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SEQUENTIAL CULTURE #29 2 July 04 |
The DC Canon, Part 10:
Vertigo, Part 3 |
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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. Read Part 9: Vertigo, Part 2. You are reading 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 eight 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 Morrison’s Doom Patrol
fifth. Neil Gaiman’s Black Orchid
placed sixth, Gaiman’s Books of Magic seventh, and Mark Millar’s Swamp
Thing eighth. Here, then, is the
conclusion. |
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Read more about Shade,
the Changing Man on Sequart.com. |
COMING IN AT #9 is Peter Milligan’s Shade,
the Changing Man. A bizarre
series illustrated by various artists, perhaps none more than Chris Bachalo, Shade’s
protagonist was a refuge from a realm of madness, at first incarnated in the
body of Troy Grenzer -- a serial killer on death row. Accompanied for the first fifty issues by
a woman named Kathy, Shade went through multiple bizarre adventures -- and
bodies. The feeling of the stories
went from psychedelic to surreal high art. When I say bizarre, I mean it. The second and third issues featured a
Kennedy Sphinx growing in Dealy Plaza, asking who killed him -- and the whole
story is an exploration of JFK conspiracy theories and (admirably) what they
ultimately mean for us personally. The
fifth and sixth issues featured a dissection of Hollywood, with a camera that
films the stars’ sinister secrets instead of the actors themselves (a brilliant
modern take on Dorian Grey), culminating in a series of elaborate and
fantastic metacognitive shifts as cinema history becomes real. The first dozen or so issues featured The
American Scream, a sort of personification of America -- but particularly its
complicated warts. And the weirdness
just continued from there. |
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Anyone can write weird stories, but the real success of Shade
lies in its beautiful writing. This
isn’t just bizarre, it’s sophisticatedly bizarre. Shade can be blissfully strange, but it can also be
bewilderingly elegant. |
Anyone can write weird stories, but the
real success of Shade lies in its beautiful writing. This isn’t just bizarre, it’s
sophisticatedly bizarre. Shade
can be blissfully strange, but it can also be bewilderingly elegant. The intelligence of the writing stands out
even more than its subjects. Peter
Milligan has been known for his offbeat and odd stories throughout his
career, but he has rarely been given a chance to shine, unadulterated, as
clearly as he did with Shade. At present, only the first six issues are
available in trade paperback as Shade, the Changing Man: The American Scream. The title is somewhat a misnomer, as the
American Scream continued as an organizing principle for stories for enough issues
to fill a second trade paperback.
Although no subsequent collections are planned, The American Scream
ably demonstrates the sheer intelligence and uniqueness of the series -- and
why it deserves to be known as a classic. |
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Read more about Garth Ennis's Hellblazer on Sequart.com. |
NUMBER TEN is Garth Ennis’s Hellblazer. Ennis, a British writer then unknown in
America, was given the title following Jamie Delano’s departure. Ennis’s approach was much more direct and
literal than his predecessor: on any
conventional literary scale, his work was less sophisticated -- on occasion,
painfully so. But it was also -- rather
consistently -- less convoluted and more fun. Ennis’s direct stories did not, however, lack art: rather, their stripped-down feel made
their structure more visible. Ennis’s
horror was more of the shock variety than the psychological one, although both
his and Delano’s work possessed qualities of the other. But the shocks came through loud and
clear, and his stories possessed a crispness, a clarity that Delano’s work rarely
touched. |
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Wondering how he, as a young man, could hope to succeed on the
title after the departure of a celebrated writer, Ennis decided to kill John
Constantine -- or, more precisely, to give the constantly smoking John lung
cancer. |
Ennis’s run started in #41 with a
bang: wondering how he, as a young
man, could hope to succeed on the title after the departure of a celebrated
writer, Ennis decided to kill John Constantine -- or, more precisely, to give
the constantly smoking John lung cancer.
The six issue “Dangerous Habits” storyline saw John diagnosed and then
search in vein for a magical cure.
The conclusion saw Constantine find his own solution, but alienate the
Devil himself in the process. A two-issue storyline focused on a ghost followed,
then a single-issue introducing a supernatural character called The Lord of
the Dance. #50 introduced the King of
the Vampires, juxtaposing his life with John’s, and saw John in a
relationship with Kit, his dead friend’s Irish girlfriend. Taking an issue off, Ennis returned in #52
for “Royal Blood,” a highly satisfactory story about a British royal
possessed by the demon who had possessed Jack the Ripper: the four-part storyline focused at least
as much on Ennis’s vision of high society as thoroughly corrupt and
self-serving. #56 told an excellent
single-issue story, illustrated by David Lloyd and focusing on a pathetic man
who had sold his child’s soul to the devil.
A two-part story followed featuring the rather earthly supernatural
results of malevolent abuse of corpses. |
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“Guys and Dolls,” running from #59-61, really brought Ennis’s run
together as a coherent story for the first time. |
“Guys and Dolls,” running from #59-61,
really brought Ennis’s run together as a coherent story for the first
time. Recounting how Constantine had
helped Ellie, a demoness who was pregnant with the offspring of an angel --
an idea Ennis would use again in his own series Preacher -- the
storyline saw the return of the Devil from “Dangerous Habits.” In an attempt to reconcile this devil with
Lucifer from The Sandman, Ennis’s Devil was renamed The First of the
Fallen and suddenly given his own backstory and personality. The demon from #56 appeared in her hellish
form, and Ellie would become an important player as the series continued. #62 told a nice single-issue story in
which John ensured that he would be the last Constantine haunted by association
with magic. It also saw the beginning
of Steve Dillon’s run as regular penciller.
Artist William Simpson had filled that position previously, but his
real love -- despite his able talents displayed on the title -- had always
been for more hopeful, futuristic stories.
Dillon would become a regular collaborator with Ennis, lasting not
only through Ennis’s run on Hellblazer but also working on Ennis’s Peacher
and Marvel’s The Punisher. #63, in which John celebrated his fortieth
birthday, marked the beginning of the second half of Ennis’s run. This second half would mirror the first,
especially in terms of the length of the storylines. #64-66 featured “Fear and Loathing,” in
which an attack upon Kit spurred her breakup with John in the single-issue #67. Perhaps overreacting, a despondent John
became homeless and addicted to alcohol.
A two-part story followed in which John confronted for the second time
the King of the Vampires -- and, despite the vampire going back to mankind’s
mythical origins, John killed the monster.
A 13-page short story, also with John homeless, appeared in Vertigo
Jam #1. A one-issue story
focusing on Kit, without John in Ireland, followed -- itself followed by
another single-issue story in which John recovered from his depressed, alcohol-addicted,
homeless state. |
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Hellblazer Special #1, a memorable
45-page story, returned the series’s focus to The First of the Fallen and his
plans for revenge set the stage for the end of Ennis’s run. |
Hellblazer Special #1, a 45-page story featuring the
recovered John, occurred about this time.
In this memorable tale, John remembers almost becoming the boy victim
of a serial child sex offender. A
priest who has heard the Devil’s confession -- from The First of the Fallen
-- reveals to John that John too shall hear the confession before The First
of the Fallen has his deadly revenge.
The priest then graphically kills himself in a rather inventive, memorable
manner. This returned focus on The
First of the Fallen and his plans for revenge set the stage for the end of
Ennis’s run. Despite this, John took an unexplained
trip to America for the four-part “Damnation’s Flame.” The tale is mostly relevant as a
dissection of the United State’s crimes and most memorable for its wandering,
head-blown-out, politic-speak ghost of J.F.K. It also provides a nice counterbalance to the similarly four-part
“Royal Blood” and its attack upon British royalty and high society. The conclusion to “Damnation’s Flame” --
#75 -- featured an additional 14-page flashback story, illustrated by former Hellblazer
artist Will Simpson, telling of John’s earlier time with Kit when she was
still the girlfriend of John’s friend Brandon. #76 and #77 were single-issue stories, the
first seeing John talk with Brandon’s ghost when John’s return flight is
rerouted to Ireland. #78-83 comprised
“Rake at the Gates of Hell,” Ennis’s final, six-issue storyline -- the mirror
of (and in some sense conclusion to) “Dangerous Habits.” It saw the death of a number of John’s
friends, the brief return of Kit, and John’s triumph over The First of the
Fallen. #83 would be Ennis’ final
issue, making his original run some 42 issues (two of which were extra-long),
plus a short story and a special. Ennis’s run was not without its
faults. One major fault of Ennis’s
work was its apparent incompatibility with Delano’s. Ennis introduced his own past friends for
John, ignoring those created by Delano.
Of course, given that Delano had created John as an independent
character, many elements remained -- including the incident at Newcaste and
John’s relatives, although these were underplayed. Subsequent writers have integrated the two sets of friends. Perhaps a more disturbing incongruity was
that John seemed to have a younger soul when written by Ennis. Delano’s Constantine was a man in his
thirties, already old and haunted by his past: in fact, Delano’s Constantine seemed to age even more as his
run went on. Ennis’s Constantine --
despite celebrating his fortieth birthday -- felt very much like a younger
man, appropriate not to the character but to the character’s new younger
writer. Despite these faults,
however, Ennis’s run remains both memorable and enjoyable. Ennis would return to Hellblazer,
first in early 1997 with Heartland #1 -- an extra-long one-shot
focused on Kit continuing to live her life without John in Ireland. After the departure of Paul Jenkins, Ennis’s
successor as ongoing writer, Ennis returned for the five-part “Son of Man,”
running from #129-133 and focusing not on the concerns of Ennis’s own run but
rather on gangsters. Most of Ennis’s Hellblazer is
available in trade paperback form. Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits is the place to
start, as it collects Ennis’s first six-issue storyline. It is certainly worth the reading. |
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A NUMBER OF OTHER VERTIGO WORKS THAT TAKE
PLACE WITHIN THE DC UNIVERSE ARE WORTHY OF NOTE. Foremost among these are other writers of Hellblazer -- particularly
Warren Ellis, Eddie Campbell, and Brian Azzarello (in that order). |
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Warren Ellis’s take on the title was that horror is essentially
human, that what humans do to one another is more horrifying than any
campfire tales of demons and witches. |
Warren Ellis, then writing his own series Transmetropolitan
(first for DC’s Helix science-fiction imprint, then for Vertigo), was chosen
as Hellblazer’s ongoing writer following the departure of Paul Jenkins
-- although the two runs were separated by Ennis’s “Son of Man” storyline. Ellis’s take on the title was that horror is
essentially human, that what humans do to one another is more horrifying than
any campfire tales of demons and witches.
Ellis debuted with the six-issue “Haunted,” running from #134-139 and
telling of an impoverished, promiscuous, and STD-infected woman’s brutal
murder. Ellis’s take may well have
been right: few things could be more horrible
-- if not horrifying -- than the cops calling the dead woman “it.” Ellis followed “Haunted” with three single-issue
stories and one issue featuring two stories -- all of them of considerable
quality. This series of short stories
was originally intended to comprise six issues, but one issue -- named “Shoot”
and focused on school shootings -- was cancelled in the wake of the nation’s
hysterics over the Columbine school shooting. Ellis resigned, upset over this censorship, and his able but
aborted run of ten issues lacks the length or organizing narrative to rate on
this list. Ellis’s run is collected
in two trade paperbacks and deserve reading. Eddie Campbell wrote a four-issue
storyline entitled “Warped Notions” and running from #85-88, following Ennis’s
departure and the one-issue story by former regular writer Jamie Delano that
followed. Campbell’s story, illustrated
by Sean Phillips, featured a world gone slightly mad and concluded with John
in Australia, at which point Paul Jenkin’s run began. While not classic, Campbell’s storyline had
many memorable elements -- perhaps the best of which was a dead baby hollowed
out and used to smuggle drugs through an airport, an incident not at all the
result of the world’s warping but simply a mundane horror we rarely see. Brian Azzarello’s run, following Ennis’s, ran
from #146-174. His first storyline, “Hard
Time,” was illustrated by Richard Corben; Marcelo Frusin became the title’s regular
artist thereafter. Although Azzarello’s
run was hailed as a return to greatness for the title after Ellis’s controversial
departure and the fizzle that Paul Jenkin’s initially celebrated run had
become. Unfortunately, Azzarello’s
run itself fizzled -- largely due to his tendency for convoluted or
inexplicable stories. “Hard Time”
began with John in prison, and readers ignored the unanswered question of how
he got there in order to enjoy the story (despite its disappointing ending). Azzarello’s subsequent stories featured
sadomasochism, murders in America’s countryside, a snowed-in building
containing a murderer, and another new set of characters somehow involved in
a conspiracy that saw John land in jail.
Individual stories (particularly “Freezes Over”) were intelligible and
sometimes masterful, but the overall direction of the title -- including
basic questions about John’s actions and the run’s events -- remained
unclear. Azzarello’s final storyline --
“Ashes and Dust in the City of Angels” (#170-174) -- pushed readers’ concerns
over the top: the storyline began
with John’s body being found at a sadomasochistic club, and readers slowly
learned both the final secrets behind what had been happening all along and
of John’s unmentioned life as a bisexual sexual masochist. It was too much for many longtime readers,
most of whom did not seem to understand these secrets even when they were
revealed. Despite these problems with
ambiguity, Azzarello’s storylines were often of high quality on their own and
are largely available in trade paperback -- beginning with Hellblazer: Hard Time. |
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Deciding to incarnate the Sprout, Swamp Thing goes through a
series of failed attempts -- including, most memorably, a plane crash that
results in a plane full of ghosts careening about the skies. Finally, Swamp Thing brilliantly grows his
own brain to determine a solution -- an ingenious implication of being able
to change the shape of one’s body, although one rarely seen accompanying
shape-changing characters. “Waiting
for God (Oh!)” (Swamp Thing #79) probably deserves to be ranked -- by itself
-- on both this list and on the list of Superman classics. |
Beyond Alan Moore’s and Mark Millar’s work
on the title, Rick Veitch’s Swamp Thing merits attention. Veitch followed Moore on the title, and
his run (from #65 to #87) can be broken into two portions. In the first, immediately following Moore’s
conclusion, Swamp Thing discovered that, during his recent journey into outer
space, the Parliament of Trees began creating a new earth elemental -- known
as the Sprout. With Swamp Thing
returned, the inhuman Parliament plans to destroy the Sprout -- who Swamp
Thing kidnaps and hides from the Parliament while trying to deduce a more
permanent solution. Hellblazer
was launching during this time, and John Constantine was featured frequently
in Swamp Thing: although the
two title’s chronologies do not match well, one can approximately determine between
which issues of Swamp Thing the various early Hellblazer issues
occur. Deciding to incarnate the
Sprout, Swamp Thing goes through a series of failed attempts -- including,
most memorably, a plane crash that results in a plane full of ghosts
careening about the skies. Finally,
Swamp Thing brilliantly grows his own brain to determine a solution -- an ingenious
implication of being able to change the shape of one’s body, although one
rarely seen accompanying shape-changing characters. Following this, Swamp Thing possesses John Constantine to
impregnate Swampy’s human girlfriend Abby -- and the fetus becomes the body
of the Sprout. It is at this point
that the two titles most directly crossed over, as this is the only point in
either where one cannot understand one series without the other. A brief period of miscellaneous stories
followed, beginning with an annual written by Stephen Bissette, a single
issue (#77) written by Hellblazer writer Jamie Delano, and a single
issue (#78) also written by Bissette.
Rick Veitch returned with #79 -- a single-issue masterwork. In fact, “Waiting for God (Oh!)” (Swamp
Thing #79) probably deserves to be ranked -- by itself -- on both
this list and on the list of Superman classics. A true deconstructionist or revisionist
work, it features Swamp Thing going after Lex Luthor, who had been responsible
for Swampy’s exile into outer space during Alan Moore’s run. But it is not Superman’s quasi-ethical
defense of a murderous criminal that distinguishes the tale: it is the reaction of the press and of
average people to Superman, an idea later taken up more optimistically (perhaps
more naively or less cynically) by Marvel’s seminal mini-series Marvels. A group awaits Superman’s arrival while he
battles Swamp Thing in defense of Luthor (here depicted as a cynical businessman
taking sexual advantage of his employees) -- and this group complains and
gossips constantly about Superman, including his destructive effect upon
everything from children who jump off buildings in imitation to their own
sense of powerlessness -- but when Superman arrives, they all clap and can
only be wowed by this living god. It
is a real masterpiece of the super-hero medium, one a decade or so ahead of
its time with implications that super-heroics even today rarely consider. The second portion of Veitch’s run began
with the next issue (#80) and saw Swamp Thing send back through time in order
to remove him before the major alien invasion seen in DC’s crossover Invasion! The storyline saw Swamp Thing bouncing
through history, encountering historical DC characters much as Alan Moore’s
space odyssey had seen Swamp Thing encountering DC’s outer space
characters. Meanwhile, in the
present, a pregnant Abby and the rest of the cast again deal with Swamp Thing’s
absence -- eventually unearthing evidence of Swamp Thing’s presence in the
past. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman made a
rare appearance in #84. Despite the
many opportunities of such a time-traveling storyline, these are less
successful issues than Veitch’s earlier ones. In fact, Veitch never completed the storyline: #87, in which Swamp Thing witnesses the
fall of Camelot, would be the writer’s last.
#88 was to have featured Swamp Thing meeting Jesus Christ, who was to
have been depicted as a white magician.
The art for the issue was mostly finished when DC decided to censor
the story (which had previously been approved), concerned about Christian
reactions. Veitch resigned in
protest, giving Neil Gaiman and Jamie Delano a chance to back out of their
plan to jointly follow Veitch. The
title did not appear for three months, although an annual written by Neil
Gaiman appeared in this time. Doug
Wheeler would conclude Veitch’s storyline and continue as regular writer,
although his run is not fondly remembered. The first trade paperback of Veitch’s run is
planned for later this year. A few other Vertigo stories taking place
in the DC universe also merit note. Jamie
Delano’s Animal Man, particularly his first six issues (beginning with
#51), also merit attention. So too
does Sandman Mystery Theatre, a spin-off of Gaiman’s successful The
Sandman: the series focused not
on Gaiman’s Sandman but on the Golden Age Sandman during the Golden Age, as told
almost entirely in four-issue arcs.
Grant Morrison’s three-issue prestige format Kid Eternity
mini-series is also due attention. As
is Peter Milligan’s Human Target.
Of these, trade paperbacks are available only for Sandman Mystery
Theatre and Human Target. Some stories featuring Vertigo characters
before they were Vertigo characters also merit note. The classic 1970s Swamp Thing stories
of Len Wein, particularly those illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, are justifiably
fondly remembered. Although episodic
and sometimes campy, these stories of Swamp Thing back when he was a
non-elemental, muck-encrusted monster had soul and cleverness -- and they
remain fun to read. The issues in
question are those of Swamp Thing’s first series: #1-10 were those featuring both Wein and
Wrightson and are available in Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis. Also
of note are the classic 1960s Doom Patrol stories -- super-hero tales,
but ones with a particularly weird bent.
These stories fulfill the familiar but often unfulfilled promise of a
team of super-heroic outcasts (also the theme of Marvel’s X-Men, launched almost
simultaneously). They are available
in the Doom Patrol Archives series of excellently produced (though a
bit expensive) hardcovers. |
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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, 16
July. Subsequent chapters of The
DC Canon will focus on Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and other DC
characters. |
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