Surprisingly, I'm enjoying Amazing Spider-Man's Legacy storyline

[SPOILERS for the current “Fall of Parker” storyline in Amazing Spider-Man, in particular the cliffhanger to the most recent issue and also various plot points from adjectiveless Spider-Man]

I was not expecting to. Okay, I do wish we'd had more chance to enjoy the Parker Industries status quo (especially as I only started to like that status quo with the launch of the current series) so much so I was very skeptical about taking Peter back to the Daily Bugle.

The thing is, though, that the specific angle offers something new and interesting. I was afraid of it being a pure nostalgia exercise given that Marvel has all but announced their intention to set the engines to maximum pander.

But Peter Parker as a science writer sounds like it could be fun. Given that this is the Marvel Universe this means he could end up in all sorts of situations that build on the scientist side of the character I so enjoyed seeing explored at Parker Industries. It means that we keep the mature aspect of the character (even if he is still a prat) that I think Marvel should retain so long as Miles Morales is swinging around as the teenage Spider-Man.

That having been said, I wonder where they're going with Miles in Spider-Man and this idea that maybe he might adopt a new superhero identity. Maybe this is down to Bendis leaving and wanting to throw one last curveball to the readership.

Personally? I'd rather he remain Spider-Man because it allows Marvel to have their teenage hero cake and eat it too so we don't end up having to have Peter reverting to a younger man again as in Brand New Day. On the other hand it would be nice to see Miles get his own identity even if only to show that a newer character can survive outside of being a legacy.

If they can, of course. 

30 Discs Hath November #11: United

Once again its a bit hard to discuss this one without talking about the conclusion so this is a SPOILER one.

UNIT: The New Series: Assembled #4

United

written by Matt Fitton

One useful consequence of the last episode (and a short bit of dialogue explaining that Colonel Shindi is in Geneva, oh nostalgia) is that all the modern cast are trapped outside the UK due to dinosaur siege. This means that we start out with the retirees in the Tower Of London and Kate and company trying to find a way back to them. It is rather sweet that Mike, Benton and Jo get to take command for a little bit even if it is the most fanservice-y plot element of the series.

You know, I go into every one of these Earth Reptile stories hoping for a peaceful conclusion and, I guess, this one sort of counts. Its not perfect, the resolution is mainly bloodless but the Earth Reptiles don't agree to anything, they're essentially tricked into surrendering and returning to their hibernation chambers. Just once I'd like for the character who charges off to make peace even though everyone thinks its hopeless (its Jo again, by the way) to some real, material success instead of being shuffled off to the hostage room. There's even a second such scene with Mike and Josh meeting Jastrok under truce which ends abruptly when Mike gets one piece of information that will make attacking the Silurians easier. Okay, Jastrok isn't exactly entering into the spirit of the truce but they could have at least tried.

On the plus side, Jo and Osgood continue their epic team-up of women uplifting other women (there is nothing better) with Jo encouraging Osgood to just bloody ask one of the hunky men she works with out. I mean, I'd rather she take Kate up on one of those social events that aren't dates, honest guv, but alone time with Naked Caveman Sam would be just as good. Talking of Sam, towards the end Katy Manning plays the hell out of some “naughty granny flirting” when Sam is assigned to escort her to South America in search of new homes for plesiosaurs.

So, yeah, there's a lot of good character stuff and some nice comparisons between the UNIT family and the modern incarnation but I still find myself a little sad that once again Malcolm Hulke's startling innovation of an “alien” race with individual personalities and a sympathetic moral position were just treated as another menace to be disposed of. Disposed of in a more humane way than usual, its true though just sending them back to sleep seems a bit too... I don't want to say “concentration camp” because that's in awful taste and not accurate in the details but there is a certain element of rounding them up and locking them away that I'm not quite comfortable with. 

Pointless meanderings about the 13th Doctor's clothes

I like it. The trousers, which seem to be a matter of odd fixation amongst fans at the moment, probably look a lot less shapeless in motion. I like the suspenders, classic Doctor apparel there. I like the fact that there's a rainbow but not an actual, legit pride rainbow so you can't prove nothin' in your rambling letters of complaint, conservatives who suddenly care about this show for some reason. Its a fashion disaster, I am told, and to my mind that makes it perfect. Just because the Doctor is now a woman they should not have suddenly regenerated with the ability dress themselves.

That doesn't seem like enough for a post, does it?

Okay then I'll defend the piercings to make myself feel like I'm not just writing filler because its Friday evening right now and I am full of cake.

You see, the best worst take I have read about this costume so far come from those who are fixated with the fact Whittaker has piercings in her ears. Some have even (obviously but still depressingly) claimed that this Doctor having pierced ears when no other Doctor has pierced ears proves they are fundamentally changing the character beyond all recognition and therefore the Doctor should only ever be played by a man.

Yeah, okay, fake nerd boys, listen up!

For a start, we don't know that the Doctor wakes up from regeneration with pre-pierced ears. For all we know she could pop out to get her ears pierced during whatever costume choosing montage creates this glorious fashion disaster. Second, and most importantly, Jon Pertwee (who I feel we can all agree was definitely the Doctor and whose status as such cannot be denied) woke up from regeneration with a tattoo. We know this because we got to watch him showering in his debut story.

So maybe pierced ears are not the breaking point of canon. 

30 Discs Hath November #10: Retrieval

UNIT: The New Series: Assembled #3

Retrieval

written by Guy Adams

So we come to the “its not all just fanservice, honest guv” entry of the set with no members of the old UNIT family around and our modern heroes taking front and centre as their retired counterparts take very, very slow bus journeys towards the Tower of London and the epic conclusion.

That isn't to do this episode down as filler, in fact it does a very good job if showcasing what the modern UNIT cast bring to the table. As a bevy of Silurian sea monsters make their way very slowly towards the UK, Kate and Osgood make a detour to a Silurian research base UNIT has identified off the Greek coast to see if there's anything there that can help with the fight. Choosing the two scientific minds on the cast, the two main characters in fact, does a lot to show how the new science led UNIT works as opposed to the more military brand of the old days. They go in with equipment, investigate, note that they dont have much context for what they're finding and make the requisite mistakes.

Not that it's all dry investigative stuff. This story sees the return of Lt. Sam Bishop, UNIT's international man of mystery and adventure as he squares off against the Silurian Tiska who has been sent to investigate the same research base. I like Sam and I want to say I'd love to hear more from the character but I honestly think he works better like this: swooping in for one or two episodes every series to save the day.

For all that I enjoyed it, I don't find myself with much more to say about the story, in all honesty. I won't condemn it as exactly filler but it is a significantly lighter story than the two that precede it. That's not necessarily a problem, if the set were four hours of pure adrenaline it would be a bit draining, it just doesn't leave me with much to talk about.

So, on to the epic conclusion it is.

I mean, I could probably get some mileage from Osgood's delusions of “naked caveman Sam” but I ship her more with Kate anyway, as cute as that was. 

Comic Reviews

This week the Kingpin of Crime gets his Trump on; Tim Drake has a word with himself; mutants and aliens get therapy; and after months of uncertainty we get branding confirmation that Jennifer Walters is still female.

Daredevil #595

Mayor Fisk part 1

Marvel just does not do subtle satire, does it? I mean, they even have Foggy Nelson explain to the reader that no one who voted for Fisk was under any delusion that he wasn't the Kingpin of Crime but they liked that he was a political outsider. Just about the only thing they don't do is make him a Republican, instead making sure to mention he ran as an independent.

Meanwhile, Mayor Fisk has ordered he DA's office and Matt Murdoch in particular to start preparing briefs on how to hold vigilante superheroes accountable. Its not a comfortable situation as any reasonable person probably would prefer people who cause massive property damage on a regular basis to have some accountability and it ties in with the recent Supreme Court arc about bringing the heroes into the legal framework. We get Matt in full hothead and pissed off mode which means he falls for approximately one hundred percent of Fisk's plans through the whole issue because Matt Murdoch can always been relied on to make things worse for himself. Its an interesting angle that continues to use Matt's new position as a prosecutor to good effect and I look forward to seeing where it goes, though I hope that Fisk stays mayor for a while to come because that's the sort of angle that has a lot of juice in it.

Detective Comics #968

A Lonely Place of Living conclusion

Given her presence on the cover I was hoping to see a Steph/Tim reunion but sadly not. Instead we get a big long fight between various elements of the Bat-family and evil future Tim. Its not badly written or drawn but there is a lot leftover for future stories and in the typical infuriating time traveler way evil future Tim keeps banging on about how Kate will do “something” without going in to the sort of specifics that might help prevent the something even though his murder plan fell through.

Still, he does say the something will happen in a few weeks so we might get to that sometime within the next year.

Runaways #3

Find Your Way Home part 3

Okay, this is a SPOILERS one so skip down a bit if you don't want to know why I liked it...

…

I like that Karolina said now when Nico, Gert and Chase came into her life and asked her to abandon it. I like that she felt guilty about it and had to chant affirmations at herself whilst crying after they left. I like that she's shown as conflicted and unhappy with her decision but that the narrative is firmly on her side about it. I like that she is putting her own needs first here. Chase never recovered from Gert's death and Nico has her abandonment issues from the break-up of A-Force (such a good title...) but Karolina is in college, she has a girlfriend and is making headway with therapy. Much as I like the character (and please let that girlfriend be Julie, please please please) I think showing all this is a very positive thing.

I also liked that there was acknowledgement that getting Chase and Gert back together would probably be a mistake. He was always a little older than her and now there's an age gap of years that makes things horribly creepy if they tried to reignite their actual relationship.

Generation X #8

Speaking of superheroes moving on, after far too many years an X-book gets back to seeing what Husk is up to. Last time we saw her was back in the dying days of the Wolverine and the X-Men title when she'd started being the school's guidance counselor. Now she's completely outside the X-Men, taking her PhD to become an actual psychiatrist. What's more, she's started talking with her proper accent (and less annoyingly written, I hated the old phonetic way the “hayseed” characters were written, its more contractions and the odd apostrophe now).

Also, nice to see the likes of Mercury, Dust and Hijack are now low level leadership figures amongst the student body.

She-Hulk #159

Jen Walters Must Die part 1

I am so very dubious about that title change. Nostalgia is one thing but... ugh, nevermind, still the same writer so there's hope. That having been said...

Now, its not like Tamaki's run on this title was without humour before, in fact it was pretty damn funny, but there's a different flavour to the funny in this issue. There's a restaurant that sells “burger cake” and a professor who is a stereotypical airhead blonde. Maybe that's the “Legacy” angle for this title: to go a little more towards the oddball humour of the original She-Hulk run (okay, okay, pedantically it was the second run but no one actually cares about the first one).

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the change. On the one hand it is a pretty minor change but I hope that it doesn't come to dominate the tone of the series which up to now I've really, really liked. Time will tell. 

30 Discs Hath November #9: Tidal Wave

UNIT: The New Series: Assembled #2:

Tidal Wave

written by Guy Adams

Jo Grant. Sea Devils. A questionably useful energy project. This really is the greatest hit collection, isn't it? Not that I'm complaining, I adore Jo Grant and the story has some interesting ideas for the Sea Devils.

And, okay, it took me a while to work this out and Guy Adams had to hit me over the head with it but I now get that Osgood (at least in her Big Finish incarnation) is at least meant to have an element of “the Doctor as Katy Manning would have played them” about her. Teaming Osgood and Jo together for most of the story was absolutely the right move especially as it allows Osgood to have her frantic fangirl moment at the beginning and then redeem it by having them bond and come to a place of mutual respect by the end. Its a good arc, especially as it starts with Jo admitting she's judged Osgood exactly the same way she was always judged as the ditzy one back in the day.

Seriously, Jo has so many more admirable qualities than generally get acknowledged and here we see her classic “plucky determination” weaponised. As the compromised and controlled Captain Burmaster uses UNIT's new hydro-electric generating submarine to start a war with a hibernation colony of Sea Devils its Jo who is the one pleading for peace and putting herself in the hands of the enemy to do so. Its also interesting that Jastrop is behind the attack on the Sea Devils and not just to provoke them into conflict with the “ape primitives”, he has a concrete agenda and a plan. Again, good representation of the Earth Reptiles as people rather than a monolithic race.

The same holds true for Krellix, our traditional lone voice of peace and reason amongst the Sea Devils who is actually swung towards believing Jo's protestations of innocence because he knows Jastrop and has his own reasons for not liking the guy. Jo's pleas for humanity also have the interesting aspect of acknowledging the worst sides of our species and of Krellix's but hoping that the best wins out. Its eloquent and sweet and reflects the greater experience Jo has gained in the decades since she last encountered the Sea Devils. It also demonstrates that if you want to read Osgood towards the end as having a bit of an admiring friend crush on Jo you wouldn't be along, I'm right there with you.

Could have done without the “political correctness gone mad” joke from Jo, of all people. 

I would love to see Bendis' Superman

Now that Brian Michael Bendis is moving from Marvel to DC there's all sorts of speculation about what he'll be doing for them. This post isn't even on the level of reading tea leaves, its just flatly what I personally would love to see him write:

Superman. To be precise a full on, traditional set-up Superman. I know we've been getting closer and closer to that since Superman Reborn but what I mean is a series very focused on Metropolis, on Clark as a reporter with the full Daily Planet cast and, for preference, Lex Luthor as the man behind the curtain of half the things going on in the city. We know from Ultimate Spider-Man that Bendis can write a good newspaper setting and I would love to see what he could do with the more fantastic aspects of Metropolis that have sort of fallen by the wayside over the years.

Like I say this is just wishlisting and, ten to one, DC and Bendis already have plans far better and more interesting than this.

I just really hope he isn't going to be doing Batman. I can see the chain of logic: Bendis made a big splash with Daredevil back in the day, he works a lot on street level books and noir, but it just feels like it would be more of the same and the Bat books already have a bunch of innovative writers taking things in determinedly fascinating directions I'm not sure there's the creative real estate.

Having said all that though, it occurs to me that I'd love to see Bendis work on Outsiders. Whether a more traditional Batman-led version with the classic characters, the Nightwing-era cast or an all-new version cherrypicked from the list of obscure characters every comic writer has in their back pocket for when they get a kid in the candy store project.

Here's hoping. 

30 Discs Hath November #8: Call To Arms

UNIT: The New Series: Assembled #1

Call To Arms

written by Matt Fitton

The thing about Big Finish is that it is always fanservice, that's the nature of it. That having been said, there are levels of fanservice and the more the idea of story seems more geared towards it than having an interesting high concept, the more wary I become.

Take this box set, for example, which promises a team-up between Big Finish's modern UNIT and the surviving members of the 1970s “UNIT family”. On the plus side BF waited to do three box sets before pulling the trigger on this idea so I have at least as much of a grip on the voices and character of the new guys as the familiar old faces. Matt Fitton starts us off with a very traditional story as not only do we hve old UNIT foes the Silurians but the format of Call To Arms is the “traditional base under siege”.

In this case the base under siege is the pub run by retired UNIT sergeant John Benton the night after his retirement party. Kate, Osgood and a six pack of soldiers have been checking up on a known Silurian hibernation base in the area which turns out to be something modern UNIT does routinely to make sure the inhabitants are safe and asleep. There's even references later to other bases where the inhabitants woke up too find the world overrun by talking apes and decided just to go back to sleep and wake up later. The fact that we've never had a Silurian story with a peaceful resolution is largely down to the fact it wouldn't be that interesting but having some confirmation that it can happen helps with the idea that these are an intelligent race of individuals and not a series of interchangeable monsters.

Giving this impression through dialogue does help because the actual Silurian antagonist, a military type by the name of Jastrok, is about as stereotypical a made alien general as it gets. Osgood tries to open negotiations with him using Silurian formalities but he responds by laughing and shooting people regardless. He's not without depth but its clear he's not going to be a vehicle for intelligent and rational dialogue any time soon.

Anyway, Jastrok and his soldiers wake up and ambush the UNIT team. The soldiers cover Kate and Osgood as they escape and the two important characters take shelter in Benton's pub where Mike Yates happens to have just arrived. On the subject of Mike, its interesting to see someone who actually holds a grudge against him even if the grudge less about the whole massive betrayal thing (though it gets mentioned) and more about jealousy over a woman. Benton, of course, can't help but fall into the habit of saying “sir” and “captain” which is both sweet and a sad reminder of his undeservedly low position on the UNIT food chain of old.

The story unfolds much as you might expect with a few interesting details that lend some flavour like Kate being the only person in the pub who's armed. Osgood and Benton get to replicate the old Doctor/Benton relationship of sciency explanation followed by polite bewilderment which is nice but I do hope that later in the set we get some reminder of the fact that as baffled as he often is Benton is a smart guy.

There were also a couple of references to the wilderness years novels including calling UNIT's observation of the hibernation bases “The Earth Reptile Initiative” (the “politically correct” name the Silurians were given in the New Adventures novels that was later changed to “Indigenous Terrans”) and Benton's past as a used car salesman.

It was a fun time but, much as I don't want to play favourites, next episode has Katy Manning on the cover and I am rather looking forward to that a little more. 

The unique philosophical perspective of the Tyranids

As much as I love the models there was always something that put me off Tyranids: the lack of personality. This extends further than them just not having names or even named characters in the traditional sense. Because Tyranids of whatever size or intelligence are birthed by the hive ships, perform the task they were made for and are then digested by those same hive ships its unlikely that (storyline-wise) your Hive Tyrant in one game represents the same Hive Tyrant in the next.

Essentially, they're the one army where you aren't playing the hero in your own story.

No matter how debased or evil or mad the leader of any other army might be they're still pursuing an agenda. Your Necron Lord wants to rebuild what he sees as the one true civilisation of the galaxy. Abaddon the Despoiler has a whole revenge drama going on even if his ultimate objective is to throw the galaxy into eternal damnation. The motivation might not be nice but it exists, there's a way that the character sees themselves as in the right, no one sees themselves as the villain of the piece, as the old writing maxim goes.

(Okay, maybe the Night Lords.)

In a way this very quality makes the Tyranids perfect for my purposes. I'll be playing a lot of club games with this army as it grows and trying to impose a storyline on that sort of environment is a nightmare. If I can just handwave fighting Tau, Space Marines, Eldar and so on and so on in rapid succession by saying its all different splinters of Hive Fleet Jormungandr all the better.

It'll also be interesting to see what sort of story my more regular opponents come up with surrounding my actions. My friend Tom (a dedicated Valhallan Guard player) and I have been trying to come up with a storyline for us to play through for some time and the classic horde vs. horde or Guard and 'Nids seems as good a story to tell as any.

And if I eventually find myself with a yen to write some personalised stories of the campaign I can always bring my Genestealer Cults into the mix. 

30 Discs Hath November #7: Time In Office disc two

Doctor Who (Main Range) #230

Time in Office episodes 3 & 4

written by Eddie Robson

History Repeating

And we start off with yet more agency and fun for Tegan. The basic set-up of this episode is that the Doctor is making a speech at Pyrdon Academy about some reforms he wants to make and a bored Tegan accepts an offer of a drink from another Time Lord, one who intends to steal a TARDIS in imitation of the Doctor and take (kidnap) her as his companion. As with the last episode it puts Tegan in a position of knowledge for a change, the experienced traveler to the naive young Time Lord who doesn't know what he's getting in to.

The Doctor, meanwhile, contends with the lightest plot of the set so far as he's confronted by a rather incompetent student revolutionary who, it turns out, has a list of grievances the Doctor was going to tackle in his speech anyway.

Its the least biting bit of satire Time In Office has to give, especially after the last episode was all about the sins of the past and colonialism, but by Doctor Who third episode standards its far from the depths of filler that have been served up in the past even from Big Finish.

There is also a part of me that loves the idea of Tegan going on a date with a Time Lord and maybe even starting off a casual thing with them. Maybe I'm hoping too much of this sudden turn towards agency for the character but I hope that some of what Robson has been writing for the character gets built on down the line.

Architect of Destruction

In all seriousness, Eddie Robson needs to write more Tegan stories, he has such a fantastic grasp of what makes her a great character. Her desire to take no crap from anyone, even a race of immortal time travelers millions of years more advanced than her, is the sort of trait that should have made her one of the most influential companions in the classic series. As it is she was written off as unsympathetic and we didn't get a companion with as much character or agency until Ace.

On a larger scale Eddie Robson has a wonderful twist on the conspiracy that anyone listening to this would have known was going to end the story even before the end of episode reveal in the previous episode. There are also some fantastic “visuals” described as the Doctor and company tour the new Capitol. I particularly liked the idea of statues whose faces change to represent all the incarnations of the famous Time Lords they depict.

Davison continues to enjoy the chance to get up to comedy antics and I hope Big Finish take this as an indication that they can do more with the character from here on out than light exasperation. I also hope it puts to bed forever the fan myth that, to misapply a quote from Jim Cornette, “funny don't make money”, a myth that has been with the series ever since fandom hailed the departure of Douglas freakin' Adams as the best thing to ever happen to the show.

No, seriously, that happened and whilst this story was nowhere near a Douglas Adams in quality it does show that BFP can afford to have a little more fun with the license. 

If Disney buys Fox...

… and to be clear, as I write this its only being reported by one source so pinch of salt but if they do buy Fox (or “the bulk of Fox's media assets” as the Newsarama article put it) then I look forward to what Marvel Studios does with the Fantastic Four.

The X-Men, not so much.

Put the pitchforks down and let me explain. Now, I'm not quite on board with the idea a lot of people seem to have that the X-franchise should have ended with Logan. It was a great movie (only the second or third the series has produced, shockingly) and I loved it but I also really want to see what the franchise can do now that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is off the table. There are so many characters, teams, storylines and ideas floating around in that property that have gone unexploited for so long. Hell, I'm even looking forward to that odd superhero/horror hybrid they're putting out under the New Mutants name.

I just don't think there's much mileage to putting the X-Men in the MCU. They've got the Inhumans for better or worse to be their standard issue excuse for why this person who doesn't rate an involved origin has powers. They've got the Avengers to act as their big tentpole team. I'm not sure what the X-Men or the mutant concept offers at this point.

So maybe it might benefit Disney to keep the X-Men as a seperate franchise. There's an audience pop to be had in adding Wolverine to the Avengers but I think that's about it.

Contrary to popular belief I think what the X-Men movies need isn't to be part of the all-powerful and critic-proof MCU but to just be under Disney management. Fox might be getting better at commissioning and making non-Wolverine films like Deadpool and The New Mutants but let me put it like this:

The X-Men movie franchise deserves special recognition for being a series whose timeline made no sense before time travel was introduced to the mix. Take Mystique, for example, who we now know to be Xavier's adopted sister and as much as she denies the role she obviously feels a great deal of affection for him and the school.

Then you go back and watch the first movie where she coldly and calculatingly tries to murder Xavier in his home. Character consistency would be nice. Being able to hold on to the core of a team for more than a film would be nice.

A version of Jubilee who bloody does something for a change (and there have been two film versions of the character now) would be nice. Okay, this grudge is purely generational because Jubilee was “my” generation's teenage POV character what with the cartoon and everything but, in all seriousness, could Fox just stop being Fox for a second and allow the POC character they spent as much time introducing as Nightcrawler and Cyclops in on the action?

Actually, now I mention that I notice the utter absence of Karma in the New Mutants trailer.

Fox are dicks, please buy them out, Marvel. 

30 Discs Hath November #6: Time In Office disc one

Doctor Who (Main Range) #230

Time in Office episodes 1 & 2

written by Eddie Robson

Its the annual Big Finish short story collection and this time its a comedy with the Fifth Doctor taking up the role of Lord President Of Gallifrey. Its a comedy, thank goodness, because I'm the sort of fan who finds Gallifrey painfully dull unless its either not the main focus of the story (The Three Doctors, Heaven Sent) or a vehicle for Romana and Leela to kick ass. Giving Davison, a brilliantly funny actor, a chance to stretch his comedy chops in this po-faced setting with Tegan and Leela on hand to puncture any remaining pomposity seems like as good an idea as any.

So, on to the episodes:

Period of Adjustment

The lack of Leela in The Five Doctors is something of a longstanding grudge. Apparently Louise Jameson made it known she was available for the filming but JNT decided there was no way to include her, which just goes to show either the man's lack of imagination or the weight of his inferiority complex about Philip Hinchcliffe. Finally, though the accounts are being balanced as Eddie Robson uses old friend and longtime Gallifrey resident Leela as the bridge between the Fifth Doctor and Gallifrey's bureaucracy.

For those concerned: Andred is away from the capital with the Chancellery Guard moping up the mess in the Death Zone, you can listen to this without fear of encountering the wettest man on Gallifrey. Let's face it, the romance of Leela's departure only works when you don't think too hard (or at all) about the fact she chose to stay with Andred and not the Outsiders or Rodan.

Anyway, the first episode is mostly what you'd expect: a couple members of the High Council trying to get a square peg Doctor into the round hole of the presidency and a secret Time Lord agency trying to stop him making any reforms whatsoever who he has to outsmart. More innovative and satirical is a subplot where Tegan is refused residency on Gallifrey because she's been involved in toppling alien governments, a plot point that considering the Doctor is President comes off as subtle as a brick. Sadly, Leela's suggestion that Tegan marry the Doctor to gain residency isn't pursued even though it clearly has so much more comedy potential than just the Doctor's muted horror at the idea.

There's also a rather nice framing device of a Gallifreyan political debate show, which is such a charming idea and never more so than when the host declares he has nothing against women because he used to be one a couple of regenerations ago.

Past Indiscretions

I adore Tegan Jovanka but even these days its rare for the character to get the sort of agency she deserves. She is brash, headstrong, stubborn, determined and almost always, always wrong. This episode, by contrast, has her do the heavy lifting on defusing a diplomatic situation whilst the Doctor, Leela and their babysitter/bodyguard Castellan Lowry are trapped in a very uncomfortable situation.

The Doctor and company are representing Gallifrey at a war memorial ceremony but it turns out that back in the day the Doctor and Leela killed the alien ambassador's brother when the guy was trying to conquer feudal Japan. Sadly, they couldn't stretch the budget to getting Tom Baker in for the flashbacks but its a fine story of consequences, again something we tend to give presidents and the like a pass on.

Aside from some fantastic comedy moments of running away (such as Leela speculating on weaponising a ride-on lawnmower) the best bit of this story of Tegan Jovanka 007. From impersonating a god to questioning the logic of her plausible deniability where it comes to “stealing” a TARDIS, Fielding is fantastic. There's also a wonderful moment where, having read the briefing pack, she gets to talk over the Doctor during the big infodump which sounds like a moment of profound catharsis for both actress and character.

Castellan Lowry, meanwhile, slowly reveals hidden depths as she vents her frustration about her charges and confesses to not liking time travel for some reason. I'm looking forward to seeing how that resolves but that'll have to wait for tomorrow as its almost time to post this and, given the story's format, I can do this in two parts. 

No Battleplan Survives Contact With My Father (Winter Warlords 2017)

Every year the local GW hosts Winter Warlords, a hobby challenge in which us regulars knuckle down to starting a new army whilst the evenings are cold and dark and our relatives need some indication of what we want for Christmas. This year I was going to work on my Black Legion because I have a decent starting force built and whilst they were fun to make and will be fun to play a simple black and gold colour scheme sounds a bit boring to paint.

Then my father happened. Its my birthday this week and my dear old dad bought me a Tyranid Start Collecting set. I've never played Tyranids before, never even painted one aside from a couple of Genestealer Cults models I bought when that army first hit.

It was still a toss up, though. I got home with my big box o' bugs but I still felt it would be the Black Legion for Winter Warlords because I wasn't sure how I wanted to paint the 'Nids. Organic colours are not my usual medium but then a friend commented on a GW Facebook post and thus this image appeared on my timeline:

I love it. It has fantastic contrast between the two main colours. Grey is a colour I know I can achieve an organic look on (as I already managed it with my Nurgle Daemons) and I think I can adapt the bone method from my Tomb Kings for the carapace. En masse I think these guys will look amazing.

First step: build the Warriors from my Start Collecting to test out the colour scheme. 

30 Discs Hath November #5: Helmstone

Doctor Who: Short Trips

Helmstone

written by Tony Jones

I love the Short Trips range. Okay, they vary hugely in quality and interest but they're the only range Big Finish does that is able to run the whole gamut of Doctor Who's history (hell, there's a pair of Meta-Crisis Doctor stories coming in the monthly range later this year) but also because the free ones like this are the only Big Finish thing that comes to me as a complete surprise. As a paid product I subscibe to, obviously, I know something about what I'm getting.

There's also the fact that, being free, these subscriber bonuses can do quieter things with their plots because you're not being asked to pay up front for a high concept.

This one's a First Doctor and Steven story aka prepare for horrible things to happen because Season Three. The TARDIS has appeared on and promptly been rendered inert on a generation ship called Not Home that's on its way to the planet New Home which actually does sound like something the 1960s writers would come up with. The Doctor and Steven are hanging out on the beach with a local woman called Cora as they wait for the TARDIS to recharge. Cora is the owner of a piece of jewelry called a helmstone. Cora and her helmstone are summoned to the big city for a ritual and the Doctor and Steven tag along.

It all goes about as you'd expect given the presence of the generation ship, the name helmstone and the fact that we're in Season Three Tragedy Town.

Its mainly a Steven story (again, very true to the era) but one in which the Doctor still gets to be right about everything. At this point in the series Steven was used to do a lot of the heavy lifting whilst William Hartnell spent a lot of time ill and written off to the side and it would be nice if now and again one of these stories portrayed Steven as being in the right. Okay, there's a moral quandary at the heart of his actions but the moment you know what the question is you know what answer the author is going to settle on.

Given how he was briefly co-leading man of the series I wish Steven had more chance to shine in the role. It made sense in the day whenever Hartnell was back on form to sweep in with the answer but there's more freedom here to have a Steven story be more about Steven and driven exclusively by his actions. 

The SJWs are ruining the Realm Of Chaos!

No but seriously, folks, I can see the subject lines of the forum threads already. Why? Well, because of this fine and handsome individual...

… the Darkoath Warqueen, a sequel to the Darkoath Champion from Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower (himself a damn fine model) and advertised right off the bat as his boss. No, seriously, that's how she's described in the Warhammer Community article announcing her.

So, yeah, female character model for Chaos. Only their second, I believe, after Valkia the Bloody from many moon ago. She is also something I have been hoping to see for a long time (well, her and her minion): Chaos Marauder characters. I love the idea of a pure Marauder army, have done since the Lustria campaign introduced the Skeggi army list. Since my little group has been experimenting with homebrewed Fantasy armies and units recently (who's gonna tell us not to?) I've been thinking of doing some Marauder/Skeggi conversions.

So the Darkoath Warqueen definitely going to be my General, backed up by her entourage from the Shield Wolf Miniatures Shield Maidens box set.

Whether I use any of GW's official Marauder plastics is entirely down to whether or not I can convert some of the Shielf Maidens to sit on horses. If I can, all well and good, an entire Shield Maiden army! If not, well some dudes can tag along to handle fast cavalry duties and hold flails.

On the downside, there was some business recently about how GW didn't want to do Sisters of Battle until they'd solved the “boob armour” problem and here we are with this lass in bikini armour. Fantasy trope classic, of course, but its still bikini armour so maybe there's less hope for the Nuns With Guns than I'd hoped.

30 Discs Hath November #4: The True Saviour of the Universe

Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield volume 4

Ruler of the Universe: The True Saviour of the Universe

written by James Goss

I feel there's something of an injustice with the Big Finish Masters. Obviously Beevers is delightful and I won't hear a word against MacQueen but Sam Kisgart's interpretation deserves more love than it gets, I feel. Of course, this is only the third time he's played the Master in nearly fifteen years but there's a lot to recommend it.

For one thing, Kisgart does a fantastic line in snobbery. His scene where he takes Benny out to tea and complains as she pours in the milk before the tea is pitched brilliantly. Later on he mistakes a Spider-Man quote (you know the one) for Machiavelli with just as straight a face (well, the tone of the straight face, you know what I mean). He spends a lot more of the story interacting with Benny than he does with the Doctor and, as it was in the last box set, there's some serious flirting going on between the two of them which is both disconcerting and entertaining.

Given the differences of the continuity, Kisgart's Master and the Doctor don't seem to have as much animosity between them as the relationship is usually played. It also helps that this time round Kisgart has the Missy version of the character to influence him, at one point dismissing a murder attempt as how he says hello.

That having been said, the story does revolve around the classic Master plot of there being a doomsday weapon and an ancient evil to be raised and all that. It plays out much as you'd expect given the Master's fantastically bad and yet incredibly consistent history with those sort of things. Kisgart also gets to do some fantastic scenery chewing during the climax after a whole story of calm, quiet and urbane seductiveness.

The whole plot of the collapsing universe continues with the Doctor unsure of whether he can make his own plan work, a sense of self-doubt only enhanced by impeachment proceedings and the influence of the Master. The Master's entry into the world of politics is explored with all the subtlety of a brick through a window right down to the obvious Kelly Ann Conway analogue doing spin for him on the news. If this is the final hurrah for the Kisgart Master its at least one that does interesting things with the character, things that probably can't be done with the “proper” Master without effectively ending the character.

And if its the end of David Warner's Doctor? Well, that's a lot less cut and dried as the ending leaves him open to return in future box sets or not depending on what Big Finish decide they want but I certainly wouldn't object to more stories where he gets to act as the Doctor on adventures rather than the Doctor trapped and confined by politics.

As a final note, the last scene gives me hope that some day soon WE'LL BLOODY FIND WHO PETER MARRIED!

NEXT EPISODE: Helmstone

30 Discs Hath November #3: Truant

Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield volume 4

Ruler of the Universe: Truant

written by Guy Adams

(Okay, there's no way around it, this one is ALL SPOILERS ALL THE TIME. The only way to address anything that's interesting about this story is to talk about the high concept revelation at the centre of it and the conclusion so be thee warned...)

I think this story pretty much had to be a comedy because if it were played totally straight it would just be horrible. That said, its an idea that I've always wanted to see some sort of take on and maybe some day someone will have a chance to do it seriously but it sure as hell isn't going to be as a one hour audio story in the middle of a quite comedic box set.

You see, the big revelation of the story is that the planet the Doctor thinks is being invaded was actually invaded decades ago by shapeshifters who long ago replaced the native population and their descendants are now living perfectly normal, peaceful lives with office jobs, families and the like.

This is the story about the aftermath of an almost one hundred percent successful genocide.

Its also a comedy. The whole format of the story is the Doctor skipping through the collapsing universe looking for an enemy to fight, an invasion to stop, a war to prevent, something fun to do instead of endless meetings and politics. He storms in on potential confrontations only to be disappointed by the fact that now everyone knows who he is no one wants to take the chance of trying to fight him. When he finally does find someone who wants to lock him up he even heckles them, wondering “Whatever happened to death threats as art?” and insisting they don't deserve his A game.

Could this subject be handled seriously? Absolutely, just not here where the writers are pressed for time and don't really have the chance to go into all the messy details of the situation.

The ending is at least satisfying with the Doctor failing to bring the situation to any real resolution and Benny offering what little redemption she can to the current inhabitants of the world. It would perhaps have worked a little better if the invasion were further in the past, instead the planet's governor says these are the crimes of their “parents and grandparents” so, logically, people who are still alive to punish.

I don't mean to sound down on this one, its a lot of fun. The comedy works right up to and including the darker ending and the theme of the Doctor trying to evade his responsibilities to do something meeaningful works. Benny is, as ever, a delight as she first chases the Doctor across the universe and then ends up dragged into his little joyride.

I just can't help but wonder at what the straight version of this story would be and hope we get to find out some day. 

Comic Reviews

This week Batman learns the consequences of interrupting his ex-fiancee's bisexual orgy; Astonishing X-Men continues to underwhelm; and, the Joker continues to break good.

Batman #34

The Rules of Engagement 2

Most of this issue is Batman and Catwoman fighting Talia's ninja soldiers and bickering like an old married couple. It is delightful. I'm not going to lie, I adore Bruce and Selina's relationship, have done since Hush had Bruce reveal his identity to Selina. I loathed the New 52 version where Selina didn't know who Bruce was and it was all based on meaningless sex. Now I'm back to adoring the relationship as Tom King exploits their long history in the way these things should be exploited: as a reason for them to know each other really, really well not as a list of continuity points to be rattled off.

Okay, King did exactly that a while back when the pair argued about how they first met which was pure fanwank about the different versions of DC continuity but you get what I mean.

Its also nice that it turns out they're hunting down Talia for more reason than Bruce having an uncomfortable conversation with his ex. Now, I'd have certainly enjoyed that story but the revealed reason (no spoilers) makes a lot more sense in the context of the rest of King's run. Also, its less self-indulgent which is probably a good thing.

Astonishing X-Men #5

Life of X 5

The rotating artist thing continues to underwhelm me but the plot is picking up. For a start its nice to see some sort of behavioural reference to the complicated relationship Xavier and Mystique had in the early-2000s. I loved the Mystique series, it was the second best thing the brief “Marvel Tsunami” line (yes, really) did which is high praise considering the best thing to come out of was Runaways.

Oh, and I'm never going to get used to the fact that the Shadow King's real name is Farouk.

I mean, damn.

Batman: White Knight #2

So how much is Joker lying? I think that's what this whole story is going to come down to. Here we get him speaking in his own defense, claiming that the crimes of the Joker have been exaggerated by a GCPD who need him to justify their budget and the prison-industrial complex they've set up with Arkham. He has his own plans for Gotham which are not strictly on the up-and-up.

Also, Sean Murphy does not like modern Harley and demonstrates this fact in absolutely scathing fashion. I was worried that having a “good” Joker in a relationship with Harley was going to be all sorts of problematic but Murphy seems to have given it a good, long think and come up with a way for it to work without being grossly offensive.

This was does, admittedly, mean jettisoning a lot of the history of the character and presuming that Joker was less awful to her in this continuity than all the others ones but there it is. Even then your mileage may vary but I rather like it. 

30 Discs Hath November #2: Asking For A Friend

Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield volume 4

Ruler of the Universe: Asking for a Friend

written by James Goss

I do like a good psychiatrist's couch story. One of my favourite Spider-Man stories ever is that Ultimate Spider-Man issue with Aunt May going to therapy. Genuinely, one of the best stories in that entire run. Anyway, this time its David Warner's Doctor (aka President of the Universe) on the couch.

This is also one of those box set stories that does the mini-episodes thing to give you an idea of the status quo before, presumably, blowing it all to hell. Its not quite as good as having the actual room to craft a status quo but its probably as good as the box set format is ever going to give us. BF no longer have the freedom (whether by choice or commercial reality) to spend season after season crafting a setting like the Braxiatel Collection so here we are with the Doctor's therapy sessions interspersed with mini-adventures as he holds passive-aggressive press conferences, gets drunk with Benny and foils robot invasions.

Now those ones, those are the fun ones, the ones that feel like the Doctor and Benny having adventures like the old days. There are other ones, of course, darker ones that get to the heart of what the last story began to hint at: the slow erosion of the Doctor's character under the pressures of ruling a dying universe. He's in a position where he has to deal with dictators diplomatically instead of just toppling them and letting others deal with the consequences. As the Doctor says himself he's never been one for consequences or sequels but that's all he has to think about as president.

Speaking of which, I liked (and this is MAJOR SPOILERS TERRITORY) that as the story goes along the therapist seems more and more sinister but that gets turned entirely on its head. In fact the therapist even has a chance to reinforce some actual (albeit brief) insight into how this should go if the Doctor were actually serious about the whole therapy thing: he can't cheat. He uses the TARDIS to go to his sessions out of order, to try to skip to the end and his therapist calls him on it.

Speaking of consequences, we get a small glimpse of whatever passed for the Time War in the Warner continuity, one that proves even more terminal to the Time Lords than the television one. Walking through the ruins of Gallifrey we get perhaps the best glimpse into this Doctor's psychology we've had to date as he yells to the heavens the one thing he's wanted to say to the Time Lords since “the Great War” broke out:

“I TOLD YOU SO!”

Its a bleak story, all told. There's hope in there and wins for the Doctor but at the end it the impression that he's lost his way, always a running theme of the Unbound stories, is stronger than its ever been. He seems less to mourn the Time Lords than resent their absence because of how it puts responsibility on him. He interferes in a woman's life without her consent as a “nice gesture” and utterly destroys her sense of self.

Ultimately the therapy storyline calls out a lot of problems with this Doctor (and the Doctor as a larger entity, Warner has never been a better stand-in for “Benny's” Doctor than he is here) and even some of the issues Benny has been wrestling with. Halfway through a box set isn't the time for answers and I hope some of this gets addressed as we hurtle towards The End.

Next Episode: Ruler of the Universe: Truant

The Big, um, #695: Captain America

Boy howdy does this issue have some serious work to do. Nick Spencer's run and the terrible fascism-flavoured crossover that it spawned left a terrible taste in a lot of people's mouths. Secret Empire was, according to some industry pundits, the second worst selling event in recent memory. It put a lot of people off the character, some of them off of Marvel entirely, and series that were launched as spin-offs debuted at below the sales level where series usually get cancelled.

The event didn't do what it was meant to do in financial terms, pissed off a lot of the hardcore fanbase that Marvel relies on for sales and word of mouth advertising (the only sort the comicbook industry can afford nowadays).

So now we have Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, both creators whose work I've adored in the past, coming along to try and save Steve Rogers from recent bad creative decisions by taking him on a soul searching road trip across the country whose best self-image he's meant to represent.

So how does it go?

The answer is “okay” with a side order of “oddly business as usual”. The story is absolutely a reaction to Secret Empire and Hydra!Cap but its also not that far afield from the sort of standard issue character primer sort of story you'd usually get at the beginning of a run like this. There's one mention of the events of Secret Empire that sets up the excuse for why people still trust Steve (Hydra!Cap was an impostor pretending to be Steve but we know better, don't we?) and that's your lot.

Except it isn't. The plot of this issue is that Cap is revisiting a town in Nebraska he visited shortly after being pulled from the ice. Back then he fought a small and pretty crap bunch of neo-fascists called Rampart and now he's returned because he's heard they're back and planning to do bad things at the site of their original humiliation and they're more organised and better equipped than they were when he last saw them.

Oh, its getting all political up in those comicbooks, isn't it?

My reaction is this: good. This is exactly the sort of story that should be written with Captain America in an era where fascism is getting horribly fashionable again. He beat them in the Second World War, he beat them when they were crap a decade ago and he'll beat them now. Nice message, I like it. Add to that some heartwarming scenes of people rushing to help others in the aftermath of the attack and we're back to this being a series about the best aspects of people, the aspirational side of the character and the ideals he's meant to represent.

Captain America punches Nazis so nice people can continue to be nice to each other. It might seem a bit basic but a) that's exactly the sort of soft reboot the series needed after banking up so damn much bad publicity in the last couple of years and b) a sentiment that surprisingly needs a lot of explanation in a world where Wolfenstein is considered a risky, politically charged and grossly insensitive computer game for having you kill Nazis.

Nazis. Fuck 'em. Glad to see Captain America's on my side in this again. 

30 Discs Hath November #1: The City and the Clock

Digital media is a horrible, horrible thing. Physical media takes up space, it sits accusingly on your desk in a pile demanding your attention. Digital media you pay for and it sits silent and invisible on your hard drive five folders deep and it gets even worse when you pre-order things because then by the time it reaches you you've basically forgotten the pain of paying for it and any sense of real urgency goes right out the window.

So as I knuckle down to some intense hobbying in this the most dreary and dull of months I've decided to address the backlog somewhat. Be aware, this is me so these aren't reviews, they're just me jotting down anything interesting that occurs during the listening.

Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield volume 4

Ruler of the Universe: The City and the Clock

written by Guy Adams

First of all let me get the moan out of the way: I miss the days when Bernice Summerfield was her own act without having to have a Doctor or a Doctor Who logo on the front cover to sell her adventures. That being said, if we must live with this compromise then David Warner's “Unbound” Doctor is definitely the best option. For one thing he's incredibly fun, especially here as he tackles paperwork and moans about in-flight entertainment and how he hates forms of transport that obey the laws of physics. There's also the fact that, from the fan point of view, he's not as important a character as Benny who has decades more history and dozens more stories behind her. For once, the Doctor is a not only sidekick to a more established character but in a way that works.

As to plot, we return to the setting of the last New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box: an alternate universe that is dying and the Doctor has been elected President of the (remaining) Universe in order to fix it. He's dealing with the day-to-day, soul-grinding bureaucracy and he's sent Benny to an archaeological dig to investigate an artifact called the Apocalypse Clock that might be able to save them all if it exists.

Its nice to see Benny in her element again, digging things up and having trouble with the locals and the hidden truth behind the myths.

Both characters are clearly at the end of their rope. Benny misses her son and her friends and her universe perhaps more than she fears the destruction of the universe she's in. The Doctor, a character not built for the day-to-day, sounds gleeful when he thinks he's been summoned to the dig to deal with a mysterious death or doomsday weapon only to find out everything's going according to plan.

One day we'll find out who Peter married, I hope.

What else? The subplot with the locals who object to the dig is both a bit bare and a bit horribly stereotypical. It could have stood to come off a bit more sympathetically in light of recent events such as the DAPL pipeline. Instead we get a rather spare tribe in (to quote the Doctor) loincloths and carrying spears as they dance and chant in toothless protest at the edge of the dig. A lot of time is spent talking about the past of this world, describing the ruins of the city Benny has uncovered and some local legends, but the tribe are described as “traditionalists” with one more progressive local character acting as Benny's guide and no real exploration of the difference between the two. There's limited time on a single disc story, I know, but its a pity the idea goes largely unaddressed.

The meta-plot of the box set seems to be settling on a theme of how far from the standard template of the Doctor (i.e. Benny's Doctor) Warner has deviated and whether he really is the Doctor anymore. Its not even just a question Benny is asking but something that seems to be bothering the Doctor himself.

Next Episode: Ruler of the Universe: Asking For A Friend

A Tale of 1 Warden: Let's try this again...

Hand, healed. Housing situation, no longer stressful. Yellow method, still in process of perfecting but looking at least consistent. I am ejected from the... no no no, focus, do not meme.

So, anyway, I can paint again and so its back on the horse with the Bretonnians (I hate myself for that joke, don't even bother). I have little to show for all the time off but everything now has simple base layers on them, I already have those eight completed Peasant Archers to use as evidence to myself that these guys will look good once the time-consuming painting is actually done. Also, my other project of the moment is my Black Legion who were very fun to build but who will be very simple, very quick and slightly boring to paint.

So, A Tale Of One Warden Month One, Take Two: let's get that Battalion painted!

Completed as of 1^st November

8x Peasant Archers.

In Progress

8x Knights of the Realm

8x Peasant Archers

1x Pegasus Knight Champion

20x Men-At-Arms