Batman without the Batman: the Gotham TV series

Finally watched Gotham last night and it’s … okay. Little more than an average police procedural, with lots of gratuitous name-dropping (or should that be bludgeoning?).

 

That pointy-nosed fellow with the umbrella was called ‘Oswald’ enough times (and then ‘Penguin’ a couple more just in case we missed the subtleties) that even someone who didn’t have a clue about the Batman universe (and why should they even be watching in the first place?) would be feeling over-informed.

 

A young girl with an obvious thing for plants declared “I’m Ivy!” in a clear, strong voice – just in case those at the back didn’t get it. Young Bruce Wayne – even though traumatised at witnessing his parents’ deaths – managed to give Jim Gordon a description of the murderer that was forensic in its detail. A young girl dressed in black – with an uncanny climbing ability – was the only one who wasn’t verbally identified, but her feeding a stray cat with stolen milk might just be a clue.

 

Everyone’s future characters were underlined in such lumpen, clumsy fashion that it felt like I was constantly being nudged violently in the ribs and winked at whilst the programme makers shouted “You get it?” loudly into both ears.

 

And why is Sean Pertwee talking in a lousy Mockney accent? Does he think he’s going to grow up into Michael Cain, or something?

 

In fact the most intriguing facet of the whole unsubtle shouting match was the physical resemblance shared by Alfred and Jim Gordon – I can’t believe it was accidental. Someone trying to say something about the two surrogate fathers in Bruce Wayne’s/Batman’s life?

 

It’s early days yet but at the moment the programme is managing to be arch whilst at the same time too much on the nose. I’ll keep watching, of course, in the hope that like Agents of SHIELD and Arrow it’ll grow stronger as the series progresses. Then again, it could be the next Smallville; that’s a depressing thought…

Pulp Heroes: Martin Gately

Martin is the author of "The Sons of Crystal City": a masked adventuter story for THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES 2.

Would you like to briefly introduce yourself: what inspired your writing and when you began, and – if possible – of all of your published work could you tell me which your favourites are (and why)?

 

I suppose in a roundabout way my writing was inspired by Earl Hamner, the creator of THE WALTONS – I was heavily influenced at age seven or so by the fact that John-Boy wanted to be a writer. And by the fact that my grandmother assured me that my writing was as good as anything appearing on the kids’ page of the local paper … the inference being that there was therefore money to be made (which there was).

 

I attempted to enter the world of writing full time in my early twenties, and this is when I did the work of which I am most proud – on DC Thomson’s STARBLAZER comic. One of my STARBLAZER stories was illustrated by the great maestro of Argentine comic artists Quiqué Alcatena – a true genius. I had the pleasure of working with him on two further occasions; firstly on the ‘comics novella’ SHERWOOD JUNGLE which starred that well known King Features character The Phantom, and also on a one-off comic strip for Fortean Times called THE CRYPTID KID. This was obviously written in one of my more egomaniacal moments since the strip is hosted Rod Serling-style by a younger version of myself.

 

Do you have a favourite genre, or sub-genre? What exactly is it that attracts you?

 

My favourite genre to read is fantasy: Moorcock or Robert E Howard, with Lovecraftian horror running a close second. The attraction with fantasy is, of course, entering a fully realised world.

 

Fantasy is also what I write most easily. However, I have found that you don’t pick the genre, the genre picks you. I seem to have written a lot of detective fiction in the last few years, including two Sherlock Holmes stories.

 

Some say Pulp is a genre, others a style; which side do you come down on?

 

It’s some sort of interlocking of both, I guess. The pulps of the 1930s covered many different genres: sport, detective, western, fantasy and SF. Pulp isn’t a comment or expectation on the quality of the writing – don’t forget that Tennessee Williams wrote for WEIRD TALES.  When I think of Pulp now, what first springs to mind are proto-super heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow. It’s possible to see the influence of those two characters on, say, the Fantastic Four and the Jedi from Star Wars. So Pulp has also been a platform on which other sub-genres (super-heroes and space opera) have been built. I suppose what Pulp was in reality was a colossal market for writers, and what we have now is just some vestigial temporal echo of that.

 

What was the inspiration for “The Sons of Crystal City”?

 

Well, it’s kind of an unabashed Green Hornet pastiche – I love the old GREEN HORNET TV show and in particular the performances of Van Williams and Bruce Lee. Sadly, there wasn’t a big budget Green Hornet movie in the 60s like there was for Batman (the fashion was for high camp and the Hornet was always played reasonably straight) but if there had been perhaps it might’ve resembled this story. The serious aspect to this tale is around the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. While my personal view is that internment was an utter disgrace, it is, arguably, comprehensible as a reflex action in the context of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Less understandable are the modern day apologists who say what fine places the relocation camps were, whilst taking umbrage at any suggestion that they were concentration camps.

 

Other inspirations include … the anti-Japanese sentiment in one of the 1940s Batman movie serials, DR STRANGELOVE (of course!) and The Spider – I think somebody once said that in the world of the Spider, every day is like 9/11 – and that was certainly part of what I was aiming for; you are ‘behind the scenes’ on what just might turn out to be doomsday.

 

Do you have a particular favourite author, or authors? What is it about their work which appeals to you?

 

My favourite authors are Roger Zelazny and Philip José Farmer, in the sense that they are my writing heroes.   I think the Amber series stands out as an extraordinary work of imagination and originality. JACK OF SHADOWS is also excellent. Farmer’s fictional ‘biographies’ (DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE and TARZAN ALIVE) works are another high watermark for me. These are the books which inspired the whole Wold Newton Family concept and sub-culture. Farmer was an incredibly daring writer and books like A FEAST UNKNOWN and BLOWN still have the power to shock. Of his more straightforward novels, TIME’S LAST GIFT and THE GREEN ODYSSEY are two of my favourites.

 

Outside writing, what else occupies your time (assuming you have any free time left)?

 

My time is spent raising two children who seem to be far more intelligent and better adjusted than I ever was … I wouldn’t be surprised if they took over the World, or ruled the Galaxy as brother and sister, or something.

 

Is there any particular style of music – or musicians – which appeals to you?

 

Imagine the musical tastes of Alan Partridge, only slightly worse. I’ll make it easier for you: Geoff Love’s album STAR WARS AND OTHER DISCO GALACTIC THEMES is on my iPod. The videos I’ve most frequently posted to my FB page are probably I LOST MY HEART TO A STARSHIP TROOPER and the theme to the LOGAN’S RUN TV show (surely one of the most sublime pieces of music ever composed). Earlier in the week I was listening to some Perry Como.

 

When I am writing, I tend to listen to random movie soundtracks: Ron Grainer’s OMEGA MAN, Jerry Goldsmith, FIRST BLOOD, CAPRICORN ONE; John William’s DRACULA and JAWS 2 – these latter two are particularly good because I don’t know the movies that well, so there is no visual interference from them (i.e. I’m not reminded of what’s happening in the movie as I listen). The problem is that I can’t write in total silence, nor with anyone singing, nor with purely classical music.

 

What are you currently working on?

 

There are a few things I’ve worked on this year which I’ve mentally filed under ‘too good to be true’ so I won’t inadvertently curse them by mentioning them now… But, officially I can tell you that I’m writing a novel for Jean-Marc Lofficier’s Black Coat Press called THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA IN PERSIA. Jean-Marc also produces an excellent anthology series called TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN. I’ve had stories in the last couple of volumes and I’m just finishing off my submission for Volume 10 which again features the French public domain inspiration for Jonathan Creek: Joseph Rouletabille.

Agents of SHEESH (with apologies)

 

I’ve been a fan of American comic-book superheroes for decades; in fact one of my earliest memories is of going on holiday, on a coach (we didn’t have a car at the time) reading a Green Lantern comic – over and over, as only young children can. I discovered Marvel comics several years later and became an instant convert to the garish, OTT universe its characters inhabited (at the time DC was definitely in the doldrums – despite having the lion’s share of the market – with repetitive and frequently boring storylines). These days I don’t hold a torch for either company – preferring individual characters (such as the Batman) or artists (like Howard Chaykin) over universes which are becoming mind-numbingly over-complex. When they’re not getting the far too frequent reinvention and clear-out treatment. But when movie technology finally caught up with the visual insanity of the comic-book worlds, I for one was delighted.

 

I think it’s fair to say that, in the movies anyway, Marvel is doing slightly better, with the separate X-Men, Spider-Man and Iron Man/Thor/Captain America franchises. The Batman and Superman films (all of the sequels and re-boots) have had their successes – but Green Lantern was, I’m sad to say, a disappointment (doubly so for me for, as a youngster, the Gil Kane illustrated Green Lantern and Carmine Infantino’s Flash were my favourite characters). Talk of a Justice League movie remains just that – talk – whilst Avengers Assemble has not only spawned a cartoon version, but has been spun out into the Joss Whedon produced Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. Which is where everything gets flipped.

 

 

Over the past couple of decades there have been various attempts to get superheroes on TV. I won’t mention the Dr Strange and Captain America TV movies, both of which suffered from tiny budgets; nor do I intend to cover The Hulk or Wonder Woman (other than to say the first was simply The Fugitive all over again, and the second a camp throwback to the mid-60s Batman show). In the wake of the X-Men films there was a dire series named Mutant X which somehow managed to survive three seasons; whilst the DCU came up with Birds of Prey (based on the comic of the same name) which was cancelled before all of the first season was aired (don’t ask me why: it was far from perfect, but still superior to Mutant X) Some years earlier there had been a Flash TV series which only lasted one season even though it was quite fun and – unlike Hulk and Wonder Woman – actually had a few super villains (such as Mark Hamill’s Trickster). And of course Supes was represented by both The New Adventures of Superman (aka Lois and Clark) and Smallville, both of which had long runs and – in the case of Smallville anyway – did a good job of presenting a version of the DCU to a largely unfamiliar audience. Plus there were all the cartoon series: Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Justice League, X-Men and the Avengers.

 

 

Notice something: with the exception of the animated series, nearly all of these shows are based on DC characters.

 

Which brings us up to the present day: the DCU represented by Arrow; Marvel by Agents of SHIELD. And what a difference. Whilst Marvel certainly has got into its stride with movies, they’re still lagging on TV.

 

Based on the Green Arrow comic book, Arrow seems to be more a spiritual twin to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy: shadowy, angst-filled – there’s even a budding Batman/James Gordon style relationship building in the second series between Arrow and the demoted policeman Quentin Lance. Although aiming less for the spandex look, there’s still an impressive roster of characters from the DCU: Deathstroke, Deadshot, Roy Harper (Oliver Queen’s younger sister, Thea, already has the nickname Speedy – so it’ll be intriguing to see where that goes); Black Canary has become an established part of season two, with the promise of Barry Allen/the Flash later. Although it’s occasionally a little too po-faced the series is confident, and clearly knows where it’s going.

 

 

Agents of SHIELD, on the other hand, is so far suffering from what I can only see as a failure of nerve. Growing out of the crazy Marvel universe (in many ways a direct sequel to Avengers Assemble), with Joss Whedon at the helm I had expected so much more. SHIELD was Marvel’s answer to James Bond and The Man from UNCLE, and the comics were brash and OTT: operatives typically dressed in form-fitting one-piece suits, with shoulder holsters that held something far more exotic than a Glock automatic. They even have a flying aircraft carrier. So why, when AoS finally hit our screens is it so much like any number of other cops-with-fancy-technology shows? To be blunt, the hardware on display in CSI:NY was more fantastic than most of what Agent Coulson and his band of cyphers have so far encountered. It doesn’t matter how many times they name-check Captain America, this doesn’t feel like the same universe in which New York was invaded by a gang of other-dimensional creatures, master-minded by a Norse god, and involving a death-worshipping alien. It’s just too ordinary. Audiences in both the US and UK must feel the same, as viewing figures in both countries drop weekly. Unless things change, I don’t see AoS being picked up for a second season.

 

 

But maybe I’m being overly pessimistic. Recently I’ve started rewatching the first season of Babylon 5 – and I’m surprised at just how bad it is, with no sign of the heights it would attain in later years (ignoring the final series, which should never have been made). So perhaps AoS will make it yet; perhaps they’re still establishing the characters, and we may expect some real Marvel comic-book action. I hope so.

Bring back Hydra I say, introduce AIM (both have been name-checked either in the series or the films) – and let’s throw the automatic pistols away in favour of shoulder-holstered blasters, before it’s too late.