Here's Some Shizz 'Bout Comic Books, Y'All (Spoilers Included Free of Charge)

I always intended to make comic books one of the things I would occasionally touch upon in this rarely-updated blog, but there is so much comic book content on the webs, I frequently felt that I had little to add to the discourse. But in the last month or so, there has been something of a perfect storm that made me want to add some thoughts to the world, so here we are.

One reason I love comics is the ability for new or established creators to bring fresh concepts and characters into the world with relative ease and immediacy. Image Comics is frequently the publisher bringing a good number of these creator-owned properties into the world these days.  Creators have to put up a good story and art if they want their books to sell, of course, but in the current marketplace, having a #1 issue from Image is as good a place to start as any for a flashfire of initial exposure.

BlackAcre #1, cover art by Mike Avon Oeming

A new book I was excited about which is happily living up to my expectataions is BlackAcre, written by newcomer Duffy Boudreau with art by Wendell Cavalcanti. The second issue was just released a week ago, and though I've only seen a sliver of this dystopian future, I want to see more.  Set roughly 100 years in the future, the titular BlackAcre is a walled city built by the wealthy and privileged who foresaw a societal collapse and, ensconced securely away, proceeded to live well as the world around them went to hell. Though the plot is a bit of a slow burn, the main character thus far is a BlackAcre soldier sent into the wild to retrieve a fellow soldier who has been running an operation outside the city walls.  Told he is to bring this man back to a hero's welcome, Hull is handed a "tracking device," which, unbeknowst to him, is an explosive meant to kill both his target and himself. I have to believe any Hearts of Darkness/Apocalypse Now echoes are intentional.

Admittedly, I dig dystopian stories, particularly ones in which said societal decay is realistic and understandable, and BlackAcre provides such a hook, juxtaposing a well-heeled community with the savage surroundings. I hope for more shading and nuance in the lead character, Hull, but a young girl, Lee, captured by religious zealots in the world outside BlackAcre, shows a lot of promise and I suspect is on her way to being a co-lead of some sort. All told, I am as excited about this book as any recent comic book launch in memory, and I hope it has a long life ahead of it. A tiny voice in my head whispers that this could be akin to the early days of The Walking Dead, but I am just enjoying the story for the moment.

I Love Trouble #1, cover art by Mark A. Robinson

Another book from Image I ordered, though almost strictly based on the art in the solicitation catalog, is I Love Trouble, written by Kel Symons with art by Mark A. Robinson. BlackAcre got me excited because of some early praise from creators I like, but Trouble hooked me strictly by the immediate retina burn-in I got from Robinson's art. Initial information about the book played coy about the subject: in the midst of a plane crash Felicia Castillo, a young grifter, realizes she has a super power (spoiler: it's teleportation). She heads back to New Orleans (I am admittedly wired to like stories using NoLa as a setting) to pay off the people she was running from while using her new abilities to commit crimes.

A great thing about Trouble is that we get a good sense of Felicia as a character in the first issue. She's impetuous, a risk-taker, and is devious but not really evil. The best bit in the book is Felicia walking through an art gallery, cutting up a canvas, and disappearing as security rushes her. Cut to her living room, where above the couch hang dozens of stolen art pieces (including a Jack Kirby Thor cover...that as much as anything sold copies of the book when I pointed it out to customers at my local comic shop).  And, hey, Mark Robinson's art is just thrilling. A lot of the story is told graphically, so Robinson does a lot of heavy lifting and is not always clear, but the sheer energy of the art keeps me going. I believe this book is intended to have a limited run, but as long as this creative team keeps it up, I'll be there.

Amazing Spider-Man #700, cover art by Mr Garcin

Another thing I dig about comics is the long-form storytelling opportunities inherent in the medium. Spider-Man, aka my favorite comic book character, has been around for fifty years, and though he has barely aged thanks to a glacially-paced continuity and numerous retcons, his alter ego, Peter Parker, was killed off in last month's Amazing Spider-Man #700, written by Dan Slott. Except that he wasn't.  Though Otto "Dr. Octopus" Octavius switched his mind with Parker's, trapping his foe in his own dying brain, an aspect of Peter still cohabitates his body, preventing Octavius from killing his enemies and tempering other nasty aspects of his personality.

Even though it felt very silly typing that paragraph o' spoilers, there are comic book fans who are taking this very seriously indeed. People want their familiar hero in a familiar setting, just as he was in issue #192 when they started reading the book. They are not enjoying the ride, they are forcing the roller coaster operator to stop at the top of the hill, just before they either get legitimately sick or have one of the best thrills of their year. Either way, they deny themselves the experience of the whole thing, of learning on their own if they will be sick or have a blast. God forbid they enjoy something unexpected.

I love the idea of Dr. Octopus taking up residence in Spider-Man's body, unbeknownst to his friends and his foes. Here's the thing about Peter Parker, and why I believe he has been such a successful character: Unlike most other fantastical heroes, he is basically us. Smarter, perhaps, with a life more like unto a soap opera, but he struggles to pay the rent, help his family and friends, and inevitably screws up in those regards while he is busy saving innocent lives. Peter Parker is largely defined by his failures and his hard luck: dead friends, dead girlfriends, dead uncle. Nothing is more hard luck than dying, then living on as a shadow of yourself while your nemesis lives in your body, vowing to be better at your life than you ever were. It's one more entertaining kick in the nuts to a guy we pull for while secretly reveling in the schadenfreude, and a clever way of exploring the fundamental aspects of Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and Otto Octavius. I don't know if Dan Slott and his artistic collaborators Ryan Stegman, Guiseppi Camuncoli, and Humberto Ramos (who has become, in my estimation, one of the top five Spider-Man artists in history) will continue to  keep the continuum entertaining in the new Superior Spider-Man title, but they have earned my curiosity and trust. Here's hoping.

Superior Spider-Man #1, cover art by Ryan Stegman