Smiling, Damned Villain

It's a cold, damp, windy day. January felt two months long. I wasn't doing Dry January- I lost my taste for alcohol last year- but I did have non-alcoholic beers with my colleague yesterday, after work. I spent Brexit Day with her husband, a pilot in the RAF and her brother, a BBC wildlife film maker. Not only are those lives unimaginably unlike mine, they work for organisations towards which I have deep-seated prejudices. And yet, there we all were, at one table in the Drouthy Cobbler in Elgin. (This one, in front of the bar:)

Brexit is a triumph of ignorance and fear, promoting xenophobia and extremism and it's a shameful moment in history. Only disaster capitalists like Rees-Mogg will benefit.
Make no mistake, Britain has meant England quite blatantly throughout the 21st century so far.
Scotland, which isn't a region of England, unlike, for instance, Yorkshire- rather a country older than this "precious Union", with its own laws, languages, currency and education system- voted to Remain. We have been taken out of the EU against our democratic will; ironically, this is exactly what Project Fear threatened would happen if we voted for Independence, six years ago.

Now, if we look at energy trends data, we discover these facts:
"England is a net importer of electricity from Scotland and from continental Europe (via the France and Netherlands interconnectors)."
Putting aside the oil revenue, this is just one reason why the Union is so precious and why leaving the EU was gross stupidity.

On the topic of villainy, at Christmas, I bought the final volume of the second Thanos graphic novel trilogy, The Infinity Ending.
 This ends the sequence that began with The Infinity Siblings. Thanos has been absorbing the cosmic embodiments- Order, Chaos, Death, Kronos, Galactus etc. Warlock, Pip and Eros have been pursuing the Mad Titan with the aid of Kang the Conqueror. Warlock killed Eros so he would be another "Beyond the Norm" being like himself to try to prevent Thanos from committing suicide and ending reality.

In this final chapter, Thanos absorbs the Living Tribunal and God ("Above-all-Others").  Warlock tries to enter Thanos's psyche and confronts his own past selves to retrieve the Soul Gem. He even unleashes the Hunger entity from the Thanos series of 2003-04.

Meanwhile, Pip and Eros travel back through time to Thanos's early 70s exploits with Iron Man, Captain Mar-Vell and the Avengers and then on to the Infinity War of the early 90s.

In the end, Eros's journey is aborted by Kang and his attempts to change his brother annulled, so that when nihilistic Thanos tries to end the "Great Lie" of life and embrace the comfort of the void, reality is saved. The coda depicts Warlock with the Soul Gem being gossiped about by Chris Pratt's Guardians of the Galaxy.

This was an amusing and pretty psychedelic journey but as much as I like Davis, I prefer Starlin drawing Starlin. It was pleasing to see him retrace his steps with his favourite creation, even retconning the Olympian origins of the Mad Titan.

Another reprehensible, multi-faceted villain reached a ending of sorts, on audio, in The War Master: Anti-Genesis.

In four interlinked adventures by Nicholas Briggs and Alan Barnes, Derek Jacobi's Master was revived from death by his Gollum-like associate Crazlus and the Kirby-esque Infernal Toxicant. Travelling back in time to the Genesis of the Daleks, the Master masquerades as kindly Uncle Sorvad, arranges for the death of Davros and, seizing control of the Kaled travel machine project, eventually becomes ultimate ruler of the universe.

Meanwhile, the Daleks of the original timeline recruit the Master of an alternate universe ( Mark "Sam Kisgart" Gatiss). This sardonic, cool and collected Master is a contrast to Jacobi's blustering, vain killer- but he still ends up a giggling wreck by the end.

Sam Kisgart in a portrait with a Union Flag tie. Your punchline here.

There's support from the devious Time Lord Narvin  and a visit to a medieval-fantasy alternate Gallifrey is interesting. But ,despite the mysteries of the Anti-Genesis Codes and the Shockwave Progenitor, the set ends rather limply with the Daleks rescuing the War Master. Jacobi is an entertaining monster but his cruelty and betrayals get a bit wearing. (4/5 Talmars)

Of course, last week Chibnall took the RTD model of alien invasion outside your window and turned it sideways into a canon-shattering series of shocks about roguish Time Agents and alternate BAME Doctors. I'll return to this gatekeeper-baiting controversy in future posts. Also to come, more Daleks, Cybermen, Time Lords in Cambridge, virtual reality mausoleums- and another trip to the Dear Green Place.

All images are presumed copyright of their respective owners