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Reinterpretation
By Mike Siravo
What is it about our old favorites? Why do they seem to
resonate so well in the hands of different creators? Why do
our new favorites not have that same appeal? These and other
questions will be answered today on
.sorry, wrong venue.
What
got me thinking about this was the recent announcement from
Dark Horse Comics that an 8-issue limited series anthology
titled Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. had been placed on their schedule
with the likes of John Cassaday (Planetary), P. Craig Russell
(Sandman), Leinil Francis Yu (Wolverine) and Fabian Nicieza
(X-Men) doing their takes on Mike Mignola's character. The
above creators are among the best in the industry. Heck they're
among the best the industry has ever seen. They're working
on a character that I think is probably the most original
and interesting character created over the last 10 years.
The series promises to be as strong and professional as any
published in the next year, but (and you knew there was a
but) where is my enthusiasm! Shouldn't I be looking forward
to this series with the breathless anticipation? Shouldn't
I be banging on the door of my comics shop, making a general
pest of myself? Begging, pleading, stomping my feet and tearing
at my clothes! Holding my breath! Screaming at the top of
my lungs
..Ah, where was I again?
Oh,
right. I always look forward to Mignola's Hellboy. Where else
do you get Nazi's and Demons and strange semi-historical characters?
A quick aside. Is it just me or does everyone else love those
semi-historical portrayals. A few that jump to mind are
..
A clone of Hitler turned out to be The Hate-Monger in an issue
of Captain America. Richard Nixon is a Skrull in the Avengers.
Stalin plotting against super-heroes in Invaders and All-Star
Squadron. Great Fun! I always thought that Queen Victoria
would make a great cyber-villain. Just picture it, Victoria's
huge dress concealing all type of servos and apertures that
strike when least expected. Or is that just me?
Anyway,
the main point here is that I love Mignola's Hellboy, and
Frank Miller's Sin City and Dave Lapham's Stray Bullets and
Kurt Busiek's Astro City and Evan Dorkin's Dork, but the thought
of other creators, even top-flight ones, working on these
books just leaves me luke-warm. The same can't be said for
the Golden and Silver Age characters that have been around
for (in some cases) 60 years. On these characters, a top-flight
writer or artist gets my must-buy meter redlining! When Grant
Morrison took over the JLA, I couldn't wait. Having someone
with his chops taking over one of DC's flagship titles almost
seemed too good to be true. I kept waiting for Jeannette Kahn
and Paul Levitz to jump out from behind AOL and scream, "April
Fool's!". In recent years we've had Kevin Smith (Daredevil,
Green Arrow), J. Michael Straczynski (Spider-Man), James Robinson
(JSA), Morrison again (X-Men), George Perez (Avengers) and
recently Maid Waid and Mike Wieringo (Fantastic Four) take
over decades old titles and energize the fan base behind them.
What
may be at work here is how personal some of the newer greats
seem in contrasting them to the classics. Hellboy is obviously
a book that sprouted full-blown from one mind. The consistency
of the story arcs and the depth of the characters show an
important understanding on the Hellboy mythos. Sin City also
has an internal consistency that, while translating well in
the hands of other artist pin-up attempts, would seem adrift
without Miller's guiding force. On the other side are the
creations like Superman and Captain America which act like
blank sheets of tin waiting for the next creator to make his
(or her) impression on. And it really does seem to be consistent
with when it was originally published. Daredevil works with
other creators, Howard the Duck doesn't. Batman works, Spawn
doesn't. Hulk yes, Master of Kung-Fu No.
A
good example may be Kurt Busiek's recent Marvel concoction
Thunderbolts. While not a creator owned series and while it
did use existing characters, Busiek's story of villains in
hero drag had the type of singular focus that many of the
new classics have. It also re-imagined these old characters
in such a way as they became, for all intents and purposes,
new. With tight pacing and some of the most jarring surprises
to come from a major publisher since the return of Rob Liefeld
to Marvel, Thunderbolts just felt like a creator owned series.
Then when Busiek left, Nicieza took over and the formula proved
impossible to duplicate. Kind of like McDonalds French Fries.
What seemed fresh and exciting in Busiek's hands seemed tired
and manipulative in Nicieza's. And that wasn't really Nicienza's
fault. He was just Fabian Nicieza doing Kurt Busiek's Thunderbolts.
I'm
tempted to put a date on what works and what doesn't (mostly
because I'm lazy and like things tied up nice and neat). A
Mendoza line between what can successfully be passed to a
new creator and what should end when the original creator
decides, work for hire or not. Before 1970? 1968? Not really
sure. I'm also not really sure that it matters. What's important
is that in a field striving for diversity, both types of characters
are available. A strong past, a creative present and a bright
future.
Mike
Siravo writes for www.popculturekid.com
and can be reached at
talkback@popculturekid.com.
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