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SEQUENTIAL CULTURE #28 18 June 04 |
The DC Canon, Part 9: Vertigo,
Part 2 |
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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. Read Part 8: Vertigo, Part 1. You are reading 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 three Sequential Culture
columns considered the top five DC Universe Vertigo stories ever
published. Alan Moore’s Swamp
Thing ranked #1, while Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman ranked #2. Grant Morrison’s Animal Man placed
third, Jamie Delano’s Hellblazer fourth, and Grant Morrison’s Doom
Patrol fifth. Here, then, is the
continuation. |
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NUMBER SIX is Neil Gaiman’s Black
Orchid, a three-issue prestige format mini-series illustrated by the
masterful Dave McKean, perhaps best known as The Sandman’s cover
artist. As with The Sandman,
Gaiman did not so much reinvent an existing character as create a new
one. In fact, DC created The
Sandman for Gaiman to create a higher public profile for the British
creator, since prestige format mini-series generally need a known creator
attached; as it turned out, Black Orchid appeared before The
Sandman anyway. |
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The anti-climactic and beautifully painted series began with the
existing Black Orchid being mercilessly shot, her killer explaining that he
wasn’t about to reveal his plans or leave her in some deathtrap. From that moment onward, the expectations
of the super-hero genre were shattered.
The series is most memorable for its beautiful quietness. |
The anti-climactic and beautifully painted
series began with the existing Black Orchid being mercilessly shot, her
killer explaining that he wasn’t about to reveal his plans or leave her in
some deathtrap. From that moment
onward, the expectations of the super-hero genre were shattered, but (unlike,
for example, Grant Morrison’s work) this new form of super-hero story focused
on characters and on quiet moments rather than on weirdness or over-the-top
elements. The gunmen in the third
issue were repelled without a shot, and reportedly readers of the series kept
looking for a fourth issue that would presumably feature a climactic
fight. None was to come, and the
series is most memorable for its beautiful quietness. The series featured Swamp Thing, uniting
the vegetable-oriented Black Orchid with Swamp Thing, who Alan Moore had made
a plant elemental. In fact, Gaiman
was slated to co-script Swamp Thing along with Hellblazer
writer Jamie Delano following Rick Veitch’s departure, and Black Orchid
along with Swamp Thing Annual #5, also written by Gaiman, may be seen
as Gaiman’s groundwork for his coming run.
Ultimately, however, both writers opted out after Veitch departed Swamp
Thing early over DC’s censorship of his work. Gaiman Black Orchid is available in
trade paperback. With the launch of Vertigo in 1993, DC
sought to expand the fledgling imprint’s line-up with an ongoing Black
Orchid series. Written by Dick
Foreman and primarily illustrated by Rebecca Guay, the 1993-1995 series
lasted a mere 22 issues and one annual, crossing over with Swamp Thing
early in its run. The series
concluded with Gaiman’s Black Orchid dying and being replaced by Suzy, the
younger Black Orchid. |
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Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic (1990-1991), a four-issue
prestige format mini-series with each issue featuring beautiful painted
artwork by a different artist, took us on a tour through the world of magic
in the DC universe, even running throughout time until the end of the
universe. Read more about Neil Gaiman's Books of Magic on Sequart.com. |
NUMBER SEVEN is Neil Gaiman’s Books of
Magic (1990-1991). A four-issue
prestige format mini-series with each issue featuring beautiful painted
artwork by a different artist, Books of Magic was focused around new
character Timothy Hunter, a boy who would grow up to be the world’s greatest
magician. The series took young Tim
-- and thus us readers -- on nothing less than a tour through the world of
magic in the DC universe, even running throughout time until the end of the
universe. Almost all of DC’s magical
characters appeared in some form, with four of them -- including The Phantom
Stranger, John Constantine (from Hellblazer), Doctor Occult, and
Mister E -- meeting to introduce the young Tim Hunter to the world of magic. Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing had
featured similar tours, albeit on a lesser scale. Gaiman’s Tim Hunter was slightly less than compelling, and the
series is remembered for its ambitious expansion of the universe-wide magical
tour that Moore had done earlier. A
simple story stuffed with myriad elements, it is also remembered as beautiful
both in its painted art and its writing.
It is available in trade paperback. If this sounds a bit like Harry Potter,
perhaps it should. The Harry Potter
series of novels came later and similarly starred a young, prodigious
magician. Although a spectacular hit,
later adapted into a series of movies, the novels were not as well written as
Gaiman’s Books of Magic and are largely childrens’ fare. Nor do they have the beautiful
illustrations of the comic book. It
has been a source of some frustration for sophisticated comic book
aficionados that Harry Potter has reaped such popular success while Books
of Magic has not. This is only accentuated by the sequels to
the original mini-series. Books of
Magic was most directly followed by 1991’s Mister E, a four-part
mini-series. With the launch of the
Vertigo imprint in 1993, DC saw the opportunity to augment the Vertigo
line-up with an ongoing Books of Magic series. It would launch out of The Children’s
Crusade, a crossover running in late 1993 throughout Vertigo’s annuals --
including Arcana Annual #1. DC
was planning to title the ongoing Books of Magic series Arcana
(which means magical books), but thought better of it. An ongoing Books of Magic series
started in early 1994. It lasted
several years and spun off a few mini-series before being cancelled, and it
is available in a series of trade paperbacks. DC relaunched the series with the five-part Names of Magic
series, followed by an ongoing entitled Hunter: The Age of Magic, lasting just over a couple years. In 2004, a new series entitled The
Books of Magick: Life During Wartime
was launched. The varying directions
of these series, and their repeated lack of success, has only added to the
frustration of those comic book lovers who dislike Harry Potter. |
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Read more about Mark Millar's Swamp Thing on Sequart.com. |
RANKED EIGHTH is Mark Millar’s Swamp
Thing, primarily illustrated by Phil Hester, running from #140
(cover-dated March 1994) to #171 (cover-dated October 1996), the title’s
final issue. Millar started his run
with a four-part storyline co-written by Grant Morrison, a frequent
collaborator of Millar. What followed
were four storylines, each focused around a single element: earth, water, air, and fire
(respectively). |
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Alan Moore had famously redefined Swamp Thing as an earth
elemental, but by the time of Millar’s run, the notion of elementals themselves
needed consolidation. So too did the
very notion of what constituted an “earth elemental.” |
Alan Moore had famously redefined Swamp
Thing as an earth elemental. As
vegetable-related characters appeared and were intellectually consolidated in
the pages of Swamp Thing, various elementals of other elements had
appeared throughout the DC Universe.
For example, Firestorm, a fairly longstanding character, was briefly
(and fairly successfully) transformed into a fire elemental. Other notions of elementals played a bit
loose with the concept: Captain Atom
was even redefined as a “quantum elemental” (albeit in rather readable
stories). By the time of Millar’s
run, the various DC titles featuring elementals (largely cancelled)
conflicted with each other, and the title that started it all -- Swamp
Thing -- had largely avoided exploring, defining, or expanding the
concept, preferring other types of stories instead. The notion of elementals themselves needed consolidation. So too did the very notion of what
constituted an “earth elemental.” It
had long become clear that Swamp Thing was not, strictly speaking, an earth
elemental but rather a plant elemental:
between animal, vegetable, and mineral, Swamp Thing clearly came down
in the second -- yet was called an earth elemental. The Vertigo title Animal Man, under writer Jamie Delano,
had defined its protagonist as an animal elemental, using “the red” as its
unifying field much as Alan Moore had used “the green” in Swamp Thing. But Delano’s revision to Animal Man,
like so many DC elementals before, didn’t hold in his subsequent
appearances. And the idea of a
mineral elemental had been left unexplored. This was the terrain into which Mark
Millar strode as Swamp Thing’s new writer: the character needed redefinition, and past writers had not
risen to the challenge. Millar, who
was then not a known commodity to American audiences, would do so. Millar’s first storyline as solo writer,
running from #144-150, sought to redefine Swamp Thing as an earth elemental. He created a Parliament of Stone, the
mineral equivalent to the vegetable Parliament of Trees, and created earth
elementals of the stone variety. The
somewhat confusing storyline would see the vegetable and mineral parts of the
earth element battle it out, ending in Swamp Thing becoming the elemental of
both -- said to make him an earth elemental for the first time. Millar had left out animal elementals,
however good the intent. And the
theme of a battle between factions of the earth elemental family had been
used previously -- although less successfully -- by Doug Wheeler in his final
storyline, running from #104-109 and featuring a battle between green and
grey plant elementals. Millar would redeem himself with “River
Run,” running from #151-158. Although
unified by various “elements,” the storyline mostly consisted of single-issue
stories telling of alternate realities:
#153 memorably told of an alternate reality in which the Nazis won the
war and, years later, their puppet American President deals with his
knowledge of the Holocaust; #154 focused on Abby Arcane, longstanding Swamp
Thing’s former wife, making explicit the longstanding implicit theme of
incest between herself an her uncle and Swamp Thing’s arch adversary, Anton
Arcane. The storyline culminated with
the introduction of the Parliament of Waves and with Swamp Thing becoming the
water elemental as well as that of earth. #159-164 did the same for air, introducing
the Parliament of Vapors. It was a
somewhat disappointing storyline, however.
Perhaps more notable was #165, a single-issue story that seemingly
took place outside of continuity.
Opening with a satirical letter apologizing for the issue’s content,
it saw Chester Williams, a longstanding hippie character who had been a friend
to Abby, “see the light” and become a right-wing asshole. To make matters worse, the issue was
illustrated by classic Superman artist Curt Swan shortly before his death. |
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Millar had taken the protagonist and made him impossibly distant
from his readers. More remarkably, he
had made this move not only work but thrill. |
Millar redeemed any missteps or
disappointments along the way with his utterly brilliant final storyline,
“Trial by Fire,” entirely illustrated by Phil Hester and running from
#166-171. It began a year after Swamp
Thing had become an air elemental.
Swamp Thing -- now avatar of earth, water, and air -- had created a
massive palace in the shape of the Mendelbrot Set and filled with statuary
and intricate patterns made of earth, water, and air. His consciousness was utterly
unapproachable, and he seemed intent upon wiping out humanity once and for
all -- a longstanding desire of various DC elementals. Millar had taken the protagonist and made
him impossibly distant from his readers.
More remarkably, he had made this move not only work but thrill. In Millar’s rapidly paced final six
issues, seemingly every important character from the entire series would
reappear -- and be brilliantly redefined in the process. The villainous Floronic Man, brought into
the series by Alan Moore’s classic “The Anatomy Lesson,” was sent to visit
Swamp Thing and talk him out of it -- finding out in the process that Swamp
Thing actually was his enormous, intricate palace. John Constantine appeared, and major --
even noticeably lacking -- elements of his past were filled in through
flashback. Abby and Téfé, Swamp
Thing’s half-human, half-elemental child with Abby, also appeared. Perhaps most memorably, the demonic Anton
Arcane was reintroduced as a Christian convert, a move that suggested that anyone
could be saved and that reaffirmed the ability of the human soul to
surprise. Anton Arcane, who we had
been taught since Swamp Thing’s earliest appearances to see as the
incarnation of evil, was more the good guy than the unfathomable Swamp Thing
himself. |
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Just as the problems of the various elementals had become clear
over the years before Millar, so too had it become clear that the
environmentalist desire to purge the planet by eliminating humanity -- no
more or less violent or natural, however devastating the effects of
humanity’s historically new industrial technology, than any other species --
was intrinsically a human desire.
In other words, only humans want to save the Earth from humanity. |
Most revelatory, perhaps, was the
conclusion. Swamp Thing acquired the
power of fire, intending to use it to purge the planet. But, just as the problems of the various
elementals had become clear over the years before Millar, so too had it
become clear that the environmentalist desire to purge the planet by
eliminating humanity -- no more or less violent or natural, however
devastating the effects of humanity’s historically new industrial technology,
than any other species -- was intrinsically a human desire. In other words, only humans want to save
the Earth from humanity. Millar had
seen this and would solve this too.
As Swamp Thing acquired the power of fire, he found himself raised again
in consciousness -- losing his desire to purge the Earth and becoming the
elemental of the entire planet Earth.
He found a Parliament of Planets, with personifications of the other
planets in our solar system, and took his place there -- his consciousness
elevated beyond even the human concern for humans. Just as Mark Millar had made Swamp Thing
an earth elemental, rather than just a vegetable one, so Millar had now made
Swamp Thing the Earth elemental. #171 was not only Millar’s final issue --
it was the last issue of the celebrated series. Nonetheless, it was a stunning storyline, and I can think of no
better model for what the final storyline of a title should be. Millar would labor in obscurity for years,
doing occasional work on titles such as Superman Adventures, before
being chosen by Warren Ellis as Ellis’s successor on The Authority --
a controversial and edgy title that Millar brilliantly made even more so,
thus launching his career as one of comics most popular writers. Despite Millar’s popularity, his Swamp
Thing work has yet to be collected -- perhaps due to his public falling
out with DC over DC’s censorship and mishandling of his work on The
Authority. Swamp Thing,
meanwhile, would reappear in late 1999’s Totems, which essentially ignored
Millar’s work. A new Swamp Thing
series, with Téfé -- now an angry young woman -- as the protagonist had a
mercifully brief life of 20 issues in 2000-2001. Another Swamp Thing series was launched in 2004. |
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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 Concluded The
next Sequential Culture will conclude the Vertigo section of The DC
Canon and will appear in two weeks -- on Friday, 2 July. Subsequent chapters of The DC Canon
will focus on Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and other DC characters. |
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