The A-Team

I got this annual at the market the other day and I don't recognise one of the characters depicted on the cover! Can anyone tell me who that guy at the bottom with the slick black hair is? I really don't remember him... I don't like him, he's messing with my memories.

This series of illustrations shows how B.A. earned his name.

Did that bear just fart?


I don't remember The A-Team being very deep, unless I was too young to pick up the philosophical undertones, but this monologue by Murdoch, as the team drives into a No-Man's land area somewhere in a South American jungle, is quite reflective:

"That's right, pal," he confided triumphantly. "I've become No-One, the Number One hero of our times. That's me, bub, the incredible guardian of all things good and caring, the stoic custodian of honesty and valour, the biggest, reddest cheese in the history of No-Man's Land - yes B.A., your humble friendly prince has transmuted into No-One himself, and, as needs must, I've completely disappeared!"

Of course any possible profundity is lost on the team and we're led to believe that it's just one of Howling Mad Murdoch's crazy 'episodes'. But I'd like to believe more...

That maybe the humble, faceless contract writer was writing himself into the script. That, for lack of acknowledgement, he inserted a homage to his unacclaimed occupation. For he is the "No-One", "the Number One hero" behind the heros. And he has indeed "completely disappeared" into the background, behind the cyclopean presence of Stephen J. Cannell.

I'll have to read a few more stories to confirm my suspiscion that the writer(s) may have used Murdoch as an conduit for their frustrations or creative expression. Or maybe I should just let it go...