Jon Sable: Ashes of Eden #1-5
Creative Team: Mike Grell-story & art, John Workman-letters; Glenn Hauman, Shannon Weaver & Matt Webb-colors; Mike Gold-editor
Synopsis: The story opens with a black man running across Africa, pursued by white men, with AK-47 and bolt-action rifles. he is wounded in the leg and falls, then finished off with a hunting knife and we see a bloody hand holding a massive diamond. We cut to Jon Sable being briefed about a large diamond, by his client, Cullen Prinsloo. He intends to present it or display it with Bashira, a beautiful woman, who is the face of his company and tabloid fodder. As a child, she was seen worldwide in an image, called "The Face of War."
We also se that Prinsloo's guards are the men who killed the black man.
Sable is told about Bashira's cocaine addiction, for which she has been in and out of rehab, and the parasites who prey on her and provide her the drug. Jon has been hired to shepherd her for two days, for the unveiling of the diamond and Bashira, at a New York exhibition of the world's rarest gems, at the company vaults. The diamond is placed in a beryllium sphere, to be couriered by Scorpion Security, a British firm of ex-SAS, intelligence officers and or other elite units. Grell compares them to Blackwater, but Sandline might be a more apt comparison, though they went out of business in 2004; as well as Executive Outcomes and Aegis Security. Basically, mercenaries, no matter what they call themselves.
In the night, Sable watches a guard come to Bashira's quarters. He warns him off and the guard tells him to go spin. Jon doesn't take kindly to the suggestion...
Bashira tries to brain Jon with a vase and he leg sweeps her and tells her he was hired to protect her, even from herself.
Bashira tries flirting with Jon and even playing on his sympathy, but he remains professional, if uncomfortable.
The next day the security team from Scorpion collects the diamond and heads out, but run into am ambush. The attackers find that they have been fooled, as the courier case only contains small uncut diamonds. Sable is the acutal courier and he and Bashira arrive in New York and he presents his credentials and the stone to customs, for inspection. They pass through the airport and Sable is on the watch. Bashira says they are watching her, but there are eyes, with earpieces, who are not.
Bashira is accosted by a drunken autograph seeker, who resorts to ethnic slurs, when she tries to pass....
Jon teaches him some manners. Bashira is shaken and Jon takes her for a drink and she tells her story.....
She is an Iraqi, whose father was part of the opposition to the Bath Party of Saddam Hussein, but when the Coalition forces did not invade Iraq and remove Saddam and the Bathists from power, her father sent her to London, to school, to be safe. She was photographed and it became well known and she only discovered her fame when someone stopped her on the street. Cullen Prinsloo found her and molded her, but treats her as company property.
Paparazzi find them and start shooting photos and asking questions. Jon slips out to the toilet and BB Flemm returns, unnoticed, except for a young fan of his work and her mother. There are other watchers, but they take little notice of Flemm, but soon pass the alarm that Sable has slipped through their net.
Sable goes to see Eden and finds out he has an appearance at the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony, for the holiday season. Eden reflects on their relationship. Jon goes home and sees the messages from Myke, as Sonny needles him. He also shows him a tabloid paper with his and Bashira's faces on it. Jon leaves and Sonny reflects on their relationship, as coach and athlete and friends.
Jon goes to see Myke and talks to grey, who is recovering from his wounds. He is grabbed by Myke, who plants a kiss on him and slaps him with a newspaper and jealously questions him about Bashira. Jon explains and makes peace, then invites Myke to dinner, after the tree lighting. Myke reflects ibn their life together.
Jon turns up at Prinsloo's NY HQ and tells him his security sucks, when Prinsloo yells about him disappearing. He also suggests that Bashira may be involved with those seeking the diamond....
Jon gives him the diamond, the same way he slipped it past the watchers, in a glass of scotch. Prinsloo seems oddly concerned about the location of the discarded beryllium sphere. Jon tells him to bill him. Prinsloo then hires him to oversee security at the exhibition, as he seems to be the only one who knows what he is doing. Jon calls Myke to tell her he will have to meet her after the tree lighting and Sonny will act as escort and she gives him an earful.
Jon meets with Prinsloo and is shown the security measures for the vault area and the exhibition....
At the exhibition, Prinsloo presents Bashira, who unveils what he calls the Maguffin Diamond, "The Thing that everyone wants"
Later, Jon and Bashira have a chat about pseudo-celebrity behavior and the price of a soul. They are interrupted by Lady Margaret Greymalkin, who Jon was expecting, given the setting. Maggie the Cat lives up to her name.
Jon and Maggie chat and he meets Jenks, the paparazzi that follows her, hoping for a scoop on a heist.
Jon and Maggie retire to her suite and she comes on to him, just as he receives a call from Prinsloo that the diamond has been stolen.
Captin Josh Winters arrives with the NYPD and is introduced to Lady Margaret, who has an alibi, as does Jon. Winters confiscates the cameras of the paparazzi and surveillance cameras and reviews the footage. Jenks was caught by the security trap, but appears to just be drinking champagne near it, as he waits for something or someone. Maggie was gone and he specializes in her.
There is a lens flare in the security camera and 8 seconds of unseen footage. The attention of everyone is on Bashira, then the mousetrap cage descends on Jenks, who is blocking the camera from the diamond. the diamond is there, before the flassh, then cannot be seen, because of Jenks, then is gone.
The police need to search the crowd and Prinsloo says they have a backscatter x-ray machine (like in airports) which can make it more politically painless.
Jon is about to leave, saying his job is done and Prinsloo demands the beryllium container. Jon goes to retrieve it. He exits the building to go to the tree lighting and is acquired by his watchdogs. He is soon cut off by a pair of vans and then attacked by masked men, with expandable batons and suppressed pistols...
Jon creates an opening and runs, but is hit with a tazer. Jon has a vision of a female African warrior and predators, while Grell indulges in potential casting for a Sable movie (including a name I always suggested, going back to the 80s: Mel Gibson, until he went mental. Grell now says John Cusak, now that he has some years behind him). he awakens to find himself naked and secured to a chair, because Grell had probably read Casino Royale and the Daniel Craig debut film had come out 3 years before. He is repeatedly shocked, without questions being asked, while he continues to have spirit visions.
They ask Jon where "it" is. He says he didn't take the diamond, but that isn't what they are asking. Jon draws in his interrogator and kicks him in the goolies (didn't secure his legs to the chair) and then headbutts him, before someone shoots him through the forehead. The men are quick and effective, moving with military precision. Their leader takes over the interrogation. Jon has the pistol of his former interrogator, who fell near him. he shoots and kills the knew interrogator and gets his fingers on the man's knife, cutting himself free of the zip ties that hold his arms to the chair. He unmasks the new man and it is one of Prinsloo's men, the one who was going to see Bashira, that first night. He searches the body of the original interrogator and finds an ID for the department of Homeland Security.
Jon goes to see Maggie...
...and details how she stole the Maguffin.
He discusses 'Blood Diamonds," raw diamonds sold on the black market to fund arms purchases, for various groups. Maggie then gives Jon another surprise; the Maguffin is too flawed to be of gemstone quality and would only have industrial use. Jon realizes now what everyone is after...the beryllium sphere.
Well.....duh!
They leave the hotel, after Maggie tools up, but run smack into an ambush by Bashira and her accomplices. They explain what the beryllium sphere is used for....
A small yield nuclear weapon!
Jon invokes the plot of Goldfinger, to irradiate the diamonds and make them unique and of extreme value, as a hedge against nationalization of the diamond mines of South Africa glutting the market and lowering the overall value. Plans minimized the danger to civilians, as most will be several blocks away, at the tree lighting ceremony, and the vault will contain most of the effects, reducing the damage to an earthquake. Bashira's people claim responsibility, for jihad. Bashira reveals that she is going to use the device at ground zero and has played Prinsloo for the fool.
They are locked in the vault, but Maggie employs her skills to get them out. Since safes and vaults are designed to prevent someone from getting in, from the outside, it is far easier to open them from the inside, where you can get at the mechanics of the lock. Alarms go off and Bashira sends her men to kill them, but Maggie and Jon don't die easy.
They realize that the tree lighting is the target and Jon uses the cell phone GPS to track Bashira and she is prepared, with a backpack bomb, to be a martyr, because of Haditha. Jon shoots her through the head and takes the bomb, but discovers that it is on a timer. He and Maggie get it to the vault and he sabotages what he hopes are enough of the detonators to ensure it is just a dirty bomb, contained inside.
The story ends with a vision of Prinsloo, on the run, in Africa and Jon hunting him, with a note that Sable will return in Rules of the Hunt.
Thoughts: Well, another big adventure, which sort of explains the post-First Comics timeline for Sable. This confirms that Bloodtrail is supposed to follow the original series, with Myke and Jon splitting and Jon descending into alcoholism and reduced economic circumstances, due to declining sales. The latter part, I suspect, is Grell's commentary on the publishing world, in the wake of Amazon, digital publishing, economic turmoil, and the evolution of publishing, in general. While digital platforms offer all kinds of access to materials, the demand for practically free content, by users, has pretty much led to the death of print media, in effect, if not entirely in reality. Since there are so many avenues for getting free content or even legitimate digital content, the demand for print media has plummeted and the publishing world has been reeling, for the last couple of decades. At first, there was a steep decline, as digital became the new thing; but, things plateaued, as readers split into digital and print camps, with some overlap and remained relatively steady. However, Amazon has aggressively moved to position themselves as the sole avenue for print content, either in digital or print form. They were aided by the bankruptcy of Borders, which took out a big chunk of the retail market. Barnes & Noble absorbed a portion of that, as did a few others; but, the bulk of that just disappeared and it hurt the publishing world. The market for print material was drastically reduced, not spread to other venues. Barnes & Noble, though posting profits due to brick and mortar and on-line sales, spent a fortune on digital platforms, to compete with Amazon. Within the company, there was a push to sell and Len Riggio began looking at retirement and started selling stock, in preparation. The ultimate end was the sale of the company. They still exist; but, even before the sale, much of the store real estate was turned over to other products, like toys, games and gift products. Their parent company, Elliott Management Company, which owns the Waterstones chain, in the UK, has a similar presence there. Currently, their frontlist orders (those of new titles) are drastically smaller than in past years, in part due to the economic impact of the COVID pandemic.
In the comic world, sales have been declining across the decades, as its market has aged out and it became dependent on the Direct Market. With bookstores in decline, the gains there, have reversed and the Direct Market has been in decline, since the 90s. Digital offers an alternative; but, digital piracy is a real problem for comics, with new releases available for free reading and download on-line the same week. The Big Two primarily exist to maintain trademarks, for exploitation in other media; mass media. comics haven't been a mass medium since at least the 70s, though you could argue that since the 60s would be more accurate. It became a niche market as readers were lost. It still earns revenue; but, since the 70s, its largest share of revenue is from licensing in other areas, not publishing.
This brings us back to Mike Grell. Jon Sable is his property. When he launched it, the direct Market was relatively brand new and it was part of the offerings of an upstart company, First Comics, with a professional line of books, from experienced and popular creators, mixed with some new talent. It was arguably one of the best initial launches of any of the independent comic book publishers, of the 1980s and First became a real threat to the Big Two, for a time. Then, Mike Gold left and subsequent hands didn't work as well with talent and bigger offers lured away names like Grell and Howard Chaykin, then an ill-advised attempt to revive Classics Illustrated, in the book market, killed the company's cash flow; and, then, the company.
Jon Sable was legally tied up for a while, both due to the terms of the contract with First, which gave them long reprint rights, as well as the bankruptcy, where Federal laws viewed the properties as assets of the company, superseding the civil contracts which stated otherwise. Grell and others spent a long time reacquiring their properties. During that time, the nature of the Direct market changed, as speculators flooded in, then left, in the 90s, with the end result being a bubble and burst affair, which reduced the market as a whole. Marvel set off a war over distribution, which left Marvel in bankruptcy and Capital Distribution dead, with Diamond a near-monopoly. That part has since changed; but, it took out a large number of retailers, who stretched their meager cash between too many suppliers, at too high an order level, chasing better discounts.
Grell worked with Image, for his Shaman's Tears, and Acclaim, for Bar Sinister; however, the initial launch came during the speculator boom and subsequent sales declined, especially after the fallout from both internal issues with Image and Acclaim and the marketplace, as a whole. These two post-2000 projects were part of a deal that Mike Gold put together between his Comicmix.com venture and IDW. Rules of the Hunt was not published by IDW, nor has anything further emerged. Grell has launched Kickstarter projects for omnibus editions of Jon Sable and the complete Maggie the Cat, in the modern method of crowdfunding.
Grell isn't getting any younger (he's 74) and has had health issues, in recent years. COVID added another wrinkle to the livelihood of Jon Sable, as it F-ed with everything, from supply to distribution, not to mention inflation. This may end up being the final Jon Sable project. Rules of the Hunt was supposed to tell the story of the Dahl Case, which meant more past.
Leaving that aside, this is pretty par for the course of a Sable adventure, with further reminders of where he began, plus a spirit quest, at the end, which reveals why Jon continues, if he wanted to die with his family. The truth is he finds a reason to live, if only to provide an instrument for those who have lost, to gain justice. In that, this sets up a new purpose for Jon's adventures. he is not just a mercenary for hire, a mix of Mike Hammer and James Bond. He is an avenger, a knight errant, a safeguard and a survivor. He is a hunter.
As with his Image work, Grell continues to play to commercial interest in his story, with fewer restrictions and an eye toward using more flamboyant elements to appeal to an audience that isn't as obsessed with quality as much as sparkle. There is nudity in here and far more tease than in past work, while the violence is a bit gorier. Maggie wears her impractical Image work clothes, rather than the more realistic First wardrobe. Jon sports the battlemask, even though Grell pretty much stopped using it after the first couple of years.
He continues to mine James Bond for visuals and plots, though always with an eye on the modern world. Blood diamonds substitute for gold bullion, and jihadists for SPECTRE or even old fashioned Marxist-Leninist terrorists, or previous generation Arab-sponsored terror groups. Even terror changed across the 90s and into the 2000s; so did the plots.
I have to say that modern digital printing methods don't exactly mesh as well with Grell's technique as offset printing did. Grell is more of a traditionalist than, say, Howard Chaykin. No idea if he uses a drawing pad or traditional paper; but, his linework lacks the subtlety it had in the days of paper. Also, some of his layouts here are far more confusing than past, which has always been a criticism of his work. I usually could figure out the progression, with minor hiccups; but, they were more pronounced here, especially in some of the expository scenes. The panel flow was far less obvious than in past. Grell is a visual storyteller; but, I think his visual sense has overwhelmed his storytelling sense, in some things, possibly due to commercial influences. The secondary market for original art makes a temptation to layout a page for better resale, rather than story concerns (a feature which ruled Image) and it seems to have crept into Grell's work, in my eyes. Oh, he is still a great storyteller; but, the hiccups are more noticeable.
Regardless of criticisms, this and Bloodtrail were more in keeping with the better original stories and less ludicrous than the Shaman's Tears crossover. Grell is still a master storyteller and these give you bang for the buck, especially in collected form, where the story reads better.
Grell indulges in Hitchcock references, with the Maguffin and jewel theft, as with the first Maggie story. Jenks the Jinx, the paparazzi following Maggie, seems to be a nod to a 1915 silent short, The Jinx on Jenks, though I swear the name Jenks is used for a character in a detective or noir film, possibly Hitchcock or John Huston, though my search hasn't turned one up. Knowing Grell, it is a reference to an old film, though it might just be the 1915 short I mentioned.
Grell has Bashira state that her father was killed in Haditha. In 2005, during the Iraq War, US Marines killed 24 unarmed civilians, after a bomb blast. After news pieces accused the Marines of deliberately targeting civilians, an official investigation was opened and charges were brought against 8 Marines. 6 had the cases dropped and a 7th was found not guilty, SSgt Frank Wulterich was convicted of dereliction of duty, after murder and manslaughter charges were dropped. The verdict caused outrage among Iraqi civilians. Grell namedrops Blackwater Security, in reference to Scorpion Security, who were implicated in a massacre of 17 civilians and wounding 20 others. 4 "contractors" (mercenaries) were convicted, but later pardoned by Donald Trump. Professional military have a very low opinion of mercenaries, whatever they call themselves. Anyone for hire can be bought by the other side, if the price is right and they are not as beholding to the laws that govern the conduct of national armed services. We took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution; not loyalty to a commercial company and a salary and fringe benefits. Sable is a mercenary; but, even Grell seems to have little affinity to the type (he is a veteran of the USAF), even if he respects the professional skills. Jon emphasizes that he is "not for sale," and has turned on more than one employer who proved a villain, or left them to their just desserts.
This brings us right to the end, since there has been no more Jon Sable, for over a decade. Hollywood has sniffed around, again; but, I'm not holding my breath. It would be nice to see someone adapt it properly, as it is as cinematic as any comic and better than most that have been adapted. If Grell produces another Sable project (other than a reprint), I will return; but, for now, this appears to be the end of the hunt.
