Who’s late?
There won’t be a new Doctor Who episode a week from this Saturday, also known as May 12th here on Earth. The hit show is leaving this time–space continuum to make room for the Eurovision Song Contest and if they didn’t bump it the BBC would have to move the Doctor’s starting time up and the earlier the starting time the lower the ratings so screw it, they’re taking the week off.
Of course, the BBC is ad-free, so why sweat the ratings? Whatever. We’ll live. Angry, but breathing through it.
At least Doctor Who‘s not being bounced for Dancing With The McCartneys.
action… Action … ACTION!!! OK, I was wrong. I can admit it. When I first started reading this episode, it looked like a cliché. I've seen Spider-Man and Batman and Daredevil all land on the roof of a speeding get away car. The reaction from inside was nearly the same. "Did we hit sumpthin?" Then the bullets start flying, and the hero picks off the gangsters one by one from out of the car. The next two pages roll out in a standard way. This is a play we've seen before, we know how it ends. The third act has the car flipping onto it's side and skidding to a stop while our hero leaps to safety by grabbing onto something like an overhanging street lamp.But, wait! Hold on… Here is an oddly funny panel with the repeated sound effect, "FWAK* FWAK* FWAK*"! Why is that funny? Then at the top of page 103, we see a new superhero skill, Lone Justice's effortless mimicking of Roscoe! Roscoe's goofy crossed eyes clearly show he's knocked out. And suddenly what was a cliché has been given an effortless new twist! We get dark comedy mixed with the excitement of Lone Justice being escorted right into the Lion's Den, the Gangster's Hideout. And all my expectations about where the plot and action were going are turned around as well. My interest is piqued, because this is a novel spin on an old superhero warhorse.The art is firing on all cylinders. Each gangster is unique and has an established personality in just a panel or two. The action is all ACTIONY! And the plot twist in this was, at least for me, truly a delightful surprise. Bravo!
It is strange – I love the old pulps. But I am also very easily bored. So when I tell these stories I can never stick to the cliché for very long. Years ago when I was writing THE BLACK HOOD, someone at DC Comics (I don't think it was Mike Gold – even though he was the editor on the book) told me that I should be telling stories about THE BLACK HOOD that had him up on the rooftops of the city, fighting crime. And I thought, just how much crime goes on up on the rooftops of the city? Not much, is my guess. But I did work the idea into the series and made a joke out of it. Kind of like this.As usual, thanks for the insightful comments, Russ!