Gunplay #0

Gunplay #0, March 2008, Platinum Studios
writer: Jorge Vega
artist: Dominic Vivona
colorist: Nei Ruffino
letterer: Shawn DePasquale
“Penny Dreadful” story writer: Priest
“Penny Dreadful” story illustrator: Keith Mellon
editor: Dave Collins

Since the Jonah Hex trailer went live today, let's look at a western comic: Gunplay #0. This issue, featuring material that won the 2007 Comic Book Challenge, is an interesting zero issue offer, because it isn’t a prologue to an upcoming ongoing series; instead, Gunplay #0 is a preview edition that (presumably) reprints the first twenty-two pages of an eighty-eight page graphic novel. It’s a daring gamble, selling content that will be available again later, in its entirety to boot, yet, for only a dollar, readers have a chance to see if Gunplay is an investment they’d want to make in the first place. In an analogy suiting this issue’s story, it’s a high noon callout, and Gunplay is daring us to join it in the street in front of the saloon.

Ah, but if you were looking for happy-go-lucky western fare, Gunplay is not the book for you. Inside of just these twenty-two pages, the reader is faced with the bitter truths of slavery and racism, the merciless, hands-on violence of a pre-industrial age, and the perversion of religion. I can only wonder what the remaining sixty-six pages of this graphic novel have to offer. Despite its callousness, Gunplay #0 is an thought provoking reading experience, not to mention a steal at a measly ninety-nine cents, considering that the lead 22-pager is followed by the first three chapters of a short fiction western piece by Priest and Keith Mellon. Both stories boast the same crude themes and engrossing violence and offer a no-holds-barred insight into how wild the west really was.

Unfortunately, this issue did take a few liberties in its presentation that distracted me from its content. Namely, on the first page, our hero, a black Union soldier forced to roam the countryside with a supernatural gun, mutters something to himself, evidenced by a speech balloon with tiny lettering, probably a two-scale font. You can tell that it says something, so I strained my eyes to make it out, and read, “This font is so small we can’t make out what he’s saying.” Now, why even have the speech balloon if I’m going to feel like a fool squinting to read it, or, if what he mumbles is actually important to the story down the line, why not just imply speech with some traditional squiggly lines? This unnecessary blurring of the fourth wall took me out of the story before it’d begun, and only the shock value of the following pages’ violence sucked me back in. It was an unnecessary rollercoaster ride.

So, will I step out into the high noon sun for a showdown with the Gunplay graphic novel? Honestly, I don’t think so. I’m not familiar enough with the wild west genre to actually embrace it for what it really is -- a crude game of life and death in the shadow of our country’s developing moral compass. You’re more likely to see me cowering behind the swinging saloon doors, seeing who comes out standing. Yes, holding true to the analogy, I might just wait to read some reviews of the whole thing before I use this #0 to gauge my interest. Leave it to a comic book to give the call to draw.

Steel #39

Steel #39, June 1997, DC Comics
writer: Priest
layouts: Denys Cowan
finishes: Tom Palmer
letterer: Pat Brosseau
colorist: Stu Chaifetz
associate editor: Ruben Diaz
editor: Frank Pittarese

Blogger's note: Entry for Monday, February 4, 2008.

I couldn’t resist kicking off my series of Black History Month reviews with a comic book featuring Steel, a prominent black superhero, wrestling a black panther on its cover. Interesting, the scene that this image represents from this issue’s story stars a lion, not a panther, which makes me wonder if cover artist Dave Johnson had an ulterior motive. Eh, he was most likely instructed to illustrate Steel battling “a jungle cat” or something long before this story was even finished. Still, as I was flipping through Steel back issues with my Black History Month goggles on, the image was striking.

Before I delve into this issue’s specifics, I’d like to comment that Steel is perhaps the best thing to come from the years-long “Death of Superman” story arc. Originally conceived as one-fourth of a “Which one is the Resurrected Superman?” mystery, John Henry Irons’ character demonstrated more potential than a crossover footnote, not only earning his own series and a coveted place among Grant Morrison’s reconceived JLA, but his own feature film starring none other than basketball great Shaquille O’Neil. Sure, the movie was terrible (or so I’ve heard), but think about it -- Steel beat some of DC’s longest running heroes to the silver screen. The movie rights to Marvel’s superheroes have been spread out over seemingly dozens of production companies yet almost all of their core properties have been adapted to film, but the best Warner Brothers can do, as the sole owner and distributor of DC’s stable, are the Superman and Batman franchises, Catwoman, and Steel (excluding the TV series and direct-to-DVD projects).

Looks like Steel is still one-fourth of a DC Comics mystery. What assured his mainstream success? Was it the concept of an incredibly intelligent, industrious black man becoming a self-made superhero? Did Steel inadvertently play the race card? Honestly, these questions aren’t for me to answer (nor are they even for me to ask, I suppose), but considering America’s current political climate and the possible outcome of Super Tuesday, the retrospection has an interesting contemporary context.

Yes, I’ll go over the top and actually say it: If Barak Obama wins the Democratic Primary, he’ll have John Henry Irons to thank.

Steel #39 is a good example of its title hero’s strength of will, as he attempts to determine the party responsible for implanting a powers-inducing microchip under his skin. Irons has apparently narrowed the list to the enemy Hazard or his former employers at Ameritek, and in this issue, he enlists the help of fellow vigilante/spy Hazard all the way in Zaire. Hazard eventually sends Steel a message and denies involvement; in the meantime, his family flees the tenacious villain Skorpio, and a man abandons the safety of witness protection to pursue revenge against the thugs that killed his family. He and Steel share a glare for a panel or two, but their confrontation is inevitable, since this self-styled vigilante, calling himself Crash, thinks Steel is his brother. Do I smell the makings of a Bizarro-Steel here?

Writer Priest does a decent job of maintaining this issue’s merit as a single unit of storytelling despite its context in a greater story arc, but the most interesting element is Steel’s physical demeanor. His armor only appears in that Dave Johnson cover; otherwise, Irons flies around in a nondescript white sports coat. At this point in his career, Steel might be the sharpest dressed hero on the block, but how he got those big metal jet-boots through airport security, I’ll never know. (Yes, he takes a plane back to the States. Did Steel take a page out of Wally West’s handbook and reveal his identity to the world?)

Steel isn’t carrying his own series anymore, but he still plays a significant role in the DC Universe, and from what I understand, his niece has even become a superhero in her own right. I wish every crazy marketing scheme from the early ‘90s creating such endearing characters. Sure, we had Azreal and Ben Reilly, but when it comes to resiliency . . . Steel has earned his name.