Plot / Script: David Michelinie
Pencils: Geof Isherwood
Touching two-parter about a guy who gains super powers in the 1950s, and spends the next 30 years fighting crime disguised as a super hero.
No, not Peter Parker, or Clark Kent, but this time the unalliterated Fred Hopkins.
Fred's alter ego is called the Smithville Thunderbolt, because he spends his life in a similarly-named small town. However come retirement, Fred's powers wane considerably. It could be old age, although it's actually something else, but to Fred it makes no difference. His days of being a secret super hero are over.
Or are they?
In what now looks like a gentle old man's hobby, Fred actually stages disasters so that, as the Smithville Thunderbolt, he can continue to be thought of as still saving the local inhabitants. He uses smoke bombs, springs in his boots, pre-weakened walls, that sort of thing.
Ultimately however he comes up against two big challenges that most long-serving heroes face sooner or later: someone who's stolen his powers, and the loss of his secret identity.
It's the second one that does him in, tragically. In the final scene, as the townsfolk swarm upon his house to declare him a huge local hero, he misinterprets their intent as being that of a mob, and takes his own life.
Peter Parker is gutted. So is the local reporter who exposed him. So was I.
There's really no need for such a depressing final page to such a charming story, but that's what really makes everything that came before it so meaningful.
So long, Smithville Thunderbolt. You deserved more than two issues in someone else's mag.Labels: comics
Co-Plotted by: Jim Owsley (script) Mark Bright (pencils)
Herschel recently pointed out to me that, if they ever make a Hollywood movie of Power Man And Iron Fist, then the two lead-roles should really be filled by Donald Faison and Zach Braff.
I can see his point.
Ten years before Pinky and the Brain were the definitive no-hoper double-act, the titular Luke Cage and Danny Rand were arguing their way through an inspired series of character-based comicbooks, in which they were supposed to be super heroes.
Perhaps that's unkind. They were super heroes, but I don't think they were ever counted as being real super heroes.
You see, they used to charge for their services.
The name of their company - Heroes For Hire - pretty much says it all. If you've ever seen the film Mystery Men, then you'll recognise the same underclass of costumed crimefighters who just don't get the same recognition as the bigshots. When, at the start of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, the otherworldly Beyonder came and kidnapped all of Earth's (a.k.a. America's) greatest super heroes, he didn't bother with them.
On the plus side, they probably did a roaring trade while the main players were away though.
But hey - afterwards the Marvel universe moved on. Now the inevitable Secret Wars II has happened, and this time they're actually in on it.
Secret Wars II #2 saw their getting transported forwards in time a couple of days to witness their office building getting turned into gold. For Luke and Danny, it ought to have felt like December the twenty-fifth, particularly for the former, but the US government forcibly broke it all up and took it away as waste. Power Man and Iron Fist were flashed back in time to the moment from whence they had left, where they had rationalised those future minutes as being some sort of weird shared daydream.
Now however, the real world is cruelly telling them otherwise.
Power Man: "WHERE'S OUR BUILDING?!? It's GONE, Fist! Just like in that freaky dream! Y'know... the one where the Beyonder turned our office into gold! It WAS a dream right, Fist? Fist?"
Iron Fist: "Our office building is gone, my friend. Thus it seems we were not dreaming after all."
So now Luke and Danny don't even have an office to operate out of, which is far less than can be said of the Beyonder, who's just built himself yet another gigantic one, floating on the sea. To make matters worse, he insists on transporting them and the Falcon there to enthuse and show-off just how brilliant it all is.
Beyonder: "...one hundred sixty million monitor screens, covering twenty-five people each."
Falcon: "Four billion people... on camera."
Beyonder: "Exactly. Isn't it great?"
Iron Fist: "Amazing!"
Falcon: [thinks]"Dangerous."
Power Man: "I'm hungry!"
Due to the enormous threat to international security posed by a gigantic wall of TVs following every single person on Earth, Iron Fist and the Falcon go to SHIELD (the military) to see about getting it properly blown to bits. They assign the perpetually edgey Power Man to keep the omniscient Beyonder distracted.
Power Man: "Christmas!"
Quite why the Beyonder is even hanging-out with these guys in the first place is anyone's guess. There's a throwaway reference to his having transported them back from K'un Lun, but that scene doesn't seem to exist in any publication.
For my money, this all adds-up to the Beyonder's best guest-appearance though. Despite their subterfuge, Power Man and Iron Fist seem to be the only Marvel heroes who are not awed by him. They fearlessly treat the Beyonder as though he's a good mate, right up to and including lying to him.
Power Man takes the Beyonder out for a meal at a bar as though they do this kind of thing all the time. As it turns out, everyone else at the bar is black, including Power Man himself, so the Beyonder tries to fit in by changing the degrees of his cellular pigmentation. Yes, he turns himself black. Or, more accurately, he turns himself very black.
As you can see above, even the Marvel UK editor wants to get in on this joke, writing his own surname in over (presumably) the scripter's one.
It's all enough to even make the eternally frustrated Power Man slightly smile in the background. And Power Man rarely smiles. And he even more rarely does something slightly.
Alas, he's the only human in the narrative finding the situation funny, and a big bar bust-up quickly develops. The Beyonder seems to enjoy this, until it sinks in that the real bust-up is over at his floating super-office, and he actually has a Cage-esque rant about its futility.
Beyonder: "There is nothing I do not know. There is much I don't COMPREHEND. There is nothing I fear.
YOU fear what you don't understand. You suspect anyone who tries to help you overcome that fear. You hold your own heroes in contempt.
In trying to show you the way, I have caused you to fear me. Because you fear me, you feel you have to STOP me. In order to stop me, you felt you had to betray me.
You people are REALLY paranoid."
The issue finishes with Power Man and Iron Fist left to tread water in the wreckage of the Beyonder's blown-up seabase. Once more they are the losers.
Four issues later, their title was cancelled.
Christmas.Labels: comics
PP#18 Script: Louise Simonson
PP#18 Pencils: Brent Anderson & Scott Williams
TMT#363 Art & Story: Walter Simonson
Two-part Secret Wars II-crossover story, with part one in child super-group title Power Pack (left), and part two in hammer-throwing god of Thursday's title The Mighty Thor (right).
The Beyonder's good intentions seem to have levelled-out a bit. He's now quite definitely trying to be a super hero, but having upset everyone by conquering Death recently (and then quickly aquiesced into bringing the reaper back again), he's now limited himself to only offering people help. After all, he still isn't quite sure what makes an action 'good'. It's certainly encouraging that that's the side that he's aiming for.
If any issues in this saga demonstrate just how far the Beyonder's morality has come in such a short stretch of time, it's these ones.
Back in Secret Wars II #4 he resurrected the metallic Algrim (also known as Kurse) to let him try to kill Thor, more out of curiosity and sport than anything else.
Now Algrim has finally made it across the bottom of the sea to New York (where Thor works), and the Beyonder is faced with the results of an experiment that he wouldn't bother with making today. Still, he lets Algrim's battle with Thor play out anyway.
I think, in that footnote-box, they meant to write Secret Wars II #4. (an easy mistake) And I also think they meant to put another asterisk somewhere in the text above, to point down to it.
Anyhow, after Algrim has injured the title characters' mum, it never seems to occur to the one from beyond that he just might be in some way responsible, or maybe he might have healed her, instead of merely taking her to the hospital.
That said, little by little, it's clear that his journey towards understanding life is still progressing.
Beyonder: "... all the power in the universe can't make you good. You have to CHOOSE it."
Speaking of choosing good, or rather failing to, as a teenager in 1985, I found Marvel's child supergroup Power Pack to be something of an embarrassment.
Well, that was probably because I had never read their comic.
I was particularly surprised at Marvel UK's decision to run their adventures as a back-up strip in their Return Of The Jedi weekly. Frankly(n), I believed that Power Pack should have been at the bottom of their list. I mean, they were all kids.
When they got up to this two-parter in #129-132, about two months before Secret Wars II was to even begin reprinting at Marvel UK, the editor of ROTJ (apparently a droid called Cyril) seemed at something of a loss as to who some of these new characters were.
I think that was a cry for help.
Kudos to Cyril for putting an asterisk in the above text though, partly because he put it in the wrong panel, but mostly because he also erased the second asterisk to which it would have pointed.
Neither did he print the final page of part one, but that's okay, because he didn't bother with any of part two either.
Editor-droids!
Fortunately, confused British readers had all this rectified for them when, nine months later, both episodes reached UK comic shelves for a third time in the British reprint mag Secret Wars II #65-66...
... although this time it was instead the penultimate page of part one that went bye-bye.
Human editors!
Still, at least that footnote-box underneath the cop firing at Algrim finally got something written in it that made some sort of sense...
Three things to note this time:
1. TWO asterisks. Whew!
2. While Secret Wars II (UK) #57 had indeed reprinted Secret Wars II #4, I'm afraid that neither one of them had featured any fight between Algrim and Thor in the first place, not even in flashback. They had included the Beyonder briefly talking about that event, which had actually taken place even earlier in The Mighty Thor (US) #247-248, assuming that the footnote-box in SWII#4 had been trustworthy.
3. This time they've noticed to Anglicise the American spelling of 'armor'. Shame on your spellcheck, Cyril.
Thankfully, the following week, God bless 'em, they did in fact reprint part two, the opening narration of which actually reads "This story begins twice." Heh-heh-heh.
After that, the second half of page eight is replaced with an advert for the British Spider-Man Annual. There's also the odd bit of narration that's been reworded, until eventually, the final page of part two is cut as well. I can see why they did that - it was all a bit Thor-continuity-based. What a shame no-one thought to replace the back-issue references with their corresponding issues of Return Of The Jedi though. (assuming those episodes had indeed seen print in there)
Y'know, I feel I've only chosen to highlight the negative things of the UK reprintings above. Bearing in mind the Beyonder's thoughts in this story on choosing good, let me finish on some of the positive advantages that the UK versions enjoyed over the US:
Part one had a free sticker-badge of the Enchantress, while part two came with a whole free sticker-album!
:)Labels: comics
Writer: Peter B Gillis
Artist: Kelley Jones
Like Rom #72, this Secret Wars II crossover's now a bit of a rarity.
In the 1980s Marvel had a nice little earner going in producing comicbooks based upon toy ranges. I would have said 'popular toy ranges', but both the Rom and Micronauts comic-series impressively outlasted the original product. This issue is even from a sequel-series, hence the 'New Voyages' subtitle.
What the Marvel versions of Rom, The Micronauts and initially The Transformers all really had to their advantage was the ability to interact with the larger Marvel universe. Hence, when Secret Wars II was launched to crossover into pretty well each and every Marvel title, the Beyonder got the chance to well and truly prove his multiversal capabilities.
Now, if he'd actually made the journey over to the DC universe too, then that really would have cemented his credentials.
For my money, there are three things that both these Rom and Micronauts SWII crossovers have in common:
1. Both series were cancelled a few months later, at around the same time as Secret Wars II itself ended. (Yes I know it was only a nine-issue limited series, but I enjoy the argument that it took the others down with it)
2. They both feature the Beyonder granting some of the characters' greatest desires.
3. They are both unlikely to get reprinted, due to rights issues concerning the original toy lines. (neither strip appears in the Marvel UK reprint series, or the Secret Wars II Omnibus)
That last point is a real shame, because these crossover episodes actually do contain an undercurrent of character-development for the Beyonder. In this issue of Micronauts, he's still plodding through trying to do good in the universe, but now warily seeking to understand the nature of good and evil better, lest he screw things up again.
Others are wary of him, too...
Beyonder: "It seems they find favour with the changes. It -- pleases me! And yet I sense disapproval in your thoughts, Acroyear. Isn't this doing good? Isn't it beneficial?"
Acroyear: "Of course, Beyonder -- but even an evil being is capable of momentary acts of kindness. It is no guarantee."
Beyonder: "I see. Then a continuity of acts is proper. Then I will continue."
As things progress, it looks as though he's been duped by one of the bad guys. The Beyonder willingly destroys three inhabited planets, instantly wiping-out a hundred billion beings.
It's mass-murder on a Microversal scale.
The final panels contain possibly the most fascinating portrait yet of the Beyonder's developing humanity, and humility.
Scion: "You played your part to perfection."
Beyonder: "Little about me is perfect, Scion -- but it was properly done."
Scion: "Indeed, through Huntarr's stimulus. The Micronauts are now fully activated! The destroyed planets will give the Micronauts enough time, thanks to you. And though you could remake the entire cosmos with but a thought, by you refraining from doing more, the Microverse may be healed as LIFE is healed -- by its own forces."
Beyonder: "So what may be good on one scale may be evil on another -- and out of the most violent mixture of those goods and evils, good may at last arise. It's a lesson I'll remember. Now go, Scion: and see to it that life -- and the Microverse -- endures."Labels: comics
Script: Mantlo
Pencils: Leonardi
"The darkness and light are both alike... I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
If that opening Bible-ish quote isn't enough, then the next three pages of Cloak and Dagger arguing with a priest should prove that this is one title not afraid to actually include the church in the battle of good and evil. The dialogue here is terrific.
Father Delgado: "You're both so... so naive! Do you really think that all of the world's problems -- crime, drugs, moral and spiritual decay -- can be so simply solved if only one possesses power?"
Cloak: "And are you so naive as to believe, priest, that the world can be saved through prayer?"
Father Delgado: "That is the core of my faith, Cloak, the basic tenet of my beliefs."
Cloak: "Then get down on your knees and pray to your god to cure the world's ills -- or, at the very least, to free Dagger and I from this power he has allowed us to be cursed with!"
Father Delgado: "I pray ceaselessly for both."
Cloak: "Then your god shows a marked disinclination to get involved."
That looks like the old faith vs. actions argument playing-out above, although I think most churchgoers believe in faith in addition to actions, rather than as an alternative.
Anyhow, despite the characters' polarised differences, what unites these three is their pursuit of the common good.
This issue, for Cloak and Dagger at any rate, that turns out to be rescuing the Beyonder from the drugs-pushers he's just been taken-in by.
It's not explicitly stated (in my 20-page UK version at any rate) but he seems to have got talking to them because of Doctor Strange's earlier words about how he should foster happiness in others. (in Doctor Strange #74) So when the peddlers promise him 'happiness', of course, he willingly rolls-up his sleeve.
After Cloak and Dagger have rescued him he, surprise-surprise, undoes their curse and grants their greatest wish, albeit inadvertently.
Then however, he goes on a bit of a trip...
Once the madness is over, he seizes the opportunity to do good in the world by murdering all the local dealers. It's important to recognise that his perception of good and evil is still at a very crude stage, apparently classifying people as either one or the other.
Cloak and Dagger know better however - that there is both in all of us - and so the latter makes an impassioned plea for the lives of her enemies.
Dagger: "But unless punishment has some end beyond the affliction of pain or death, you can never make a man reform! Don't you see? If Cloak shows a bad person what'll happen to him if he continues down the path of darkness -- maybe he'll turn aside and choose the light!"
See, this is my whole problem with the traditional view of Hell. If there is no opportunity to repent, then Hell has no purpose.
Anyhow, there's a great subtext in the quote above. On some level Cloak and Dagger have had their earlier prayer answered by the Beyonder, but have ultimately realised that there is a better way than 'God' just switching the problem off.
The Beyonder restores to his victims the chance to make that choice, and leaves our heroes empowered to once more fight the good fight, with another nod to the book quotation that opened this issue.
Dagger: "So I guess we've gotta climb out of the cradle and work at making this world a better place if we want to have the right to inherit the Earth!"Labels: comics
DS#74 Script: Gillis
DS#74 Art: Badger
FF#285 Written and Penciled by: John Byrne
Today's super hero boasts what is arguably the single greatest character-name in all of comicbook history.
This is because, in the English language at any rate, it's tough to construct any sentence containing the words 'Doctor' and 'Strange' together that can be taken all that seriously in isolation.
In this issue, for example, we get to enjoy:
Beyonder: "I have to see Dr. Strange!"
Beyonder: "Doctor Strange where are you?"
Beyonder: "Teach me enlightenment, Dr. Strange!"
Beyonder: "Dr. Strange! No!"
Beyonder: "This doesn't make sense! Dr. Strange!"
Beyonder: "Dr. Strange? Dr. Strange?"
Beyonder: "Dr. Strange?"
(oh this is too easy...)
Dr. Strange: "The feeling of it was utterly strange..."
Y'see? You've gone and devalued the meaning of the original word now. Still, as I've attempted to demonstrate above, if Dr. Stephen Strange had been born with a less spectacular surname, like maybe Smith, then the world today might be a somewhat less joyous place.
I guess I should acknowledge here that there are plenty of people in the real world whose surname is also Strange, and a few of them have probably attained doctorates. That's a whole 'nother, far more respectable, context. Unless they spend all their time gliding around in a giant red cape and an Elvis haircut, in which case I think they're even more brilliant.
Anyhow, to the plot.
Trying to claw his way out of his depression, and his beer, a drunken Beyonder seeks spiritual guidance from someone calling himself Doctor Strange. Drunk or no, he'll certainly believe he is by the end of this issue.
The Doctor of Strange sends him on a trippy journey through his own conversion to Strangeness years ago. The Beyonder observes the young Strange back when he was the one seeking solace in a bottle, and witnesses the events that led to his turning his life around. Though the Beyonder can see, hear and even interact with the lead players, he cannot touch them.
There's some great dialogue at the end when the Doc tries to sum up 'enlightenment':
Beyonder: "That's it? More pain is the answer to happiness? How can that be?"
Dr. Strange: "Not pain, my friend from beyond -- dedication! The willingness to take on pain for the sake of others, and the world!"
He goes on to add that you need to know what to sacrifice, and to be able to transcend pain, before he petitions the Beyonder to use his power responsibly. They're brave words with which to charge someone who's omnipotent, but Strangie boils it all down into suggesting that one should try to foster happiness in others, and also try to prevent them from hurting.
Depending upon what order you read these issues in, the Beyonder then follows his mentor's example and immediately attempts to help the Human Torch in the same way.
Torchie is wracked with guilt over a young fan who's set himself on fire in a fatal attempt to emulate his idol. Attempting to prevent the guilt-ridden super hero's pain, the Beyonder presents him with a similar holographic representation of the deceased child's life, to show him all the earlier happiness that he had unknowingly also been responsible for.
Though the progression between these two episodes is undeniable (they're listed as running-on from each other at the end of Secret Wars II #5), Marvel UK chose to reverse their reprinted order, publishing the second instalment a full eight weeks before the first.
Why, sure that sounds crazy and pointless, but in the versions that I've read there is such a disparity of tone between the two episodes that they do also appear quite isolated from each other. In the Doctor Strange strip the Beyonder speaks like a child. In the Fantastic Four one, he's scripted much more like the wise all-knowing god that he seemed to be in the original Secret Wars series.
To muddy the chronology further, Dr Strangepork doesn't recognise the Beyonder at first, although he's already met him at the end of Secret Wars II #5, so that segment at any rate probably comes earlier.
I really can't draw too many conclusions on this though. I only have the UK printing of the Doctor Strange story, which is a full four pages short of the usual US 22, and anything could have happened in those additional fantastic four sides.
In conclusion, these two issues seem to fit rather well together, but they are also a little estranged.Labels: comics
Writer: Michael Carlin
Breakdowns: Ronald Wilson
Finishes: Dennis Janke
The Beyonder is still in depression over his apparently incurable incompleteness, and now seems to be sleepwalking through life on autopilot.
All the beer probably isn't helping.
Once again taken advantage of by the nearby lowlife, he finds himself booked as a professional fighter. (it's tricky to beat someone who's omnipotent) His opponent is the titular Thing, who's also the Marvel hero with the biggest grudge against the One From Beyond. I won't even begin here on the catalogue of mind-warping inhumanities that the Beyonder's indirect actions have cruelly dealt upon ol' rock-face, but his obsession with payback is something that can at least be understood.
On the face of it, the obvious question is why the Thing doesn't petition the god-like Beyonder to just fix his life for him, but therein we would find some of the Beyonder's limitations. He can't control someone's free will, only overpower it. He can't bring someone back from the dead, if they've been gone for too long.
And yet, I reckon he should be able to.
In Secret Wars II #2 the Beyonder snatched Power Man and Iron Fist from out of the past and brought them to the present, so he ought to also be able to do that to anyone who was on point of death, and heal them, maybe leaving a duplicate body behind to fool those who witnessed it.
If the Beyonder can travel in time, can he change history? If he's really omnipotent, and if time actually exists, then the answer should surely be yes, even if he had to change the nature of time in order to do it.
Ultimately the real triumph of this issue is its willingness to paint its 'hero' in such an unpleasant light. There's no beating around the Beyonder here - the Thing is 100% commited to murdering this guy, purely for revenge.
Narration: "As the Thing marshals all his strength for one final, pulverizing blow, a jumble of thoughts assault his brain... Is he a KILLER? Is REVENGE worth his CAREER... his REPUTATION... his SELF-RESPECT?
YES!"
[THING PUNCHES THE BLOODY, DYING BEYONDER IN THE FACE]
Do comicbook super heroes have a reputation for being squeaky-clean?
Sure, the Thing doesn't finally kill him at the end, but the remorse only kicks-in after someone else has intervened to stop him.
The Thing's heart may be in the right place, but it's still only a human heart in there.Labels: comics
Writer: Tom DeFalco (ASM#269-270), Roger Stern (TA#258-261, TAA#14)
Penciler: Ron Frenz (ASM#269-270)
Breakdowns: John Buscema (TA#258-261), John Byrne (TAA#14)
Finisher: Josef Rubinstein (ASM#269), Bob McLeod (ASM#270), John Buscema (TA#258), Tom Palmer (TA#259-261), Kyle Baker (TAA#14)
Seven issues chronicling Firelord's ill-fated decision to take a vacation on Earth.
Unsurprisingly New York is the first stop on his tour, where he gets mistaken for a mutant and has a two-issue bust-up with Spider-Man. Spidey's just trying to protect the locals, but 'Flame-Brain' percieves the situation in somewhat more polarised terms.
As more heroes are called-in to help, there's some overlap between the issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Avengers, which had me reading these comics side-by-side. Although some events are redrawn, there are a couple of panels that are repeated in both issues, albeit with different inking and colours.
That bothers me - in the Marvel Universe, which colour are those buttons actually?
And even more importantly, did the person on the radio say the word "are" or "were"?!?
Ultimately Spider-Man wins and, to make amends, the former herald to Galactus finds himself doing a week of community service under the supervision of Hercules. It's encouraging to know that, in the face of all the expensive destruction that New York routinely suffers in Marvel Comics, occasionally there are huge savings to be made, in this case with the firey one incinerating millions of dollars of toxic waste.
It must come as something of an irony when the Avengers are called out into space to fight the war to end all skrulls (with a little help from the Fantastic Four), and they take Firelord with them. Having played his part in such a well-written battle, and spent one day sick as we all do on holiday (which I confess I actually read in Marvel UK's Secret Wars II Special #2), he decides to remain out there to tie-up some loose ends with Starfox. Everyone else heads back to Earth.
The Beyonder pokes his nose into events occasionally and, for the first time I think, his similarity to Captain America is actually commented upon.
Wasp: "There he goes, Cap -- down the up-escalator! It's almost eerie... he's not as smooth or as practiced, but he moves quite a bit like you. He even looks a little like you!"
Captain America: "I noticed."
Glad someone finally has.Labels: comics
Story: Bill Mantlo
Art: Steve Ditko & Bob Layton
One of the strengths of such a mammoth crossover-series as Secret Wars II must surely be the many different ideas that multiple creators can bring to the one project.
Had just one author written all 30-odd issues, then the omnipotent Beyonder's adventures might well have become a bit samey.
However, one of the dangers of such a mammoth crossover-series as Secret Wars II must also be how similar are the ideas that multiple creators can unknowingly bring to the one project.
The pages of Rom #72 seem to include both tendencies.
On the one hand, artists Steve Ditko and Bob Layton refresh the Beyonder with an awesome original look. The opening pages present us with him in the form of an eerie glowing sentinel, striding through the storm-torn sky like some impossible cross between a Greek god and a 1950s B-movie robot.
On the other, the story explores the main characters' reactions to having their greatest desires fulfilled. Just like in Daredevil #223.
Still, I can't blame two different authors for both being inspired by the same good idea, even if it can rob the Beyonder of some character-development.
Although this issue was advertised as taking place after Dazzler #40, the Beyonder's unfamiliarity with the feeling of desire suggests that this makes more sense a little earlier on in the saga, specifically before his heartbreak in Secret Wars II #4. (In fact I'd place these events during that issue, between pages five and six)
Spiking the canon even further, the omniscient one nonsensically disguises himself as a blond guy to gain our heroes' confidences and find out what their greatest wishes are. Again, I'm not sure if this appearance is intended to be the same 'Steve Rogers' look that he took-on in Captain America #308 or not, but on the basis of Rick Jones' non-recognition of him, I'll guess negatively. (comicbook characters are notoriously poor at recognising each other in different outfits anyway)
When he does get exposed, he actually reveals his identity by transforming back into his 'David Hasselhoff' look and clothes, despite the fact that there is noone present to recognise them.
From this point on, Mantlo's script is outstanding.
The Beyonder grants Brandy's, Rick's and Cindy's initial wishes, but once they realise that this is a practical experiment, they can't help but take their desires, and their responsibilities, more seriously.
Brandy becomes a Spaceknight again, but upon quick reconsideration realises that she'd trade that in for Rom to receive his humanity back instead.
Rick is cured of his cancer, but his second thought is for all the other sufferers in the world. Faced with also achieving his personal goal of becoming a super hero, he quickly develops a messiah complex and realises that he can't save everybody.
The bottom line for both of them - and I think this is key in the One From Beyond's quest - is that they need to have limits.
But what of young 12-year-old Cindy? Her brain has been cursed with housing the mind and memory of the wraith that murdered her parents. Her immediate wish is to be cured of this daily torment. Given a moment to reflect afterwards though, can you guess what her second, much more desperate, wish is?
Yes, author Bill Mantlo knows just how well-worn this idea is, and he knows that we know too.
So he toys with us.
Cindy: "All I know is that there's one wish I want granted more than anything! I wish I had my parents back! Can you do that?"
Rick: "Cindy, no! They're dead!"
Brandy: "Dear Heaven, it's like the wish made in 'The Monkey's Paw' -- where a boy was raised from the dead but not brought back to life!"
Beyonder: "Some things, child, are impossible -- even to one from beyond."
Rick: "Thank goodness!"
Beyonder: "Fortunately, this wish of yours is not one of them!"
So the Beyonder dispatches Brandy and Rick into Limbo to use their new superheroic abilities to actually find and bring back Cindy's parents. Along the way Brandy gazes upon the enormous crowd of souls belonging to every human the wraiths have ever slain, potentially including her own parents, friends and fiancé.
Rick: "What do we do? Ask the Beyonder to restore them all? That raises the question of consequences again! To everyone on Earth these people are dead! Life may have gone on without them, widows having married, orphans going to adoptive homes!"
To cope with the circumstances, they actually try to create some self-imposed limits upon their own understanding, by focusing solely upon little Cindy's wish to receive her parents back.
After they have both returned to Earth, the Beyonder holds the two glowing spheres in his hand. The atmosphere is heavy with guilty doom.
Rick: "... and those glowing spheres -- they're Cindy's parents?"
Beyonder: "Their stolen life forces, yes."
Cindy: "Mommy? Daddy?"
Beyonder: "They were once. They can be again. If you wish it."
Cindy: "I do! Oh, yes I do!"
Rick: "Cindy, are you sure...?"
Brandy: "She is sure as a child can be! For her there are no consequences -- only the promise of happiness! Perhaps for that reason she can make a choice that we could not!"
Beyonder: "Go ahead, child. Make your wish, and that which you wish for shall be yours!"
Well, you know it all ends in tears.Labels: comics
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Pencils: Paul Chadwick
Y'know, I could have sworn that I had the above issue, but upon checking my collection, I discovered that apparently I was wrong.
Perhaps I made that mistake because of how strongly I recall searching shops for it as a teenager. "Dazzler issue forty" was a crossover with the nine-issue Secret Wars II comic, and as such ran-on from the end of issue #4 of that series.
What I do recall very clearly is how badly this piece of cross-marketing backfired, for the elusive Dazzler #40 marks the point at which I began to stop reading Marvel Comics.
Y'see, as is still my wont, I was determined to read the whole saga in chronological order, so when it crossed-over into a title that wasn't generally available in the UK, I hit a bit of a wall.
Despite fruitless expeditions to specialist comic-shops up in London, I just could not lay my hands on a copy. My quest for completeness was spookily mirroring the Beyonder's quest for the same thing. As a result, I kept on buying Marvel Comics, but read much less of them, saving the rest of the Beyonder's tale to enjoy after I had eventually located and read that particular wandering chapter of it.
Inevitably, over time, my keenness for this activity would wane. Truly, that issue was my collection's Kryptonite.*
However, the best part of a year later, the issue did see the light of day in my house when it got reprinted in Marvel UK's Secret Wars II #58 imprint.
Hurrrm. Marvel UK version. It's mostly here.
In addition to the new cover-art, page one seems isolated, page two seems missing, and the title of the strip has been changed to just "Stan Lee Presents: Secret Wars II". The original title 'Travelers' does get namechecked in both the editorial and the previous week's 'Next Issue' box, although now with an extra L for Anglicisation. (I'm trusting the original's spelling at comics.org on this one)
For all those minor nitpicks though, I'm grateful. This is a good episode that features the Beyonder prominently (always a plus in a Secret Wars II crossover) and delves into a slight addiction that he develops to his search for satisfaction. The odds against the Beyonder and Dazzler just keep on escalating, until she realises that this is because he keeps subconsciously making them go up.
Given how often Dazzler has so far appeared in the Secret Wars II storyline (in Secret Wars II #1, The New Mutants #30, Secret Wars II #4 and now this) it's a shame that there hasn't been more continuity to her character. Right now she is the female lead, yet each time she's featured, it seems to be in something of a vacuum from her previous appearances.
I guess what she really seems to need in these issues is a more definite identity.
* Yes I know that's DC, don't write in.Labels: comics
If you like receiving those long forwarded-emails that feature dozens of photos of cute animals with captions that endow them with human characteristics, then this is the book for you.
All Dogs Have ADHD (the sequel to All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome) is a glossy full-colour children's book, featuring page after page of doggies demonstrating the typical traits of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
By keeping everything so simple and friendly, this not only educates the reader with a broad overview of the subject, but also effortlessly builds emotional bridges. Who among us couldn't forgive a sad-looking pup who can't work out why he's in the doghouse?
The power of a simple book like this is extraordinary. Why on Earth aren't there more like it?
Retrieve a copy today.
(i.e. here)
Labels: books
There is one Doctor Who story from the original run about which fans have no shame, and it's this one.
There was a strike. The programme couldn't be made in studio, so it was mostly shot outdoors. Location work in those days was always done on film. The result was the four glossiest-looking episodes of the original run, period. Even the few shots that did make it into studio were spared from being captured on garish videotape, to the point where today they are often mistaken for likewise being location-work.
So, for one dreamy month in 1970, Doctor Who looked every bit as great as The Avengers did. In fact, it could have easily been mistaken for that show, featuring as it did a well-spoken Englishman charging around Her Majesty's countryside in a vintage car, complete with a brainy female assistant in tow. Even Steed's, sorry, the Doctor's asssociates are upper-class Brits, specifically his new boss, who's the very Brigadier of an international army.
After the ten-part intergalactic black-and-white comedy runaround that was The War Games, it all comes as a bit of a shock. No really, it does.
Not only was the TV series Doctor Who now in psychedelic COLOUR for the first time, but it had new opening credits, new theme-music, a new logo, and oh yes, an entirely new cast, including a new actor in the lead role.
Outgoing actor Patrick Troughton appears in neither a handover scene to Jon Pertwee, nor a recap of the last episode's cliffhanger. The TARDIS lands, and Pertwee just falls out of it, even wearing a different outfit. Poor Jamie and Zoe don't get a mention either. Was there anything in this new series that they hadn't changed?
The sub-plot here even takes-apart the show's established exciting intergalactic formulae, stranding the Doctor on Earth and having him take a job with the government. When the final line has him giving his name from now on as being "Doctor John Smith", it seems like someone at the BBC has had a Poochy moment.
"Doctor Who's pretty good at the moment," they must have thought, "we'll fix that."
Don't get me wrong, most of the elements of this story come together very well - plot, script, acting etc. Even the music is great. The scene in which the Doctor silently sneaks around the hospital plotting his escape would probably have been left silent on videotape, and fallen somewhat flatter as a result.
Even the effects, well all right most of them (not those rubbery tentacles in part four), look terrific, purely thanks to the virtue of simply being on film. On tape, just how much fuzzy blue CSO would there have been around General Scobie when he met his waxwork double, on a studio set in front of a back-projected drive?
How it looked:
How it almost looked:
(Original image courtesy of The Doctor Who Image Archive)
Given that this was all something of a new beginning for the show, it's an absolute tragedy that the production team didn't look at these episodes and commit to shooting the rest of the series like this every week from now on. Sure it would have cost them a few more shillings, but just what kind of a reputation might 1970s Doctor Who have gone on to enjoy, instead of the rubbish-looking one that it ultimately got?
However, I'm only really examining one side of that coin here, in terms of results. While these four shows all look great, I'm afraid it has to be said, they all sound atrocious.
Out on location, those were real rooms that the characters were discussing events in. With real reverb. A lot of real reverb. Any film unit worth their salt really should have got those microphones in closer.
Episode three contains a scene that finishes with Jon Pertwee dubbing his final line in post, in contrast to the preceding dialogue, with no reverb. Episode one features one of the Brigadier's lines to Liz getting speeded-up to fit the footage of her. Hmm.
Still, while I am an advocate of good sound in film, there's no mistaking that these four episodes are, overall, wonderful quality.
However, had I seen these as a kid, then I suspect my heart would have sunk at the change to the storyline's status quo. "Hey kids, your favourite space-show's going to be stuck on Earth, in the near-present day, with a different cast from now on, isn't that GREAT?"
Fortunately, I first saw this in my twenties, when I knew that it had only lasted like this for two seasons, so I actually did think that was great.
Doctor Who - splendid eras, all* of them.
* generally speakingLabels: doctor-who, tv
Great characters, captivating performances, free-flowing direction, and a script that just keeps on dishing-out quotes:
Muriel: "When I lived in Porpoise Spit, I used to sit in my room for hours and listen to Abba songs. But since I've met you and moved to Sydney, I haven't listened to one Abba song. That's because my life is as good as an Abba song. It's as good as Dancing Queen."
You might find the above quote to be an indicator that this is one of those films that's both fun and painful in equal measure.
The fun owes alot to the ubiquitous use of music by Abba throughout, most killingly in the scene when Muriel and Rhonda perform Waterloo, complete with costumes and camera-angles, at a holiday talent contest, while their horrid ex-schoolfriends beat each other up in a girlfight.
The painful? Well, infidelity, cancer, suicide... it all happens to the broken supporting acts in Muriel's perpetually unfulfilled life.
In fact, broken dreams are a universal affliction here. Nearly everyone in this film has a clear idea about who they think they should be, but in nearly every instance that vision has been informed by their perceptions of the opinions of others.
Muriel's dream is, principally, to get married. She leaves home, changes her name to Mariel, gets a job in a new town and quickly concludes that she has at last found herself. When she gets paid a ton of money to be half of a short-term arranged marriage to a visa-seeking foreign sports star, even her enemies suddenly line-up to be in with her again.
Alas, in so doing she cannot be there each day to support her only real friend - the one who wishes that 'Mariel' was still her old, true, self.
The overall message of this film is strong, unavoidable, and thanks quite a bit to Abba, lasts long after the credits have rolled.
(available here)Labels: films
Story: Bill Mantlo
Art: Mike Mignola & Gerry Talaoc
Something of a horror-movie this one.
Stepping back from the regular narrative, this issue jumps back in time to tell Bruce Banner's life story so far, beginning with his birth, and recounting his protracted estrangement from his father throughout his childhood.
There are filmic-devices aplenty here, as the darkly-lit scenes take full advantage of shadows and Bruce's imagination. Throughout there is the spectre of his future, as we can see the green outline of the Hulk's agonised face subtley drawn over the child's features. When he grows up and goes to live and work at Desert Base, only for General Ross to carelessly break his childhood doll, Bruce Banner's famous repressed anger is unmistakably building.
Ultimately, as you know, he becomes the monster that he has so often previously been called.
Back in the present, the Hulk is still banished in another dimension*, where his surprisingly-not-actually-dead-after-all Bruce Banner identity has separated into a trichotomy of his self-preservation, reason and rage.
* It happened in Hulk #300 -- Steve
On page 24 the Beyonder shows-up for his now-customary muse on events. He tweaks circumstances to give Bruce a chance to escape, but this issue really finished back on page 21.
Bruce Banner has always been a tragic character, but this issue paints his life as a thoroughly hopeless one.
So much for the jolly green giant.Labels: comics
Writers: Denny O'Neil and Jim Shooter
Pencils: David Mazzucchelli
I don't think we've had one of these yet - a Secret Wars II crossover which actually features the Beyonder as one of the main characters.
As a result, this is a stronger story. The Beyonder has already taken-over the world by just using his near-omnipotent power to force everyone's will into submission. However that was too easy, so he's undone it again. (hope noone on Earth collects newspapers) Now he's limiting himself to taking it over legally, hoping that there will this time emerge some sense of satisfaction from the challenge.
Blind superhero Daredevil, in his alter ego of attorney Matt Murdoch, wants no part of representing him, so the Beyonder makes him an offer he can't refuse, even with free will.
Yup, the Beyonder heals his sight.
Matt spends an incomprehensible day drinking-in all the sights of everyday life in New York that he has been robbed of since childhood. This time it's different though. With the wisdom and experience of years he is now able to perceive things that passed him by as a kid - specifically its beauty.
Alas, Matt's convictions are so strong that he still refuses to help the Beyonder, even though he's not even sure why he feels that to do so would be wrong. That's no problem says the Beyonder, and lets him keep his sight anyway as a gift, but Matt still refuses. So the Beyonder finds something else that Matt can accept it as a payment for. Nup.
Matt's real hang-up is that his sight is so precious to him, that it has the power to compromise anything else in his life. That might come to include compromising his sense of justice. He deems that idea too big a risk, and threatens to sue the Beyonder unless he removes it again.
It's an agonising ending. Who among us doesn't want Matt to get his sight back again? Yet the guy's commitment to right and wrong emphasises just what makes him the hero inside that he is.
For a 'man without fear', he seems just a tad afraid of losing that.Labels: comics
Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a professional liar.
Surprisingly, he doesn't actually seem that good at it, but what makes him a pro is his dizzyingly high rate of success.
At a young age he passes himself off at his new school as a supply-teacher for much of the week. Heck, at a young age he also passes himself off as an aircraft pilot. And a lawyer. And a doctor. (he manages to hide before vomiting)
By figuring-out how the various industries' internal systems operate, he remains hidden in his various guises for a good few years, teenage years that is. However the FBI's Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) is on his tail, and what develops is a huge cat-and-mouse game that spans much of the northern hemisphere. The sequence at Miami Airport - when Frank hires someone to pose as himself dressed-up in disguise - is a good indicator of the level of second-guessing and misdirection going on here.
But the film's not just about who can out-clever who. The long-distance friendship that develops between Abagnale and Hanratty becomes quite a deep one. It's not that silly old wives' tale about love and hate being similar, it's the prolonged authenticity with which both parties perceive each other.
Carl has to study his quarry intently to figure out just what actually is true about Frank. Frank has to psyche-out Carl in order to stay as many steps as possible ahead of him.
Each year they chat on the phone on Christmas Eve. Over time, Carl accidentally becomes Frank's only long-term acquaintance.
For me, this is best summed-up by Carl's shouted words to Frank when he eventually does get to arrest him. Frank's being driven away in the back of a French police car, and Carl yells through the back window at him "Don't worry Frank – I’ll have you extradited back to the United States! Don't worry!" You know he's going to do the best he can for the kid, without compromising his own moral convictions.
The thing is, they have both come to need each other. They have both lost their families, Carl his child, and Frank his parents. When Carl becomes Frank's apparent only visitor in prison, they quickly find themselves discussing what they both have in common – a keen interest in fraud.
Catch Me If You Can is a fascinating, fun adventure, about likable characters, and told with so much style that most of it might as well have been made in the era in which it is set – the 1960s. The narrative is a little confusing, not really helped by its few non-chronological scenes, but that can't hope to weigh-down its merits.
This is a great, endearing film, in which I sympathised with almost everyone. Were it not for the swearing and completely unnecessary sex, Spielberg would have struck family-viewing gold yet again.
Available here.
Review of the book here.Labels: books, films
Probably the most insane film I will see this year.
Brendan Fraser plays his own stuntman who teams-up with Bugs, Daffy and Jenna Elfman to save a famous spy actor, who's secretly a real spy, and also played by Timothy Dalton.
It's just the sort of zany live-action / cartoon post-modernism that can fry your brain if you examine it too closely, so it's best to just sit back and enjoy the non-stop artillery of pop-culture references and deadly impossible gags.
Bugs Bunny: [DRESSED IN DRAG WITH LIPSTICK] "I play the female love interest!"
VP of Comedy: "Okay, about the crossdressing thing - then: funny, now: disturbing."
DJ Drake: "Lady, this is Daffy Duck."
VP of Comedy: "Not anymore; we own the name."
Daffy Duck: "Oh yeah? Well, you can't stop ME from calling myself D-[GASP]... D-[GASP]... well, whadayaknow."
[DAFFY DUCK IS CRINGING INSIDE THE SPACESHIP, SUCKING HIS THUMB.]
Daffy Duck: "What am I gonna do? What would Damian Drake do? What would Duck Dodgers do?... Wait a minute, I'm Duck Dodgers!"
[DAFFY 'SPINS' INTO HIS DUCK DODGERS COSTUME.]
"Aha! I'm going to be the hero of this picture!"
[DAFFY STRAPS ONE OF FIVE ROCKETS ON.]
"Duck Dodgers to the rescue!"
[THE ROCKET BLOWS UP. DAFFY STRAPS ON THE SECOND ROCKET.]
"Duck Dodgers to the..."
[THE SECOND ROCKET BLOWS UP. DAFFY STRAPS ON THE THIRD ROCKET.]
"Duck Dodge..."
[THE THIRD ROCKET BLOWS UP. DAFFY TURNS AND LOOKS AT THE FOURTH ROCKET.]
"Duck..."
[THE FOURTH ROCKET BLOWS UP.]
[DAFFY SUDDENLY APPEARS OUTSIDE THE SHIP WITH THE LAST ROCKET STRAPPED ON, WORKING.]
"It's 'You-Know-Who' to the rescue! [TO THE AUDIENCE] It helps if you don't say the name."
It's not just the classic Warner Brothers characters who pepper this movie, but also a host of cameos from live-action genre movies. Shaggy has a go at Matthew Lillard for his live-action portrayal of him. Dr Miles Bennell, from the 1956 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, is still played by Kevin McCarthy, and appears with his skin made-up in black-and-white. They even take a moment to poke fun at the film's own predecessor Space Jam.
I can't skip acknowledging the Daleks, and pointing out that they were the TV versions (Hartnell and Pertwee if I'm not mistaken) as opposed to the metal-clawed movie ones that would have been more in-keeping, but really who cares? Not even me. After all, they were illegal aliens.
This film is packed to bursting with ingenuity and cleverness, uncomfortably let down by two inherent flaws throughout:
1. Its ignorance of WB's huge 1990s TV revival. Tiny Toons, the Animaniacs, Freakazoid... sorry, who? As soon as, in the opening scenes, the famous WB water tower collapsed and spewed only water, I perceived this to have been green-lit by people who didn't love their subject that much.
2. The all-round weak animation. Characters are repeatedly animated outside of the live-action actors' sightlines, they look too CGI-smooth to properly resemble their familiar loud appearance, and they don’t even have the same number of frames per second as the footage they've been added onto.
The results are images that just don't quite gel, which throughout an entire 90-minute movie, somewhat disables the main stars.
Still, this script is so first-class that it overcomes all that, and director Joe Dante's reputation for pulling this sort of inspired lunacy off remains firmly secure.
Brilliant fun.
Available here.Labels: films, tv
Script: Peter David
Pencils: Sal Buscema
Peter Parker narrates a trippy comedy in the Nightmare Realm.
He's stuck in a bad dream that he can't wake up from. The Hulk is having the same problem in the same dream. What do you think the Hulk dreams about? That's right – beating-up on poor old Spider-Man.
The imagery throughout this is weird, without ever letting go of the bizarre silliness that a dream allows for. There's one very bad pun near the beginning, and plenty of impossible cameos from other Marvel characters, but the most impressive one for me is Spider-Man's costume. These days he tends to wear either his classic red and blue outfit, or his newer black one. However throughout this story he wears both, mostly in alternate panels.
The crazy environment robs author Peter David slightly of his usual comic subtlety, but this is an entertaining one-off that anyone can have fun reading.Labels: comics
WOSM #6:
Script: Danny Fingeroth
Layouts: Mike Harris
Finishes: Zeck, Layton, Simons and Mooney
ASM #268:
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Ron Frenz
Finished Art: Josef Rubinstein
A cross-title two-parter about the aftermath of the Beyonder transforming Power Man and Iron Fist's office building into gold (an early Christmas gift), which just didn't gel for me.
I think my main problem is summed-up by the wording on both covers: "The good news is the Beyonder has turned this skyscraper into solid gold."
Yeah, that does sound like good news, doesn't it? Yet everyone in these issues considers it to be a tragedy.
Sure, people are trapped inside the collapsing building, and the worldwide value of gold will go down, but generally speaking, you'd expect those in the vicinity to be whooping with joy at their good fortune.
The US government moves in to forcibly take the building and its contents from their rightful owners. However, far from cementing its financial position on the world stage, the US orders that it all be cut-up and thrown away in the sea. Surely, although this extreme form of quantitative easing would push the worldwide value of gold down, the US would still own a higher percentage of it. If the US discovered a similarly-sized gold-mine, would they really destroy it? I guess they didn't want to be too rich.
Spidey has a moral dilemma of his own. At the end he actually takes a golden notebook from out of a trash-can and makes off with it. His angst over this decision makes little sense. He's hardly stealing from anyone, and certainly not from the US government, because the person who threw the pad out never gave it to them. I guess you could argue that refuse gets collected by the government whereupon it becomes theirs, especially if the commandeering of the building is viewed as a huge rubbish-collection operation, but that reasoning just isn't on display here. Really, that pad had no owner.
WOSM #6 concludes with him swinging away, with the golden notebook at his side, which the narration describes as a "turning point in the life of... the Amazing Spider-Man."
I'm sorry, I'm probably being very dim, but I still don't really get why.
Given the circumstances of part one to flesh-out, part two is better realised.Labels: comics
All right, so it took five years to get here, but Doctor Who really got into its stride in its sixth series.
Every story apart from The Space Pirates has good things to recommend it, but the incredible thing is that half the series – namely The Invasion, The Seeds Of Death and The War Games – are still among the best Doctor Who stories to the present day. Certainly I think they were among the best ones so far in 1969.
I don't think this is connected, but this is also the series in which the 108 famously missing episodes run-out. There are only seven reconstructions substituting in the whole 44-part series, and for this we can be extremely grateful.
Easily the best recons have been the cartoon pictures to episodes one and four of The Invasion, but part of the reason these succeeded so well was because of the strength of the original programmes.
Even the stories that I haven't cited yet as either brilliant or poor – The Dominators, The Mind Robber and The Krotons – have all been good, and well worth watching.
Zoe hasn't really panned-out as the clever character who she started out as, and Jamie has remained similarly basic. The Doctor himself however has swung further and further towards fun, and everyone else in the show seems to have helped him. Mostly that help has been by playing the other roles straight, but credit must also go to the writers for keeping the tone of the stories serious. This has resulted in a show about a funny guy having to cope with serious angst, and Patrick Troughton has increasingly thrown himself completely into the role.
I'm full of enthusiasm for this season. It sure wasn't perfect, but Doctor Who has never been about that.
The Dominators
The Mind Robber
The Invasion
The Krotons
The Seeds Of Death
The Space Pirates
The War GamesLabels: doctor-who, tv
This just might be the greatest Doctor Who story of all time.
I'm not talking about mind-blowing concepts or heart-wrenching social relevance here, I'm celebrating this saga's good all-round fun and quite shameless Doctor Who-ishness.
Admittedly, it does start-out as an Earth-bound story about zombies, but it soon gets past that. It so gets past that.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe materialise in no-man's-land during World War One, where they get arrested as spies and subjected to a court marshall. It's headed up by this terrifying General, who keeps putting on his spectacles to all this weird music by Dudley Simpson, and instructing his associates what to believe.
Jamie and Zoe are sentenced to imprisonment, while the Doctor is led out to be shot by a firing squad. And he is. And that's just episode one!
What's that you're reasonably supposing? That there are still three more episodes to go? Try more like NINE.
Particularly from the music, it's obvious from early on that there is a much bigger picture going-on here, one that is initially unseen by the viewer, but completely invisible to the locals. They literally cannot see the futuristic communications equipment with which General Smythe liaises from "1917 zone" with his remote masters, just a blank wall.
There's something of a runaround for a few episodes as our heroes repeatedly get captured and escape. Like I said, this is unashamedly Doctor Who we're watching here. The scene in which the Doctor, breaking back into the prison to free Jamie, poses as "The Examiner" from "The War Office" is actor Patrick Troughton's finest hour.
There's then another runaround as they steal a war ambulance and make their escape through a strange mist that surrounds the area. They emerge from it in various other war zones from Earth's history, each with its own similarly sinister futuristic hypnotist in charge. (crikey – try saying that ten times quickly) The German leader controls people by wearing a monocle. When the dialogue is not in the local language, the accents are starting to make the whole thing feel like 'Allo 'Allo.
Abandoning their geographical map of all the different time zones, in the middle of the American civil war they find a machine not entirely dissimilar to the TARDIS. This goes on to herald the first flowering of Doctor Who's long-running policy on anagrams, when it turns out to be called a SIDRAT. If that palindrome's not inventive enough for you, its controls turn out to be the most genius ones ever used in any science-fiction production ever. You'll just have to take my word on that. Anyway, for now the SIDRAT enables the Doctor and Zoe to infiltrate the war-games' futuristic Central Control area.
Cue lots of psychedelic black and white sets with extras walking silently around with blank paper masks over their faces. It all looks quite wonderfully like some TV science-fiction show from the late 1960s.
There's a Security Chief with pebble glasses who delivers all his lines in a loud high-pitched monotone as though he's doing an impression of a Dalek. His scenes with the Chief Scientist, who's underplaying the whole thing for realism, make for some crazy duologues.
The Doctor and Zoe realise they can blend-in with everyone by just putting a couple of these handy spare paper-masks on over their faces and not get spotted, but the real genius is the guy who's in charge of all this.
He's called the War Chief. He has a really bad temper. But, best all, he's played by Mr Meaker from Rentaghost.
Oh... joy...
When he and the Doctor recognise each other, it's clearly because they are both from the same classic era of BBC television.
So everyone spends a couple more episodes running around between about three rooms at Central Control, getting captured and interrogated by the Security Chief, who complements his pebble-glasses by putting some kind of a truth machine number on over his head.
(this image from the Dr. Who Image Archive - thanks!)So, so far the Doctor and friends have encountered some soldiers, then met their General, then met the Security Chief at Central Control, and then met his boss the War Chief. Can the big picture get any bigger?
Well, yes. Throughout, everyone at Central Control has spoken of the unseen higher authority of the "War Lord". When he shows up to take-over and tell everyone off in episode seven, he turns out to be played by Philip Madoc.
That's Philip "I play the bad guy in so many Doctor Whos that I've lost count" Madoc. Sheesh, this episode was broadcast in May 1969, when the last time he had appeared as a different character was only in January! Surely this is the guy who the Doctor should really recognise?
Anyway, the Doctor pretends to change sides in order to sort the entire tale out and save the galaxy, but here's the thing: he realises that the big picture has now become too big, even for him.
He reveals, for the first time in the show's six-year history, that in fact he is, and always has been, a wanted criminal on the run from his own planet. Now he has to ask the authorities over him for their help in returning the thousands of abducted fighters home, and in so doing give-away his location.
It's a real contrast with the any-old-thing-goes style of the current series. The tenth Doctor would just babble "Oooh, but if I just press this button here it'll make me God and reverse everything that's happened so far, wee-hee, look at me, I'm a fish."
But that didn't cut it in 1969.
The cliffhangers throughout this epic story are fantastic, but none more hopeless than that of the penultimate episode. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe running towards the TARDIS as the unseen 'Time Lords' seem to decelerate time around them. "Wwee hhaavvee ttoo ggeett aawwaaaayyyy..." they groan, trying, with agonising slowness, to just reach the key in the TARDIS' lock, mere inches away.
In the final episode, which at the time was theorised to be the last one ever, our heroes go on the run from the Time Lords, unsuccessfully. Then they stand trial before them, unsuccessfully. Then they try to escape their sentence, unsuccessfully.
Their big picture is now far too big, even for them. Their running around doesn't work any more. They are out of time.
The crushing, crowning glory of this epic ten-episode masterpiece is this: at the end, our heroes lose.
They actually lose.
Jamie and Zoe have their memories wiped of all their adventures in the TARDIS.
The Doctor is condemned to have his face and personality changed.
Tha TARDIS is disabled, incarcerating the new Doctor on one planet in one time, to never again travel until the Time Lords happen to feel like changing their minds.
Not really the victory we're used to.
As you may know, there actually was another series, in fact another twenty of them, and that's not even including the current revival.
And I'm sure you can guess what happened in the very first episode of the next series. The Doctor tricked the Time Lords, fixed the TARDIS, picked-up Jamie and Zoe again, undid their memory-wipes, and they all carried-on travelling through time and space again as usual.
No they didn't. This was a show that kept its word. They all served those sentences, the Doctor for an interminably long three-and-a-half years in BBC-time.
Aside from potentially wrapping-up Doctor Who for the last time, this story also does a grand job of summing-up the second Doctor's era. As well as the earlier-mentioned adoption of his false identity of "The Examiner" (a nod to Troughton's first full story Power Of The Daleks) it also recaps this Doctor's achievements in his trial scene.
Using a thought channel, he projects images onto a large screen of the various baddies he's fought over the last three years. You'd naturally expect some budget-saving flashbacks here, but instead the opposite happens. The parade of old monsters is brand-new specially-shot footage, featuring the original actors. That's impressive, given how many costumes hide the performer's face.
When Zoe is returned home to the Wheel from last season, she even encounters Tanya from that story. Given how many of those earlier episodes have since been wiped, this sort of footage is like golddust. I do hope someone somewhere has taken advantage of these shots when assembling the relevant reconstructions.
I have to take a moment here and say that I share the characters' sense of loss at the end of this story. I've now watched the whole of the Patrick Troughton / Frazer Hines era in the correct order and, thanks to breaks for the new series and moving to New Zealand, it's taken me six years.
In other words, for me, this guy has been the Doctor since 2003 – well before I even began this five year-old blog.
I'm so sorry to see that era go. Patrick Troughton has played the Doctor with such friendliness and authenticity that it's hard to prepare myself for the straightness that I know is coming with Jon Pertwee taking over. By the end, Troughton was reasonably playing the role with the same level of high-comedy that he used for his three returns to the show!
I can't believe he passed away over 20 years ago, at a science-fiction convention of all places.
The War Games is not high-brow stuff, but the story does all hold together for me, it's entertaining and thought-provoking throughout, and every single episode delivers.
What a fantastic high to go out on.Labels: doctor-who, tv
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