Lost Hits of the New Wave #34

"Lullaby" by The Cure

I was a latecomer to The Cure, but once I discovered them proper, I loved them. I was aware of "Let's Go to Bed" when it came out, but The Cure really passed under my radar until their greatest hits album, Standing on the Beach. Then I was a hardcore fan, I wasn't a goth, I didn't wear any make-up, but I loved me some Cure, and even saw them in concert a few times.

"Lullaby" is one of their creepier tunes, with an even creepier music video directed by Tim Pope. The song was apparently the first single from 1989's Disintegration, even though most folks remember "Fascination Street" being first in the States, but "Lullaby" actually did quite well in the UK.



I first heard the song when WXPN debuted the album for the first time on a particular night. I was out with friends that night, and I made them stop what they were doing and get me to a radio so I could hear the premiere. Yeah, I did mention I was hardcore, didn't I? The song is one of quiet menace, not about Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man by the way, but more about Robert Smith's past with drugs.

Arrow S03 E04: "The Magician"

"My father may be The Demon, but yours is The Devil."

Comics fans know what to expect when they see the title of this episode. John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn was the big bad for the first season of "Arrow," but he was based on a character from the comics - Arthur King. King was an assassin whose weapons of preference were bows and arrows and he went by the name Merlyn the Magician while a member of the League of Assassins. He also served as both inspiration and archenemy for Green Arrow.

In "Arrow," Merlyn is actually the character's last name, and The Magician is a name he took on as part of the League of Assassins. Deep in the soap opera roots of the show, he is also the birth-father of Oliver's sister Thea, from an affair with their mother years before. Last episode, Thea returned to Starling City from Corto Maltese where Malcolm had been training her as... his sidekick? A junior super-villain? Or like in the comics, the second Speedy?

In our cliffhanger last time, Nyssa, the daughter of R'as Al Ghul, invaded the Arrowcave demanding to know where Sara was. Uh oh. Disappointingly, the encounter is talked out despite weapons drawn. What boggled my mind is when she left, Oliver told Roy to follow her while he went to see Thea. Wait, what? Number one, when did Oliver start trusting Roy that much, and number two, Nyssa is the daughter of the demon! This is just asking for trouble.

After Nyssa and leatherjacketed Laurel have a harsh meeting at Sara's grave, Oliver and the daughter of the demon forge an uneasy alliance to find Sara's killer. The number one suspect is enemy of the League, Malcolm Merlin. League sources had determined that he had faked his death and was still alive - but we knew that.

The don't-tell-Dad thing with Laurel being involved with Team Arrow is beginning to get tedious. Almost as tedious as the don't-tell-Iris nonsense going on at "The Flash." Speaking of which, there's another bit of continuity in that Felicity is in Central City this week. One thing I have noted about Barry over on "The Flash" is that he is a good soul, trustworthy, loyal, a real hero. That contrast may be hurting "Arrow," because everyone on this show, good or evil, is a liar.

Oliver lies. Malcolm lies. Thea lies. Laurel lies. It's to a point where when the only person whose word you can trust is the daughter of R'as Al Ghul, we are all in trouble. Oliver may think he's taking the high ground by not killing, but he's still a liar. I was so troubled by all of the deception on this show that I really didn't care all that much when Thea was kidnapped by Nyssa.

And that is the point at which Nyssa says the words I began this review with. Arrow's rescue of Thea brings him into conflict with Nyssa and them both with Malcolm. The three way fight is intriguing for a moment until you realize you can't really tell one hooded archer from another in the dimly lit arena. In the end, Malcolm lives, and Oliver swears as long as he's in Starling, Merlyn is under his protection... earning the enmity of the League of Assassins. And we get our first look at the television version of The Demon.

Flashback Hong Kong ties up some loose ends from season one, but does little else. There's also the matter of the Arrowcave. Thea wants to reopen Verdant, and buy it from Queen Consolidated. What happens to the Arrowcave when Thea finds it in the basement of her club? Or does she already know?

Next: The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak!

Arrow S03 E03: "Corto Maltese"

Corto Maltese was originally the name of a late sixties European comics series by Italian creator Hugo Pratt about a sailor adventurer named Corto Maltese. Writer/artist Frank Miller liked it so much he used the name for an embattled South American island nation in his classic The Dark Knight Returns. Later in homage to that, it appears in the photography of Vicki Vale in 1989's Batman film. It was later brought into the DC Universe proper and was even mentioned on TV's "Smallville."

In the Arrowverse, Corto Maltese was first brought up waaay back in the first season episode "Lone Gunmen" as a place Deadshot was operating. Here, it is where Malcolm Merlyn has brought Thea Queen for training. Oliver is obsessed with finding her and is off to Corto Maltese, with Roy and Diggle in tow. Diggle has a second mission while he's down there however, checking on an operative named Mark Shaw who had gone dark.

Yes, the DCU is alive and well in this episode of "Arrow." Mark Shaw is just one of the people who has gone under the name Manhunter. Another would be Kate Spencer, who, still alive and active as Manhunter in the comics, died at the hands of one of Deathstroke's soldiers in last season's "Streets of Fire." Here Mark Shaw is not quite as heroic as in the comics, and ambushes Diggle. Anyone who knows Shaw's earlier Star Tsar and Privateer background, this shouldn't be a surprise.

While Diggle and Oliver are off playing spy with Mark Shaw, Roy does what they actually came to Corto Maltese for, he talks to Thea. He seems to get through to a little, but then Oliver tries his brand of pseudo-truth, which of course he tells her everything but. Just when you think Oliver has changed, has learned something... it becomes apparent he's the same guy he was years ago.

We also meet a very young Ted Grant, better known in the comics as Wildcat, Golden Age superhero and Justice Society member. Notably he taught many heroes to fight including Batman, Catwoman, and yeah, the Black Canary. Laurel comes to his boxing gym looking for a Tom Bronson, who in the comics is his son, his namesake, and a were-panther... but I don't think we're going there... Where we are going should be obvious however, Laurel will at last become the Black Canary.

Thea's training seems awful Batman-ish, but what can you do. John Barrowman is the perfect melding of father, mentor, and sociopath as Malcolm Merlyn, it is hard to dislike him. I want him to be Captain Jack, but I'm relishing him as Malcolm. In a nod to the comics, and the second Speedy, Thea is called Mia. Finally. I like it.

Shaw is making a deal with the ARGUS intel he stole with a man named Armitage. Sharp viewers will remember that Armitage supplied Malcolm Merlyn with the Markov device back in "Tremors." I love that Oliver was able to fashion bows and arrows from stuff in their hotel room. I wonder how much they'll be charging his credit card?

In the end, we get no real resolution to the Mark Shaw storyline. Does he go free? Go to jail? Extradited to ARGUS? If the answer was there, I missed it. Thea comes home with the boys, but Malcolm says he'll see her soon. Felicity takes some time off to go over to "The Flash" this past week, and Ray Palmer discovers Queen Consolidated was making high tech weapons. Laurel begins her training with Ted Grant after Oliver refuses to help her. And Nyssa drops by the Arrowcave looking for Sara.

Other DC Comics references include the executive assistant Ray Palmer assigns to Felicity, Jerry Conway. Gerry Conway was the creator of Firestorm, a character and comic that both "Arrow" and "The Flash" reference constantly, and also longtime writer of Justice League of America, a comic that regularly featured Green Arrow, Black Canary, and the Atom. There's also Coast City, home city of Green Lantern and Ferris Aircraft.

Next: The Magician!

Origins of Dillon

Folks who read my stuff know that I'm not fond of origin stories. Oh, I like to know the origin of my heroes but I would rather not be beaten over the head with them. I dislike reboots for this reason, inevitably we're going to have to go through the origin all over again for the umpteenth time.

Remember the superheroes of the movie serials? You would get one line about where the hero came from, and then it was off into the action and the meat of the story. That's all you really need. Remember the origin of Batman in the 1966 TV series? It was there, done just like that, in one line of dialogue. Heck, they did it with the man of steel in under thirty seconds in the opening of every episode of "The Adventures of Superman."

Similarly I feel the same way about the training of heroes. I was soured on "Smallville" fairly early and it's pretty much how I feel about Fox's "Gotham" for this same reason. I don't want to see the hero learning to be the hero, I want to see the hero be the hero. This is why I approached two recent books featuring one of my favorite pulp heroes, Derrick Ferguson's Dillon, with great trepidation.

Derrick has purposely been vague about the origins of his hero Dillon, telling us just what we needed to know about his mysterious beginnings, and leaving the details in the shadows. I expected to be bored quite honestly learning the finer details of his origin. I was wrong. In Young Dillon in the Halls of Shamballah, a novel meant specifically for a young adult audience (but I notably enjoyed it as much as I have all the 'adult' Dillon novels), we meet the hero as a child, and are walked through the details of what we had been told vaguely, and I dug it.

Derrick knows the secret. He wasn't telling us the origin of Dillon even though it's in there, or at least parts of it are - he was telling us a story. This is key for beginning writers. I run into so many folks, especially in the NaNoWriMo, that have a great idea, a cool concept, some intriguing characters - but what they don't have is a story. DF pulls me happily through an origin story I didn't want with a compelling story I did want. Thumbs up.

The second part of Dillon's origin did more than give me a compelling story, it introduced me to classic pulp character I was heretofore unaware of, and a writer whose work I'm now a fan of. The Vril Agenda, written by Derrick Ferguson and Joshua Reynolds, stars a slightly older Dillon in search of training as a hero, and the adventurer known as the Super-Detective, Jim Anthony.

This novel was everything I could have wanted, and never could have imagined I wanted in a pseudo-origin story/pulp adventure. The only thing I could have wanted more of would be, well, more. The Vril Agenda has a story told in two timelines, ancient secret societies, secret empires, mad villains, brave heroes, Nazis, and pulp, so much pulp. I loved this book, and I highly recommend it, along with Young Dillon. If you crave adventure, origin or not, new pulp is calling you.

Doctor Who S08 E10: In the Forest of the Night

"The forest is in all those stories that kept you awake at night. The forest is mankind's nightmare."

As we open this episode The Doctor allows a little girl, Maebh Arden, to wander into the TARDIS. At first I thought, oh no, not another little girl, and then when I saw the terrific chemistry Peter Capaldi had with her... my mind began to wander. Forget Clara, perhaps this is the kind of companion this Doctor needs - either a child or someone with a child's mind? These two worked well together, so much better than Clara and The Doctor, I thought. I'd watch this team.

Apparently the Earth has been covered in vegetation overnight. The TARDIS is in the middle of London, along with Clara, Danny Pink, their class of 'special' kids, and The Doctor - and yet they are all engulfed in a thick forest. When all the kids are in the TARDIS of course, it becomes apparent that one kid equals good, more than one equals "Get off my lawn!"

Later on, it gets a bit silly with a psychic Little Red Riding Hood, wolves, a solar flare, trees saving the planet, and Danny Pink mesmerizing a tiger, but it's still a fairly good episode, better than some this season. Again, Clara is the whiny voice of conscience and clarity, and with this Doctor, that may be the last thing he needs. Boo hiss, let Maebh be a companion.

Peter Capaldi is at his manic and mean best here. Even if the stories are failing "Doctor Who," Capaldi is not. After this one and "Flatline," I am finally liking Peter Capaldi. It may have taken nine or ten episodes, but he's finally grown into The Doctor.

Next: The Finale Begins!



Don't forget to follow my weekly reviews of "Doctor Who" at Biff Bam Pop!, and check out David S. Ward's thoughts on this episode here. Special thanks to David for covering for me while I was on vacation!