The Eleventh Doctor: A loving Homage of The Second Doctor

I am a big fan of Matt Smith’s doctor but I think it is important to make it clear that The Eleventh Doctor is very much a homage of an earlier, brilliant doctor. A doctor who slough filmed in monochrome sparkled more than the average twilight vampire. The Doctor I am talking about is Patrick Troughton’s brilliant Second Doctor.

Steven Moffat and Matt Smith have both told the world about their admiration for the Second Doctor with Smith stating that he is his favourite doctor. In the same way that David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is a modern day homage of the Fifth, I think the Eleventh is even more so of the Second.

So let’s have a look see.

Appearance.

The Second Doctor is well known as The Cosmic Hobo. He wears a tatty coast, braces, a collection of hats, differing coats, baggy trousers and most importantly a bow tie. Look at The Eleventh Doctor and you ill see that his costume is simple a modern version of The Second. He wears a suit jacket, braces, trousers, and a bow tie. The Eleventh Doctor likes hats and coats. In both cases The Doctor has longish black hair. Put it this way; if Matt Smith was not The Eleventh Doctor and they wanted to recast The Second for a special I would say that Smith would fit the bill completely.

Characteristics.

Both the Eleventh and the Second Doctor often deceive people in order to succeed with what they want. They both use their cunning to outwit their enemies.

The Doctor’s best friend.

To people that have only ever watched New Who they would say that The Doctor’s best friend is either Donna or Any Pond. Of late, Pond has very much been made out to be his best friend of all. But to me she never will be. I love Amy but she does not have the relationship that another Scot has with The Doctor and that man is Jamie (The Second Doctor’s companion). Jamie is possibly my favourite companion and Frazier Hines (the man who played Jamie) relationship with Troughton is clear. They gel better than many people would on screen. With Jamie being in every story line of The Second Doctor’s apart from the first he is almost synonymous with The Troughton years as much as Troughton himself. In the same respect it would seem strange to think of The Eleventh Doctor without Amy. Further in both these characters they are feisty, courageous and like to show off their legs.

Romans.

The final episodes of the fifth series of New Who are by far some of my favourite Moffat episodes and once you have watched the amazing Second Doctor’s finale War Games, you can see where much of it has come from. The Romans appearing in a time that was not there is integral to both plots. Although there is not a Rory you can clearly see that a young Moffat was watching War Games with his mind thinking up crazy story lines.

Daleks.

The story Power of the Daleks no longer exists completely.  But one thing is known about the story: the Daleks pretend to be servants. Let’s now look towards Victory of the Daleks (the Eleventh Doctor’s first meeting with his classic foe and in my opinion a highlight of the Moffat era). Just like Power, Victory shows the Daleks being servants for humans. The only difference is that in the Troughton story it was thought that the Daleks were destroyed whereas the Daleks are victorious in the Smith story.

So if you like The Eleventh Doctor I urge you to check out The Second Doctor. He is the far superior version with some brilliant stories.

Setting the Record Straight on Moffat’s Doctor Who

Whenever I talk about Doctor Who of late I get branded as a Steven Moffat hater and a Russell T Davies (RTD) lover. I’m writing this because I want to make the point that I have never thought that RTD was perfect (neither of them are: RTD’s terrible Peter Kay ep and the overuse of the daleks) but that Moffat’s flaws are so big that they need to be discussed. In my opinion a lot of these flaws come from one character: River Song. I do believe that many people who class me as the Moff hater and RTD lover read my tweets and this is the perfect example where 140 characters cannot show your opinions perfectly. So the best way I thought to go through this was by episode by episode.

First of all I’m going all the way back to the gas mask episodes of Season One (The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances). Both written by Moffat and both possibly the best episodes of season one. Further it seems to me that a lot of people that adore Moff argue that he does not have characters like Captain Jack and this is a good thing. Well shock shock, Steven actually wrote our first appearance of the fair captain. Something to think about.

Moffat’s next dabble in the Doctor Who pond (sounds wrong now doesn’t it!) came with The Girl in The Fireplace. Again I loved this episode and was only beaten by the introduction of the Cybermen in season 2. It had me hooked. So looking quite good so far Mr Steven. Well done!

Then he returned for Season 3 with Blink. In many people’s eyes this is the best episode of Doctor Who since its return and we can trace perfectly here that this is the place that Moffat got given the keys to the castle. This episode became the archetype for what Moffat was going to do with the show when he got it. People applauded that it was the first scary episode since the return and for me personally it also seemed to make something else for Moffat: the doctor would become a secondary character to a person that would continually go past him in his timeline. Interesting couple of facts about Blink. Although it is critically seen as the best episode of season 3, it actually did quite poorly in the ratings. Further I liked this episode but I preferred Paul Cornell’s family of blood the week before it. Here we had genuinely creepy villains with the scarecrows and the family: I was never creeped out by the angels.

So all looking good so far don’t you think? Well yes but then the big bo bo arrives in season 4. Moffat was granted 2 episodes based in a library fighting shadows. By now you can see that, like any writer, because he was praised so much for Blink I will keep giving them what they want mentality was created. It was trying to recreate the creep element of the angels and never succeeded. Further to these episodes problems was the introduction of the obnoxious, annoying River Song that even The Tenth Doctor seems to dislike. She reeked of a character that I never wanted to see again. In my opinion the way Moff brought her in was stupid: saying a character would continually cross The Doctor’s timeline when he did not even know whether the fans liked her was an insane choice. At the same time I am aware that RTD has to take some of the criticism here for letting him do it (see RTD made mistakes too!) These two eps were by far the weakest of Moff and The Doctor together so far.

So the news came that RTD was leaving and that Moff was going to take over. As soon as I heard of Smith I was skeptical like everyone (admit it you were) but once I saw the pictures of him in costume I was convinced that he was The Doctor. Through all those agonizing months I preyed that River Song would not be his companion and she wasn’t.  And low and behold I was given by wish with Amy Pond! A fantastic companion.

The beginning of Season 5 and here I am going to go into more detail about this season as he is now head writer. The first ep written by Moff The Eleventh Hour, was amazing. I loved it and actually thought that it was the start of a new great era. Smith was perfect, the direction was amazing: everything worked! Well done Moff. Then came The Beast Below. Again written by Moff and lacked the greatness of The Eleventh Hour. It was still strong and thankfully kept in something that Moff seems to have forgotten now: The Doctor got angry about life and the way people treated it. Again Victory of the Daleks is a brilliant episode and rivals season 1’s Dalek episode as the best since the return of who. Yet again however, the flaws showed: it was as if you could not have a Moff ep without something truly niggling you. The power ranger Daleks looked terrible. All the fear that a Dalek could bring seemed brought down to a marketing tool for toys. George Lucas would be proud! Then came the beginning of the true problems: the return of the angels. It was always going to be difficult to bring them back after they were so successful and one of the key problems was that they worked perfectly as a small story. Did we need them being given two episodes? No is the answer. They were re written to be the greatest evil The Doctor could face. I hated this: that should always be the Daleks. Further we saw the return of River Song. She was as over the top and as annoying as before, if not more so. By now every time she said SPOILERS I wanted to march into the tele and put her somewhere in time that Moff would never find her.

So the angels were actually a down point in the series compared to the last time when they were the highlight. Again came another thing I disliked: Rory as a part of the main team. Don’t get me wrong, I like Rory but I think the Doctor works better with one companion. With Rory begin introduced it alienated The Doctor from Amy: she and Rory would get into mischief and The Doctor would work it out himself. The next big issue was The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood. These were bad bad episodes. Yet the season, although lulling in the middle finished on a high with the superb Lodger episode and the tremendous finale that restored my faith in the Moff. This finish is still my favourite out of all the endings. So season 5 was a mixed bag: weak middle, too many double eps that should have been one offs, I still did not feel I knew who The Doctor was (I knew who the tenth was after the first ep) and too much River. But River was still a fringe character. I could handle that.

I was looking forward to the Christmas Special. It got huge licks before it came out and I was very excited after the brilliant ending with the pnadorica. I was deeply disappointed by this episode. It was ok but very mediocre. What is more, The Doctor fiddled with a time line like the way he never had. This seemed to go against everything The Doctor had preached in the past. Surely if he felt like this, it did not matter that the tenth Doctor altered history in the Waters of Mars (still my favourite episode since the return).

So Season 6 part one came hurtling in and I was less excited than Season 5. And straight away I saw what I feared: too many double eps and too much River Song. When you were cutting the season in two I personally don’t think you can have so many double eps: 6 eps in this part and four of them were doubles. So season 6 started and I was greeted with River Song from the get go. Nooooooo! Now I have already talked about my problems with The Silence and I do need to go back and watch them because to be fair to Moff The Doctor did not seem to commit genocide as it first seemed (they are returning in part 2). But what I am going to say I hated was the back stage politics that went behind these eps and I lost respect for Moff. Moff was so arrogant, so in need to tell people how clever he was that he told the press The Silence ep storylines before they aired. Then he was shocked to see that it was all over the Internet. Then he attacked the fans. Sorry Moff but if you are going to tell people, however much you tell them not to say anything, they will! I personally did not look at the SPOILERS (funny that he got served by his own favourite catchphrase isn’t it) because I wanted to be shocked. Then came the dire pirates. This part of the season was saved by the brilliant Gaimen episode The Doctor’s Wife and the fantastic Cloning eps that warranted their double. Unfortunately however Moff’s mid season finale was not the saving grace that the pandorica was as it once again became everything to do with River Song. With Moff not really focusing on the little eps (it all has to be interconnected to the main storyline), River Song was now centre stage, seeming to get more and more air time as The Doctor shrunk away into the background.  Further the great reveal was terrible. Me and my girlfriend had guessed this from the beginning and the fact that she was part time lord we had guessed form The Silence eps. Moff was truly not as smart as he thought he was. Me bring a huge whovian (albeit I have been told vocal) I was staying on for the ride. Yet I know many people who Moff had alienated with bad stories and bad characters. I think here is a good time to make a point that is essential to my argument: there is no heart to Moff’s Doctor Who. None of the characters have been fleshed out, none I truly care about apart from the Doctor. This is why again you really focus on the eps you don’t like. When RTD was in charge, some of his stories were crap yes but I cared about the characters and I think RTD did too. The Tenth Doctor made me be able to cope with the Daleks in Manhattan for gods sake. Therefore the writing of the characters was so strong that the bad eps were forgotten about. Whereas it seems to Moff that the characters are mere cannon fodder than anything else: you never build a relationship with any of them. Again I love Smith as the Doctor and think he has never been able to truly shine yet still is one of the best doctors.

Recently Part 2 returned to our screens and I have been pleasantly surprised so far. I loved Lets Kill Hitler (one of Moff’s best eps so far) and do you want to know why I think so? Probably not as I’m babbling forever but if you are still with me I’m going to continue. Yes I cringed when I saw River Song and yet another character emerge who we had never heard of in the past: Amy’s best friend (Moff is not the only one that does this in television I’m just saying I hate when it happens) but River Song worked in this episode. Know why? Because she was the villain. This is her natural place; not beside the doctor but against him. Further it would seem that Moff has fixed the problem of the thirteen lives with River giving him his regenerations. Yet this episode did bring up a fact that I do not like with Moff’s vision: the creation of the family who. Doctor Who works at best when we have the lonely doctor, who has to continue living as he watches the rest of his companions leave him. He works best with one companion helping him as much as he helps them. By having four if not more main characters, the doctor has been pushed to the sidelines as the crazy uncle of the family. Don’t get me wrong this has happened before with the 1^st Doctor but it worked for Hartnell due to his age. The writers needed Chesetrton (as the doctor got it wrong each time I’m not bothering to write it right 😉 )to do the action. Further because Hartnell was the grumpy grandfather he worked in the background. At the same time he was still the one that worked out how to get people out of messes etc. Whereas Matt Smith is young enough to play both roles: he doesn’t need to be sidelined in anyway. Smith is such a great doctor he deserves to be the shinning light of it all (and I loved Hartnell before people think I didn’t). I am not the only one who dislikes this move either. Check this and this out.  We are only 2 eps in but I have loved both of them. So good signs for the season. Of course that is until River returns! J

Yet Moff makes a huge mistake again. Now the outspoken head writer blabbed again to The Sun saying that he hated the Internet fans. Moff do you not realise that Doctor Who began as a cult show and a lot of its fans are geeks like me. Therefore a lot of them adore the Internet. Other people do not seem to take the offence that I do over this but I think it is disgusting that he does this and I have lost any respect for him as head writer. I do not believe that someone in that position should be bad mouthing their fans. To me that is much worse than anything that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand did. Further to this I am sick of him calling it his show. He is a small part in a big chain and so if anything the show is the fans not his!

Also complex storylines are not new in Doctor Who and I think have been done much more subtly. In particular season 3 and 4. No one would have guessed that Saxon was The Master because it wasn’t thrown into your faces every five seconds. Further the bees were a brilliant idea. I never saw the link because the bees leaving was happening in real life. These were brilliant and they were not written all over you in black permanent pen.

So the key problems with Moff’s Doctor Who is River Song. Some have said that I cannot dislike his vision on one character but when an entire story is based around her and she appears every five minutes, getting more air time than the main character I think I can. Further the true crux of my argument is that these characters Moff has created have no substance: it’s all about the style. We’re running around so much to the next thing that nothing gets developed. Someone needs to tell Moff that a simple little story can be the best. I understand the complex ones but the simple ones can be better.

Do not worry. All will be well. Thoughts on DC Change

Yesterday DC announced that they were rebooting their entire universe after Flashpoint. Read it here Typically fanboys are going into a state of shock but I do not think we should worry, not yet anyway. With the announcement only fresh in our minds and with only a few things known it could be huge, awesome or detrimental or it could be as minor as Marvel’s point ones. Whatever why panic when we no so little?

People wonder why they brought Constantine into the DCU when they are going to change in straight away?

I do not know why this is a worry. We knew that out of Brightest Day we were getting an Aquaman book and we are, only after Flashpoint. In my opinion this means that the Aquaman from Brightest Day will reappear. In fact I think all the things that happened in Brightest Day will continue. I believe that Brightest Day was interconnected to the change and therefore we will still see Constantine, Swamp Thing, Martian Manhunter etc. Feeling slightly less worried?

People are worried that the Green Lantern mythology created by Johns in recent years and Morrison’s Batman run will be wiped out?

Again I do not see this happening. Why destroy something that has made your character the most popular he has ever been? Also with the film out in a couple of weeks, who is heavily based on Johns’ depiction, would it not be counter productive in snagging the new readers that DC is trying to get. I foresee the little, subtle changes to the universe that will bring extra intrigue. With a Red Lantern book announced at the beginning of this change (and the fact it is said they will still be like the Red Lanterns we know and love) I think this proves mythology will remain in place. Further, I do not see this being destroyed either. All of DC have known about this for some time, hell even we have (to an extent). In Flash 1 there was an ad for Flashpoint saying nothing would be the same. When Flashpoint began we got told nothing would be the same. With all this in mind, surely Morrison was aware of what was happening and therefore if Batman Inc ends in August it is more likely to have been the logical stopping point not that Grant was forced to do so.

What about the renumbering? How dare they renumber Action and Detective Comics!

Well we do not know that they are and again I sincerely doubt they will. DC have just said that there will be 52 new issue 1s out in September. Instead of worrying about the numbering I am more interested in the fact that there will be 52 like the 52 universes of the multiverse. How do we know these new books are going to be all in the main DCU (however it looks after Flashpoint)? Moreover, I am sure that DC have more than 52 titles out at the moment. We know that Justice League is one of them. That’s 51. We know that Aquaman is one of them. That’s 50 and before people worry we do not have an Aquaman book at the moment so the numbering is not a worry. We know we are getting a Red Lantern book. That’s 49. If we take that Constantine and Swamp Thing have returned that possibly could take us down to 47. The Flash is likely to return with no numbering (the latest Flash is only up to like issue 14 I do not think anyone would mind the change) that is 46. Etc etc. I really do not see them tampering with the numbering for Action, Detective or long running books. For one look at how successful Action 900 has just been and another look at what OMD did at Marvel to Spider-man. That completely altered his universe but his numbering stayed the same.

I also wonder why some are moaning. The same people that are moaning are the ones that say a cross over event never leads to any long term changes. Well finally Flashpoint (at least sounds like) it will. Lets look at Marvel. Last year we had Siege and were promised that a Heroic Age would begin. No more cross over’s and no more huge tangled storylines. But they went back on their word and we have Fear Itself now. If Flashpoint pulls it off, good or bad, it will be remembered.

Hang on. Did you just say Marvel did this last year?

Yes. Yes I did. Again remember we do not know the parameters for this change but lets compare what we know. Marvel ended all their Avengers titles and renumbered them. DC is going to end its main Justice League title and renumber it. Marvel brought back a team that had an Iron Man, a Thor and a Captain America. In many people’s eyes the three key players of the original Avengers in some form. DC is bringing back the original Justice League lineup. Marvel put their best selling writer and their best selling artist together to make the ‘definitive’ Avengers. DC are putting their best selling writer and their best selling artist to make the ‘definitive’ Justice League. This is as far as we know but this does not seem too bad does it? Does it feel that shocking or terrifying if DC simply do the same? If anything I would be a little disappointed.

The digital age

I honestly believe this is a huge step forward. With all titles being on an app digitally on the day of release this will lead to a bigger readership. People have comics apps who do not go into the comic shop and buy them every Wednesday. They are the people who buy the trade paperbacks. Therefore how much happier will they be with the extra choice available to them once this happens? It could also make these fans more likely to pick up more books month in month out. New readers will worry where a paper copy would go, could they store them all? DC has answered that. To old fanboys like me, again it is a huge step forward. For example I could continue to collect the titles I have always been collecting for years in order to build my collection. But the rest I could just get on the app. If the prices will be similar to what they are at the moment, the app prices will be much cheaper so I will be able to but more than I am doing at the moment. Therefore I am reading more stories for a cheaper price but everyone wins. I am reading more for cheaper so happy. DC is happy because I am reading more and therefore I am more likely to get engrossed in a story leading me onto more and more story’s.

The characters being younger.

Ah. Now this is something that does worry me. I do not like this at all. I like them carrying on where they left off. But again, maybe we are meant to assume that they have just all had botox, a face lift. Batman is still however old he was he just fancied having a slice of fat and some worry lines off first. If it is my later point, I do not mind. A character’s look can go from looking younger or older just by having a new artist on board. If however it is the former, I am a tad worried. It reminds me of OMD with Spider-man and I feel the character has never recovered. Again though, let’s not worry till it happens.

So to sum up, I say do not worry yet. We can worry on the 1st September if it has all gone tits up at the end of Flashpoint and the new Justice League does not work. But with so little unknown, there is really no point in fretting just yet and as proven, little could actually change.

Living With The Edge Review

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What have you become Doctor Who?

It has long been something that I have never understood. I often don’t get the attraction of the big things that are meant to astound me. One being The Walking Dead. But what I am talking about today is something that is much closer to my heart then The Walking Dead, I am talking about the ‘genius’ of Steven Moffat, the guy that created the wonderful Sherlock and made Doctor Who the spectacle it is today. I hope you could sense the irony there.

I was urged to write this after watching his latest Doctor Who episode, ‘Day of the Moon’. I hear over and over, again and again oh what a genius he is, oh what an episode, oh wasnt it so creepy Norma? Oh yes Gladys I was shitting myself with terror. But lets put the style to one side (Moffat would have a heart attack if he did that) because the one thing that he has in buckets is style. I shall give him that. But he has no substance. He is like an indie band who are more obsessed with their hair then the songs. Mr Moffat is more obsessed with saying look how intelligent I am (which he isn’t) then making a good story. So here we go. The problems with the episode.

The Silence

Too often I have heard that Moffat is such an innovative guy. He isn’t and neither are The Silence. First I am going to take you all the way back to the 9^th Doctor and his episodes, ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’. The gas masked villains were great, I agree. But were they that innovative? Well John Constantine (a great comic book character. You should read him if you haven’t) faced basically the same villain all the way down to the ‘Are you my mummy?’ tagline. Oh I think that is a bit of a pain. Then lets take  The Silence, The Shadowy people in the library (forgotten their names) and the Weeping Angels. At the end of the day their core is all very similar: they all revolve around something to do with not being able to see them or look at them. Oh, feeling deflated? Finally comes The Silence themselves. Don’t they look impressive Norma? Or yes Gladys they do. But hang on Norma, do they not look a little bit like The Gentlemen from Buffy? A little bit Gladys? I’m surprised Joss Wheedon hasn’t said anything. And this is one of my problems with this episode. Yes I will admit that The Silence were creepy but so were The Gentlemen. Look at these pictures and I think you will see what I mean.

Right so that’s The Silence taken care of what next?

Plot holes

Moffat to me seems so obsessed with making scary episodes that show his huge ‘intellect’ that he forgets about all his plot holes. First of all lets look at the start of this episode. Why on earth can The Doctor remember who The Silence is (before anyone says, he doesn’t have his weird chippy thing in his hand to record anything yet)? Surely as the first episode (and the second with anyone who isn’t a main character) cannot remember who they are, why can The Doctor and Amy etc now? Also in Moffat’s first series why could any of the other villains remember who The Silence were? It seemed that as soon as you turned your back you forgot who they were? Moffat never explains this. If you can, answers on a postcard please. Further, I know The Silence killed someone in Ep 1 but what else did they ever do? They seemed more like a very scary practical joke, going up to your friend who didn’t know you were there and shouting Boo at them. To me, they definitely did not need the reaction The Doctor gave them.

Thirdly (I think I am up to my third point ah well spoilers and plot holes and all that other shit), why did The Silence wait till the 1960s to send us, the human race into space? If they had been controlling us forever and ever surely they could have done it well before this?

There are probably many more but I cant remember them at the moment (I must have seen The Silence when I had them in my head!)

All of these things make me think one thing: Moffat is a great writer but not a head writer. He needs a Russell T Davies to bang his head against the table and go yes Steven but why is this happening? How can they now remember this that and the other? I agree they are great villains but where is the storyline? Then Steven would go oh and think it all through again.

Now comes to me what is the most evil thing Moffat has ever done. First of all let me remind you of better times and what The Doctor thought of genocide.

Now compare that to what Moffat’s 11^th Doctor did. Hmmm quite a difference. I know that The Doctor regenerates but there are certain characteristics that he always has. Two of the key ones are that he is a pacifist who only uses force if he has to and that he never believes in Genocide. Let me take you back to the 9^th (and definitely darkest Doctor). This Doctor was the war torn survivor of the Time War. He thought that he had committed genocide to the Daleks and it almost destroyed him. Compare the change from the 8^th Doctor to the dark brooding Time Lord Rose met. Lets journey to his episode ‘Dalek’. Here he meets what he thinks is the final Dalek. He wants to kill it, he is desperate to rid the universe of them. Yet he is conflicted, he can’t. It is against his code. His  desire is made clear by the dalek saying he would make a good dalek. The 9^th Doctor sees what he is becoming and is disgusted with himself. He stops immediately and works out a different strategy. You see that Moffat, The Doctor also has a brain not just you. Whereas The 11^th Doctor gleefully commits genocide against The Silence this week without caring as he and his companions laugh and joke about how awesome it is afterwards. Not a care in the world. After the two damaged doctors (the 9^th and the brilliant and best 10^th Doctor) this does not seem natural. Again remember The Doctor’s reaction in The Waters of Mars after he realises what he has done. He is not a happy chappy. Many people are trying to say this was not genocide but it was never made clear there were other members of The Silence on another world (another plot hole) and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry but I think it was.

Anyways. I have gone on way too long. In a nutshell Mr Moffat. You are a good writer but please think about what you are doing more next time. I would be a very happy whovian if you did.

Magneto and the world today

I usually spend my days on this site, ranting and raving about comic books and little else. Here I am going to do something slightly different: I will still be doing my usual rant but I will also be talking about something that is very close to my heart. Today I am going to talk about something that worries me so dearly: anti-semitism.

For me, there is nothing more sick then anti-Semites in this world we live in. I your fearless writer almost bulked when I read this article in The Guardian yesterday. It sickened me to think that this kind of racism still existed, it sickened me to see just how widespread this evil seemed to be, and to me I think it makes any doubter understand why the Israelis do what they do. I have always felt a link to the Jewish people, I have always felt that their way of thinking, their way of worship made more sense. I could never understand how so many people could treat a group of people in such a way. And do not get me wrong the Nazis were the worst but the thing that sickens me more is that the Jews have been persecuted from almost the beginning of time. For what reason you ask? Simply because they are Jewish.

Now the Israeli/Palestine debate. I am happy to inform you I am a Zionist but at the same time I do not condone what goes on in this little country, all I can say is that I understand why the Israelis are so protective. I am sick of hearing people blame the Israelis for the way they are. It is the Nazis that made them feel this way. Imagine if for no reason apart from you being yourself, you had been persecuted, your family had been persecuted for centuries to the extent that a group of people tried to commit genocide against you. I think I would start to think enough was enough, never again and that is the problem. Don’t get me wrong, there is probably a better way to go about it but when you have tried every other attempt and it got you sent to the gas chamber, I can understand why you would become extreme. When you have idiots in the west screaming absolute nonsense, when you hear so many still being prejudice, I can understand why you would become extreme for this. I understand the Israeli case and now I am actually gonna get onto the comic books (I am sure you are all sighing a relief now).

The main character I am going to talk about is Magneto and why I do not see him as a villain whatsoever. But before I do, I want to illustrate the evil that anti-Semitism is again, in the form of a history lesson. Most of the comic book creators who gave us superheroes were/are Jewish. The creators of superman, Bob Kane created Batman and Stan Lee created basically every Marvel character there is. What sickens me is that at least two of these felt the need to change their name because it was too Jewish to get a job back in the thirties. For example Bob Kane and Stan Lee altered his name from Stanley Lieber. I think it is a travesty that they had to do this. Now on to Magneto. If you, my faithful reader have never read Magneto: Testament you should run as fast as you can to your local shop and pick up a copy.

This is possibly the best book I have ever read but at the same time I can honestly tell you that I found it very difficult to read. The emotions that come out of this book will make you cry buckets as you watch Magneto growing up in Nazi Germany before being sent to a concentration camp. At the end of the book, the boy that was Erik, is said to no longer exist and this is why I had my rant about Israel to begin with (ah you all say, it finally makes sense!). The abuse Magneto faced twisted him, making him no longer able to trust others like he once had. Magento’s path into becoming the master of magnetism continues when he flees to Russia. There he settles down with a family before they are murdered in front of him for their beliefs. Again think if this happened to you. If you were different, you had watched your people be killed for that difference followed by your family and you had another difference that was bound to come out at some time. Would you trust them? I think few people can answer yes. Like the Israelis, the racist idiots created Magneto, they made him the man he is. And in the same way that I believe that the Israelis deserve Israel (because of everything they have gone through) I believe that we can understand Magneto and I see him more as a freedom fighter then a villain, an anti-hero. Let me offer you two more examples to back up my argument. If the apartheid had never come down, if Nelson Mandela had died before he went to prison, South Africa at least would have looked at him as a terrorist nothing more. Therefore the fluidity of the terms terrorist, and freedom fighter change every time dependent on your own opinions. Secondly, Stan Lee (Magneto’s co creator) argued that he was not a villain: he was the Malcolm X to Xavier’s Martin Luther King.

So people of the world, this is why I am sickened by the anti-Semite rush in society at the moment and this is why Magneto is one of my favourite characters ever and why he is one of my heroes.

Will The Red Hood Rise In The Dark Knight?

So we all now know that the third Batman film will be called The Dark Knight Rises. We also know that Tom Hardy will be playing the main villain Bane (as I predicted) but most interestingly will be who will Joseph Gordon-Levitt be playing. The Guardian argued that it is unlikely that he will play Robin (Check it out) if for no other reason but because he is quite old for the role and Christopher Nolan does not like the character. All true but I am going to argue something slightly different.

I believe that there is still chance that Robin in some form will be in The Dark Knight Rises and he could be in many forms. Firstly a key area that The Guardian article seems to forget is that there has been more than one Robin. Yes, Gordon-Levitt would not fit Dick Grayson (the Robin every knows) but I think he would make a perfect Jason Todd. I hope that we see Todd appear and at that, that he appears as Todd’s ultra ego The Red Hood. In the comic books, Jason Todd is taken in by Bruce Wayne when he finds him stealing the batmobile’s wheels. He makes Todd the second Robin leading to his presumed death under The Joker. For over ten years, it is presumed that Todd is dead. Yet he returns as The Red Hood, a vigilante who is similar to Batman in every way apart from the fact that he kills. The Red Hood would fit perfectly into Nolan’s Bat if he had the time to develop not one but two Robins. But I dint think he needs to.

Here’s what I think Nolan should do if he uses The Red Hood. A lot of the character can be kept, all you have to do is cut out the fact that he was Robin. Simply make Todd someone that was inspired by what Batman has done and decides to follow in his footsteps. The change that makes him kill in the comic book is The Joker, the same could again be sued here. In The Dark Knight, The Joker is intent on making people suffer, making people like him. The Joker destroys enough places, kills enough people that one of them could have been linked to Todd, leading to this change. If Nolan does this, I think he will have a fantastic villain and another antithesis to Batman like The Joker was.

My second theory in relation to Robins is the name of the picture, The Dark Knight Rises. This name alone makes me think that a Robin could appear just not the way we would necessarily see him or with Gordon-Levitt playing him. Nolan’s trilogy so far has been heavily based on Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s master piece The long Halloween. The next book in this series is Dark Victory. Dark Victory follows Batman picking up Dick Grayson to become Robin. He is not like how you saw him in Batman Forever: he is at most nine and is slowly intertwined in. As Nolan has been so loyal to The Long Halloween as a source material it is not the most insane thing to consider that Robin might appear. Also the name rings family with the main story arc of the comics at the moment Batman Incorporated where Batman is going across the world to make new Batmen. With this in mind and the idea of the character rising from the ashes, could he eventually lead a Bat army on the war against crime at the end if the film? Again surely you would need a Robin for this. It is only my opinion but I do not think that Robin appearing in The Dark Knight Rises is the ludicrous idea that some believe it is.

Holy Mackerel Batman I Miss The Silver Age Sometimes

There is one era that I have always wished I could have lived in and that was the Sixties. For me, it had everything: I love the style, the clothes, the belief that we could do anything. I love the music, I love that we created Doctor Who, I love the colours. But there is one thing that I love more than anything else about the Sixties and that is The Silver Age.

Heres a comic book history lesson for you. The Silver Age was the beginning for many heroes. The Golden Age began in the thirties, yet died after a mad scientist (it sounds proper comic booky doesn’t it) called Doctor Wertham said that comic books were evil. Yep before we worried about mods and rockers, video games and emos, we worried about comic books. We worried so much that a Comic Code was created (thankfully it is now dead) that basically neutered the genre. We no longer had the dark brooding Batman instead he smiled a lot and I mean a lot. I think Robin must have been mixing some Valiums and happy pills into his morning porridge.  All that was left from The Golden Age, all that survived were Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman. Wertham and his followers literally hit a real life war against comic books, leaving us bloody and wounded. Yet there was hope.

As comic books now had a real life Big Brother watching over us, it was difficult to move on. Yet in the spirit of the sixties, comic books had become a teenager. It was determined to rebel against mummy and daddy even if they had to be sneaky. Now most people you talk to would say that Marvel brought forward the revolution. I disagree. They definitely made it what it was and that is all through the efforts of Stan Lee  in my opinion but they did not start it. the baby footsteps were made by DC comics in 1956 when they brought back The Flash.

Yet this Flash was nothing like the one from The Golden Age. He had a cool costume, he had a life outside the mask and he had the beginnings of the soap opera world the comic books evolved into with the tension between Barry Allen and Iris West.

However it was not till Green Lantern was revived in 1959 that further developments occurred. Hal Jordan was a test pilot ( a job that many people dreamed of having at the time), he had a family, he was the beginning stages of the evolution we now know as normal.

Then Stan Lee came and to me no one deserves more credit for what he did to Marvel. In particular was Lee’s greatest creation, Spider-man. Spider-man (with art by Steve Ditko) created a character that had never been seen before. Spider-man was the first superhero to lead a book and be a teenager.

The Soap opera elements that appeared in The Flash and Green Lantern and even The Fantastic Four (by Lee and Kirby) were hyped up to a level they had never been. Peter Parker had family, friends, girl friends, he had a true identity outside the mask. All these characters were well developed. Although many people will disagree with me, Spider-man truly hit its stride when John Romita joined as artist. He beautiful works of art, and change of look made Spider-man the main stream smash hit he is today. The Spider-man of 2011, looks very similar to the Spider-man of the sixties.

Apart from this change, I loved the Silver Age for it’s colours. Just like how I see the sixties in my head, the Silver Age is often a brightly coloured, fluorescent array of beauty. This can clearly be seen by the campy Batman tv series of the time, where Robin must have really added to his drugging of Batman because he is now happy, go getting and possibly just a wee bit gay for his partner.

I love the innocence of the Silver Age also. The dialogue can be brilliant to re read now as words and meanings have changed. But I loved a simpler time, where heroes stood for good and were always good. Don’t get me wrong, I love the modern age, I love the shades of grey and I think that is the way it should be, but at the same time it is nice to read stories about characters that were incorruptible, that would always do the right thing no matter what. We do still see this, for example The Dark Knight illustrates this perfectly with Batman willing to give up anything in the cause of what was right.

Still, I think anyone that likes comics and has not read some old school Silver Age, you should do. Pick up an Essentials or a Showcase and see where these amazing characters that you love today came from.