Andrew Bates

electric newspaperman

November 18, 2010
by Andrew Bates
1 Comment

it seems like a little something is missing

Yesterday, I arbitrarily clicked on the BC Government Cabinet page. It looked like something was missing:

So I went and looked at the cache. It was Bill Bennett! That’s right, they scrubbed his name and picture, but didn’t change the tabling, keeping only a sad, empty hole where he used to be.

So yeah, Bennett finally got canned for not being a “team player”. Did they just realize that Bennett speaks out to the media all the time?

To commemmorate the event, have an interview I did with him in June for the Daily Courier about the resignation of former energy minister Blair Lekstrom. It’s classic Bennett, as he calls out the government for doing an “absolutely horrendous job of implementing the tax.”

“I frankly think this is about a lot more than individual politicians, it’s about a lot more than Blair Lekstrom, it’s about a lot more than Bill Bennett, it’s actually about a lot more than Gordon Campbell, too. It’s about the future of the province, this is what this is about. So my friend has decided that he’s better off if he sits as an independant, I respect that, but I think that I can have an impact if I stay on the team. That’s the only way that I can have an impact. I think that I can help fix the situation if I’m there doing the job.”

August 9, 2010
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

Under The Red Hood makes a complex story legend


Comic books fight between themselves and their own legends.

Several times a month, comics try and tell new stories in Gotham City, but there’s a lot they can’t change. In the words of Grant Morrison, “Batman always must be Bruce Wayne, in his mid-30s or late 30s, and he always must have a Batmobile and a butler.” It’s a comic book, but also a cartoon and also a lunch box. Sometimes, that can seem negative. It means that we can’t have the Ryan Choi Atom, and why after almost 20 years of being dead, Barry Allen is the star of the Flash book. If the solicits are any indication, it’s why Dick Grayson won’t get more than a year to be The Batman.

But sometimes, it’s positive. Some of the greatest Batman stories are almost impossible to tell in one go as a movie. A story about Oracle must first deal with Batgirl and The Killing Joke. Can you imagine trying to tell a story about Dick Grayson’s life? Robin, Teen Titans, Nightwing, Battle for the Cowl, Batman, and whatever will come next. This brings us to the story of Jason Todd. Not only is his story spread out over 20 years, but its continuity is tied to some of the more annoying pieces of DC storytelling, with two universal retcons and a 1-900-number choose-your-ending story. Batman: Under The Red Hood picks the best story elements and combines them with what we know to tell a gripping and famous Batman story in one shot.

Comics, everybody

I mean, let’s take a look at the source material for Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd was introduced as the new Robin in 1983 after Dick Grayson moved on from Batman stories to lead the Teen Titans, eventually becoming his own superhero called Nightwing. Well-meaning, Todd was essentially a Grayson clone who was also a circus acrobat and also had his parents killed before Batman took him in.

Then, in 1985, the Crisis on Infinite Earths combined all of the worlds of DC’s multiverse into one, allowing writers an excuse to make wholesale changes to backstories. Jason Todd became a streetwise orphan who met Batman when he tried to steal the tires off of the Batmobile. He was Batman’s attempt to keep a child from joining the “criminal element”, and he was mouthy, brutal, and occasionally incompetent.

This leads to 1988. Todd had been unpopular, and DC Comics had been looking for a significant enough story to introduce a plan to allow readers to determine the outcome by voting via a 1-900 number. Enter Death in the Family. At a particularly low point in the Todd-Batman relationship, Jason discovers information that could lead him to his birth mother, and steals the Wayne credit cards so he can fly over to the Middle East.

He (and Batman, who was in the country chasing the Joker, but letting Todd run away) finds his mother being blackmailed by the Clown Prince. As Batman goes one way to catch the main criminals, Robin goes the other way to rescue his mother — who has ratted him out. Trap sprung, the Joker beats Jason half to death with a crowbar, and then explodes the building. By a total of 5,343 votes to 5,271, Todd is found dead by Batman.

And that’s it. Batman tries to kill the Joker, who, bafflingly, has been made the Iranian ambassador to the U.N., but is forced settles for his helicopter crashing into the river.

And then, for fifteen years, in a world where so many others came back, Jason Todd stayed dead. Batman’s failure to save Jason became a driving part of his character almost rivalling the death of Bruce’s parents. A memorial bearing his costume is seen as one of the lasting fixtures in the Batcave, and the issue was brought up often whenever he faced the Joker, although he could never let himself sink to the Joker’s level and kill him.

But even the “deadest characters in comics” can come back. In 2002, the Hush storyline introduced a new villain, someone from Batman’s past that used detailed knowledge of Bruce against him. Several teases that this would be Jason Todd lead to a creepy, excellent graveyard fight between Bats and an older, meaner Jason. But he turned out to be a Clayface clone — another way to strike at Bruce’s weaknesses.

The door was left open, though, and sure enough, in 2005, the Under the Hood storyline introduced a vigilante named the Red Hood who ran his own, no-kids crime racket and killed dirtier gangsters. Hints that this character was Jason Todd were at their greatest where a science-minded Bats tracked down Green Arrow and Superman, asking them what it was like when they died.

The explanation for the resurrection? Before 2005’s Infinite Crisis, Superboy-Prime punched reality, splitting one world back into the multiverse, and, specifically, beaming a copy of Jason Todd from an alternate universe where he survived the explosion into his own grave. Jason was then taken in by Talia al Ghul, healed in a Lazarus Pit, was around for the first half of the fight in the Hush story, and then tagged out for the Clayface clone and bided his time. It’s also full of references to the ongoing Infinite Crisis storylines of the time — Batman and the Leaguers are on bad terms because of the events of Identity Crisis, and Deathstroke tries to recruit the Black Mask into the Secret Society of Super-Villains.

To sum up by stealing a riff off of Let’s Be Friends Again, the second Robin was turned into a douchebag when the multiverse was compressed, and was voted out of life. A version of Jason from a universe where fans voted yes was transported into the story when Superboy-Prime punched reality so hard it broke. He then grew up behind the scenes and is now a dangerous brutal crime fighter that kills everyone. Comics, everybody!

Do you know what I miss most about running with you?

Under The Red Hood takes these disparate story elements and manages to knit them into one clear film by painting the story in its broad strokes. After all, this story isn’t about punching reality or 1-900 numbers or even bringing back the deadest character in comics. This is a story about forgotten things coming back, of Batman facing his biggest failure — and his past.

The movie opens with the Joker beating Todd with a crowbar in a scene that declares the film’s darker subject, covering all of the important parts of Death In The Family in almost ten minutes, leaving out references to Jason’s mom or the fight at the U.N. What follows is a gripping, character driven story liberated by the trappings of its comic book context.

When Batman’s breaking his first Red Hood crime, he gets bailed out of a fight with Amazo by Nightwing, who Exposition Thug helpfully explains is the first Robin. Batman leaves without explanation to continue the investigation and later sends Dick home, insisting that he doesn’t need his help. He’s just not comfortable with having a partner, after Jason, and while the two can work together, Nightwing always feels a little bit out of the loop.

The chase takes Batman to another uncomfortable location for his first face-to-face meeting with the Hood: Ace Chemical Factory, where years before, the first Red Hood, an unconfident, incompetent thug, trips over his own cape while backing away from Bats and falls into a chemical vat, causing him to become the Joker. This scene shows the secret of the film’s great action scenes — things explode and Batman has to swing around on ropes a lot, but the actual result of the fight is not important — it’s a chance for the Hood to take a chance to take Batman down Memory Lane to remind him of his failures.

The next stop is to go back to see old enemies. “But he is locked up.” Nightwing says, half a question, about the Joker. “Like, a lot locked up.” John DiMaggio’s excellent rendition of the Joker pays homage to the Mark Hamil interpretation in the animated series without being indebted to it. It also proves that there are new ways to look at the character post-Heath Ledger; that his version, though popular, can contribute to new ways of looking at the Joker without overshadowing them. The Joker takes the opportunity to not just remind Batman that he killed Jason Todd, but that Batman can’t bring himself to kill him over it.

Some of the best parts of the film are the scenes involving young Jason Todd. As a child, he’s full of verve and enthusiasm. As an older adult, Todd shows his slide into use of excessive force. The flashbacks are all transitioned in with fades that show the characters first as ghosts inhabiting old settings.

The interplay between Bats and Todd is also very interesting — they team up to fight a ninja group known as the Fearsome Hand of Four (thanks to the creators for using original characters, rather than the comics’ cringeworthy Captain Nazi and the Hyena). Their interplay shows what makes Jason Todd such a good adversary for Batman — he’s so familiar, which puts Batman off of his game. Bruce doesn’t like to be reminded of the fact that the crime lord/crime fighter he’s fighting beside used to be Robin, because he is so not over it.

And that interplay is what drives the story. The Black Mask, captured in all his madcap brilliance by Wade Williams, realizes eventually that this story isn’t about him at all, that he’s just caught in the crossfire. Indeed, it’s all summed up in a climatic scene between Batman, the Joker, and the Red Hood in an apartment on Crime Alley, a location with so much history for three people with so much history.

Bruce, I forgive you for not saving me.

In the end, Under the Red Hood tells the 20-year long story of Jason Todd in a brisk 75 minutes by stripping the story to its basics. The resurrection is explained as Ra’s al Ghul trying to make amends for hiring the Joker all those years ago when Jason died by using a Lazarus Pit.

In the comics, all of the Pits have been destroyed and Todd was too far gone to use them anyways, but we don’t care. We know about Lazarus Pits, and we know about al Ghul, so he doesn’t even need to be explained.

The backstory for the Joker used is the one from the Killing Joke, but it doesn’t need to be explained because we’re familiar enough with it. There’s no Deathstroke, no lame team of Society castoffs for Batman and the Red Hood to fight, and no Chemo exploding over Bludhaven, but the story doesn’t suffer without them.

But at the same time, this story doesn’t sacrifice the source materials. Settings are authentically reproduced, and many scenes, especially the big confrontation at the end, are word-for-word accurate to the book. The costume Bats wears in his flashbacks is the Neal Adams number with the oval logo, although the older Jason’s uniform is more like Tim Drake’s green-less number.

Amazo appears, with his character an implicit reference to the Justice league. Talia appears and is never named. A throwaway line in the climax makes reference to that other thing that happened in the Killing Joke — the crippling of Barbara Gordon. This is still a universe in which all these things happened.

Legends sometimes trap narratives in their wake. But they can also help free them from the trappings of continuity that can hold them down. In the heartbreaking final scene, a tired, older Batman remembers a younger, happier version of himself with a carefree young Robin II. The image is so effective and so sad because it is now tied to what he will become. These characters are are legends, and now so is Jason Todd.

July 13, 2010
by Andrew Bates
1 Comment

Doctor Who ratings show viewers coming back, not leaving

Screencap taken from the excellent io9 review of the Lodger

People aren’t walking away from Doctor Who. After a year with no season, they’re just now coming back.

I liked Series 5. You probably liked it too, unless you don’t watch the program anyways or you don’t think bowties are cool. But the British media are starting to wonder whether people there liked it as much.

The Guardian’s Ben Dowell recently wrote an article where showrunner Stephen Moffatt spent a good deal of his time defending his series against the doubters, who use reduced ratings and supposed denunciation from the like of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Fry as fuel. Dowell summed up the handwringing thusly:

Headlines such as “Sexed-up Doctor no cure for TV ratings as 1.2m desert Timelord” and “New Doctor Matt Smith is turn-off for Tennant fans“, followed reports of unconsolidated figures averaging 6 million viewers for the current series, compared with an average of 7.2 million during the last series in 2008, which starred David Tennant.

Although the sci-fi series is still hugely popular with Whovians, some industry insiders have reported teething troubles for the new team. There are suggestions that the show has suffered from budget cuts – were the Daleks really redesigned for commercial reasons? While some critics have stirred up outrage over what they considered to be scanty outfits worn by the Doctor’s assistant, Amy Pond, others have fretted about the long hours endured by the cast and crew. Call it the typical British disease of knocking down success, but can a show such as this stay at the top of its game for another five years?

Moffatt correctly responded to those critiques by pointing out success of the iPlayer and that Who competed against Wimbledon and the World Cup and still landed 7 million viewers, on average. But the torrent of speculation and cruel whispers is all set among one key statistic–the lower ratings this year’s episodes pulled compared to 2008. The way the British media has been reading it, there’s no way to explain that other than uninterested viewers ditching Matt Smith’s interpretation of the Time Lord.

Ah yes, the 2008 season, who’s second half was one of the highest charting in the revived program’s history. Its season finales were the second and first most watched programs of the day, Journey’s End using its cliffhanger to the greatest extent, tying only Voyage of the Damned for viewercount at the time.

But what about 2009? There is a crucial reason that we aren’t comparing this year to last; that when the program was at its most popular point in its revived history, the producers decided to give Britain a rest from Doctor Who (or accommodate the shooting schedule of a lead actor who left anyways) by postponing Series 5 to 2010 and playing 5 special episodes in its place.

It’s clear why ratings have gone down; when more people were watching Doctor Who than they had for almost 20 years, series producers let them walk away. The specials didn’t amount to a full season, and the viewer’s rhythm of watching a televised season probably allowed them to make new patterns and take their interest elsewhere for a time. Who is now winning that back, but it takes time. In the meantime, the program is fresh and gaining its new legs with the current production crew, and I’m just excited for the Christmas Special.

June 15, 2010
by Andrew Bates
1 Comment

Your lady may want Benny Feilhaber: Dating site for cheaters pledges $1M if US wins WC

photo from feilhaber's video blog


Women have been taking responsibility for their own amusement during the FIFA World Cup, according to “international extramarital dating site” Gleeden.com, so the dating site has decided to show their gratitude by putting up a cool $1m for the US Men’s National Team should they take home the top prize.

“Even if the US team has seen better days, Gleeden USA is convinced that the morale and the spirit of the game will make a difference during the competition.” they said in a press release Tuesday. “Despite the challenge and criticism that lays ahead, the USA team can climb the ladder board and achieve glory in this prestigious competition.”

Take a sigh of relief, USMNT fans, as for once you will have better cheaters than the Italians. (The French, on the other hand, have similar support from the site’s European branch.) But if having won the undying support of America’s unfaithful is not enough, Gleeden is also prepared to drop some cold hard science on you with some stats.

“Huge numbers of women have been flocking to Gleeden…to take responsibility for their own amusement during the upcoming World Cup,” they claim. 34% of them consider it just an opportunity to watch men running around in shorts, but they can all agree on one thing: they want Benny Feilhaber.

“89% of women on Gleeden said they would like to spend a night with Benny Feilhaber, while 72% of the ladies said they would be happy to pass a night with Carlos Bocanegra, and 43% agreed that they would spend the night with Maurice Edu,” they claim.

But there is a loser in all of this, other than all of the husbands involved. “Only 6%,” Gleeden admits, “said they would be with Brad Guzan.”

Poor Brad.

June 13, 2010
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

Once Darkseid reaches the end of the book, he’ll work on that Anti-Life Equation

I love to see big fantastic figures just hanging out in ridiculous situations, like that one photo of Vinnie Jones in full Juggernaut costume, standing in his trailer with football on the TV. I’ve seen Darkseid just chillin’ before–there’s an awesome bit in the JLI run where interstellar salesfolk The Cluster capture Mr. Miracle to try and sell him to Darkseid. On Apokalips, Darkseid is said to be occupied, so Granny Goodness tries to grab him. The resulting rescue mission results in chaos and messy combat between Parademons, Lobo on assignment, the League, and a mad as hell Barda.

Oberon sneaks into a sewer to get away from the battle and when he pops open the grille he finds Darkseid, just chilling in an armchair and reading Mein Kampf.

basically it is the best thing.

(in other news, I read the original Kirby run on The New Gods last month. It was AMAZING.)

June 3, 2010
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

MTV’s Awards In-Crowd

Overall, 29 total films were nominated 63 times at the 2010 MTV movie awards. 36 of those, however, went to seven films: New Moon, Avatar, The Hangover, Half-Blood Prince, The Proposal, Alice In Wonderland, and Blind Side.

I counted the actors without an attached film with their obvious one (for example, I’ve counted Kristen Stewart as Twilight, not the Resume.) I thought of it in conversation, and pretty much compulsively infograph’d it. I’m addicted to journalism.

May 5, 2010
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

Sporting guilt: Coming back after a year away

I started following soccer in 2005, when Martin Jol’s Blue and White Army were pushing Arsenal for the elusive Champions’ League spot. My foundational experience as a football fan was the agonizing experience of failing at the last moment when a food-poisoned Tottenham side wilted at the last moment, losing fourth place. I should feel elation, then, at the result today, but I can’t help feeling guilty.

Continue Reading →

May 4, 2010
by Andrew Bates
2 Comments

Burned out on burnout


It’s Spoken Word Tuesday! In Kelowna, Tuesday means an awesome open mic with some rad student and community folks like Ethan Arlette. Here on the internet, it means that I post a piece of creative writing for the internet to nom on, rather than my usual fare.

If I had a piece of paper for every time I bitched
about being busy this year, the Encyclopedia Britannica
would be impressed.

Continue Reading →

February 14, 2010
by Andrew Bates
1 Comment

Olympic Bates Relay

So I’ve been doing things, you know? In my time of covering the Olympics for the Ubyssey, I’ve ran around, developed a monster arm, and had delicious delicious japanese cuisine. Here’s the roundup of journalism made by yours truly:

Heart Attack protest leads to vandalism, arrests in downtown Vancouver – a news article about the Heart Attack protests from Saturday in the Ubyssey;

What we saw of the protests – After the mad dash that was covering Heart Attack ended, me and the Ubyssey’s Samantha Jung got interviewed by the Boston Globe! Here’s the article they wrote featuring us.

Convergence 2010 – Tara Martellaro, Kate Barbaria, and I shot coverage of the Convergence protests and put it on YouTube. We have shotgun mics and wicked stand-up reporting!

Heart Attack 2010 – …and the next morning, I got out of bed and ran downtown as fast as I could to go shoot this footage. No shotgun, no stand-ups, (or any video of dudes breaking stuff) but an interview with a DTES guy originally from Fort Mac and policemen with assault rifles.

Winning silver, not losing gold – Jenn Heil would like to enjoy her moguls silver, except that everyone keeps asking her about how she feels about not winning gold.

Charges brought against three Heart Attack protestors, four released – Of the seven they took to jail, only three stuck around, on assault of a police officer charges and weapons possession.

Olympic protests draw first-time activists – There are many protestors on many different subjects–not all of them are what you’d expect.

Bilodeau honoured to be Olympic champion, intimidated by popularity – Canadian gold medalist Alex Bilodeau finds it weird to be talked about as if he was like Wayne Gretzky, but knows he’ll probably end up in Trivial Pursuit.

Spectators upset over ticket cancellation – The 20,000 canceled tickets at Cypress put a lot of people out, from tourists to convenience store managers to students.

Silver is great present for thrilled St-Gelais – Marianne St-Gelais just wanted to calm down and have fun on her birthday… and compete in short-track speed skating.

CUP’s Olympic Adventure – The excellent Jamie Ross interviewed me on the CUPcast about some of the goings on, which was neat.

Shutting off: Can you ever stop working at the Olympics? – A post for the Ubyssey’s behind the scenes blog about how hard it is to not be in journalist mode all of the time.

Montgomery honoured to be “the coolest guy” – Canadian skeleton gold-medal-winner Jon Montgomery is pretty much the rad dude, but also wants to make sure he makes a difference.

Negative focus has women’s hockey players scratching their heads – The Canadian women’s hockey team has gotten some bad rap recently, from their post-game celebrations to the future of their sport at the Olympics. Is it deserved?

Team spirit leads speed skaters to best performance – They compete individually, but Canada’s speed skaters say their 14 top-eight finishes, 10 finals appearances, and 5 medals come down to team spirit.

Martin finally gets his gold – They had some history, but Kevin Martin wanted to win a medal for more than himself–for the country.

BLACKOUT combats censorship – So many words are published about the Olympics, but how many of them reflect peoples’ actual feelings? BLACKOUT let anyone–even VANOC-affiliated types–say their piece by using black markers to erase words, leaving a poem with what remained.

I’ve been tweeting some live updates to the Ubyssey twitter account, along with the other editors, and I’ve been helping to edit the print editions from February 15th to March 1st. I’ll post my other articles when they come!

January 12, 2010
by Andrew Bates
1 Comment

Google ends China censorship after activist Gmail accounts hacked

Tonight, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice-president of corporate development, announced on Google’s blog that it would end its policy of censoring certain search results on Google.cn to comply with Chinese internet censorship laws. The reasons given for the move were that an attack on Google’s architecture from within China was aimed at compromising the Gmail acconts of several human rights activists. Although Google did not say they suspected the Chinese government was behind the attack, but the message was clear that they considered it to be a violation of one of the key principles they based the Chinese operations around.

The policy was controversial among free-speech advocates who believed that censoring any search results hampered access to information in Japan, but Google maintained that a censored search engine was better than none at all. Google now concedes that if not censoring their results earns them a ban in China, they will have to close the Chinese branch of their service.

edited for typo error