A Long Time Ago, in an Alternate Universe...

Book: Superman: Red Son
Pen : Mark Millar
Pencil: Dave Johnson, Kilian Plunkett

You really cannot get better “What if…” stories than this one. Taking the definitive American icon and turning him into a Soviet citizen and watching how events unfold? That has to be one of the major achievements in comic book imagination. Thank goodness it was imagined by a very versatile non-American. Instead of having a jingoistic, “us good, them bad” feel, it turns out to be a sensitive, thought-provoking study of how the world would be in an alternate scenario.

Red Son begins in the early 1950s. Lois Lane is working at the Daily Planet, but she is married to a certain Lex Luthor, widely considered to be the smartest mind on Earth. Eisenhower is the president and he wakes America up to startling news, the Soviet Union had a new weapon, a superhuman with powers of strength, flight, heat vision and super-hearing. The Cold War decisively turns one-sided. Agent Olsen of the CIA approaches Luthor with a request to develop either a weapon to counter Superman or a Superman of their own. Meanwhile, in Moscow, all Superman wants to do is to help people, despite pretty much everyone pegging him to be Stalin’s successor.

Luthor spends years trying to thwart the threat of Superman, even taking a sabbatical from his marriage to do so. Stalin’s death, and a chance encounter with his childhood sweetheart, Lana Lazarenko, forces Superman to take charge of his country’s destiny. He brings peace, stability and prosperity. The causality was freedom. Superman was so sure of his ideals and principles and confident in his abilities that he didn’t want anyone thinking otherwise. A rebel who dressed up like a bat often caused chaos here and there, but not enough to change the order of things. Diana, the princess of Themyscira, joins hands with Superman. Soon all of the nations of the world, except two, joined the Warsaw Pact and became Superman’s allies. The two standing out were the United States of America and Chile. (Millar, you rascal!)

While Millar changes the circumstances drastically, one thing is constant: Superman. He still stands for good. He believes that by being the best he can, he is only serving humanity. But by ensuring peace he has taken away the freedom of choice. Superman is too good to be a downright evil dictator, but taken independently, his actions resemble one. That is the central premise and not once does Millar waver away from it. 

Luthor is far from a sympathetic figure. His obsession with bringing down Superman continues unabated and while it begins as a matter of national interest, it moves into personal vendetta. At the same time, if we were to independently look at his argument, Luthor comes across as someone who stands for freedom of choice. 

Once you get over the audaciousness of the setting you realize how intricately Millar has plotted his story. He asks as many questions of us as he answers. This is probably the most serious work Millar has attempted and it is also readable as hell. It is also a supergeek’s wet dream as familiar DC characters turn up in different avatars and homage is paid to famous covers by incorporating them in these panels, in a drastically different setting, including the famous shot from Action Comics No. 1. The artwork is also a throwback to an earlier era, while the color by Paul Mounts is a rare example of colouring making a comic book stand out, with its constant dull, reddish tint, that somehow feels so right.

Red Son is the best Elseworlds tale I have read. If there are any better, I would definitely buy them. Elseworlds has been rightly come under fire for releasing a lot of rubbish. Being different just for the sake of being different. This is the best advertisement for such a series. We need not be tied down by the rules of continuity, but the essence of what made these superheroes great can be taken to tell a rollicking tale with no boundaries.

The Hunt for the Perfect Comic Ends Here!

Book: Manhunter: The Special Edition
Pen: Archie Goodwin
Pencil: Walt Simonson

Sometimes, magic just happens. Because of, irrespective of, in spite of circumstances, magic happens. In comics it is very hard to come across such examples, even more so when the name Alan Moore is not connected with it. Manhunter: The Special Edition is magical.

Manhunter was a pretty obscure character that existed from the 1940s. He had many avatars and was always on the second rung, despite having a run by the one and only Jack Kirby. He still is. But in 1973, Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson joined together for a brief journey. A magical journey.

Paul Kirk, aka Manhunter from the ‘40s, suddenly shows up in Nepal. Nothing so unusual but for the fact that he had been dead for decades. Everything points to an imposter, but his fingerprints are the same and he looks exactly like how he looked 30 years before. Christine St Clair, an Interpol agent, is after him. She finds him and unravels a conspiracy that is way bigger than anything she had ever imagined. Involving the greatest minds of the world from the 1940s, a search for a peaceful world, the corruptibility of the human mind and the determination of one man to make a difference, the story unravels across countries with a breathless pace. It culminates in a shattering climax.

Manhunter came out in an eight-page format. It was an additional story in the main Detective Comics issue which featured Batman and other higher-rated heroes; an extra. This Manhunter ran for seven issues, out of which six were only eight pages long! Eight pages to make an impact each time. And twice for these eight pages they won awards for best story. Goes to show size doesn’t matter for magic! For the last issue, they decided to include Batman in the storyline and suddenly they were the main event. 

The eight-page format meant you had to find a fine balance between story and visuals that would prevent either from overcrowding the other. Enough things should happen to give a structure to the story, but not so much that it seemed like cramming. The initial storyline – The Himalayan Incident – is startling in its economy, but extremely effective in introducing the character. Cathedral Perilous, my personal favourite, has a fabulous set up. A tourist family turns up at an old cathedral. They walk around taking photographs, while the youngest son is the one witnessing incredible things happening. Of course he is not even able to tell that to his parents. And when he ends up saving someone, he realizes the dream of every comic fan of playing a part in their favourite comic.

The story of Manhunter is not extraordinary. It does not introduce any ground-breaking theory or have a humdinger of a plot with unexpected twists aplenty. It also does not introduce any new style of drawing. But what it does is takes itself and its reader seriously, while accepting it is about a comic book character. In very few pages it manages to tell a complete story that is large in its scope, intimate in its characterization and flawless in its construction. You cannot wait to turn the page, but also do not want to rush yourself. 

The Special Edition has an added story that is amazing in that it never feels like an add-on. For the 25th Anniversary edition the collaborators were asked to write another short story. While initially skeptical, they both arrived at how they would approach it. In between Archie Goodwin died. Walt Simonson made it the ultimate tribute to his friend by making it a silent comic, without any dialogue. What could have been a tacky and commercial venture instead became a poignant and poetic epilogue to a fully-realised epic. In short, it remained magic.

A Tale of Two Arrows

Book: Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters
Pen: Mike Grell
Pencil: Mike Grell

Green Arrow can easily, and to an extent, correctly, be described as the poor man’s Batman. Billionaire, playboy, vigilante without superpowers, young kid’s guardian, who later became a sidekick, the whole shebang.  It all changed when the billionaire became a leftist. Suddenly he became more interesting. A seemingly ridiculous combination with Green Lantern seems to have been a huge success with the writers being able to tackle real world concerns within the framework of comics.

The real, gritty re-imagining happened with this book. Mike Grell was asked to write and draw a three-issue storyline. Grell did that, and stayed on. He decided that the flashiness and the trick arrows of old had to go. He didn’t try to get rid of the Robin Hood inspiration, but instead just let Arrow be an admirer of Robin Hood. The action was shifted from the fictional Star City to Seattle, where Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow has moved to with his girlfriend Dinah Lance, who also moonlighted as the crime-fighter Black Canary. 

In Seattle, two sets of serial killings were making headlines. Prostitutes were being slashed by someone with a very sharp knife, and senior citizens were being bumped off by someone with very sharp arrows. Meanwhile, a cracked-up junkie lands on their porch.

Dinah decided to go and find the source of the drugs, while Oliver decided to work on relaxing the fingers by going after the local hoods. He soon finds who the slasher is, but comes out badly in the encounter. The next girl is about to be killed and Oliver is late on the scene. But then a mysterious arrow kills the man. The archer turns out to be a masked female. Before introductions are made, she turns around and shoots another geriatric.

The Longbow Hunters is a major milestone in Green Arrow’s journey. Yet you feel it should have been much more. It touches all the right chords, keeps itself rooted in reality, connects to the then-recent political events and has a good structure. But somehow it seems to be missing something. Maybe the story should have been a little longer. You need to read it two or three times to get a hang of what happened. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, here it feels abrupt. The artwork is efficient, without being overly pretty, but then this is not a pretty story. 

The writing, unfortunately, does not rise above the average. The Green Arrow is famous for having a at least four quips for every situation. Here there is nothing that stands out. The same person performing both writing and drawing duties meant there wouldn't be any conflict of visions. At the same time, a different collaborator might have brought something different to the table. The Longbow Hunters seem like a project that had so much promise, but delivered less. Maybe I am wrong. The Longbow Hunters might have been a milestone comic that was ahead of its time. It just hasn't aged well. 

Making the Best there is, the Best there is

Book: Wolverine
Pen: Chris Claremont
Pencil: Frank Miller

I’m Wolverine. I’m the best there is at what I do. But what I do best isn’t very nice.

Of course you have read it before. Even heard it in the movies. But imagine you haven’t. You can imagine. You are a comic book lover, after all. Imagine opening a comic book about a second-rung character who never had a solo series. These are the first lines in the book. Suddenly you get a chill. Am I about to read something spectacular? Is this the kind of book every comic lover dearly loves to discover? A bolt from the blue. A masterpiece without an advance warning. An hour later you put it down. The naked awe on your face says it all.

Wolverine was a popular side character. His propensity to use extreme force at the slightest provocation (or not) was his biggest draw. He was a pint-sized bunch of dynamite, probably as tall as Hugh Jackman’s third rib. After all, the animal he was based on was very small and very dangerous. But this violent streak also made him a pretty one-dimensional character.  Not too many writers found him that interesting beyond a point.

It was under such circumstances when comic legend Chris Claremont joined hands with a young artist called Frank Miller to bring out a four-issue miniseries. Yes, that Frank Miller. And no, I didn’t get the names interchanged. Before attaining superhero status himself and rising to (IMHO) the second position on the list of great comic writers, Miller made a name as an artist. 

Claremont and Miller did the unthinkable. They took the action to Japan. To take a hot-blooded American superhero to space was fine, but outside the US, only sporadic visits were allowed. Technically, Wolverine is Canadian, but you know how so many Americans think it is the 51st state! But to have a complete story set in another country was just not done. But the co-conspirators had no choice. They were going to treat Wolverine as a ronin, a fallen samurai. And Japan had to be the scene.

Beginning with a primeval encounter with a man-eating bear in the mountains, Wolverine travels to Japan to be with his beloved Mariko Yashida who had run away without an explanation. There he finds that Mariko was forced by her father to marry another man. Wolverine was bested in a duel by Shingen, Yashida’s father, and left for dead. He is saved by Yukio, a mysterious girl highy skilled in the art of warfare. Wolverine and Yukio join hands to escape the group of assassins known as the Hand. Together they find ways to save Mariko from her fate. 

Wolverine is an adventure story. It is also a love story. Taking the familiar trappings of a man in search of his woman, Claremont and Miller transport it to another land and culture. With minimum fuss they tell a story and they are done with it. But they do it with such precision that you are not left wondering if anyone could have done it better. You know no one could have. 

Claremont would go on to become one of the most prolific writers of Wolverine, but these four issues are probably the best he has conjured up. Miller is prodigiously, no, ridiculously talented. I usually leave discussions on artworks to the experts, but one thing that is stunning about this book is how well it holds up against the ravages of time. You do not feel that it is from a period where most of the artwork today seems silly and dated. There is a sense of motion in each page and the action is choreographed in the truest sense of the word.

The graphic novel should have stopped at four issues. Instead it adds an additional two issues from The Uncanny X-Men to it. This is a continuation of the story with a different artist, but ends on a cliff-hanger. It may work as an extra, but to club it with the Wolverine miniseries is to dilute its effect. But that’s me nitpicking. Wolverine is a game-changer. This is one of those stories that will stand the test of time. A perfect alchemy of a great writer and an amazing artist.

The Ultimates Rock. 'Nuff Said!

Title: The Ultimates 2 – Vol 2: Grand Theft America
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch

Hawkeye!

If you want to take out one defining image from Grand Theft America, then it is Hawkeye. A minor character who is always almost a sidekick to the gods and monsters and superhumans in the Ultimates, an interrogation scene in this book shows us Hawkeye like we have never seen him before. He is a human without any steroid-enhancements or explosion-exposures. Just a dude with a particular set of skills. And what skills! If you henceforth cringe at any comic or movie where Hawkeye is part of the scenery, then this book is responsible.

Let’s go back to the beginning. The Middle-Eastern interference in Gods and Monsters caused a lot of after effects. One of it was a young boy who hated Captain America for what he considered an unprovoked attack on him and his country. The boy would become the trump card in Loki’s grand scheme. 

Hawkeye’s family gets attacked and there are no remains of anyone. SHIELD checks the secret cameras and discovers, to their horror, who the traitor is. The shattered team has no time to regroup when Loki makes his move. This is the stuff of their worst nightmares and America is going down. With five of their original team either incarcerated, or disgraced or a traitor, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have a lot to do, especially during the battles. But the battle is never truly over unless it is over.

Millar’s liberal politics play a big part in the plot. And it is actually kind of reassuring to see America pay for their foreign policy decisions! In the end, however, this is an American mainstream comic that would be read mainly by Americans, so the fault cannot be theirs alone. Still, one has to admire the guts and gumption Millar, during his peak, brought to what should have been all-out superhero story. 

Bryan Hitch’s art is top-notch throughout. It is very evident why he is such a sought-after artist. The writer and artist tango like rarely done before to create a high quality product that will ensure the one thing you do after completing the book is to start again. Be glad you live in a time when Millar and Hitch’s Ultimates run is over. It means you have the opportunity to read the whole story at one go. I honestly cannot think of waiting months for the next issue.

Grand Theft America is a fabulous climax to The Ultimates saga. It is the single biggest reason to acknowledge that the Ultimate line that Marvel created was not just a gimmick. This is what superhero comics should aspire to. Oftentimes, in the midst of all the pontification and pondering and psychoanalysis, the casualty is fun. Millar and Hitch’s run on The Ultimates never lets that happen.

At the end, though, Grand Theft America still can be encapsulated in one word.

Hawkeye!

Thundering Typhoons! It's Hammering Time!

Book: The Ultimates 2 – Vol 1: Gods and Monsters
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch

The Mighty Thor has his day, and more, in Gods and Monsters. All over The Ultimates, Millar has been teasing us how not everyone was buying the whole ‘Thor is a god from Asgard’ line and people still believed he was just a crackpot with his heart in the right place. It is time to settle that.

The American government, as it usually did, decided to interfere in the affairs of a Middle Eastern country. The supposedly global peace-keeping force – the Ultimates – were sent to sort it out. They did. But Thor dissented and pulled out of the team-up. Before you could say “Ultimates Disassemble” the secret about Hulk is leaked out. The public screams for blood and Fury is only too eager to give them a scapegoat. Despite a blind lawyer, one Matt Murdock, defending him, the jury already made up their minds and it is time for one of the most shattering decisions in comics. 

While SHIELD was trying to move into damage control mode they received a call from the European Defense Initiative, the guys who created Captains Britain, France, Spain and Italy! They also meet Gunnar Golmen who was heading the Norwegian group and the secret of Thor comes out.  It is time to take the so-called God of Thunder down.

On another note, after his loss of face, Hank Pym is not allowed anywhere near the Ultimates. He goes and joins another superhero team up called the Defenders, which doesn’t exactly end well. But then he learns the truth that is going to be the pivot of the Ultimates 2 storyline. There is a traitor in the ranks. 

If you are going to have Thor in the limelight, then you should have his main adversary, too.  Loki makes his entrance briefly, but you know he has big plans. Gods and Monsters sets up everything for a grand finale, but that is not to say that it is not capable of standing on its own. With, not one, but two catastrophic events, this is an action-packed edition leaving hardly any time to breathe. At the same time, the constant cut to how the world reacts is how Millar grounds his comic.

The four editions of The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2 can be compared to a relay. Gods and Monsters is the under-appreciated third-leg. As any coach would tell you if your third man is not solid, you would be leaving the impossible for the anchor. Gods and Monsters is solid. The Ultimates are shown at their most vulnerable.  An opponent smart enough can dismantle them brutally. And they have such an opponent. Doubts are slowly being raised about the position the Ultimates hold, who they report to and when they should stop. We know a storm is coming. And we can’t wait.

Planet's Secure, Pass the Popcorn!

Book: The Ultimates – Vol 2: Homeland Security
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch

The origin story is over. We had intros, adjustment issues, management lessons on teamwork, a threat to a big city, an almost happy ending and an unexpected cliffhanger. Now comes the part where we wrap up Season 1. If the first volume of The Ultimates gave an idea which book vaguely inspired The Avengers movie, then The Ultimates Vol 1 – Homeland Security will almost have you calling Joss Whedon a plagiarist! Relax, folks, it’s all in the family!

Super-Human ended with a freak attack, the true story of which never reached the common man. As a result, the Ultimates suddenly became heroes. While New York was grieving for its dead, the Ultimates suddenly had to deal with a rogue element within the team. As I said before, The Ultimates showed Captain America in a new, exciting light. In this volume he has a bigger role and you see how a man who believes in simple things like right and wrong goes about his business. The values he stood for should seem silly and out-of-place in these times. Yet you root for him. It doesn’t hurt that Millar saves some of the best one-liners he has ever written for Captain America.

The second volume brings to the fore two major characters – Hawkeye and Black Widow – and introduces two minor, seemingly useless members – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch – to the team. In the first mission starring Hawkeye aka Clint Barton and Widow aka Natasha Romanoff, we are introduced to the major villains – the Chitauri. Since we have established that the Ultimates are pretty out-of-this-world, it is only natural that the villains are aliens. Their agenda cupboard may be pretty threadbare, but it certainly needs all the Ultimates to band together to stop them.

The most striking thing about Homeland Security is the way action sequences are captured. Rarely has action seemed so fluid. It is almost like the pictures are moving. I don’t mean there are many panels of the same scene with minute differences. But it is evident that a lot of thought went into these. Millar, as he always does, wisely lets the artist come up front and centre during the violence and mayhem.

A horny Hulk is both hilarious and scary. That was one of the revelations of the first volume and it continues here. Hulk’s personality may suffer a bit here as he is not shown as anything but a big, stupid brute who comes across as being unintentionally funny. But there is lot of sympathy for Banner. Iron Man in the comics is definitely not as prominent as Robert Downey Jr in Avengers. But he does have his moments. Thor continues to be a bit of mystery with his eco-warrior avatar while being an ex-nurse who had spent time in a lunatic asylum. This would have been a good sub-plot were it not for the fact that Thor has publically saved a lot of people, so the fact that he has a lot of powers should not be a matter of question at all.

Homeland Security may not have the deafening impact of Super-Human. But it is a very solid conclusion to the Ultimates saga. We are left with a Samuel L Jacksonesque smirk feeling very satisfied with the read. That is something we cannot say about a lot of comics. I heartily recommend both volumes of The Ultimates. Just don’t expect me to lend them to you!

Houston, We Have a Solution!

Book: The Ultimates – Vol 1: Super-Human
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Bryan Hitch

At the turn of the millennium Marvel comics was coming out of a tough phase where it had filed for bankruptcy. They made a decision to ‘go Hollywood’ with their main titles. The term didn’t stand for adapting their comics into movies, but changing the comics in a way that they appealed directly to most of new generation, not just the few that read comics. Like Hollywood, they decided the only people that mattered were the 18-to-25-years age-set and the comics were to reflect that.

Enter the Ultimate Marvel imprint. By basing their comics in another one of the infinite alternate universes in the Marvel Multiverse.(Essentially, a lazy excuse to churn out stories that did not fit into the continuity of the characters.A devise like ‘warp speed’ in sci fi!) All the major characters – Spider-man, X-Men, Fantastic Four – underwent the Ultimate treatment, which meant that almost all the characters became of high school age! When it came to the Avengers they realized they couldn’t just reduce the ages. A more thorough re-imagining was necessary. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were the people in charge and they were also asked to rename the Avengers as the Ultimates.

Nick Fury, the eye-patch-wearing boss of SHIELD, decided to get a team of highly capable individuals together in order to deal with threats that could not be handled by the military alone. He gets Dr Bruce Banner, who was holed up in a dingy research facility trying to recreate the super soldier serum that was responsible for turning puny Steve Rogers into Captain America almost 60 years ago. Also joining were Dr Hank Pym, who was researching how he could change size into a 60-feet giant, called Giant-Man, and also how he could control ants.His wife Jan, aka the Wasp, could size-shift into the size of a wasp. (Don’t you like it when the superhero names are accurate to the point!)

Fury was thrilled, but suspicious, when billionaire inventor Tony Stark decided to join in along with his entire Iron Man tech. He also tried to recruit a charismatic hippie eco-messiah called Thor who was leading a bunch of activists against consumerism and capitalism. Thor was widely known to be an ex-nurse who had spent time in a lunatic asylum. But he was also known to possess some powers. Unfortunately, Thor had no intention in joining up, definitely not when America still had a president called George W Bush! And then, they suddenly fish someone up from the Atlantic Ocean!

The Ultimates is extremely fast-paced. It also explores real-world issues, and also very convincingly. Captain America was always supposed to be a fish out of water, having woken up decades later. But few comics have explored that theme with such pathos. The characters are well-rounded, not just Nick Fury, who was actually modeled after Samuel L Jackson, with his permission. And this was before the movies. 

It is a thrill-a-minute ride that leaves you stunned with its audaciousness. Millar reinvents the classic characters, in imaginative ways, but at no time does it seem forced. While remaining true to the spirit of the Avengers, the Ultimates end up being different. Complementing the story is the incredibly detailed art of Bryan Hitch. You end up staring for minutes at each single panel, even if you are artistically challenged like yours truly! 

Of all my comics, The Ultimates is the one I have read most times. It is likely to continue being so. This is what superhero comics should be. Incredible situations, crackling wit, memorable characters, just enough gratuitousness, and, above all, lots of fun. In that way, this is a comic that is worthy of its name.

Iron Man is Invincible, the Story not so Much

Book: Iron Man: Extremis
Pen: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Adi Granov

We have all heard about how Marvel took a bet on a second-string superhero and made a movie that set them on the path to recovery from bankruptcy and established them as a major player in Hollywood.  Well, everyone has seen the Iron Man movies, but few knew him before he became Robert Downey Jr. (No, I didn't mean to write “before Robert Downey Jr. became Iron Man”.) In comics, Iron Man is a major player in the Avengers, but his own comics are known only to ardent fans.

In 2005 Warren Ellis (he who brought us Transmetropolitan) sat down with artist Adi Granov for a small six-issue limited series. In the early comics, before the whole “I am Iron Man” declaration, Iron Man was not known as a superhero with a secret identity, but rather a suit wore by an employee of Tony Stark. 

In such a scenario Tony Stark gets a call from an old friend Maya Hansen. Maya’s boss at Futurepharm Coorporation, Dr Killian, commits suicide leaving a suicide note in which he takes responsibility for the loss of the Extremis serum that the company was developing. Extremis turns out to be another copycat of the Super-soldier serum that created Captain America. It is now in the hands of a man named Mallen who is wreaking havoc and proving unstoppable.

Iron Man tries to stop Mallen, but is unable to do so and is seriously injured. He gets back to Maya and they embark on a dangerous experiment in an attempt to stop Mallen. Will he be successful? Clue: Have you heard of a super-anything called Mallen? 

Extremis was actually the first Iron Man comic that I read. Afterwards, I found that it is one of the most popular and famous standalone Iron Man titles. That is a dampener, because, you see, Extremis is not very good. There is a plot that is worthy of development and the decision to stick to just six issues is admirable, but it feels like a patch-up job. 

Part of the blame should lie with the artist. Remember the initial days of motion capture in animated cinema where the faces were wooden and eyes were scary? Well, Adi Granov’s art is a bit like that. It is moved away from the kitschy comic style, but has not reached the stylized photo realist style. I am the first to admit my knowledge of art is zilch. But as a common reader, I think it neither felt neither realistic nor stylistic.

Ellis also has to shoulder some blame for not developing either Mallen or Iron Man. There is an obligatory reference to Iron Man’s origins, a part philosophical part political rambling with Stark and Maya’s guru, a bit of contrived introspection by Stark, all of which could have been avoided. While there are enough action sequences, there is not much happening plot-wise. A good editor could have condensed the whole story into one issue and made it more interesting.

What was supposed to be a definitive milestone in Iron Man’s continuity instead reads like a manufactured event.  Which is sad because Extremis was a premise with potential. Unfortunately, like the movie that took its theme, Extremis remains half-baked.

Those Magnificent Druids and their Golden Sickles

Book: Asterix and the Golden Sickle
Pen: René Goscinny 
Pencils: Albert Uderzo

Once the introductions were over Goscinny and Uderzo decided to get into the serious business of going on adventures out of home turf. This time it is not too far, but to Lutetia, the town which would, one day, become Paris.

Opening with the trademark peaceful village scene, we are rudely jolted by a string of obscenities. The kind that are best explained using symbols! Getafix the druid has broken his golden sickle. Mistletoe, a major ingredient in his magic potion, has to be cut with a golden sickle or else it wouldn't retain any magic qualities. The best golden sickles were made in Lutetia by the sicklesmith Metallurgix, who just happens to be a distant cousin of Obelix. The two friend decide to undertake the perilous journey across Gaul and get their druid a golden sickle.

Once they reach Lutetia they find that Metallurgix has disappeared and some Romans are running the sickle business. Suspecting something fishy, Asterix and Obelix search for Metallurgix. A bunch of shady characters led by the middleman Clovogarlix and shady Navishtrix. They are repeatedly captured by Roman patrols but are released by the bored Roman prefect Surplus Dairyprodus. Finally they find Metallurgix and Getafix gets his sickle. Obelix shares equal footing with Asterix in this adventure.  

It is the first view of Lutetia and the town is showed as a crowded and dangerous town, but with its attractions. Also appearing for the first time in Asterix adventures is a version of the famous “These Romans are crazy” phrase, though it is not uttered by Obelix.  

Tackling slightly non-childish themes like forced imprisonment and trading monopoly, Asterix and the Golden Sickle takes the heroes out of their comfort zone and forces them to use their cunning as well as strength. It is a precursor to adventures to further lands and firmly establishes that the books would work best if Asterix and Obelix were both front and centre.

Best names: Surplus Dairyprodus

The Saga Begins...

Book: Asterix the Gaul
Pen: René Goscinny 
Pencils: Albert Uderzo

It was the late 1970s. I was living with the parents in a small town in Nigeria. I was being home-schooled as the only school in the vicinity was one where kids took brooms to and spent the day cleaning up. We had a Peugeot 404 (CR 1215 CA, I still remember the license plate!) And every weekend my folks would drive me 30 km to the nearest town with a small children’s library. There I discovered Asterix.

Asterix comics take place in the year 50 BC. Julius Caesar has conquered all of Gaul, an area encompassing most of modern day France, parts of Belgium and Luxemburg and bits of other countries. All, that is, except one unnamed seaside village that houses a group of indomitable Gauls who value their freedom and bow before no man. They are led by their chief Vitalstatistix and have only one fear – that of the sky falling on their heads.

Their best warrior and the hero of these adventures is Asterix, brave, sensible, loyal, and slightly on the shorter side. His best friend is Obelix, a large and large-hearted man whose occupation is the manufacture and sale of menhirs – large, upright standing stones. Obelix’s eco-conscious dog is Dogmatix. These Gauls repel any Roman attack with the help of a potion brewed by their druid, Getafix, which gives them superhuman strength. Other characters include Cacofonix the bard, who is never allowed to sing,  by Fulliautomatix, the blacksmith, who is constantly in argument about the quality of fish provided by the monger, Unhygienix.

At six one is way too young to bother about continuity and reading order. I have no idea which was the first Asterix I read. So the reviews will go in order. Asterix the Gaul introduced us to this ragtag bunch. Uderzo had just started on the drawings that would forever define him and Obelix is not very well-defined.  The story is, thankfully, less about origins and more of introductions. We meet the characters and find out how they get their powers. The Romans want to find the secret and send a spy, Caligula Minus, who disguises himself as a Gaul called Caliguliminix and infiltrates the village. He soon learns the secret, but is also outed. The Romans kidnap Getafix, Asterix comes to his rescue and a fake potion is made that hastens hair growth. Cue lots of jokes about hair.

Originally, Asterix was supposed to be the sole hero in all these adventures, which meant a lesser role for Obelix. The creators rein in their imagination and give us a small story that introduces some of the characters and brings out the feel of how the future will be. Even Julius Caesar makes a cameo. You know that something special is in front of you and you will want to continue on the journey.

For English-language readers an almost equal partner in the Goscinny-Uderzo partnership is Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, the duo who translated the books into English. Some of the puns are so language-specific that you instantly realize that it is all the translators’ minds at work. Lesser translators could have easily ruined the legacy. Bell and Hockridge make us love it. 

It takes a very brave (I’d say, foolish) person to shrug and walk away after reading Asterix the Gaul. For a lifetime, I’ve been glad I was not that person. By Toutatis, I’m glad! Over to you, folks.

Best names: Crismus Bonus, Marcus Ginantonicus.

Panels and Balloons

The guys above, they convinced me to read. Not read comic books. Read. Yes, that is the enormity of my debt towards them. They changed my life. Absolutely for the better.

Almost two decades later I find myself in Journalism school. Asked to write about the book that inspired me to write, I wrote a piece on Asterix. They reacted just like the Establishment would. I was kinda hoping they would!

Anyway, few more years passed. I got into a decently-paying non-journalism job. Filled up my house with secondhand fiction. Was generally pleased with my lot in life. Then one day my wife - who was a journalist - introduced me to a big shot in a publishing and distribution company. They dealt with DC and Marvel. And they gave me graphic novels at a discount that I could never get from any shop - concrete or online. My life changed again.

I have resisted the temptation to calculate what the damage to our life's savings is with all the graphics I have bought. Wife doesn't mind because she knows at any point if I sell them, I will get more than I paid for!

This is my bit about comics. Please do check it out if you are interested in them. And feel free to disagree. 

Oh, about the name, neverdespairneversurrender was taken. And I was in a Rorschach mood. So there!