Writer: Jason Hall
Artists: Cliff Chiang, Dave Stewart(c)
Publisher: DC
Gratuitous nudity? Check. Swearing? Check. Hookers? Check. A certain je nais ce seediness? Check. Must be a Vertigo book. Violence against women? Check. It must be a DC book. Sexual violence against women? Check. Again it must be a Vertigo book. After Midnight Mass. I had hoped Vertigo and DC had learned something. Apparently, not.
Beware the Creeper is quite disappointing and only gains an iota of respectability through Cliff Chiang's impressive skills as an illustrator. Perhaps, the prostitution of his art will finally kick DC into motion and yield a Josie Mac trade paperback.
Ostensibly inspired by Steve Ditko's Creeper, Beware the Creeper really de-evolves a far more interesting hero. In the pages of Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane Rose Forrest watched numbly as the car holding her deceased father was pulled out of the bay. At night, a strange transformation occurred. Rose began to sleep walk, and in her slumber, she traveled down a secret passage that led into an abandoned costume shop. There, she donned a brunette wig and a leathery green uniform. There, she let loose her darker personality the Thorn who viciously cut through the ranks of the 100, the criminal organization responsible for murdering her father.
Beware the Creeper treads the same rooftops but falls flat without the intriguing element of multiple personality. What made Rose and Thorn fascinating has been abandoned in favor of weak, trite characterization. Jason Hall introduces the reader to twin sisters: one timid and the other wild. Rose was a sweetie whose life was changed by a horrible loss. You wanted to take care of her. The timid sister in Beware the Creeper is irritating. Thorn was as sexually confident as the wild sister and even told Batman, who sought her secret identity in Brave & Bold, "You don't have to hypnotize me if you want to kiss me." The wild sister however isn't wild in every facet. She's seen in the prone position often enough, but she does not fight back when raped. Had the clod attacked Thorn, the hero would have shoved the party mask he wears so far between his cheeks that only Luke Cage would have been able to remove it.
Thorn was tougher even than fellow Robert Khaniger creation Black Canary as well as her contemporary the Black Cat. I am not asking for the same level of skill, but the wild sister's behavior is ridiculous. At least show her making an effort. Hit him with an easel or a painting. Knee him in the groin. Get up, and at least try to run. Instead, she succumbs without attempting even an eye-gouge. The scene also reinforces the nauseating double standard of women being punished for their promiscuity through rape while James Bond's manliness simply nets him a lot of healthy sex.
What would have made the rape scene marginally novel and a little more acceptable, in terms of storytelling, would have been the victimization of the timid sister. It therefore would have seemed as if the wild one had not been punished for her carnal prowess, and she would have had the motivation to become the Creeper. The rape would have also broken through that vapid air she emanates throughout the chapter. Her reaction would have shown that she actually does care about something besides a good thrust between the legs.
Beware the Creeper breaks no new ground and does not even turn over ground already sown by Rose & Thorn. The sisters are throwbacks to silent cinema where damsels are in constant distress from ever so strong brute men. Rose & Thorn reflected the long, respectable tradition of female crime fighters and the women's liberation movement of the time. Rose & Thorn succeeded because both personalities were distinctively likeable. The characters in Beware the Creeper ring hollowly and have bloated egos. Not a single one of these ciphers is somebody you would actually want to meet. Well, it is a Vertigo book.
When the Creeper makes an appearance, you honestly do not care. Too much of the story has been wasted on the boring twins and the dull triangle shared with the detective-lover of the wild one. Let me save you around fifteen bucks, the detective will in a "surprise" revelation turn out to be the rapist.
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