Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 – Top 5 Episodes

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. saw some huge shifts in the series, not just in quality, but in plot elements that would fundamentally change the show for the rest of its life. Here we attempt to pick out the five best episodes of the season, episodes that weren’t just well made, but that stood out as game changers.

5. Episode 15 – ‘One Door Closes’

After the reveal earlier in the season that Mack (Henry Simmons) and Bobbi (Adrianne Palicki) were secretly working for another branch of S.H.I.E.L.D., one that’s working against Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his people, ‘One Door Coses’ not only fills in a lot of this backstory but pits the two teams against each other.

The flashbacks to the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier are great and really show that these aren’t a group of villains, but people that are just as dedicated to what S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for as the heroes. The inclusion of Isabelle Hartley (Lucy Lawless) is a nice nod to the beginning of the season, but also means that Battlestar Galactica fans have the added pleasure of seeing her on screen with Edward James Olmos once again.

The episode is filled with intrigue and action; it moves the plot forward in an exciting way and fleshes out the backstory of not just some of this season’s new characters, but the Universe as a whole. The fact that the ‘heroes’ essentially lose by the end of it just makes it even more exciting.

4. Episode 17 – ‘Melinda’

This episode might not have had too many huge action set pieces, but managed to pack in a lot of character moments and shed some light onto one of the more mysterious members of the main cast.

In Afterlife, Skye (Chloe Bennet) learns that Jiaying (Dichen Lachman) is her mother. Whilst this had already been revealed to the audience, it was something of a surprise that this was shared with Skye so quickly. It’s normally the kind of thing a series would drag out for a number of episodes, keeping the main character in the dark. The fact that it was so quickly revealed to Skye highlights that the show runners may have listened to some of the criticisms about slow pacing during the first season.

However, the best part of the episode is the focus on Melinda May’s (Ming-Na Wen). Specifically, how she came to earn the nickname ‘the cavalry’. Despite some misleads in earlier episodes, we were told that she rescued an entire S.H.I.E.L.D. team on her own, but the details were more than a little vague. Here we discover that she not only came up against an InHuman with mind control abilities, but had to kill them to eliminate the threat. The biggest problem, however, is that the InHuman was just a child.

The revelation that May had to kill a child is devastating, particularly as we get to see how fun and full of life she was before it happened. It makes the change in May all the more sad and adds a whole lot of depth to one of the characters we knew the least about.

3. Episode 21 and 22 – ‘S.O.S.’

The two part finale (I know it’s two episodes so this is a bit of a cheat) manages to not only meet the expectations built up over the course of the season, but beats the previous season’s finale.

‘S.O.S.’ sees a lot of changes going forward, not least of all due to several characters being killed off or leaving the series through other capacities. After all of her changes and the ups and downs of her journey it’s genuinely sad to see Raina (Ruth Negga) die, though the fact that she did it knowing that she was going to her death but that it would help Skye see the truth about her mother was something of a noble end for her.

Jiaying and Cal (Kyle MacLachlan) each get a fitting end, with Jiaying dying at the hands of her husband in order to save their daughter, and Cal being given a new life as a reward. The reveal that Jiaying was the true monster, simply manipulating Cal, was a stroke of genius and meant that the ends for both characters feels incredibly satisfying and well earned.

Outside of the character moments the episode packs in the action with Coulson and his team fighting their way through the InHuman forces across the aircraft carrier. Not only do we get some great, great fight sequences, but some pretty cool super-powered battles too. Plus, Mack’s comments to Gordon (Jamie Harris) still remain some of my all time favourites:

Mack: It’s Gordon, right?
Gordon: And you are?
Mack: I’m the guy that kills Gordon.

Ward (Bret Dalton) also manages to get some good development. His path for revenge is clearly laid out for season three. The brutal torture of Bobbi, as well as the tragic death of Agent 33 (Maya Stojan), puts to rest any possibility of a redemption for the character.

The introduction of the Secret Warriors programme at the end of the episode and Coulson losing his arm certainly sets some interesting elements up for the coming third season.

2. Episode 19 – ‘The Dirty Half Dozen’

After almost two seasons we say goodbye to the Bus. Thankfully, the team’s original base of operations goes down in a blaze of glory as the original team come together once again, including Ward, as they assault a Hydra facility.

The first time that we’ve seen the whole of the original team together since the first season, this episode goes a long way towards showing how much these characters have changed over a relatively short period. The fact that it’s Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) who set out to kill Ward during the assault was a surprising, if not unpleasant, turn of events.

The highlight, however, is getting to see Skye in all of her secret agent glory in one of the best action sequences the series has given the audience to date. Filmed in one continuous shot, Skye dodges and weaves her way through the room, taking down Hydra agents in hand to hand combat, using guns and even utilising her powers. It’s hugely impressive and shows that Skye has gone from a hacker that couldn’t throw a punch to an agent that could fight alongside some of the best in the MCU.

There might not be a huge amount that happens in this episode, but the first season team coming back together, and some great action makes this an absolute standout.

1. Episode 10 ‘What They Become’

There are a number of big, game changing episodes across the seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the first being the reveal that Hydra has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and the destruction of the agency, but the most surprising comes in ‘What They Become’.

Bringing to a close the mystery of the hidden alien city, the episode officially introduces the InHumans to the universe when Skye, revealed to actually be the comic book character Daisy Johnson, is transformed and given superpowers. The scene is hugely dramatic, not least because it sees the shocking death of Agent Triplet (B.J. Britt). Whilst we didn’t know Trip for long the death feels so pointless and throwaway that it makes it all the more tragic.

The episode showcases a lot of Skye’s father Cal too, having MacLachlan go through a huge range of emotions, including dorky father and ruthless killer. The scenes with him and Coulson are great, and showcase how good both actors are, especially when their characters both have Skye’s best interests at heart.

Whilst the episode concluded many of the story elements introduced in the early parts of the season, answering the mystery of the city, as well as killing Daniel Whitehall (Reed Diamond), the introduction of super powered people and Ward still out in the world meant that this felt like the start of something bigger rather than the end of certain chapters.


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Batman: The Court of Owls – Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Of the three recent Batman novels published by Titan, one is based upon a comic, one is a retelling of an animated series episode, and one is completely new and original. Batman: The Court of Owls is the latter, telling its own story that draws upon the events of Scott Snyder’s first story on Batman following the New 52 revamp.

One of the advantages that writer Greg Cox has here is that he’s able to draw upon the source material without having to feel shackled to it the way the writers of the other Batman novels are. For example, in Harley Quinn: Mad Love Pat Cadigan has a destination set out for her, having to build up to the events of the animated series; yet this is something that Cox can sidestep. He doesn’t have to incorporate the work of another writer, or shape his story to fit.

The result of this is a book that works in complete isolation as its own entry into the Batman mythos. Yes, it draws upon the events of the Snyder comics, acting in some way as a sequel to those events, but you don’t need to have read the comic to understand anything that happens.

Batman: The Court of Owls gives readers a mystery story, one that relies more on Batman in the role of the ‘World’s Greatest Detective’ than martial artist vigilante. When an art professor at Gotham University is killed Batman discovers that the mysterious Court of Owls, a group of wealthy and powerful people that have controlled the city from behind the scenes for generations, is behind the brutal slaying. Investigating into why an elderly scholar would become the target of deadly assassins Batman discovers an even bigger mystery, one that involves a missing young woman and her research into an artist and his muse from the turn of the last century.

To say much about this central mystery would be unfair, as it’s a very well written story that deserved to go unspoiled, but it’s not what you expect. There were several moments throughout the book where you may imagine where the story is headed, but each time expectations are subverted. Unlike some mystery stories, which throw in twists that don’t quite work in order to surprise the reader, Batman: The Court of Owls is surprisingly consistent, with unexpected turns that work logically within the universe and don’t draw you out of the narrative.

Whilst the story centres on the mystery of the missing student, and explores the history of both Gotham and the Court of Owls, it also contains a lot of action. Utilising the deadly and highly trained Talons, the Court is able to dispatch foes that test Batman to his limit. In the comics these assassins were augmented by chemicals that meant their wounds healed almost instantly, and even allowed the Court to revive Talons from centuries past to fight for them once again. The Talon within this book is close to unstoppable thanks to these advances, which means that Batman has to fight harder, and dirtier, that we’re used to seeing.

With a central mystery that explores the history of Gotham, an adversary that pushes Batman and his allies to the limits, and a story that moves at a brisk pace and packs in dynamic action Batman: The Court of Owls is a faithful follow-up to the comics that still stands on its own as a fantastic adventure.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×07 – ‘The Writing On The Wall’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

The mystery of the strange symbols being carved by both Agent Coulson (Clark Greg) and John Garrett (Bill Paxton) after being exposed to the alien derived chemical GH-325 final comes to a conclusion, and it’s a lot more surprising that first speculated. When a man covered in tattoos of these strange symbols goes on a killing spree, carving the same symbols into his victims the S.H.I.E.L.D. team discovers that Coulson and Garrett weren’t the only people to be exposed to the chemical, but several other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had too.

Using the Hydra memory machine Coulson is able to retrieve some of his hidden memories as the director of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. It appears that a number of other agents that were killed in action were revived using GH-325, but after a short time began to express disturbing behaviour, including obsessively drawing the symbols. These agents eventually had their memories erased and were given new identities and civilian lives.

Now this is the kind of plot that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does really well. A hunt for a serial killer with links to shady government dealings, that sheds light not only on one of the central mysteries of the season but the past of S.H.I.E.L.D., this is definitely the kind of thing that we could use more of.

We knew that Coulson was the director of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project, but getting to see more of what he did during this time, and the development of the technology is interesting. It also sheds more light onto the flashbacks we’ve already seen of Coulson going through the process after his death in Avengers Assemble, he wasn’t just asking to be killed because he was in pain, but because he knew that the process was going to cause serious psychological damage to him.

The revelation that the killer, Derick (Brian Van Holt), was once a dedicated agent who fell victim to this process also makes him somewhat sympathetic, and not just some deranged killer needing to be stopped. The final confrontation between him and Coulson is certainly makes for one of the more interesting and three-dimensional villains of the week.

Despite the fact that the episode doesn’t tell us exactly why those who have been exposed to GH-325 draw these symbols we get a surprisingly interesting reveal that it’s not something as expected as a language that needs translating, but a three-dimensional blueprint to a city. Not what viewers were expecting, and if you say you saw that coming you’re definitely making it up. Now that Coulson has been cured of his compulsion to draw these symbols the team gets to focus on something infinitely more exciting, racing Hydra to a hidden alien city. Definitely a step up on season one.

The episode also manages to squeeze in some more developments to the Ward (Bret Dalton) story, and actually makes it fun and engaging again after the previous episode almost bored me with it. Finally free and on the run some of the team are sent after Ward to try and recapture him, leading to a pretty cool sequence in a bus depot where Ward slyly reveals to Triplett (B.J. Britt) that he knows he’s being followed by flashing the C4 strapped to his chest.

With most other villains this would definitely be seen as something of a bluff, but after seeing how being incarcerated almost drove Ward to killing himself earlier in the season it’s definitely believable that he’d rather kill himself than go back, and it makes him a much more dangerous adversary. By the end of the episode Ward has managed to worm his way back into Hydra, betrays Sunil Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) to S.H.I.E.L.D., and is even preparing to get revenge on his brother.

Despite only being in a small portion of the episode it shows just how competent a villain he can be, and makes him more interesting than he’s been since his reveal as a Hydra agent back in season one. If Ward continues to be used this way for the rest of the season he’s sure to become one of the more interesting members of the cast.


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Marvel Action: Avengers #2 – Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Marvel Action: Avengers continues to tell the story of the brainwashed Tony Stark in it’s second issue, which begins to shed more light onto what the evil AIM (Advanced Ideas Mechanics) are up to.

With Iron Man missing his memories thanks to the evil organisation he’d been led to believe that he’s one of their agents, operating the stolen Iron Man suit. It’s interesting that Matthew Manning has decided to go with this idea, instead of the standard Avenger being turned evil plot that is often used in the comics.

Rather than simply being the hero turned bad it put both Stark and the rest of the team in an interesting position. The Avengers think that Tony has been kidnapped and that an AIM agent is operating his stolen suit, and Tony thinks the same, but that he’s the agent. Instead of a simple fight the bad version of the hero and snap him out of his brainwashing scenario the heroes don’t even know that they need to break the brainwashing because they don’t know it’s him. It’s a great twist on a fairly common trope.

We do get to see, however, that this brainwashing isn’t perfect, with Tony having flashes of his adventures as Iron Man coming and going. Whilst the AIM scientists try to make him think that this is just a byproduct of using the armour it starts to become clear to him by the end of the issue that it’s more than that. Perhaps this less than perfect mind control will allow the rest of the team to be able to snap Tony out of it by the end of the story arc.

The issue also introduces an old foe of the Avengers, who is now also under the control of AIM. The giant space dragon Fing Fang Foom. Whilst one of the most ridiculous characters that could have been chosen to be pit against the heroes it’s brilliant to see him flying into battle against them, and will certainly lead to an exciting fight in the third issue.

In the first issue the designs of the characters costumes bore some analysis, and whilst the second doesn’t introduce a load of new looks, Fing Fang Foom is essentially exactly the same, it does offer a couple of neat new looks. During one of Tony’s memory flashes we get to see an older version of Captain America, complete with his classic fish scale armour look, and gets an upgrade into the Advanced Iron Mechanic, the Iron Man armour with an AIM aesthetic over the top of it.

Marvel Action: Avengers continues to tell an interesting and engaging story, and whilst it doesn’t move events forward in huge ways this issue it does set the stage for a huge confrontation in the third issue, and fingers crossed a satisfying conclusion.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×06 – ‘A Fractured House’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

When Hydra launch an assault on a United Nations meeting, having the attackers pose as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, members of the United States government make the former security organisation their prime target.  Thankfully for the team, Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) is able to recognise the frightening new weapons that they have used and they are able to track down the real attackers.

‘A Fractured House’ is the first real weak episode of season two. The reason for this, a focus on Grant Ward (Bret Dalton). Ward was definitely one of the weakest characters in the first season, only really becoming interesting when it was revealed that he was secretly working for Hydra. Sadly, now that Ward is a prisoner of S.H.I.E.L.D. he’s even more boring to watch than in the first season.

Whilst the revelation that the United States Senator that is pushing for a task force to hunt down S.H.I.E.L.D. is Christian Ward (Tim DeKay), the older brother of Grant Ward was fairly surprising it doesn’t feel like this was used to the best here. After meeting with Coulson (Clark Gregg) things begin to get complicated when we learn that there’s a possibility that Christian wasn’t the abusive older brother that Ward made him out to be during the first season, and that Ward was the one torturing their younger brother. The inter-cutting between two brothers telling their own versions of events is a well made scene, though.

Sadly, any mystery of what may have actually happened and who is telling the truth here seems to have been completely wiped away by the end of the episode, when Ward escapes from captivity whilst being transported to his brothers custody, killing his guards. This also squarely puts to end any possible notion that there may have been some kind of redemption story for him this season.

Whilst the Ward story is weak the rest of the episode remains fairly entertaining, with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. main team doing their best to locate those behind the UN attack and bring them to justice. After the brief but entertaining introduction to Bobbi ‘Mockingbird’ Morse (Adrianne Palicki) it’s great to see her in action for real this episode, especially working alongside Agent May (Ming-Na Wen).

The action sequences are competent, but lack any real wow factor that the series has shown it is capable of in the past, yet don’t fall into the trap of feeling flat and by the numbers. It’s a good indication that whilst the show has managed to find it’s feet and how it wants to go about telling its stories it’s not being lazy in its execution.

This episode also sheds more light onto the mystery of why Simmons would walk out on Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) when he needed his best friend the most. It would have been easy for the series to say that she was ordered to by Coulson, to make it something completely out of her control, but instead they take the brave choice of having it be a major part of their relationship this season. Fitz was getting worse with her around.

It’s something of a cliche for television shows to keep characters in love apart, and most come up with some pretty poor excuses to do so, but this one feels a lot more genuine. Simmons cares for Fitz deeply, but was presented with the revelation that being around him was helping to destroy his already damaged mind. She had to make the choice to hurt them both by leaving in order that he could one day be himself again. Whilst this was a huge sacrifice on her part it definitely leads to major baggage for the two of them to work through over the rest of the season.

Whilst the episode manages to move the plot and character arcs forward in organic and interesting ways the overall focus feels too clustered, and the inclusion of the heavy Ward elements drags at times. At least with Ward now out of S.H.I.E.L.D. custody there’s a chance that he might be able to do something interesting this season.


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Friday the 13th – Throwback 10

Originally published on Set The Tape

It would be easy to call the 2009 Friday the 13th a remake. It came out around the time a lot of remakes of popular 70’s and 80’s horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but you can’t help but feel that this fails to fall into that mould.

For one thing, the very first film, which was so popular that it knocked Empire Strikes Back off the number one spot in cinemas, doesn’t follow Jason Vorhees at all, with it instead being his mother, Pamela Vorhees. Not only does this new film recount the events of the very first Friday the 13th within the opening titles, thereby giving any unfamilar audience members the info they need to get started, but the events that fill up the rest of the film aren’t a retread of any of the existing sequels.

Yes, Jason comes across a group of teens who do drugs, drink, and have sex so therefore need to be punished with brutal deaths, but that happens in all of the films and is more a trope of the series and horror films in general than a specific scenario. This Friday the 13th follows the formula of the series, but tells its own story. So can it really be a remake?

Whether a remake or not, it’s pretty damn good. Horror franchise sequels can often get a bad reputation, mostly due to their flimsy plot and excuses to ramp up the killings and gore factor, and Friday the 13th is no exception to this. Instead of trying to compete with these old films the 2009 version chooses to tell its own story instead.

Twenty five years after watching his mother (played by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Nana Visitor) Jason Vorhees (Derek Mears) stumbles across a group of teens camping up at the remains of Crystal Lake where he has been living. Whilst attacking and killing the group he discovers that one of the girls, Whitney (Amanda Righetti) looks like his mother, and kidnaps her. Several weeks later Whitney’s brother Clay (Jared Padalecki) is searching for his missing sister when he comes across a group of teens heading up to a cabin near Crystal Lake for a weekend of partying. Clay and the teens soon become the targets of Jason.

It’s a fairly standard kind of horror set-up, and doesn’t contain anything revolutionary, but the plot around Whitney looking like Pamela Vorhees and her brothers search adds a little something extra to the standard partying teens get killed scenario. The teens are the standard mix of attractive Hollywood teens, but have some pretty good actors amongst them, including Ben Feldman from Superstore, Travis Van Winkle from The Last Ship, and Danielle Panabaker from The Flash. They’re a great mix of actors, all of whom are able to pull of the silly teenager shenanigans, yet also portraying the fear and desperation of people being hunted by a killer.

If there’s one cast member who stands out, however, it’s Jared Padalecki as Clay. Honestly, this is just a personal thing, but after years of seeing him play Sam Winchester in Supernatural watching him searching for a missing girl and having to fight an unstoppable, almost supernatural killer kind of threw me because I was just waiting for Jensen Ackles to turn up too. Whether or not he was cast in the role because he would essentially be doing the same thing he’d been doing for years on TV it’s great casting, as he’s clearly very comfortable in this kind of role.

The film is full of vicious killings, some of which are gruesome to watch, yet the filmmakers manage to keep things from going too far into the gore territory and become off-putting. The main thing that may put some people off the film would be the nudity over the violence. Whilst the violence is fairly toned down and less gory for a slasher film Friday the 13th embraces the old sensibility of showing their characters having sex. They don’t just make it clear through scripting and direction that two people have gone off to have sex, they show Juliana Guill naked on top of her costar. This is sure to appeal to some, most likely teenage boys, but feels a little gratuitous and unnecessary.

A new addition to the Friday the 13th franchise, the film takes the best parts of the series and does its own thing, telling a fairly well rounded story that makes more sense than some of the previous entries. With smart direction, good cinematography, and a well cast group of actors it stands up as a pretty darn good addition to the series.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×05 – ‘A Hen in the Wolf House’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

The second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is definitely moving at a brisker pace than the first, with big developments to the story continuing to unfold in the fifth episode. Whilst many shows would continue to have Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) stay undercover within Hydra, yet the series brings this story-line to a swift conclusion, though she does bring an awesome new character back with her.

With Hydra having developed a deadly new weapon from the mysterious alien obelisk Simmons is placed in a compromising position as security increases, bringing her into suspicion as being a double agent. It’s a disappointment that it was spoilt before hand that Adrianne Palicki would be playing Bobbi Morse, the comic book hero Mockingbird, as it means that there’s a lack of tension when she investigates Simmons.

Instead of being worried that Simmons is in some kind of danger we’re left wondering exactly when she’s going to find out that she has an ally within Hydra. I was half expecting the series to carry this on for a while, perhaps imitating Alias, having Bobbi playing the Jack Bristow role of the older and more experienced agent helping her to keep her cover and lean Hydra’s secrets. Strangely, the decision is made to have Simmons lose her cover and be extracted in the same episode. Whilst this does limit the options for interesting undercover plots it does give us a fun reveal of Bobbi as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., kicking the crap out of Hydra thugs with her iconic battle staves.

Palicki already seems like a great addition to the cast, and shows that she has some great range just in one episode. She comes across as cold and calculating when posing as Hydra, but is immediately charming and fun as soon as she’s back in the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, interacting with people like she’s been friends with them for years. The surprise revelation that she’s the ‘evil’ ex-wife that Hunter (Nick Blood) has been complaining about since his introduction is a brilliant turn, and something that is sure to lead to a lot of fun moments as the two of them stick around. Whilst Bobbi joining the team looks set to be something that’s going to be a great change I’m curious how Simmons being back is going to impact Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), who has been working hard to deal with his recent injuries and the absence of Simmons.

The episode also continues the ongoing plot of Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his mysterious carvings, as Skye (Chloe Bennet) learns the truth about what is going on. Once again, this is a plot point that I was surprised to see this early on into the season, expecting the show to play it out over the vast majority of season two. It really goes to show how the series has changed it’s approach to storytelling, relying less on adventure of the week episodes with the occasional advancement of the main plot and shifting to a story that moves with a much punchier pace.

The scenes with Coulson and Skye have also improved this year, and we get to see just why he thinks that she’s so special, something that her murderous father seems to agree upon. Kyle MacLachlan is still impressing as Skye’s father, and the final scene where he teams up with Hydra in order to kill Coulson makes for an interesting and unexpected twist.

A lot happens in ‘A Hen in the Wolf House’, and it all seems designed to moving the central story forward. This is the kind of pace and excitement that was lacking a lot in the first season, but finally seems to be becoming the standard for the series.


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Dread Nation – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

‘Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.

Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.’

Whilst on the surface Dread Nation seems like a fairly straightforward alternate history story there’s a lot more to the world of the zombie-filled reconstruction-era America that Justina Ireland has created than it would at first appear.

Set within a world where the undead brought the American Civil War to an abrupt end, readers follow Jane, the black daughter of a wealthy white plantation owner, as she trains to become an Attendant, a bodyguard for a wealthy white woman.

‘An Attendant’s job is simple: keep her charge from being killed by the dead, and her virtue from being compromised by potential suitors. It is a task easier said than done.’

Following the end of the war the government established the Native and Negro Reeducation Act: an initiative that would train First Nation children and children of colour to fight zombies. This is one of the first places that it becomes apparent that there’s more to Dread Nation than just kick-arse women of colour fighting the undead. The combat schools created by the NNRA are based a lot more within reality than you would expect. For decades in the history of the United States native children were ripped from their families and sent to schools where they would be taught to be ‘civilised’ – to act like white people. This was often presented as something that would benefit these children, a way of bringing them into society and bettering them, where in reality it was often brutal and incredibly damaging. The combat schools are no different.

In the early parts of the book Jane is often worried about getting kicked out of Miss Preston’s. This isn’t because she wants the social advantage that graduating from the school would bring (think the Attendant version of Harvard or Princeton), but rather because many of the other schools are lacking. They train only a fraction as hard and over a shorter period, which often means that those graduating don’t last long. A background element to the story, this is a surprising commentary on how many systems in the United States are structured against people of colour, offering just enough that white people feel that they’ve done something good to help, yet failing to actually provide POC with anything that actually gives them any real advantages or advancements.

As the book goes on the commentary on life in America for POC only gets stronger, as more and more overt racism moves to the fore. This mainly comes from the antagonists of the book, rich white men who belong to the Survivalists, a political group that wants to ‘take back America’ and make things like they were before. Whilst slavery is now illegal in this world these people make it their mission to find workarounds for these laws, using black people as front line defenders against the undead, yet failing to provide them with real weaponry, keeping them shut away behind the scenes, giving them barely enough food to live, and brutally torturing them when they break the rules. Slavery in everything but name.

We get to see Jane, a young black woman who grew up treated well and sheltered from the horrors of slavery, have to face the harsh reality of life before the undead, and those who want to bring that world back. She’s not a fool, she’s faced prejudice countless times herself, but the events of the book push her to her physical and emotional limits. Accompanying her throughout most of the events of the novel is Katherine, a fellow student from Miss Preston’s. Katherine, however, is fair enough to pass as white, and has to play this role for a portion of the story.

This allows us to observe a new and mostly unexplored approach to racism: a black woman who everyone thinks is white having to see and hear awful racist things and not only not say anything, but to play along with it. Katherine begins the book as an annoying character, and something of an enemy for Jane, but by the final pages she’s an incredibly well rounded person, and one who has more than earned both ours and Jane’s affection.

One of the more surprising elements of the book is the lack of any romantic subplot, something that most books shoehorn in. These are strong and independent young women who not only don’t need men in their lives, but frankly don’t have the time to worry about romance whilst fighting to survive.

As well as representing people of colour, Dread Nation features LGBT+ leads. In a scene towards the end of the book it’s revealed that not only is Jane bisexual, but that Katherine is asexual. There’s isn’t a huge amount made of this, and it doesn’t hugely impact the story, yet it’s still great to see such positive representation. The characters aren’t defined by their sexuality, nor does it dictate events.

Dread Nation is a book with surprising layers, a story that on the surface is an action adventure story with women of colour fighting zombies in an alternate history. But beneath this is a look at racism and slavery in America, a story that shows that even though laws change and politics alter, people are still judged solely on the colour of their skin. Though never having been treated poorly due to the colour of my skin, as a transgender woman it’s easy to understand what it’s like to be judged as soon as someone sees you, because of who you are. Dread Nation captures these feelings perfectly: it puts you in the shoes of someone who is trapped in this life of hate and prejudice but can’t escape from it, even when they prove to be a more competent, kinder, and braver person than those in power.

A book with something important to say, Dread Nation is sure to stick with you long after you finish reading.


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Resident Evil 2 Remake – Looking back at the original

Originally published on Set The Tape

This week sees the release of the new version of the 1998 Resident Evil 2 on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC. Completely remade from the ground up, with a new and dynamic story, redesigned environments and game-play innovation, it’s already set to be one of the biggest releases for the franchise in years. The excitement around the new game is based largely upon the popular opinion among fans that Resident Evil 2 was the series’ highlight.

Even before the success of the original Resident Evil, development began on a sequel just a month after the first game was completed. Whilst this game, which would later go on to be referred to as Resident Evil 1.5 by producer Shinji Mikami, differs greatly from the final version of Resident Evil 2, it did introduce some story elements that would carry over to the game, such as a citywide outbreak, Leon Kennedy and Sherry Birkin.

Upon its release in 1998, Resident Evil 2 became an instant hit, wowing fans and newcomers alike as it shifted from a small story set within the confines of a single mansion to a story that took players across Raccoon City and explored the inner workings of the evil Umbrella Corporation.

Whilst the first game allowed players to choose from two separate campaigns to play through, with neither one of them interacting with each other, Resident Evil 2 was much more ambitious, offering four scenarios. If players completed Leon’s campaign they would gain access to a ‘B Scenario’ for Claire, which intertwined with the events of Leon’s story, and even relied on items being left behind in your first play-through for Claire to use. Alternatively, you could play as Claire, which allowed you to unlock a second scenario for Leon. This was a bold innovation to the series, and one that allowed players a greater opportunity for replaying the game, exploring both scenario options for each character.

As well as more story options, the sequel also offered improved storytelling and acting. Yes, there are a few moments where the dialogue feels awfully clunky, even back in 1998, but it’s still a big improvement over the original. The game looked more into how Umbrella worked, exploring how they bribed the chief of police to hide evidence against them, and how internal factions worked against each other, leading to a confrontation that resulted in the infection of the entire city.

Game design also made a sharp improvement allowing players to explore bigger and better looking environments that made much better use of the Playstation technology. Locations were better designed, puzzles took more thinking through and enemies were a bigger challenge.

It’s not hard to see why Resident Evil 2 is held up as an all time classic. It took everything that made the original a success and improved upon it in every way. Story was better, gameplay was improved, replay value was increased. Filled with excitement, action and horror, it became the Aliens to the first game’s Alien.

The game may be more than 20 years old, but it’s still a great experience today thanks in large part to the effort that was put into making it. It began development before the first game was a success, so it wasn’t a cash-in or a money making sequel. It was made because the creators believed in the product, because they wanted to make something great and that’s why it’s still one of the best entries in the entire franchise. If the remake remains true to these values, if it’s made with the same love and care that the original was, it’s sure to not only live up to the legacy that Resident Evil 2 created, but will be a huge success in its own right.


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