[Comic Review] - What's so funny about 'Truth, Justice and the American Way'?

Action Comics vol.1 #775 - What's so funny about 'Truth, Justice and the American Way'?

In an age of the mega-crossover-event it can feel strange to think that some of the best stories in comics used to be from limited series inside monthlies or even in single issues. This "One-Shot", Action Comics #775 manages to pack into a single book one of the most important Superman stories since "What happened to the Man of Tomorrow". It is particularly interesting as a expression of the American backlash to the British Invasion which occurred during the 80s as Vertigo mined extraordinarily daring talent from 2000AD, like Allan More, Grant Morison, Allan Grant and... well that is a huge list I may as well stop there.

The 90s is a complicated time for comics and is what I describe as the "adolescence" of the American Comic. The hope of the 60s had broken down into the decadence and nihilism of the 70s through to the 80s and comics like so much other media began to reflect this by becoming dark and violent with strong anti-establishment themes.

The hokey comics of the past seamed then, and now to an extent, rather silly and dull. Stagnating in the ruts left over from decades of paper strip comics designed specifically for young children and values stemming form the end of WW2 and the baby boomers. At this time the American trust in authority was getting severely undermined by the failure of Vietnam, its government scandals and increasingly brutal acts by the police and criminals alike. There was a collective anger in youth culture, and not just in the States. The brutal realities of human nature crushed the dreams to the 60s and left us on the downward spiral to the cynicism and acceptance that defines the post millennial. 

American comics were selling badly as the sweet hopeful charm of Superman started to seem ridiculous and DC looked across the pond to England to a comic revolution being fought by the boys at Action and latter 2000AD.

2000AD, the punk rock of comics. Daring, visceral, violent and above all satirical of the status quo. It birthed some of the greatest comic legends of art and stories in the history of comics as they cut a bloody swath through peoples perceptions of what a comic was and what it could do. 

The so called "British Invasion" was the influx of these artists and writers to America and they brought with them a post-modern look at the Superhero comic, which was something a little alien to the shores of England. Superheros were simply not looked at the same way by the British and this lead to runs like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, Swamp Thing, Hellbalzer, Sandman, The Boys and more. Lessons learnt and vibes cut to a fine blade at 2000AD were brought to America where it was soaked up by the eager youth that had finally found stories that reflected the world they lived in, and not some shadow world cast decades before them.

While the British Invasion changed comics forever, and for the most part, for the better. It also had some shocking side effects, namely being the 90s. Now I personally love the 90s comics, as this was when I was most active as a young collector, not getting back into the hobby till I was entering my 30s. Still for every Doom Patrol and Sandman there was a hundred other comics which were little more than exploitation cinema but on a comic page. Women for example were sexulised to such a extreme that even to this day comics have not yet recovered, but the real side-effect of the Britsh Invasion was the nihilism and ultra-violence that was brought to us by the British. 

Go 90s Superman (Hunter/ Prey). Spawn cloak, shoulder pads,

buckles, belts and other junk and of course the Super Mullet!

So, how dose this all relate to "What's so funny about 'Truth, Justice and the American Way'?" Well, this comic was written as a backlash to the direction superhero comics headed during this time. Action Comics #775 came out in 2001 during the great retreat into the classic values of the Superhero and this story expands on the themes brought up in the epic "Rein of the Superman" but in my mind it is #775 that is most clear in the forceful rejection of the British aesthetic which influenced comics so much across the 80s and 90s. Heralding the the return to the idealistic attitudes that are characteristic of hero comics.

In someways this comic is a direct response to titles like "The Authority". The core concept in this comic is that a super powerful team of "heroes" appears who have no qualms about killing. They fight against bad guys but they are brutal and unmindful of collateral damage. Superman, obviously has a moral stance against these guys but the beauty of this comic is in how the general populous, as in us the readers, accept these murders as heroes and hold them as role models. 

Superman feels rejected, out dated. His values are mocked as the populace call out for extreme solutions. These are issues that are completely relevant at this terrible time in history we live in right now. The Elite, as they call themselves are actual vigilantes but on a global super scale. This is the idea of the benevolent dictator that will find, and wipe out all they deem evil with no accountability as they are the strongest. Basically this is a fascist ideal, hence "The Elite". 

We have all felt this, why not send a military hit squad down to the local drug dealing thugs and kill them all.. because it is wrong that is why. Yet we as comic fans had stopped buying the old comics and were consuming at huge rates these new types of comics.

This one shot is a reflection. The populous in the comic is us, the comic readers and The Elite are the British invaders and Superman, is the last hold out.. the original hero and the last hero where the line had to be draw or the idea of the "hero" would be lost.

The Elite. Lead by Manchester Black

The Elite is the symbol of the British vision of the Superhero, flawed, ultravolent, dark and unaccountable. Lead by Manchester Black, who not only is named after a famous British city but sports a full body chest tattoo of the British Flag visible in all shots while spouting English slang in every bubble. This is the nightmare vision of Joe Kelly, the writer of this tale at his realisation that this new direction in comics is the antithesis of what makes Superman, well... Super.

Is this the Superman you really want to read? (Hunter/Prey)

There are some fantastic speeches in this book, from both sides as lets face it the Brits had point, still I need to remind you this is a ONE SHOT. This is all in a single issue. Amazing. In these speeches Black lays out the ridiculousness and unreality of Golden Age and Superman argues for hope and the power of dreams. What are stories really for? To crush us, or uplift us?

As this is a one shot, there is a lot of spoilers going on here as there is not much content I can talk about with out giving it all away and many people are probably familiar with the tale as it was one of the great Animated Films from the DCAU. Superman vs The Elite.

DCAU 14: Superman vs The Elite

Still the take away for me is that this comic is really the salvation of the American Comic. The British Invasion changed everything, much for the better, but during it the American idea of the hero was lost. Something which has since been recaptured culminating in to hugely popular Rebirth.

This book was written and drawn by Americans, for Americans, fighting for the soul of American Comics, and it won.

I love you Superman.

[Comic Review] Superman : Dark Knight over Metropolis

Superman #44, Adventures of Superman #466-467, Action Comics #653-654, + Annual #1

Many people look back at the 90s as a dark time for comics and super hero comics in general. There are some infamous story lines as well as some truly absurd costume designs that are the subject of ridicule to this day. Yet for me the 90s remains a fascinating time for superhero comics and one that I personally believe to be, in its own way one of the best periods in comics.

[Comic Review] - Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come is a limited ElseWorld series form DC that contains ideas that many comics where exploring in the late 80s and 90s. Namely the question of what kind of people superheroes would in fact be if they existed. What pressures were they under, and how would a real person react to them in those situations.

[Film Review] DCMU 2: Batman vs Superman - Dawn of Justice [NO SPOILERS]

 

 DCMU 2: Batman vs Superman - Dawn of Justice

NO SPOILER REVIEW

Most films are part of the landscape of popular culture that simply passes by as you move through life, but some movies are so much more. There are films that speak to people on such a basic level that individuals have dreamt of them long before any actual film was ever a serious discussion to be made let alone released. There are films that have played in people's minds a thousand ways as they hope for it to actually one day get made. Star Wars was one such film. Over the decades before Phantom Menace, the idea of a new Star Wars film fueled fan-dreams.

DCMU 2 : Batman vs Superman is also one of those kinds of films. A personal movie, dreamed of by children, by adults, by fans, dreamed by me but I do not think anyone, including myself, was ever salivating for a "Batman vs Superman" story. We were near rabid over the idea of seeing these character alive on screen, though. When comic fans dream of comic book films they really dream of the characters, the actual films themselves could be anything and nowadays they often also promise so much more than a single movie. Much anticipation is more to do with the idea of what is coming after the film than the film itself. So the pressure on this film is tremendous, not just in the normal way that a film of this size gets pressured, but because it is attempting to launch something so much larger, and it is this, the idea of a DCMU that the fans are really dreaming of.

BvS has many problems which are indicative of this new style of narrative, the shared universe. The movie is pulling so many parts from so many different locations while at the same time trying to construct a future which the actual film you are watching is not even about. So like most comic book movies the film is a mess of loosely interconnected threads all vying for screen time, with none getting the attention it deserves. This is Age of Ultron all over again, all the same, mistakes.

While the movie gets so much right, there are structural problems with how it is made that must fall squarely on the director and the editor.  The most glaring problem is the seemingly disconnected scene by scene assembly of the movie. There is no flow of the narrative from one scene to the next, instead, we are left with what feels like a series of independent scenes walled off from the next. It reminded me a little of  how a comedy sketch show works. Each scene from a given act could be cut and moved around with little effect on the outcome. This could be one of the worst examples of horrid editing I have seen in a big blockbuster in a long time. BvS simply fails to follow the tried and tested rules of film language and as a result, we see a series of the book ended sequences that produce no feeling of pacing and most importantly of all completely fails to convey the plot of the film itself. This failure, probably in the scripting itself but definitely in the editing is especially galling due to the fight sequences being superbly constructed.

The biggest surprise in the film for me was the performance of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. It really stands out as not only one of the best performances in the entirety of DC films and easily the best representation of Lex outside of the comics, but also a great example of what I believe is a core idea in the DCMU and DC in general.

DC is all about a concept called the multiverse. Each verse or "earth" completely different, yet the same, there is no "Lex Luthor" or "Batman" in DC, not in the kind of defined way you see at other publishers. For me, this is one of the towering reasons why DC is so fantastic, as artists have the freedom to play with ideas and concepts without the rigid conformity that you find at other publishers which can restrict imaginative writing.

The DCMU's Lex is a great example of this idea working extremely well. He is Lex, there is no doubt of that, he is absolutely recognisable. He is artfully brought to life by the actor, and yet he is something new. Something that pulls interest and discovery from the viewer, rather than them sitting in the theater with a bingo sheet ready to cry "Lex" after all the dots get filled. The entire DCMU character list is built in this way to varying degrees of susses. WB's attempt to create real characters on the screen is a bold and intelligent move which creates a far more interesting texture to the movie. After all, when your characters are 80 years old, there is no "real" version, it just depends on what period the fans are looking at. BvS for all its faults has more going on with the characters than most other movies of its type.

The tone of the film is bang on as well. It is no secret that I prefer the darker side of comics and it is a joy for me to see the DCMU continuing to be darker than its peers. I'm not interested in a DCMU that looks and feels like a cartoon, there is enough of that around and even at its best I dislike it. In the comic books, blood flows with violence and madness upon every page. I see no reasoning that compels me to believe that when these comics turn into films they should suddenly become light-hearted half comedy adventures unless the comic itself is one. There is already a very popular location to find the watered down children versions of comics, Saturday morning cartoons. The look and emotional tone of BvS are nearly perfect, only hampered by the fact that there isn't the emotional core in the writing to give it a better sense of reality.

Batman is particularly well done tonally and to my mind is the definitive Batman of film, though on a personal level I think he could have had a little more "crazy" peppered in Mad Max style. Even so his look and Affleck's performance as Bruce Wayne is another highlight for me even though I was surprised at how much of the film Batman takes up, regulating Superman into a near side character. That is not to say that Batman purists will not have a lot to complain about with this more brutal and angry Batman but like Lex the Batman of this film is an actual character to be discovered and I am completely sold, on not only the performance but on this DCMU version Batman itself.

Wonder Woman's role in the film is fun for every moment she is on screen even though her presence is small and ultimately unnecessary, as far as the story is concerned. She is a world building element for the future of the franchise and could easily be removed from the movie entirely along with Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg. This is a problem all current comic book films have. The derailing of the films story and focus by bringing in threads that are not in any way relevant is among some of the greatest reasons that many of these films completely fail in so many ways. Brevity is the sign of a great plot. All the greatest books and films are streamlined and focused, but the very conceptual idea of the future movie tie-in produces a bloated sore upon each comic book film's storytelling. Yet, as I was saying at the start, they are ultimately necessary as the viewers are invested in the next film and beyond, sometimes more invested than they are of the film that they are currently watching. So these building scenes are greatly loved by the fans and appear as sweet spots during the movie even though they are largely responsible for the failure of the narrative as a whole, not just in this movie but in almost all modern comic book films.

BvS is far from the worst film to be released among the modern comic book movies, but it is also far from the best. I would say out of the collection of Disney, WB and Sony movies containing the property of DC and Marvel, BvS is in firmly in the middle of the awesome scale. It isn't terrible, nor is it great. The action is fantastic, its tone is perfect and it contains some great characterisations of some of my favorite characters of all time. The plot, once you decipher it from the loose connective tissue holding everything together is in fact very good. It is a real shame the pacing and execution of this film nearly completely obscure the terrific ideas behind it. It has some amazing imagery and there is no doubt seeing the DC Trinity in action was as great as we always imagined.

This film's greatest draw was the power of the icons within it, and this is also its greatest detractor. For a film like this, nothing short of a masterpiece would be satisfying and there will be a huge backlash upon this film not so much for the many things it got wrong, but also for the fact that, to put it plainly, it's just disappointing. The excellent moments, the great visual style, the performances, and superb action sequences are crippled by horrible editing, a jilted pacing, and convolution through story commitment to the films yet to come.

There was a great film in here somewhere, but it was just not on the screen. Yet somehow I fail to care. There is so much right going on here, and so much to look forward to in the future that a bad, not terrible, film is little more than a speed bump to me. I'd still prefer to watch this film again over many of the other films that have come out in this genre.

VERDICT : Must Watch for fans, worth checking out for everyone else, maybe.

I'll make a spoiler version of this post a little latter after Batman vs Superman has run for a while. There are many ideas that deserve closer attention and discussion which will require spoilers to be dissected.

(Probably should get around to this.. at some point.. but long story short.. the Ultimate Edition is a LOT better and fixes many of the problems I had with the Theatrical Cut, there is no reason to ever watch another version than the Ultimate Edition.)