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Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore 2003 (SC TPB) 208 pages
Written by Alan Moore. Pencils by Dave Gibbons, Jim Baikie, George Freeman, Rick Veitch, Klaus Janson, Bill Willingham, Kevin O'Neill, Joe Orlando, Paris Cullins.
Reprinting:
Superman
Annual #11, Vigilante #17-18, DC Comics Presents #85,
Batman Annual #11, plus the Green Arrow story from Detective
Comics 549-550, back up stories from Omega Men #26, 27, Tales
of the Green Lantern stories from Green Lantern #188, Tales of
the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2, 3, and one of the stories from Secret
Origins #10 (1985-1987)
Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1 (some stories more)
Additional notes: intro by Dave Gibbons; some covers.
Published by DC Comics
This has been subsequently re-issued (and possibly re-titled) with some additional material.
One is hard pressed to imagine a comic book writer that
has become more revered, critically, than Alan Moore. The very fact that
DC Comics has released this disparate collection of stories is a testament
to Moore's perceived stature.
Now, the catch is, I've never been that huge a fan of
Alan Moore. I like some of his stuff, I certainly find works like The
Watchmen impressive, but I just don't think he's as great as a lot
of other people do. Perhaps the best illustration of my qualms is in artist
Dave Gibbons introduction, in which he states that Moore's work "connects
on both an intellectual and emotional level." Although I readily concede
that Moore's stuff can be intellectually clever (at least, at times) I
find that emotionally, his stuff often doesn't click. His approach to story
and characters often seems more abstract than emotive.
Moore rocketed to stardom with a long run on the revived
Swamp Thing, but his work in the rest of the DC Universe was more spartan,
and I think this collection assembles most of it. The stories here range
from super hero stories involving Superman, Batman, etc., to some science
fiction tales that filled the back pages of comics like Green Lantern
and The Omega Men.
Of his super hero tales, the Batman Annual (illustrated
by the all too infrequently seen George Freeman) is probably my favourite,
as Moore revisits Clayface III, a Len Wein character first introduced in
the 1970s (in a story included in Batman: Strange
Apparitions). Even here, Moore kind of sacrifices the pathos of the
character for the irony, as the story is largely told from the point of
view of this demented misfit, hopelessly in love with a lifeless mannequin.
Clayface concocts an entire relationship with a wax figure, a relationship
torn apart by jealousy and suspicion that's entirely in his head. Though
Batman himself doesn't show up till half way through.
The Superman Annual is one of the most wildly hailed Superman
stories around, and was previously included in the 1987 edition of The
Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told (I review it in greater detail
here)
but I never quite regarded it as well. Superman also appears, co-starring
with Moore's signature character, Swamp Thing, in the team up story from
DC Comics Presents, but the story -- about Superman contracting a fatal
disease -- is rather thin and weakly resolved and kind of aloof from the
characters.
A two part Green Arrow back up story from Detective Comics
is O.K. but largely forgettable.
The two part Vigilante story is a reasonably effective
suspenser, with nicely realist art by Jim Baikie, but likewise, doesn't
entirely stand out. The Vigilante comic was, I think, aimed at mature readers,
and with its story of a child molester, and his grisly end, seems out of
keeping with a book including Batman and Superman stories. The Vigilante
was, basically, DC's answer to the Punisher, and treads the same morally
questionable terrain, but I guess I can't criticize Moore for not dealing
with that given that it was an established series.
Though it maybe illustrates a problem with this book.
Featuring as it does stories from a decade and a half earlier, it might
benefit from notes to better orient a modern reader who might be unfamiliar
with long cancelled comics like Vigilante, or the existence of a Green
Lantern Corps. Nor is it fully explained that Moore's Phantom Stranger
origin story was one of four "origins" posited for that enigmatic character
in an issue of Secret Origins, and isn't necessarily meant to be
taken as the "real" one.
Where Moore's stuff shines best is in the five short science
fiction tales, often benefiting from clever twist endings and an imaginative
exploration of what alien environments and circumstances might entail.
A world without light poses a special dilemma for Green Lantern, Katma
Tui, while how does an invading army conquer a planet that exists in a
different time frame? Most of these pieces are quite good and memorable.
I've muttered before that one could construe, perhaps
unfairly, an uncomfortable misogynist streak in some of Moore's work, and
seeing these stories all lined up together, you can't help but notice it
more. To be fair, if you're looking for anything you can probably
find it, even if it's not there. But women seem to bear the brunt of the
violence -- Wonder Woman gets the stuffing beat out of her in the Superman
story, Black Canary ends up in the hospital in the Green Arrow story, the
Batman-Clayface story turns into a long diatribe (by an, admittedly, disturbed
villain) about the wantonness of women. Etc. Viewed in that context, one
of the twist endings to Moore's sci-fi tales is more uncomfortable than
clever.
I'm not really saying any of that was Moore's intent,
or even there, but Moore is a writer who demands to be taken seriously,
and his work be analysed -- so that's all I'm doing.
Ultimately, Across the Universe doesn't change my opinion
of Alan Moore, but it's a decent enough collection of different stories,
giving you a glimpse at the DCU circa the 1980s, with the short SF tales
often more memorable than the longer super hero stories. Though, interestingly
enough, nowhere, not even in Dave Gibbons intro, is it mentioned that Moore
had a bitter falling out with DC, and the reason all these stories are
from years ago is because he hasn't worked for the company since.
Cover price: $32.95 CDN./$19.95 USA.
The
Aladdin Effect 1985 GN 64 pgs.
Written by David Michelinie (story by Jim Shooter). Pencils
by Greg LaRocque. Inks by Vince Colletta.
Colours/letters: unbilled.
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Published by Marvel Comics in over-sized tabloid format; Marvel Graphic Novel #16
A Wyoming town finds itself cut off from the rest of the
world -- literally. Surrounded by a force field the town is threatening
to degenerate into a no man's land of street gangs as the limited resources
of food and power gradually become exhausted. Why this is happening, or
how it can be combated, no one knows, not even the local sheriff. The sheriff's
eight year old daughter, Holly-Ann, meanwhile, is a big fan of super heroes
and wish some would rescue them. Pretty soon, the She-Hulk, Storm, the
Wasp, and Tigra mysteriously find themselves in the town, with no memory
of how they got there. And then the bad guys show up...
The Aladdin Effect is a solid, slightly off-beat adventure,
teaming some of Marvel's second string heroines in a tale that shows they
can take centre stage pretty well. Writer David Michelinie does a good
job of capturing their various personalities, which isn't always the case
with a team up by a writer who might not be that familiar with all the
characters. The graphic novel starts out particularly nicely, with its
grim, moody portrait of desperation, gradually developing its story even
before the super people show up. Once the villains make themselves known
the story loses some of its eerie mood, but it nonetheless maintains interest,
even turning into a paean to the Human Spirit -- albeit a hokey, heavy
handed one -- as the town folks themselves rise up against their oppressors.
Interestingly, it could be argued the story bears more
than a few similarities to the Stephen King-scripted mini-series, Storm
of the Century, which was made more than fifteen years after this
was published. In both stories you have a town cut-off from the outside
by a malevolent force that says it wants something from the town, but won't
say what, and where a central character is the local sheriff. There's even
another parallel, but I won't say what for fear of giving too much away.
There's a difference in spirit though (well, aside from
the obvious of one being a super hero adventure and the other a horror
tale). The Aladdin Effect, as noted, is about people triumphing over their
baser instincts, while King's mini-series was more about people being defeated
by their baser instincts.
The art by Greg LaRocque and Vince Colletta is of a kind
of unspectacular but reasonably effective, unstylized comicbook art. The
kind that tells the story. Which means, though it could have been better,
it could have been a lot worse, too. The painted colours, uncredited, are
also nicely effective in an unsplashy way.
These early Marvel Graphic Novels often flirted with the
idea of being "mature readers" stories, perhaps as a way of justifying
the "prestigious" format. On one hand, the Aladdin Effect doesn't go where
you might expect with a book featuring a bunch of heroines -- LaRocque
doesn't indulge in cheesecake poses and there's no actual nudity (though
it comes close in a couple of panels). The main indulgence is the way nipples
seem to project against the fabric of shirts with a little more frequency
than in a Comics Code Approved comic. However, there's one scene involving
the attempted gang rape of a temporarily amnesiac Wasp, a scene that seems
more graphic than one would expect in a regular comic. The point about
all this lurid dwelling on any perceived raciness is that the Aladdin Effect
features as one of its focal characters, perhaps the focal character,
eight year old Holly-Ann. Telling a story with a child as protagonist would
seem to imply a story aimed at younger readers...as such, some of the grittier
material, however subtle the distinction between it and what might appear
in a regular comic, is...awkward.
With that being said, the use of a youngster doesn't alienate
an adult reader, Holly-Ann avoiding being too cloying or cutesy a personality.
The Aladdin Effect may not be a classic, per se, but it's
a slightly off-beat, nicely absorbing read.
Original cover price: $6.95 CDN./$5.95 USA
Alpha Flight Classic 2007 (SC TPB) 192 pages
Written and illustrated by John Byrne.
Colours: Andy Yanchus. Letters: various. Editor: Denny O'Neil.
Reprinting: Alpha Flight (1st series) #1-8 (1983-1984)
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: a few times over the years
Published by Marvel Comics
Alpha Flight, the American comic about a Canadian super team, has always been a bit like the way a lot of Americans think of Canada -- they sort of like it, but they aren't entirely sure what to make of it.
The team's creation was an evolution involving happenstance and necessity. It began when writer Len Wein wrote a Hulk story with the Hulk in Canada and decided to face him off against a Canadian super hero, and so created Wolverine. Then, when Wein was helping to revamp the floundering X-Men comic, and it was decided to give the "new" team a more international flare, he recruited Wolverine as one of the team. Then, to give background to Wolverine, a later X-Men comic had him square off against a fellow Canadian super hero, Vindicator, and, still later, to have the whole X-Men fight a Canadian team -- and Alpha Flight was born.
And a legend began. Despite only having the occasional guest appearances, Alpha Flight developed a bit of fandom, so, eventually, they got their own series -- multiple series, actually. The first run ran a healthy ten years, then the team (with major cast changes) was tried for a couple of less successful runs (including a critically poorly reviewed humourous take on the team). The team now exists, mainly only as an echo, in the current Omega Flight -- a kind of offensive concept in which the new "Canadian" team is actually comprised mainly of American heroes come to Canada to deal with a burgeoning super villain problem that Canadians are, apparently, unable to deal with.
But getting back to the original series. Despite running for a decade, even a lot of fans seem to regard it as a mixed bag, creatively speaking, most citing the earliest issues by John Byrne as the series at its best. Byrne, a British-born, Canadian-raised, American comic giant, co-created the team during his tenure on the X-Men (actually, he is usually credited as the sole creator -- yet those X-Men issues were written by Chris Claremont). But even Byrne, apparently, had mixed feelings about the team -- I believe I read that he hadn't really been interested in doing the monthly series, but was kind roped into it by the Marvel brass. And, ironically, though Byrne was the only person with a Canadian background to ever work on this "Canadian" team -- I believe he subsequently moved to the States and has occasionally made derogatory comments about Canada in editorials and letters pages (a Next Men letter column comes to mind).
Anyway, maybe because of the Omega Flight series, Marvel has now collected the first eight issues of the original series as Alpha Flight Classic (presumably with other volumes down the line if sales warrant -- though why Marvel didn't just go for one of its massive "Essential" collections, I dunno). And it starts out pretty good. I say that as someone who has become rather ambivalent about Byrne over the years. I loved his detailed, meticulous art on the X-Men and such as a kid, but when Byrne became a writer-artist, I was never as fond of his writing, in general, and found that the more hats he wore (writer-artist-inker) and the more projects he took on (at the same time he was doing Alpha Flight, he was also doing Fantastic Four and a few other comics), he just seemed to be spreading himself too thin, his art getting rougher and sloppier, his once detailed backgrounds more and more Spartan, etc.
Still, the opening double-sized issue is pretty good, as the team (which had recently disbanded in an X-Men comic) reunites and takes on a giant monster. This is followed by a three-part tale that is also fairly strong, with the team in the desolate Arctic and taking on their first original super foe -- the (blandly named) Master. Though here we see Byrne's unfortunate trendency to throw in guest stars willynilly, as both the Sub-Mariner and the Invisible Woman crop up in the final issue (Alpha Flight's second solo adventure and already they're being shoved aside for guest stars!) and Byrne's art begins to get a bit less polished. Still, the plotting is reasonably interesting, and the development of the characters and their interaction promising. And the art is still more good than bad.
What Byrne starts to do, though, is an unusual, but problematic idea. As Alpha Flight was a team basically existing in its own universe (well, its own geographic area), Byrne starts to play with the idea of it being less a team, than a group of individuals, as the next few issues tend to focus on the characters in various solo adventures -- but his plotting isn't really that interesting, and the characters often work less well in isolation from each other. Still, the next few issues give us a solo Puck story (recovering in hospital, he uncovers criminal activity), a solo Snowbird tale, and a two-parter forcusing on siblings Northstar and Aurora. And also some "gimmick" ideas that can be more annoying than entertaining, such as the Snowbird tale in which much of it takes place during a blizzard so Byrne, cheekily, presents much of it in blank white panels, with only word balloons and sound effects -- a gimmick I might've objected to less if it was incorporated into the story, such as having Snowbird be as blind as the reader, so that the trick can seem intended to let us experience it from her perspective -- but she and the villain can see fine, Byrne just doesn't bother to draw anything (told ya he seemed as though maybe he was being overworked with too many comics).
Along the way, Byrne also fills in some of the origins of his cast with short back up tales.
It's interesting reading some of this in light of later revelations. Northstar would eventually be outted as one of comicdoms first gay heroes. I once saw an interview with Byrne where he claimed, though he intended Northstar to be gay all along, he objected to it becoming open, preferring it more as cryptic hints (a kind of oddly reactionary attitude -- Byrne proudly admits to creating a gay character, but feels the character should've stayed in the closet?) Anyway, in the Northstar/Aurora tale, they encounter an old friend of Northstar -- a friend whose past relationship to Northstar is rather ill-defined, who dresses somewhat effeminately, and who Northstar is shocked to learn has a daughter -- though why he should be shocked is not stated. In other words, read in light of later revelations, you can infer that Byrne really was laying hints of a homosexual background for Northstar.
Ultimately, though I have mixed feelimgs about these issues, I guess I'd actually have to say this is an okay run, with the opening two stories pretty good. Of course, this doesn't form a story arc, per se, with a few sub-plots introduced and left dangling. And I still think a massive Essential Alpha Flight collection would've made more sense, as Marvel could've then collected the entirety of the Byrne run between a single cover.
This is a review of the stories as they were published in the original comics.
Cover price: $ __ CDN./ $24.99 USA.
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