‘Tis The Season: Christmas One-Shots

Punisher MAX X-Mas and Moon Knight: Silent Knight (Marvel)
By Jeb D.

When it was announced that Garth Ennis would be ending his run on Marvel’s Punisher MAX series, I wasn’t the only person to think that Jason Aaron would be the ideal replacement. His Vertigo series, Scalped, is right up there with Ed Brubaker’s Criminal among the top crime comics being published today, but considering the way he’s actually managed to make both Wolverine and Ghost Rider interesting, I guess I won’t complain. At least he does get to unleash his savage imagination on Frank Castle’s world in this sanguinary holiday tale.

The story is a twisted Christmas pageant: the pregnant wife of a Mafia don and her husband are on the run from their enemies, who have determined to wipe out his bloodline by killing father, mother, and unborn child. Along the way, we meet shepherds, wise men, men of God, men of Satan… oh, and St.Nick as well, as Frank Castle gets drawn into the crossfire.

It’s far from jolly, though: Aaron’s every bit as comfortable with violence as Ennis, and some of the bloody proceedings are going to be very hard for readers to take. Aaron’s argument, I suspect, would be that much of the worst that’s on the page here is just drawn from his source material, and the fact that he’s right doesn’t make a couple of scenes go down any easier. And at the end, he gives us what might be the most brutal kill The Punisher has yet delivered: the person probably deserves it, and the kill itself is as quick and clean as Frank can make it, but it’s also done in a manner so cruel that it shocks the reader in a way that hardly seems possible, considering the bloodbath that preceded it.

Artist Roland Boschi has recently worked with Aaron on Ghost Rider, and he handles the blood and body count very well; I don’t know if it was deliberate, but his work here reminds me a lot of Goran Parlov’s collaborations with Ennis. I’d also have enjoyed seeing him do the cover, as the cutesy one supplied here by Chris Bachalo suggests a leaden humor very much removed from the wit with which Aaron and Boschi tell their story.

In a funny way, this story reminds me less of Garth Ennis’ Punisher than of his Preacher: the religious underpinning and carefully structured roles have some of the air of the fantastic mingled with horror that drove Preacher. This is a strange, bloody, funny, horrifying holiday tale, decidedly not for those easily upset or offended, but another illustration of just why so many of us regard Aaron as among the most promising writers in comics today.

In contrast to Aaron’s rising star, Moon Knight is here in the hands of veteran Peter Milligan, and artist Laurence Campbell (himself no stranger to the Punisher MAX series). Rather than a grinning black-comic Christmas parable, what Milligan offers is a quieter picture of the grim reality that to often lies behind holiday cheer. It’s a time when suicide rates spike, as those without hope face the realization that not all the tinsel or prayers of goodwill will be enough to spare them their earthly torments.

The story takes place on a cold Christmas Eve, as Marc (Moon Knight) Spector doles out his brand of bloody justice, haunted as usual by the malign spirit of Khonshu (this time in the guise of a grisly-looking Christmas elf). To spite his tormentor, Moon Knight offers a moment of mercy to an undeserving criminal (after all, the definition of mercy is that it’s NOT deserved, but bestowed out of love), and the sinister sprite questions his motives, and shows him just how much he, and others, are going to pay for that. In the meantime, we follow Spector’s girlfriend, Marlene, as she prepares a Christmas Eve dinner for them, doing her best to persuade herself that her hope of a normal life for them might have some basis in possibility. Spector knows better, and, actually, so does she, though she refuses to admit it; the heartbreak in the story is the gulf between their hopes and reality, all the keener at what should be a time to savor family and count
blessings.

Campbell is rapidly becoming the go-to guy in the MAX universe. While this book is not technically an “adults-only” tale, Milligan and Campbell get around that by having the worst of the violence happen off-panel, but skimping not at all on its brutal consequences. Campbell delivers the punch that you never see coming.

I know it seems gimmicky to take a season of good cheer and turn it over to bloody sociopathic vigilantes, particularly since, in the case of The Punisher, it’s sort of becoming a holiday tradition. That reservation apart, though, both of these stories should prove most satisfying to fans of the characters and/or creators involved… or anyone that every now and again just wants to give Santa a bust in the chops.


BOTH: THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS



CAMELOT 3000: DELUXE EDITION (DC)($34.99)
By Adam Prosser
 
I’ve heard it argued that the 80s were to comics as the 60s were to rock and roll or the 70s were to cinema: a time when a new generation of young turks arrived to break all the rules, untapped wells of possibility were discovered in a heretofore constrained medium, and the mainstream got wilder and more experimental than anyone would have thought possible. A bunch of British punk-rock types suddenly emigrated to superhero comics, a genre that even the people who’d been writing for them hadn’t always taken that seriously, and injected it with new purpose and intensity. At the same time, the indie comics market featured a spectacular boom in black and white comics, some of them very personal, many of them different from anything that had been seen before; this is the period that gave us Love and Rockets, Usagi Yojimbo, Strangers in Paradise, Zot! and, um, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
 
But at the same time, mainstream superhero, SF and fantasy comics were still going strong, and needless to say they didn’t change overnight. In many ways the punk revolution sweeping through comics only affected them in the most superficial of ways, i.e. giving them a new subculture to pander to. Still, “Comics Aren’t Just For Kids Anymore!” were the watchword in the 80s, and that put some pressure on the mainstream, with often quirky results.
 
Results like Camelot 3000, written by Mike W. Barr, pencilled by Brian Bolland, inked by Bruce D. Patterson and Terry Austin and coloured by Tatjana Wood, “continuing legends chronicled by Sir Thomas Mallory”. This bizarre blend of cyberpunk and fantasy casts a long shadow over comics, occupying a number of historical milestones such as “DC’s first self-contained maxi-series” and “first non-superhero book produced for the direct market”. These, combined with the fact that this book has been out of print for over a decade now, has caused it to loom rather large in comics’ fans imaginations. Now DC has released a “deluxe edition” with bonus artwork and ‘developmental materials’, but the presumed thrill for younger comics readers has got to be reading this much-talked-about series for the first time. So how does it hold up?
 
The story opens in, surprisingly enough, the year 3000, with Earth under invasion by a mysterious and apparently quite indiscriminately violent alien race. Even before the aliens arrived, Earth was apparently not doing so hot, with overpopulation, pollution and—if not outright tyranny, then certainly uncaring and incompetent leadership, represented by the corrupt UN and its security director, Jordan Matthew. But while fleeing an alien attack that kills his parents, British kid Tom Prentice hides out under Glastonbury Tor and discovers the legendary tomb of King Arthur—and furthermore, it’s a tomb whose occupant was merely sleeping. Arthur proceeds to awaken both himself and begin a whirlwind tour to reunite with Merlin, pull Excalibur from the stone (which appears on the floor of the UN, thus making the whole world a witness) and travel the world hunting for his Knights of the Round Table, who have been reincarnated into new bodies via Merlin’s sorcery. United Earth Defence High Commander Joan Acton, for instance, finds herself remembering a past life as Guinevere after Arthur plants a smacker on her; richest man alive Jules Futrelle becomes Lancelot and rechristens his orbital asteroid mansion “New Camelot”; plus we get a hucksterish Sir Kay, an African Sir Gawain, a samurai Galahad, and a Perceval reborn into the body of a brutish, zombie-like “neo-man”. Oh, and Sir Tristan finds himself in the body of a woman, but still attracted to the reincarnated Isolde, in a male-fantasy lesbian subplot that gets, frankly, way too much page time. At any rate, the reunited Knights proceed to kick alien ass, before history begins to repeat itself and a familiar love triangle, combined with treachery from within the group, threaten to doom Earth.
 
I still can’t quite get over what a weird mix Camelot 3K is. Like a lot of comics of the time, it wants to be taken seriously, but also wants to indulge in all kinds of ridiculous (and fun) comic-style SF goofiness. People still refer to it as an “adult comic”, which, sorry, it isn’t - more like a young adult comic with some tiny hints at edginess. The satire is as over-the-top as anything Frank Miller’s ever given us, and as for the costumes the characters wear - well, you know how 80s clothes were so hideous? 80s comic book costumes were a hundred times worse. But in spite of the datedness and often clunky storytelling, there’s a lot to recommend this comic; the concept is unapologetically imaginative, its use of the Arthurian mythos is well-handled (with the resolution of the quest for the holy grail being particularly well-done), and King Arthur is a well-realized character, keeping his dignity and kingly essence in spite of the weird world he’s been thrust into. And then there’s Bolland’s art, which, aside from a slight stiffness in some of the more action-packed panels, is wonderfully expressive, moody, and well-composed.
 
Bolland’s one of those 80s British turks who I mentioned, whereas Barr was solidly a child of the Marvel era of American comics, so even in its writer/art team Camelot 3K was an uneasy mixture of the old and new, the American and the British, the grounded and the bizarre. Like its protagonist, this comic reflects a state of uncertainty at formerly reliable traditions being thrown into an uncertain, incomprehensible future. But that’s what makes it so fascinating. The old guard of comics writing may not have quite understood what was going on, but they were certainly willing to try and keep up, and you can’t help but respect that. Whether it’s the Arthurian mythos or the classic tropes of American comic writing, both have stuck around for a reason, and if they don’t always emerge unscathed, they still stand firm.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


 
Justice League of America #27 (DC - $2.99)
by Graig Kent

In the comics speculator boom period of the early 1990s new superhero universes were cropping up at an alarming rate; seemingly every other month there was some new publisher imprint or startup company that was jumping feet first, hoping to catch some of the frantic speculation coin.  By the mid-‘90’s, when the boom bubble was reaching it’s breaking point, bad girls, grim’n’gritty and gimmick covers (the “g’s” of the 90’s) were penetrating every crevice, crawling up comic’s wall like ivy, making nearly everything else underneath their thick foliage undetectable.  Quality storytelling took second place to flashy, fleshy imagery, all style, no substance.  In the mainstream there were a few respites, like James Robinson’s Starman or Kurt Busiek’s Marvels. There was also Milestone’s line of books, headlined by Static and Hardware, but featuring a strong side catalogue consisting of Icon, Xombi and more.

To many regular comics readers, like my peers in Northwestern Ontario, all of us teenagers at the time (you’d be hard pressed to find that many teens in comic shops today), Milestone was like rap music - then still skirting the mainstream – where it seemed that, on the surface there wasn’t anything there that would speak to a zit-faced, red-cheeked, socially awkward white kid.  Nothing was intentionally racist about their sentiments (towards the comics or rap) but they failed to look past skin hue barriers and give them a chance.  Milestone was, in many ways, detailed as “the black superhero universe” in articles, and it was a barrier, at least where I lived.  But not for me. 

Static, Hardware and Icon were, in some respects the reinvention of Spider-Man, Iron Man and Superman for the 1990’s, looking at socially relevant issues that respected the audience’s intelligence while also providing the juvenile thrills one anticipates from capes, tights and armor.  While I didn’t buy every Milestone title, I appreciated the quality that came through in each title over their runs and over the years I’ve been filling in the gaps to my “complete Milestone universe” collection.  So I guess you could say I’m a fan, and I’ve often wondered how many of us are still out there.

Putting that to the test, the Milestone heroes make their big reintroduction this month in Justice League of America #27 (Static appeared on the last page of Terror Titans #3 with a bigger role in next month’s issue of the series).  Dwayne McDuffie, one of the originators of the Milestone universe, is the natural choice to reintroduce the characters as a part of the DC Universe, and being the writer on JLofA makes it a logical destination to do so. 

I’ve had an unfortunately unfavorable response to his work on the super-team, finding his first story unpalatably thin and his characterization hackneyed, sometimes nonexistent, which is a shame given his superb work on the animated Justice League Unlimited.  It’s been a year since the last time I read the title and I hoped for some sign of improvement, or comfort at least, with the team.  The opening pages of Issue 27 focus on reintroducing Dr. Light II (the hero, not the villain) as well as the Shadow Cabinet, and immediately I saw some flavour to these characters, some personality and uniqueness in most that were presented, truly a best-foot-forward… an intriguing looking team with sharp personalities (and tongues) even if you’ve never seen them before. Then the book shifts over to the core team, highlighting some melodrama between Red Arrow and Hawkgirl, team dramatics between Black Canary and the trinity (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman), all of which proves to be just as stunted and unnatural to read as I remembered it.  Oddly it seemed nearly every line of dialogue from the Shadow Cabinet worked, and virtually every word from the Justice League seemed out of place.

The set-up is plainly obvious, meant to lead into the clichéd “superheroes fight over a misunderstanding”.  It’s a well worn cliché, and sometimes it works, but not when it seems so premeditated as it does here. I get the point, showcasing the Shadow Cabinet member and what they can do.  People know what Firestorm and Zatanna can do, but are likely less familiar with Iron Butterfly and Iota, but it doesn’t make the story any more interesting.

I hope something more comes out of this story, but I’m doubtful.  I’m hopeful that McDuffie gets a new Icon, Hardware or Shadow Cabinet book off the ground at DC because he seems to have an immediate voice for these characters, something that’s been more difficult to find with the puppets he’s currently playing with.  Milestone fans won’t be disappointed. Justice League fans probably will.


TWO OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS