Joker – 5 Batman Villains That Deserve A Solo Movie

Originally published on Set The Tape

Joker sees the iconic Batman villain take centre stage as the lead in his own movie. Whilst this isn’t the first time that a comic book villain has had their own film it’s the first time a major Batman villain has. With such a big history and really great villains, surely there are more that can headline their own movie!

Poison Ivy

Botanist Pamela Isely was experimented upon by Dr Woodrue, an insane scientist who transforms himself into a plant monster called the Floronic Man. Woodrue transformed Isely into a metahuman with plantlike abilities, and an immunity to various toxins. Now acting as Poison Ivy, she skirts the line between hero and villain as she tries to protect plants and the environment from humans.

A Poison Ivy film could show this origin, and she could be painted as something of a villain for the majority of the film, as she attacks big companies that are polluting the environment. However, it would be nice to have her end as a more traditional ‘hero’, by her having to save people from Woodrue, getting her revenge against him at the same time.

Whilst DC cancelled the Swamp Thing series early into its run, a Poison Ivy film could definitely have a similar look and feel to this. It could even attract some of the same fans, as Woodrue was actually in the show, played by Kevin Durand. Hell, go so far as to have him play the character again!

Bane

The son of a revolutionary in the South American nation of Santa Prisca, Bane was placed in prison to serve out his father’s sentence following his escape. Bane spent his childhood and adolescence in one of the most brutal prisons on earth, building his incredible physique and keen intellect in order to survive.

Following Bane during his prison years would be so much more interesting than seeing him go up against Batman, as he does in almost every other version of the character. Make a Bane movie as a prison drama. Have him brought in as a young boy, made to serve out his father’s sentence alongside hardened adult criminals. Show an innocent young boy turn into a cold blooded killer as he learns how to survive in hell on earth.

A film about Bane told in this way would be able to highlight not just how brutal and strong the man is, but how he was a victim of his life. He was made into a savage by his environment. Show how this happened to him, and don’t shy away from the brutality of the situation. Let’s see an innocent boy enter prison, and follow his life there until he gets out and begins his journey to Gotham. There wouldn’t be any need to show him go to Gotham and face Batman: end the film with him getting out of prison and setting off there. Not only would this act as a great stand alone film that tells his origins, but he could then be used in a Batman film with a fully fleshed out backstory, as a character that audiences will care about.

The Court of Owls

A relatively new addition to the DC Universe, The Court of Owls are a secret society that has been running Gotham from the shadows for generations. What makes them stand out is their main enforcers, the Talons. The Talons are a group of lethal assassins, and the society has had many over the years. What makes them different, however, is that the Talons have been made close to immortal thanks to strange science.

A Court of Owls movie could focus on a new Talon, a person recruited to fight and kill for the court. This Talon could then try to turn against the Court, and have other, older Talons sent against them to kill them. Whether or not they manage to survive, it’d make for an interesting film to see one of the world’s best assassins fighting undead killers.

Penguin

Whilst a lot of audiences will be familiar with the character thanks to Danny DeVito’s brilliant performance in Batman Returns, this version of the character is actually quite different from the comics. Batman Returns showed him as an outcast mutant living beneath Gotham. Instead of this, make him like his comic counterpart, where he’s just a regular guy.

What’s interesting about a regular guy? Well, not a huge amount, but once you have him being part of a crime empire it starts to get a little more interesting. Introduce him as a low level operator in one of the crime organisations in Gotham, then let him work his way to the top. He can’t be a physically imposing character, so let him plot and scheme his way to the top. Make him Little Finger, but he doesn’t fuck up at the end. Mob movies are always popular, so make a mob movie about the Penguin.

Owlman

Owlman comes from another world, a parallel earth where villains rule instead of heroes. Following the murder of his family, Thomas Wayne Jr. becomes the super-villain Owlman.

Much the same way that Brightburn told a story of an evil Superman, an Owlman movie could do the same thing. Have it follow an almost traditional Batman movie formula, but instead of a hero he’s a villain. He kills to expand his empire, he uses gadgets to commit crimes, and he was behind his parents’ death. Why focus on a hero’s villains when you can make your hero the villain instead?

This is probably one of the hardest sells on this list, but imagine being able to take the DC Universe and flip it on its head. You could show alternate versions of characters that audiences know and love, and add in little hints to other villains such as Ultra-Man. Plus, if ever Warner Bros. wanted the Justice League to fight the Crime Syndicate this could be the perfect set-up movie.


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X-Men: Dark Phoenix – 5 Times Superheroes Have Gone Bad

Originally published on Set The Tape

Superheroes are often portrayed as larger than life icons of everything good that regular people should look up to and aspire to be. However, writers have made often made a point of showing that these heroes are real people underneath their costumes, and that they can make mistakes. Sometimes this leads to heroes becoming villains themselves. To celebrate the home release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Jean Grey’s journey to the dark side, here are five other heroes who went bad.

Warren Worthington III/Angel

Another of the X-Men who became a villain, Angel was one of the original five members of the team, and was a hero for decades. During a crossover event called Mutant Massacre, Warren was tortured and his wings mutilated, leaving him unable to fly. Following this he was captured by the mutant Apocalypse, who offered to restore his wings if he served him. Warren was experimented upon, and given organic metal wings. The experiments also turned his skin blue, and resulted in an extremely aggressive personality. He became the villain Archangel.

Over the years Warren has been able to regain his normal personality and appearance, but Archangel lurks beneath the surface, occasionally breaking free and turning him into a cold blooded killer, and villain, more than once.

Clark Kent/Superboy Prime

The DC Comics multiverse was very complicated, and was streamlined a lot during the event Crisis On Infinite Earths, where a number of other universes were destroyed. One of these worlds was Earth Prime, where superheroes only existed in comics. In this universe a young boy named Clark Kent discovered that he was just like the Superman of comics, and had amazing powers. Unfortunately, during the events of the crisis he lost his world, and ended up trapped in a pocket dimension.

In this dimension he could see into the main DC Universe, and he didn’t like what was happening there. He felt that his sacrifice during the Crisis has been for nothing, and literally punched his way through the dimensional barriers into Earth-One. He helped to instigate the Infinite Crisis and murdered several heroes in the process, including members of the Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, and the Doom Patrol.

Eventually imprisoned by the Guardians of the Universe inside a red sun, and watched over by dozens of Green Lanterns at all times, he broke free and took part in the Sinestro Corps War, where he continued his bloody rampage. Superboy Prime made the ultimate sacrifice to save all of creation, and it ended up twisting him into the very thing he hated the most. He remains one of the deadliest threats within the DC Universe.

Steve Rogers/Captain America

Captain America is one of those heroes who comes to mind as being truly noble. He was made to fight Nazis, has stood up for the downtrodden, and is generally seen as one of the all time good guys. So it’s understandable that fans lost their shit when it was revealed that he was actually working for the Nazi organisation Hydra the whole time when he declared ‘Hail Hydra’.

The comic event Secret Empire revealed that Steve Rogers, who had recently been made young again following his rapid ageing, had been altered in more than one way. It turned out that his arch villain Red Skull had made it so that Cap’s memories were altered, making him believe that he was a Hydra agent.

Whilst this was only a temporary change to the character, and he was soon returned to normal, it was a big moment for comic readers. The incorruptible Steve Rogers had been corrupted, and for some fans this was a storyline too far, and a lot of people took to social media to condemn making the character a Nazi, even temporarily, especially as his creators were Jewish. This storyline was given a slight nod in Avengers: Endgame when Cap uses the phrase ‘Hail Hydra’.

Jean Paul Valley/Batman

During the 1990s Batman was put through one of his toughest storylines in Knightfall, where his back was broken by the villain Bane. Unable to carry on as Batman, Bruce requested that another vigilante, Jean Paul Valley, take on the mantle for him. Jean Paul was the hero Azrael, a former assassin for The Order of Saint Dumas.

When he became Batman, Jean Paul was a lot more aggressive than Bruce, and used a new set of weapons in his mission. He eventually goes on to create a whole suit of armour that’s reminiscent of his Azrael persona, and tells Robin to get lost. This is all thanks to the brainwashing that he was put through by The Order. When he eventually starts letting people die Bruce thinks enough is enough and becomes Batman once again, battling Jean Paul for the mantle. Jean Paul is broken free of his brainwashing and becomes a hero once again, but will always be remembered for that time Batman went bad.

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern

Often referred to as ‘The Greatest Green Lantern’, Hal Jordan was one of the best heroes Earth had to offer until his hometown was destroyed by the villain Mongul, killing millions. Blaming himself for not being strong enough to stop it, or to bring everyone back, Hal gave into his fear and became possessed by the entity Parallax, the embodiment of fear. Parallax travels to Oa, the home of the Green Lanterns, and kills several key members of the organisation, before killing the Guardians of the Universe.

He would reappear a number of times over the years, once trying to wipe out all of time, but eventually Hal was able to break through the evil personality and save Earth by giving his life to reignite the sun. Thanks to it being comics, Hal didn’t stay dead, and is now back being a hero. What makes his story stand out, however, is that it wasn’t revealed that he was possessed for more than a decade and fans were left to believe that everything he did as Parallax was by his own choice.


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The Troop by Nick Cutter - Book Review

'For the scouts of Troop 52, three days of camping, hiking and survival lessons on Falstaff Island is as close as they'll get to a proper holiday. But when an emaciated figure stumbles into their camp asking for food, the trip takes a horrifying turn. The man is not just hungry, he's sick. Sick in a way they have never seen before.

'Cut off from the mainland, the troop face a terror far worse than anything they could have made up around a campfire. To survive they will have to fight their fears, the elements ... and eventually each other.'

The Troop by Nick Cutter follows a group of teenage scouts that have travelled out to the remote Falstaff Island in northern Canada. The five teens and their scoutmaster are expecting a weekend of trekking and exploring when their outing is interrupted by a mysterious man with an insatiable hunger.

The initial setup for the story sounded pretty creepy when I came across it, and the back of the book was filled with quotes about how scary it was. Whilst I do enjoy a good bit of horror every now and then I often find that horror books can be pretty hit or miss, so while having good hopes for The Troop was wasn't expecting anything spectacular. Boy, was I so wrong.

I read the entire book in about two days, I couldn't put it down. Nick Cutter manages to craft a narrative that completely hooks you and draws you in, despite it being so disturbing that you kind of want to put it away too.

The basic premise of the book is that Tom Padgett, dubbed 'Typhoid Tom' by the media, is carrying a deadly, man-made contagion to the island. This infection is fast acting and devastating to the body, resulting in a horrific death; it's also highly contagious. What is supposed to be a fun weekend away for the scouts turns into a mix of The Thing and Lord of the Flies as mob mentality and paranoia turns people against each other as they try desperately to survive and make their way off the island.

At first I thought that there was no way the narrative could be held as long as it is, the book is close to 400 pages long and Tom has already reached the island and the group by page 20. The beginning moved so fast that I thought the book would struggle to keep me entertained, that it would either lose momentum or the story would end up stretched too thin. However, Cutter crafts a story that has enough twists and turns in it that the pace manages to feel brisk, even spread over a number of days. He also includes a lot of backstory as the narrative unfolds, revealing more about each of the kids during relevant, related points in the story.

The slow revealing of the kids back stories works really well. At first they're all fairly blank slates without much to distinguish them, but as the story progresses we learn a lot about them not just from their actions on the island, but the small glimpses into their past. Each of the children end up being a lot more complex than initially expected, and the small cast of characters definitely helps with this. Keeping the group small means that every boy has a chance to shine, and you come to learn about and care for each of them, well, maybe not one of them.

Cutter also knows that setting the whole narrative on a small island with a group of kids that doesn't know where this contagion came from or what it is wouldn't work as well on its own, so spaced throughout the books are glimpses at the wider story in the form of news articles, interviews, and congressional hearings. These moments not only give the reader a better background to the infection, but some of the additional content is really disturbing for a number of reasons. Cutter admits in the Afterward that this was inspired by Stephen King, and thanks him for the inspiration.

The infection itself is one of the most disturbing parts of the book, not least of all because it seems so very real. Yes, it's something that exists in the real world that has been manipulated and made into something more than it is, so it's not completely realistic, but the fact that it's even loosely based on reality is frightening. It's disturbing in a visceral way, one that makes your skin crawl and the hairs on your neck stand on end. Body horror where it's otherworldly like The Thing or Alien are horrible yes, but one where its something that can work its way into your body for real, though to a less damaging extent than here, is truly horrifying.

Nick Cutter has managed to craft a story that's not just a intense and engaging character led narrative, but a horror that freaks you out and stays with you long after you've finished the book. Don't read this when you're feeling hungry either as I made that mistake and it made the whole experience a lot worse.

I saw a 5 star review for the book on Good Reads that simply said 'Fuck this book', and I would have to agree with that. In a good way. The Troop is a brilliant example of horror, and I'm damn sure I'm going to be recommending this to any horror fans I know.

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Joker – 5 Great Joker Stories

Originally published on Set The Tape

Joker sees the classic Batman villain take centre stage in his own solo movie. The Joker is one of those characters that’s been around for decades, and has a whole host of stories that focus on him. But with so many comics focusing on him, where’s the best place to start? Well, here are five of the best to check out.

A Death In The Family

One of the most iconic Joker stories, A Death In The Family showcases how brutally ruthless the character can be. Despite being one of the most iconic Joker stories ever it actually focuses on Jason Todd, the second Robin. Having grown-up alone on the streets of Gotham, Todd is on a quest to find his mother. However, during this journey he’s kidnapped by the Joker, and eventually killed.

One of the things that made this story stand out was that there were two possible endings: one in which Jason died, and the other where he lived. Readers were able to phone into DC and vote on which ending they wanted, and ultimately chose for Jason to die.

This was one of the first times a major Batman character was killed off (even though it didn’t stick and Jason is now alive again), and the writers didn’t pull any punches as they had the Joker brutally beat Jason with a crowbar before collapsing a building on him. It really went to show how much of a threat the character can actually be.

Joker

Set in a much darker, more realistic version of Gotham, the book follows the Joker after he’s newly released from Arkham Asylum. Told from the point of view of a low level thug who the Joker takes a liking to, the story shows the crazed villain starting a war with the other gang leaders in the city. Joker hardly features Batman at all, with the story caring more about watching the path of destruction the Joker makes and how he ruins one man’s life.

The book also stands out thanks to the amazing art by Lee Bemejo. Grim and dirty, yet incredibly elegant, it showed the city and the characters in ways that we’d never seen before. Joker was also noted as the likely inspiration for Heath Ledger’s look in The Dark Knight, as the designs are almost identical.

The Killing Joke

Possibly the most iconic Joker story ever told, The Killing Joke has been released multiple times and adapted into an animated movie. The cover is also one of the best known Joker images.

The Killing Joke tells an origin for the character that depicts him as a failing stand-up comedian who is trying to support his pregnant wife. Turning to crime to try and raise money he becomes part of the Red Hood gang. As part of this gang he falls afoul of the caped crusader, and falls into a vat of chemicals that transforms him into the Joker. In the present day the Joker hatches a plan to send Commissioner Gordon crazy. To this end he kidnaps and tortures Gordon, showing him the photographs of his daughter Barbara, who the Joker has shot in the stomach.

The Killing Joke had a lasting affect on Barbara Gordon, who was crippled by the wound. Unable to carry on as Batgirl, she would go on to be the hero Oracle. Whilst this was eventually changed during the New 52 relaunch, this change lasted for decades, and made the book an important part of the Batman mythos.

The Man Who Laughs

Set after Batman: Year One, this story aims to tell the first confrontation between Batman and the Joker. Still new into his career as a crime fighter, Batman is drawn into a mystery involving mutilated corpses, and a clown that’s threatening to murder several key figures in Gotham City. The Man Who Laughs showcases how cunning and intelligent the Joker is, as he utilises his knowledge of chemistry to poison people across the city.

The Man Who Laughs is a great book for showing both the Joker and Batman in a less physical confrontation. The book isn’t about the Joker being a physical foe for Batman to fight, but a looming threat that’s lurking in the background for most of the book. It’s a good revamping of the character’s first appearance, and whilst it offers hints as to his origin it doesn’t focus on this, something that many fans prefer for the character.

Death of the Family

The biggest story on this list, Death of the Family spanned more than 20 issues across several different titles as the Joker aims to destroy all of Batman’s extended family in order to leave the Dark Knight standing alone against him. In this story the Joker believes that Batman has come to rely on his group of sidekicks, multiple Robins, Nightwing, Batgirl, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner Gordon to name just a few, and wants them gone.

This story was the first time that the character had really appeared in the DC Universe since their relaunch, having made a brief appearance in issue 1. This story showcased what is likely to be the most shocking version of the character, where he’s had his face cut off and is now wearing it as a mask.

During the course of the story the Joker put the various members of the Bat Family through psychological and mental torture that almost broke them. One of the most shocking things about the title was how he broke Alfred, brainwashing him into siding with the Joker, and even cutting his hand off. One of the most shocking Joker titles by far, it stands out as one of the all time great Joker stories.


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Alan Sugar Speaks Out Against Non-Binary Community

Alan Sugar, businessman and presenter of the British Apprentice television series has made statements that complain about non-binary people, and saying that people who use gender free language should be deported.

During an interview with tabloid rag The Sun, in which they praise Sugar for telling 'it like it is' in a 'sensitive world', the businessman took aim at 'snowflakes'. He stated that 'The world has gone mad, it's ridiculous, they're looking for new things to be offended by'.

'It's absolutely crazy,' he continued, 'you can;t say anything nowadays without offending somebody with how they look, dress, the colour of their skin or whatever. It's sickening quite frankly.'

The fact that he's complaining that you cannot say anything about the colour of people's skin without them being offended does seem a lot like he's complaining about not being able to say racist things, something that he has received criticism for in the past. In 2018 he received criticism for tweeting racist comments about the all black Senegal World Cup football team. He was also previously accused of racism for making jokes about a crying Chinese baby.

When journalists asked him what he thought about non-binary pronouns from the 'woke generation' he became quickly angered.

'They need to pack it in, it's nonsense.' He replied. 'The people promoting it need to be shipped off to Mongolia. Send them away, get them out of the country. Go away. It boils down to a small bunch of people that promote it.'

This isn't the first time that he has insulted members of the LGBTQ+ public, as last December he made comments on social media about having 'had enough' gay people in his board room.

It's clear from his comments both now and in the past that Alan Sugar is a man who does not like the fact that he can't be openly racist, homophobic, and transphobic. He has repeatedly made negative comments about minorities and continues to do so, probably assuming that because he's a rich old white man he won't face any kind of consequences for his actions.


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BBC Presenter John Humphrys Says BBC Is 'Too Sympathetic' To Trans People

Veteran BBC television and radio presenter John Humphrys has received backlash from the LGBTQ+ community following comments where he stated that the BBC is too supportive of trans people.

The former presenter of Radio 4's Today programme spoke out against his former employer last weekend whilst appearing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. He claimed that the BBC and their staff have a 'liberal left agenda', which he said leads to coverage about trans issues that is too 'sensitive'.

'If you take something like, for instance transgender, the BBC's mindset is such that you must , kind of accept what the prevailing view is.' He said. 'Except that's their prevailing view, and perhaps mine is slightly different.

'The BBC’s attitude with that sort of social development is to be immediately sympathetic, not entirely detached as I believe they should be, but sympathetic and that worries me.'

He also added, 'I happen to believe, personally, that there are not an unlimited number of genders. I believe that we are born men and women. I feel slightly worried when large numbers of children are being told 'You think you might be a girl or you think you might be a boy? We'll go and get you medical attention'.'

He continued to use the fear of trans children to compound his point by saying, 'I'm uneasy about children being told in schools there are more than 100 different genders and it's possible for someone to change gender overnight. I'm worried about where it's heading. The BBC's attitude with that sort of social development is to be immediately sympathetic, not entirely detached as it should be.'

John Humphrys has in the past faced criticism for voicing anti-trans sentiment live on air when he described trans women as 'men who think they are women'.

Many of Humphrys' arguments are ones that will be familiar to many members of the trans community, as they are often used by TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) to attack members of the trans community. They also bear a striking similarity to homophobic arguments that were used in past decades by somehow framing the trans community and their existence as a threat to children.

Whilst the BBC is by far not the worst broadcaster for anti-trans sentiment, it is far from the sympathetic network that Humphrys believes it to be. Perhaps anything less than outright hate is seen as sympathy towards those who harbor anti-transgender views. But then again, is anyone really surprised that an old white man in his late seventies isn't okay with those who don't conform to narrow viewpoints on gender and sex?


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Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery is the latest anthology from Titan Books, this time offering a host of tales of witchcraft and magic. The authors on offer here are an amazing bunch and some big names, including authors of popular series such as The Morganville Vampires, and the Dark-Hunter Hellchaser saga. One of the things that really makes the book stand out however, is how many of the authors are women. The fact that editors Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering have gone out of their way to fill the book with diverse voices makes for such a treat.

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery gives readers a broad range of stories – as broad as the genre of witchcraft and magic can allow. Some stories have witches who are heroes, acting to protect the innocent. In some, they are foes who cause death and destruction in their wake. Some are set in worlds much like ours, where magic is unknown and mysterious, whilst others are in times and places where magic is something that everyone believes in. The book has so many different stories on offer that any reader will struggle to come out disappointed. There’s something for everyone in this collection, and if you’re like me, you’ll love it all.

‘Widows’ Walk’ by Angela Slatter tells a tale of a group of elderly widows who take pity on a young girl who’s being neglected by her family. When it turns out that the widows are actually witches, their interest in the girl takes a more magical turn. ‘The Night Nurse’ by Sarah Langan switches things up by having a less than benevolent witch at its centre, instead telling a story of a strange old women who acts as a night nurse for a new mother. Over the course of the story the ‘kind’ older woman begins to act more and more suspicious until she becomes downright frightening.

Mary SanGiovanni’s ‘The Memories of the Trees’ is set in a future where humanity has regressed following an apocalyptic war in the twenty-first century. In a society that has been destroyed by technology, magic has made a resurgence, and must come to the aid of a woman and girl condemned to death. ‘How To Become A Witch Queen’ by Theodora Goss takes place in a fantasy world, and follows the recently widowed queen Elfrida. Desperate to secure a safe future for her daughter, Elfrida recruits friends and allies from her past, including seven dwarves, to build her own kingdom with her mothers old magical equipment. The story twists the tale of Snow White wonderfully, and gives us a new version of the character, the woman who inspired the fairy-tale.

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery doesn’t just include stories set in new worlds, however, but also tales from other book series too. These stories give some insight into these series; in some cases introducing main characters, in others just giving a taste of the worlds that the stories inhabit. Kelley Armstrong offers a tale about Eve Levine, a witch on the run, that connects into her Otherworld series in ‘Black Magic Momma’. We get to see a story set in Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires series in ‘Home’. This story is set between the events of one of her books, and features a few of the main cast coming together to deal with a witch threatening their town. These stories will add to the experience for fans of those particular series, giving them more adventures to enjoy with those characters. For those who aren’t familiar with these universes, they act as a great taster that can be a nice gateway into those stories.

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery is one of the better anthology books that I’ve read. The stories here have a wide range of styles, and they present very different ideas of witchcraft and magic, yet they all have the same high quality. Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering have done an amazing job as editors, and have gone above and beyond to craft a volume that really does present some of the best short stories available. An absolute must read for fans of short stories, horror, and witchcraft, and presented in an absolutely gorgeous hardcover edition too.

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Printer's Devil Court by Susan Hill - Book Review

'A chilling ghost story by the author of The Woman in Black. One murky November evening after a satisfying meal in their Fleet Street lodgings, a conversation between four medical students takes a curious turn and Hugh is initiated into a dark secret. In the cellar of their narrow lodgings in Printer's Devil Court and a little used mortuary in a subterranean annex of the hospital, they have begun to interfere with death itself, in shadowy experiments beyond the realms of medical ethics. They call on Hugh to witness an event both extraordinary and terrifying.

'Years later, Hugh has occasion to return to his student digs and the familiar surroundings resurrect peculiar and unpleasant memories of these unnatural events, the true horror of which only slowly becomes apparent.'

I was excited to read Printer's Devil Court largely due to how much I enjoyed The Woman In Black. I had found Susan Hill's work on that book to be brilliant, and it had genuinely scared me when I read it. The prospect of something similar had me very eager, and it jumped into it as soon as I was able to. Sadly, I found the book quite dull.

The initial set-up in the book was fairly interesting, set in London during the early decades of the last century, it has a very gritty and dark feel straight off, and Hill is able to craft a location that feels like it belongs in a ghost story. The group of young student doctors that discuss the notion of being able to revive the dead led me to images of reanimated corpses and frankenstein-like creations skulking in the foggy back alleys of the city.

However, this never really materialised. After showing the reader, and the narrator, one experiment where it appeared a young woman was brought back to life the book didn't really do anything with this. There was no shocking event, no insight into how these young men were seemingly able to capture some kind of 'life-force' or 'soul' and transfer it into someone as they died. When, decades later, the narrator returns to London and comes across a strange ghost that appears to be some kind of amalgamation of two people there's no horror there, no sense of dread or fright at all.

The narrator is momentarily shocked by what he finds, but then is quite rational about things, and goes out of his way to help these spirits. Whilst this might be seen as an interesting twist to some, I couldn't help but feel a little bored by it. If the protagonist in a horror story is frightened, why should I be?

I saw a comment online about the story, where the reviewer said that Susan Hill was coasting on her reputation as a horror writer following The Woman In Black. Whilst I think this is somewhat harsh, I can kind of see why they'd make this kind of comment. Her other was was so good that this in comparison is very much a let down. You want a story that has the same quality as The Woman In Black, the same sense of fear and dream, the same horror, and Printer's Devil Court just doesn't have this.

The book isn't a bad story by any means it fails to live up to the legacy that Susan Hill had made for herself. It doesn't reach the highs that The Woman In Black does, but it does have some interesting concepts in it, and it manages to craft a pretty well realised character in a very short length. There was potential for a lot more in this book, and whilst it might not meet that it's sure to keep readers entertained. The fact that it's also a book that can be read in a single sitting helps with this. An interesting way to spend a few hours, but probably a read that will end up slipping from memory soon after.

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IT Chapter Two - Film Review

IT Chapter Two returns audiences to the small town of Derry, where the terrifying entity Pennywise has awakened from his decades of slumber ready to kill more children, and to get revenge against the Losers Club.

The choice to split IT into two films is probably the best thing that the filmmakers could have done. Whilst the shifting narrative settings within the book worked for that particular format (though I did have a few issues with it on occasion when reading it), it worked less so in film, as the 1990 miniseries showed. Here, the adult actors get their chance to shine without having to compete with the teenagers who played the younger versions of the characters. Even though there are some scenes in IT Chapter Two that return audiences to the 1980's, this is still very much about the adult cast, and these flashbacks play important parts in their journeys.

The adult cast are very good, and for a number of them it's almost eerie how much they look like the younger versions of the characters from the first film. Andy Bean who plays Stanley Uris is only in the film for a short amount of time, but I was immediately stunned by how much he looked like an older version of Wyatt Oleff; likewise, Nicholas Hamilton had a similar impact as an older Henry Bowers. And whilst Bill Hader did resemble Finn Wolfhard to a certain degree, it was his portrayal that really sold it being the same character.

I actually found him to be the most interesting member of the Losers Club in this film, and think that the new subplot about him being a closeted gay man was actually really interesting, and at times his performance was very moving.

The gay plots that happened in the film were handled well, especially the opening scene of the film that depicted the brutal homophobic attack of Adrian Melon. A scene that was cut from the 90's miniseries, it was used here to great effect. It took an incredibly disturbing and violent act, a very real kind of act, and used to it return Pennywise in a truly shocking way. For much of the scene you could be forgiven to forget that this is a film about an evil clown as we see that everyday people can be capable of such incredible evil themselves. Whilst some people complained about the tone and the violent nature of the scene it was an incredibly important scene from the book and I for one am very glad to see it included.

Unfortunately, the one area that I felt let this film down was that it just wasn't as scary as the first film. Perhaps this is because during the first film we were still discovering this version of Pennywise, and that slow unfolding of the threat was very scary. Maybe it's because I knew how the character acted now that I was somewhat prepared a second time round. Whatever the reason, he just didn't scare me as much. And I'm someone with coulrophobia, so this film should have really messed me up.

But this complaint is in no way a complaint about Bill Skarsgard, who is absolutely phenomenal in the role. I understand that a lot of people have a very real connection to Tim Curry as Pennywise, and whilst I do love Tim Curry he's nowhere near as good in the role as Skarsgard. He exudes menace whenever he's on screen, even when he's being sweet to children to lure them in. He's able to convey huge shifts with the tiniest facial expression, and can go from creepy to downright horrifying with the flip of a switch. So much of what makes Pennywise scary in these two films is down to his acting ability, not any kind of effects, and he should be lauded with praise for his work here.

In some ways it's sad that IT has come to a close, as it feels like there is a lot more to this story and this world left to tell. I know that there is supposed to be a 'super-cut' version of the film coming, and that Andy Muschietti wants to add in deleted scenes, and even film new pieces, so I have that to look forward to, but for now I feel a little down that it's done.


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Shatter War by Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

Shatter War is the second volume in the Time Shards series, and returns readers to the future where time itself has been broken into pieces, and multiple time periods share the same world.

Whilst Shatter War is a second volume it actually managed to catch me up very quickly with what had come before. During an experiment to harness faster than light travel the timeline was broken, splitting the world into various different shards, places where different times exist. As a result, pre-historic animals, modern day cities, and medieval knights can all exist beside each other.

As the people across this broken world try to figure out what has happened, and in many cases struggle to survive, a small group has come together to try to repair this damage, before powerful aftershocks destroy the world completely. This group of heroes includes Dr Jonathan Meta, the 23rd century scientist who caused the event; Amber Richardson, from modern day, first century Celt Cam; world war two veteran Sergeant Blake; Victorian conman Professor Winston Harcourt; and nineteenth century journalist Nellie Bly.

This mismatched team have a plan: get to the lab where things went wrong and fix stuff; but this doesn’t last particularly long into the book. Unfortunately for them they run afoul of Meta’s evil counterpart, Dr Colonel Janos Mehta. Now, it’s not really clear who this person is, except that he looks and sounds exactly like Meta, including his strange eyes, but comes from a different time where he’s an insane mass murder. What’s the most unclear, however, is if this is an ancestor of his from Meta’s past, or if he’s from an alternate timeline.

The book sets Mehta up to be the big villain in this book, and makes him the cause for everything that goes wrong for the group, with no explanation or reasoning for his being. This is made even worse within the last pages of the book. I won’t say exactly why, as it’s a big spoiler, but things get even more confusing.

Sadly, this Mehta/Meta confusion isn’t the only thing that makes the conclusion of the book a little disappointing. A few hundred pages of the weighty 500 page book are spent in establishing just how many warring factions are making a few of the time shards in Egypt their home, and is building the way towards a conflict. But the book doesn’t deliver on this. It’s coming, but apparently not in this book. I understand that this is a part of a series, but it really felt like the conflict between these time-displaced armies would be the conclusion for this book. It felt like the war in the title is missing.

Whilst we are on the matter of the length of the book, there’s a lot in Shatter War that adds to the world; whole sections of the book where we leave the main characters behind to follow the inhabitants of the various shards. These can range from just a few pages to thirty or more. These sections create some background for the places and people that the heroes will encounter later on, but often the information presented here and the context given is stuff that comes up later on anyway. For example, we spend a while following a ship captain from ancient Egypt as he travels down the Nile for days, lost as he sails from shard to shard, before finally being discovered and captured by soldiers a thousand years from their future. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with this, we see this information relayed to the heroes later on, meaning there was no need to really see it.

This isn’t something that happens just the once, but several times across the book. We see events, then we see our heroes told about these events. This happens so often that it comes to feel that 100 or more pages are given over to these tangents. Whilst I didn’t mind one or two, it happens so often and adds so much to the length of the book that I couldn’t help but get bored by them, and even began to feel like it was being done for padding to add length to the book.

Whilst there was a lot about Shatter War that I enjoyed, especially the inclusion of the real life Nellie Bly (a totally amazing woman who should be taught about in schools!), there’s so much that’s left unexplained, and so much build-up for so small a pay off that it feels like nothing really happens for 500 pages. There may be another book coming that will answer these mysteries and give the reader a resolution, but I can’t see this being a popular middle part, as so much of this story could have been told in half the page count. Thankfully, I hadn’t read the first book, because after waiting a year and a half for another entry in the series I would have been disappointed that this is what I was given.

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