Blogotional: Comic Art

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Comic Art

Big TV professional wrestling is all about "the gimmick." A wrestler defines a persona for him/herself with some sort of identifying characteristic and then milks it, sometimes for decades. Comic books are remarkably similar - once you have a good gimmick, never let go of it. Wolverine as become a comic icon so it is natural that his gimmicks would be replicated again and again. Hence there is a virtual army of Wolverine clones or near clones out there so that he can again and again prove that he is the best at what he does.

Of course, his brother, half-brother, cousin, blood brother, enemy (it all depends on who is writing the story at the time) Sabretooth would be foremost in the Wolverine clone category. But coming a close second would be the subject of today;s entry - Lady Deathstrike.

So popular is this claw-bearing cyborg that Lady Deathstrike earned a place in the X-Men films. Like any popular character, there are so many "versions" of her laying about that one hardly knows how to tell the story of Lady Deathstrike in less than 40,000 words. "Evil Wolverine copycat" is about all one can say with out a name and number program.

Like all great and iconoclastic characters her secret is in her image. Those "claws," so different of Logan's but so reminiscent and her cat-like striking maneuvers will cause a book to leap off the shelves. Oh yeah, and then there is the whole oriental gimmick. Barely mentioned in the Wolverine legend much anymore is his training as ninja and samurai. Some of Lady D's origins include Logan's time in Japan training as a warrior. She needs to kill him becasue he somehow dishonored her clan. In other origins, he stole the secret of adamantium laced bones, and she needs it back. On it goes, What endures is the gimmick similarity and the animosity and especially the images. Claw against claw - that sells comics.