Corps was Oa, for that is the centre of the universe. In the new post-Infinite Crisis world, however, Earth is the foundation point for the multiverse with 51 parallel Earths flowing from it. Take it out and it all collapses. They realise this too late, and the entire Sinestro Corps assaults Earth, drawing in quite literally all the other heroes: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, JLA, JSA – you name it, they’re involved.

What was an already insanely ambitious tale takes another step up as Sinestro Corps members and Manhunters attack, and Earth’s heroes respond alongside the Lanterns. Even so, it may not be enough, the Guardians attempt to counter this by creating a new Ion, who takes on but is unable to defeat Superboy-Prime. Despite that loss the other Lanterns – Hal, Guy and John have taken out Parallax and freed Kyle, so that only leaves the thousands in the Sinestro Corps, Manhunters, Superboy-Prime, the Cyborg, Sinestro and the Anti-Monitor to deal with!

Attention Geoff Johns: Your mission is to conclude this story in a fashion befitting it and to do so in one super-sized issue, do you accept? Of course he does. Johns has only 54 pages to bring this epic to an end and for all he has to cover it isn’t much. There are so many villains to deal with of such a high power level – are these able to be defeated without cheating and reducing their threat level in the space of a single issue? If so, will their defeat satisfy or will it be rushed? It could have easily been anti-climatic. It wasn’t – instead Green Lantern 25 has to be in the list of best issues of 2007.

The issue revolves around various axes: the future of the Lanterns in light of the new laws and the dangers that heralds, Hal versus Sinestro, the Guardians versus the Anti-Monitor, Superboy-Prime against everyone, the Lanterns versus the Sinestros. Nor is this everything – the sheer amount of plot and grand spectacle Johns packs into the issue is staggering. Everyone gets what’s coming to them and if some fates are left a bit more open than would be expected, the final pages make it clear: This isn’t over. Oh the Sinestro Corps are defeated, Sinestro is captured, Earth is saved, the Anti-Monitor is vanquished, but there are more stories to come. This is another impressive achievement: Johns very explicitly flags up that this will be continued, that the story began in 2005 with Rebirth and will conclude in 2009 with Blackest Night, but you don’t feel cheated. Instead it’s a very clear indication that this is all planned out, the only question: Are you going to be coming on this ride?

The Tales of the Sinestro Corps were, far from being optional extras, fairly major pieces of the story, with each delving into a particular character: Parallax, Cyborg-Superman, Superboy-Prime, Ion. Each set up plots that conclude later, the majority in Green Lantern 25. The art was generally pretty good, of them all Parallax was probably the weakest as it seemed to do little, but its plot paid off later in how Parallax was expunged from Kyle Rayner. On the other hand the The Blue Beetle tie-in was adequate but I’m not sure it was needed.

The only other weakness the story has is not embracing its status as a crossover right from the start. At the start Sinestro Corps was sold as 2 stories that would run through the respective Green Lantern titles for 5 months, readers would have the choice which to read and both would be freestanding. While this is understandable, DC wanted to avoid giving the impression people had to buy issues, once the scale of the story became apparent people did start buying both. The issues literally started disappearing out of shops! The down side of this being that each title’s recapping of the other became tiresome. Fortunately this is the only real weakness in the project but it’s probably something to be bourn in mind for future projects: If the story is good enough, people don’t mind buying 1-2 extra titles.

One minor point is there are a couple of places where the story suffers from excess, whilst these are minor they do detract from an otherwise great story. The Cyborg pays a visit to his wife’s grave, then rips it open, grabs her corpse and rips it apart. Later, over in Green Lantern Corps, the battle between Ion and Superboy-Prime ends up barrelling into a cemetery, where it continues. Both have a distasteful aspect to them, which may be the point, but neither is either really required – the story would do just as well without them.

Back to the good points and one huge achievement by the artists – they all delivered stunning art, for a story like this relies upon art to depict it and what the writers are asking isn’t minor. A galaxy-spanning war involving thousands of participants and numerous battles, each of which needs to be rendered uniquely. It’s a massive task.

Whilst the art of Ethan Van Scriver has been known to fans for a while, Ivan Reis has been less well known, I’m using past tense as that’s unlikely to be the case post-Sinestro Corps, for his’ work here has really sparkled magnificently. Splash pages are sometimes derided for occupying too much space at the expense of the story, but used correctly they are an invaluable tool and Reis demonstrates this superbly. His splash pages are packed with detail to the point where you can look at them time and again and still spot something new. He’s equally adept at conveying emotions, from the sadness in the aftermath of the strike at Oa to the elation of the final victories.

Nor should I overlook the artists who gave Gibbons final Green Lantern Corps story some amazing visuals, from the entry of Ranx, to the planetary assaults engaged in and the final outcomes. It’s in Green Lantern Corps we see the first application of the newly authorised lethal force and it’s a great moment. Another is the rematch between Kilowog and Arkillo, with the latter getting a decking from the Lanterns Sergeant-Major.

I accept that, at best, I’ve only sketched the broad outlines of this epic story and detailed some of the creative teams’ achievements but that’s all that can be done here. After all, the story spans some 14 issues, 2 of them double-size. If you’ve read this story you know there are many wonderful moments that can’t be conveyed in a review; if you haven’t I’d hope I’ve got you curious enough to give this a try – if only to see what people are talking about.

For myself, it’s a wonderful story that really shows off Green Lantern as one of DC’s flagship titles. It brings to a conclusion some 2-3 years worth of work. At its best, a long run on a title is satisfying because of the way a skilled writer will spin and assemble plots together like a mosaic. At the same time it also has a surprising ability to provoke the reader to thought: Could Sinestro have a point? If so, what of it? On the surface it’s a bright colourful tale, but underneath, there’s a good amount to ponder. At the other end of the scale it has moments of incredible action and heroic feats, which is surely the point of any comic that claims to be about superheroes.

Discuss this topic here.

Director: Chris Weitz
Writer: Chris Weitz based on the novel by Philip Pullman
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Richards, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Sam Elliott, Christopher Lee

The Golden Compass is an adaptation of the first of Philip Pullman’s trilogy of fantasy novels collectively known as His Dark Materials. The book was originally published in the UK as Northern Lights. The film jettisons some of the more complex and controversial aspects of the book, namely the role of religion, and instead concentrates on the journey of its young protagonist, Lyra, which takes her from the safety of a university campus, where she lives as the ward of an adventuring University Professor, to the frozen wastes of a fantasy Scandinavia populated by talking polar bears.

Reviewers and fans have drawn comparisons between The Golden Compass and other high brow fantasy series, namely LOTR and Narnia, but The Golden Compass cannot hope to achieve the same levels of success. LOTR plays with well established archetypes (Dwarves, Elves and manly heroes) that exist outside Tolkien’s universe, and which provide some context for viewers who are not already numbered among the books’ many fans. The Narnia books have been a staple of childhood reading for at least 3 generations and the first book (and film) at least contains enough familiar territory (a family escaping the blitz and the appearance of Father Christmas ) to give it some degree of broader appeal. The Golden Compass, however, has substantially more work to do in establishing not only the characters, but their context within an elaborate pseudo Victorian fantasy world. Perhaps wisely, the film makers simply show us the world and leave the viewers to accept and make sense of it in their own time. The obvious downside of this however, is that the characters can, and do, get lost amidst the spectacle.

The central premise of the film is that people in Lyra’s world have animal spirit forms, called daemons, which manifest outside their bodies. Children’s daemons are not fixed in their form and change from birds to mice to whatever, while adults’ daemons have a fixed form. These daemons connect people to a substance called ‘dust’, not the kind that gathers under the bed or on top of the bookshelves, but a magical substance that pervades the multi-verse, and which the Magisterium, a ruling oligarchy of clerics, believes is proof of the original sin.

The plot thread that takes Lyra on her journey of discovery follows on from two events. One is the disappearance of children from the town outside the University, the other is her guardian, Lord Asriel’s, discovery of a potential portal to another world somewhere near the North Pole and his capturing of the normally invisible Dust on film. Lord Asriel, played convincingly by Daniel Craig, sets off to return North, having secured funding for his expedition while Lyra’s friends, Billy and Roger, are kidnapped by the ‘Gobblers’ and Lyra herself is taken under the wing of a sinister Mrs Coulter, again well played by an ice cold Nicole Kidman. At this point Lyra is given the titular Golden Compass by the Dean of the University in the belief that she is one of the few people alive who can make use of it. Subsequently, Lyra escapes from Mrs Coulter and sets out to find her friends with the help of a group of Gyptians (a sort of gypsy underclass) many of whom have lost children themselves.

On her travels, Lyra learns how to use the Golden Compass, which seems to act as a sort of oracle. She also befriends the exiled Prince of a race of talking Polar Bears and Sam Elliot, who plays to type as a grizzled frontiersman; although this time he is a balloonist. The film ends after a reasonably satisfying denouement, but like Jackson’s Two Towers, it ends before the book, leaving a pivotal segment for the next movie.

The film as a whole seems to fall between its two audiences. Those who have read the book are likely to find the most interesting elements of the story to have been watered down, and those who haven’t are in danger of being overwhelmed by the combination of world building and plot mechanics. Sadly the result is that character development is left behind and the young actress who plays Lyra, Dakota Richards, doesn’t quite have the skill or charm to breathe life into the main character. Eva Green, who appears as a leader of a group of friendly witches, and Sam Elliot both play important roles in the plot but are hardly more than character sketches. Daniel Craig gives a short but decent performance as Lord Asriel, which leaves only Nicole Kidman, as Mrs Coulter, to shine. She manages to do more than say the lines, and brings a much needed complexity to what could have been a one dimensional character.

Overall the film is certainly spectacular, with some exciting battle sequences and moments of dramatic tension. It is however ironic that a film whose premise is the search for the human soul, should be so lacking in heart.