Michael Deeley has been reading comics since he was 12 years old. His first book was an issue of Silver Surfer by Jim Starlin, leading him to see all comics as ideological conflicts with big-ass fight scenes. At the very least, he expects a comic to be entertaining in some fashion, which is why he thinks Secret Wars II is better than Dark Knight Strikes Back. He has never work in the comics field, but he does have a belligerent attitude and a lot of free time.
During his brief intervals in the real world, Michael looks for a paying job that should, (theoretically) lead to a better life involving more comics, privacy, and women.
He currently lives between Pittsburgh, PA, and the Pittsburgh International Airport, in a suburb so new, it only has one McDonalds.
“Shishogan! Eyes that only a swordsman who has cut through death itself, who was walked through the splattering blood of countless slaughters, can possess!! How has this child perfected such spirit?!” -Lone Wolf & Cub, VOl. 4, “Parting Frost”
Since this column is appearing the week of Halloween, I’ll talk about the comic books that have scared me. I don’t mean to boast, but I have a high tolerance for horror. After years of bloody movies, violent cartoons, and gory comics, I have a high tolerance for horror. It usually takes something as graphic as S&M hentai to make me wince.
Not to say some things haven’t scared me. The recently re-mastered “Exorcist” is the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. “The Blair Witch Project” shook me up so bad, I couldn’t sleep that night. And the bizarre “Phantasm” movies have always been creepy, not to mention the video games “Resident Evil” and “Eternal Darkness”, ( a game where your characters’ growing insanity leads to disturbing hallucinations, including many that involve your character’s mutilation!)
But movies are a passive entertainment: you sit and watch. Rare are the films that pull you in and make you feel like a part of the story. Video games are more interactive, but if you can’t many much progress, they become boring. Comics and books require active participation. You cast the characters’ voices. You create the setting in your mind. You select the background music. With the story’s guidance, you are scaring yourself. That’s pretty damn manipulative! I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t read many books, so I can’t think of one that scared me. (Though my brother wrote a very disturbing 3-page short story back in high school. Guy’s got a talent, I’ll tell you that.) And in all of my 14 years of comic book reading, I have found two comics that scared me. Two. I’ve just read a third one that disturbs me for other reasons that I’ll get into later.
Now, I’ve read Alan Moore’s ‘Swamp Thing’, I own all 6 TPBs of his work. I’ve read ‘From Hell’. They’re great comics, but they didn’t scary me. I’ve read some old EC horror stories. The art was great, and I liked the moral twist they had at the end. But they didn’t scare me. Maybe I didn’t “give” myself over to the books enough. Maybe the art looked enough like a fantasy to assure me it wasn’t real. I think an important element of fear is the implication that it could happen to you. That would explain why the comics I found scary are almost completely grounded in the real world.
What makes these comics scary isn’t what they show but what they make you think. The ideas behind the story, the concepts they present, the fact that another human being saw this in his head is what makes a comic scary. And after revealing all my dark thoughts in a previous column, it should be clear it takes a lot to scare me.
I’ve mentioned how the samurai in ‘Lone Wolf & Cub’ was the single most frightening character I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Goseki Kojima draws the violence with grace and intensity. It is the best choreographed slaughter ever created. Kazuo Koike’s writing creates characters driven, absolutely driven, by their emotions. You can literally feel the intensity Ogami has for his quest. These two great talents came together and created something that could only be described as perfect. ‘Lone Wolf & Cub’ will be rightly remembered as one of the greatest comic books ever made.
And because it’s so great, because Kojima depicted the violence so clearly, because Koike wrote the characters so well, the book feels alive! You’re not just reading a story: You are witnessing a man kill everyone in his path! You are watching a man become the living spirit of murder. And you’re watching his son see all this death. Daigoro knows nothing but violence from the day he’s born. Just by watching his father, he learns the spirit and behaviors of a true samurai. He feels nothing about the horror he’s seen. He has no fear of death.
The defining moment for me, and one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in a comic book, came in Vol. 2: The Gateless Barrier. Ogami is hired to kill a monk who has united peasants against their ruling samurai. This monk demands that the samurai suspend taxes on the starving populace or face open revolt, thus resulting in the emperor removing the samurai from power. When Ogmai approaches the monk, he finds himself paralyzed! The monk explains that he is one with Mu, the great emptiness from which all things come and to which all things return. He has achieved a state of purity that reflects Ogami’s death lust back onto himself. When Ogami explains how he has dedicated his life to the assassin’s road, and such a failure must mean his suicide, the monk advises him to also discover Mu; to destroy all sense of himself, except the assassin’s road. “On the great way, there is no gate, but a thousands paths to choose from. Find the gate, and you alone may walk between heaven and earth.”
Ogami retires to a mountain where wild wolves dwell. There he mediates for countless days until he has forgotten everything he’s ever known. Without speaking a word, he comes down from the mountain and collects his son. The wolves fear him. He finds the mokn being carried through town by his followers. With a single stroke, he cuts the monk down the middle. As he dies, the monk says, “Is this not good? He who perfects his path? Is this not good? The gateless barrier?” A hundred people rush at Ogami crying for his blood. He never turns around. They sudden stop, frozen in their tracks. On the way out of town, the samurai who hired him try to kill him with a dozen man. He cuts them all down, and keeps walking.
Think about what happened. Just try to get your head around the magnitude of what Ogami did. He eliminated everything connected with himself: his feelings, his ties to the past, his point of view, everything that would comprise the concept of “I”. For Ogami Itto, “he” no longer existed. He was the assassin’s road, a means to someone’s death. Ogami destroyed his humanity, and became a part of something greater.
So did his son. His 4-year-old son. What kind of monster would his son be? Ogami transcended his humanity and became a demon of death through years of training, concentration, dedication and passion. His son has done this almost from birth. Had he worked as hard as his father, what would he become? I doubt it would be human.
As scary as it is seeing a character kill everyone he sees, after this story, I no longer believed Ogami Itto could die. And anything that could kill him could not be human!
And it wasn’t. But that’s another story.
Today, (Oct. 28), I read a graphic novel about the end of the world and the Antichrist rising to power. Bot it wasn’t nearly as scary as the thought of the book’s intended audience. ‘Left Behind’ adapts the first in a series of best-selling novels about the Christian apocalypse. Written by John S. Layman, with art by Aaron Lopresti, Jeffrey Moy, Randy Emberlin, W.C. Carani, and Wildstorm FX, ‘Left Behind’ begins with millions of people worldwide suddenly vanishing. An airline pilot, who lost his wife and son to this event, turns to the local church and realizes this was the rapture. Christ has “called home” everyone who had truly accepted him into his hearts. The rest can still be saved, provided they survive the next 7 years of war, famine, plague, and death brought on by the Antichrist taking over the world. The Antichrist takes the form of a Romanian named Nicholae Carpathia, who nearly becomes Secretary-General of the U.N. Our pilot joins his pastor and others to form a resistance against Carpathia. They call themselves the Tribulation Force.
OK, I will say I like the art. It’s solid, easy to read, and in a bright, semi-realistic style. Part of me also delights in seeing the Antichrist drawn like an Aryan. On the other hand, we have the U.N. being used as the basis of a one world government, (a popular conspiracy theory in the Bible Belt), Russians being depicted as bad guys, all world currency reduced to just dollars, yen, and marks, and the only hope for salvation lies with 4 white people form the suburbs. If this scenario wasn’t so impossible, I’d say our heroes were screwed.
What scares me about ‘Left Behind’ is the thinking behind it. This story was definitely written to convert people. Maybe for Christians who don’t believe in God passionately enough, maybe it’s for ordinary people who don’t think much about religion, (like me, for example.) The book’s message is clear: Surrender yourself to God, let Him into your heart, and you will be saved. Apparently, that hurts, because every time I see a character letting God in, they’re crying a little bit.
Having just described how reading about a man abandoning everything about himself to the void scared the shit out of me, do you think I’d feel better about giving myself up to God? To coin a phrase, Hell no! I was raised Catholic, then turned Protestant, then left all churches behind. I believe not in Christ the martyr, but Christ the hero. He did not die for my sins, but lived by the true word of God. He led and taught by example. I always wondered: Did Christ return form the dead, (and I believe he did), because he was the son of God, or because he achieved a purity of spirit during his life? Was he born with divinity, or did he achieve it? I’d like to think divinity could be achieved. I’d rather be a partner of God than a servant. Just as the son must stand equal with his father, so do I believe we should stand with the Creator.
But most Christians don’t feel that way. They think you should submit to God’s will and make him the center of everything you do. Reject all secular entertainment! Eschew all this talk of feminism and “alternative lifestyles”! The Bible is the way everyone should live their lives! There is a genuine movement of religious fanaticism that is very active in politics, particularly at the local level. People who’ve closed their eyes and minds to new ideas are trying to control the way we live. Their thinking, their zealotry, is no different from Israeli suicide bombers and Muslim terrorists. Only they don’t need to kill to get their point across. They can get their own people into elected offices.
Now THAT scares me!
Finally, there is a comic so disturbing, so horrifying, that after you read it, you DIE!
About 50 or 70 years later.
Seriously, I’ve read a comic so disturbing I’ve never read it again. And yet, I’ll always remember it. It is ‘Stray Bullets’ #2, the Free Comic Book Day Edition, by David Lapham. The ‘Stray Bullets’ series, from what I’ve read, has a self-contained story in every issue dealing with the effects of violence. I’ve only read one other story, about a dim-witted thug hired to kill the first women he’d ever had sex with. But issue #2, man, that was just evil.
‘Stray Bullets’ #2 began in 1977. A little girl sees a man killed as part of a mob hit. She’s so traumatized, she doesn’t tell anybody. She becomes withdrawn and moody at school, thus making her a target for bullies and teasing. One day, she ups and wails on a particularly obnoxious tormentor. Her parents are shocked and angry, but she still won’t talk about why she did it. She’s not sure herself. Eventually, she does tell her older sister what she saw, but she says to keep quiet. Seems big sis has dealt with guys like this in the past. On Halloween, (how’s that for topical?), the girl goes out trick or treating alone. The boy she beat up finds her, and he’s brought his friends. They chase her into the woods and start beating her up. They get so carried away, they end up beating her to death. Scared and shocked, they run away, leaving her body in the woods.
That was the scariest comic I ever read: a little girl being beaten to death by mean kids. I read it in the spring of 2002, and never read it again. I just can’t go through it again. I’ve never read another issue of ‘Stray Bullets’. I don’t want to know what else Lapham had in his head.
Sometimes I think I live the life of a serial killer. Then I read a comic like that, and it reminds me I still have a heart.
Happy Samhain everyone. Lock your doors and watch your kids. There are monsters out tonight; monsters with human faces.
Lot of new books this week, so let’s do ‘em quick!
New X-Men #148 -
Logan and Jean are dying as the asteroid they’re trapped on falls into the sun. Logan kills jean just before they’re incinerated. Yeah, they’re really dead, just like Magneto, who gave the Beak the job of killing humans. You know Logan and Jean survive. You know Magneto fails big time. I’m just here for the pretty art.
Ultimate Six #3 -
Fury takes peter to the Triskellion and tells him about the breakout of his enemies. Peter freaks out when Fury won’t bring Mary Jane there too, but then he calms down. That’s it, really.
Oh, yeah, can someone tell me why The Ultimate Wasp still hangs with her wife-beating husband? Is she supposed to have a victim mentality or something? Because I just feel like hitting her myself. I mean, why would a super-powered woman with sting-rays and wings let herself get beaten? I have no respect for a woman that doesn’t respect herself
World’s Best Comics -
Wow. DC should do a monthly series of this! Sure, the Wonder Woman story is laden with B&D imagery, and the Superman story is a little dry, but we get a darn good Batman vs. Joker story. I always felt the Golden Age Joker had a supernatural quality that later versions couldn’t duplicate. The Plastic Man story is credited to Jack Cole, but I’d swear it was by Will Eisner! That art style, the morbid mix of humor and death, the full-page splash the integrated the title into the art, followed by 6 pages of densely packed panels. On the other hand, a story about an immortal mad scientist’s brain in the body of a crippled giant that walks on his hands is a little too bizarre for Mr. Eisner.
Daredevil #53 -
OK, this Echo story should have been a separate mini-series. I mean, it’s part three of the story, and DD appeared for like 5 pages. If Bendis needed a break, they should have gotten someone else to do fill-in work featuring Daredevil! It’s his damn comic! Get Winslade to do the art; he’s too talented to not do a monthly book. Bring back Denny O’Neil or An Nocetti for a nostalgic story.
Anyway, Echo revisits her tribe’s shaman and goes on a vision quest to discover her animal spirit. An obvious Marvel hero appears next issue. Seriously, I’d rather it was Sabretooth.
Solus #7 -
Solusandra tries to take the Sigil from a mind-reader/fortune teller that won’t give it up. Her resistance triggers a memory about Solusandra joining the Atlantean transition not for enlightenment, but because the guy leading it is really hot. Awash in memories, Solus goes mad. Lindy, unable to stop Solus, sends her to a random world with a sigil-bearer. Meanwhile, Danik confers with his counterparts, the orange-eyed mentors and sidekicks seen in other Crossgen comics. Groovy 70’s-style artwork aside, this was a fun comic. Solid story, more answers, more questions teased, and more George Perez art. Nice.
Negation #22 -
The crew splits between following Gammid and following Kaine. They release other members of the resistance from prison and leave just before Javi and his ligis-bearers arrive. They receive a message from Evinlea proposing an “alliance” between herself and Charon. But Javi will not allow his god to be seduced.
Now this is a real turning point in the series. Our crew looses faith in Kaine’s abilities and so does Kaine. What comes next should prove interesting.
Captain Marvel #15 -
The Shi’ar, Kree, and Skrull combine their forces to destroy Captain Marvel. They fail. Marvel calmly tells them to get their affairs in order, as he’s going to kill them all in a week. Better that than see them unite and conquer the universe. But a surprise guest star may side-track Marvel’s plans. Oh, and Rick Jones throws himself off a roof. Just when I think about dropping this book, David goes ad gets me hooked again. Damn his talent!
Batman Adventures #6 -
The plague of continuity has infected this book. A woman who isn’t properly introduced tells Bruce Wayne she’s joined a gang of villains led by Black Mask. Apparently she knows he’s Batman. She doesn’t know he’s also Matches Malone, a thug working for Firefly, another member of Black Mask’s consortium. Overall not a bad story. It was nice seeing an animated Eel O’Brian. But there’s stuff I don’t know because I didn’t read previous issues, and I won’t pick it up again.
Syn #2 -
Syn creates a robot double of herself to do work while she walks around with fake human skin stretched over her metal body. Creepy. She decides to try the impossible and transfer her consciousness into a newly clones human female. Unfortunately, she didn’t do her homework. She wakes up in a tube of fluid unable to breathe nor escape. I gotta say, the thick inking is really getting the way of my enjoyment of this comic. I’m having a hard time telling what’s going on.
Weapon X #14 -
John Paul Leon draws this story about Mr. Sinister creating a clone of Namor back in WWII. When the clone is defeated by Captain America, Sinister learns to never again underestimate the unexpected. Not a bad story. But I never thought Sinister was given a fair shake in the comics. He’s supposed to be this brilliant geneticist who’s been manipulating events and breeding for over a hundred years. He’s a subtle, manipulative villain who works towards the long-term goals. And that just doesn’t work in superhero comics. It’s anathema to the genre. Hero books area bout fight scenes, action, and quick payoffs. Not only is Sinister difficult to work into a series that isn’t mapped out months or years in advance, he was created to resolve loose plot threads in ‘Uncanny X-Men’. The guy’s been plugging continuity holes ever since. C’mon, guys, he’s an immortal mad scientist who experiments on humans and he looks like Dracula! Let’s see him do something REALLY evil for once!
Adventures of Superman #621 -
Babies all over the city have been turned into big insectoid monsters. A new hero called Minuteman says it’s the first sign of alien monsters coming to Earth to mate. Several dumb things going on here: 1. Minuteman claims he’s used acupuncture and reflexology, the manipulation of pressure centers in his feet, to enhance his strength, speed, and reflexes. That has GOT to be the STUPIDEST origin of powers I’ve EVER HEARD! 2. How’s a new-age hero going to know about two alien insect-gods coming to Earth anyway? 3. The last page, which shows these monsters coming to Earth, is narrated by Superman in the first person. This is the only page to feature such, indeed any, narration. This should have been the first page of the next issue, rather the last page of this one. 4. The whole baby/bug thing wasn’t as creepy as it could have been, but that’s just my opinion.
Finally, all the rest:
The Prisoner: Shattered Visage, comic book sequel to the TV show; Uncanny X-Men #278-280; X-Factor #69 and 70; Doublecross by Tony Consiglio, from Top Shelf Comics; Wiener Dog Art: A Far Side Collection; James Kolchaka’s Sketchbook Diaries Vol. 3; and The Tick: Luny Bin, Bonanza Edition.
It’s 2 A.M. I really should do this earlier, but I’m so caught up in my Pokemon Pinball and Starfox Adventures videogames. I can’t even think about next week. Maybe an all-Cerebus review. Yeah, full plot summaries on every Cerebus story to date. Shit, I can do half of that from memory.
