Expanding The War of the Worlds – part 2

Posted on July 23, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

If you read last week’s post, you know I’ve been discussing comics that expanded H.G. Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds.

Today I want to start with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore’s and Kevin O’Neill’s fun series about a Victorian team of anti-heroes made up of old public domain characters. Much of LOEG’s second volume (originally a six-issue mini-series published in 2002-2003) revolved around Wells’ Martian invasion, which suited both the comic’s initial conception (digging up the origins of pulp fiction by reveling in turn-of-the-twentieth-century fantastic literature) and its political motifs (satirizing the monstrous side of the British Empire).

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v2) #1The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v2) #1

In line with the series’ notion of connecting disparate works into a single, intricate continuity, Moore and O’Neill integrated The War of the Worlds on a vast tapestry, kicking things off with a prelude on Mars that tied Wells’ novel to Edwin L. Arnold’s Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation and to Edgar Rice Burrough’s Barsoom stories featuring John Carter. The whole thing may sound too esoteric, but O’Neill successfully brought it to life as an eerily dreamlike grand adventure through glorious splash pages like the one above.

By the time we got to the second issue, the main action became deeply entangled with H.G. Wells’ narrative, albeit seen from the point of view of the protagonists of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This applied both to peripheral details (even the newspapers headlines were taken from the book) and to key scenes like the expedition into the initial crater by Stent, the Astronomer Royal, closely depicting the lead-up to the first massacre. Some of the dialogue is reproduced verbatim – for example, we catch a glimpse of the original (unnamed) narrator’s conversation with his neighbor in one of the backgrounds (‘What ugly brutes!’).

And, needless to say, Kevin O’Neill hauntingly visualizes the Martians’ horrific looks…

League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v2) #2

That said, as usual with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and contrary to what some critics say), we get much more than the mere pleasure of recognition across media.

For one thing, Alan Moore is a master of characterization, so he skilfully milks the invasion’s dramatic potential by showing us how each of the protagonists would react to such a world-shattering turn of events. Besides fleshing out the series’ leads, Moore slows down the action just enough to convey the overall weight of the situation, thus recapturing the ‘lost innocence’ atmosphere that permeates H.G. Wells’ novel…

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v2) #2The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v2) #2

While shifting perspectives, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reveals supposedly hidden aspects of the story. It turns out the shot that destroyed one of the tripods on the novel’s twelfth chapter was fired by Captain Nemo. The Martian red weed is then revealed to be an anti-submarine weapon (suggested by the Invisible Man) deployed specifically against the Nautilus.

Most notably, what ultimately kills the aliens is not a natural strain of bacteria, but a genetically engineered hybrid of anthrax and streptococcus designed by another H.G. Wells creation, Doctor Moreau, and deliberately fired against the Martians by the British forces. Bear in mind that this retcon doesn’t necessarily contradict the original text, whose subjective narrator presented the natural infection explanation as a mere hypothesis. Thus, Alan Moore applies to The War of the Worlds the kind of radical-yet-faithful revisionism he had previously applied to comics like Marvelman, Swamp Thing, and The Spirit (and even to the Joker’s Red Hood origin in The Killing Joke).

Thematically, though, this new version seems to go against the underlying spirit of Wells’ book, which rested on two humbling gestures. On the one hand, the text followed the perspective of marginal players on the sidelines, helplessly witnessing the main action without controlling it (this is where much of the horror stemmed from), unlike LOEG’s leads, whose choices shape the invasion’s final outcome. On the other hand, the point of Wells’ ending was precisely that the humans weren’t able to defeat the Martians – the subtle double meaning in the title was that the worlds at war weren’t just those of humans and aliens, thus subverting humanity’s sense of self-importance.

Regardless, I suppose you could argue that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s reinterpretation does preserve some of the slant of the original work, since the revised story is itself an allegory about imperial ruthlessness. After all, not only do we see British authorities gleefully developing – and ultimately resorting to – biological warfare, but we get a taste of their cynical relation with public truth: ‘Officially, the Martians died of the common cold. Any humans died of Martians.’ Plus, as was typical of LOEG’s earliest volumes, every aspect of the comic seems designed to mock Victorian values, right up to each chapter’s closing blurbs…

League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v2) #5

Around the time that this comic first came out, we got a different project expanding H.G. Wells’ seminal work – not sideways, like LOEG, but by moving forward chronologically in the form of a direct sequel, like Marvel had done in the seventies. Ian Edginton’s and D’Israeli’s Scarlet Traces was originally published online before being serialized, in 2002, in Judge Dredd Megazine #16-18 and later collected in a Dark Horse hardcover (more recently, the series and its sequels have also been collected by Rebellion). Set in 1908, this comic imagined the aftermath of The War of the Worlds in a way that departed from Wells’ hopeful ending – instead of humanity coming together and, humbled by its recent experience, tempering its arrogance with a more peaceful, progressive outlook, the Martians’ defeat renewed the survivors’ old sense of purpose… because it was just as easy to believe the aliens had been killed by microscopic bacteria than to see it as divine intervention, i.e. as proof that God was on our side.

Notably, unlike Amazing Adventures, which suggested that twentieth-century history had carried on in much the same way as in our timeline after the Martians’ failed invasion, Scarlet Traces assumes the world in general – and Britain in particular – has been profoundly shaped by those events, especially due to the encounter with alien technology. This is the starting point for a clever bit of speculative fiction, taking into account the turn of the century’s New Imperialism while also serving as a springboard for a bunch of nifty steampunk landscapes:

Scarlet TracesScarlet Traces

As you can see, like Kevin O’Neill, D’Israeli evokes a certain type of Victorian aesthetics while providing a distinctive visual style that is clear yet unrealistic (which is not to say that the depicted creatures and machinery aren’t carefully conceived, as demonstrated by the fascinating sketches at the end of the hardcover edition).

His interpretation of the Martians is strikingly different from O’Neill’s – as well as from Howard Chaykin’s and Manuel Garcia’s – while nevertheless managing to remain faithful to H.G. Wells’ description:

War of the Worlds (2006)War of the Worlds (2006)

Likewise, Ian Edginton gets Wells’ voice but he doesn’t stick to mere pastiche. For one thing, the quaint prose is often interspersed with folksier dialogue. Moreover, rather than replicating the original’s formula by telling another war story, Edginton chose to open this new saga with a classic conspiracy thriller (a proven narrative device for exploring alternate realities). He also added multiple interesting layers of world-building, for example speculating that the sudden jump in terms of mechanization would take a particular toll on industrial Scotland, where the ensuing mass unemployment was bound to generate resentment.

In a move comparable to LOEG’s, despite subverting the spirit of The War of the World’s epilogue, Scarlet Traces stays true to H.G. Wells’ critique of the British Empire’s aggressive power and self-entitlement. The notion of a postwar nation deploying the technology of its former adversary also brings to mind the role of Nazi scientists in the United States after World War II – or, more generally, the public’s willingness (still today) to indulge in comfort and consumer goods with little regard for how they were produced…

War of the WorldsScarlet Traces

Edginton and D’Israeli seem to have struck creative gold with this series, bringing to life a truly captivating timeline, visually as well as thematically. They followed it up with a straight-up adaptation of War of the Worlds and, in 2006, with a four-issue sequel, Scarlet Traces: The Great Game.

Building on the conclusion of the previous volume, this sequel jumped to the 1940s, when the British Empire was still at war with the Martians. By then, global technological superiority and the protracted armed conflict had unleashed the UK’s authoritarian impulses, to the point where Oswald Mosley was now Home Secretary and George Orwell was in an internment camp (a throwaway line that pays off with a neat visual cameo near the end). This time around, we followed intrepid photojournalist Charlotte Hemming as she investigated yet another sinister conspiracy. She was quite a charismatic character, even though, once again, the main attraction was the sheer process of gradually uncovering this world’s politics, society, historical deviations, and retro-sci-fi imagery…

Scarlet Traces: The Big Game #1Scarlet Traces: The Great Game #1

Honestly, I’d say The Great Game makes for an even more satisfying read than the first Scarlet Traces. The political intrigue is sharper (even if you ignore the obvious nudges to the Bush/Blair era’s War on Terror) and D’Israeli delivers some stunning battle scenes on Mars and outer space. Plus, while not going as far as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’s nerdy obsessiveness, the book pays tribute to classic science fiction by sneaking in all sorts of subtle references to stuff like Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future and The Adventures of Tintin, not to mention H.G. Wells’ own The First Men in the Moon.

Hell, the covers smack of Dan Dare’s pulpy military space adventure vibe, combined with WWII posters:

war of the worlds          scarlet traces

After a lengthy hiatus, we finally got new Scarlet Traces comics in 2016, when they became a recurrent strip on the pages of 2000 AD. The first arc, ‘Cold War,’ which moved the action to 1968, revolved around a spy mission to Venus, still under Martian occupation (since the end of War of the Worlds). For all its populist, in-your-face allusions to topics like racism and the refugee crisis, though, the new iteration of Scarlet Traces essentially boiled down to a much more traditional fantasy adventure series (albeit with epic stakes), its plot a string of genre clichés ultimately elevated by D’Israeli’s eccentric, rubbery artwork and increasingly experimental colors.

That said, at least the ‘Home Front’ arc brought back Charlotte Hemming, which remained a joy to read about. Moreover, Ian Edginton and D’Israeli sure know to pander to their fanbase with a steady supply of (unobtrusive) geeky Easter Eggs…

2000 AD #20232000 AD #2023

As if all this wasn’t enough, Edgniton invited other people to play in this sandbox, editing a prose anthology last year with short stories by – among several others – fellow 2000 AD alumni Emma Beeby and I.N.J. Culbard. And we’ve been promised more Scarlet Traces comics soon!

At the end of the day, while I didn’t care for every single beat in the series, I can’t help but appreciate the overall Scarlet Traces saga, which has truly developed The War of the Worlds into a sprawling mythology populated with a richly diverse cast. In particular, the fact that – like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and even, in its own peculiar way, Don McGregor’s run in Amazing Adventures – the result has echoed and commented on the various conflicts humanity has gone through since 1898 seems like a logical extension of H.G. Wells’ own pacifist concerns.

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COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (20 July 2020)

Posted on July 20, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

Your reminder that comics can be awesome, this week dedicated to the spectacular Batman covers of the artistic duo of Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson:

batmancarmine infantinobatmanbatmanbatman

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Expanding The War of the Worlds – part 1

Posted on July 16, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

A couple of months ago, I recommended (re)visiting H.G. Well’s The War of the Worlds. This classic sci-fi horror novel became a massive influence on pop culture as the urtext for books, films, television shows, theatre plays, and video games about alien invasions, Martian and otherwise – whether it was William Cameron Menzies’ campy Invaders from Mars or Tim Burton’s nihilistic Mars Attacks! (although not Harry Horner’s hysterically propagandistic Red Planet Mars, which took the idea of alien contact into a whole other direction…). Naturally, the story had quite an impact on comics as well, where this subgenre found a fertile breeding ground, especially during the paranoid 1950s (presumably because it channeled Cold War anxieties):

strange tales    Tales of Suspense    Strange Adventures

Besides spawning countless imitations and variations, The War of the Wolds has been the object of explicit – if more or less loose – adaptations as well, from Orson Welles’ notorious 1938 radio play to last year’s Fox TV series (which I haven’t seen). On the big screen, there was the cornball 1953 version produced by George Pal (set in California, with an unmistakable Red Scare subtext and a religious slant to the final twist) and Steven Spielberg’s War on Terror-era disaster movie (which moved the action to New York and, in the process, shifted the parable’s target from British to American hubris).

As for comic books, besides having a field day playing with the fiction-taken-for-reality panic surrounding Welles’ radio broadcast (which inspired Weird Science’s ‘Panic,’ Secret Origins’ ‘The Crimson Avenger,’ and The Spirit’s ‘U.F.O.’), the medium has also delivered its fair share of takes on H.G. Wells’ work…

War of the Worlds    War of the Worlds    War of the Worlds

With this in mind, I want to discuss a bunch of cool comic book projects that took things one step further by actually building expansive universes on The War of the Worlds’ scaffolds.

Let’s start with the saga that ran in Amazing Adventures #18-39 (1973-1976), set in a dystopic 2018 and following the exploits of the Spartacus-like Killraven, who leads a resistance movement in the aftermath of a second, more successful Martian invasion… Created by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams – and initially scripted by Gerry Conway – the series was a full-on action-packed Marvel adventure comic, one that often felt like some sort of LSD trip (like much of the company’s output at the time) yet it was also an explicit sequel to an 1898 novel.

This counter-intuitive hybrid took no prisoners: the first issue, illustrated by Adams and Howard Chaykin (two artists with a quasi-naturalistic style reminiscent of old pulps), opened in media res with Killraven mercilessly slaughtering hordes of henchmen and mutants before the comic eventually took a break to sum up H.G. Wells’ book in an effective two-page flashback…

War of the WorldsAmazing Adventures (v2) #18

We soon learned that, one hundred years after the failed invasion of 1901 (unlike the comics discussed next week, which place the invasion in the year of the novel’s publication, this one respects the fact that Wells’ narrative was set ‘early in the twentieth century’), the Martians, now prepared with bacteriological immunity, finally managed to conquer Earth and subjugate the human race. Raised to be a gladiator by human collaborationists – the so-called ‘keepers’ – working for the Martian overlords, the brash, revenge-thirsty Killraven then rebelled and went on a revolutionary quest throughout occupied America that mostly took the form of psychotronic science fiction worthy of the proud tradition of imaginative futuristic war comics.

With its blatant counterculture influence and wild horror/fantasy imagery, this strange series is like a spiritual relative of Steve Gerber’s run on The Man-Thing at the time, as Killraven – who is plagued by telepathic daydreams – finds himself riding a purple serpent-horse and battling giant, disgusting monsters, cartoonish tyrants, and a trio of semi-naked women designed to attract men to their doom:

KillravenAmazing Adventures (v2) #19

(Not to deny the obvious sexism behind this trope, but, to be fair, the sirens’ looks are no more preposterous than Killraven’s own attire… In fact, the overall kinky fashion sense seems to anticipate George Miller’s own post-apocalyptic vision in the Mad Max movies, years later.)

And in case you’re wondering if Howard Chaykin’s design of the Martians lives up to H.G. Wells’ description, I’ll let you to compare the two:

“They were, I now saw, the most unearthly creatures it is possible to conceive. They were huge round bodies—or, rather, heads—about four feet in diameter, each body having in front of it a face. This face had no nostrils—indeed, the Martians do not seem to have had any sense of smell, but it had a pair of very large dark-coloured eyes, and just beneath this a kind of fleshy beak. In the back of this head or body—I scarcely know how to speak of it—was the single tight tympanic surface, since known to be anatomically an ear, though it must have been almost useless in our dense air. In a group round the mouth were sixteen slender, almost whiplike tentacles, arranged in two bunches of eight each.”

Amazing AdventuresAmazing Adventures (v2) #19

Outside of the initial premise and the occasional sighting of Tripods, this comic may appear to have little to do with H.G. Wells’ book (starting with the fact that we are expected to root for humanity’s violent triumph over the aliens, as if having learned nothing from Wells’ deconstruction of anthropocentrism). Yet, like the original, this too is an allegorical and critical take on the values of its time. Between the Cold War, Civil Rights struggles, and rising environmentalist concerns, the early 1970s led to some of the weirdest visions of the future… In film, we got A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green, Westworld, The Omega Man, Silent Running, and Sleeper. In comics, we got DC’s Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth and, yes, Marvel’s War of the Worlds, which channeled the era’s misanthropy by viciously denouncing humans’ callous willingness to turn on each other in the name of selfish interests (as you can see in the dialogue above).

Between the campy visuals and the clunky writing, I admit the series did start off as pretty much an awful mess, even if I retain a soft spot for its devil-may-care energy. Things became gradually more interesting once Don McGregor became the main writer (with #21), not least because of his flair for political irony. In the issue ‘Washington Nightmare’ (which opens with this cheeky description of Killraven: ‘…a man who has sworn to win back humanity’s right… to destroy itself!’), a band of futuristic pirates host a slave auction at the Lincoln Memorial. In the next issue, Killraven’s torture in the White House has echoes of George Orwell’s 1984. And in the *next one* the rebels come across the Watergate tapes while putting together a New Year’s Eve party:

KillravenAmazing Adventures (v2) #24

Moments like this one, in addition to the narration’s tendency to comment on the action by directly referencing contrasts with the present (of the ‘70s), meant that the comic often relativized our worldview, framing readers’ consumerist urges and current concerns as ultimately transient and petty from an outsider’s vantage point – an act of estrangement comparable to H.G. Wells’ own gesture of defiance against humanity’s self-importance in The War of the Worlds. Other slices of satire took place in ‘Something Worth Dying For!,’ where a proto-knight protected his ancestor’s legacy (which turned out to be a set of cereal boxes), and ‘Only the Computer Shows Me Any Respect!,’ where a computerized simulation of The Hound of the Baskersvilles became simultaneously an indictment of alienation and a metaphor for the plight of Native Americans. (A fill-in issue by Bill Mantlo then tackled the Black Power movement.) More generally, the psychedelic aesthetics (including experimental layouts and lettering) combined with the fact that the series revolved around a gang of rebellious misfits – the self-labeled Freemen – with different genders, colors, and (dis)abilities fighting against tyranny in an American wasteland lent the comic a markedly iconoclastic vibe.

Indeed, besides keeping – and sometimes amping up – the offbeat humor, the sexual tension, and the surreal tone, Don McGregor also introduced remarkable supporting players, including Carmilla Frost (a molecular biologist who gave mainstream comics’ first interracial kiss), Sabre (a disgruntled African-American slaver), and Volcana Ash (a flirty bombshell with pyrokinetic powers). Meanwhile, his Killraven was a cross between an idealist hero and the kind of cunning barbarian that could’ve starred in Savage Tales.

McGregor’s run was further elevated when P. Craig Russell came aboard as regular artist, starting with #27. Russell’s more lyrical style merged particularly well with McGregor’s portentous – if verbose – voice… Firing on all cylinders, not only did they have the characters encounter misunderstood remnants of the 1970s (perhaps never more impressively than in ‘The Day the Monuments Shattered,’ a high point of the series), but they also had them come across technology supposedly developed in the 1990s (i.e. in the diegetic past, yet in the creators’ imaginary future). For instance, in what is arguably the series’ most bizarre tale (with the possible exception of the baffling ‘The 24-Hour Man’), Killraven and the Freemen visit a futuristic Nashville musical arena:

Amazing AdventuresKillravenAmazing Adventures (v2) #32

(Curiously, although the comic has fun speculating about the intervening decades between its period and the 2001 invasion, the various creators seem comfortable with the implication that everything until the ‘70s was pretty much familiar, as if the first Martian attack had had little historical impact…)

I’m also a fan of ‘Red Dust Legacy,’ in which we learn about Martian reproduction. Basically, Martians are genderless and not only do they reproduce asexually (‘…they always did strike me as being kinda dull!’), but they do so without great emotion – their infants grow like fruits on a branch and the severing of parent and child is nothing more than that to them (‘The tree does not celebrate! The tree does not mourn!’). What I like about this issue is that, after treating the aliens as feared others and inscrutable outsiders for so long, we finally get a closer perspective on their mindset and even a degree of empathy, especially as we learn that the younger, Earth-born generations may be less willing to annihilate humans (a nod to the Vietnam-era generation gap?). In turn, Killraven, with his determination to massacre a bunch of younglings, comes across as particularly vicious. The ending then piles up one ironic twist on top of another. (Between this story and ‘Mourning Prey,’ you could really see the series evolving into more ethically ambitious territory in the final issues before its cancellation…)

It’s a cult-worthy run. By issue #29, the comic had come such a long way and gained such a distinct identity that the covers of Amazing Adventures even dropped the ‘War of the Worlds’ logo, temporarily rebranding the main feature as ‘Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds’ (even though the series had actually become more of an ensemble piece, with numerous subplots and an increasingly diverse cast). Seven years after Amazing Adventures’ cancellation, Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell tied up some loose ends in the 1983 graphic novel Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds, although the actual war would only wrap up in 2010’s Marvel Zombies 5 – of all places! – where Killraven teamed up with Machine Man and Howard the Duck. (Like most Fred Van Lente comics, Marvel Zombies 5 is both hilarious and quite clever at reworking disparate cultural references, paying tribute to the original novel as well as to the pulpy 1970s’ saga while having a blast with the notion that Killraven is a violent fanatic…)

In the meantime, we also got a reboot in the form of a 2003 Killraven mini-series by Alan Davis – a streamlined retelling of the Freemen’s early adventures, with plenty of tweaks. More reader-friendly yet less fascinatingly idiosyncratic, this lively, two-fisted yarn is not only miles apart from the novel (even if it recovers Wells’ red weed and poisonous smoke), but it also loses some of the earlier comic’s most interesting choices, especially when it comes to the female characters (for instance, the green-skinned Mint Julep used to be much more unabashedly feminist). The main attraction here is the art, with Alan Davis once again proving he can turn the most outrageous designs into stylish eye candy. Indeed, the whole thing feels like a vehicle for Davis – with smooth inks and colors by Mark Farmer and Greg Wright – to pit gorgeous, athletic bodies against elaborate mutations:

War of the WorldsKillraven #3

These various odd takes on The War of the Worlds came to occupy a recognizable place in Marvel lore. Notably, Bill Mantlo strengthened the connection to the Marvel Universe already back in 1976, having written Marvel Team-Up #45 (set before Amazing Adventures #37), in which Spider-Man met the Freemen after time-travelling to their 2019, and Amazing Adventures #38, in which Killraven visited the remnants of the Miami Museum of Cultural Development, coming across holographic projections of Iron Man and Doctor Strange, among others.

More recently, Wolverine and Black Cat visited a version of this future in 2011’s raunchy screwball mini-series Claws II, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, who managed to push the material’s sexual undertones even further…

Wolverine & The Black Cat: Claws II #2Wolverine & The Black Cat: Claws II #2

The Marvel franchise – a major vortex of today’s pop culture – is thus tied to a work of Victorian literature! I get quite a kick out of this sort of mix of high and lowbrow (like when Young Indiana Jones Chronicles had an episode built around both Franz Kafka’s writings and the Pink Panther movies).

Sure, purists will point out that Killraven’s saga isn’t set in the core continuity of Earth-616, but rather on Earth-691 (the same from the Guardians of the Galaxy comics). Still, H.G. Wells’ Martians have also occasionally appeared in Marvel’s main universe. For instance, Paul Cornell wrote them into his awesome 2007 mini-series Wisdom, where these aliens (gloriously redesigned by Manuel Garcia) attempted an interdimensional invasion of the United Kingdom. The Martians’ appearance fit particularly well into that comic’s exploration of British mythology, a point driven home by Pete Wisdom’s internal monologue: ‘They’re the British past. Here to do to us what we did to the world.’ (James Robinson later followed this up with the amusing All-New Invaders #12.)

And just to stress the return of Wells’ concepts to British soil, I’ll wrap things up for today with this Monty Python reference:

Wisdom #6Wisdom #6
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COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (13 July 2020)

Posted on July 13, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

Your badass reminder that comics can be awesome…

black scienceLady KIllerElektraBlack WidowNinjak

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1990s’ Batman comics reading guide – part 4

Posted on July 9, 2020 by I.M. Baytor
BatmanBatman #530

(Yep, I’m still posting about superheroes, even though the latest proto-apocalyptic events seem to have finally pushed the genre out of public consciousness, perhaps suitably.)

After the success of 1993-1994’s Knightfall, the different Batman books kept a closely articulated continuity, yet each of them also went its own way again, for a while. Indeed, although the point of this set of posts is to draw attention to the coherence and connectivity of 1990s’ comics, I should point out that – regardless of the occasional crossover events bringing all the strands together – each series still developed an autonomous narrative and peculiar tone.

In Detective Comics, Chuck Dixon wrote crime yarns featuring the Dynamic Duo and the Gotham City cops, mostly illustrated with a sharp, no-frills approach by Graham Nolan. In turn, Doug Moench treated Batman as a superhero horror title, in line with Kelley Jones’ über-gothic artwork (check out the hilariously impractical, physics-defying properties of Batman’s cape in the panel above…) and Greg Wright’s extravagant colors. Alan Grant’s Shadow of the Bat continued to spotlight members of the supporting cast, usually with a twisted sense of humor. Dixon also wrote Catwoman, about the titular thief’s heists (brought to life by Jim Balent’s graceful – if increasingly sexualized – pencils), and Robin, a lighthearted comedy about adolescence (not unlike the original Spider-Man formula) focusing on Tim Drake, with cartoony art by Mike Wieringo. The only stinker in the batch was Azrael, an adventure epic starring Jean Paul Valley, written by Dennis O’Neil and horribly illustrated by Barry Kitson in the exaggerated style popularized by Image at the time. Moreover, there were a bunch of one-shots and mini-series, plus the quarterly anthology The Batman Chronicles.

Thematically, it’s interesting to note that despite the writers’ clashing politics (O’Neil’s New Left liberalism, Dixon’s right-wing conservatism, Grant’s leftist anarchism, and Moench’s own brand of paranoid libertarianism), there was an overall vibe of Clinton-era progressivism, moving beyond Cold War dichotomies and gradually increasing the number of female characters in positions of power. (What can I say… reading politics into Batman comics is a gift that keeps on giving.)

Azrael          Man-Bat

LOOSE STORIES [Let’s start with a few loose stories that fit somewhere after Knightfall, even if Batman’s costume doesn’t always match his new look.]

Demon (v3) #52-54: ‘Suffer the Children’ (collected in The Demon, v2: The Longest Day) [Tommy Monaghan’s final encounter with Jason Blood and the demon Etrigan before meeting them again in Hitman. This was followed by Demon’s closing arc, ‘The Longest Day’ (#55-58), which is set in Hell, in the aftermath of The Sandman’s classic story ‘Season of Mists.’]

Huntress (v2) #1-4 [Dixon wrote this mini-series following the continuity from Joey Cavalieri’s and Joe Staton’s 1989 run on The Huntress.]

Legends of the Dark Knight #54: ‘Sanctum’ (collected in Dark Legends and DC Universe by Mike Mignola) [Mike Mignola and colorist Mike Chiarello explore the style they went on to develop in Hellboy]

Batman Annual #18: ‘Black Masterpiece’ [All of 1994’s annual issues are labelled as Elseworlds tales, but I don’t see why this underrated story can’t be canon. In turn, Shadow of the Bat Annual #2 (collected in Shadow of the Bat, v3) is certainly set in a different continuity, but it builds on so many of Alan Grant’s pet characters and themes that fans of his Batman comics should definitely check it out.]

Metropolis S.C.U. #1-4 [This excellent mini-series (by Cindy Goff and Peter Krause) about the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit has no direct connection to the Batman comics coming out at this time. However, one of the main characters, Maggie Sawyer, will become a key member of the Gotham cast a few years later, so fans may want to check it out, especially as this comic has a flavor similar to that of Batman stories about the GCPD.]

Green Arrow (v2) #89: ‘Forgotten Paths’ [Green Arrow comes to Gotham and meets Anarky.]

Batman / Spawn: War Devil [Not as good as the intercompany crossovers with the Punisher, but this crossover with Spawn has the particularity of being written by the trio of Moench, Dixon, and Grant. (And no, it has no relation to Frank Miller’s and Todd McFarland’s Spawn / Batman one-shot, which is actually set in the caricatural continuity of The Dark Knight Returns and its sequels/prequels.]

Showcase ’94 #11: ‘Man-Bat’ (collected in Arkham: Man-Bat) [Chuck Dixon and Flint Henry introduce their updated version of Man-Bat.]

Showcase ’94 #12: ‘A Little Knowledge’ [A nice tale spotlighting Barbara ‘Oracle’ Gordon, by Scott Peterson and Brian Stelfreeze]

Catwoman (v2) #15-18: ‘Catfile’ (collected in Catwoman: The Catfile and Catwoman by Jim Balent, v2)

Catwoman (v2) #19: ‘Jungle Cat’ (collected in Catwoman: The Catfile and Catwoman by Jim Balent, v2) [A coda to ‘Catfile’]

Azrael #1-7: ‘Fallen Angel’ [Since most of Azrael’s early solo adventures took place outside of Gotham City, you may as well read them separately, so that they don’t clutter the flow of the Gotham-based books in the next section.]

Azrael #8: ‘Azrael at Large’

Azrael #9: ‘Azrael on the Run: Breakout’

Robin          Detective Comics

MAYORAL CAMPAIGN [After the ‘Troika’ crossover, the various series pursued separate storylines for a year. Ongoing subplots about the city institutions did carry over from series to series, though, most notably a mayoral campaign that gradually became an elaborate political thriller.]

 

Shadow of the Bat #36: ‘In the Name of the Father’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4)

Robin (v4) #15: ‘Looking for Clues’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

Robin (v4) #16: ‘All Fall Down’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

Detective Comics #683: ‘Odds Against’ [This is the first issue of a two-parter, but it makes sense to read the next issue only after catching up with the other series, thus respecting the proper order of the ‘comatose Harvey Bullock’ subplot.]

Shadow of the Bat #37: ‘The King of Comedy’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4)

Shadow of the Bat #38: ‘Tears of a Clown’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4)

Batman #516-517: ‘Sleeper’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1) [Starts off with Batman recalling the events of Azrael #2.]

Detective Comics #684: ‘Darkest Day’

Showcase ’95 #4: ‘Fear No Man’ (collected in Catwoman by Jim Balent, v2) [Catwoman short story by Deborah Pomerantz and Jim Balent]

Batman #518: ‘Black Mask: The Spidered Face’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Detective Comics #685: ‘The Iron Dragon’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons) [First issue of the ‘War of the Dragons’ three-parter]

Robin (v4) #17: ‘The Silk Dragons’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons) [Second issue of ‘War of the Dragons’]

Batman #519: ‘Black Spider: Web of Scars’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1) [Continues the main storyline from Batman #518, but also the Tommy Mangles subplot brought up in Detective Comics #686. Sarah Essen-Gordon replaces her husband as police commissioner.]

Batman #520: ‘Fades to Black’

Detective Comics #686: ‘The Winged Dragon’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons) [Third issue of ‘War of the Dragons’ is set shortly after Sarah Essen takes over.]

Shadow of the Bat #39: ‘One Night in Slaughter Swamp’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4) [Detective Mackenzie ‘Hardback’ Bock is still surprised to find out about the new commissioner, so this story must run parallel to Batman #520 and Detective Comics #686.]

Showcase ’95 #5: ‘Uneven Parallels’ [Spoiler short story by Keri Kowalski and Yancey Labat]

Catwoman (v2) #20: ‘More Edge, More Heart’ (collected in Catwoman by Jim Balent, v2)

Catwoman (v2) #21: ‘Box Office Poison’ (collected in Catwoman by Jim Balent, v2)

Robin (v4) #18: ‘The Mouse That Ate Gotham’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

The Batman Chronicles #1: ‘Midnight Train/Tomorrow Belongs to Us/Death Mask’

Psyba Rats #1-3 [A very cool Robin spin-off]

Shadow of the Bat #40: ‘Prophet of Doom’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4 and Batman: Anarky)

Shadow of the Bat #41: ‘The Anarkist Manifesto’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4 and Batman: Anarky)

Detective Comics #687: ‘Red Tide’

Detective Comics #688: ‘The Rip’

Nightwing: Alfred’s Return (collected in Nightwing: Ties That Bind, Knightfall Omnibus, v3, and Troika) [One-shot about Alfred Pennyworth, who hasn’t been seen since ‘Knightquest.’ Ending leads to Batman #521.]

Batman #521: ‘Fast Train to the Wet Dark’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Batman #522: ‘Swamp Things’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Shadow of the Bat #42: ‘The Day the Music Died’ (collected Shadow of the Bat, v4)

Catwoman (v2) #22-24: ‘Family Ties’ (collected in Catwoman by Jim Balent, v2) [A fun fill-in written by Deborah Pomerantz]

Detective Comics #689: ‘The Blazing Heart’

Detective Comics #690: ‘Burning Love’

Batman #523: ‘Dark Wings Fly Away In Fear’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1 and Arkham: Scarecrow)

Batman #524: ‘Haunted Houses of the Head’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1 and Arkham: Scarecrow)

Azrael Annual #1: ‘Requiem’ [A flashback that leads up to Azrael in the desert, where he has been since #9.]

Vengeance of Bane II: The Redemption (collected in Knightfall Omnibus, v3 and Troika) [This one-shot about Bane’s life in prison is both a sort of coda to Knightfall and a set-up for the character’s upcoming adventures.]

Showcase ’95 #11: ‘Escape’ [Arkham Asylum short story by Archie Goodwin and Gene Ha]

Nightwing #1-4: ‘The Resignation/The Renewal/The Oubliette/Dead Simple’ (collected in Nightwing: Ties That Bind and Nightwing, v1: Blüdhaven (2014 edition)) [This mini by Denny O’Neil and Greg Land is Nightwing’s first solo series (and much lamer that the next effort…)]

Catwoman (v2) #25: ‘The Crooked House/Endangered Species’

The Batman Chronicles #2: ‘The Space Between Good and Evil/Goin’ Downtown/Commissions’

Robin (v4) #19: ‘War Gods in the Hood’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

Robin (v4) #20: ‘The Empire Strikes Out’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

Robin (v4) #21: ‘Shadows’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

Robin (v4) #22: ‘I Was a Teenage Ninja’ (collected in Robin, v5: War of the Dragons)

Batman Underworld Unleashed          Catwoman

UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED [This mega-crossover has a full-on superhero fantasy tone that is quite different from the more street-level stuff of the Batman family of books, but it includes some neat moments involving the Gotham cast. That said, the overall premise (Devil-like demon Neron upgrades a bunch of villains) is so simple that you don’t really have to read the main book – by Mark Waid and Howard Porter – to pick up the ramifications in Batman comics.]

 

Underworld Unleashed #1 (collected in Underworld Unleashed)

Azrael #10: ‘Arena’ [Azrael is back in Gotham (and so is the Question, last seen in a punchy story in Showcase ’95 #3). Tie-in to Underworld Unleashed.]

Shadow of the Bat #43-44/Catwoman (v2) #26: ‘The Secret of the Universe’

Azrael #11-12: ‘Azrael Rising/Angel Rising’ [Runs parallel with ‘The Secret of the Universe.’]

Underworld Unleashed #2 (collected in Underworld Unleashed)

Batman #525: ‘Frozen Assets’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1 and Arkham: Mister Freeze) [Tie-in to Underworld Unleashed]

Underworld Unleashed: Devil’s Asylum [Tie-in to Underworld Unleashed set in Arkham Asylum]

Batman #526: ‘Constant Whitewater’ (collected in Tales of the Batman: J.H. Williams III)

Robin (v4) #23: ‘Buggin’’ [Tie-in to Underworld Unleashed]

Robin (v4) #24: ‘Insects and Violence’

Green Arrow (2) #105: ‘Open Season’ [The new Green Arrow (Connor Hawke) comes to Gotham.]

Robin (v4) #25: ‘Sophomore Lethal’ [Connor Hawke is still in Gotham.]

Robin (v4) #26: ‘The Hard Lessons’

Catwoman (v2) #27: ‘Groddspell’ [Tie-in to Underworld Unleashed]

Detective Comics #691: ‘Will It Go ‘Round in Circles’ [Tie-in to Underworld Unleashed]

Detective Comics #692: ‘Lying Eyes’

Underworld Unleashed #3 (collected in Underworld Unleashed)

Azrael #13-14: ‘Demon Time’

Catwoman (v2) #28: ‘Larceny Loves Company’

Catwoman (v2) #29: ‘Thieves’

Catwoman (v2) #30: ‘The Great Plane Robbery’

Shadow of the Bat #45: ‘Wayne Manor: Anatomy of a Murder’ [I’ve discussed this incredible issue here.]

The Batman Chronicles #3: ‘Riddle of the Jinxed Sphinx/The First Cut is the Deepest/Workin’ My Way Back to You’

Man-Bat #1-3 (collected in Arkham: Man-Bat) [Chuck Dixon and Flint Henry finally explore their version of Man-Bat in this mini-series featuring several regular players from the GCPD.]

poison ivy          Contagion

GOTHAM CITY ELECTION [The various subplots about the mayoral campaign culminated in the issues cover-dated January-February 1996. As usual, each title followed its own major storyline while secondary plots developed across different series. The three stories take place more or less simultaneously, so you have to choose whether to follow the main narratives (linked by cliffhangers) or the political machinations in the immediate aftermath of the election. I suggest the compromise below …]

 

Shadow of the Bat #46: ‘Cornelius Stirk – part 1’

Batman #527: ‘The Face Schism’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Batman #528: ‘Schismed Faces’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Detective Comics #693: ‘Systemic Shock’

Detective Comics #694: ‘Violent Reactions’

Shadow of the Bat #47: ‘Cornelius Stirk – part 2’

 

CONTAGION [After a full year of parallel storylines, editors Denny O’Neil, Scott Peterson, Archie Goodwin, Jordan B. Gorfinkel, and Darren Vincenzo brought all the series together into an expanded crossover (about an epidemic of the deadly Clench virus), with the main story now moving across the series. (These issues are collected in Batman: Contagion.)]

Shadow of the Bat #48: ‘The Apocalypse Plague’

Detective Comics #695: ‘The Gray Area’

Robin (v4) #27: ‘Natural Born Healer’

Catwoman (v2) #31: ‘Flesh and Fire’

Azrael #15: ‘Requiem for an Immortal’

Batman #529: ‘Tears of Blood’ (collected in Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Shadow of the Bat #49: ‘Angel of Death’

Detective Comics #696: ‘Babylon Falls’

The Batman Chronicles #4: ‘Hitman/Exposure/Beggar’s Banquet’ [Includes Batman’s first encounter with Tommy Monaghan, setting up the spin-off Hitman.]

Catwoman (v2) #32: ‘Fever Pitch’

Azrael #16: ‘Contagion’

Robin (v4) #28: ‘Bitter Dregs’

Batman Contagion          catwoman

POST-CONTAGION [Following the Contagion blockbuster, we got separate storylines for three months before the next crossover.]

Robin (v4) #29: ‘Hit and Myths’ (collected in Contagion (2016 edition))

Robin (v4) #30: ‘Iliads and Oddities’  (collected in Contagion (2016 edition))

Black Canary / Oracle: Birds of Prey: ‘One Man’s Hell’ (collected in Birds of Prey, v1) [The original one-shot that launched the lasting partnership between Barbara Gordon and Black Canary actually came out before Contagion, but if the two women had already been working together at the time then Barbara would’ve brought her agent into that crisis, so it makes more sense to read this here.]

Batman #530-532: ‘The Deadman Connection’ (collected in Contagion (2016 edition) and Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones, v1)

Azrael #17-20: ‘Angel in Flames’

Showcase’96 #5: ‘Birds of a Feather’ (collected in Birds of Prey, v1) [Birds of Prey short story by Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Jennifer Graves]

Shadow of the Bat #50-52 (collected in Contagion (2016 edition))

Birds of Prey: Revolution (collected in Birds of Prey, v1) [The second Birds of Prey one-shot actually came out a year later, but it seems to be set not too long after the ending of the first one, so I’m sticking it here. (Yes, the Birds of Prey: Manhunt mini-series came out in the meantime, but I like how this one-shot dovetails with the first one, so I’m pushing that mini to the next post.)]

Catwoman (v2) #33: ‘Devil Does Your Dog Bite’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition)) [This three-issue arc sets up the stage for the Legacy crossover.]

Catwoman (v2) #34: ‘The Razor’s Edge’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Catwoman (v2) #35: ‘The Wheel of Plagues’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Detective Comics #697: ‘Deadbolt’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Detective Comics #698: ‘The Tomb’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Detective Comics #699: ‘The Chain’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition)) [The death of former Mayor Armand Krol raises the specter of a new Clench outbreak.]

Robin (v4) #31: ‘Up to Speed’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition)) [The ending leads directly into Legacy.]

robin          birds of prey

LEGACY [Just like experts now fear a second wave of Covid-19, back in 1996 the Gotham books explored the dramatic potential of Clench’s return in this sequel to Contagion. (These issues are collected in Batman: Legacy.)]

Shadow of the Bat #53: ‘Hobson’s Choice’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Batman #533: ‘Twelve Steps to the Heart of Hell’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Detective Comics #700: ‘Progeny of the Demon’ (collected in Legacy, v1 (2017 edition))

Catwoman (v2) #36: ‘The Best of Enemies’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

Robin (v4) #32: ‘Born with Teeth’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

Shadow of the Bat #54: ‘The Power of the Picts’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

Batman #534: ‘A Wound on the Heart of Heaven’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

Detective Comics #701: ‘Gotham’s Scourge’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

Robin (v4) #33: ‘Riptide’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

Detective Comics #702: ‘Second Chances’ (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition))

 

POST-LEGACY [A few reads to wrap up this era before moving on to the late ‘90s…]

Bane of the Demon #1-4 (collected in Legacy, v2 (2018 edition) and Batman Versus Bane) [Done a couple of years later, this nifty mini-series is actually a prequel to Legacy, but like many prequels it works better as a flashback, otherwise it would spoil some of the original’s surprises.]

Shadow of the Bat #55: ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ [Wraps up the Madolyn Corbett subplot that had popped up in different titles.]

Birds of Prey: Wolves (collected in Birds of Prey, v1 (2015 edition)) [The third Birds of Prey one-shot is still dealing with the fallout from the second one (Revolution), so not too much time has passed since then.]

Catwoman (v2) #37: ‘Fang and Claw’ [Dixon’s final issue on the series.]

Batman versus Predator II #1-4 (collected as Batman versus Predator II: Bloodmatch) [This mini-series came out in 1994, but in order for Alfred’s and Jim Gordon’s roles to properly fit, it must take place either before Knightfall or after Contagion. Since it ends with a reference to the Joker being on the loose, I like to imagine it occurs shortly before Devil’s Advocate (even if the Huntress’ costume doesn’t match her look at the time, which I explain away with an acknowledgement that everything inevitably looks sleazier when drawn by modern-era Paul Gulacy).]

The Joker: Devil’s Advocate [One of my favorite Batman comics, this one-shot is basically a spin-off of Dixon’s and Nolan’s Detective Comics, featuring many of that series’ supporting cast.]

GCPD #1-4 (collected in Gordon of Gotham) [The same goes for this awesome mini-series about the Gotham City Police Department, illustrated by Jim Aparo.]

Gotham Nights II #1-4 [John Ostrander’s and Mary Mitchell’s second Gotham Nights mini-series has no connection to the first one, but it’s just as good. It’s set around this time, with James Gordon back as police commissioner.]

Batman / Demon [A one-shot by Alan Grant and David Roach in which Etrigan takes Batman to Hell, with callbacks to Knightfall and A Death in the Family.]

Batman: Two-Face – Crime and Punishment (collected in Arkham: Two-Face) [One-shot by J.M. DeMatteis and Scott McDaniel delving into Two-Face’s connection with child abuse (which harkens back to Batman Annual #14)]

Batman: Riddler – The Riddle Factory [In this one-shot (which, like the Two-Face special above, was clearly meant to capitalize on the release of the movie Batman Forever), Matt Wagner and Dave Taylor use the Riddler to satirize television.]

Azrael Annual #2: ‘Night’s Fall’ [Like other 1996 annuals, this is basically an Elseworlds tale in the guise of a misremembered future retelling of DC history (a gimmick titled Legends of the Dead Earth). While other series reimagined their characters in pretty radical-yet-generic terms, however, this one is full of specific nods to Knightfall and to Azrael’s early adventures, which should make it particularly interesting for fans of those storylines.]

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COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (6 July 2020)

Posted on July 6, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

Prompted by the Atomic Age, the 1950s were one of the coolest decades for American science fiction. Ray Bradbury, a key writer in elevating the genre’s cultural status from disposable pulp to respected literature, published The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451. In cinema, gems like Gordon Douglas’ Them!, Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, Joseph M. Newman’s This Island Earth, and John Sherwood’s The Monolith Monsters had a kind of simplicity to them, but also wide-eyed imagination, thought-provoking ideas, and unsettling imagery that projected the era’s sociopolitical paranoia – a trend that culminated in Rod Serling’s original The Twilight Zone, in the turn towards the ’60s. (I’m clearly not the only one with a lingering obsession for this period of sci-fi, as we keep getting neat throwbacks to that type of mood, from Brad Bird’s charming The Iron Giant and Frank Darabont’s terrifying The Mist to Andrew Patterson’s recent recreation in The Vast of Night).

If you were looking for this eerie sort of vibe in comic books at the time, Strange Adventures was probably one of the closest things you could find, at least after EC closed shop in the mid-50s (because of the Comics Code Authority’s censorship). It also boasted the most consistently amazing covers on the stands. So, as a tribute, here is your weekly reminder that comics can be awesome, Strange Adventures edition!

strange adventuresStrange AdventuresStrange AdventuresStrange Adventuresstrange adventures

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10 brilliant issues of Astro City – part 2

Posted on July 2, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

If you read the last post, you know what’s going on. Here are another five brilliant issues of Astro City:

 

‘Where the Action Is’

(Astro City (v2) #21)

astro city

Another blatantly ‘meta’ issue, albeit with a more satirical bent. ‘Where the Action Is’ is told from the perspective of Sally Twinings, writer at Bulldog Comics, a local comic book company specialized in non-fiction superhero series, licensed to publish the exploits of ‘real world’ heroes. The thing is that the publisher, Manny Monkton, likes to play fast and loose with the truth, adding inaccurate, sensationalist elements to the stories in the name of spectacle and excitement, much to the chagrin of the actual heroes…

Again, you can see in this tale a further exploration of the tension between superhero fiction and realism, whether you interpret Manny as a metaphor for creativity and entertainment that doesn’t want to be held back by realism or whether you (like Geoff Klock) see him as a symbol of the lack of respect for superheroes’ history manifested by revisionist authors, so that the heroes’ complaints about slander come across like ‘characters taking revenge for literary misprision.’ It’s also a tribute to the medium’s long line of eccentric editors and publishers – all those hucksters who could be cynical and manipulative, but who also imbued their staff with enthusiasm and helped fill the readers with joy.

Aside from these many layers, ‘Where the Action Is’ is also one of Astro City’s funniest tales, leading up to a hilarious punchline near the end.

 

‘Knock Wood’

(Astro City: Local Heroes #4)

Astro City

A fascinating look at Astro City’s jurisprudence, ‘Knock Wood’ shows us the first time a lawyer decided to apply the standards of superhuman logic to ordinary crime. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff – just beginning to imagine how the legal system would cope with a superhero universe is a field so rich with possibilities that it has inspired many extremely cool comics (Powers Annual #1, Top 10: Season Two Special, Dan Slott’s run on She-Hulk), but ‘Knock Wood’ also benefits from Kurt Busiek’s ability to quickly conjure up a fully formed character in a lived-in corner of the world. On the obligatory metatextual side, the fact that the story takes place in the 1970s is clearly meant to reflect the end of the Silver Age (represented by the recent death of the Silver Agent), tying the growing cynicism about superheroes – and, ultimately, the law – to the Vietnam/Watergate zeitgeist (an idea that was later expanded in the story-arc ‘The Dark Age’).

It’s a tight little tale that works by itself, especially as it finishes on a satisfyingly ironic note. However, the story actually carries over into the following issue (‘Justice Systems’), which explores the consequences of ‘Knock Wood’ while stressing the link between the genre’s loss of innocence and the creation of gritty vigilantes like the Punisher and Michael Fleisher’s version of the Spectre (foreshadowed in both issues by the way Brent Anderson draws a character’s reflection on a car window and on a napkin dispenser).

(Busiek further explored the city’s bizarre legal system in a very amusing two-parter, in Astro City (v3) #39-40.)

 

‘The Eagle and the Mountain’

(Astro City: Samaritan)

astro city

Having realized they can never destroy each other and are therefore stuck in an infinite deadlock, Samaritan and his arch-nemesis Infidel (an immortal with the ability to manipulate matter who seeks to unmake Astro City’s timeline) have agreed to stop facing each other head-on and instead started meeting for a polite dinner once a year. Their relationship is marked by sharp ideological differences and paranoid distrust, but they have accepted that, rather than keep destabilizing the whole world around them, they might as well just try to very gradually chip away at each other (like an eagle wearing away at a mountain) through diplomacy and cultural exchanges, each hoping to eventually persuade the other to adopt his point of view. At first, the whole thing feels like an imaginative allegory of the Cold War.

Yet the Infidel is not a communist, far from it. He is, in fact, a different breed of stereotype – born in Kenya and later raised as a slave in a caliphate, he draws his powers from mystical alchemy and astrology, wears a stylized Muslim star & crescent for a symbol, is steeped in Arabic iconography (his clothes, his lair’s architecture, his flying carpet…), and has a condescending view of women (although he is explicitly not religious, hence the name). So yes, one can get a whiff of orientalism and even of Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’ in the Infidel’s marked contrast with Samaritan… but I see something much more interesting here. ‘The Eagle and the Mountain’ came out in 2006, at a time when the Global War on Terror was increasingly looking like an endless conflict. Thus, by replacing our world’s violent confrontations with Samaritan’s and Infidel’s more subdued competition, Astro City splendidly applied its reconstructionist vision to international relations.

 

‘Her Dark Plastic Roots’

(Astro City: Beautie)

astro city

In this special one-shot, the living doll Beautie (an intriguing member of Honor Guard) goes in search of her mysterious origins. The result is typically multilayered: you can read in it a comment about the superhero genre’s difficult relationship with girls and fetishistic relationship with toys, a take on the objectification of women and social exclusion based on gender (and sexuality), a metaphor for autism or for identity crisis in general…

Regardless of the themes you may want to project upon it, what makes ‘Her Dark Plastic Roots’ so heartbreaking is how it captures the solitary, self-reflexive voice of an Artificial Intelligence adrift in the world. It once again proves Astro City’s ability to create emotional connections with all sorts of distinct perspectives, taking archetypes we’ve seen many times before and lending them a new dignity by finding some way of making them relatable, at least on a certain level. (For a different – yet also quite clever – spin on this type of character, check out Tom Peyer’s comics featuring Tomorrow Woman.)

 

‘The Deep Dark Woods’

(Astro City (v3) #12)

astro city

It may seem like a stretch to label ‘The Deep Dark Woods’ as brilliant. For the most part, it’s just a neat little tale about a ‘clotheshorse,’ i.e. a costumed criminal known for wearing distinctive, expensive clothing. Inspired both by Little Red Riding Hood and by a passion for elegant fashion, Edward James Carroway (his professional name) is a somewhat tragic, charismatic addition to Astro City’s cast, brought to life by the slick, smoother visuals of guest-artist Graham Nolan.

What elevates the issue for me is the protagonist’s realization, near the end. It’s a brief moment, but it contains a whole world of feelings about obsession, effectively conveying the thin line between being a predator and being a prey to one’s own impulses.

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COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (29 June 2020)

Posted on June 29, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

Your weekly reminder that comics can be awesome, Alfred Pennyworth edition…

batmanGotham KnightsGotham AdventuresGotham KnightsBatman 686

…and I just can’t resist adding this mouth-watering pastiche, from the wonderful blog Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues!:

Super-Team Family

 

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10 brilliant issues of Astro City – part 1

Posted on June 25, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

I’ve mentioned before that Astro City is one of the most accomplished superhero comics in recent memory. This anthology series takes place in its own autonomous universe, providing us with fresh ways to look at all the archetypes developed by Marvel and DC over the decades, thus re-imbuing them with a sense of wonder – yet with a humanistic, modern sensibility, without falling into pastiche. It treats everyone as a proper character, whether we’re talking about the Honor Guard (a version of teams like the Justice League and the Avengers) or the Green Man (an amalgam of Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, and Doctor Strange).

Besides the intertextual angle, there is an almost sci-fi element to the comic, as it ingeniously speculates about how everyday life in a superhero universe would actually work if all the tropes were true, attributing complex subjectivities even to the crudest staples of the genre. Some of the stories humanize fantastical heroes and villains while others focus on the perspective of people in the sidelines, from actors in a superhero-themed soap opera to operators in the Honor Guard’s call center. Astro City is an example of fiction driven by compassion and identification, fascinated with imaginary lives from different races, genders, planets, and historical periods, ushering readers to find a bit of themselves even among flying time-travelers and talking animals. It succeeds in doing this not only because of Kurt Busiek’s knack for writing believable characterization of even the most unbelievable characters, but also because Brent Anderson’s elegant art – based on Alex Ross’ designs and with stunning colors, mostly by Alex Sinclair and Wendy Broome – realistically brings to life a wide variety of what could have been merely goofy-looking superhumans. Ross also lent his talent to the series’ arresting painted covers:

astro city     astro city     astro city

Gradually, Busiek has been weaving the different narrative threads into a broad tapestry, even if most stories can still be read by themselves. Although Astro City – sometimes labeled Kurt Busiek’s Astro City – has taken many forms since its debut in 1995 (including mini-series, ongoing series, specials, short stories, and original graphic novels, published by Image, WildStorm, and Vertigo), its vision has been remarkably consistent from the outset. It’s clearly a labor of love for everyone involved.

Over a hundred issues of Astro City have been published, all of them filled with new ideas and powerful moments, staying away from decompressed, dragged-out storytelling. Here are a handful of them that still manage to stand out:

 

‘In Dreams’

(Astro City #1)

astro city

As much as I love the works of Steve Gerber and Scott McCloud starring the Man of Steel himself, for my money the absolute best Superman stories do not take place in the DC Universe or even feature the official iteration of the character at all. Instead, they were crafted by creators unconstrained by continuity who, through thinly-veiled versions of Superman (Mr. Majestic, Supreme, Hyperion, Apollo, Ultiman…), made the most out of the character’s potential. ‘In Dreams’ is one of the greatest examples I can think of.

Astro City’s debut issue introduced both the titular setting and its version of Superman, called Samaritan (whose cape neatly resembles a Greek toga and whose civilian identity, Asa Martin, is a fact-checker for a local magazine). ‘In Dreams’ also established the series’ mature tone – not in the sense of being grim and violent (like many ‘mature’ takes on superheroes), but in the sense of revolving mostly around adult characters dealing with elaborate emotions. In this case, we follow a typically busy day in Samaritan’s life, as he constantly moves from one crisis to the next while trying to safeguard his secret identity, carrying the world’s burden on his soldiers with barely any time for himself. Busiek writes a touching story about burnout adorned with a poignant first-person narration (including a heartbreaking moment of loneliness as Asa goes over a feature on the most beautiful women in Astro City). The series’ initial colorist, Steve Buccelatto, effectively contrasts the lively feel of the dream world with the more understated tone of ‘reality’ without sacrificing the latter’s brightness (which is part of Astro City’s identity). The result is beautifully melancholic.

(Twenty years later, Busiek and Anderson did a sequel to this story, in Astro City (v3) #26, and it’s nice to see that they didn’t lose their touch in the meantime.)

 

‘The Scoop’

(Astro City #2)

astro city

‘The Scoop’ is probably my favorite issue of Astro City. It pulls off the kind of speculative fiction the series does so well, seamlessly merging the recognizable with the unimaginable while giving you a real sense of depth to each time and space.

The tale is framed as a conversation in which the editor of the Astro City Rocket newspaper tells his latest reporter about one of his earliest published pieces, written back in 1959. The catch is that it was pretty hard to fact-check a story about superheroes teaming up to stop an invasion of shark-men from another dimension, especially as nobody involved had a press secretary that could confirm the events, which posed quite a challenge to journalistic standards. The conclusion is counterintuitive yet somehow inspiring.

 

‘Dinner at Eight’

(Astro City #6)

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The first volume of Astro City wrapped up with an endearing issue about a date between Samaritan and Winged Victory (the series’ take on Wonder Woman). We get an insightful look at the logistics and implications of such a date, juxtaposing the protagonists’ quiet evening with glimpses of their fellow heroes’ actions around the world (i.e. of the conventional adventures that Samaritan and Winged Victory are temporarily ignoring in order to embark on a different kind of discovery). Busiek manages to make their conversations ring credible and natural, making us feel like we are really sharing this intimate moment (we even find out Samaritan’s secret origin). Meanwhile, Brent Anderson, Steve Buccellato, and letterer Richard Starkings nail every single beat, culminating in a stunning exchange by the moonlight.

(Busiek later went on to write another romantic comic about an alternative Superman, the excellent Superman: Secret Identity.)

 

‘Everyday Life’

(Astro City (v2) #2)

Astro City

Some of Astro City’s most moving stories focused on Astra, the youngest member of the First Family (the series’ variation on the archetype of the family of powered super-scientists/explorers, a la Fantastic Four). The first of those issues, ‘Everyday Life,’ hit it out of the park as we follow a day in the life of ten-year-old Astra, who lives the superhero version of the joys and frustrations of a child celebrity. It’s a tale about how what is mundane for some people can be fantastic for others and vice versa, but it manages to come across as less corny than that. Alex Ross and Brent Anderson really deserve much of the credit for this one: not only for Astra’s expressive acting and for all the nifty designs in her sci-fi house, but also for delivering a ridiculously fun adventure in the middle section without losing the comic’s dramatic anchor.

The ending hits the just the right note, even though Astra’s story actually continues into the next issue. More than a decade later, the creators followed it up with a couple of stupendous specials (titled Astro City: Astra) about her graduation day.

(The Fantastic Four have been the object of many other interesting alternative interpretations – from WildStorm’s Planetary to Dark Horse’s Project Black Sky, not to mention The Incredibles – but the First Family really feel like they could carry their own ongoing series and I would read the hell out of it…)

 

 

‘In the Spotlight’

(Astro City (v2) #13)

astro city

An issue where Astro City’s metafictional inclinations are at their most forceful, ‘In the Spotlight’ tells us the life story of Leo, an animated lion who was somehow brought to life in the 1940s (because of an evil professor armed with a ‘belief ray’ that turned imagination into reality). Leo has stuck around since then, at first hanging around the entertainment industry (Who Framed Roger Rabbit? obviously comes to mind) and later facing the tribulations of many celebrities, with the added challenge of being a children’s character unprepared for the ‘real world’ in all its ugliness. Despite a premise that easily lends itself to silliness, the story’s general tone is more quirky than comedic, imbuing even this anthropomorphic animal cartoon with heartfelt humanity. Busiek and his team pull it off: you actually feel a bittersweet empathy towards Leo, in part due to the inspired decision of giving him a world-weary, Humphrey Bogart look.

Geoff Klock has a provocative analysis of ‘In the Spotlight’ in his book How to Read Superheroes and Why, arguing that this is ultimately ‘a fable about the effects of translating childhood heroes onto a realistic landscape,’ like Frank Miller and Alan Moore did in their deconstructionist comics of the 1980s. At one point, a desperate Leo tries to drain the heroes’ reality, rendering them insubstantial fantasies, thus ‘taking them to the extreme but opposite end of the spectrum that he himself is on; if is he destroyed by becoming real, then so they will be destroyed by becoming fiction.’ Klock concludes that the tale feeds into Astro City’s overall genre reconstructionism, as it ‘suggests the inability of noble childhood characters like Leo to survive in such realistic adult conditions and situates those who would place them in realistic settings as the villains of the story.’

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COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (22 June 2020)

Posted on June 22, 2020 by I.M. Baytor

Readers of this blog know that I am a firm believer that, even in these agitated times, genre fiction remains an interesting way to conceptualize what is happening around us. For instance, if the first half of 2020 filled screens and streets with imagery straight out of horror films like George Romero’s The Crazies and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, things have recently verged closer to the dirty sci-fi of Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop and, notably, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days. That said, some of the most visceral elements that come to my mind derive not from supernatural thrillers nor from futuristic science fiction, but from more low-key exploitation. In particular, it’s hard not to think of the police as the German Shepherd in Sam Fuller’s White Dog while the sense of asphyxiation by an encroaching far-right was disturbingly captured by Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room or even by Kevin Smith’s Red State (just to stick to color-based titles).

And speaking of horror, here are some gothic reminders that comics can be awesome:

Journey into MysteryHouse of SecretsSwamp ThingScary TalesWeird Mysteries

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