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…)

*Disclaimer – please note that it is not my intention to cause offence in this post; this is merely a discussion of words which people find offensive. If you were offended by the first word of the title, I wouldn’t recommend reading any further.

The radio was playing in the car the other day, and Kanye West’s All of the Lights came on. It’s so rare that I listen to the radio as opposed to my own music that I was mildly surprised that one of the songs I’d been listening to frequently since getting the album a couple of weeks ago suddenly had a few words missing, most prominently the word nigger.

Nigger’s a strange word, because it’s not really a swear word, it’s not like you’d hit your thumb with a hammer and shout “argh, niggers!”, but it’s likely to cause as much, if not more, offence than, say, cunt. So why is that? Well, it’s a derogatory racially-specific term. I think that second part is the most important aspect of it; dickhead is derogatory, but not racially-specific, and would be considered much less offensive.

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Firstly, I would like to apologise for any typos in this article: I have a headache from trying to remember my password, and I’m typing on my little eee pc, which, as a counterweight to its incredible portability, does not possess the most ergonomic keyboard (and also an unresponsive ‘a’ key).

Anyway, I just watched The Shipping News, which is based on an Annie Prolux novel of the same name, and it is the best movie I’ve seen since… Once Upon a Time in America (not that I’m sure how many films I have seen since then). (more…)