Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "For the Cause"

It's 6 May 1996, and time for another episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

As Deep Space Nine prepares to deliver Federation replicators to the battered Cardassian Union, Odo (Rene Auberjonois) and Eddington (Kenneth Marshall) uncover evidence suggesting that Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson) as a smuggler for the Maquis. Meanwhile Garak (Andrew Robinson) takes an interest in Dukat's half-Bajoran daughter Ziyal (Tracy Middendorf).

"For the Cause" is an exceptional but unusual episode of Deep Space Nine. For one thing it presents yet another challenge to the whole ideal of the United Federation of Planets, chipping away once again at the central theme of the Star Trek franchise and challenging its idea of paradise. Secondly it broadly eschews any focus on the regular cast to instead base its narrative around supporting players. While Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) remains the protagonist, the bulk of the screen time seems devoted to Kasidy, Eddington, Garak and Ziyal.

Alestorm: Captain Morgan's Revenge (2008)

As part of my informal tour through weird heavy metal genres, which has included cello metal, goth metal and kawaii metal, it was fairly inevitable that I would get around to one of my favourites: pirate metal. Scottish metal band Alestorm has been around since 2004 - originally under the name Battleheart - and has become an immensely popular cult favourite thanks to their combination of thrashing metal guitars and sea shanty lyrics.

While it seems inevitable that there will be audiences out there who treat Alestorm with undue seriousness, for me they are hysterically funny. In concert lead singer Christopher Bowes dives headlong into character, egging his audience on to join him in shouting "y'arr!!" and raising their drinks while calling them "me hearties". The genius of the band is that, while they are all enthusiastically riffing on a silly joke, they are all genuinely talented musicians. Alestorm may be silly, but they are a technically brilliant and energised sort of of silly. Captain Morgan's Revenge was their first studio album, released back in 2008. It's an absolute riot.

The Pull List: 27 April 2016, Part 3

The mysterious Empirakul have travelled from one dimension to another murdering every magician and sorcerer they have encountered, and destroying all remnants of magic across countless realities. Now they have arrived on Earth, decimating its magic users and capturing Stephen Strange. Now in issue #7 we finally get some back story about their lead Imperator, and some indication on where the storyline is headed from here.

There is still a lingering problem over this series regarding just how similar this "Last Days of Magic" story arc is to Jason Aaron's "Godkiller" arc on Thor: God of Thunder. That story, which was exceptional, followed an alien invader whose civilization had been destroyed by gods and had thus transformed himself into an all-powerful god-destroyer. Here it's exactly the same origin and story, only with a word-replace from 'gods' to 'magic'. The writing is good, the characters and engaging, and Chris Bachalo's artwork is busy but energetic, however I suspect many readers will have seen it all before. I suspect anybody who did not read Aaron's earlier story will enjoy this a hell of a lot more than those who did. As one who enjoyed "Godkiller" immensely, this new volume of Doctor Strange is just a tiny bit unsatisfying - still great, but I feel it could have been even better. (4/5)

Doctor Strange #7. Marvel. Written by Jason Aaron. Art by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, John Livesay, Victor Olazaba and Jaime Mendoza. Colours by Chris Bachalo.

Under the cut: reviews of Black Canary, Micronauts, Superman Wonder Woman and 3 Devils.

The Angriest: April 2016 in Review

During April 2016 I was busy directing a play - an all-female adaptation of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus - so did not have the time to blog as often as I typically would. Over the month The Angriest reviewed 12 feature films, five television episodes, 32 comic books, six music albums and four videogames - as well as one opinion piece.

In April I started running music reviews on the blog for the first time, and it was actually a bit of a surprise to see my review of Babymetal's second album Metal Resistance getting more hits this month than anything else. I am keen to keep running music reviews in future: I am nowhere near as well educated in popular music as I am in cult television or film, so it should be an interesting experience.

A full index of April posts is included below.

The Pull List: 27 April 2016, Part 2

Black Mask Studios is an independent comic publisher that has already published a bunch of great comics, but they have really hit the ball out of the park with their latest five-issue miniseries 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank.

Daniel, Pat, Walter and Paige are four twelve year-old kids who suffer the usual issues that twelve year-olds face - until a group of suspicious gangsters turn up at Paige's house looking for her father. From there it's an odd combination of The Goonies and a British crime flick, as Paige and her friends follow and investigate these unusual, dangerous men.

There's not a thing about this comic that is not perfectly pitched. The tone is great, the dialogue is tightly written and memorable, the art and panel layouts are bold and dense. There's a lot of story packed into 28 pages, which is exactly the sort of thing I like in a comic book. There's already been a lot of critical buzz around this series; hopefully it's profile will boost Black Mask's titles in general. They deserve the attention.

4 Kids Walk Into a Bank #1. Black Mask Studios. Written by Matthew Rosenberg. Art by Tyler Boss and Clare Dezutti.

Under the cut: reviews of Batman, Ms Marvel and We Are Robin.

Winter of Discontent (2012)

Art has always been a powerful tool for political discourse, and cinema is clearly no different from any other medium. Ibrahim El Batout's 2012 drama Winter of Discontent is a strong example of that. It depicts the chain of events in 2011 that started with protests in Cairo's Tarhir Square and snowballed until they forced the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Shot shortly afterwards, and released within a year, it is to an extent a film without a conclusion: history had not yet provided one. As a powerful representation of a collapsing regime and the strength of the people, it is near-faultless.

Amr (played by Amr Waked) is a political dissident who was taken from the streets and tortured by the Egyptian secret police in 2009. Two years later he observes pensively as the people begin to rise up against their oppressive government and demand a revolution. His ex-girlfriend Farah (Farah Youssef), with whom he separated after his ordeal, now co-hosts a pro-government television talk show while secretly struggling with the ethics of lying to the Egyptian people. As the events on the streets grow in scale and violence, both Amr and Farah are drawn into the conflict.

N64:20 #11: Snowboard Kids 2 (1999)

In 2016 the Nintendo 64 turns 20 years old. It was Nintendo's third videogame console, produced to succeed the enormously successful SNES. Upon its release in 1996 Time magazine claimed it was "machine of the year". While the N64 failed to best Sony's enormously popular PlayStation - a console in whose early development Nintendo had a key hand - it still sold almost 33 million units worldwide and hosted some of the greatest videogames ever made. To celebrate its anniversary I'm counting down my top 20 N64 videogames; not necessarily the best titles released on the format, but definitely my personal favourites.

It's not really spoiling anything to admit that Mario Kart 64 is one of the higher-ranked videogames in this Nintendo 64 countdown. For one thing it was such a great party game, with four players playing simultaneously in races. As with all videogames though, sometimes you can play a game too much and start craving some variety. You find yourself looking for a solid back-up: similar sorts of games but with different race tracks or mechanics, and so on. As a kart racing substitute, Snowboard Kids 2 was one of my go-to titles.

The Pull List: 27 April 2016, Part 1

One of the genuine delights of visiting your local comic shop is finding unexpected independent comics on the shelf of which you have never heard, but which turn out to be absolutely delightful. That's certainly the case with Sabretooth Dan: A Talent for Danger, whose first issue was published this week by Scout Comics.

It's a three-issue miniseries about Sabretooth Dan, a human boy with two protruding tusks raised by wolves in a house and forced to do the cleaning. When he spies a pair of pirates in the local library - which is long abandoned - Dan decides to run away from home and live a live upon the high seas.

There is a beautiful sense of whimsy and delight about this comic, which is written and drawn by C.R. Mountain. It has wonderful cartoon-like designs, and its black and white artwork makes it immediately reminiscent of all the popular independent comic books of decades past. It has perfectly-pitched humour as well as a strong sense of adventure. It is a wonderful fantasy book that deserves a huge audience - but due to its independent nature may struggle to find it. Hunt it down. Check it out. If you like it, recommend it to your friends like I'm currently recommending it to you. (5/5)

Sabretooth Dan: A Talent for Danger. Story and art by C.R. Mountain.

Under the cut: reviews of Daredevil, The Omega Men and Saga.