I wanted to briefly note the death of fantasy writer Rachel Pollack, who passed away on April 7th aged 77 years old.
Pollack began publishing short fiction in 1971, and her first novel Golden Vanity was released in 1980. Her 1988 novel Unquenchable Fire brought her widespread recognition & acclaim and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel a year later.
Unquenchable Fire is a very complex, sophisticated story that examines faith, spirituality and feminism. I don’t even know how to begin summarizing the plot to the novel here, so I’ll just quote the New York Times obituary for Pollack, which describes the book’s premise thus:
“the story of a divorced woman in New York State who becomes pregnant with the messiah in a United States where miracles are commonplace”
I definitely feel it’s worth searching out a copy of Unquenchable Fire, as I found it to be a thought-provoking read. It is one one the books I’ve made sure to hold on to throughout the multiple apartment moves I’ve made over the past quarter century.
As with many comic book readers, I first became aware of Pollack’s work when she was hired by editor Tom Peyer to succeed Grant Morrison on the DC Comics / Vertigo series Doom Patrol. Morrison’s incredibly bizarre, surreal revamp of Doom Patrol with artist Richard Case in 1989 had been justifiably acclaimed. As such, when Morrison departed the series at the end of 1992, the general consensus was that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to follow on from him.
Doom Patrol #70 written by Rachel Pollack, penciled by Scot Eaton, inked by Tom Sutton, lettered by John Workman, colored by Tom Ziuko and edited by Tom Peyer & Lou Stathis, published by DC Comics / Vertigo in Sept 1993
Pollack wrote Doom Patrol beginning with issue #64, cover-dated March 1993. Initially working with Richard Case, Pollack was subsequently paired with artists Scot Eaton, Linda Medley and Ted McKeever, with striking cover artwork by Tom Taggart and Kyle Baker.
Among the themes Pollack addressed in her Doom Patrol run was transsexuality, a topic that in the mid-1990s was practically taboo in mainstream entertainment. Pollack herself was a transgender woman, and as such the subject was vitally important to her. She added the character of Kate Godwin aka Coagua, who in a 2103 interview she described as a “transsexual lesbian super-hero with alchemical powers,” to the series’ cast in issue #70.
Pollack remained on Doom Patrol thru issue #87 in early 1995, at which point the series was canceled. Perhaps that might be regarded as an indication that Morrison’s work on the title could not immediately be succeeded after all. Nevertheless, during Pollack’s two years writing Doom Patrol she crafted some incredibly distinctive stories.
Pollack’s work on the series has subsequently been classified by a number of people as underrated. Last year DC Comics finally released a Doom Patrol Omnibus collecting her entire run. Pollack’s issues can also be read digitally on DC Universe Infinite.
Doom Patrol #81 cover drawn by Kyle Baker, published by DC Comics / Vertigo in August 1994
I was fortunate enough to meet Pollack in June 1994 when she did a store signing with her friend and fellow writer Elaine Lee. I got the then-current issue of Doom Patrol autographed by Pollack. I found her to be a very interesting individual. At the time I was only 18 years old, and so I had quite a few questions about the mature subjects she had been including in her stories, and she very patiently answered my inquiries. It was at this signing that I found out about Pollack’s work as a novelist, which led me to seek out Unquenchable Fire later that Summer.
Following the cancellation of Doom Patrol, Pollack and Peyer reunited to work on a reboot of Jack Kirby’s New Gods for DC Comics. The two co-wrote the first six issues of New Gods, with Pollack then writing issues #7 to #11 solo.
Although her New Gods was much more of a mainstream project than Doom Patrol, it was still on the unconventional side. It’s a series that I will hopefully have an opportunity to take a more in-depth look at in an upcoming blog post.
The Vertigo Tarot written by Rachel Pollack and illustrated by Dave McKean, published by DC Comcis / Vertigo in 1995
Pollack was also a recognized authority on tarot, and wrote extensively on the subject. Neil Gaiman had consulted with Pollack when he utilized the tarot-reading sorceress Madame Xanadu in his own work, the four-issue miniseries The Books of Magic published in 1990. Subsequently Pollack wrote the text for The Vertigo Tarot deck, which featured artwork by Gaiman’s frequent collaborator Dave McKean and an introduction by Gaiman.
Pollack continued writing both fiction and non-fiction in the 21st Century. She was also a longtime, vocal activist for transgender rights.
For further information on Rachel Pollack and her fascinating works I recommend going to her website, which remains online.
The Jewish holiday of Chanukah is coming up, which makes this a good time to look at one of the most famous Jewish heroes in comic books: Benjamin Jacob Grimm, the orange super-strong rock-like Thing from the Fantastic Four.
The Fantastic Four, who made their debut in August 1961, were created by two Jews, writer/editor Stan Lee (born Stanley Lieber) and co-plotter/penciler Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg). The Thing was never identified as any particular religion by Lee & Kirby. However, the personality & background of Ben Grimm, a gruff-taking, street-smart, working-class Joe who grew up on the rough & tumble streets of the Lower East Side during the Great Depression, was similar to Kirby. It was often suggested that Ben Grimm was a semi-autobiographical creation. Interviewed in 1987, Kirby acknowledged the similarities…
“Yes, everybody I’ve talked to has compared me to Ben Grimm and perhaps I’ve got his temperament, I’ve got his stubbornness, probably, and I suppose if I had his strength, I’d be conservative with it. Ben Grimm is that way… If he uses his strength, he’ll use it in a justifiable manner– to save somebody, or to help somebody, or to see that fairness grows and evolves and helps people.”
In a 1976 Chanukah card Kirby drew the Thing as Jewish. It’s unknown if this meant that Kirby actually saw Ben Grimm as Jewish, or if it was just a humorous bit he did for a card he was sending to his family & friends. Nonetheless, for years this fueled speculation among both comic book fans and creators that the Thing could be Jewish.
The Thing’s faith was finally identified in Fantastic Four volume 3 #56 (August 2002). “Remembrance of Things Past” was written by Karl Kesel and drawn by Stuart Immonen & Scott Koblish. A brooding Thing finds himself back on Yancy Street, where he grew up decades earlier. He runs into Hiram Sheckerberg, a curmudgeonly pawn shop owner who knows Ben Grimm from way back when. The still-cranky Sheckerberg at first mistakenly believes the Thing is part of an extortion racket that is threatening him. However the true culprit soon turns up at the pawn shop: Powderkeg, aka “the man with the explosive aura,” a super-powered thug whose shtick is that he literally sweats nitroglycerine.
The Thing defeats Powderkeg, but during the fight Sheckerberg is knocked out. Believing the old man is dead or dying, the Thing begins say the Mourner’s Kaddish. It turns out Sheckerberg was only stunned. After getting to his feet, the crabby pawn shop owner addresses the Thing…
Sheckerberg: It’s good, too, to see you haven’t forgotten what you learned at Temple, Benjamin. All these years in the news, they never mentioned you’re Jewish. I thought maybe you were ashamed of it a little?
The Thing: Nah, that ain’t it. Anyone on the internet can find out, if they want. It’s just… I don’t talk it up, is all. Figure there’s enough trouble in this world without people thinkin’ Jews are all monsters like me.
Sheckerberg disagrees with the Thing’s assessment that he is a monster, reminding him of the legend of the Golem…
“He was a being made of clay — but he wasn’t a monster. He was a protector.”
The police and paramedics soon arrive. The Thing, having wrapped up Powderkeg in a lamppost, is ready to hand over the thug to the authorities. But first we get this little exchange…
Powderkeg: And you’re really Jewish?
The Thing: There a problem with that?
Powderkeg: No! No, it’s just… you don’t look Jewish.
In the decade and a half since that story, the Thing’s faith has been addressed by subsequent writers, usually in passing. I feel this is the best way to handle it, showing him as a super-hero who happens to be Jewish, rather than making his faith the central, defining aspect of his character.
Nevertheless, on occasion Ben Grimm’s religion has been addressed head-on, such as in the story “Last Hand” written by Dan Slott and drawn by Kieron Dwyer, in The Thing #8 (August 2006).
Sheckerberg and Rabbi Lowenthal approach Grimm about having a Bar Mitzvah. The Thing is confused, pointing out that he is much older than 13. Sheckerberg observes that it has been 13 years since Grimm was reborn as the Thing. A reluctant Grimm agrees, spending the next month studying with Sheckerberg and Lowenthal. Finally the big day comes.
It’s worth nothing that Ben’s Haftorah is from the Book of Job, which is not part of the Jewish Old Testament. However this nevertheless in an appropriate choice on Slott’s part, given the struggles that Ben has been forced to endure since his transformation.
The Thing’s faith has also been mentioned in a few Holiday Specials, with Ben being shown observing Chanukah instead of Christmas.
Truthfully, Chanukah is not a major Jewish holiday, not like Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. However, Chanukah typically falls in the month of December, around the time of Christmas. The exact dates vary from year to year, since the Jewish faith is based around a lunar calendar rather than a solar one. (Yeah, that’s Jews for you; we just have to be different!) Because of its close proximity to Christmas, often Jews will exchange gifts.
“Chinese Food for Christmas” written by Jamie S. Rich and drawn by Paco Diaz appeared in the Marvel Holiday Special 2011. Playing on the idea that Jews go out for Chinese food on Christmas, the Thing is planning to attend a big Chinese buffet organized by Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat of the X-Men, Marvel’s other significant Jewish hero.
En route to dinner, the Thing encounters an odd creature that has been stealing Christmas decorations. It turns out the creature was trying to put together a Christmas party for the orphans at the Yancy Street Children’s Home, which ran out of money. Ben Grimm invites the kids and their odd benefactor to the buffet dinner, where we see Shadowcat, as well as several other Jewish heroes, namely Moon Knight, Songbird, Sasquatch and Wiccan.
Casting my mind back to 2002, I recall that I was genuinely thrilled to find out that the Thing was Jewish. When I was a kid, I was definitely shy & insecure. In general I didn’t feel like I fit in. The fact that I was Jewish added to that, giving me one more thing about which to feel different. This was especially true in December, when everywhere you turned it was Christmas all the time.
It’s worth noting that I felt this way even though I lived in New York, which has a significant Jewish population. I can only imagine how much more of an outsider I would have felt if I had grown up in a different part of the country.
My experiences when I was younger definitely led me to appreciate the importance of representation in pop culture. When I was a kid there were very few Jewish characters in movies, television or comic books. This left me with almost no one to identify with, which exacerbated my feelings of being different. I was already in my mid-twenties when the Thing was revealed to be Jewish, but it nevertheless felt really significant to me that one of the most iconic Marvel Comics characters was revealed to be Jewish.
There was an excellent piece written last year by Mordechai Luchins, “That Time My Four Year-Old Schooled Me on Representation.” I definitely agree with the sentiments expressed by the author. It is crucial to have diversity in pop culture. Just as I really wanted, and needed, for there to be Jewish heroes in the stories I read and watched, so too do women, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, the LGBT community and other groups want and need the same thing.
I think it is very easy for some white Christian males to take for granted that the majority of the characters in movies and television and comic books and other media look & sound like them. I really hope that these people will eventually come to understand the importance of diversity, and to realize that pop culture is big enough for all of us.
Whoever you are, whatever you celebrate, I hope that you all have a very happy holiday season.
I have been following with interest the events in Rowan County, Kentucky. Since the Supreme Court handed down their decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26th legalizing same-sex marriage, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has refused to issue marriage licenses. Davis has cited her sincerely held religious beliefs as an Apostolic Christian, specifically her opposition to homosexuality, as the reason why she should be exempted from issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples.
Represented by the ultra-conservative Liberty Counsel, Davis took her case all the way to the Supreme Court. On August 31st they declined to stay the United States District Court’s ruling that Davis must issue marriage licenses to all applicants. In response, Davis continued to refuse to issue licenses, arguing that she was acting “under God’s authority.” In a statement earlier this week Davis declared:
“To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision.”
Finally, on September 3rd Davis was jailed by Federal District Judge David L. Bunning for contempt of court. Bunning ordered Davis’ deputy clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses, which they did the following day.
I have no doubt that Davis’ beliefs are deeply and passionately felt. Nevertheless, for several reasons, her actions are wrong.
“She gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband. They were fathered by her third husband but adopted by her second. Davis worked at the clerk’s office at the time of each divorce and has since remarried.”
I am not a Christian. Nevertheless I know how to use Google. After conducting a quick search I came across this passage:
“But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.” – Matthew 5:32
Davis’ attorney argued that whatever her past sins, when she converted to Apostolic Christianity four years ago it wiped the slate clean, and she has been a God-fearing, righteous woman since then. That’s more than a bit convenient! But let’s go with that. Even if that was the case, are we to believe that Davis didn’t issue any marriage licenses to divorced people since she found God? If she now values the sanctity of matrimony so much, shouldn’t she be denying not just gay people licenses but also people who were previously married?
Second, the argument that she should not have to perform the duties of her job because they violate her ethical and moral beliefs is nonsensical. Most people will be able to tell you about occasions when their jobs required them to perform tasks that they found onerous.
Speaking from personal experience, I worked at a health insurance company for seven years. On several occasions that company canceled group short term disability policies held by businesses because they had too many claims. I was told to inform those businesses that A) their policy was canceled and B) they still had to send us their past due premiums. I thought it was wrong to cancel policies like that. But I did what my bosses told me to because I had bills to pay and I did not want to get fired. I did not say to them “I refuse to perform my job because what you are asking me to do is against my personal moral beliefs, but I expect you to still keep me on as an employee.” If I had really felt that strongly then I should have just resigned.
And that is what Davis should have done. If you believe that you cannot perform your job without violating your “sincerely held religious beliefs” then quit and find a new job that will not present that conflict.
Just imagine if a situation similar to this occurred with, say, an ultra-conservative Muslim man who worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles. Suppose that Muslim refused to issue drivers licenses to women due to his religious beliefs. I fully expect that the same ultra right-wing conservatives who are championing Davis’ cause would be utterly aghast at this. They would be screaming in horror about “Sharia law” and predicting the downfall of America. But because Davis is a white Christian woman she is a “martyr” whose religious liberty is being trampled, or some such nonsense.
“County clerk jobs are worth quite a bit. Davis earns about $80,000 a year in a county where per capita income is about $15,600 and median household income just under $30,000, according to recent numbers from the U.S. Census.”
Davis wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants to follow the dictates of her faith and keep her well-paying position. In this matter another Bible verse immediately comes to mind:
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” – Matthew 6:24
Third, Davis and her lawyers argued that gay couples simply travel to the next county and obtain marriage licenses there. To which I would respond, why should same sex couples be subjected to an inconvenience that heterosexual couples do not have to deal with? And let us say that these couples did travel to the next county to obtain licenses. What happens if they get there and that county’s clerk, due to his or her “sincerely held religious beliefs”, also decides not to issue them licenses? How far do these couples have to travel before it becomes utterly unreasonable? Fifty miles? One hundred miles? Five hundred miles? How much is too much?
In any case, the whole “go to the next county” argument is more than a bit reminiscent of segregation. It is like a black person being told “No, you cannot use this water fountain, it is for whites only, but there’s another water fountain out back that you’re allowed to use.” Simply put, that is humiliating. It is an affront to basic human dignity.
Fourth, and most important, the United States is not a theocracy. We have a very clear separation of church and state.
“Many of us make important decisions in our daily lives grounded in our religious values and beliefs. That should be respected, even perhaps, applauded. However when one chooses to take an oath of office or accepts a position as a public official in a secular constitutional democracy like ours, she has a responsibility to do the job she was hired to do. Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s job requires her to issue marriage licenses to anyone who may legally get married.
Likewise, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear stated that upon being elected Davis swore an oath of office to perform her duties. Therefore:
“Neither your oath nor the Supreme Court dictates what you must believe. But as elected officials, they do prescribe how we must act.”
Davis’ religious freedoms are not being suppressed or discriminated against. She still has the right to go to church and worship God in the manner she wishes. She is not being asked to change her mind about gay marriage. When she is not at work she is free to get on a soapbox and preach to the world about the supposed evils of homosexuality, or to spend all her free time campaigning for the passage of a Constitutional amendment outlawing same sex marriages.
But when Davis is in the County Clerk’s office, acting in an official capacity as an agent of the state, she must perform the duties of her job. Either that or she must resign.
Yes, some laws are bad and should be fought. But there are proper methods to challenge unjust statues, by court actions, peaceful protest and civil disobedience. A person cannot simply argue “This law is wrong, I refuse to follow it, and I am going to perform my job the way I personally believe it should be done. Now go away and leave me alone.”
If Davis is accommodated in this case it would set a dangerous precedent. Imagine if any government employee could refuse to follow orders or perform their duties due to ethical or religious concerns? The result would be complete chaos.
Perhaps you may be wondering why I, as a heterosexual male, feel so passionately about this. Why am I happy about the Supreme Court’s decision in June? Why am I so alarmed by the actions of Kim Davis and others like her?
Well, in addition to actually possessing empathy for other human beings and feeling distress at seeing others denied equality, there is also my personal background. I was born & raised Jewish. Growing up I learned all about the immense suffering and discrimination that Jews experienced over the centuries in countries that had an official state religion. I am a very firm believer in the separation of church and state.
So when I see the rational for denying gay couples the right to marry as “God defined marriage as between a man and a woman” or “the Bible says homosexuality is a sin,” no, I am not going to stand for it. Keep your religion out of my government.
“Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.” – James Madison (1789)
The United States Supreme Court issued two major decisions this week. The first of these once again upheld the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. I previously wrote about the ACA three years ago and my feelings remain pretty much the same. So feel free to go to that blog post for my opinions concerning that issue.
The other decision arrived at by the Supreme Court, via a 5 to 4 vote, was to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The four liberal and four conservative justices all voted as expected, with the deciding vote cast by Justice Anthony Kennedy.
In cases such as these, where the Court has been split down ideological lines, Kennedy has often (but not always) been the deciding vote. Kennedy is something of a moderate Conservative, so it sometimes can be difficult to predict which way his swing vote will go. There was a great deal of speculation as to whether, in voting in this case, Kennedy would maintain his long-held belief in the importance of gay rights, or if he would decide that this was an issue left up to the individual states.
In the end, Kennedy decided in favor of same-sex marriage, and he wrote the majority opinion.
Carlos McKnight of Washington waves a flag in support of same-sex marriage outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, June 26. (Photo courtesy of CNN.com)
With the 2016 race for the Presidency already under way (and, oh man, the election is over a year away and I’m already getting burned out by all of this nonsense) I fully expect that this is going to become yet another major issue. I’m sure that most of the Republican candidates (how many are we up to at this point?) are already using the Court’s ruling on gay marriage to forecast gloom & doom, fire & brimstone retribution from the Almighty, and the imminent collapse of civilization as we know it.
You know what? To hell with them and their hate-mongering.
Honestly, why does it matter if gay people marry? To anyone who genuinely believes that homosexuality is a sin, I ask you this: how exactly does it affect your life if two total strangers who happen to be gay choose to get married? If you disapprove, well, fine. You are entitled to your personal opinions. There are plenty of things in this world that I believe are immoral. But I do not go around legislating my beliefs.
If two people, two consenting adults, love one another, then why should they not be able to get married? How is it anyone else’s business?
In the majority opinion, Justice Kennedy states:
“The right to marry is fundamental as a matter of history and tradition, but rights come not from ancient sources alone. They rise, too, from a better informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives define a liberty that remains urgent in our own era. Many who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here. But when that sincere, personal opposition becomes enacted law and public policy, the necessary consequence is to put the imprimatur of the State itself on an exclusion that soon demeans or stigmatizes those whose own liberty is then denied. Under the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couples, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right.”
Despite what some will claim, marriage is a civil institution, not a religious one. If you want to be married legally, it must be officiated by a justice of the peace or some other agent of the state. The Court’s ruling is not going to suddenly force priests and rabbis to conduct gay marriages in their churches and synagogues. I expect that most gay couples are just going to head down to City Hall and tie the knot there. So, no, this is not going to impose upon your religious rights.
Honestly, this is a country that is supposed to have separation of church and state. All the attempts to make gay marriage illegal purely on the basis of faith are a prime example of why religion and politics should not become intertwined.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
I find it ironic that the Republican Party of the 21st Century, the so-called “party of small government,” is so often expanding government intrusion into people’s personal lives, deciding who can and cannot marry, passing judgment on sexual behavior, interfering in the decisions that should be made between a patient and a doctor, and so on. It seems to me that their idea of “small government” is allowing Big Business to operate in the most reckless manner with absolutely no oversight or restraint, while at the same time prying into the private affairs of citizens in order to appease the Religious Right whose votes they so desperately court.
Besides, I am sick of watching bigots cherry-pick Bible verses to justify their intolerance, forcing their narrow-minded views on the whole of society. This is why I wholeheartedly believe that faith should be a personal matter.
There are so many problems facing the United States: massive income inequality, unemployment, racism, sexism, inadequate access to medical care, pollution, climate change, terrorism and global political instability. Those are the issues we need to be worried about, not gay marriage.
I have met gay couples who have been together for many years, who have healthy & stable relationships. And I have met heterosexual couples who simply have no business being married, who have gotten to the point where they hate each other’s guts, and a divorce is probably the only things that is going to keep them from killing one another. Heterosexuality is absolutely no guarantee that a marriage will work.
My congratulations to the LGBT community on their victory today. I hope that there be further progress made in obtaining equal protection under the law in the near future.
Michele and I are both fans of Paul Williams. He is an amazing songwriter and singer. I am not ashamed to say that, yes, I do have a fondness for sappy, sad, wistful love songs. Williams has penned many memorable tunes of that sort. I always seem to get at least a little misty-eyed whenever I hear Kermit the Frog singing “The Rainbow Connection,” co-written by Williams and Kenneth Ascher, for which they deservedly earned Ocsar nominations. More recently, Williams collaborated with Daft Punk on their Grammy-winning album Random Access Memories.
Williams also starred in, and wrote the music for, the superb cult classic movie Phantom of the Paradise which I’ve blogged about previously (here’s a link). Among his other acting credits that I’ve enjoyed were his portrayal of Virgil the scientist/philosopher orangutan from Battle for the Planet of the Apes, appearing as himself on The Odd Couple and The Muppet Show, voicing The Penguin on Batman: The Animated Series, and playing an animated version of himself on Dexter’s Laboratory. I’m probably forgetting a few other good ones.
For a number of years Williams struggled with alcohol & drug addiction. He has been sober since March 15, 1990. Since then, he has been active in the recovery movement, working as a Certified Drug Rehabilitation Counselor.
Author Tracey Jackson is, on the other hand, not an addict, at least as far as substances such as booze or pills are concerned. But for many years she found herself trapped in a pattern of repeating a variety of self-destructive behaviors to compensate for and avoid dealing with her unhappiness.
I enjoyed hearing Williams and Jackson reading from Gratitude & Trust, and listening to their Q & A. I had a great deal of identification with both of them, and I felt they offered very helpful suggestions for people who are in recovery.
It is true that you do not have to abuse alcohol or drugs to be an addict. And once you put down those substances you can still end up not having a sober mindset if you merely substitute your addition to those for other things. Even if you do not have a problem with mind-altering substances, there is so much out there to become addicted to: food, money, shopping, sex, work, gambling, fame, anger, the Internet, etc. And, yes, that includes comic books and caffeine, I acknowledge with a definite self-awareness!
I do not know if it is a quality of Western society or of humanity in general, but we often cope with unhappiness and dissatisfaction via outside remedies or distractions. We seek material possessions and the validation of others over addressing the defects of character that lie within us. Instead of addressing our flaws and working to put behind us the traumas of our pasts, we look for ways to get out of our heads. It is actually understandable, because it is far easier, at least in the short term, to grab hold of something that will give us momentary satisfaction, than to commence at the hard, unflinchingly honest work that is necessary to address our underlying unhappiness.
Perhaps there is also that impetus of self-reliance, the myth of pulling yourself up by your boot-straps, at play, upon which much of Western society is rooted. We are more likely to try to solve problems on our own than to turn to others for assistance, seeing that as a sign of weakness. But often there are tasks and struggles we cannot overcome without the help or advice of others.
And then there is the issue of God. I can definitely understand why many people recoil at that word, and at the thought of praying to some nebulous deity for strength & assistance. There are so many examples of organized religions acting in an imperious, oppressive manner throughout the world, movements and organizations rife with hypocrisy & corruption, so much so that we often wish to slam the door on God. But it is a fact that some people do find great comfort in their faith. I am a firm believer in the vital importance of individual spirituality. What works for me may not work for you. Each person should be free to work on developing their relationship with the Higher Power of their understanding.
Williams and Jackson definitely address these concepts within Gratitude & Trust. The book is their attempt to take the principals of recovery that have been utilized by alcoholics & drug addicts over the decades and demonstrate how these can also be utilized by others to improve their lives, to find serenity and peace of mind. I certainly applaud their efforts. I’m looking forward to reading their book. Hopefully I’ll be able to put these suggestions into practice into my own life.
Photo by Michele Witchipoo
So, yes, it was definitely very cool meeting Paul Williams at Barnes & Noble. I’m afraid that I was terribly nervous, and I forgot to tell him how much I was a fan of his acting & music throughout the decades. But I did let him know that I appreciated that he and Tracey Jackson penned this volume. I hope he heard me, since I was probably mumbling a bit!
Anyway, I think that Gratitude & Trust is worth a look. Considering how many of us attempt to look for relief in a bottle of whiskey or a pint of Ben & Jerry’s or a shopping spree at Macy’s or whatever your particular vice is, this book offers a more constructive alternative to the very difficult task of living life on life’s terms.
Michele recently took out from the library the DVD of the 2012 movie Prometheus directed by Ridley Scott. Neither of us had seen it before, and it turned out to be quite good. It also transpires that next month Dark Horse will be releasing the first issue of Prometheus: Fire and Stone, a miniseries which follows on from the events of the movie. So, yeah, good timing on Michele’s part! Since that Dark Horse comic book is in the pipeline, now is an ideal time to look at the original movie.
Prometheus is written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. It is set in the same fictional universe as the Alien film series, the first installment of which Ridley Scott directed in 1979. It is not, strictly speaking, a prequel, but it does tie in with some of heretofore unexplained background elements of that first film.
Set at the end of the 21st Century, Prometheus is the story of an expedition to discover the origins of humanity. Having located identical star charts among the ruins of numerous ancient Earth civilizations across the globe, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) believe that these are guides to the home world of an extraterrestrial race who created mankind, beings who Shaw refers to as “Engineers.” The two convince the elderly, dying trillionaire industrialist Peter Weyland (Guy Pierce) to finance an expedition to the Engineers’ planet. Shaw and Holloway, accompanied by a group of scientists and archeologists, embark aboard the spaceship Prometheus, named after the mythical figure. The expedition is headed up by the icy corporate executive Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), Weyland’s android “son” David (Michael Fassbender), and the world-weary ship’s captain Janek (Idris Elba).
Prometheus addresses the relationship between human beings and their creator, an idea previously broached in Ridley Scott’s classic Blade Runner. Shaw and Holloway are scientists and explorers, but underneath their search for facts and knowledge is a yearning to find the answer to one of the oldest questions in the world: Why are we here?
After arriving on the planet, Holloway is despondent to find it is a barren, inhospitable place, with all the Engineers long dead under mysterious circumstances. He is like a man who has lost his faith, discovering his god is a falsehood, a lie. Naturally enough, he decides to hit the bottle. While Holloway is busy drinking away his ills, the android David approaches…
David: I’m very sorry that your Engineers are all gone, Dr. Holloway.
Holloway: You think we wasted our time coming here, don’t you?
David: Your question depends on the understanding, what you hope to achieve by coming here?
Holloway: What we hope to achieve? Well, it’s to meet our makers. To get answers. Why they…why they even made us in the first place.
David: Why do you think your people made me?
Holloway: We made you ‘cause we could.
David: Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator?
A short time later, a now-drunk Holloway makes his way back to the room he shares with Shaw, with whom he is romantically involved. Still despondent, he begins to question Shaw’s faith…
Holloway: I guess you can take your father’s cross off now.
Shaw: Why would I wanna do that?
Holloway: Because they made us.
Shaw: And who made them?
Holloway: Well, exactly. We’ll never know. But here’s what we do know, that there is nothing special about the creation of life. Right? Anybody can do it. I mean, all you need is a dash of DNA and half a brain, right?
The Engineers are, in many respects, a challenge to faith, and to humanity’s sense of identity. Searching through the catacombs of the planet, the scientists discover stockpiles of bio-weapons and containers of mutagenic black slime. David accesses the Engineers’ computers, and learns that the entire complex is one giant spaceship. It was set to travel on a course for Earth, where the Engineers were going to unleash their lethal cargo. It is Captain Janek who finally connects all the pieces and presents them to Shaw:
“You know what this place is? Those, uh, Engineers, this ain’t their home. It’s an installation, maybe even military. They put it out here in the middle of nowhere, because they’re not stupid enough to make weapons of mass destruction on their own doorstep. That’s what all that shit is in those vases! They made it here, it got out! It turned on ’em! The end! It’s time for us to go home.”
And now it is Shaw’s turn to waver in her faith. Determined to find answers, she explains to David “They created us. Then they tried to kill us. They changed their minds. I deserve to know why.”
Imagine having met your makers, only to find that they were seemingly complete bastards, entities who engineered virulently lethal organic weapons, who plotted genocide against the human race. Confronted by that, you might very well ask “God, why have you forsaken me?” Or, if you wanted to put it more bluntly, “God is a jerk!” not to mention a few other choice words, I imagine.
That contentious relationship, the struggle between creator and creation, actually plays out throughout the movie. In addition to looking at it on the level of species, it is seen in the interaction between parents and children. Shaw is very much motivated by the death of her parents, and by her father’s faith. Her infertility, her inability to conceive, weighs upon her. As someone who wishes she could have children, perhaps she is appalled at how the Engineers are acting towards their figurative offspring.
The abrasive, no-nonsense Meredith Vickers is also troubled by familial relations. We eventually learn that she is the daughter of Weyland. And once this is revealed, much about Vickers makes sense. It is obvious that her father views his android creation David as much more of a child and heir than he does her. Vickers also holds tremendous resentment that Weyland desires to use the technology of the Engineers to extend his life indefinitely, thereby robbing her of her inheritance, her succession to rulership of her father’s corporate empire. Witnessing the dysfunctional relationship between Vickers and Weyland, it is not surprising that David concludes “doesn’t everyone want their parents dead?”
After I was done watching Prometheus, the wheels in my head started to turn, pondering various questions.
There is a prologue to the film where one of the Engineers is on Earth, standing atop a massive waterfall. He opens a vial of dark liquid and drinks it. His body begins to disintegrate and he plunges into the water, where a chemical reaction begins to take place. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but subsequently reading over various comments on the Internet, it seems that this was supposed to be the moment when humanity’s creation was initiated, that this Engineer sacrificed his life to give us ours.
If that is so, then the title of the movie provides a possible answer to Shaw’s question of “why.” In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole heavenly fire from the gods of Olympus and gave it to primitive man, enabling human civilization to develop & advance. Zeus punished Prometheus for this by chaining him to the face of a mountain for all eternity, among other torments, depending upon the particular version of the myth you read.
There is a school of thought that many of the stories in mythology and religion are inspired by or based upon actual historical events. Perhaps the Engineer who we see at the beginning of the movie was a Prometheus-like figure who absconded with the bio-technology of his people and traveled to earth, where he used it to create humanity. If that is the case, then the remaining Engineers would likely regard the existence of humans as a mistake or a crime. This would certainly explain why they decided to wipe out mankind.
However, a second, darker possibility also occurred to me. What if humanity is yet another bio-weapon devised by the Engineers? After all, we possess a remarkable propensity and aptitude for violence. Perhaps the Engineers came to perceive us as much too effective a creation, one that was beyond control, one that would one day develop the technology to journey to the stars and pose a direct threat to them. That would be a very good motivation for them wanting to see mankind destroyed.
Supposition and deduction aside, the film leaves the motives of the Engineers quite inscrutable. But it does offer up some answers regarding the film that inspired it.
Anyone who has seen the original Alien will no doubt remember the bizarre extraterrestrial skeleton sitting in a strange cockpit aboard the massive spacecraft that contained the nest of eggs from which the “Facehuggers” hatch. That unidentified mummified figure was nicknamed “the Space Jockey,” and for years many viewers, myself included, wondered who or what it was. In Prometheus we find out the Space Jockey was one of the Engineers, clad in its elephantine space helmet. It seems very likely that the Facehuggers and the Xenomorphs they spawn are yet another bio-weapon devised by the Engineers, and that the spaceship transporting them crash-landed on planet LV-426, where it was eventually discovered by the crew of the Nostromo. At the very end of Prometheus we even get a glimpse of a creature very similar to a Xenomorph which has been created by the black slime, demonstrating that the bio-technology is closely related.
I don’t recall if it was ever stated in what year Alien took place, but it seems likely that it is set decades, if not centuries, after Prometheus. This leads to some apparent anachronisms, as the technology possessed by humanity appears to be far in advance of what was on display in the Alien and its various sequels. Obviously the reason for this is that the special effects that Ridley Scott and his crew had access to in 2012 were far better than what he had available in 1979! But if you’re looking for some sort of in-universe explanation why the Prometheus spacecraft is so much more technologically advanced than the Nostromo, well, maybe there was a galactic recession or a massive war that took place between the two films. Feel free to come up with your own rationale if you want to!
It’s worth noting that Prometheus seems to have been at least partially inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. That story concerns an archeological expedition of an ancient alien city that has been discovered in Antarctica. This was once a colony of the extraterrestrial Old Ones, who had settled on Earth millions of years in the past, creating the planet’s first living organisms, as well as developing a slave race of amorphous, powerful blob-like creatures known as Shoggoths who eventually turned upon them.
While I did enjoy Prometheus, I nevertheless felt that the script was uneven in places. The flow of action was not especially smooth, and at times it did feel like certain barely-connected scenes were only loosely strung together. I think that the script could have used perhaps one more revision to iron it out.
That said, the performances are very good. Michael Fassbender as David is probably the best, with his portrayal of the android ostensibly as an emotionless entity that is in fact hiding his jealousy of and contempt for humanity underneath a self-effacing, subservient façade.
Noomi Rapace is also very good as Elizabeth Shaw, giving her a real strength that enables her to struggle against both the horrific creations of the Engineers and an existential crisis of mammoth proportions. Shaw was well written, and it is interesting to see the concept of faith addressed through her character. I very much appreciated how Shaw was a scientist, yet she was also shown to believe in a higher power, and that she does not perceive any contradiction between science and faith. Rapace did an excellent job bringing this through in her performance.
Also noteworthy is the always-excellent Idris Elba as Janek. At first the captain of the Prometheus appears to be a blasé, cynical figure who is only interested in getting a paycheck. But it eventually transpires that Janek is actually the most moral individual in the movie, as he demonstrates his unwillingness to let the Engineers’ living weapons make their way to Earth. Elba really makes Janek a memorable character.
I will say that I found some of the accents in this film a bit variable. Several of the characters, including Shaw, are apparently supposed to be British. But their accents seem to veer between English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish throughout the film. Well, okay, Rapace is from Sweden, so I’ll give her some leeway. On the other hand, you have Janek who speaks with such a flawless American accent that I didn’t even recognize that was the London-born Elba playing the character until the credits rolled!
Despite its flaws, I nevertheless found Prometheus a compelling viewing. Ridley Scott’s direction is definitely solid. The script by Spaihts and Lindelof raises many perplexing questions, ones that you find yourself pondering long after the final scene.
Oh, yes, one other thing of note: with the protagonist named Elizabeth Shaw, I do have to wonder if someone involved in the making of Prometheus happens to be a Doctor Who fan!
Christmas is not exactly my favorite time of year. First of all, like Ben Grimm and Kitty Pryde, I happen to be Jewish. Second, I look at how ridiculously commercialized the holiday has become, and I cannot help but wonder what Jesus would think in regards to the conspicuous consumerism being conducted in his name. Third, it is one of those times of year when people feel obligated to be happy & joyous, because that is the image popular culture projects, and so they believe that there is something lacking in or wrong with their lives because they are plagued by myriad problems.
And then I was reminded of Daredevil #266, published by Marvel Comics back in 1989. It’s definitely one of my all time favorite issues of that series. Yesterday Ann Nocenti had posted about it on her Facebook page, revealing of this story:
“Reality was the inspiration. I’d screwed up my life so bad I had nowhere to go on X-Mas, so stopped in a pub and had a memorable day with strangers.”
“A Beer with the Devil” was written by Nocenti, co-plotted & penciled by John Romita Jr, and inked by Al Williamson. It’s Christmas Eve, and Daredevil is in bad shape. For the hero of Hell’s Kitchen, it’s the end of what’s been a horrific year. After the devastating events of the classic “Born Again” storyline, Matt Murdock had been attempting to rebuild his shattered life. His efforts were thwarted by Typhoid Mary, the femme fatale assassin in the employ of the Kingpin. Typhoid orchestrated a campaign to attack Daredevil mentally, physically, and emotionally. Barely surviving this brutal gauntlet, Daredevil then experienced the horrors of “Inferno” as the demons of Limbo assaulted Manhattan. Now the shell-shocked, scarred vigilante sits in a bar, nursing a beer. He is surrounded by other social outcasts who also have nowhere else to go on the holidays.
In the midst of this, a beautiful but enigmatic woman approaches Daredevil. She starts to talk to him, telling a tale about betraying her husband. The red-haired woman begins posing hypothetical questions, such as which is worse, stealing one dollar or one million, and then asking Daredevil if he believes he has made a difference as a hero. Stating that “it’s too late for the world, the apple’s rotten, there’s no going back,” the strange woman seduces Daredevil, kissing him passionately.
And while all this is going on, two brothers, Hector and Hugo, are drunkenly arguing. Their squabble ends horribly, as Hector takes a broken bottle and stabs his brother in the stomach, killing him. Daredevil realizes there is something wrong and violently punches the mystery woman away, and turns around to find a murder has taken place right under his nose, one he could easily have prevented if he had not been enthralled.
Daredevil turns back to the woman, whose shape shifts & changes, revealing her true form: the demon lord Mephisto. The ruler of the underworld seizes the crimefighter, taunting and mocking him, throwing back in his face his actions as both Daredevil and Matt Murdock. Mephisto appears to grow to immense size, and the bar is consumed by flames before the building comes crumbling down. Claiming that Daredevil is powerless against evil, the devil finally vanishes, leaving Daredevil to plummet down to the street.
When Daredevil finally comes to in the snow, everything is back to normal, with no sign of any carnage or destruction. Two concerned strangers from the bar help DD to his feet. They ask if he wants to come with them to the soup kitchen for Christmas dinner, and he accepts.
I can certainly relate to “A Beer with the Devil.” There have been holidays past where I’ve found myself perched on a bar stool, drink in hand, ruminating on my solitude and unhappiness, wondering where my life went wrong, attempting to find solace among strangers. As I said before, I think a lot of people feel that way around this time of year.
Nocenti’s writing on this issue is amazing. She introduces the odd, colorful bar customers, effectively fleshing them out within just a few panels, given glimpses of entire lives lived outside the pages of this story. They feel very authentic, just like the types of people you’d see if you walked into some hole-in-the-wall drinking establishment in Manhattan. I’ve met quite a few characters like these during my bar-crawling days.
Mephisto is an interesting character to utilize. As a Satanic figure, he is the exact opposite of the Messiah, the being whose birth Christmas is supposed to celebrate. The lord of the damned would want to slander and blaspheme this most holy of occasions, to subvert the message of peace and hope. Targeting Daredevil, tempting him, making him feel ineffectual, corrupting a noble soul who has already been through so much pain & suffering in order to finally tip him over the edge, is a very Biblical action.
And then, at the very end, Nocenti offers up a moment of hope. A small gesture of human kindness, strangers extending a helping hand… that is the true spirit of the holiday. It is a message all too often lost in the rush to buy the most presents or put up the most decorations. Reflecting on that final page, I thought about my own present circumstances. I have a lot of personal problems, along with many accompanying fears. I have no idea what 2014 is going to bring for me. But at least I know that this holiday season I’m not going to be alone. I have my girlfriend. Yeah, things are certainly not perfect between the two of us. But when is any relationship ever without problems? At least we have each other, which is much better than sitting on that lonely bar stool.
The artwork on Daredevil #266 is wonderful. John Romita Jr is one of those artists who always turn in very solid, professional work. He isn’t especially flashy, but he gets the job done, effectively tells a story and establishes a real sense of atmosphere. I think he is a rather underrated penciler. “A Beer with the Devil” is one of the best efforts of his career, as he draws the mundane and the metaphysical side-by-side. Romita’s redesign of Mephisto is amazingly horrific.
I’m a huge fan of Al Williamson, who was himself an amazing penciler. Williamson specialized in sci-fi and space opera, memorably illustrating Weird Science, Flash Gordon, and Star Wars. I wonder how he felt about inking Romita’s pencils for these grim, philosophical tales of gritty urban crime and, later on, the surreal journey that Nocenti took DD on when she sent him into Hell itself for a confrontation with Mephisto and his son Blackheart (see Daredevil #s 270 and 278-282 for that mind-blowing odyssey). Whatever the case, Williamson was a great fit for Romita’s pencils, and the two of them were the perfect art team for Nocenti’s thought-provoking writing on the series.
At first glance, Daredevil #266 probably seems a very bizarre story to look at to celebrate the holiday season. But actually it is a very appropriate, genuine piece of writing. Rather than putting on a façade of joy and frivolity, “A Beer with the Devil” acknowledges that, yes, the world is deeply messed up, there is more than enough evil & hypocrisy to go around, and life just isn’t fair. But, as the ending demonstrates, by offering a little bit of kindness and selflessness towards others, perhaps you can help make things just a tiny bit better, one day at a time. And that might just be a sentiment Jesus would agree with.
I wanted to wish an early birthday to the super-talented comic book writer, critic & columnist Tony Isabella, who was born on December 22, 1951. I’ve enjoyed Isabella’s comic books since I was a kid. His straightforward, no-nonsense, yet slyly humorous observations on society & popular culture in his online blog and in the pages of the late, lamented Comic Buyer’s Guide are always informative & insightful.
Isabella started in the comic book biz in 1972 as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics. He also wrote a diverse assortment of Marvel titles in 1970s, among them Daredevil, Captain America, the “It, the Living Colossus” feature in Astonishing Tales, Monsters Unleashed, and Power Man. He co-created The Champions, and revamped the short-lived heroine The Cat aka Greer Grant Nelson into the popular Tigra in Giant-Sized Creatures #1. For a time Isabella was the regular writer on Ghost Rider. He intended to stay on that particular series longer than he did. Unfortunately, one of his issues was rewritten at literally the last minute by Jim Shooter, in the process derailing a significant ongoing storyline, and Isabella walked off the title in protest.
In 1977, Isabella created Black Lightning, the very first African American character to have a solo title at DC Comics. Paired with then-newcomer Trevor Von Eeden, Isabella wrote the first ten issues of the Black Lightning series. Also at DC, in the mid-1980s, working with artist Richard Howell, Isabella began a major Hawkman storyline. That’s when my young ten year old self first discovered Isabella’s writing. I discussed the interesting premise of that series in my recent blog post about Richard Howell. I think that Isabella was doing some good, suspenseful writing on Hawkman, and it is unfortunate that he departed the series due to a disagreement with editorial.
In the early 1990s, Marvel editor Jim Salicrup gave a number of interesting assignments to Isabella. These included a handful of issues of Web of Spider-Man, a trio of Rocket Racer short stories, and back-up stories for the 1990 Spider-Man annuals featuring Ant-Man and Captain Universe. Both of those tales were illustrated by the legendary Steve Ditko. In the Captain Universe story, the latest recipient of the Uni-Power was a two year old child named Eddie, named after Isabella’s own son. This delightful story also featured a cute nod to Ditko’s classic Gorgo and Konga comic books published by Charlton in the 1960s. (Isabella’s story is collected in the Captain Universe: Power Unimaginable trade paperback. Go get it!)
Salicrup became editor-in-chief of Topps Comics in 1992. Several of the titles published by Topps were based on some of the many previously undeveloped series concepts devised by Jack Kirby, and were referred to as the “Kirbyverse.” Among these was Satan’s Six, an entertaining four issue horror comedy miniseries which Isabella wrote.
In 1995, Isabella had the opportunity to return to Black Lightning, a character who he has said on numerous occasions has great personal significance to him. Working with the immensely talented artist Eddie Newell, Isabella wrote some amazing, emotional, moving stories. However, apparently due to some behind-the-scenes editorial shenanigans, Isabella was removed from the book after issue #8, and the series then sputtered to cancellation just five issues later. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, I definitely look back on those first eight issues by Isabella & Newell, as well as their ten page Black Lightning story in the DCU Holiday Bash II, as among the best mainstream material published by DC in the 1990s.
Isabella has also collaborated with fellow Comic Buyer’s Guide columnist Bob Ingersoll on several occasions. They co-wrote the Star Trek: All of Me special published by DC in 2000, a Star Trek novel, a prose short story in the anthology The Ultimate Super-Villains, and the novel Captain America: Liberty’s Torch. I enjoyed that last one. The book featured illustrations by Mike Zeck & Bob McLeod. In it, Cap is captured and placed on trial by a fanatical, ultra right wing militia that has accused him of betraying the country to minorities and foreigners. What was interesting about how Isabella & Ingersoll wrote the novel is that they never really reveal to us Cap’s own opinions are on all of these controversial issues. Instead of having Steve Rogers get on a soap box to offer a civics lecture, the authors pretty much leave it up to the reader to decide for himself or herself Cap’s views on globalization, immigration, taxes, and big government.
I was thrilled when Isabella recently had the opportunity to return to comic books and write the six issue miniseries The Grim Ghost, published by Atlas Comics in 2011. Isabella did really great work on the series, which also featured amazingly atmospheric artwork by Kelley Jones & Eric Layton. Regrettably, Atlas ended up having some distribution problems, and it took me quite a while to snag a copy of the final issue. That also seems to have prevented a trade paperback collection from being published. All that aside, it was a really good series, and it is well worth tracking down.
Looking back over Isabella’s body of fiction, as well as his work as a columnist, a great deal of his own viewpoints and opinions come out through his writings. Isabella definitely has an ultra liberal perspective. Nope, I am not jumping to conclusions, is says so right on his Facebook page, under Political Views: “Very Liberal.” I’m a bit more middle-of-the-road myself, and occasionally I’ll read something of his and think to myself “Whoa there, Tony, might want to rein it in just a little!” But I certainly respect the deep sincerity of his views.
He is also a very spiritual person. And not, I certainly must add, in a “If you don’t believe in God, you are going to Hell” sort of way. Isabella sees God as a loving entity, not a punishing one. His protagonists often find redemption and the strength to go on via their faith in a higher power, by resolving to do good and set aside their own inner flaws & defects of character. That is what Isabella was trying to do with the character of John Blaze, who had sold his soul to the Devil, within the pages of Ghost Rider, and why he was so angry when Shooter threw a monkey wrench into those plans. This is a theme that he returned to so effectively with the characters of Matthew Dunsinane and Michael Colavito in The Grim Ghost. The importance of casting off pride & resentment, and need to let go of the past, in order for each of these men to finally be free to escape from the purgatory known as the Fringe and find salvation, is one of the central messages of the series.
Something you may have noted in this blog post: Isabella seems to have had his share of clashes with editors at both Marvel and DC. I think that this is indicative of a man who is very principled, ethical and passionate about his work, and who is unwilling to let editorial, or the corporate types overseeing them, impose what he sees as unreasonable demands upon him. The comic book industry has innumerable examples of creators who have been exploited & abandoned by greedy, short-sighted corporate interests. So I certainly admire Isabella for standing up for himself and not allowing others to steamroll him.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Tony Isabella on a couple of occasions, first at one of the Big Apple conventions over a decade ago, and then at New York Comic Con in 2011. I later found out that those were the only two NYC conventions that he’s done in the last two decades! Talk about good timing. Both times I found him to be a very pleasant fellow. Having followed his comic books and columns for so long, it was a pleasure to meet him on those two occasions, and to have him autograph some of the books that he has worked upon.
Have a very happy birthday, Tony. I sincerely hope that there are many more years, as well as many more stories, to come for you. Keep up the great work.
Since I met Peter Davison, who starred in Doctor Who from 1982 to 1984, at the New York Comic Con last weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to do a blog entry on one of his stories.
I first happened to start watching Doctor Who regularly at the tail end of Tom Baker’s era, and soon after the Doctor regenerated into his Fifth incarnation, played by Davison. So, really, for me some of the earliest episodes that I had the opportunity to see were from Davison’s time on the series. Because of this, I’m rather fond of his era. Even if Davison didn’t always get the best stories, I enjoyed his portrayal of the Doctor.
The story I’m taking a look at today, “Kinda,” is, I think, one of Davison’s better ones. I actually wrote a review of it on Associated Content a couple of years ago, and this is a revised version. But, hey, if the giant Mara snake can get a CGI makeover on the DVD, then I think I’m entitled to do a special edition of one of my old columns!
The serial “Kinda,” written by Christopher Bailey, was originally broadcast by the BBC in February 1982. The first time I saw it was a couple of years later when it aired on PBS here in the States. I was eight years old, and, to be honest, it left me totally confused. About a decade later, I saw “Kinda” on PBS again, and this time I taped it on the VCR. So over the years, I had the opportunity to re-watch it several more times. As I got older, and my knowledge of world cultures and spirituality broadened, I gradually came to have a better understanding of “Kinda” with each subsequent viewing. The course I took in Comparative Religions in college helped. More recently, I’ve had discussions with my girlfriend, who is very well read on religion & spirituality, and I’ve learned a lot from her. So it is an interesting, and different, experience watching “Kinda” again as an adult now that it is out on DVD.
Doctor Who: Kinda DVD
“Kinda” is set on Deva Loka, a tranquil tropical forest world that is described as a literal paradise. An expeditionary force of humans has arrived to determine if the planet is suitable for colonization. The occupants of Deva Loka, the Kinda, appear to be a very primitive people, but the expedition’s scientist Doctor Todd is convinced there is much more to the natives than meets the eye. And then three of the six expedition members vanish under mysterious circumstances.
By the time the Doctor and his companions arrive on Deva Loka, tensions are beginning to fray in the expedition Dome. Security officer Hindle, due to the disappearances of half the team, as well as the aggressive attitude of the expedition’s commander Sanders towards him, is becoming unhinged. The Doctor and Adric are taken into custody at the Dome. After Sanders departs to search for the missing members of the team, Hindle snaps, threatening the Doctor, Adric, and Todd at gunpoint.
Meanwhile, Tegan has been left behind by a set of mysterious giant wind chimes. Falling into a trance-like dream state, her consciousness is projected into a strange black void populated by a trio of sinister-looking pale figures with snake tattoos on their forearms. One of them, a sneering young man, attempts to coerce Tegan into allowing him to take control of her physical form, utilizing a variety of mental tortures. Under this psychic assault, Tegan finally relents. She awakens back on Deva Loka, the snake symbol now on her arm, possessed by an evil entity known as the Mara.
As I learned in the years subsequent to my early viewings of “Kinda,” Christopher Bailey invested his scripts with a number of Buddhist symbols and concepts. For example, “Deva Loka” in the Sanskrit language means heaven or paradise. In Hinduism (which has certain parallel beliefs to Buddhism) there are three paths that the human soul can take after death, and one of these is a path of light into a heavenly plane of existence known as Deva Loka. Buddhism itself regards a Deva Loka as the habitat of Devas, or divine beings. Likewise, “Mara” is Sanskrit for death or evil. Buddhism regards the Mara as an entity of temptation that draws individuals away from spiritual enlightenment.
Of course, there is also Judeo-Christian imagery present in “Kinda.” The Mara’s true form is a giant snake, making it the serpent in paradise. When the Mara possesses Tegan, she takes on the mannerisms of an aggressive seductress. To ensnare Aris, one of the Kinda tribe whose brother is being held captive in the Dome, Tegan first gets his attention by sitting in a tree and dropping apples on him, an allusion to the temptation in the Garden of Eden. There is also an almost sexual connotation to the moment when Tegan and Aris’ hands entwine, and the Mara transfers over to his body.
One of the primary strengths of “Kinda” is the high quality of performances by the actors. First of all, Peter Davison turns a great performance as the Doctor. Davison grew up watching Doctor Who in the late 1960s, and has said that he drew a certain amount of inspiration from the Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton. Some of the cadence, mannerisms, and personality that Davison invests in his Doctor in “Kinda” are reminiscent of Troughton’s incarnation. Obviously this is something that I did not pick up on when I was younger, but subsequently having seen many of Troughton’s surviving Doctor Who episodes, I can now see how he influenced Davison. I think that quality works very well in this story. At the same time, Davison also gives the Doctor his own individual spin, making it much more than just an imitation of Troughton.
Janet Fielding, who plays Tegan, is given a chance to shine in “Kinda.” Instead of just being the bossy, argumentative “mouth on legs” that many of the writers pigeonholed the character as, here we see a very frightened, bewildered, vulnerable individual suffering at the hands of the Mara in the black void. During the brief period when Tegan is possessed by the Mara, she is a genuinely creepy, unsettling figure. At the end of the serial, when the Mara’s true form is revealed, and she realizes that thing was in her head, you can see hints of what might be post-traumatic stress disorder.
(I was usually not very keen that Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner had a lot of his serials flow from one into another. But it was a good decision on his part to have “The Visitation,” the story immediately following “Kinda” in broadcast order, contain a scene early on where Tegan is shown to be still unsettled by her possession a short while before. I think it has become easy for fans of the revived Doctor Who series to take it for granted that the Doctor’s companions will grow & develop as a season progresses. The majority of the time on the original series, this was not the case, and this was one of the rare instances it demonstrated that events could have lasting effects on a regular character.)
Tegan in the black void
The most outstanding performance in “Kinda” is Simon Rouse as Hindle, an emotionally unstable individual experiencing a mental breakdown. It would have been easy and tempting to turn in a totally over-the-top performance, making Hindle a figure of melodrama. Instead, Rouse plays it totally straight, giving an utterly convincing depiction of a man unhinged, vacillating across the emotional spectrum, going from violent and threatening to paranoid and neurotic to childlike and innocent. Hindle is a pitiable figure, but at the same time he is very scary, because you have absolutely no idea what he is going to do next. The cliffhanger ending to episode one has Hindle leveling a gun at the Doctor, Adric, and Todd, declaring to them “I have the power of life and death over all of you!” It’s a riveting moment because Rouse delivers what could have been a daft line with such conviction, and you can just hear the insanity in his taut voice. And, at the story’s end, after Hindle has been exposed to the Kinda’s Box of Jhana, and his insanity banished, we see him in a quiet, contemplative state. Rouse really gives a three-dimensional performance.
Also noteworthy is Nerys Hughes as Doctor Todd. A noted actress, Hughes turns in a solid performance, and for much of the story she fulfills the role of a temporary companion. A scientist, Todd has both the intelligence and wit to match the Doctor. Hughes and Davison have very good chemistry. At the end of the story, when the Doctor and his companions depart, I was left wishing that Todd could have gone with them, because she could have made a great regular cast member.
The music for “Kinda” was composed by Peter Howell, who did excellent work on a number of Doctor Who stories in the 1980s. His incidental music on the surreal “Warriors’ Gate” the previous season was an especially effective and memorable. For “Kinda,” Howell turns in another eerie, ethereal score that suits the serial perfectly.
This serial was directed by Peter Grimwade, and he does a superb job at translating a very dreamlike, cerebral script into a television program. Grimwade was one of the best directors Doctor Who had during this time period. An extra feature on the DVD is a retrospective on Grimwade, who unfortunately passed away at a relatively young age in 1990. Present-day reminiscences and commentary by former colleagues are interspersed with clips from a 1987 interview of Grimwade.
Speaking of DVD features, “Kinda” has an Optional CGI Effects Sequence. In other words, the giant cardboard snake at the end of the story that is supposed to be the Mara in its true form can be substituted by a computer generated replacement. When I first saw “Kinda” in the mid-1980s, I honestly didn’t think the giant snake looked too bad. That was probably because A) I was an eight-year-old kid in an era before realistic CGI was possible and B) after four confusing episodes that went totally over my head, I was probably just relieved to see a monster, any monster, even if it didn’t appear completely realistic! Of course, when I re-watched “Kinda” a decade or so later, yeah, by that point the giant snake was beginning to look rather less believable to my older, more cynical eyes. In any case, on the DVD that rather goofy-looking serpent has been seamlessly substituted for a CGI depiction of the Mara. And it looks great. Seriously, you might almost think there really was a malevolently hissing twenty-foot-tall snake with razor-sharp fangs writhing and coiling about on the BBC studio floor.
The Mara revisited
As I mentioned earlier, when I was eight years old, I found “Kinda” to be almost impenetrable. Now, at age 36, what is my reaction? Well, while I have a much better comprehension of Christopher Bailey’s serial, there are still elements of the story that are somewhat befuddling.
My main query deals with whether or not the “A Plot” of Hindle going insane actually even connects with the “B Plot” of the Mara possessing Tegan and then Aris. I can only see one possible point of intersection. We are told by the Kinda priestess Panna that “Our suffering is the Mara’s delight, our madness the Mara’s meat & drink.” Perhaps the Mara, which is telepathic, learned that Hindle had wired the Dome with enough explosives to destroy everything in a thirty-mile radius. The Mara, controlling Aris, might have been leading the Kinda to attack the Dome in order to provoke Hindle into detonating the bombs, causing widespread death and destruction. Then again, it could all have been a huge coincidence.
I’ve heard theories by other people that the three figures in the black void are based upon Tegan’s memories of the story’s opening scene, stolen from her mind by the Mara and twisted into grotesque parodies: the ancient couple playing chess is Adric and Nyssa, the sadistic young man is the Doctor, and the abstract metal sculpture next to them is the TARDIS. It’s an interesting idea.
The Kinda themselves are an enigma. At first glance, they do appear to be a very primitive people. Yet they are actually telepathic. They wear necklaces that represent the double helix of DNA, indicating knowledge of molecular biology. They constructed the giant wind chimes, something the Doctor observes would have required a high degree of technical skill. And they utilize the Box of Jhana, which appears to be a simple wooden container, but which is actually a healing device capable of restoring balance to individuals with severe mental instability.
The Box of Jhana, mental projections of events that are simultaneously past and future occurrences, and the ability of the wind chimes to allow the Kinda to share their dreams: all seem to be examples of Clarke’s Law, i.e. any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In fact, one could hypothesize that the Kinda are so incredibly advanced that they long ago passed the point where they needed to rely on conventional technology. They are now at a point of mental and spiritual development that they live in perfect harmony with Deva Loka, negating any need for houses, mass transportation, weapons, electrical power, or anything else resembling the mechanical devices which we are dependent upon in our daily lives. Even the Mara, which appears to be some kind of demon or evil god, is probably a powerful alien entity originating from another dimension or plane of existence.
(As I understand it, the Mara’s origins are explored in Bailey’s sequel “Snakedance,” but I haven’t seen that one in a couple of decades so offhand I don’t recall. I really should to pick it up on DVD one of these days.)
Kinda novelization by Terrance Dicks
The one gaping plot hole in “Kinda” is that, when all is said and done, we never do learn what happened to the missing members of the expedition! In his novelization of the serial, Terrance Dicks has the Doctor hypothesizing that the lost members of the team had each been possessed by the Mara but, unlike Tegan, they resisted giving up control of their forms and were killed. Dicks was always good at spotting plot holes in Doctor Who stories and coming up with explanations for them in his books, the sort of exposition that there unfortunately wasn’t enough time to delve into within the actual television programs.
Watching the “making of” feature on the DVD, it was at first surprising to learn that Christopher H. Bidmead, the script editor on the previous season of Doctor Who, was the one who first commissioned Christopher Bailey to write “Kinda.” After all, one of Bidmead goals as script editor was to bring back “hard science” to the series. In contrast, “Kinda” is a very mystical, metaphysical story. And many people unfortunately regard science and spirituality as mutually exclusive concepts (although I personally believe that there is room for both in our understanding of the universe). Of course, “Kinda” is also a very cerebral story, and Bidmead wanted to produce stories that challenged viewers and made them think. In this respect, “Kinda” is successful.
I think “Kinda” was slightly ahead of its time. It is a story that is very suited to the age of VHS and DVD, when it can be viewed more than once. “Kinda” is a complex story with a number of layers, and each time I watch it I come away with a little bit more.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 