Hello all and welcome to the latest edition of “Confessions of a DC Geek”. This time we have a website reader answering the questions. Chris J. Capel is his name and as you will see, he’s another big DC fan.

We hope you would like to get involved and, if like DC fan below, Chris , you want to share, then please email john@dcworld.org.uk, or a DM via my twitter account @DC_ComicsGeek or even through the DC World twitter account, @_DCWorld, and it will be passed on. I look forward to hearing from you. If you do contact us then I will get back to you, preferably via an email address and we will go through the necessary questions and, providing you all agree, ask for a few pictures; maybe one of yourself for the article as well as photos of the items from your collection.

Anyway, as I have stated, DC fan Chris is next up for the grilling.  Please enjoy reading and my thanks go to Chris for wanting to take part and taking on the questions.

I enjoyed reading and creating this article.  Learning about our readers and members of the team is great fun and I hope it can continue for a good while if readers and members of the team alike continue to put themselves forward.

That’s enough from me, on with the interview.


CONFESSIONS OF A DC GEEK #3 – CHRIS J. CAPEL

First of all, tell me a bit about yourself – name, age (if willing), where you’re from and what you do for a living, anything else you wish to mention.

I’m Chris J Capel, I’m 35, I live in the UK, I’m News Editor for the PC gaming website GameWatcher.com, and I run the YouTube channel DC Comics Gamer, the best YouTube channel in the world by miles. (www.youtube.com/dccomicsgamer).

What, or who, helped kickstart your DC Comics fandom and when?

A friend of mine introduced me to Batman in comics, and my first graphic novel (which I picked up in an airport on my way to a family holiday, so it was all I read for two weeks), Batman: A Death In The Family, had me hooked. But, nearly immediately after that it was definitely a combination of Tim Burton’s Batman and The Animated Series that solidified my DC fandom for my entire life. Nowadays I even like characters who aren’t Batman!

Who is your favourite DC Superhero? – Not sure this needs asking, isn’t it obvious already?

Plastic Man.

Kidding, it’s blatantly Batman. Green Lantern (all of them!), Wonder Woman and Superman are very high on the list now though.

Who is your favourite DC Villain?

The Scarecrow. Aside from using Batman’s greatest weapon against him – fear – I like how he’s a nerd, who was bullied excessively all his life, getting his revenge on the world that tormented him (speaks to me for some reason). He’s very much a case of the bullied kid getting some power and becoming far worse than the bullies.

Also, fun fact – he’s the only DC Comics villain to appear in three movies played by the same actor (Cillian Murphy in the Dark Knight trilogy).

Overall, who is your favourite DC character?

Honestly probably Batman, but that’s a boring answer so I’ll say Green Lantern. I love all of the GL Corps and all the various Earth Green Lanterns, from Hal Jordan all the way to Jessica Cruz – and I love how they all have their own quirks, and ways of overcoming fear. Plus thanks to Geoff Johns the series tends to get the best writers too. I even liked the movie!

I cheered out loud when that Lantern appeared in Justice League.

What is your favourite DC Movie?

So many to choose from. I have a soft spot for both of Tim Burton’s but they have their flaws. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the easy choice, as is The Dark Knight which if I was being serious I would nominate. Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is fantastic too.

I am actually going to shock everyone though by saying The Lego Batman Movie. It’s just perfect. A joke every second, tons of detail in every moment, steeped in DC lore… and yet never actually makes fun of DC or Batman, it’s always laughing with them as fans. Well, okay, maybe it does make fun of Suicide Squad a little. “I did something!”

TV shows – which is your favourite DC effort?

I’ve watched all of them, with the exception of Smallville which I could never get into! Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited overall, but right now while I love all the CW shows (Supergirl and The Flash in particular) Gotham is my favourite. It’s so silly, yet since they decided to stop trying to be a Batman prequel in-keeping with the lore it’s become unpredictable and I love it. And in Jerome Gotham has secretly got the best on-screen Joker.

Black Lightning however is very quickly catching up. It’s fantastic.

The DC Universe has featured many, many actors on TV and in the movies, as well as animated movies/series’, so I ask you – who is your favourite actor, anyone who has made some sort of appearance within a DC creation?

Mark Hamill, all the way. He has played a surprising amount of roles in DC and he’s a lovely guy. I was so shocked to find out that Luke Skywalker was the (perfect) voice of the Joker! He was great as the wackier Joker of the Animated Series, and was just as great as the darker version in Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker and Batman: Arkham Asylum. He’s even great on-screen as The Trickster in The Flash.

Comics – do you read them? And if so what is your favourite comic/graphic novel to read?

Absolutely! Currently ongoing comic – Injustice. Somehow this tie-in comic to a videogame series is actually the best exploration of the DC universe around. Writer Tom Taylor is utterly fantastic, and has a knack for writing amazing dialogue that absolutely fits the characters – and that includes every character in the entire DC universe. I really hope he gets put on Justice League at some point.

In the past though – Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War is the best comic book event ever. The escalation in it is fantastic, as is all the ways it tied in to Infinite Crisis.

Your Twitter handle suggests you are a gamer, therefore, do you play / have you played the games that are connected to DC Comics. If so, what is the best/your favourite game played and are there any DC characters, who haven’t been seen in games yet, that you would like to see?

Oh heck yes. I started DC Comics Gamer with a goal of playing through every single DC Comics videogame ever made, and while I’ve expanded out to include TV and Movies I’ll continue to be a videogame obsessive first and foremost.

The best is undoubtedly Batman: Arkham Asylum. While I personally prefer sequel Arkham City, it needs restating just how important Arkham Asylum was – to Batman, to DC, to videogames, and to licenced games. Rocksteady were the first developer to properly try and make a great game as well as a great Batman game, and it’s the reason why licenced games are held at such a high standard now. Remember Superman 64? Batman: Dark Tomorrow? Urgh.

As for what I want to see, a proper Justice League game. It’s astonishing that there has only really ever been one single Justice League game, where you can play as all the League, swap between them, and beat up enemies – Justice League Heroes on Xbox/Playstation 2. We need another!

Now we have the necessities from you, on to the reasons that I created this feature, your DC collectables/memorabilia or whatever you wish to call them.

First up, do you collect large amounts of DC merchandise or is it just a select variety of items that appeal to you, which you like to pick up?

My main collection is graphic novels. I have a massive collection of these, in storage and generally scattered about, and the picture I’ve provided is just a small selection of my organised section! I’ve also got a massive amount of DVDs/Blu-Rays (which again, the picture I’ve provided is just my organised bit and is nowhere close to all of them!).

I would love to say “toys” as well, but let’s just say my wife won’t let me out to play in this regard! Although I am secretly building a small collection of LEGO figures and Eaglemoss figurines… shh, don’t tell the missus!

Do the items you collect relate to one specific character/movie/TV Show etc. or is it just all things DC Comics?

Generally DC Comics, although I confess that as I was into Batman for longer than the wider DC universe my Caped Crusader Collection is bigger than all the others combined! My vices include either something videogame related – say the Arkham or Injustice series, or the recently released tie-in to Telltale Games’ Batman series which I’ll for sure pick up – and cross-universe team-ups. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Batman, Superman & Aliens, He-Man & Justice League, Wonder Woman & Conan The Barbarian… they’re surprisingly great, most of the time!

Of the items you own, do you have a most prized possession? – I’m not asking for your favourite here, but the one/s you cherish most of all. Why does it/they mean so much to you?

My copy of Batman: Death In The Family for sure. It’s by no means the rarest, but it was my first graphic novel as mentioned. It’s been to other countries with me, it’s the book I’ve read the most and yet it’s still in near-perfect condition astonishingly. It’s what helped make me the DC fan I am today – if it’d been rubbish I might be (shudder) a Dark Horse fan instead!

Is there something in your collection that you would consider the strangest? If so, what made you buy it?

I’ll say probably my light-up Green Lantern ring, from the movie. I don’t wear it half as often as I should do. Either that or my double-headed Two Face coin, that makes a beautiful ‘ping’ sound when you flick it. Both of those are right in front of me as I type this! As for why, well… I just fancied them! Gotta indulge now and again, right?

Do you have something in your collection that could be described as a rare item?

I’ve been a games journalist for a long time, and one of my proudest moments was getting a copy of Batman: Arkham City early for review. That wasn’t the best part though – Warner Bros provided a big press package with it, with a number of fun collectables. The most unique and coolest though is a heavy and seemingly expensive metal puzzle box supposedly provided by the Riddler. At the time I had to follow a series of clues, laid out in riddles, to find the password – which when opened contained a code to unlock Catwoman in the game.

I’ve still got the puzzle box, and I’m still in awe of how cool this thing is. (Unfortunately it’s in storage right now, so I can’t provide a picture sadly!)

Cheeky question, but most and least expensive collectible you own?

Least expensive is a knock-off movie-style Green Lantern LEGO figure sat on my desk, which cost me around £1.50 in some market in Portsmouth.

Most expensive? If you mean how much I paid for it, then it’ll probably be something simple like the complete hardback Gotham Central collected edition. I don’t usually overspend on single items – just quantity! I have got a few rarities though, such as all of the Marvel/DC Crossover comics from over the years. They’ve never been reprinted, for probably obvious reasons, and they can fetch high prices on eBay!


And so, there we have another entry in the Confessions Of A DC Geek series.  I do hope that you have enjoyed reading this and learning more about fans of DC and one of our readers.  My huge thanks to Chris for putting his hand up and showing willing answer the questions and letting us know all about him.  As with the others before him, I am sure that you will all agree that Chris is a true DC Geek.  You can find Chris on Twitter – @chrisjcapel, and on Youtube (details within the interview) where I am sure that he will be more than willing to interact with other DC Comics fans.

If you wish to make any comments on Chris’s interview, then please do so below or on any of our DC World Social Media pages, we are always willing to hear from the readers of the website.

If you would like to take part in “Confessions Of A DC Geek” (and we hope you do), then please contact myself, or the team, at the contact details below.

Email: john@dcworld.org.uk

John’s Twitter: @DC_ComicsGeek

Team Twitter: @_DCWorld

Cheers, John…

CONFESSIONS OF A DC GEEK WILL RETURN