Prepare to gasp and be pleasantly surprised! I am so very happy with this minisode and for those of you who are looking forward to the 50th anniversary special this is a MUST watch, seriously it’s essential! At only 6 minutes long, it is packed with information and intrigue, revelations and hard choices culminating in a ‘whoa’ moment.
There isn’t really anything else to say without spoiling it, but know this, the BBC really are pulling out all the stops to make this special year a true celebration of Doctor Who.
The Day of the Doctor airs Saturday 23rd of November at 8PM on the BBC.
So, Thor: The Dark World recently came out, and, as with all the Marvel Universe films, it featured some bonus sequences post-credits. There was a mid-credits and a post-credits scene, and, while both play their role, it is the mid-credits scene that is of major importance to future events in the cinematic Marvel Universe. More specifically, with next year’s wild card addition to the Marvel roster, Guardians Of The Galaxy.
However, before dealing with this, I’ll get the post-credits scene out of the way.
The re-union
Don’t get me wrong, it was a perfectly good scene, a nice bit of sweet and touching romance between Thor and Jane Foster. His returning to her when she’s in a post-Thor funk to get into one of those wonderfully cinematic, passionate kisses we are all so fond of was a perfect follow up scene to the end of the film, in which we see Thor turn down the throne of Asgard. The film’s closing scene combines with this post-credits addition for a lovely, heartwarming moment which I can’t help but compare to Disney’s Hercules‘ ending, when Hercules refuses godhood in order to spend his life on Earth with Megara. And while Thor doesn’t give up his powers to be with Jane, this scene does serve as definitive proof that Thor is now of Earth, and has well and truly given up his claim to Asgard.
But here’s the important bit. The mid-credits scene shows a distinctly alien setting – the pink lady is a real tip-off – in which the Lady Sif and Volstagg arrive with a very important item. This item is the Aether, the source of all the trouble in The Dark World. Introduced to the mysterious and eccentric Collector, played by Benicio Del Toro, the Asgardians explain that, with the Tesseract on Asgard, it’s not safe to keep two Infinity Stones in one place. As the pair leave, the Collector says “one down, five to go”.
Here’s why it’s important: the Infinity Stones are clearly the film’s name for the Infinity Gems, 6 powerful stones which, when placed in the Infinity Gauntlet, grant the wearer omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and God-like power, along with absolute dominion over all realities. So, clearly quite a big deal. Even more so when you consider the main seeker of said Infinity Gems: namely, Thanos, the giant purple dude in the post-credits scene of Avengers. Thanos is essentially the Marvel equivalent of DC’s Darkseid, a super-powered alien tyrant looking to rule the entire universe. Just your regular weekend, then.
Now, the Collector is one of the Elders Of The Universe, the last survivors of otherwise extinct races known for their personal obsessions, and in comic history has, at various times, tried to “collect” the Avengers. The dude is obsessed with collecting interesting artifacts and life forms: after his wife gave up her immortality after losing the will to live, the Collector realised he would need a hobby to maintain his sanity. So, a perfectly reasonable response to your wife’s death. The important thing, however, is that Thanos once took an Infinity Gem from him, the Collector being unaware of it’s true power. While The Collector of the film seems much more aware of what he’s been given, the fact that Thanos is involved in the overall arc would suggest that The Collector may not hold onto the Aether for long.
The Guardians
The film that this really links into is 2014’s Guardians Of The Galaxy. An odd choice for Marvel, the film is based off a little known and short lived comic that features a rag-tag, oddball band of space-farers, including a genetically engineered master marksman and tactician that just happens to be a raccoon, and a hyper-intelligent tree creature. The film is set to see these characters go up against lieutenants of Thanos. Essentially, Avengers’ post-credits scene was the greatest tease of all time, in that Thanos isn’t going to appear until Avengers 3. However, with the introduction of the Collector in this mid-credit scene in The Dark World, and Guardians Of The Galaxy set to more directly address Thanos, to a degree at least, next year, it seems we are slowly building towards what is, if rumours are to be believed, the epic conclusion of the Marvel film cycle. For now…
I don’t mean to continue going on about this – to flog a dead Walker, as it were – but The Walking Dead’s 40+ minute run time is just too long for the kind of show it wants to be. Without wanting to be too mean, or harsh, The Walking Dead (TV) is basically a Soap Opera with zombies: it follows the struggles of the human characters, their tales, and their constant arguments. Constant, constant arguments. The Walkers are essentially a backdrop, a force of nature. This same stories could essentially be told in a sudden, constant flood, with water trying to force its way in.
Filling episodes that long with just human struggles is very hard to do: most dramas use their backdrop to add, and generate, storylines. Fights against the law, against a horrible system, against an alien invasion, against an incredible supernatural framework, these all add intrigue and interest. Walkers, however, cannot generate much beyond an immediate threat. That leaves us with only the humans, and their struggles. Not now that we understand them: in Season 1, they were a mystery to be solved. And whilst pure dramas can be interesting, and very well done, it takes either some other elements to rely on – comedy, for example – or great skill.
Sadly, much of the writing in The Walking Dead is not handled with great skill. The quality of directing has increased in Season 4, but the writing remains bogged down in the idea that people arguing is fascinating enough to fill out the spare time. Often, tension or action scenes can reduce the amount of padding, but both were rather lacking in Internment.
AMC have shown, though, with the travesty of Season 2, and their treatment of the final season of Breaking Bad, that low cost is one of their key motivators in producing television programmes. Keeping the budget down. Obviously, entertainment is a business, but concentrating too much on the bottom line is a self-fulfilling prophecy: a cheap show is only rarely a good one, and when it is it’s through incredible inspiration.
There was little inspiring in Internment, though. A good drama, the collapse of health care under the incredible weight of an epidemic where those who die become even larger threats, was somewhat dragged out. There was a good, unwitting metaphor for this episode in the opening scenes, where Herschel and Glenn were forcing oxygen into a patient’s lungs, keeping life going, stretching it out until the inevitable end. The same went for this episode.
Montages, Unnecessary Talking, and action sequences drawn out long beyond the point of tension: all of these are yours to enjoy in this episode. A number of redshirts, including the poor doctor, die, but little of any import happens. Daryl, Michonne and everyone else return in the nick of time to ensure that no Named Characters die from the HyperFlu, and Herschel is a tough son of a bitch, but there’s little else that matters to the overall plot of The Walking Dead.
Even the collapse of one of the outer fences, and the rapid ingress of fifty or more Walkers, isn’t enough to bring life to this shambling episode. Intercut as it is with a tensionless scene of Maggie trying to break in to the quarantine zone to save Herschel from infected Walkers, it loses some of its power. And it’s an important scene as well, because it shows Rick not only taking charge of the Prison, but also him reaching out to Carl for support, trusting him with a heavy weapon. Carl shows that he’s ready for that responsibility, which impresses Rick, perhaps teaches him that he’s also ready for the increased responsibility of the Ricktatorship.
They say talk is cheap, and it certainly is when you’re filming a TV show. I’m beginning to think that is why The Walking Dead has so many Unnecessary Talking scenes, where people talk about how bad things might be when an upcoming event happens, rather than planning to stop it or just getting to the damn event. To a certain extent, that is because there is little one can do against a vicious epidemic, but that doesn’t make for great television.
A golden rule for writers is that each scene must reveal character, or move the story forward. But when you have characters established over three seasons, you have already revealed most of what a character is about. Simply having the same characters act in the same way, only with different people, is not interesting. The scenes which I’ve enjoyed most this season have been the ones where a character is either growing or crumbling: Rick struggling with the group’s need for a leader; Carole being a badass murderer; Michonne deciding to choose the group; or Daryl accepting being a respected part of a society. Herschel being Herschel, Maggie worrying about her father: these are not new scenes, merely new circumstances for them to occur under.
The reason I am writing so much about this is that there is the core of a good show under The Walking Dead. A weekly show about people surviving a Zombie Apocalypse should work. With more care, more quality, or more budget, The Walking Dead could enthrall us every week, as it did in episode 4.
The ending promises a better episode to come. The Governor is, at least, an interesting character with more to be revealed about him. He should generate more story. Though I fear that we’ll just get a bunch of conversations about Michonne’s reaction to him, and whether he should be killed, rather than tense-standoffs and opportunities for character growth.
It’s not every day you get abducted and jacked into The Matrix Mainframe, forced to battle it out with others to get back to reality. It’s even less common for those abducted to be scantily-clad, big breasted beauties with psychic abilities. Oh… this is a fighting game? Well then this is prettymuch just a day ending in “y”.
Girl Fight comes from developer Kung Fu Factory, and the title prettymuch does exactly what it says on the tin. Eight Girls using different martial arts techniques, combined with “psionic” abilities fight each other.
In terms of storyline, you’re not exactly going to be scratching your head over plot twists or convoluted exposition. A shady company (there’s always a company doing nasty stuff!) called “The Foundation” has acquired “test subjects” in order to weaponise their psionic abilities. With a distinct lack of morals and funding that would make Tony Stark blush, The Foundation have plugged the coincidentally all-female cast into a computer simulation called The Mainframe. The ladies are then forced to face-off in one-on-one bouts of combative competition in order to obtain their freedom.
Okay, so fighting games aren’t known for their profound story – it’s all about the gameplay, baby! If I were to compare Girl Fight to another title, the closest game that’d come to it would be Dead or Alive. However, it does lose out in certain areas.
Graphically, Girl Fight is quite appealing. It doesn’t quite have the graphical panache of Dead or Alive or Tekken, but for a download-only game it’s pretty damn good. Some nice particle effects, and buttery-smooth animations make the game good to look at.
Some of the backgrounds and fighting arenas are a bit spartan, but with a dystopian backdrop there isn’t going to be much going on anyway. You’re not going to have other sprites or onlookers in the background, but you will have burning buildings, large War of the Worlds-style tripods or sometimes bomber planes flying overhead as you duke it out in the dilapidated ruin of an old church.
Why yes… I’d love to lick the floor. Thank you for your assistance.
There’s a suitably Matrix-esque tinge to the graphics, with the impacts being accompanied by code-like particle squares and flashes.
The character design isn’t bad, despite looking like a teenage hormone-driven boy came up with the sprites. All the girls are rather buxom with “junk in their trunk”, and wearing as little as possible to maximise the side-boob & bum shot opportunities. Some characters have very short skirts, tight-fitting lycra or even leather BDSM-style outfits. Unfortunately there is some laziness in the character design, as when you’re playing you’ll notice some characters looking nearly identical, save the outfits – Daisy and Chaos for example.
One thing you’re going to groan at though are the character names, which are typically based on the outfits they wear. To give you a few examples… Warchild wears a military uniform, Shogun has a skimpy samurai outfit, Chrome wears metal armour, Wrench is a mechanic with… yep, you guessed it… a wrench. You get the idea.
Shogun’s yoga class is a little risqué
The camera makes some quite nice swooping movements when certain abilities are used like throws or special moves, though these can be a little quick and sometimes disorientating with some of the more acrobatic events.
These manoeuvres are often accompanied by a bullet time-like slow motion effect to accentuate the gravity of the actions at hand. This works well to make the impact more visually appealing, but it happens way too often.
Unfortunately when you’re caught in a corner by an opponent, the camera can sometimes magically switch so you’re attacking from the other side without warning… so if you’re mid-combo this can be quite frustrating.
The sound effects are minimal, with high pitched grunts and yelps from the girls as they punch, kick and get smacked in the chops. Some characters have very high-pitched voices (Chaos), so their yelps do irritate a bit. The music in the game is quite a generic, dirty techno electric rock/pop mix… this isn’t bad, but it’s not good either.
The gameplay in Girl Fight borrows heavily from the Tekken series, and some moves could almost be mistaken for being completely lifted from the games. Some of the spinning kicks and low-to-high kicks look like they’re nicked from Michelle or Julia Chang’s characters. The great thing is they’ve chosen a good model to take inspiration from, and Kung Fu Factory have done a good job of emulating it.
The left analogue stick or D-pad is used for movement, and the square, X, triangle and circle buttons are your punch, kick, grab and defence options respectively. The shoulder buttons and/or triggers are used to activate your “psi-amps”. Then there’s obviously the double tap forwards to run. Finally you can use the grab button (triangle) combined with either back, or down on the D-pad to do a counter, or a low counter.
The countering system isn’t as forgiving as I’d like, and it will punish you if you’re not timing these with absolute precision. However if you can get this down, then it’s prettymuch an I win button.
Wrench takes a boot to the back… serves her right for looking in the wrong direction really!
There are no ring-outs – the battleground is encased in an invisible cube that only becomes apparent when you or your opponent are smacked into it. This fits in nicely with the artificial reality aspect of the story, so didn’t bother me at all. In fact it made me reminisce about by former Virtua Fighter days.
Movement works exactly the same way as the Tekken games, even down to the sidestep mechanic for dodging. As far as combos and attacks in general, these are decent enough, but the only moves that convey the impact well enough are the holds and throws. Kicks and punches just feel like you’re slapping someone, unless you’re performing a knockdown move.
Where Girl Fight stands apart from it’s older, wiser fighting game siblings is the aspect of the psionic abilities. This harkens back to games like Psychic Force, but a little less fantastical. For example – you can leach the life force from an opponent, or activate a Steel Skin or Flame Body, and even emit blasts of psychic energy to damage your opponent.
Chrome looks distracted by… something.
Each ability has it’s own category; “Psiphon” abilities are the leaching powers, allowing you to steal life or psi power from your opponent.
“Illusion” abilities let you phase to avoid damage, or lower your opponent’s defence to make your next hit more powerful.
“Attack” abilities include the Mind Blast and Seismic Fist attacks… the latter being a ground punch attack that knocks your enemy over.
Finally the “Xform” category gives you the steel or flame skin that I mentioned earlier.
When you activate an ability, you’re greeted with an accompanying graphical effect… the leach abilities make you turn green when you leach health, purple when you leach psi power, the steel skin and flame body powers are pretty self explanatory though.
The use of these abilities isn’t always necessary in a fight, but you’re guaranteed to need to start using them more and more as you get towards the final boss. I found that once unlocked, the instant knockdown of the Seismic Fist ability helped more than anything else, which I prettymuch used constantly on the boss (and even then she dodged or blocked it, making it useless).
In terms of customisation, you’re able to swap out your psi abilities before you start playing… and you can choose a maximum of two. As you play you’ll be rewarded with Combits or CB… and you can use these in the shop to unlock more psionic abilities, or skins and outfits (yes… the more you pay, the skimpier the outfit gets). When you play ranked online matches you can wager Combits, but obviously run the risk of losing them in the process.
As far as game modes go, there’s the usual mix including arcade, versus, training and online play. You can also view leaderboards to see exactly just how bad you are in comparison to the rest of the world that’s playing.
When you first take a crack at the arcade mode though, you’re limited to only using Warchild, which is a little odd. What’s more frustrating is that the end boss (Chrome) will let you win a round, but then proceeds to avoid every single attack and special you use on her… it really reminds me of the old-school fighting games where the bosses used to “cheat”.
I keep retrying Chrome, but she whoops my ass every single time, no matter what tactic I take. What’s more annoying is that if your selected loadout of psionics isn’t good for you to beat her, the only way to swap them out is to quit to the main menu, and retry from the start.
I’m not going to say there’s lots of boob shots in this… but… yeah…
In conclusion, there’s a lot that bugs me about Girl Fight in terms of camera switching, copy/pasted sprites and ludicrous difficulty spikes with the boss… but is it a bad fighting game because of these things? No it’s not. Girl Fight is a well-polished title, which rewards persistence and precision timing. It’s good to look at, despite it’s obviously overly titillating nature, and can be fun playing versus friends or online too.
However does it have much in the way of replay value? Well… there’s characters to unlock in the Arcade mode, as well as outfits and artwork to appeal to your boobtastic requirements. Aside from that though, there’s not much. These things coupled with the soulless attempt at a storyline make the game decidedly average when you have free to play titles like Tekken Revolution available. However if you’re a hardcore fighting game fanatic and completionist, this will definitely have it’s appeal. With the relatively low price tag, you can do worse.
Spearhead from Space is the first adventure with the Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee and is the first classic Doctor Who story to be given an HD release. Sadly, this is the only one we are likely to see on Blu-ray as the others were not shot on film as this was and are, apparently, not possible to upgrade with current technology. First aired in 1970, this story remains a stand-out classic.
http://youtu.be/k3Lc9_Hkko0
Firsts
Not only is it the first to be upgraded to HD, Spearhead From Space also features a number of other firsts. Here are some of them:
The first to be shot on film.
The first to be shot mainly on location.
The first to be shot in colour.
The first adventure with Jon Pertwee as The Doctor.
The first Auton story.
The first story to feature companion/assistant Liz Shaw.
The first story to mention The Doctor’s two hearts.
The Story
The story starts with the newly generated Doctor being exiled to Earth in a dysfunctional Tardis, accompanied by a shower of meteorites. UNIT investigate both the Doctor and the meteorites, realising that there could be a connection between them. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart – sometimes referred to as “The Brig”, who has met The Doctor before, is not convinced that the man who arrived in the Tardis is really him, due to his latest regeneration/new face. Of course, The Doctor soon proves himself to be the timelord as he helps UNIT get to the bottom of the mystery of the meteorites.
Enter the Autons; artificial life forms, resembling mannequins, who are controlled by the Nestene Consciousness, a disembodied life force which can inhabit plastic. It is assisted by a mysterious man, called Channing, who uses a doll factory to aid the Nestene, building an army of Autons. They also replace people of importance with plastic imposters to aid their schemes.
It seems that Doctor Who has always had a knack of being able to make us fear things, which we may not have feared before. The mannequins are pretty scary; more-so when they reveal a gun within their hands and start terrorising the streets of London. This is one of the most iconic scenes in Doctor Who history and while the story is fairly slow in it’s progression, it’s worth waiting for this invasion scene. Although not a common DW enemy, the Autons were so popular, that they were used to launch the reboot of the series in 2005, in the episode “Rose.” The shopping centre invasion scene was also recreated. I think that the Autons are a great enemy; both mute and menacing at the same time, they are quite reminiscent of zombies – and who doesn’t love those?
I’ve seen this story on a variety of formats and it’s always been one of my favourites. It’s got so many things which draw me to it – The Autons, The Brig and of course, Jon Pertwee. He may have been The Doctor before my time but I watched re-runs featuring him when I was young as I knew him from other shows I watched as a kid, such as the excellent Wurzel Gummidge. He was such a great Doctor, very charismatic and although he could often be quite serious, there was always a sense of fun about him. His quirky dress sense helped out with that; a combination of frilled shirts, suits, riding boots and even cloaks. His Doctor was often been described as a “dandy” or a bond-like character but I think he had his own unique style.
The Disc
The picture looks great considering it’s age. If you watch the restoration comparison special feature, you’ll see just how much it’s been cleaned up. There is still some inevitable film grain but it’s fairly light; grain is usually much more apparent on HD content than on SD due to the resolution, so this is not bad at all. Of course, being in HD, a lot more detail can be seen, one example being; you can see how sweaty some of the actors were – whether you want to or not. The only thing. which disappointed me,was that it was still 4:3 only; there may have been a technical reason for this, but I was surprised it hadn’t been given the widescreen treatment as several of the other classics have in recent years, but especially as this is an HD release.
There aren’t as many Special Features on this disc as most of the classics have. However, it does contain two interesting documentaries, which pay tribute to both John Pertwee and Caroline John; the restoration comparison is pretty amazing too. I also was hoping for a Making Of /Behind the Scenes doco or audio commentary, which are quite common on the classic stories; as I mentioned before, this story boasts many firsts, so I’m sure there are many interesting stories behind it. This may be due to a lack of surviving cast and crew members, so it probably wasn’t possible.
Conclusion
This is essential viewing for any whovian; if you have only seen the modern series but want to check out some of the classics, then this is a great one to start with. If you already own the DVD version, it’s still worth getting the Blu-Ray just to see how good it can look and to watch the Pertwee doco of course.
The Maximoff twins have now been confirmed for Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron! Despite his long and fairly public talk of possible
Elizabeth Olson aka Scarlet Witch
involvement in the film, initial concerns that scheduling conflicts may prevent his involvement stopped Aaron Taylor Johnson from all out confirming. It has now been firmly said that the star of films such as Kick Ass and Nowhere Boy will be stepping into the role of Quicksilver, to be accompanied by Scarlet Witch, recently confirmed to be played by Elizabeth Olson, younger sister of the famous twins and star of films like Silent House and Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Johnson will be the second portrayal of the character in as many years as Evan Peters takes the speedster to the big screen with 2014’s X-Men: Days Of Future Past. And while Johnson has been persistently public about his possible involvement up till now, the revelation of Olson’s involvement was a surprise. The rumour was originally confirmed by Samuel L Jackson, who plays super spy and head of S.H.I.E.L.D Nick Fury, who told us that she was involved but he wasn’t sure in what role and has now been made official.
Aaron Taylor Johnson aka Quicksilver
We already know that James Spader is set to play the film’s big bad, Ultron. Ultron is the creation of Henry Pym, aka Ant Man, and based on Pym’s brain patterns. The robot gradually developed its own intelligence and rebelled, and almost immediately develops an Oedipus Complex, whereby it feels irrational hatred for his “father” Hank, and demonstrates an interest in Hank’s lover Janet van Dyne, the Wasp. He is also the creator of the Vision, an android member of the Avengers who ultimately marries Scarlet Witch. While the fact that Ant Man’s solo outing is set to come after Avengers 2, suggesting that Iron Man will be Ultron’s creator in the film, the presence of the Scarlet Witch and Ultron in the same film may imply the presence of the Vision in future films.
For now though, the question is of course, who exactly are Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch? Well, for a quick breakdown. Real names Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, they’re the twin children of Magneto. That’s right, the big bad in X-Men. Intermittently good and bad, the siblings tend to side towards the heroic, though usually with a fair bit of self-interest and at times downright villainous (they originally appeared as part of their fathers’ Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants). Despite being mutants, and thus being members of the X-Men universe, they are often more likely to pop up as members of the Avengers and were prominent members of the classic line up. Quicksilver , predictably, is super fast while Scarlet Witch possesses the somewhat strange and vague ability that is Chaos Magic. Not entirely clear what this magic does, it seems fairly broad in application in that it does everything from the everyday blasts to the global event that was House Of M/Decimation, in which she removed 90% of the mutant population’s abilities. So, pretty damn powerful.
The Maximoff twins in action
It’s currently unclear as to what role the Maximoff twins will play in Avengers 2 but with Ultron involved there seems a chance that there could be some sort of setup for the introduction of the Vision and, with their mutant status, the twins will certainly serve to further stretch the ever expanding Marvel universe, touching on the already established X-Men franchise. However, while we may not know their role in the upcoming film, with such skilled actors filling the characters and with the ever excellent Joss Whedon at the helm, it’s hard not to be excited by their inclusion.
The fall line-up for the CW has shown great promise and it seems that fact is being recognized by the studios who have ordered full seasons for three of the new arrivals: The Originals (the darker, edgier and more interesting version of The Vampire Diaries), The Tomorrow People (a remake of a 70s show with the same name) and Reign (the not quite historically accurate period drama about Mary, Queen of Scots).
While The Originals comes with its ready made fanbase, the other two are quite fresh to the market, but no less attractive. And I do mean that in the most literal sense, given that they perpetuate the CWs penchant for hiring incredibly attractive people to star in their shows, almost to the point of forcing us to suspend disbelief when dealing with them (They also perpetuate the myth that ugly/less attractive=evil). The number of viewers had been steadily growing for some of the shows, not to mention the DVR numbers that have also been taken into consideration. Hopefully they are here to stay.
Here’s a little rundown on what these shows are about if you’ve never gotten to see any of them:
The Originals – The grown-up version of teen drama The Vampire Diaries, The Originals aims for a more grown-up audience, one that doesn’t believe that vampires should just look pretty while repeating high-school for the nth time. Not to mention the characters are less squeamish about ripping hearts out, killing people for sport or compelling the “lucky” few to do their bidding, until their usefulness has come to an end. With Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies, Claire Holt, Phoebe Tonkin and Charles Michael Davis (I did mention the ridiculously attractive cast, right?) at the forefront, The Originals has the chance of becoming the next best thing.
The Tomorrow People – focuses on the struggles a new species of mutants (in a show that never says the word mutant) against the prejudiced secret agency of ULTRA, determined to kill them all, simply because they possess special abilities. Where have I heard this plot before? All in all, despite the rather silly name and the insistence of the characters to consider themselves non-human, it’s actually quite good and the cast has proven its talent. Mark Pellegrino (Supernatural, Being Human), Robbie Amell, Luke Mitchell, Russ Kwon and Peyton List are just a few of those that make up the cast of the show and the reason why people still tune in every week, despite a slight inconsistency in its pacing..
Reign – as I mentioned before it is a period drama, focusing on the life of Mary, Queen of Scots and her struggles during a time when life was a very cheap commodity. While initially panned by the critics, the show picked up and the fans, who ultimately have the last word, seem to have kept it afloat. Featuring Adelaide Kane as the lead, Toby Regbo, Torrance Coombs and Rufus Sutherland, the show might still surprise us all.
A viral ad for fictional cab company “Hadouken Cabs” has been making the rounds on the interwebs this week, and I totally wish it was real! What appears to be a cheesy Street Fighter spoof ad is actually a more subversive PS4 advert.
You can view the ad below in all it’s glory, complete with authentic Street Fighter 2 sound effects throughout. Beautifully cheesy and silly, it’s nice to see Sony going for something humourous rather than their previous more disturbing efforts (Remember the creepy baby PS3 ad, anyone?)
The ad does make me speculate on the possibility of a new Next Gen Street Fighter title, and typically both Sony and Capcom are keeping decidedly schtum on the subject.
There are a few details in the advert that raise some eyebrows when you delve deeper too:
The phone number on screen is 0830-1987-KO, or 30th August, 1987… the original release date of the first Street Fighter title.
There’s a website posted – http://www.hadoukencabs.com Again, it’s ingeniously cheesy – it even has Geocities-esque hitcounters. Also if you pay attention to the copyright notice, it spans from 1987-2013. Clicking on the “talk to an operator” button provides an interesting audio clip too.
Ryu doesn’t look chuffed with you…
All in all, I’m excited about what this could potentially mean. At present we’re distinctly lacking in information, but I’m sure as the PS4’s release date looms ever closer we’ll be able to glean a little more.
Flashback to 1988, I’m an 8 year old kid, and my idea of comics ranges from British instituitions such as The Dandy and The Beano, to several titles my brothers would pick up, including Eagle and Marvel UK’s Transformers.
Then something new appeared from Marvel UK. Named Dragon’s Claws – which was rather odd, I thought – it was Marvel UK’s first attempt at an American format comic. This was way before a reliable distribution network: back then, only newsagents sold the hodge-podge mix of various British comics aimed at kids with the occasional American comic.
To quote South Park’s Cartman, it ‘warped my fragile little mind’.
Dragon’s Claws was the creation of Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, writer and artist of the acclaimed Tranformers UK comics which I was an avid fan of, even if I didn’t understand the rather mythological and epic scope of Furman’s writing at the time: writing which would guarantee his name would forever be associated with Autobots and Decepticons.
Taking influence from 2000AD’s dystopian futuristic science fiction, and 70’s films Rollerball, The Warriors, and Live Aid, Dragon’s Claws was set in the far future of 8162, in a world wracked by overpopulation, food shortages and environmental disaster. To distract and pacify the population, the World Development Council creates ‘The Game’.
The Game ,which is only briefly alluded to, pitches teams of garishly armored assailants against each other in a contest which blends gladitorial combat with strategy and sport. Before long, though, The Game itself descends into anarchy culminating in the ‘Miami Bloodbath.’
What made it so appealing was, even disregarding the story – the deeper layers of which were completely lost on my young self – was the great art from Geoff Senior, the great characters, the action, and its surprising brutality. Most of all, though, as my younger self would say, it was pretty damn ‘cool.’
It also fed into my idea that sport was an activity which had only one purpose, grievous injury at the hands of people bigger and more intimidating than you, and you had to be somewhat mentally unhinged to voluntarily engage in it.
Dragon excelled at anything sport related. Growing up in an orphanage, headstrong and possessing a volatile temperament, he was born for The Game. His early experiences ended in disillusion and tragedy, though, prompting him to disappear before returning several years later with the Claws, after a stint as the leader of a squad of commandos in the war zone of Sudan.
Dragon’s team consisted of Steel, a samurai who, despite his intimidating appearance, and being the muscle of the team, has a distinct code of honour, and a deep bond of mutual respect with Dragon.
Mercy, the daughter of a wealthy corporate magnate, first joined The Game to track down those responsible for killing her father, before brutally assassinating them. Dragon made a deal to save her from jail time for the murders: in exchange, she joined his team.
Digit, a genius who became a leading authority on computer systems. He mysteriously disappeared to be found several months later in a Game arena having being tortured and shot in the head. Technology he invented saved his life: Digit is now a cyborg with cybernetic eyes and a bio-organic computer replacing the damaged portion of his brain.
Scavenger, the most mysterious member of the team, Dragon offered him a place on his team after witnessing his flair for improvisation to overcome a rival team.
These weren’t the regular heroes you got in comics like G.I Joe or Dan Dare: they were flawed, dangerous, edgy, and intriguing. And these were the good guys! With good guys like that, the bad guys had to be really bad and sadistic. Sociopath Slaughterhouse and his team ‘The Evil Dead’ didn’t disappoint.
That’s how you make an entrance.
For sheer visual impact the opening page of Dragon’s Claws #2 really takes some beating.
Briefly introduced in issue #1 taking out guards from the shadows, it’s here where the brutality and kinetic nature of Senior’s art really pops, as Slaughterhouse, Death Nell, Feral, Hex and Kronos take on the guards in a high security arms depository they have been laying siege to, only this time the reader sees everything in all its twisted glory.
A wise cracking guard confronts Feral, remarking ‘I can still teach you a thing or two….. like how to dance,’ only for Feral to dodge his gunfire, leaping on the terrified guard, jaws dripping with saliva, to answer, ‘Feral only dances…….with a partner.’ Another scene has Hex mesmerising a guard into relinquishing his gun with the refrain, ‘So let’s run through this again. I’m dead and you’ve got the gun.’
The highlight, though, was the malevolent glee behind Slaughterhouse’s actions, and his taste for the theatrical, living up to the old rule of the villain being more appealing than the hero. When the sole survivor of the raid asks him why they are doing this, Slaughterhouse replies, ‘You don’t know? Because my friend………we like it!’
The real genius of Furman’s writing was being unafraid to have half of these characters killed in a single issue, with only Slaughterhouse and Death Nell surviving. This was not only brave from a writing point, but also established that the Claws really were good at what they do, whilst establishing a seething animosity between Dragon and Slaughterhouse that would burn throughout the series.
Slaughterhouse and his sadistic sense of humour as aided by Kronos.
Dragon’s Claws was also an example of the synergy of Marvel UK, as Death’s Head, a mechanoid bounty hunter from Transformers (also created by Furman and Senior) made an appearance, with Dragon’s Claws then appearing in his own comic in a cross over. How would this work though? Transformers are huge and Death’s Head was the same size. It worked because, prior to his appearance in Dragon’s Claws, he also made an appearance in another title whilst time travelling – Doctor Who Magazine.
Colliding with the TARDIS whilst travelling through a time vortex caused both to materialise. The Doctor didn’t appreciate Death’s Head’s bad attitude, so shot him with a Tissue Compression Eliminator, a weapon stolen from The Master. This shrank the mechanoid to human size. The Doctor then launched him into the far future via the TARDIS: 8162 to be precise.
Freelance peace-keeping agent. Available for hire, yes.
This far future setting allowed for an ‘anything goes’ approach: the team have a ship called The Pig; in one issue, Steel encounters soldiers riding robot horses; the landscape is a mix of sky scrapers, teeming streets, neon signs, crumbling industrial ruins and waste land; there are numerous vehicles featuring throughout along with roaming street gangs, mad religious zealots, mutants and shady corporations as the story unfolds.
As great as Dragon’s Claws was, it only lasted ten issues due to a fledgling comics market and poor sales, it being lost in the racks due to its small size, and disapproving parents not allowing their children to pick it up.
Furman managed to wrap up most of the story, although plenty of potential remained, with events tied to several characters’ pasts unresolved. One was Death Nell and Steel being a couple at one point. Seeing how that relationship developed and fell apart, and the fall out, was ripe for exploration, but it wasn’t to be.
Dragon’s Claws was my introduction to American style comics, and, whilst I continued to vicariously read Generation X amongst other titles, Dragon’s Claws really seeded in my mind the idea that comics didn’t have to be about superheroes that saved the day. This notion was the basis for my discovery and love of 2000AD in the mid 90s, a treasure trove of enduring characters which couldn’t be further from Marvel and DC’s omnipresentraison d’être.
“Grayson: Earth One season one is a non profit six episode season dedicated to exploring the origin story of the DC character known as Nightwing — but with a twist. The twist being that Richard Grayson has never had the good fortune of being adopted as a child by Bruce Wayne, thus never becoming the boy wonder. Instead, we have a Richard Grayson that had to fend for himself on the unforgiving streets of Gotham and, even worse, the streets of Bludhaven. A character that has to overcome years of dog eat dog mentality to become a selfless and kind individual. To ultimately fulfill his destiny and become a HERO.”
That’s the setup for Grayson: Earth One, a fan made production by P3 Productions. The series premiered 6 months ago so I’m a little late to the party but, having seen it, I thought it deserved to have some more love thrown at it. At the time of writing, the premiere episode is the only one to have been released and has racked up just over 200,000 views. It seems likely that we may get an episode 2 and, with some luck, maybe an episode 3. Unfortunately, only $10,000 of the $40,000 goal on the production’s crowd-sourcing, indiegogo page was raised so it can be assumed that the full, six episode season won’t be completed. The real question is whether or not, with the full funding failed, any more episodes will be released. It seems to be the intention but it seems uncertain how the team will pull it off with the obvious limitation that they will have to cut the series short.
Marisha Ray as Stephanie Brown
That said, there is no reason to not still be excited about the limited run. Many fan made series encounter the same problems and, even with the funding, take a long time to make. For example, the series Batgirl: Spoiled, had an 8 month gap between Episodes 1 and 2 and is currently getting funding for Episode 3. Unlike official, big budget productions, these indie efforts are made with small amounts of financing that, most commonly, must be crowd sourced from fans who share a similar love and vision of the characters that these productions seek to bring to life. What’s really important though is that these projects can often grasp these beloved characters in a way that mainstream productions sometimes can’t with their concerns towards profit etc.
Batgirl: Spoiled is a good example of this. While it has it’s flaws, the sound in the fight scenes lacks the necessary (apologies for the awful pun) “punch” for example, the series manages to deliver a unique take on a character that is often ignored: Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler, aka the fourth Robin, aka the third Batgirl. Far from the most iconic Batgirl or Robin, Stephanie Brown has nevertheless taken part in some important storylines, such as War Games, and is interesting in the fact that she isn’t the perfect hero. While many of the heroes in the comics are flawed, they are usually, particularly in the case of the Bat family, possessed of skills beyond those of most villains they would go up against. What marks Stephanie’s career however is the fact that she doesn’t possess this near invincible quality, a fact that is highlighted in the very first episode of Spoiled when she gets taken out by a gang of regular street thugs.
The acting helps of course. Batgirl is played by Marisha Ray, the host of the Youtube series Superpower Beatdown alongside many other projects, and she really brings the spirit of a character that, to be perfectly honest, I kind of tend to disregard. As Spoiler, as Robin, as Batgirl, Stephanie Brown has always kind of been a bit of a disappointment. It’s why she was fired as Robin, it’s what led to the events of War Games and it’s a primary motivator behind the character in the Spoiled series. And while the series hasn’t exactly changed my opinion of her, with it’s quality acting and writing, it has given me somewhat more of an insight into a character I wouldn’t usually bother to look at. It helps that the show looks so good, with Batgirl and Harley Quinn’s costumes in particular standing out as true to the source material.
Grayson is a whole other kettle of fish though. This is quite possibly the best fan production I’ve seen, due credit must go to works such as City Of Scars though, as it takes a classic character and makes him achingly cool, due in no small part to the excellent acting of Stephen McCain. Nightwing was already awesome but Grayson takes it to a whole new level, as we see a Dick Grayson that fronts a rock band and fights crime all without the tutelage of Batman. The Dark Knight does of course pop up in the menacing form of Kevin Porter,
The Bat And The Bird
his brief cameo showing off a very different look for the Bat and displaying a somewhat unexpected relationship between Batman and Richard. Though it is already established that, in this storyline, Bruce Wayne never adopted Richard Grayson, it is made very clear that he is not alone in the echelons of the night.
Grayson: Earth One excels in these twisted portrayals of iconic character. Aside from Dick himself and Batman, we also see a Victor Fries that is playing the role of a psychotic surgeon, searching for girls that are “a match”. It’s currently unclear what for but he’s already killed 30 or 40 girls looking for this match. One girl he kidnaps is the sassy Barbara Gordon, a girl with a pre-established relationship to Dick that pre-empts the main action of the episode. This action is against gang members that, despite their allegiance to Fries, wear half-skull masks that instantly made me think of Black Mask.
There’s also a Helena Bertinelli, aka Huntress, that appears to be a friend, if not girlfriend, of Dick and Carrie Kelley, the Robin of The Dark Knight Returns, that is seeking to learn to play guitar from Dick. There’s a lot here to suggest a fully occupied DC universe with characters we’ve just met already having big arcs stretching before them. Promo pics already show Rileah Vanderbilt’s Helena equipped with a crossbow, suggesting that she will indeed become the Huntress that we all know and love. And with Carrie Kelley becoming more involved, especially as she says things like “if I want to be the best, I have to learn from the best”, there are possible Robin tones entering the series. Carrie may have been referring to guitar but after you see Dick basically dodge a bullet then disarm a Mutant, the freakish gang of The Dark Knight Returns, without batting an eye, it’s hard to believe that inspiration may spread beyond music.
The main man though is Stephen McCain. A former Olympic gymnast, an obvious help in the role of Nightwing, the man delivers. Everything you could have wanted from Dick Grayson, from Nightwing, is bundled up into this package of cool. This is the role brought to life. The physicality, the skill, the emotion, everything is perfect. And here’s the thing. Fan made productions like Grayson, like Spoiled and like City Of Scars, to name but a few, employ some serious talent that we may never see in mainstream films. It’s a crying shame that talent like this, particularly with rumours of Nightwing in the upcoming Batman Vs. Superman, will never get that full on recognition that it deserves. There’s no guarantee that McCain would fit a large scale production like the upcoming Man Of Steel sequel but, equally, on the evidence of work like the superb Grayson: Earth One, it’s hard for me to imagine anyone else playing the first Robin to outgrow Batman with quite so much effortless cool.
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