REVIEW: YMMV: Steel #42
Jess Nevins
YMMV: Steel #42: "Trauma"
Priest (writer), Denys Cowan (pencils), Tom Palmer (finishes), Pat
Brosseau (letters), John Kalisz (colors), Maureen McTigue
(assistant), Mike McAvennie (editor)
_Steel_ is a deceptive book, I think. Not because of the plots or the
art, necessarily, but because of Priest's writing style and abilities as
a writer.
_Steel_ has rarely been one of the books I place at the top of my
reading pile when I return from the comics store. It usually
languishes down around the middle of the pile. Thinking about the
book superficially, there's no one aspect that springs to mind - it
doesn't have _JLA_'s canny use of icons, it doesn't have
_Starman_'s knowing manipulation of DC's continuity and history,
it doesn't have the appeal of _Astro City_'s entirely new universe,
and it doesn't have particularly outstanding art (Cowan and Palmer
are certainly competent, but they aren't particularly to my liking).
So why am I writing a review of it? Because what _Steel_ >does<
have is something entirely too rare in the superhero genre (I was
about to say "too rare these days", but it strikes me that the quality
I prize in _Steel_ has never been particularly prevalent in superhero
books). _Steel_ has compelling, and realistic, characters, written by
someone who knows how to create fictional beings that nonetheless
compel readers to care for them.
Most of the time, when readers and critics say "Such and such a
character is realistic," we don't really mean that - not in terms of
strictly literary realism, or even something less formal. What we
usually mean is that the character has more than one dimension.
Most writers, it seems to me, don't make their characters
three-dimensional,
but two-dimensional, so that they don't have one
characteristic (a failing of Roy Thomas, for example, was his
tendency to make one-note characters) but two (Ben Grimm, for
example, is conflicted between wanting to be a hero and being
repelled by his own ugliness). In part this is one of the drawbacks of
the genre, and of comic books in general; writers have limited space
to flesh out their creations, and the exigencies of plot and the
marketplace compel them to (usually) focus on action. Truly
three-dimensional,
realistic characters are few and far between.
Which is what, I'm coming to realize, sets _Steel_ apart from most
other books on the market. As I said, _Steel_ is never at the top of my
Must-Read-Now pile of books, but when I sit down and reread
a series straight through, five or eight or ten issues at a time, I find
I'm getting more satisfaction - artistic, aesthetic and emotional -
from _Steel_ than I am from
nearly every other superhero book.
"Trauma" is a particularly good example of this. I'll skip the plot
recitation; you can get that easily enough from other reviewers.
What struck me about this issue was that so much of it was
character-driven. There was action, to be sure, but not for action's
sake, and Priest handles the characters and action in such a way that
they act faithful to their own characters, rather than in service to the
plot. Which is one of the marks of a skillful writer.
Take, for example, Nat. There were a number of us on-line - and
presumably more off-line - who were, for lack of a better word,
upset and concerned over the events of the past few issues. We
wanted to know whether she'd been raped. We _cared_. We were
upset at what happened to her, and relieved when we found it was
only a beating. And then (at least for some of us) shocked at our
own relief. Few characters in superhero comics are going to arouse
this level of caring in us; the characters in comics that do (the first
ones that spring to mind, for me, are Maggie and Hopey, from
_Love and Rockets_) are usually held up as being among the best in
the genre, and examples of legitimately good writing. We get that in
_Steel_.
Another example is the now-infamous end scene with Dr. Villain.
Several folks on RACDCU were upset over what they saw as
Villain's murder of the patient. Priest reasonably responded that
fans usually cut the Kingpin and Lex Luthor much more slack than
we've got Dr. Villain, and by extension Priest himself, for that
action, and wherefore the disparity?
The reason, Mr. Priest, is simply this: they aren't real to us, and Dr.
Villain is. Various writers have certainly fleshed out the Kingpin &
Lex Luthor to limited degrees, but in the best of times they are, as I
described above, two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional.
Readers find recognizable human traits in those characters, but (I
daresay) no one ever feels for them or really believes in them.
Dr. Villain, on the other hand, is real to us. Because Priest has
populated his cast with believable and realistic characters, and
because he's made the environment of Jersey City real to us, we don't
treat Villain like the Kingpin, and we don't place the same
limited expectations on him or on Priest. We don't think about
_Steel_, I think, as a superhero book so much as an ongoing
drama/story that happens to involve a superhero. And that makes
demand more realism from the characters and events - and the
writer - than we do from superhero books. Nobody really cares
about the crime boss' crimes in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film; but
someone is killed in _Fargo_ or _Lone Star_, we expect, and even
demand, that the event be treated with at least some realism. So too
with _Steel_.
Then there's John and Amanda. The delivery scene was nice; "we
had one of those times where it all makes sense, where we clearly
see why we do what we do" is simply good writing as well as
giving us a lot of insight into
Which is why the scene when they were harassed by the cops made
me, and likely others, so uncomfortable. This sort of thing happens
all to often. We know this. Reading about it happening to
characters we know and believe in drives that reality home. Priest,
to his credit, underplayed the cops' hostility and racism; these
weren't caricatures of racist cops - these were depictions of the real
thing.
Finally, there's Boris - I mean, Paul. In most books a supporting
character having AIDS wouldn't mean much; most of us would see
that subplot as being exploitive or a way for the writer to cheaply
wring emotion from the audience. Here, though....it isn't
particularly painful now, but future appearances are going to hurt to
read, I think.
All in all....I may never stampede the comic book shop to read
_Steel_ - the book's qualities are not nearly so flashy as, say,
_JLA_ - but I'll remember the characters of _Steel_ , and what
happened to them, a lot more than nearly any other book out there.
Rating: 8.5 of 10
jess
Priest
Wow-- this is a flattering and very thoughtful review. I really
appreciate your kind words here, and wish only to add that I see STEEL as
being a kind of ensemble piece, the theme being a more-or-less cynical
parody of the SUPERMAN mythos (Villain as Perry White, Amanda as Lois,
Boris and Natasha as Jimmy, etc).
It's a whole and not just "villain of the month," although there is
considerable nudging from the PTB's (deflected, mostly, by editor
McAvennie's interference-running) to swing STEEL's narrative more towards
that stream of thought. I just think there's enough books out there with
caped baddies pummeling heroes and so forth. And, previously, STEEL has
*tons* of villains-- Parasite, Polaris, Hazard and his guys-- B'aad The
Space Cowboy (no, seriously), and sales crept downward.
The mandate outgoing editor Pittarese gave me when I came on board was to
make this a book about people. About family. And the pitch we agreed on
was a spin on any Bob Newhart show, where often Bob was the only sane guy
on the show. John Irons is trapped in a world he never made, reflecting on
the fluttering of his own eyelids.
STEEL is a joy to write, and the syngery and enthusiasm new editor
McAvennie (and his perky assistant McTigue) have brought to the book has
only fueled that enthusiasm.
I want to stress *again* that DC has no plans to cancel the book, and no
one at DC has ever even mentioned that as a possibility. We are planning
more cross-involvement with SUPERBOY and SUPERGIRL, as well as some
arm-twisting to involve Dr. Irons in the SUPERMAN titles. So the ship
isn't sunk yet.
Getting your shop to order more than 2 (ghaaah!!) copies would help. But
I recognize that dealers are on increasingly tight budgets and thie is the
reality of this market. However, becoming simply an order-fulfillment
station seems to run contrary to the nature of retailing. I mean, if all
I was gonna do is fill sub orders, I'd run the operation out of my
basement.
Maintaining expenseive retail space, to me, is not a good idea unless you
have a variety of wares (both comics, toys, books, etc.) to display and
that new stuff is rotated through so people are encouraged to browse.
Ordering at *least* 2 copies for the wall would seem a reasonable way to
go about that-- so there is a *wall* of current titles, and not dusty,
malnourished shelves with little or nothing of interest on them.
But-- retailing is not my end of the biz. The best I can do is try and
write stories people want to read. and I think people are increasingly
demanding stories that are more than slugfests. That are as clever an
homage as JLA and STARMAN, as invigorating as HITMAN and YOUNG HEROES, and
hopefully, as progressive and new as XERO and QUANTUM & WOODY.
Once I've done my best, the rest is up to you folks, and the retailers
who, by and large, decide the fate of the titles we love.
In article <33C263...@ix.netcom.com>, jjne...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
: The reason, Mr. Priest, is simply this: they aren't real to us, and Dr.
: Villain is. Various writers have certainly fleshed out the Kingpin &
: Lex Luthor to limited degrees, but in the best of times they are, as I
: described above, two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional.
: Readers find recognizable human traits in those characters, but (I
: daresay) no one ever feels for them or really believes in them.
Not sure I entirely agree. I got *real* choked up when Vanessa was
kidnapped (by Morlocks?). Miller made Kingpin *extremely* real to me.
: All in all....I may never stampede the comic book shop to read
: _Steel_ - the book's qualities are not nearly so flashy as, say,
: _JLA_ - but I'll remember the characters of _Steel_ , and what
: happened to them, a lot more than nearly any other book out there.
Larry (Wolverine) Hama once taught me that *character* is what readers
remember, much moreso than plot. "Make them REAL," he said. We remember
the characters of Linus and Lucy and Charlie Brown much more than we do
any of the actual stories.
Thanks again for the extremely kind words.
: Rating: 8.5 of 10
Review/essay: rating: 10 out of 10. B-)
--
christopher j. priest // cheyenne mountain ranch, colorado
"He won't be there. I'm going, and Priest would rather take his own life
than interact with me in person." --Michael A. Chary on my con schedule
Jess Nevins
Priest wrote:
> : The reason, Mr. Priest, is simply this: they aren't real to us, and Dr.
> : Villain is. Various writers have certainly fleshed out the Kingpin &
> : Lex Luthor to limited degrees, but in the best of times they are, as I
> : described above, two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional.
> : Readers find recognizable human traits in those characters, but (I
> : daresay) no one ever feels for them or really believes in them.
>
> Not sure I entirely agree. I got *real* choked up when Vanessa was
> kidnapped (by Morlocks?). Miller made Kingpin *extremely* real to me.
I perhaps should have stressed that it is environment as much as it is
character - at least with respect to Villain - that elevates him
above the Kingpins and the Luthors. (Vanessa was kidnapped by some
of Wilson Fisk's rivals in an attempt to blackmail him; the rescue
went bad and she ended up with amnesia, and from there joined the
underground-homeless-complete-with-potbellied-hobo-king-and-albino-
alligator group). Miller did make the Kingpin interesting, yeah, and
I may have done Miller a slight in my dismissal of his works - but
the average comic book reader is going to identify a lot more with
Villain, and his environs, then we will with the Kingpin and his
milieu. In part because of the environment - hospitals vs.
Mob hangouts - but also because of the way the characters were
written, I think. To put it simply (perhaps too much so), I can
easily see myself running into Villain in real life. Which I
can't when it comes to the Kingpin.
Of course, this could be simply my own idiotsyncracies speaking
(which is why I title the reviews YMMV); I didn't get choked
up over Vanessa being kidnapped, but when...argh...the Gladiator?
the Roman-themed villain with the twin saws on his wrists -
when his girlfriend, Betsy, was kidnapped, and he and DD
rescued her, in DD 225 (226?)...that moved me. A _lot_.
The difference being, I could identify with him a lot more
than I could identify with Fisk.
So maybe it's all in my head. :-)
> : All in all....I may never stampede the comic book shop to read
> : _Steel_ - the book's qualities are not nearly so flashy as, say,
> : _JLA_ - but I'll remember the characters of _Steel_ , and what
> : happened to them, a lot more than nearly any other book out there.
>
> Larry (Wolverine) Hama once taught me that *character* is what readers
> remember, much moreso than plot. "Make them REAL," he said. We remember
> the characters of Linus and Lucy and Charlie Brown much more than we do
> any of the actual stories.
Larry Hama said that? Wow. He's right....his work just never struck
me that way.
> Thanks again for the extremely kind words.
>
> : Rating: 8.5 of 10
>
> Review/essay: rating: 10 out of 10. B-)
Thanks. I try. :-)
jess
David Crowe
Priest <cpr...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
<snip>
: I want to stress *again* that DC has no plans to cancel the book, and no
: one at DC has ever even mentioned that as a possibility. We are planning
: more cross-involvement with SUPERBOY and SUPERGIRL, as well as some
: arm-twisting to involve Dr. Irons in the SUPERMAN titles. So the ship
: isn't sunk yet.
Having Supergirl visit Jersey City would be a nice relaxing vacation for
her...
<Snip some more>
: Larry (Wolverine) Hama once taught me that *character* is what readers
: remember, much moreso than plot. "Make them REAL," he said. We remember
: the characters of Linus and Lucy and Charlie Brown much more than we do
: any of the actual stories.
Very true. But it might help sales if you incorporate into Steel what
made GI Joe so popular for so long: Ninjas ninjas ninjas! :)
Also, I'm going to have my employer at the comic store increase Steel
orders above the one copy I get and push it to some customers who are
likely to enjoy it. Or maybe I'll just bump up the order after he
finished it...
--
David "No Nickname" Crowe http://www.primenet.com/~jetman
You only read the manual when something you can't figure out. -Skuld
ma...@imap1.asu.edu
Priest (cpr...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: Wow-- this is a flattering and very thoughtful review. I really
: appreciate your kind words here, and wish only to add that I see STEEL as
: being a kind of ensemble piece, the theme being a more-or-less cynical
: parody of the SUPERMAN mythos (Villain as Perry White, Amanda as Lois,
: Boris and Natasha as Jimmy, etc).
Frankly, I'm disappointed that I never noticed this. I like this angle a
whole lot, and it really adds something even more to the book.
: It's a whole and not just "villain of the month," although there is
: considerable nudging from the PTB's (deflected, mostly, by editor
: McAvennie's interference-running) to swing STEEL's narrative more towards
: that stream of thought. I just think there's enough books out there with
: caped baddies pummeling heroes and so forth. And, previously, STEEL has
: *tons* of villains-- Parasite, Polaris, Hazard and his guys-- B'aad The
: Space Cowboy (no, seriously), and sales crept downward.
Anyone who makes a "Paco" crack here gets beaten up for their lunch
money. :)
: The mandate outgoing editor Pittarese gave me when I came on board was to
: make this a book about people. About family. And the pitch we agreed on
: was a spin on any Bob Newhart show, where often Bob was the only sane guy
: on the show. John Irons is trapped in a world he never made, reflecting on
: the fluttering of his own eyelids.
You've just GOT to title an issue "The buttoned down mind of John Irons."
PLEASE. :)
: I want to stress *again* that DC has no plans to cancel the book, and no
: one at DC has ever even mentioned that as a possibility. We are planning
: more cross-involvement with SUPERBOY and SUPERGIRL, as well as some
: arm-twisting to involve Dr. Irons in the SUPERMAN titles. So the ship
: isn't sunk yet.
I look forward to a collaboration with PAD. Maybe you can bring out his
humorous side again. Whaddaya say? :)
--
Marc Mason "Dad! Dad! We've done something terrible!"
Writer, Editor, "Did you wreck the car?"
Generally Entertaining Guy "No!"
apoc...@asu.edu "Did you raise the dead?"
ic...@asuvm.inre.asu.edu "Yes!"
"But the car's okay?"
-The wit and wisdom of Homer Simpson
Priest
In article <5q1vm4$3...@news.asu.edu>, ma...@imap1.asu.edu wrote:
: Priest (cpr...@worldnet.att.net) wrote:
: : Wow-- this is a flattering and very thoughtful review. I really
: : appreciate your kind words here, and wish only to add that I see STEEL as
: : being a kind of ensemble piece, the theme being a more-or-less cynical
: : parody of the SUPERMAN mythos (Villain as Perry White, Amanda as Lois,
: : Boris and Natasha as Jimmy, etc).
:
: Frankly, I'm disappointed that I never noticed this. I like this angle a
: whole lot, and it really adds something even more to the book.
Yikes. I thought it was real obvious...
: You've just GOT to title an issue "The buttoned down mind of John Irons."
: PLEASE. :)
I'll think about it... B-)
: I look forward to a collaboration with PAD. Maybe you can bring out his
: humorous side again. Whaddaya say? :)
I'll give it a shot!