The answer to Carl's question is that I was just too damn unimaginative to come up with something besides the standard five star rating system that practically everybody uses. So, in the interests of making this column more, shall we say, distinct, this time around I will take Carl up on his suggestion and use a five elephant rating. I cannot comment on whether or not future installments will have such items as cans of corn, bricks or cheese, or (God help us all) dancing Steve Lightles for ratings.
Armageddon Patrol: Cherries #s 1-2, $2.95 US each, published by Alchemy Texts
Writer: John A. Short; Pencils & Inks: Alwyn Talbot
Rating: 4 out of 5 elephants
This miniseries was released a few months ago. However, I feel it is deserving of attention. So I'm taking advantage of this column to now review it.
I first found out about the Armageddon Patrol series in April, 1999. This was during the tail end of my six month stay in Britain, right before I had to return to the States. I was at a comic book convention in Bristol, having a few drinks with a number of friendly people. One of them, John Short, told me about the concept for a comic he were working on: what if superheroes fought in the Vietnam War? I was immediately stunned and impressed (and, no, it wasn't the alcohol that did it to me!) by this idea. Independent comic books have grown by incredible leaps and bounds in the last decade. Yet no one ever thought to do a book that would attempt to realistically extrapolate what would happen if the United States had sent superheroes to fight in one of the most controversial wars of the 20th century. The next day I bought a copy of The Shot from John. The Shot was, appropriately enough, a one-shot special that introduced the Armageddon Patrol squad, and showed them in action in 1968. I read it, and saw tremendous potential in the concept.
Soon after, I returned to the States. Every few months I'd glance at The Shot, think again about what a great concept it had, and lament that John Short had expressed uncertainty over the release of further issues. John, like practically every other small press creator out there, was having major problems convincing Diamond Distributors to solicit and distribute the book. Then, a few months ago, out of the blue, catching me completely off guard, I saw the ad for the Cherries miniseries in Previews. I immediately asked my comic shop to order it for me.
Cherries explores how the Armageddon Patrol was assembled, and the backgrounds of its various members. The first issue opens in Washington DC in 1967. Wynonna Stone, future leader of the Patrol, is adopting the identity of Maiden America for the first time. Although Wynonna is in the military, and has the ability to generate forcefields, she does not become Maiden America to be a superhero and fight in Vietnam. Basically, she's a living propaganda symbol, someone to give the war effort a positive image and a pretty face (not to mention a nice figure). The military has her appear on television, and produces posters, comic books, and dolls with her image. Wynonna is soon sent off to Vietnam, so that Maiden America can cheer up the troops in the field. She meets up with her fiancé Gabe, an army captain. Their reunion is short-lived, as the helicopter transporting them is shot down by North Vietnamese forces. Gabe is killed, and Wynonna has to use her superpower and military training to help the survivors make in through the jungle to the nearest American base alive. Returning to the States, Wynonna spearheads a project to assemble a squad of super-powered soldiers to fight in Vietnam. To find recruits, he travels to a top-secret military base, where various superhumans are being detained and studied by the military. Most of those she approaches are understandably unenthusiastic about the idea, considering they've been imprisoned by the government. But the promise of limited freedom manages to convince them. Maiden America also gets her hands on a robot that the Air Force found in a crashed flying saucer. The Patrol assembled, they are shipped out to Vietnam, and an uncertain future.
The writing on this miniseries was well done and entertaining. While I would have preferred to see more of the team in Vietnam, I realize the exposition and background of this story was necessary. It certainly helps establish the motivations of the characters. And it also shows the two sides of the war. In issue one, we see America and the military in a patriotic light via Maiden America and her experiences. But in the second issue, the darker side of the military-industrial complex emerges, with mutated victims of radiation being held against their will by the government. We also see Maiden America regarding the potential recruits to the Patrol more as weapons to be used than actual people. One of the recruits, Melissa Sears, a.k.a. Seer, is something of a hippie who has nothing but contempt for the United States' presence in Vietnam, regarding it as the actions of a fascist, imperialist government. She would rather stay imprisoned than fight in an immoral war. In response, Maiden America uses emotional blackmail and threatens to bring in Seer's sister for testing and, if she has a mutation, imprison her. To protect her sister, Seer joins the team. I don't know if it was intentional, but the dilemma faced by the Patrol members, to either go fight in Vietnam or remain locked up, parallels what real life draftees faced, having to fight or having to go to jail. And Seer's dilemma brings to mind individuals who enlisted in the war so a younger sibling would not be drafted.
My one complaint in terms of characterization is that Wynonna's transformation into a tough-talking, cigar-chomping spitfire is rather sudden. After her fiancé's death, she undergoes something of a personality change. I understand she's in shock, and fighting for survival, so she probably adopted the mindset and tough persona to get her through the crisis. But it is a somewhat abrupt change. It's too bad John Short didn't have enough room in the story to closely examine Maiden America's mindset and emotions.
The artwork by Alwyn Talbot is reminiscent of Geoff Darrow's, while still having its own individual style. Talbot does a superb job rendering military equipment & weapons, a prerequisite for a series such as this. He captures the jungles of Southeast Asia well. His combat scenes, while dramatic, also capture the graphic horrors of war, rather than glamorizing combat. He needs to work somewhat on his figure-drawing, and some of the characters do have rather odd-shaped faces. But aside from that, the artwork is overall very impressive.
I'm certainly looking forward to more stories of the Patrol, and I hope Cherries did well enough for Alchemy Texts to publish further issues. If so, I hope subsequent stories will continue to balance the controversies of the war. I definitely do not want the one-dimensional heroics of a John Wayne war film, but neither do I want an X-Files style depiction of the U.S. government as a monolithic evil conspiracy.
Oh, yeah, I do have a slight problem with the dialogue. John Short needs to brush up on the spellings of American slang. It's not "gunna," it's "gonna," with the letter "o" in it. And the contraction of "you know" is usually spelled "y'know," and not "yuknow." But I shouldn't really complain. This is probably in retaliation for all the times American comic writers have had British characters uttering such stereotyped cliches as "crikey, mate!" and "blimey, guv'nor!"
Martian Manhunter # 28, $2.50 US, published by DC Comics
Writer: John Ostrander; Pencils & Inks: Tom Mandrake
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 elephants
One sign a comic book is in trouble: despite the fact that you follow the series regularly, you read the first few pages of the latest issue, start scratching your head attempting to figure out what's going on, and finally turn back to the cover to try and determine if maybe you accidentally missed the previous issue. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to me while reading the latest issue of Martian Manhunter. By the time I got to page seven, I was almost convinced I was reading chapter two of a story that I'd somehow missed the first installment of. I quickly looked at the issue number on the cover; it said #28. I then flipped through my pile of recently read comics, and found #27. Yep, I'd definitely read that one. Uh oh…
The problem with "Torn Asunder" is that, as I said, it feels as if you are coming in during the second reel of a film. Now, it is a common enough narrative technique to open a story in the midst of the action, and then flashback to the events that lead up to this. Issue #28 starts with J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, at Stonehenge, fighting alongside the mystic team the Sentinels of Magic against the Demon Etrigan. On page five, the scene flashes back to J'onn meditating in his sanctuary, when he is visited by the Phantom Stranger. J'onn is told by the Stranger that Etrigan has been separated from his human half, has gone berserk, and is fighting the Sentinels. J'onn immediately uses a Justice League teleporter to pop over to Stonehenge, where he joins up with the battle already in progress. Later, J'onn investigates the apartment of Jason Blood (Etrigan's human half) and discovers the sorceress Morgan LeFey caused the separation, so that she can steal a mystic jewel from Blood's apartment.
Unfortunately, we don't receive any additional information. We are never shown the events leading up to the separation of Etrigan and Blood. We are not informed of exactly how Morgan LeFey achieved it. We are not told why it was necessary for LeFey to separate the two in order to get the jewel. We never find out how the Sentinels became involved. We are never told how the battle ended up at Stonehenge. We aren't even given a proper introduction to the members of the Sentinels. To sum up, we are just dropped right in the middle of the story, with barely any explanation or background information given. As a result, I felt lost, and I had a hard time enjoying the issue.
That's not to say that there weren't highlights to the book. In order to discover the fate of Jason Blood, J'onn needs to go to Blood's New York apartment. However, he cannot just abandon the nearly outmatched Sentinels to hold off Etrigan. So, with the aid of his Martian nature, and the magic of Sentinels member Dr. Occult, J'onn manages to split himself in half. One half is Martian in appearance, and retains all of the Manhunter's powers. The other half is in human form, and possesses only telepathy. This is a fairly clever idea, and an interesting exploration of J'onn's potential abilities, something Ostrander has been delving into since this series started. While the Manhunter half remains to fight alongside the Sentinels, his human alter ego, John Jones, private investigator, goes to Blood's apartment. The Jones half discovers LeFey's role, and he manages to destroy the mystic artifact that was used to separate Etrigan and Blood. As a result, the Manhunter is able to turn Etrigan back into Jason Blood. But when it comes time for the Manhunter and John Jones to reform into J'onn, they are unable to. It seems LeFay has gained revenge by somehow duplicating the spell that split Etrigan and Blood. Now the Manhunter and Jones exist as two entities. It's an interesting situation, and I look forward to seeing what John Ostrander does with it in upcoming issues.
Unfortunately, the intriguing events and puzzling climax of this story are weakened by the aforementioned narrative problems in this issue. The lack of adequate exposition leaves this book feeling incomplete. It's disappointing, as I've come to expect better from Ostrander's writing on this title.
At least Tom Mandrake's artwork was up to its usual standards. Mandrake excelled at moody, atmospheric art during his run on The Spectre. This issue brings returns him to the territory he knows so well, with magic-based characters, supernatural events, and macabre villains.