Miracleman And The Prisoner

I compared V For Vendetta and The Prisoner here and here.

In The Prisoner episode, "A, B and C," No 2 observes No 6's dreams on a screen and manipulates the dreams. This is like the para-reality programming. In the episode, "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling," the Village puts No 6's mind into another body.

In Neil Gaiman's Miracleman, the Qys (alien) called "Mors" (Latin for "death") asks Warhol no 6 to befriend Gargunza no 6 who is a prisoner but tries to escape after six months - also after Mors has given him a pomegranate, a mythological reference.

Also, former spies are subjected to para-reality programming and confined in "the City," of which Evelyn Cream says that he is its Number One. When No 1860 is allowed out into the real world, she wonders whether there is a realer world beyond it and feels that she is still being watched, just as No 6 realizes that he is not free from his enemies even when he is back in London.

Correcting The Previous Post

See here and the comment.

The first cinematic Wonder Woman meets the second cinematic Superman and the third cinematic Batman. That's what I thought before I was misled by thinking of a Wonder Woman TV film as a cinematic film.

I said that 10 films formed a continuity:

5 Superman;
1 Supergirl;
4 Batman.

However, the 5th Superman film follows the 2nd Superman film disregarding the 3rd and 4th Superman films so there is a split in continuity here. I think.

DC Cinematic Continuities

When I say "cinematic," I mean original feature films, not either cinema serials or a feature film based on a TV series.

This is a "correct me if I am wrong" situation, especially since I have not checked every detail.

In Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, the second cinematic Superman meets the second cinematic Wonder Woman and the third cinematic Batman:

the first cinematic Superman had a tetralogy;
the second cinematic Superman is appearing for the second time;

the first cinematic Wonder Woman had a single feature film;
the second cinematic Wonder Woman is appearing for the first time;

the first cinematic Batman had a tetralogy;
the second cinematic Batman had a trilogy;
the third cinematic Batman is appearing for the first time.

The Robin of the Batman tetralogy referred to a Metropolis. That must have been the Metropolis of the Superman tetralogy.

The first Batman referred to a Superman. That must have been the first Superman.

The Supergirl feature film referred to the first Superman.

Thus, nine films formed a cinematic continuity.

Batman v Superman

The trailer looks really good:

the Superman from the recent film;
Kent interviewing Wayne;
Olsen (?) introducing them;
the Bat costume recognizable from previous films;
likewise the Batmobile;
conflict between the costumed identities;
a line from Frank Miller;
Diana showing up;
the Big Three - the start of the Justice League.

They know how to do it nowadays. What's not to like?

What THE KILLING JOKE Is Really About

"...Watchmen was something to do with power, V for Vendetta was about fascism and anarchy, The Killing Joke was just about Batman and the Joker - and Batman and the Joker are not really symbols of anything that are real, in the real world, they're just two comic book characters."
-Alan Moore, quoted in Gary Spencer Millidge, Alan Moore Storyteller (Lewes, East Sussex, 2011), p. 139.

I rarely disagree with the Awesome Mage but this is one occasion. The Killing Joke is about whether one bad day is enough to drive anyone mad. It happened to the Batman. It happened to the Joker. The Joker tries to make it happen to Jim Gordon - and fails.

Would one very bad day be enough to drive you or me mad? A very important question.

Addendum, 29 Nov 2015: I have addressed this issue before. See here.

Another Kind Of Alternative History

Copied from Poul Anderson Appreciation:

I confess to not understanding everything that happens in the concluding chapter of SM Stirling's Under The Yoke - the text becomes cryptic. Some nuances have become clearer with rereading but what is Andrew's motivation?

Draka Volume III should be in the post. Meanwhile, Bryan Talbot presents a kind of alternative history that is not to be found in any work by Poul Anderson or SM Stirling: Britain lost the Napoleonic War (OK, so far) and the world is inhabited by anthropomorphic animals! (See image.)

Maybe funny animals histories make more sense in visual media? Alan Moore attributes familiar animal characters to Doctor Moreau. Talbot has Rupert Bear's father gardening in the background of a few panels.

Thus, I was mistaken to postulate that Anderson and Stirling had covered every aspect of the alternative timelines idea - but maybe writers and readers of prose sf do not want talking animals in their texts? Anderson and Gordon R Dickson came close to it with their Hoka.

Black Orchid And The Rubaiyat

By rereading Neil Gaiman's and Dave McKean's Black Orchid, Book One, I have learned Quatrain 26 of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

"Oh, come with old Khayyam and leave the Wise
"To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
"One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
"The flower that once has blown forever dies."

Why does he say "blown"?

Wiki tells me that "Rubaiyat" means "quatrains."