In honour of the long-awaited release of the third instalment in what is commonly known as ‘gaming’s greatest crossover’, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I’d like to talk about one crossover that I would love to see, but almost certainly will never happen: Doctor Who and Batman.

Now, have you ever considered the similarities between these two characters? Here’s a list:

• Both are heroes, obviously, but both are the same type of lonely hero. Only child Bruce Wayne lost his parents in a robbery gone wrong, the Doctor lost his entire race in the Time War.

• Both refuse to use guns, or to kill people, regardless of the cost. There are a couple of exceptions to this, with Batman wielding a gun in Year Two, and the Doctor has tried to wipe out the Daleks several times, but generally they both stick to this strict moral code. They’re certainly not any-means-necessary anti-heroes like Rorshach from Watchmen, for example. Instead both Batman and the Doctor really on their wits to rather than brute force to save the most possible lives, even if that means granting the villain a minor victory elsewhere.  (more…)

He felt it roll over him in a wave; the realisation that a story was coming. It was like standing on a beach, staring at a huge, overbearing tidal wave as it builds up higher and higher in slow motion, white horses straining against blue reigns at its crest. He had had dreams like that as a child. He had feared then that the wave would sweep everything away, or sweep him away, and drown him or leave him alone. Now he welcomed the wave, the metaphor, the coming story.

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