New Beginnings - Clint #1

Hrm.

Clint is a new comic from Mark Millar, the comics writer that you either love or hate. He has been successful for years but is now tying to parley that fame into Clint, the first new British comic aimed at the newsstand for years.

In one of his press interviews about it Millar talked about there being no Eagle or 2000AD for this generation. And he's right, in a way. Comics aren't exactly the easiest thing to buy in newsagents. You need to be lucky enough to have a local comic shop, if you want anything outside of the licenced kids comics.

To wax lyrical, when I was growing up I had the tail end of Battle, Eagle etc then 2000AD and the Marvel UK releases. Comics were cheap and plentiful.

This is part of my issue with Clint. It's supposed to be a way to sneak comics into peoples hands, so it has a fair bit of magazine content as well. And this is content is, frankly, sub par Nuts or Front. A couple of token articles that looked ripped from Wikipedia, an interview with Jimmy Car and even a wordseach.

I admit it may not be aimed at me. Millar has very vocally said he's going for the 16-24 age group which I am (ahem) slightly outside of. But I still read comics and a UK based magazine like this is very interesting to me. Not when it's done like this, however.

I also think the real gap in the Market is somewhere between the kids comics and Clint. The Marvel UK comics growing up were a perfect stepping stone into 'proper' comics. Clint feels like it's trying to bring in new people but will the content here achieve that? Kick Ass is popular but is eight pages enough? Plastering the movie Kick Ass on the front alongside Frankie Boyle is a good idea to hook people in but will it get them to come back?

Maybe I'm asking for too much. Maybe I was expecting something else. I'm not sure.

As for the comics themselves, here's quick summary. Kick Ass 2 is only eight pages so too short to properly judge; Turf is reprinted as a whole and I like it; Nemesis is also the whole first issue, not much depth but looks great; Rex Royd by Frankie Boyle is a complete and total mess; the short three page story at the end is interesting but doesn't have a decent twist like a Future Shock from 2000AD.

I'm going to be back for issue two but it needs to improve an awful lot if its going to succeed as much as it wants to.

Phil Doyle is one of the creators of abadeducation.com and co-host of the sonicsring.com podcast. His real job is in insurance which he hopes won't be forever. He also has a complete set of Marvel 2099 first issues, even Ravage 2099.

Holmes Away From Holmes

Typical. You wait years for a decent version of Sherlock Holmes and then two come along at once.

Whilst the Guy Ritchie version of Holmes was essentially an action packed re-telling of the Holmes stories, this new BBC series is a full on re-imagining. Spearheaded by Steven 'Doctor Who' Moffat and Mark 'League of Gentlemen Gattis', this is a modern re-telling of the Holmes character.

The characters remain the same, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, LeStrade are all present and correct. The setting remains London. Only now Watson blogs about the adventures of Holmes, who has no problems searching the internet to solve a crime.

Benedict Cumberbatch is a superb Holmes. With Moffat in the driving seat of the series the concern would be that it would be too close to The Doctor. It isn't. Holmes' borderline sociopathic tendencies are brought to the fore expertly by Cumerbatch. He's ably assisted by Martin Freeman, in probably his best role since The Office. His crumpled face is perfect for Watson, constantly trying to keep up with Holmes' logic. The support characters, especially the police who don't necessarily like Holmes sticking his nose into their business, don't let the side down either.

The series rests with Watson and Holmes. If they don't work as a team then everything collapses. It's what made the recent film so good and it's the heart that keeps this series on its feet. Their back and forth is a joy to watch. The other relationships built up in the series work just as well. The world of the series fits together very well. This is something interesting about a modern Holmes, as there would be no Sherlock Holmes stories in popular culture. No deer stalker or pipe jokes or anything like that.

This problem however, is this. We have three episodes in this series. The first, written by Moffat, is a great setup show, expertly introducing the characters. The third, written by Gattis, builds to a superb climax. The second, whilst not a mess, seems to leave behind everything that makes the other two episodes so good. The interesting police characters, gone. The plot nicely convoluted but without a decent villain. Watson reduced to the role of a passenger. The writer here, Stephen Thompson, seems to really drop the ball.

It's a shame. It doesn't bring the whole series crashing down but it is a noticeable drop in quality. There remains however a great deal still to enjoy in this show. Gattis' cameo role is a top notch, the final scene in the first episode is only bettered by the superb cliffhanger of the last episode.

Well worth buying when it comes out on DVD. You could also say buying it was an ELEMENTARY decision.

Phil Doyle is one of the creators of abadeducation.com and co-host of the sonicsring.com podcast. His real job is in insurance which he hopes won't be forever. He also has a complete set of Marvel 2099 first issues, even Ravage 2099.

Ethan Hearts Doctor Who

I was going to do this as a quasi interview with my son for this piece but every answer to questions like "what is the best thing about the Doctor" was "everything" which should tell you where this thing is going.

When Doctor Who was revamped way back in 2005, I was excited but there was a twinge of sadness. This was due to my less than one year old son, I felt sad that he would miss this as there was no possible way it would last more than one series.

I was wrong. As my son grew the series continued. Until we got to the fourth series and he was now pretty much old enough to watch it. And we did and it was ace. He loved the show but, to be honest it was the monsters that grabbed and held his attention.

Then we came to The Eleventh Hour. A new Doctor. And within 5 minutes my son was obsessed.

It was almost frightening to watch. He was all about the Doctor, quoting his lines, voraciously reading any Doctor Who comic put in front of him. He would cry when an episode finished and was told that the next one wasn't on until next week. He was totally enraptured.

This isn't to see this hasn't happened before. There is a box of Transformers in his room to prove this. Not to mention all the Ben 10 toys scattered around everyone. He is a child, his attention span for these things is finite.

So far this hasn't been the case with Who. The toys, obviously, have an impact but he hasn't been this interested in the word of a series before. he wants to know the names of all the aliens, their history, where they come from. He spouts quotes from the show back at me, refuses to eat the 'bad bad beans'. He's even started to ask about the old Doctors, thanks to a few of the little clips of them in the new series.

I am of course, immensely proud of this. If I'm honest there has been an element of ground work laid down for this kind of behaviour, mainly in reading him issues of the Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four run for his bedtime stories.

I digress. This is truly his Doctor. Matt Smith has captured my son's heart. You can pick at this kind of show as much as you like but you cannot argue with it's appeal. It is truly universal with a central hero that is someone to aspire to.

The show (marketing aside) has good intentions and doesn't feel as 'designed' as other shows. Ben 10 is great but it feels 'designed' to appeal to kids with an almost Terminator like focus. Doctor Who feels like people trying to tell good fun stories to raise the hairs on your neck, none more so that in this latest series.

Long may it continue and may the world welcome a future Whovian.

Phil Doyle is one of the creators of abadeducation.com and co-host of the sonicsring.com podcast. His real job is in insurance which he hopes won't be forever. He also has a complete set of Marvel 2099 first issues, even Ravage 2099.

"The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know!"

CAUTION: SPOILERS ABOUT THE FINALE OF

DOCTOR WHO SERIES 31/5/FNARG AHEAD!

I was worried. Were you worried? I was. I mean I had trust in Stephen Moffat, he had written some of the best episodes of New Who. Then they released that first dodgy picture of Matt Smith. And that first look at his outfit didn't inspire confidence. A Bow tie? Nonsense. Finally I sat down to watch the new series and, my God, they had messed with the theme tune.

Five minutes and one portion of fish fingers with custard later and I was sold. Now we come to the finale, the traditional final two parter that wraps up the series. Back when Who was under Russell T. Davies, the finales were a bit maligned. All wrapped up a bit too easy with a fair amount of deux ex machina thrown in to get himself out of overwrought cliffhangers, so some say.

How does Moffat hold up? Well, in The Pandorica Opens, he shows that he can write a good cliffhanger. The final reveal of the true nature of The Pandorica itself was a great twist, very cleverly foreshadowed. Moffat nicely wracks up the tension, throwing in a ton of space ships and one of the great monologues from the Doctor. The final scene as well was a stand out moment. All of the Doctor's enemies in one room, an exploding TARDIS and the death of a companion.

The fact that all of these things are sorted out in the first five minutes of the next episode is a very Russell T. Davies trait. Here however it is carried out with such a flair that it doesn't matter. The structure of the first half of The Big Bang is an absolute joy, folding back in on itself, throwing in a lot of laughs at the same time.

All this is, let's be honest, due to the tour de force that has been Matt Smith's Doctor. That stiff first image has been blown away replaced by a whirling dervish of arms that has proved definitively that bow ties are cool. He captures the age and weight of the Doctor as well as the mischievous side. You see this in one of the final scenes of The Big Bang, telling his story to young Amy Pond. It's a great little scene that says a lot about the Doctor but also ties together the series as a whole, linking it back to the first shot of the first episode.

The last two episodes capture what has been so good about Moffat's Who as a whole. The great characters, the finely honed structure, the snappy dialog. Whilst not all the ends were tied up (I suspect that will be the focus of the next series) it was a great finale to a great great series.

I'm even starting to like the new music.

Phil Doyle is one of the creators of abadeducation.com and co-host of the sonicsring.compodcast. His real job is in insurance which he hopes won't be forever. He also has every issue of the 1990s Midnight Sons crossover and does not feel guilty about it.

Fingers on the Pulse

***WARNING: contains mild spoilers***

Short review; I like this show and want to see the full series.

More? Good, as I'm working to a word count here.

Paul Cornell is someone that has gone below the radar for a long time. Since the early nineties he worked on things like Holby City, Casualty, Doctor Who novels and a few Marvel comics. He also wrote a two part episode of Doctor Who for it's third series. Based on his own book, Human Nature and Family of Blood were very well regarded and are probably two of the best episodes of the modern Who series.

This work has now paid off as now we have Pulse, an original Paul Cornell TV show pilot.

Set in a teaching hospital, it follows one of the students, Hannah, who is returning to her schooling following the death of her mother. Trying to fit back in she sees something moving in the stomach of one of her patients. Or did she?

Well, yes she did. In the opening sequence we see one of the surgeons operating on the patient and implanting... something.

There we have the crux of the pilot. Secret medical experiments, someone trying to uncover the truth and a bucket full of blood.

Blood? Yes, this is a hospital. People have operations. Which we see. Graphically. Those scared of blood need to know this. There is blood. And scapels.

If you can deal with the blood the main thing to consider is this; does it work?

Yes it does.

It works as a stand alone show rather well, it feels like a Future Shock from 2000AD. The characters are well drawn and the premises is intruiging. Whilst there are no real answers given as it is a pilot, it leaves you wanting more but in a good way. You don't feel annoyed and left hanging like other island based TV shows.

My only problem with it was the overpowering music. There is a sense of foreboding to the show from the very beginning just in the way it's filmed. This is hammered home by the music, a little too much for my taste. It cheapens a few of the scares in the show.

I want to see more, which you will remember from the beginning. It's a great little concept and, so far, is executed well.

More please.

(Pulse airs Thursday 3rd June on BBC3 at 9pm. You can watch it online right now. If you like the pilot, please comment on the BBC3 blog afterwards - all feedback helps)

Phil Doyle is one of the creators of abadeducation.com and co-host of the sonicsring.com podcast. His real job is in insurance which he hopes won't be forever. He also has every issue of the 1990s Midnight Sons crossover and does not feel guilty about it.