Book: The Black Casebook
Pen: Bill Finger and others
Pencil: Sheldon Moldoff and others
Grant Morrison is not for everyone. He is incredibly talented but tends to go off-kilter when you least expect it. His seven-year run on Batman was much awaited, acclaimed and yet, alienating. He took a series that was rooted in realism, for the most part, and then added a dose of surrealism. He brought in strange characters that seemed like Easter Eggs, but turned out to be major players. For anyone who was not sleeping in the DC Comics archives, it was extremely annoying to not know where the story was going. Then there is The Black Casebook.
This is usually cited as a good-to-read-but-not-essential book in the Morrison series. Mostly because the stories are terribly dated and also because it was not written by Morrison himself. How terribly wrong. As someone who finished all the TPBs and then read Casebook, I can promise you that your appreciation of Morrison will be so much diminished without sampling this book first.
Morrison decided to take a lot of bit players from forgotten Batman stories and put them in his magnum opus. I am not sure it completely worked, but the ambition is staggering. It is very similar to what Alan Moore would do, and there is no doubt that Morrison was influenced. But then not everyone is in Moore’s league.
These are 12 of the most forgettable, outlandish and downright silly stories from the 50s and 60s. But in every one of them is something – mostly a character, sometimes a reference – that Morrison would re-introduce. Running 10 or 12 pages each, the story is not very long, but for readers used to Miller and Morrison and Snyder, this is extremely difficult to read with a straight face.
We are introduced to John Mayhew and the Club of Heroes, Zur-En-Arrh, Bat-Mite, Chief Man-of-the-Bat and Little Raven, among others. Morrison’s introduction is probably the best thing you need before reading Casebook. Whether this will turn out to be gimmicks of a less-talented writer or a complete re-telling of the Batman mythos by a genius who takes the most uncommon risks is something for each of the readers to figure out.
Exactly three years to the date since I announced that I would be reviewing all of Morrison’s TPBs, I finally get around to it! Operation Baldie? What was I thinking?
Book: The Man Without Fear
Pen: Frank Miller
Pencil: John Romita Jr.
Daredevil is a hokey character. We can easily believe a man can fly, or travel across realms with a really heavy hammer. We love the boy who got bit by a radioactive spider and can scale walls. But one who loses his sight in an accident (involving a truck carrying radioactive waste) and then has all other senses heightened to the power of d? So much so that he can run across rooftops? Nah, that’s just too silly!
It was left to the great Frank Miller to change things. Once-great, I should say. Frank has become a raving, right-wing lunatic these days. But, I digress. Miller began as an artist on Daredevil and then took over writing duties. He transformed Kingpin from one of Spiderman’s lesser villains to an immovable force in the Marvel Universe. He created Electra, possibly our favourite assassin in comics. And, along the way, he breathed life into Daredevil. A life rooted in gritty reality.
The Man Without Fear was his last outing with good old Red. Intending it to be one-off story that even people who had never read Daredevil could enjoy, Miller begins with Matt Murdock’s childhood. A mischievous kid always getting into trouble, but rarely getting caught. The beginnings of the legend were there including the taunting nickname his friends gave him – Daredevil.
The accident happens and then it is the introduction of Stick, the mysterious mentor. The exhilaration of finding out new skills is suddenly tempered by tragedy. Enter Matt the avenger. The brutality within him soon overcomes that around him.
Matt is in college and he becomes aware of Elektra. Rarely has a name suited a character more. The two are so perfect for each other that it isn’t a surprise that it ends just as abruptly as it started. Matt is alone again, except for his pal Foggy Nelson.
Adult Matt is a lawyer. New York calls. And it is home. The Kingpin is the monarch of all he surveys. And their paths cross. It’s not pretty. Blood is spilt. Bones are broken. Limits are crossed. But out of the shambles something arises. Daredevil.
The Man Without Fear is not the best Miller has written. But second-best Miller is still better than the best of 99% of other writers. Make no mistake, this is a very taut story. The artwork is splendid, and Miller’s sparse dialogues fit the character to a T. The last chapter is entirely action. And it is breath-taking.
My problem is clearly mentioned in the foreword. Frank Miller planned this as a 64-page standalone story. But the suits loved it so much they asked him to expand it to 144 pages. And that rarely ends well. The whole Electra section running to around 40 pages feels superfluous to the larger story. Of course, it is important to Matt, but not in the context of this story.
Still, there is no way this book is not a must-have. It reinforces that we comic book lovers were lucky to have experienced the talent of a man called Frank Miller. And a character like Daredevil doesn’t need to be hokey.
Some times one has to think big. And not worry about consequences. Just be ambitious and see where that takes us. My big project will start shortly. I am going to review Grant Morrison's seven-year-old run on Batman, one trade paperback at a time. Obviously I am neither rich enough nor geek enough to go issue by issue, I will review the paperbacks. We will begin our ride with Batman and Son and end with Batman Incorporated. There will a a little space to some of the tie-ins also.
I hope I will be able to complete this. Hell, if he could write seven years worth, I guess should be able to review them in seven weeks, right? I definitely don't intend to take that long, but let's see where it goes.
The entire exercise is code-named Operation Baldie. Because, you know, just because!
Book: Nimona
Pen: Noelle Stevenson
Pencil: Noelle Stevenson
The Internet is a great leveller of playing fields. Traditional challenges in a lot of fields no longer seem so, and opportunities that were open to a lucky few suddenly are available to many more. The Internet brought forth the concept of web comics. Suddenly, a lot of hidden writers and artists had an avenue before them, a chance to reach the masses. The Internet brought a talent like Noelle Stevenson to the fore. The Internet also made it possible for someone like me, half a world away, to read her work.
Nimona is set in a strange world that exists only in the most fertile of imaginations. A world where knights joust with lances, and the same lances can be weaponised with death rays and mini bombs. A world where a King rules, but the King is ruled by a Director. Of an institution called Institution! A world where there are dragons, but also science labs with self-destruct options.
In this world were two promising knights called Ambrosius Goldenloin and Ballister Blackheart. Once, they were asked to compete against each other. Blackheart won, but Goldenloin accidentally activated his lance and vaporised Ballister’s right hand. A knight without a hand is not a knight at all (please do not bring Jamie Lannister into this!). Goldenloin became the hero of the kingdom, while Blackheart took the next available position – the villain. But he was a villain with rules. He wouldn’t kill anyone, and he would always lose.
Into this status quo arrives Nimona, a young girl. She is a shape-shifter, and her abilities convinced Blackheart to take her on as his sidekick. Nimona has her qualities, but restraint is not one of them. Slowly, the villains start taking the upper hand, but it comes at the cost of the rules being broken. The tango being disrupted, things spiral out of control. But is Nimona, and by extension, her boss, really that bad? Or is there more to the hero-villain thing that we are allowed to know?
Nimona is a fantasy. No, it’s sci-fi. Definitely humour. Wait, isn’t it a father-daughter kind of drama? Or is it about the depression caused by suppression and oppression? That’s the beauty of Nimona. It cannot be pigeon-holed. In the story, Nimona claims to be a shape-shifter. I would say she is a shifter. Period. Because she changed things for those around her in more ways than one. She also changed them. Likewise, Nimona straddles genres effortlessly. But because this is not done intentionally, there is never a moment when one thinks it is a gimmick.
The artwork is special because it is simple. The background is not too detailed as the aim is to keep the main characters up front and centre. The colours are muted, yet bright (now, how does she do that?). For me, though, the art is a carrier for the creator’s abundant imagination. And in the end it is about telling a story. With words and pictures.
The Internet may have given Noelle the opportunity that she may not have gotten otherwise. But her talent is one that will stand out. This is such an assured debut that one would not believe that it didn't come from the mind of a veteran. Well, maybe it is not that surprising. It is very unlikely that an experienced hand would let her flights of fancy take her places; without following established guidelines. For Nimona to be impulsive and unencumbered like Nimona, it needed someone from outside. One just hopes the sense of spontaneity does not diminish as Noelle Stevenson goes further in the comic world.
Book: The Secret Service
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: Dave Gibbons
There must be something called a “mogul complex”. There must be. What possesses men and women who take part in a successful collective effort to suddenly believe they can do everything on their own. Movie producers want to own studios; one-hit wonders start their own their own labels; corner shop owners dream of having their own chains. Highly talented and successful comic book writer Mark Millar wanted to be one and Millarworld was born.
Though started as a line to produce creator-owned comics that were an equal collaboration between him and various artists, the success of the movie version of Wanted made him dream bigger. Suddenly his comics became mere vehicles to a movie adaptation. The biggest causality, as expected, was creativity. The Secret Service is just that. A movie pitch with illustrations. Guess what, it is already being made into a movie.
Gary is your standard-issue teenager. High school dropout with all the wrong habits, living with his mum and her abusive boyfriend; without a light at the end of the tunnel. Except that Gary has an uncle who, while not being around, still has the pull to get him out of jail. The uncle – Jack London – turns out to be a secret agent working for Her Majesty’s government. Jack sees a lot of potential in his nephew and decides to groom him to be an agent. Just like that.
Then we have another world-domination scheme thought out by a rich nerd that involves killing off 80% of the population. Why no one thinks of the stink caused by all those decaying dead bodies is beyond me. Anyway, Gary uses his innate street smartness to foil all dastardly plans and, along the way, take care of things at home and impress his uncle.
The Secret Service does have a few Millar flourishes, but they are very few. The trademark over-the-top violence seems terribly forced and the story never moves beyond juvenile. Watchmen legend Dave Gibbons draws, and there isn't a wasted line anywhere. Unfortunately, his faces are not very impressive here. The idea is to make Jack and Gary look similar, the effect is Gary doesn't look a day younger than 40.
The director Matthew Vaughn is credited as being the co-plotter. He is also the one who is going to direct the upcoming movie. Read what you will into that. But it is a fact that The Secret Service, the book, never feels like it is anything other than an intro to the movie. As a result, if judged on its own terms, the book is thoroughly dispensable.
Book: Kick-Ass 2
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: John Romita Jr.
Oh, Mark Millar, what have you done!
Kick-Ass 2 is everything the original was not and nothing what its predecessor was. Here’s a sequel that was begging not to be told, but Millar and Romita went and told it anyway. We are poorer for it.
Once superheros had their origins, the next logical step is superhero team ups. Fair enough. Our buddy Dave Lizewski aka Kick-Ass and the pint-sized dynamo Hit-Girl (Mindy McCready) decide to take their partnership seriously and were practicing their moves. Mindy’s stepfather, Marcus, asked her to give up her alter ego for good. Kick-Ass decides to join a group of other costumed ordinary-heroes in a group called Justice Forever, led by former Mafia henchman-turned-born-again-Christian Colonel Stars. They may be a little too violent, but their hearts are in the right place.
Well, you can’t just do good, can you? Our former pretender Red Mist turns up with a new name and wreaks havoc including a beheading, a rape, a prison assassination and assorted murders. Kick-Ass gives it all up, but the villains didn’t get together for fun. But their latest salvo unleashes the Hulk, sorry, Hit-Girl. The body count races up and we soon have a bloody battle in Times Square.
Kick-Ass was gutsy. Kick-Ass 2 just has a lot more guts spewed around. It takes violence to a silly level, even by Millar’s standards. What is worse is it is lifeless. Deaths and rapes mean nothing in the context of what’s happening. Millar and Romita are playing ‘who can shock you more’ and they forget that they don’t have a good story to back them up.
There are a few money shots, mostly involving Hit-Girl, and a few jokes, mostly about a shark in a tank. But when the violence is so mind-numbing you don’t stop to think. You know there’s something wrong about a short series if the biggest plus you can take from it is that it ran for only seven issues.
Book: Kick-Ass
Pen: Mark Millar
Pencil: John Romita Jr.
“I always wonder why nobody did it before me.” Thus starts the first issue of Kick-Ass. It is the hero narrating, asking why no other ordinary Joe thought of putting on a suit and becoming a superhero. It could just as well be me or you asking why no one wrote a comic about an ordinary Joe putting on a suit and becoming a superhero. There must have been some stray comics that explored the idea. But it is safe to say that none did it with such sledgehammer effect as Kick-Ass.
Dave Lizewski was a nobody. Just another schoolboy with glasses, who loved comics and Ryan Reynolds’ movies, who had raging hormones, who harboured crushes on both his biology teacher and his classmate Katie Deauxma. Just another ordinary Joe. Dave also fantasized about being a superhero. Just like the rest of us. Thing is, unlike us, he decided to do something about it. He stitched a green suit, put it on and patrolled the streets at night. He got into an argument with some graffiti artists and got his ass kicked. Badly.
The beating left him immobile for months. Broken bones, even in his skull, meant the doctors had to insert metal plates and screws just to hold him together. Dave promised himself that he would leave the crime-fighting to the comics, but the call of the spandex was too strong and soon he was back in the streets. This time, however, he got involved with some goons about to mug a youngster. Maybe the plates in his head numbed the pain, maybe the comic history in his head flattered his resolve, maybe he had a few screws loose in his head, or maybe he was just a decent kid; he refused to stop protecting the kid even though he himself was being beaten to a pulp. An internet sensation was born.
The popularity gave Dave more confidence and he then moved into the bigger leagues. Trying to give a gangster a friendly warning, he found himself in a position where getting his ass kicked was the best he could hope for. He didn't, because of a puny girl, carrying an enormous sword and dicing up everyone’s limbs, all the while using swearwords that she shouldn't even know about. Enter Hit Girl and her Big Daddy.
Kick-Ass is firmly for the fans. There are repeated comic-book references and Dave Lizewski is a geek who can be any of us. His thoughtless crusade has its heart in the right place. But there is only so much an ordinary dude can do. And that is where Millar brings out his master stroke. The introduction of Hit Girl and Big Daddy. The stakes go up exponentially and the only way Kick-Ass can keep us is with the help of professionals. And who among us is not sick enough to want to see a potty-mouthed eleven-year-old girl cutting people’s heads in half!
Mark Millar has always worn his psychopathic side on his sleeve with regards to violence. John Romita Jr. complements him with a drawing style that shows the brutality but also tempers its shock by being not too realistic. The splash pages are quite brilliant, used both for dramatic and gratuitous effects.
It is easy to dismiss Kick-Ass as a lot of noise and not much substance. The subject matter is such and Millar’s style has always been over the top. But it is not the case here. There is genuine affection for the characters and Millar proudly carries his geek flag. The writing, too, is well thought out, and the dialogue is hilarious and sad in equal measure. 'Tunk' is a word that is going to stay with you for a long time!
Millar and Romita Jr did get it right with Kick-Ass. It is a book that needed to be created and I firmly believe it will stand the test of time. We, the comic lovers, made Kick-Ass happen. And we will always wonder why no one did it before.
