is not, in fact Watchmen. Watchmen was intensely popular and key to ushering in the Modern Age of comic books. I will not dispute that. It has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Time Magazine and has been critically acclaimed since the first issue hit the stands in September of 1986. That same month, however, Alan Moore also penned another story for DC comics that arguably had a more important affect on the state of comics, an affect still felt to this very day.
For those unaware, allow me to break down the various eras of comic book publication. The Golden Age of comics began in the late 1930s with the emergence of the superhero, spearheaded by Action Comics and Detective Comics, featuring Superman and Batman respectively. It is generally accepted that the Golden Age carried on up to 1956, when the first appearance of the Barry Allen incarnation of The Flash (the first successful new superhero since the early days of the Golden Age) was introduced. By the time the Golden Age ended, due to a significant departure from superhero comics during the 1950s in favor of romance, war, horror and detective comics, there was no significant change in the status quo. The Silver Age contained many elements found in the early Golden Age, although in much greater abundance thanks to Timely Comics conversion to Marvel Comics, and the innovating work of their prime creatures, to include but not limited to Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Jack "The King" Kirby. The Bronze Age, by far the shortest of comic ages, began in 1976 with the return of the X-Men in Giant Sized X-Men #1, but other than an infrequent inclusion of social issues, such as the battles against racism and drugs, still possessed many elements of the Golden and Silver Ages. It was not until the summer of 1986 that the Modern Age emerged and significantly changed the face of comics. There were already a handful of comic series that had experimented in a more serious view on comic books, but Marvel and DC maintained much of the silliness of previous eras up to this point. The Silver Age gave us concepts such as Beppo the Super-Monkey. Yeah, that's right. Digest that for a moment. A Kryptonian monkey.
DC Comics by this point realized that over 50 years of continuity was becoming too much to handle and launched their Crisis On Infinite Earths mini-series in an attempt to retroactively change their corner of the comic book universe and simplify continuity. It did not work exactly, and has been redone a handful of other times in order to fix various "glitches" that were overlooked, but I believe their hearts were in the right place. Upon completion of the event, many comics were canceled and relaunched starting with new, streamlined origin stories. The most important of these was arguably the first superhero, the Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow... Superman. However, because Superman was the main character in one of their two flagship titles, the transition would be tricky.
Step in, Alan Moore. Alan Moore was commissioned to pen what would be billed as "The Last Superman Story", a two-part story featured in both Superman and Action Comics. Due to the ret-con (retroactive continuity), moving forward, what we knew of the Man of Steel would no longer be relevant, giving Moore the opportunity to do more or less whatever he wanted with the Silver Age Superman, a character often ridiculed for the childishness of the series, mostly through the 60s and 70s. The story, titled "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" featured nearly every recurring character in the Superman mythos to date, to include Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Bizzaro, The Legion of Superheros, Lois Lane, Perry White, Krypto The Super-Dog, the Bottle City of Kandor and many, many others. It took place years after the disappearance of Superman following a battle in which nearly all the villains in his rogues gallery emerged to not only defeat him, but to destroy everything he held dear. It featured the disturbing suicide of Bizzaro, the deaths of both Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang (who reprised their roles as Elastic Lad and Superwoman), and the eventual sacrifice of all his powers with the use of Gold Kryptonite.
If you're still with me (I realize this is very long winded), you're probably asking yourself "What makes this so significant if none of it mattered post ret-con?" The answer is this: if a dark tale full of tragedy such as this could exist in the most mainstream of comics, where could it not exist? Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Miracle Man occurred outside the mainstream, where they were unlikely to disturb the standards established and maintained by comics for 50 years before, but this was accessible to everybody. This was Superman. This was an American icon, shown in a light never before attempted. In only two issues, Moore said goodbye to the Silver Age and opened the door for comic books to evolve from a medium aimed at children to a legitimate form of literature, and the whole world could see it at their local newsstand.
Monday, October 25, 2010
The Girlfriend's Guide to Jonah Hex
I realize this is VERY late. Due to a series of events, to include a mild case of writer's block and a trip out of country, I had to take some time off, but now I'm back and better than ever! I finally watched the Jonah Hex movie, and due to massive disappointment, this article will not contain any spoiler alerts, even though for Jonah Hex fans (and if you're a Hex fan, you've probably already seen it anyway), there may be a few spoilers.
The Players:
Jonah Hex: As a general rule, Hex is not one of the more complex characters in the DC Universe. The story of his life takes place in Civil War era America. Sold into Apache slavery as a child by his father, his face was badly mutilated. After saving the Chief from a mountain lion attack, he was made a member of the tribe and taught his very formidable fight skills. He later fought for the South during the War of Northern Aggression, and upon completion of the war, rode west to become a very successful bounty hunter. To my knowledge, he never died and was resurrected, nor did he possess the ability to speak to the dead. There was a short lived series known as Hex where he was transported to the year 2050, but this is mostly disregarded by writers and fans alike as not a regular part of continuity, and is never referenced in the current Jonah Hex story, making it completely irrelevant.
Lilah/Tallulah Black: Tallulah was a character introduced in 2007, shown to be a frontierswoman who was raped and horribly mutilated by the same men who killed her family. Hex rescued her in one of his more altruistic moments, and helped her to gain revenge (and of course, bounties) on the men. Afterward, she as well turned to a life of bounty hunting, and eventually Hex briefly took her as a lover and impregnated her, though he was unaware of this. She sought out a quiet town to hide and raise their child, but the child was killed by a religious fanatic believing it was the spawn of Satan. Tallulah was never represented in the comics as a "woman of ill-repute", nor was she attractive due to the severe mutilation. I can, however, understand how, by casting Megan Fox to play her, they decided to go the hooker route with the character. It still doesn't make it right.
Quentin Turnbull: This might be the closest to accurate the movie came. He was not the man to scar Hex's face, however Hex was indeed responsible for the death of his son Jeb, causing him to wish to take out vengeance on Hex. He was generally a son of a bitch, but that is pretty much the extent of the "layers" of this character.
To tell the truth, that is more than anybody needs to know about Jonah to enjoy his comics. They are truly beautiful in their simplicity, and nearly every story is contained to a single issue. The movie appeared to me to try and make the character much more complex by having the U.S. military bring him in to stop his "arch-nemesis" Turnbull, who was recurring in the comics, but not to a degree that he could truly become a nemesis. Initially I questioned Hex's use of twin gatling guns on his mount, but after further research discovered that historically, that was sound. The idea of a city killing weapon such as that used in the movie, however, was one more ridiculous point in a thoroughly ridiculous movie. I advise that you find out for yourself, as I realize I am biased by the overwhelming inaccuracy of the film, but in my opinion, this ranked as one of the worst comic based movies I have ever seen.
On a brighter note, however, 2011 will prove to be a HUGE year for the comic movie genre, and I hope to get a jump start by providing guides for Green Lantern, Captain America and Thor in the very near future!
The Players:
Jonah Hex: As a general rule, Hex is not one of the more complex characters in the DC Universe. The story of his life takes place in Civil War era America. Sold into Apache slavery as a child by his father, his face was badly mutilated. After saving the Chief from a mountain lion attack, he was made a member of the tribe and taught his very formidable fight skills. He later fought for the South during the War of Northern Aggression, and upon completion of the war, rode west to become a very successful bounty hunter. To my knowledge, he never died and was resurrected, nor did he possess the ability to speak to the dead. There was a short lived series known as Hex where he was transported to the year 2050, but this is mostly disregarded by writers and fans alike as not a regular part of continuity, and is never referenced in the current Jonah Hex story, making it completely irrelevant.
Lilah/Tallulah Black: Tallulah was a character introduced in 2007, shown to be a frontierswoman who was raped and horribly mutilated by the same men who killed her family. Hex rescued her in one of his more altruistic moments, and helped her to gain revenge (and of course, bounties) on the men. Afterward, she as well turned to a life of bounty hunting, and eventually Hex briefly took her as a lover and impregnated her, though he was unaware of this. She sought out a quiet town to hide and raise their child, but the child was killed by a religious fanatic believing it was the spawn of Satan. Tallulah was never represented in the comics as a "woman of ill-repute", nor was she attractive due to the severe mutilation. I can, however, understand how, by casting Megan Fox to play her, they decided to go the hooker route with the character. It still doesn't make it right.
Quentin Turnbull: This might be the closest to accurate the movie came. He was not the man to scar Hex's face, however Hex was indeed responsible for the death of his son Jeb, causing him to wish to take out vengeance on Hex. He was generally a son of a bitch, but that is pretty much the extent of the "layers" of this character.
To tell the truth, that is more than anybody needs to know about Jonah to enjoy his comics. They are truly beautiful in their simplicity, and nearly every story is contained to a single issue. The movie appeared to me to try and make the character much more complex by having the U.S. military bring him in to stop his "arch-nemesis" Turnbull, who was recurring in the comics, but not to a degree that he could truly become a nemesis. Initially I questioned Hex's use of twin gatling guns on his mount, but after further research discovered that historically, that was sound. The idea of a city killing weapon such as that used in the movie, however, was one more ridiculous point in a thoroughly ridiculous movie. I advise that you find out for yourself, as I realize I am biased by the overwhelming inaccuracy of the film, but in my opinion, this ranked as one of the worst comic based movies I have ever seen.
On a brighter note, however, 2011 will prove to be a HUGE year for the comic movie genre, and I hope to get a jump start by providing guides for Green Lantern, Captain America and Thor in the very near future!
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