The Archaeologist

Is Captain UK Irish?

Deep in the 80s, this possibility never occurred to me. The foreshadows of the Captain Britain Corps who turned up in the Alan Moore Captain Britain run – Linda McQuillan herself, Captain England, Captain Albion – suggest that the sheer multitude of Captains just riff on the CB identity with minimal fuss. We’re just meantContinue reading “Is Captain UK Irish?”

Press Gang Rewatch: The Last Word

A tic in pop criticism that I find aggravating is when a writer says that Show X or Book Y “deals with the topic of …” This promises that Show X or Book Y proceeds somehow from an analysis of the topic; that the topic is not just a Thing in the Story. But theContinue reading “Press Gang Rewatch: The Last Word”

Press Gang Rewatch: Monday Tuesday

Let’s start thinking about Press Gang – still, for my money, Steven Moffat’s most sustained, serious work – by looking at two instances of jokes that are not jokes. These are instances of dialogue that have the rhythm of a joke, but are not the emotional content of a joke. To be more precise –Continue reading “Press Gang Rewatch: Monday Tuesday”

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

We were talking before about one of The Shat’s typically strange choices in this flim, but I’d like to think about TMP a bit more generally now. What a weird film TMP is! Even in 1979, who used the phrase “motion picture” anymore? – The grandeur! Sometimes I wonder if this is even Star Trek,Continue reading “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”

Did Captain Britain vote for Brexit?

Well? Did he? We’ve all been wondering since 2016, haven’t we? Let’s review the evidence. This guy – I’m not sure this guy even votes. Voting is beneath him. Voting is for the small folk, buffeted by the vagaries of destiny, sustained democracy’s necessary illusions, the pretence that just occasionally, just for the blink ofContinue reading “Did Captain Britain vote for Brexit?”

Frank Miller Writes Daredevil

Two panels drawn by the incomparable Mazzucchelli this time. But it’s Miller I want to talk about here. Sometimes I wonder if the reason Miller has become so hard to talk about is because he started to believe that the noir tropes he loves so much are actually real life. Noir undoubtedly made Miller theContinue reading “Frank Miller Writes Daredevil”

Mazzucchelli draws Batman

A few short notes on the brilliance of David Mazzucchelli, based on the extraordinary kinetic energy of this panel. A single panel arrests, freezes, a single moment, or perhaps two or three – depending on how many speech bubbles there are. No speech here – although we might take Batman’s narration to spread the actionContinue reading “Mazzucchelli draws Batman”

Rereading Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme: 4. Shoot them with the bop gun

When Nighthawk says he is going to legalise guns again, what kind of guns is he talking about? We know that the police are now packing pacifier pistols (I alliterate to channel the spirit of Smilin’ Stan), which incapacitate by flooding the target with positive vibes. Now, when you think that Watchmen and Dark KnightContinue reading “Rereading Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme: 4. Shoot them with the bop gun”

Star Trek and Family

The idea of a starship crew being a kind of family seems absolutely essential to Star Trek, locked in – you can’t think about Star Trek without it. In Voyager, Janeway makes it explicit – on more than one occasion, she tells us that “this family” is not going to be broken up by whateverContinue reading “Star Trek and Family”

Rereading Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme: 3. S/S

Maybe – or maybe it’s just me – looking at the loading of all these layers across a couple of pages has put you in mind of Barthes’ S/Z. It has, hasn’t it! Go on, you can admit it! Barthes, in S/Z, devises a series of codes that underpin the interpretation – the act ofContinue reading “Rereading Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme: 3. S/S”