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Post by rberman on Feb 26, 2018 9:19:27 GMT -5
Local Heroes #5: Justice Systems (February 2004)
Theme: Law vs Justice Focus Civilian: In 1974, Vince Oleck is haunted by the no-win scenario set up in the previous issue. Blue Knight threatens him in his dreams. After his client is acquitted, Vince flees town with his family and sleeps with a gun in his hand. One night he discovers a gang of mobsters dead outside his remote cabin, and the mob boss is dead too. Apparently Blue Knight is his police friend Josh inhabited by the spirit of Josh’s murdered son Damon. Vince leaves the law firm and eventually ends up, in present day, teaching at Garrett Law School. Meanwhile, prosecuting lawyers have come up with better responses to the sort of defense Vince mounted in getting young Forgione acquitted. Other Supers: A kid in the part sells “Free the Apollo 11” shirts, a reference to the “Chicago Seven” accused of fomenting a riot at the 1968 Democratic presidential convention. Apparently the Eleven did something controversial in response to the late 60s political scene as well. Other Civilians: Professor Dallis taught law school. Defense witness Dr. Gould testifies about all the super-ways that a person might not be culpable for his actions (demonic possession, anyone?). My Two Cents: One common rule of storytelling is to force the protagonist into a difficult position, forcing him to make an unenviable choice that leads to a change within him. That doesn’t really happen here. Vince’s fate was sealed before the previous issue began, at the moment he joined the sort of law firm that takes mobsters for defense clients and then does nothing to protect its attorneys from the depredations of said mobsters. After that point, there’s no credible branch path offered to him; there is only the next logical step. Hollywood versions of the “attorney having second thoughts about defending his obviously guilty client” find some clever out. In the film version of “The Firm” (but not the original novel), the corporate lawyer portrayed by Tom Cruise blackmails the mob with damaging documents that would be released if he or his loved ones should meet an untimely death. In the thriller “From the Hip,” the defense lawyer portrayed by Judd Nelson tricks his psychopathic client John Hurt into confessing on the witness stand. But in this version of the story, Vince goes passive, and it’s up to his super-friend Josh to save him vigilante-style. This causes Vince to reflect on the inadequacies of the system. As a song by Dar Williams says, “It’s a long road from law to justice.” So the final irony is that Vince goes to propagate the imperfect system at whose hands he has suffered, by becoming a law professor. His final protest claims that, ‘We (lawyers) dance against the dark. We dance every day. And if we dance well… the shadows stay where they belong.” But really, it took Blue Knight, a creature of those shadows, to save Vince from the flawed legal system. This is perhaps one of the most common underlying messages of superhero comics: we need vigilantes, because the law is broken. Special Note: I already have half of the Astro City: The Dark Age reviews "in the can." But it occurred to me that proper auteur criticm can benefit from a chronological approach, and Busiek was up to an awful lot of other work in between the sporadically published Astro City, and it may yield us some rewards to compare and contrast some of those works with his work here. So before launching into The Dark Age, I'm going to look at a couple of those mainstream projects, starting with the excellent Superman: Secret Identity miniseries which also came out in 2004. 
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Post by Rob Allen on Feb 27, 2018 16:18:23 GMT -5
Other Civilians: Mr. Debeck is a grumpy Caplinville neighbor. Kingman Barstow and Delbert Styles work for TransGene. Shondra is Cammie’s email buddy. One of those names is a music reference, not a comic book reference. In the song Route 66, written in 1946 by Bobby Troup (who was also an actor; he was in Emergency! in the 70s), the lyrics list the towns that Route 66 passes thru: Now you go through Saint Louie,
Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.
You see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Don't forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino..."Delbert Styles" may be a reference to the song "I'll Change My Style" by Delbert McClinton. |
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Post by rberman on Mar 3, 2018 19:08:30 GMT -5
Astro City: The Flip Book: On Mulberry Street – A Prelude (April 2004)
Theme: A piece of the action Frame Story: None! Busiek has fulfilled my wish and just started with a framing caption: “It was Bakerville, in 1959.” Good! No time to waste…
Focus Civilians: Black kids Charles and Royal steal an apple and gawk at a super-battle between Honor Guard and Pyramid unfolding on his street, but an unappreciative adult complains that the heroes are all white. But wait! The Black Badge is there too! Badge draws Charles and his brother in, discouraging them from further crime while giving them a tiny role in nabbing the villains. The boys’ parents Lloyd and Willa are pleased and worried by this, respectively, when they hear the story later that day. Normal people can get squished in a super-fight. And a Pyramid soldier is watching them eat dinner… Other Heroes: Honor Guard ( Silver Agent, Leopardman, Starwoman, Max O’Millions, N-Forcer, and Cleopatra) prevent Pyramid’s Cold War villains Kroseth the Invader, Commissar Hammer, The Steel Sickle, and The Beastmen from kidnapping the Mercury astronauts. Villains: Black Badge has bested the Stone Gang.Places: Old Man Evans works at “ Orrin’s” grocery store. Is the Mulberry Street in the title a reference to Billy Joel’s song “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” or something else? My Two Cents: This eight page teaser story for the Astro City: The Dark Age saga was originally packaged along with an Arrowsmith story in which each story started from one cover of the book and ended at the staple. It’s just a vignette to introduce characters we’ll be catching up with starting next time, but even so we get insights into “how people come to be the people they are.” The two brothers are already on a life of crime that could escalate into something worse. Black Badge intervenes not with Samaritan’s authoritarian tsking or El Hombre’s distant role modeling, but with a personal conversation that leads to him offering the boys the trivial job of telling the cops about some crooks he has tied up. Trivial to him anyway, but he knows that to the boys it’s a huge deal. It makes them feel like part of a grand adventure. It makes them identify with the good guys, not the bad guys. It makes them receptive to his gentle admonition to keep their noses clean. Smart hero, this Badge guy. 
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2018 19:27:46 GMT -5
Orrin Evans was the publisher of All-Negro Comics in 1947.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 4, 2018 0:50:20 GMT -5
Astro City: The Flip Book: On Mulberry Street – A Prelude (April 2004)
Theme: A piece of the action Frame Story: None! Busiek has fulfilled my wish and just started with a framing caption: “It was Bakerville, in 1959.” Good! No time to waste…
Focus Civilians: Black kids Charles and Royal steal an apple and gawk at a super-battle between Honor Guard and Pyramid unfolding on his street, but an unappreciative adult complains that the heroes are all white. But wait! The Black Badge is there too! Badge draws Charles and his brother in, discouraging them from further crime while giving them a tiny role in nabbing the villains. The boys’ parents Lloyd and Willa are pleased and worried by this, respectively, when they hear the story later that day. Normal people can get squished in a super-fight. And a Pyramid soldier is watching them eat dinner… Other Heroes: Honor Guard ( Silver Agent, Leopardman, Starwoman, Max O’Millions, N-Forcer, and Cleopatra) prevent Pyramid’s Cold War villains Kroseth the Invader, Commissar Hammer, The Steel Sickle, and The Beastmen from kidnapping the Mercury astronauts. Villains: Black Badge has bested the Stone Gang.Places: Old Man Evans works at “ Orrin’s” grocery store. Is the Mulberry Street in the title a reference to Billy Joel’s song “Big Man on Mulberry Street,” or something else? My Two Cents: This eight page teaser story for the Astro City: The Dark Age saga was originally packaged along with an Arrowsmith story in which each story started from one cover of the book and ended at the staple. It’s just a vignette to introduce characters we’ll be catching up with starting next time, but even so we get insights into “how people come to be the people they are.” The two brothers are already on a life of crime that could escalate into something worse. Black Badge intervenes not with Samaritan’s authoritarian tsking or El Hombre’s distant role modeling, but with a personal conversation that leads to him offering the boys the trivial job of telling the cops about some crooks he has tied up. Trivial to him anyway, but he knows that to the boys it’s a huge deal. It makes them feel like part of a grand adventure. It makes them identify with the good guys, not the bad guys. It makes them receptive to his gentle admonition to keep their noses clean. Smart hero, this Badge guy. Dr Seuss. And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.
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Post by rberman on Mar 4, 2018 20:18:37 GMT -5
Astro City Special: Supersonic: Old Times (October 2004)
Theme: Glory days Focus Hero: Dale Enright, a.k.a. retired hero Supersonic, gets a visit from Police Captain Robbins asking him to suit up to fight a monster robot called Retri-B.U.T.I.O.N. in Hartley. Scenes of this tough battle, which he eventually wins, are cut with flashbacks. He reminisces about the old days when “experimental turbines” turned a young Hillman-Holdaway engineer into a superhero. He runs through his past victories: Red Dahlia stole the Antarean Kaleidojewel, but Supersonic used the jewel to create 16 color-themed versions of himself to defeat her. The Kirlian Man failed in his attempt to steal a prototype jet plane. Mr. Teleport, the Radium Ants, and the Ogliarchons were other past foes. Supersonic used combinations of technical wizardry, cleverness, and super-strength to best them all. But now he’s past his prime, barely surviving this tussle with an antiquated robot, and destroying blocks of suburbia in the process. He yells at Robbins for dragging him out of retirement, but the two make up and head for the bar to chat about the good old days. Other Villains: Ominuss, maker of the giant robot, was killed by Street Angel in 1988. Civilians: Caroleen is Enright’s deceased wife. Mulwray teaches at Trooper Academy. My Two Cents: Supersonic seems to date from the early 1950s, before the space race, when Chuck Yeager’s breaking of the sound barrier symbolized the apparently limitless possibilities of America’s newly flexed technological muscle. His code name evoked “jets and strength and power and the future. They were good days.” And he had a good run as a hero, but not a limitless climb to the stars. He achieved his romantic aspirations; his wife died. He defeated many villains but not the root of villainy, and even now in his old age, mothballed robots still lie buried, ready to be awakened by the digging of a new shopping center. I don’t think he would literally be thinking about all those flashbacks in the middle of his desperate super-fight, despite what they say about your life flashing before your eyes. But it works symbolically, catching us up on the arc of a hero who weathered the storms but really doesn’t have what it takes any more. He’s in danger, but he’s also mad about having his weakened state hammered home to him and the crowd of onlookers by an enormous metal bug. As the Kurgan said in Highlander, “It is better to burn out than to fade away.” 
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 5, 2018 0:37:39 GMT -5
....
As the Kurgan said in Highlander, “It is better to burn out than to fade away.” Neil Young (and Camus, and others) beat him to it..... |
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Post by rberman on Mar 5, 2018 21:11:14 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 1 #1: Darkness Falls (August 2005)
Theme: Thicker than water (which I thought of for myself, and then discovered that it’s also the title that Busiek gives to this initial four episode arc, Book 1 of the Dark Age. We great minds think alike… However, the trade edition collecting the eight issues comprising The Dark Age Books 1&2 has another title all its own: “ Brothers and Other Strangers.”) Focus Civilians: Catching up with the two black brothers from 1959 in the Astro City/Arrowsmith Flip Book, by September 1972, Charles is now a cop, while Royal is a pickpocket. (They have no surname so far.) Royal participates in an armored car robbery and barely escapes from both Jack-in-the-Box and his own brother. Later at Ty’s Bar, Charles warns Royal that Blue Knight is merciless toward even small-time offenders. We also get hinting flashbacks to a fire the two brothers survived when they were boys, probably at the hands of the Pyramid soldier seen watching them at the end of the last issue. Villains: L.S.Deviant was being controlled by aliens to cause actual (not just hallucinatory) transformations all over the world. Honor Guard stopped it, but civilians are still traumatized. The Tourist, a galactic bug thing, runs off with Mount Rushmore, until First Family intervene. Starfighter exposes The Diode’s robot duplicates of U.S. Senators. Where was he when bug-aliens impersonated Astro City's mayor? Heroes: “ Old Soldier fights for North Viet Nam,” says the Astro City Rocket headline for October 10, 1972. He’s apparently defending villages rather than actually attacking U.S. troops. The Apollo Eleven (whom I am tentatively grouping with the heroes, pending further information) were astronauts on a moonbase, transformed into alien ambassadors, imprisoned (unjustly?) on earth, and now escaped fugitives. Hummingbird is mentioned. Shockingly, Silver Agent is arrested for “the murder of a foreign head of state.” Names: A toy store contains an Astra City game (can’t be a reference to young Astra First, who hasn’t been born yet), a boxed Jack-in-the-Box figure, and a Silver Agent figure which lies ominously in a pose resembling death. McAnn’s is another bar. Civilians: “ Mitchell controlled G.O.P. fund,” says a headline. Darnice is Charles’ girlfriend who hits on Royal while Charles is in the bathroom. Miscellanea: The opening splash page shows the Empire State Building, the Baxter Building (HQ of the Fantastic Four), and Grandenetti Cathedral a couple of blocks apart. Royal gets red narrative boxes, while Charles the cop gets blue boxes. My Two Cents: We’re starting over with Astro City’s fourth series number one (after Vol 1, Vol 2, and Local Heroes). Not only that, but we’re going to get a new #1 every four issues for the next five years. This is not the numbering scheme that best serves readers in the long term, and I don’t know what real-life considerations caused this turn of events, but nobody asked me. Anyway, on to more substantial matters… This episode establishes two notions for the future. One is the bond between the brothers Charles and Royal, whose lives are taking opposite paths. It’s hard to stay connected in times like that, and Darnice threatens to be the amorous straw that breaks that camel. The second notion is America’s political malaise of the early 1970s, with Viet Nam looking ugly and Watergate exploding. As in the Confessor arc, everybody on edge, but this time it’s not the weather; it’s the zeitgeist. 
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 6, 2018 0:41:30 GMT -5
I don't recall if he outright says Starfighter left the planet or just kind of alludes to it; but, that would be why he wasn't there for the Enelsian invasion. He might have also contracted cancer and died surrounded by his friends; you never know...
This also reflects the darkness of many comics of the 70s. Like movies, comics started wallowing in dark places, with violent vigilantes, like the Punisher coming to the fore, and death started becoming a major element in comics. Black panther has his famous Panther's Rage, which inspired some of the movie; Killraven and Deathlok show dystopian futures, Captain Marvel had Thanos, Kirby had Darkseid (first, I might add) and The Pact, Green Arrow became a social crusader, Iris West died during this decade. There is plenty of darkness in both the four-color world and the "real" world. Part of why i enjoyed this saga was that it felt very accurate, both in terms of the time and in terms of the style of comics and characters being produced then.
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Post by rberman on Mar 6, 2018 11:01:42 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 1 #2: Criminal Prosecution (September 2005)
Theme: Into their own hands Hero?: We see TV footage of Alan Jay Craig, The Silver Agent, killing The Maharajah of Maga-Dhor. He’s a Mandarin-type villain it seems, but he was also about to broker U.S.-Vietnamese peace talks in Paris. Worse yet, civilians were killed in the shooting. The Steel Sirdar now rules Maga-Dhor, so we know who has a profit motive in the killing. Silver Agent protests his innocence and escapes custody with the aid of masked men calling themselves Pax Americana, resulting in more deaths. The Sterling Foundation take control of Starfighter and send him after Silver Agent; in the resulting battle, the police and E.A.G.L.E. recapture Silver Agent. The nations of the world demand the opportunity to put him on trial on their soil, but the United States holds the trial and finds him guilty. We also get flashbacks that Silver Agent was there at the apartment fire, standing with a gun over the bodies of their bullet-ridden parents when Royal and Charles were kids. Other heroes: Street Angel helps Charles with a hostage situation, but Charles has misgivings about vigilantes. Apparently in the future, Black Velvet causes Street Angel to lose his carefree demeanor. First Family defeat an invasion from underwater Monstro City led by Tyranos Rex, son of Madame Majestrix. They then protect Rex from the public; we already know that Natalie Furst will ultimately marry him. Simon Magus (named after a Bible character from Acts 8:9), a Doctor Strange type, moves to Shadow Hill and predicts coming strife. No kidding! Does he predict sunrise too? The Apollo Eleven do something something with Omnibrain and a Celestial Convergence. Hellhound is a transmogrified Viet Nam vet. F ocus Civilians: Royal Williams thinks Silver Agent was acting as a CIA assassin. Later, he participates in a heist of E.A.G.L.E. hardware from N.R.Gistics in Gainesville, narrowly missing caught by an N-Forcer fly-by. This turns into an opportunity to work for the Scarpellis. Royal warns his brother Charles that Darnice just wants to marry him for his money. Later, Royal runs for his life when Blue Knight foils a hijacking of bootleg liquor. After exhausting other hiding places, he runs to Charles. People and places: Jerry and Lemmie are criminals. Gerard Street intersects H…skin Avenue in a suburban neighborhood. A Sterling Foundation spokesman is cautiously negative about heroes toward Cheryl the newscaster. My Two Cents: Silver Agent should hire Vince Oleck as his lawyer; some sort of imposter/mind control situation seems quite probable to explain his crime. Again we have the two parallel stories: Royal and Charles on the one hand (mainly Royal, with his bad choices and flight from Blue Knight); and the murky international political situation of the 1970s, as symbolized by the Silver Agent’s apparently heavy-handed handgun diplomacy. In both stories we get multiple examples of the problems that can ensue when people charge on ahead with a personal agenda without waiting to build consensus in the community. Royal now lives with a literal target on his back which allows Blue Knight to track him, except when it’s covered with tinfoil. “Royal and Charles Williams” is an interesting set of names inasmuch as Charles and William are commonly used names of the British royal family. Fun fact: The Scots who settled Appalachia tended to name their children after British royalty and Bible characters, a habit which continues to this day even in my own family. But Charles and Royal are not Scottish. 
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Post by rberman on Mar 7, 2018 9:41:46 GMT -5
The Dark Age Vol 1 #3: Casualties of War (October 2005)
Theme: Ingratitude Focus Civilians: By February 1973, Charles Williams gets tired of providing for his brother Royal, who still has to stay in hiding from Blue Knight, and after an argument, Royal sets off on his own. Simon Magus banishes Blue Knight. We get the whole story about 1959 when Silver Agent chased the Pyramid soldier through the Williams’ apartment, not stopping to help the two kids, or put out the fire, or notice the dead parents on the floor. Hero?: Guys in a bar reminisce about past good deeds of Silver Agent in light of his recent conviction. He disappears briefly from his prison cell in a flash of light, returning clad in his battered uniform. Was the real Agent just replaced by a doppelganger? Or vice versa? Suspicious! He’s sentenced to death and decides to forego an appeal. Suspicious! This news brings North and South Viet Nam back to the negotiating table to sign a peace treaty. Suspicious! Other Heroes: Jack-in-the-Box catches Richie Forgione, whom we had last seen in 1974 as Vince Oleck’s murder defense client. The Forgione crime family was wiped out by Blue Knight at that time, but obviously not Richie. But the witnesses disappear, and Richie walks. Again. Honor Guard go to Khanistan, trying in vain to exonerate Silver Agent. Tyranos Rex, now only 14 years old, saves the First Family from a Magmadrake summoned from the center of the earth by his mother, Madame Majestrix. The Fursts harbor Rex from the feds first at their home, then on a satellite base. Names and Places: Tho and Thieu are the leaders of North and South Viet Nam; not sure which is which. Crazy Jenny was a Silver Agent supporter. The Sterling Foundation is doing more TV interviews with a negative attitude toward heroes. Movies at the theater include Black Caesar, Eyes of Fire (Starring Charles Bronson), and Walking Tall (starring Joe Don Baker). Herriman Street and Mulberry Street are in Bakerville where the Williamses lived as kids. My Two Cents: This issue has no big theme of its own. It fills in the details of how Royal and Charles’ traumatic childhood experience set the boys on their respective paths toward crime and law enforcement, but we pretty much knew that already from the hints in the last three issues. We do get to see that Royal has developed a sense of entitlement regarding Charles’ care for him. “I thought I’d starve to death waiting!” he complains as Charles brings meals to his hidey hole. He resents his dependence on Charles and resents that Charles doesn’t take his warnings about gold-digging Darnice seriously. Charles for his part proves that nothing will lose you a hearing with a man faster than telling him that he’s with the wrong woman. I’ve seen that in action myself; have you? Some things are thicker than blood. It’s also been made clear through every posthumus mention of Silver Agent since the beginning of the series that he’s somehow being railroaded into death, but we don’t yet know his motive for either the murder of the warlord (if he really did it) or his newfound willingness to be executed, where before he was mounting a defense. 
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 7, 2018 11:55:54 GMT -5
Very compelling issue, as we see "heroes" acting in very unheroic manners, while juxtaposing with the more violent vigilante themes of the era's films. It was also about time we saw Pyramid as a real threat, rather than some background group that seem to get beaten, quite often. That's kind of what happened with HYDRA, for a time. They were a big deal at first, then seemed to get beaten quickly, then went bye-bye, until they reappeared, with Baron Strucker. After that, they popped up now and again, in the 70s (especially the Tony Isabella Daredevil stories and the origin of Spider-Woman); but, never seemed quite the world-threatening threat they were in the 60s. Every once in a while, you can spot the visual reference for a character. Royal seems to be modeled after Antonio Fargas, especially around the eyes and nose. I never quite pinned down who Charles resembled, as there are familiar elements; but not quite as obvious as Royal.  |
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Post by rberman on Mar 7, 2018 22:27:56 GMT -5
Very compelling issue, as we see "heroes" acting in very unheroic manners, while juxtaposing with the more violent vigilante themes of the era's films. It was also about time we saw Pyramid as a real threat, rather than some background group that seem to get beaten, quite often. That's kind of what happened with HYDRA, for a time. They were a big deal at first, then seemed to get beaten quickly, then went bye-bye, until they reappeared, with Baron Strucker. After that, they popped up now and again, in the 70s (especially the Tony Isabella Daredevil stories and the origin of Spider-Woman); but, never seemed quite the world-threatening threat they were in the 60s. Every once in a while, you can spot the visual reference for a character. Royal seems to be modeled after Antonio Fargas, especially around the eyes and nose. I never quite pinned down who Charles resembled, as there are familiar elements; but not quite as obvious as Royal. I could see Charles being Danny Glover or Sidney Poitier.    |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 7, 2018 23:52:32 GMT -5
Very compelling issue, as we see "heroes" acting in very unheroic manners, while juxtaposing with the more violent vigilante themes of the era's films. It was also about time we saw Pyramid as a real threat, rather than some background group that seem to get beaten, quite often. That's kind of what happened with HYDRA, for a time. They were a big deal at first, then seemed to get beaten quickly, then went bye-bye, until they reappeared, with Baron Strucker. After that, they popped up now and again, in the 70s (especially the Tony Isabella Daredevil stories and the origin of Spider-Woman); but, never seemed quite the world-threatening threat they were in the 60s. Every once in a while, you can spot the visual reference for a character. Royal seems to be modeled after Antonio Fargas, especially around the eyes and nose. I never quite pinned down who Charles resembled, as there are familiar elements; but not quite as obvious as Royal. I could see Charles being Danny Glover or Sidney Poitier. Glover I could see, a bit; but, not Poitier. Maybe a bit of Fred Williamson. That's the thing, Charles is a bit more fluid, while Royal is so definitely Fargas. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 8, 2018 11:49:36 GMT -5
Deja vu!
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