July Comics Catch-Up

A few bits and pieces picked up over the month o' Julie. EDIT - 18/7 - popped a couple more acquisitions on rather than start a whole new post.

Batgirl #41 (DC)

A good issue, worth picking up, since it represents a pivotal point in Barbara Gordon's life. After all, not only was she bound to discover there was a new Batman in town, but eventually she'd learn that he was her father. I like that they didn't bother keeping this a mystery for her and just had him come right out with it. Now that he's been tasked with bringing in all vigilante heroes, Jim Gordon is pitted against Babs... although I find it hard to believe can't recognise Batgirl is his own daughter. The returning villainess I've never heard of is less interesting.

Superman/Wonder Woman #18 (DC)

The problem with both Marvel and DC is that any time there's a big shake up or plot development, it's necessary to pick up reams of comics to get the full picture. The changes with Batman and Superman require, what, seven titles to fully appreciate? Anyway, this is pretty good stuff. It's an appreciable change in status quo to have Wonder Woman the more powerful of the couple. It's good she's there for Clark, they're really putting him through the ringer in this storyline.

Ghostbusters Get Real #1 (IDW)


A cracking crossover following the popular GB/TMNT, with another cross-dimensional shift between New Yorks. Very much aimed at dedicated fans of The Real Ghostbusters, this takes place within the episode "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster," with the 'Busters shunted into another reality in an encounter with the god Proteus. Schoening and Delgado work together to make brilliant artwork, which changes subtly between the realities - the quality of the lines and depth of colour improves when the RGB 'Busters arrive in the IDW comic universe. Just lovely.

Saga # 30 (Image)

The Eisner Award-winning series comes to a temporary close, resting for a few months between runs. This is a better issue than we've had for a while, really pushing the narrative forward and leaving the characters in very different places to where they started. It's got to be said, though, there's not a lot of story in this issue in real terms; it's a couple of major events, violently told.

The Spirit #1 (Dynamite)

Dynamite have picked up the rights to Eisner's classic hero, and this is their first issue, which I finally got round to picking up. This is the first Spirit comic for a while, I think. I love the Golden Age revivals, and this is a strong opening, concerning itself with the Spirit's absence, rather than actually having star in his own comic. A brave approach, and one that works. Of particular note is the strong characterisation of Ebony White, a problematic character when handled poorly. Looking forward to issue two next month, plus Dynamite's relaunch of The Shadow.

The Wicked + The Divine #12 (Image)

As with Saga, not much actually happens here, but what does happen feels significant. To be fair, nothing was going to match last month's climax, so this issue was inevitably going to be a bit of a letdown. It's going to be guest artists for six months, and I'm not particularly keen on Kate Brown's work this issue. I don't feel it really suits the comic. But it's only one issue.

Deadpool: All Good Things tp (Marvel)

Collecting issues #41 to #44 and #250, because Marvel numbering makes no sense ever. This is the grand finale for Deadpool, and works well in collected form. I really enjoyed this; bloody, irreverent and strangely touching. Deadpool finally manages to find some peace with himself and even gets to settle down into a strange, but affirming, family or friends. Then the universe ends. Tsk. It's kind of amazing that the only thing that could kill Deadpool is being hit by a planet.

Captain Britain and the Mighty Defenders #1 (Marvel)

Mostly avoiding the Secret Wars stuff but bought this one recommendation... and yeah, it's really quite good. Dr. Faiza Hussain debuted in Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI-13, and having her take on the mantle of Captain Britain for Battleworld, itself the conjunction of all the realities that the Captains defend, makes sense. This then segues into Mondo City, a Mega City One pastiche... I don't know how this will progress beyond Judge Dredd vs. Marvel, but this could be quite brilliant.

21st Century Tank Girl #2 (Titan)

Missed issue one, but I watched the movie yesterday and got a hankering for Tank Girl. A tankering. The new adventures of Tank Girl, Jet Girl and Booga have all the subtle wit of their predecessors. There's a seventies theme to this issue. It's all written by Alan Martin so it's the genuine article, and out of the strips, the opening "Nanango '71" works best, partly because the artwork feels like the classic run. Jonathan Edwards's art suits the comedy dreamscape of "Journey to the Centre of the Tank," though (also, the Doctor's in it). Plus, the cover is at least twelve times sexier than cheesecake Starfire or Power-Girl comics.

DANDY SPACE LOG 1-12 & 1-13

Oh my stars and garters, there's been so much on that I almost forgot to finish up with season one of Space Dandy, Here's the final two episodes, with season two to follow in the near-ish future.

Season One, Episode Twelve - Nobody Knows the Chameleon Alien, Baby

Dandy and co. attempt to capture a shapeshifting alien for a huge bounty.

He's Dandy, Baby: If he makes a 100 million woolongs, he plans to eat at BooBies three meals a day, and then live off the accrued BooBies points so he can eat there even more. He's not really bright enough to realise that a Chameleonian is not the same as a chameleon. In times of danger, his Dandy sense tingles. Dandy finds a huge-lipped female alien strangely attractive, which even Meow thinks is gross. He's not terribly good at catching aliens, and has only been bringing in worthless specimens. Eventually he gets himself banned from the Registration Centre for trying to catch Scarlet. Dandy is especially easy for the Chameleonian to imitate, because his thought processes are so predictable. Eventually, he becomes so unsure whether he is the real Dandy or not he suffers an existential crisis. His favourite sport is the ladies' hundred metre breaststroke.

He's Not a Space Cat, Baby: If he makes 100 million woolongs, Meow plans to just sit in the sun, drink beer and lick himself all day. He enjoys octopus popsicles.

He's Just a Little Obsolete, Baby: QT enjoys himself this episode, unexpectedly discovering the joys of fishing and becoming quite obsessed with it for a period. He spends so long fishing that the three of them forget what they were originally hunting for.

We're Alien Hunters, Baby:

Chameleonian: Worth a wopping 100 (cha-)million woolongs at the Alien Registration Centre, the Chameleonian gets its name because it can change its appearance, although there the resemblance to chameleons ends. Although, presumably the sophisticated shapeshifter could turn into a chameleon, though. Nobody knows what they really look like, although the one we meet does take on an amorphous, blackish form between shapes. The Chameleonian is cunning and very hard to trap. It's brought onto the ship because it was disguised as a tsuchinoko and got caught by QT when fishing, which was a stroke of luck, really.

The Chameleonian is a bit of a dick, really. When it changes into a humanoid form it hides on the ship, coming out at night to use Dandy's toothbrush and look at porn on QT's phone. In the course of the episode it turns into Dandy, QT, Meow, Scarlet and Dr. Gel, before it's finally revealed that it was, in fact, the Narrator all along. Which doesn't really make any sense, especially given what we eventually discover about the Narrator's true identity.

Baranian: A purplish, crab-like creature, worth 128 woolongs.

Pelorian: A pink, flabby creature, worth 64 woolongs.

Rakendrian: Worth 32 woolongs. Looks kind of like a lipstick with an eye on it.

Unnamed alien: A flat creature that Dandy brings in only goes for a measly two woolongs.

Tsuchinoko: A legendary creature in Japanese folklore, a sort of fat serpent with ill-defined powers. Clearly the tsuchinoko exist in Dandy's universe, and live like fish on certain planets. QT is thrilled to catch a black one, but it is not what it seems.

The Scarlet Woman, Baby: Scarlet really has had enough of Dandy and his gang's incompetence in the alien catching business. She doesn't take kindly to being mistaken for a Chameleonian.

There's Bad Guys Too, Baby: Dr. Gel has completed work on the ultimate weapon, the Hyperdimensional Magic Hand, a system so sophisticated it can find its target anywhere in the universe of time and space. Unfortunately, it can't tell the real Dandy from the Chameleonian. Dr. Gel gets into a fight with this interloper, that ends with them both yelling "Who is the Doctor?!" at each other in a deliberate Doctor Who reference.

Don't Quote Me, Baby: "Man, I can't believe I put my butt on it."

The Bottom Line, Baby: A good, fun episode, although the fishing aside goes on a bit too long. The quiz to determine the real Dandy, as well as being a riff on Who Wants to be a Millionaire ("Is that your final Dandy?) was done before, possibly better, in the Red Dwarf episode "Psirens," though. There are some nice Aliens nods in the episode too.

REVIEW: Terminator Genisys

CONTAINS BIG SPOILERS, if anyone really cares about that anymore.

Review after Arnie.

REVIEW: Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs

Paul Magrs tends to write stories that take a whimsical, askew look at mundane life. While he does employ science fiction tropes, particularly in his Doctor Who work, the fantastical is never far away.Lost on Mars, as the title suggests, takes a classic sci-fi setting – that of a struggling human colony on the Red Planet – but injects a large dose of the fabulous. There are elements of Steampunk and horror in its make-up, but foremost it is in the tradition of classic children's literature. Lost on Mars is a potent coming-of-age story, in which our heroine, Lora, is forced to grow up in order to survive in a terrifyingly unpredictable world.


Unlike most of Magrs's work, which is intrinsically English, Lost on Mars has more in common with frontier stories like Little House on the Prairie. Our Town, the ramshackle settlement on the Martian plains, is home to Lora and her family, three generations under one roof, including Grandma, one of the original colonists who came from Earth at the end of the 21^st century. In spite of the futuristic setting, life there is more like the late 19^th century edge towns in the Old West, or Australia. Life involves constant hard graft, and Our Town is a safe place in a wilderness filled with unknowable dangers. Until the Disappearances start, and even the town provides no safety. There are some genuinely unsettling moments as people are slowly picked off by a largely unseen Martian force, and the overriding feeling throughout the book is one of ever-present uncertainty and danger.


Magrs's Mars (perhaps we should call it Planet Magrs) is home to a baffling array of life forms, from the unthreatening reptilian livestock the townsfolk depend on, to a variety of more sophisticated, and potentially deadly, Martian natives. Phantom-like Martians appear to be the cause of the Disappearances, and even Lora's unexpected friendship with one of their number does little to lessen the sense of menace that their presence engenders. Forced to flee Our Town, Lora and her remaining family and friends take their chances in the wilds of the Martian outback, where things only get stranger and more uncertain. The plot doesn't let up for a moment; as soon as it seems the true nature of the story is clear, everything is called into question by another unexpected revelation. The story ends up in a place quite unlike where it began, the nature of Lora's world now unclear. Every revelation is questionable, every answer suspect.


Lora is a fine protagonist, a fully realised character who develops from girl to young woman as her life changes and she grows into new responsibility. Her brother Al, although not as significant to the story at first, undergoes similar development. Family is at the heart of the story and the characters' actions. This is a new and fascinating world that Magrs has created, although some elements familiar to his readers show up, from mention of “Celestial Omnibuses” to the essential batty old ladies that he loves so much. Then there's Toaster, the adorable Servo-Furnishing, a sentient sunbed who acts as pet, butler and friend to Lora and her family, and whose first iteration appeared in the author's 2007 Doctor Who novel, Sick Building. It's also good to see that, although it is far from a focus of the novel, there is a queer presence among the cast of characters. Although the setting is new, this feels absolutely Magrs.



The first in a trilogy, Lost on Mars ends with some closure but with a stack of mysteries left unsolved. This is an excellent book for young readers and has plenty to offer old types too. It would make for an excellent Sunday night family drama, should the BBC survive long enough to revive the artform. Book two quickly, please.

Lost on Mars can be ordered from Firefly Press and is also available from Amazon. It is also available on Kindle.

Fanfilm Catch-Up: Star Trek Continues & Predator: Dark Ages

There have been some very interesting fan productions coming out lately. I've taken a look at two of the most interesting, plus caught up with some news about upcoming productions.

PREDATOR: DARK AGES

There aren't all that many Predator fan films, presumably because making a Predator costume is bloody expensive. Those that do exist are often very impressive, with high production values and fine performances. Predator: Dark Ages is a perfect example of this, a much-anticipated film written and directed by James Bushe.

Unlike most stories featuring the Predator, this is a period piece, set during the time of the Crusades, a period that's especially topical right now considering the poor relations between the Christian and Muslim communities. The story features a group of Knights Templar, led by Adrien Bouchet, are forced into an uncomfortable alliance with a Saracen, played by Amed Hashimi, to hunt down the "demon" that is already hunting them. The core cast, which includes Sabine Crossen as a formidable female warrior, Ben Loyd-Holmes, Jon Campling and Joe Egan, are all impressive, and the Predator, played by Philip Lane, looks fantastic. Running in at a little under half an hour, the story is necessarily simple, but plenty of incident is packed into that time. It's effectively directed and just gory enough to make the Predator a serious threat. I enjoyed the nuanced relationship between the two leads - both flawed men from opposing walks of life, who slowly learn to trust each other in face of a greater threat.

An especially good fan production. Watch it here.

STAR TREK CONTINUES: 'THE WHITE IRIS'

This is the fourth episode of the fan series Star Trek Continues, which carries on the adventures of Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise beyond the final episode of the original series and into the fifth and final year of the legendary Five Year Mission.

The first thing you're confronted with when streaming "The White Iris" is Doctor Who's Colin Baker, as subtle and low-key as ever, in multicoloured robes and a blue goatee. This unexpected clashing of two great fandoms sets the scene for a fun if melodramatic fifty minutes in which Captain Kirk (Vic Mignona) is injured and confronts the ghosts of his past, as various deceased past loves come to haunt him. Star Trek Continues is fan-pleasing comfort food, and this episode is an excuse to sit Kirk down and examine both his commander's guilt and his womanising ways. While I'd really like to see something a bit more solid and original from the team, it's effectively done and it's interesting to watch the good captain grow into the more emotionally mature individual we saw in the movies. It looks as spectacular as ever, far better than even Paramount's remastered episodes of the original series.

Mignona, who also co-writes the series, is really becoming quite excellent as Kirk, while Chuck Huber's take on McCoy is really coming into its own. Colin Baker plays Amphidemus, the leader of an alien planet set to join the Federation, and he certainly seems to be enjoying himself. Gabriela Fresquez looks spot-on in her brief role as Rayna Kapec. There are some nice nods to the past future of the series, with both a primitive holodeck made good use of, and Marina Sirtis providing the computer voice. Watch it here.

In other Trekkie news, Star Trek: New Voyages is pushing ahead with its 2015 Kickstarter campaign, and has already hit its original target and is now looking at various stretch goals. Meanwhile, a long-gestating fan project, Star Trek Beyond, has been forced to change its name due to clashing with the upcoming thirteenth movie; however, Paramount have invited creator Michael Gummelt to pitch for a new TV series, which is fantastic news. Star Trek Uncharted is a better name anyway.