written by David Wyatt
Shockheaded Peter is a
character created by noted
comic book writer
Alan Moore and artist
Gene Ha for their
Eisner award winning series
Top 10.
Pete is an ordinary beat patrolmen in the city of Neopolis, a city designed for the world's science beings, which is Moore's term for supeheroes and super villains, to live. It is like every other city, with prostitution, graft, cheap diners except that almost everyone wears a cape. Gene Ha originally designed Pete as a skeleton with steel 'snakes' linking his bones, but decided that design, while cool looking, would make showing emotion difficult, and keep him from many normal police activities, such as donut consumption.
The final design for Shockheaded Peter made him not at all, cool, but rather ugly. He's got Jimmy Olson's freckles with a long face, and his hips are a lot wider than his shoulders. It looks like he doesn't work out much, which makes him the opposite of most superheroes. His orange costume, featuring black boxers and a deaths head, plus antennae, hits a ten on the geek meter. With a bit of white trash mixed in.
Peter is pretty ordinary cop in the Tenth Precinct. He has a limited education and excess of porn videos, including actresses with tentacles. He's singularly unsuccessful with women, but his lack of success is easily understandable with his looks and rather clueless attitude toward them. Peter's probably a virgin and sexually interested in anyone with breasts. A bit of flirting can talk him into about anything. He's not very bright. But he genuinely wants to be a good cop, and in the early issues was quite a sympathetic character.
Unfortunately, Peter has a dark side, a genuinely racist attitude toward machine life, who along with monsters make up Neopolis' underclass. He supports groups like one flesh, a neopolis speciesist group, that remind me of the Aryan Nations or the National Alliance. His prejuidices became revolting when robotic officer Joe Pi joined the precinct to replace the fallen Girl One.
Shockheaded Peter is normally partnered with Duane Bodine, the Dust Devil, a cowboy superhero who wields two "twelve-shooters". Duane shares some of Peter's weaknesses with women, but none of his prejuidices. He's quite willing to let Peter know that too.
Peter's super powers, not surprisingly, center around electricity. He can generate and direct
lightning, which he used to capture
serial killer M'rgalla Qualtz, a fallen member of
The Seven Sentinals. He can also create his own radio signals. Using his powers makes his skeleton visible, bringing back elements of Ha's original design. But he is vulnerable to shorting out.
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written by David Wyatt
When a new writer takes over an established comic book it may seem like smooth sailing. You have a ready stock of villains and supporting characters. The book has loyal fans who bought every issue since number six and almost certain to buy the next one. You have a franchise. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But the safe route leads to mediocrity and inevitable decline. The regulars will continue to buy until they grow up and demand more. New readers will look for the stories that excite them. Even the strengths of an established title, a well-developed roster of supporting characters and villains, a worldview, can become crutches if the writer repeats him or herself. To reach out to readers who have never before considered the book you must introduce change. But change carries certain dangers. Change risks angering the book's loyal fans, who expect the writer to maintain consistency with issue number six. Change and you toss away many established advantages. Bruce Wayne can grow old in a miniseries, but in the regular Batman series Wayne must remain thirty, and no one dare suspect his true identity.
This was the situation when Walt Simonson took over Marvel Comics' Thor. Thor had a rich history. The comic was the brainchild of comic legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It had a variety of Lee's original characters and the whole of Norse mythology to mine. But the comic had its faults as well. Ragnarok is supposed to be the end of everything. This cataclysmic struggle took place every third year. Odin was little more than temperamental father. The supporting characters were full of weaknesses.
Let us consider Thor's secret identity, Dr. Donald Blake. When the book was begun all superheroes needed a secret identity. It was a time honored cliche. But why in the world would a God need a secret identity? Thor already had an identity, thank you, and one developed over several millennia. The idea of his father trapping him in the hammer to teach "humility" ought to summon an army of social workers. Silliness abounded everywhere. Heimdall, all-seeing Guardian of the rainbow bridge, spent eternity at his post without even a potty break. Balder the Brave was the most joyous and pure hearted person who happened to have slain a few thousand in combat, and a few dozen deaths. Balder remained merry, and endlessly willing to blindfold himself in the face of mistletoe. You'd think after the thirtieth death he might learn.
But the biggest absurdity was Volstagg. Corpulent, gigantic, clad in a puffy maroon tunic with a gold cap toped with long corn leaves, Volstagg looked more like a professional wrestling manager than a God. He could be counted upon to hide, and then come out with bombastic egotism to claim how his large stomach had turned into the key of victory. Worse, he was supposedly one of the "Warriors Three" with dashing Fandral and Hogun the Grimm. Now ask yourself, "Why in the world would Errol Flynn and Omar Sharif hang out with Fat Albert?" More than any other character, Volstagg symbolized the fact that Thor had fallen into cliche.
Until Thor #337. Simonson starts conventionally enough, Nick Fury sends Thor to intercept an alien vessel approaching earth. Thor awakens its protector, Beta Ray Bill. Like all superheroes meeting for the first time, they fight. Pretty much normal stuff, except for one thing: Thor tosses the hammer at Bill, and Bill picks it up. Thor suddenly becomes Donald Blake. And when Odin calls his son to Asgard, he gets the wrong hero.
The next issue Bill and Thor fight again, this time for possession of Mjolnir. And, once again, Bill wins-- admittedly abetted by the rather hot place Odin chose for the fight. Again pretty normal stuff, except for the hero losing a rematch.
But in issue #339 we begin to see where Simonson is heading. He's mining a deeper vein of gold, moving away from the more obvious conflicts into the nuts and bolts of Norse myth. Bill is worthy to lift Mjolnir. Which means he's honest, and wouldn't even consider taking the Hammer if his people weren't facing a dire threat. So instead of simply claiming his prize he asks Odin if there might be a solution to this dilemma. Odin hears and sees both wisdom and nobility in Bill. And so Odin goes dressed as traveler into the land of the dwarves. But Eitri the Dwarf leader recognizes the all father, for Eitri too is wise. One issue minor characters begin to take on a richness normally absent in comics.
Other characters change in subtle ways. No one more than Volstagg. Oh he's still the self aggrandizing King of the Clean Plate Club, but Volstagg is no longer just a buffoon. He knows he's compulsive, and even a bit of a joke, but because he understands pain he can see it in others. Simonson reinterpreted Volstagg as jester rather than joke. He becomes serious when appropriate, brave when required, and silly when the tension needs relief. Volstagg belongs in the Warrirors Three for the things he does away from battle.
Simonson introduces that rarest of comic book virtues, character growth. Balder the pure hearted finally began to feel the deaths he has caused. Suffering from depression, Balder has forsaken the sword. Volstagg alone suspects what consumes Balder. When a younger warrior comes to challenge Balder, Volstagg easily disarms him. But he is not angered to see his friend challenged. Rather Volstagg sees in the lad the impetuous ambition of youth. Sitting on the youth, he becomes a mentor
Ragnarok does come to Asgard. But Simonson builds it slowly, and mines the full depth of Viking myth. In issues 342 and 343 he fills the last seat in Valhalla. Odin works quietly against what he fears, with sad resignation amost never seen in comics..A quiet moment wiht his wife says more than a thousand podium speeches. The End of All brings great fear, not glorious adventure.
In 344 Simonson transforms Loki, the God of Mischief. Loki is often portrayed as malicious force, a powerful sorcerer but little different from any other supervillain. But in 344 Simonson displays a real Loki, one whose humor and malice the Joker might envy. For Balder has been sent by Odin to summon the trickster to Asgard, to aid in the struggle against Ragnarok. And the brave has forsworn violence, and killing. Naturally, Loki forces Balder into lots of killing, sending thousands of cannon fodder against the Asgardian. Until in desperation Balder himself is forced to take up the sword, and slay his way into Loki's castle. There in Loki's castle, in front of the destroy Surtur's servant Malekith the Dark Elf, Loki summarily refuses to read Odin's proposition. In a moment of rage at what he has been forced to do, in vain, Balder decapitates Loki with a single stroke, then exiles himself to the desert.
A lesser writer might have let the suspense of Loki's 'death' hang. But not Simonson. Instead the headless body of Loki searches for his head, until he finds and re-attaches it. Loki is in stitches, for the agonized look on Balder's face proved "an excellent jest, one well worth the price of a stiff neck for a day or so. Balder, thy name is laughter."
Issue by issue the tension builds. Malekith the dark elf schemes to take the Casket of Ancient Winters, that once released can freeze the barrier Odin's bothers used to seal Surtur in the realm of flame, away from Asgard and Midgard, the Norse name for our Earth. But the casket is shattered and Surtur's endless minions released into this world. Ragnarok has come.
But instead of facing the enemy alone, all of Earth unites against the forces of Muspellheim. Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four come to battle.. The warriors of Valhalla fight along side US Army divisions. Odin, Thor and Heimdall await Surtur in Asgard. If Surtur passes them he can set his sword alight, and burn the nine worlds to nothingness. Surtur seems invincible. Heimdall falls and the Rainbow Bridge is shattered. Thor is defeated, and unable to use his full power Odin too is brushed aside. And at his moment of triumph Surtur finds himself confronted by Loki.
The battle is one of the finest in comics, with many little contributions summing up to a greater whole, Surtur versus Odin, Thor and Loki --- for Asgard, Midgard, and as Loki put it, "for Myself."
Of course the tribulations of Thor are only beginning. Before it ends he will have been turned into a frog, had his bones ground to dust, fought his way in and out of Hel, had Hela refuse him death in torment, then forced the Death Goddess regret her decision. He will fight the Midgard Serpent and fall before it, and yet not fall into death. Heimdall, the stoic all-seeing guardian of the Rainbow Bridge will prove that not only has he seen and heard everything, but thought about what all this meant. He well matches wits with Loki. Heimdall even bags a babe. Volstagg gets trapped in Manhattan to the delight of New York restraunteurs. Thor gets a job. All of which is in the greatest of fun.
No writer, before or since, has done to Thor what Simonson did. His run at that comic rivals the Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight, for its sheer inventiveness. Perhaps the Dark Knight is the best comparison, for in it Miller took Gotham and made it the same, yet completely different. The rainbow bridge still links Asgard and Midgard. But because of Simonson, Asgard could never be the same.
Simonson issues: (his art and script until otherwise noted)
#337 " " (November 1983)
#338 A Fool and His Hammer . . .
#339 Something Old, Something New ..
#340 Though Hell Should Bar the Way
#341 The Past is a Bucket of Ashes
#342 The Last Viking
#343 If I Should Die Before I Wake
#344 Whatever Happened to Balder the Brave?
#345 That Was No Lady!
#346 The Wild Hunt
#347 Into the Realm of Faerie
#348 The Dark and the Light
#349 Debts of Honor
#350 Ragnarok and Roll!
#351 Ragnarok and Roll, too!
#352 Ragnarok and Ruin
#353 Doom II
#354 Pickin' up the Pieces
#355 The Icy Hearts (or My Dinners with Thor!) -- pencils and inks by
Sal Buscema#357 A New Deal from an Old Deck (or Credit Card Soldiers) ? art by Simonson
#358 When Dalliance was in Flower (or Take the Cash and let the Credit Go)
#359 The Grand Alliance (or Life with Loki)
#360 Into the Valley of Death
#361 The Quick and the Dead
#362 Like a Bat out of Hel!
#363 This Kursed Earth . . ..
#364 Thor Croaks!
#365 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (or It's Not Easy Being Green)
#366 What do you call a 6'6' Fighting Mad Frog? Sir!
#367 The Harvest of the Seasons
#368 The Eye of the Beholder ---- art by Sal Buscema
#369 For Whom the Belles Troll---- art by Buscema &
Geoff Isherwood#371 Peace on Earth art by Buscema &
Albret Blevinson#372 Without Justice, there is no Peace art by Buscema &Bevinson
#373 The Gift of Death art by Buscema
#374 Fires of the Night art by Buscema
#375 Shadows of the Past art by Buscema
#376 Heroes Always Win . . . Don't They? Art by Buscema
#377 This Hollowed Armor art by Buscema
#378 When Loki Stood Alone art by Buscema
#379 There were Giants in Those Days (or, a Discussion between Heroes and Villains) Art by Buscema
#380 Mjolnir's Song
#381 Ye Olde Shelle Game! art by Buscema
#382 Journey Into Mystery art by Buscema
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written by David Wyatt
When you're a boy,
warriors and
combat often seem terribly
romantic. You may read tales of the
Lafayette Escadrille and imgine yourself out there with
Lufbery, dueling with the
Hun, wind whistling through the wires of your
Neiuport.
Fletcher Arrowsmith is the viewpoint character of Arrowsmith, a comic written by Astro City's Kurt Busiek and pencilled by Carlos Pacheco. it is set in World War I, but the war is very different. Arrowsmith's word in many ways resemble's the world of Orson Scott Card's Tales of Alvin Maker, a world like ours, but where magic is real and powerful, where technology and sorcery intermingle. Men, trolls and dragons work together, Ancient Gods and wizards serve, and manipulate, the governnment and armies of man. The countries are the same, yet different, with Gallia and Albion standing in for France and Britain in a brutal war with Prussia.
When the story begins, Fletcher is the teenage son of a blacksmith back in the United States of Columbia when a group of allied flyers come by on a recruiting trip. They're Americans of the Overseas Air Bureau, expatriates who fiy and die for the allies. Only they don't need a Spad to fly. Tiny dragons, called dragonets perch on their shoulders, and they fly alone, the pink glow of magic lighting their feet.
Arrowsmith is mesmerized, not only what they can do, but because these men seem to him like knight-errants, warriors for good in world threatened by the blackest evil. His father is isolationist, suspicious of magic and foreign powers. Rocky the troll, a family friend lived over there and fled to Columbia when his family was killed. He advises Fletcher not to go. But his best friend also feels the romance of war, and signs up. And so, Fletcher does as well, convinced that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Military life is not how Fletcher expected. A young boy's illusions quickly fall away in this coming of age story. He finds his first girlfriend, Grace. He gets into brawls. And even more quickly discovers that war is darker and more horrid than anything he can imagine.
The world is beautifully drawn by Pacheco, colorist Alex Sinclair, inker Jesus Merino and Comicraft. The colors flow together, the art always believable and the colors absolutely wonderful. It is a strange mix of technology and the wierd, with dinosaurs transporting modern artillery, where men bond with dragons and fight with both gun and crossbow, as Iron is anathema to magic.
Busiek is one of comic's finest writers, and his skill shows in every issue. Fletcher is likable and real, a good person in way over his head. If you are a comics fan, you owe it yourself to check out this growing
story.
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written by David Wyatt
Carl Donewicz grew up in a bad part of
Astro City. From his window he could see the
superheroes flying around, and he called them
angels. Why, he dreamed of being one of them. But in the 'hood they have
gangs and if you don't want beaten up or your
lunch money taken you join one. So he joined. Tried to have it both ways for a while, hanging with his gang and studying to get to
college. Only one night he dropped his knife during a
fight, and the guy after him still had one. But Carl had grabbed a gun from someone else.
And it all went downhill from there.
Steeljack is the viewpoint character of the second Astro City graphic novel The Tarnished Angel. His name is shortened from The Steel Jacketed Man , which he is, 800 pounds of steel jacketed muscle. Physically, he resembles an iron statue of Robert Mitchum if the late actor were a bodybuilder with middle aged love handles. As the story begins, he is being released from prison on parole after 20 years in stir. He's changed in prison. Or maybe decided to become the person he could be.
Steeljack never wanted to be a criminal. He's still haunted by the boy he killed back in that gang fight. And with the folly of youth, he went wild for a time. He gained his powers hoping to be a superhero, only the transformation was backed by mob money. So he had to become a black mask to pay off his debts. He became part of the Terrifying Three with Cutlass and the first Quarrel. Instead of becoming a superhero, he found himself fighting them.
Though Donewicz has changed in prison, he finds life on the outside difficult. His steel jacketed body makes hin instantly recognizable. He thwarts a mugging and a murder, and the intended victim believes it is simply because Steeljack wants the money for himself. He can't find a job. The only people he knows are crooks. The only place he can afford to live is in a slum. His parole officer thinks him a snake, The only person he can legally consort with is a middleman for criminals.
One of issues that writer Kurt Busiek enjoys exploring in Astro City is that good and evil are really a continuum. Steeljack is a character whose circumstance pulls him into crime, and prison. Once out, the same circumstances conspire to pull him back in. In order to stay out of prison, he cannot be passive, but must literally will himself to move out of situations. The Tarnished Angel is a detective story, as the only work he can find is hunting down a killer of supervillians, and his only qualification his toughness. As he interviews them, he sees himself in the other supervillans. He made the same glib assumptions, thought he'd avoid the one avoid that big mistake that took others down. Each makes the same boasts he made. He sees in them how the desire for recognition and obsession leads men down the path to evil.
Steeljack sees himself as something of a failure, inadequate in every way but brute strength. But at the end he is not. His friends may be supervillians, but they're his friends, and he shows himself a true friend. Busiek, artist Brent Anderson and the rest of the Astro City creative team have created not a cartoon, but a living breathing character, a man in pain, but who wants to do good but is not sure how.
Steeljack is a supervillian, an ex-con on parole. But in the end, he's a pretty good man.
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written by David Wyatt
There's a big bad wolf living in Manhattan. His father is the North Wind, he smokes like a chimney and he lets a pig crash on his couch now and then. His boss is a the fairest woman every to have shared quarters with a posse of dwarves. Her pay depends on charity from Bluebeard, and Mary's little lamb really does follow her wherever she goes. Little Boy Blue is often warned not to blow his horn.
Thus it is in the world of Fables, a comic series by Bill Willingham released on DC Comics Vertigo imprint. Fables operates on a simple premise. What if all fairy tales, nursery rhymes and legends were true and took place in some alternate universe? A world where magic and story rule, and characters are bound by their stories. Until a villain, known only as "the Adversary", conquered all those Fable worlds. A few hundred years ago the 'Fables' fled to the one world the Adversary didn't seem to want, our own. Now they live among us in a secret borough of Manhattan. Unless you happen to look like a pig, a giant, or a dragon. Non-human appearing fables have been banished to a farm in upstate New York so the 'mundanes' won't learn of the legends in their midst. Old enmities have been set aside for the exile, and all dream of a day when they can retake their real homelands.
Because of the need to keep secret their true nature as storybook characters, the Fables have their own government. King Cole is a glad-handing politician, and Snow White a stern moralist and efficient administrator. Bigby (short for Big Bad) Wolf is the top cop. And they need the government, because most Fables are not so innocent as their stories. They fight, squabble, scheme and lust. Jack (of Beanstalk fame) is an inveterate social climber, constantly trying new schemes to get rich. Prince Charming has a 25 charisma, but frankly bores quickly of commitment, and has been reduced to seducing waitresses for a bed. Goldilocks is a quite grown up Marxist revolutionary who really does find an adult Baby Bear's bed "just right". Fables murder, cheat and steal just like normal people. And they fall into love. There is magic, which costs plenty and the government is dependent on the charity of rich fables.
The book was created and written by Bill Willingham. who has done work on Green Lantern and Aquaman as an artist. As a writer he is responsible for creating Coventry, Ironwood and Proposition. The writing is topnotch, occasionally diminished (or possibly enhanced, depending on your viewpoint) by Willingham's right-wing politics. (Goldilocks is quite the cardboard villain for example) The art is uniformly excellent (given that Willingham is an artist himself, that should be expected) and the plots interesting. Most importantly, in a world full of superheroes Fables offers something unique to the comics reader.
To date there are five Fables collections available, in order.
- Legends in Exile
- Animal Farm
- Storybook Love
- March of the Wooden Soldiers
- Fables: The Mean Seasons
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