The Pickytarian

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February 24, 2005

Subway Reading: Seven Soldiers of Victory

Seven Soldiers of Victory #0 - In his recent run on JLA Classified, Grant Morrison dropped that little nugget about Batman's "sci-fi closet," where the caped crusader keeps his various boom tubes and other cosmic devices. "Don't tell my friends in the G.C.P.D.," Batman says with a wink, acknowledging the uncomfortable juxtaposition of his JLA cosmic adventures and his street-level urban crime-fighting. In this prelude to his year-long Seven Soldiers epic, Morrison delves even further into the narrative difficulties that are created by market-driven editorial decisions such as sending Batman into outer space or putting him on the Justice League. The character of Shelly "Whip(?)" Gaynor expresses her motivations for leaving her "morally ambiguous urban vigilante" life behind to join a super-team and try to save the universe: the thrills aren't enough anymore. These characters are pulled through their fictional lives by the publishers, creators, and fans who want to see Batman in a spaceship, blowing up a rogue Superman with a Kryptonite missile, narrative logic be damned. The reader needs to fill in the blanks with rationalizations and justifications for the silliness of the entire charade. In Seven Soldiers, Morrison recognizes this conflict, points it out, and settles it nonetheless. This book is super-hero comics for the self-aware, post-post-modern, 21st-century fan that wants to have his cake and eat it too. I want the thrill of a kewl action scene, but I don't have much patience for one-dimensional characters that are oblivious of the contrived nature of their circumstances. "How do you know when you've become a super-hero and not just a crazy fetish-person with a death wish?" For the characters, there needs to be a difference, but in our heart of hearts, we readers don't want one without the other.

As he did in The Invisibles, Morrison delivers the visceral thrills along with the meta-textual commentary like nobody else can. I give him extra points for doing it in the context of this mega-crossover publishing "event." Much like the space-faring urban vigilante, the idea of seven related mini-series owes much more to the economics of comic publishing than narrative necessity. Rather than pretending that these external forces don't exist, Morrison revels in them and thereby renders them powerless. This is what sells the conceit of the whole thing to a jaded cynic like myself.

Without artist J.H. Williams III, of course, the entire endeavor could easily fall flat. As he has shown for years in the pages of Promethea, Williams is the go-to guy for meta-textual comic art. The very "infrastructure" of the comic page becomes a malleable tool in his hands. The meandering, fractal-like panels communicate the reality-altering nature of the story and characters that they contain. One of Will Eisner's most important lessons was not to take squared-off black and white panel borders for granted. It's not an easy task, but the artist who masters this technique has a very powerful tool at his disposal. The very first page uses a meticulously rendered, gnarled old tree trunk and limbs to divide the action into panels. This tree can be read on so many levels: as a representative member of the scene's physical setting; as a symbol of the generations-old mysteries that haunt the swamp; as a metaphor for the branching nature of reality with which the character is about to become acquainted.

Williams' mastery of storytelling is complemented by his knockout draftsmanship. The careful hatching and detailed pen work on the western vista scenes bring to mind the style of classic Western comic artist John Severin. The minimalist grace with which he depicts Gimmix communicates her classic glamour; in fact it places her a little too far back in time, which is spot-on perfect considering the "slightly past her prime" nature of the character. There are not many other comic artists who can give the viewer so much information in so many clever ways.

Honestly, I could probably sit here and ramble on all day about how much there is to love about this book. After I re-read the comic, I will probably see a hundred other things that I have missed. The creators had some monstrous expectations to meet with this book. They exceeded every single one of them. 5 stars.

Posted by jdonelson_nyc at February 24, 2005 11:30 AM

Comments

Posted by: Tim H at February 25, 2005 11:39 AM

Posted by: jdonelson_nyc at February 25, 2005 05:10 PM