Saturday, April 23, 2005
Comic Art
Last week we looked at the art and characters of Frank Miller. I mentioned that his characters tended to be in a place where vengeance and justice were hard to tell apart. Which set me to thinking about other characters that inhabit such a world. My favorite is the Spectre.
This is a character with a fascinating history that neither this nor this do real justice. The second link has a little to say on the real heart of the matter.
The Spectre is very popular today and perhaps the most "powerful" hero in the DC universe, a great plot device to pull one of the regulars out of an impossible jam. I think he is visually stunning. But nothing can replace the original.
By the way, there is a new Superman movie in the offing.
This is a character with a fascinating history that neither this nor this do real justice. The second link has a little to say on the real heart of the matter.
The Spectre's subsequent appearances featured both mortal villains, gunmen and extortionists who he killed with appropriate gruesomeness, and supernatural ones, who presented more of a threat and led to more cosmic elements instead of gruesome urban ones. He relied upon his deadly stare (frighteningly directed at readers as well), grew to tremendous size and crumpled fleeing cars of thugs before tossing them away like trash, and even simply vaporized human villains with a snap of he fingers. This was no pansy super-hero, if indeed a super-hero at all.The fact of the matter is that the Spectre was a "Spirit of Vengeance" and was axed for a long time by the Comics Code. He ate bad guys for crying out loud. He was a character more suited to the pages of "Tales from the Crypt" than "Tales of Adventure" He was a blend of horror and suprhero.
The Spectre is very popular today and perhaps the most "powerful" hero in the DC universe, a great plot device to pull one of the regulars out of an impossible jam. I think he is visually stunning. But nothing can replace the original.
By the way, there is a new Superman movie in the offing.
