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SEQUENTIAL CULTURE #27 4 June 04 |
The DC Canon, Part 8: Vertigo,
Part 1 |
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JULIAN DARIUS |
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THE DC CANON Read Part 1: Batman. Read Part 2: Superman. Read Part 3: Kingdom Come. Read Part 4: The Justice
League. Read Part 5: Superman: Red Son. Read Part 6: Alan Moore’s Swamp
Thing. Read Part 7: Neil Gaiman’s The
Sandman. You are reading Part 8: Vertigo, Part 1. Read Part 9: Vertigo, Part 2. Read Part 10: Vertigo, Part
3. |
DC Comics’ super-heroes star in a plethora
of ongoing series, mini-series, specials, original graphic novels of various
sizes, and collections every month.
Characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are more iconic
than any other super-heroes around.
Yet for all of their sales, some have not explored the best that these
icons have to offer. This, then, acts as a guide for those new
to DC’s characters, for those who may be missing a classic of one of them,
and for those who simply wish to argue what merits such concern. Lists of such a nature are always a matter
of some debate and always involve some subjectivity. They are, nonetheless, not without their
purposes of stirring thought, guiding future reading, and solidifying the
canon. Take this one as you will. Vertigo |
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The “Vertigo” contingent of DC’s canon is shockingly strong, even
if it rests a bit towards the margin of that universe. |
The Vertigo imprint, launched in January
1993, has seen a number of classics that belong in the DC canon. While Vertigo has increasingly published
creator-owned material, material not part of the DC Universe’s continuity,
its earliest years were dominated by DC Universe material. Moreover, when one includes a part of
Vertigo its antecedents at DC -- such as Alan Moore’s seminal Swamp Thing --
that naturally all occurred within the DC Universe, the “Vertigo” contingent
of DC’s canon is shockingly strong, even if it rests a bit towards the margin
of that universe. The last two Sequential Culture
columns dealt in depth with Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, ranked #1, and
Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, ranked #2.
Here, then, is the continuation. |
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Read more about Grant Morrison's Animal Man on Sequart.com. |
COMING IN AT #3 is Grant Morrison’s Animal
Man. Like Gaiman, Morrison was
recruited in the wake of Alan Moore’s success on Swamp Thing. Asked to revive an obscure character for a
new ongoing, Morrison chose Animal Man; the first issue carried a September
1988 cover date. His first four
issues told a single, fairly unremarkable story, but after those he stalled
for lack of an idea. His fifth issue
-- entitled “The Coyote Gospel” -- was starkly different and would set the
pace for the remainder of his run. It
featured a Wile E. Coyote analogue who, transposed upon the DC Universe,
acquired traits of the coyote as American Indian trickster figure as well as
sacrificial traits associated with Christ.
Animal Man himself was secondary in this story that broke the fourth
wall: Coyote’s creator was the
artistic creator of his cartoon world, and the epilogue suggested such
postmodern conceits for the present issue as well. Returning to super-heroics proper,
Morrison told a story around an aging and irrelevant villain who commits
suicide (#7) as well as other offbeat super-hero tales. Environmentalism would also find a voice
(most ably in #15): after all, Animal
Man could identify with the animals whose abilities he assumed. But the postmodernity suggested by “The
Coyote Gospel” would increasingly take center stage. His origin at the hands of
extraterrestrials was questioned or complicated by his metafictional
conceit. After his family was
dramatically murdered, Animal Man killed those conspiratorial corporate
figures who were responsible.
Traveling back in time in an attempt to save his family, Animal Man
became the haunting, ghostlike figure seen earlier in the series around his
home. Increasingly, however, sly
references were made to Crisis on Infinite Earths and to past
revisions of DC continuity. This
climaxed with the appearance of limbo, a place where characters who have been
removed from continuity go (a move that predated Alan Moore’s similar conceit
in Supreme), and with the sometimes haunting appearances -- contrary
to continuity -- of several no-longer-existent characters. |
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But the reputation of Morrison’s Animal Man rests
primarily upon his final issue -- #26. |
But the reputation of Morrison’s Animal
Man rests primarily upon his final issue -- #26. There, after all the metafictional
conceits and increasingly outrageous but clever violations of continuity,
rendering Animal Man transparently a comic book above all else, Animal
Man met Grant Morrison. The
protagonist is now in our own world -- in which DC Comics produces comic
books including Animal Man -- a move not unlike the classic pre-Crisis
stories (such as in Flash) in which characters from one Earth were
comic book characters on another, including one Earth with DC Comics. In this postmodern, post-Crisis
version, the title’s writer explains to its confused and frustrated
protagonist why his life has become bizarre and hellish: because it is more dramatic, and readers
expect it. Animal Man is none too
pleased to learn that his family’s death has no more meaning than this, not
to mention that his own life will be written (following Morrison’s departure)
by another writer who will make his own manipulative changes. At one point, Morrison has super-villains
appear and fight Animal Man simply to add drama to a story that is nothing
more than a conversation -- a great rarity at the time. Morrison says goodbye to the reader as
well, recollects his childhood, and thinks back on his tenure on the title --
information often contained in a letter to readers after the story. Morrison’s Animal Man remains
fondly remembered and is available in full in three trade paperbacks. |
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Read more about Jamie Delano's Hellblazer on Sequart.com. |
RANKED FOURTH but rather under-appreciated
is Jamie Delano’s Hellblazer.
Delano was another British writer recruited by DC in the wake of Alan
Moore’s success with the company, and in this case the recruit would launch a
spin-off of Moore’s Swamp Thing.
The English magician John Constantine had been introduced by Moore
during his run, and DC was eager to capitalize on that run by spinning John
into his own title. Delano ably took
a supporting character and made from him a new and often genuinely horrific
title that was actually stronger than the original title (at least, after
Moore’s departure). |
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Delano ably took a supporting character and made from him a new
and often genuinely horrific title that was actually stronger than the original
title (at least, after Moore’s departure). |
The earliest issues of Delano’s run (#1
was cover-dated January 1988) were tied closely with Swamp Thing, then
being written by Rick Veitch. His
earliest stories featured demons playing the stock market and benefiting from
Margaret Thatcher, in a tale that (not unlike Oliver Stone’s Wall Street)
denounced 1980s’ corporate selfishness; a Vietnam story; and a cult intent on
producing the Apocalypse. Injured,
Constantine’s life was saved through a blood transfusion from a demon, having
long-lasting effects upon the character.
Hellblazer crossed over with Swamp Thing as the latter’s
then-running storyline reached its culmination. The first arc of Delano’s Hellblazer concluded (in #12,
with #13 occurring shortly thereafter) with Constantine besting the demon
responsible for the Newcastle incident, a magical spell gone horrifically
wrong, landing John in an insane asylum.
In fact, that incident had been alluded to -- but never explained --
during Moore’s run on Swamp Thing that introduced the character;
Delano fleshed out this incident as Constantine’s horrific origin, complete
with an innocent girl cast into Hell. Delano’s second storyline, entitled “The
Fear Machine,” would run from #14-22.
Somewhat meandering and lessened by artistic changes, this storyline
involving a governmental conspiracy would be less satisfying than Delano’s
first loose story arc but nonetheless possessed considerable worthwhile
qualities. This would be followed by
the brilliant #23, in which a writer is tormented by fictional characters --
including, horrifically, a Winnie the Pooh analogue -- come to life. Around the same time, Hellblazer Annual
#1 further fleshed out John’s past and introduced the concept of the
Constantines as a lineage of mages. |
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An unnamed but really rather good storyline ran in #24 and
#28-30, featuring the Family Man, an unassuming and elderly serial killer of
families. |
An unnamed but really rather good
storyline ran in #24 and #28-30. The
fantastic #24 (cover-dated November 1989 and occurring shortly thereafter
#23) introduced the Family Man, an unassuming and elderly serial killer of
families. Inhabiting the house of the
writer from #23, John shockingly discerns in the conclusion that the Family
Man is going after John’s own father -- leading John to desperately attempt
to intercept the killer. Delano let
this clifhanger ending hang, however, and #25-27 featured a two-part story by
Grant Morrison dealing with nuclear fears and (in #27) the classic “Hold Me”
by Neil Gaiman and brilliant illustrator Dave McKean. When Delano returned with #28, he tied the
storyline loosely to The Sandman #14’s serial killer convention, to
which the Family Man received an invitation.
John, never seen before with a gun, acquires one and has sex with a
whore, preparing for his confrontation with this legitimately frightening but
hardly supernatural villain. In #30’s
conclusion, (in a move not unlike that of the film Seven) John murders
the Family Man, thus becoming an outright killer himself. In #31’s informal epilogue, John releases
his father’s spirit from a spell he cast while an angry youth, echoing the
continuing theme of John’s inescapable past sins that have had real and deadly
consequence. After another issue off, Delano returned
to conclude his run in #33-40. After
the offbeat #33 came a trilogy of stories respectively reflecting a broken
John in the present, John’s wayward youth, and John’s possible future. Rehabilitating himself amongst friends,
John experienced a two-part story in #37-38 before the highly successful
two-part story in #39 and 40 (the latter illustrated by Dave McKean and
cover-dated April 1991). This
concluding tale focused on John’s survival in the womb by symbolically
strangling his twin, who becomes (through the symbolism of the tarot) the
epitome and symbolic origin of his sins.
In the end, he leaves his friends as they had feared, remaining a
psychologically damaged person from the horrors of what he has seen,
supernatural and otherwise. Delano would return in #84 (cover-dated
December 1994), following his successor’s departure, for a single-issue story
explaining how John met his longtime friend and taxi driver Chas. 1995’s The Horrorist, a two-issue
prestige format mini-series beautifully painted by David Lloyd, had John
pursue a woman who seems to be the living incarnation of human suffering the
world over. 2000’s Hellblazer
Special: Bad Blood, a four-issue
mini-series set in the future, offered a clever and amusing tale of an elderly
John Constantine and a scandal over an unknown royal daughter. Delano also wrote a short story in the
illustrated prose format for 2000’s Vertigo Secret Files: Hellblazer #1. Only Delano’s first nine issues have been
collected and are available as Hellblazer: Original Sins. |
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Read more about Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol on Sequart.com. |
THE FIFTH BEST VERTIGO STORY is Grant
Morrison’s Doom Patrol, a wild romp of super-heroes mixed with
Dadaism, pulp fiction, and chaos theory.
Morrison, then working on Animal Man, took over the title with
#19 (cover-dated February 1989). The
series had always been an odd one, focusing on super-powered outcasts not
unlike the original conception of Marvel’s X-Men, created almost
simultaneously; not unlike the X-Men, the title had become much more
conventional super-hero fare. With
his first issue, Morrison made the title take a sharp turn, becoming far, far
more weird than it ever had before.
He almost utterly changed the team’s line-up, introducing new
characters -- none more memorable than Crazy Jane, a traumatized woman with
multiple personalities, each of which had a different super-power. Negative Man, one of the team’s original
members, was recast as a transgendered spirit of negative energy. Instead of battling the Brotherhood of
Evil, the team battled the Brotherhood of Dada -- going into a painting that
had already consumed the whole of Paris in order to do so. The team battled a de-creating Apocalyptic
spirit, but that spirit’s defeat was merely the slowing down of its
de-creating energies -- as indicated by the disappearance of a pen in the
storyline’s conclusion, hauntingly suggesting that there may be more to our
own absent-mindedness than we dare contemplate. Believe it or not, the series only became
more strange as time continued. One
bizarre issue asked whether the body and not the mind was the seat of
consciousness. Morrison introduced
Danny the Street, a living street with the ability to teleport around the
world, inserting himself between existing rows of buildings -- a character
later (and bizarrely) discovered to be a transvestite. Morrison also introduced Flex Mentallo, a
parody of the familiar Charles Atlas ads in old comics that promised skinny
comics readers new muscles and the ability to take on bullies. Morrison introduced the Beard Hunter, a
villain who collected -- and appreciated as a true connoisseur -- beards. One bizarre issue was illustrated in the
style of classic comics artist Jack Kirby.
Doom Force Special #1 parodied Image Comics’ X-Force and
the so-called “Image style” that had come to dominate the sales charts at the
time. Morrison’s climactic storyline featured
the Candlemaker as its apocalyptic villain and had been foreshadowed for some
time. Niles Caulder, the
wheelchair-bound team leader known as the Chief (and who went back to the
Doom Patrol’s original incarnation), was revealed to be behind a bizarre
conspiracy and who murdered a team member.
Upon his arrival in the extra-long #57, the Candlemaker killed the
Chief and crushed the brain of Robotman, another longstanding character. #58 occurred within Robotman’s
consciousness as, human again, he cut his own flesh and found -- in
existential horror -- robotic parts beneath.
With Robotman revived, the surviving team members battled Candlemaker
in the astral form of New York City.
He was defeated, but not before casting Crazy Jane into some unseen
hell. In #62’s conclusion, Danny the
Street expands his form to encompass the world, and the outcast Doom Patrol
enters Danny the World to live in peace. |
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“The Empire of Chairs” stands as a touching story that by itself
is one of the finest comic books ever written. |
The epilogue in #63, Morrison’s last issue
entitled “The Empire of Chairs” and cover-dated January 1993, focused on
Crazy Jane, forgotten by her friends and living -- apparently -- in our
world. This move might remind us of
the conclusion of Morrison’s Animal Man, but the postmodern elements
here are subordinated to a touching tale without the author’s presence. Incarcerated in a mental institution,
Crazy Jane lives inside her mind with the Doom Patrol, her only friends. This has the potential to render the
entirety of Morrison’s run (if not of the DC Universe) as the hallucinations
of a madwoman. Her caretakers debate
shock therapy, and the dissenting doctor with whom we identify (not unlike
that of Peter Shaffer’s Equus) recognizes that, in curing her, they
will be taking away her dreams -- and her uniqueness. (We may here think of Michel Foucault’s Discipline
and Punish.) Cured through shock
treatment, Crazy Jane is just Jane -- and it is only then that she kills
herself. “The Empire of Chairs”
stands as a touching story that by itself is one of the finest comic books
ever written. |
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Flex Mentallo by itself
would warrant mention on this list.
It is, quite simply, a tour-de-force. |
Morrison would return with 1996’s Flex
Mentallo, a four-issue mini-series illustrated by Frank Quitely that by itself
would warrant mention on this list.
Granting Flex Mentallo a backstory not unlike Superman’s, the series
was filled with the most extreme elements of super-hero history, including
the notion of multiple Earths.
Morrison would go further, however, allowing these spandex-clad
super-heroes to be openly sexual -- including but hardly limited to orgies
including stretching characters, miniature and gigantic characters, and many
more. Any characterization is discarded
in favor of the chaotic energy of the wild orgy, with super-heroes and
narrative sequences interposed with alarming frequency. The story also had metafictional elements,
including unknown characters stepping into the panel and removing the
background as if it were a two-dimensional set -- which, in some sense, it
absolutely is. Moreover, a stoned and
hallucinating character talking into a mobile phone seems to be hallucinating
the entire series, which both occurs among a multi-dimensional construct of
imagination-straining worlds and occurs within the stoned character’s
mind. Flex Mentallo is, quite
simply, a tour-de-force. Only Morrison’s first seven issues have
been collected and are available as Doom Patrol: Crawling from the Wreckage. Although DC planned a trade paperback collection of Flex
Mentallo, a lawsuit from those holding the rights to the original Charles
Atlas advertisements prevented it.
This lawsuit is speculated to also be the reason further Doom
Patrol collections have not been offered, as Flex Mentallo appeared in
some of those issues as well (and DC may be reluctant to begin a reprint
series it does not wish to complete). |
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Read every Sequential Culture on
Sequart.com! Read about the author on our About page. Julian Darius can be reached at julian@sequart.com. Discuss this column online on Sequart.com’s messageboards. |
To Be Continued The
next Sequential Culture will appear in two weeks -- on Friday, 18
June. In it, Julian Darius will
continue The DC Canon by continuing his examination of the classics of
DC’s Vertigo imprint. Subsequent
chapters of The DC Canon will focus on Wonder Woman, Green Lantern,
Flash, and other DC characters. |
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