Dickie’s got a gun.
So as a funnybook-readin’ adult, there are very few times where I’ve had a direct, visceral reaction to something in a comic book. Like, a literal shock to an event or, well, something else. I mean, I’ve enjoyed comics, I’ve been in suspense, I’ve found things funny, but rarely have I encountered a comic that really gave me a jolt.
One of them was Superman: American Alien, which, yeah, I know, that writer, that series, etc., but there’s a page-turn jumpscare where Clark is just sitting there calmly, and then on the next page there’s Batman just crashing violently through a window at him. Don’t know why that was so effective on me, but this generated actual frission.
Another was, in of all things, Doomsday Clock, where at the back of the book you will happen upon a reproduction of a photo that plays an important part in the story (and its presence actually fits thematically). Totally unexpected, totally surprised me.
The latest example is a brief bit from the beginning of this week’s Batman and Robin: Year One #8, in which Robin disarms a thug, grabs the gun, and immediately points it back at his opponent:
This struck me as…wildly wrong, an image that just gets hit with the “REJECT” stamp by my brain. Of course, moments later Batman slaps the weapon out of Robin’s hand and admonishes his sidekick about never using guns. But that panel was a real “oh shit” moment that I physically felt.
I tried to share this observation on the War Rocket Ajax Discord message board, and got a real sense that I was, like, the one person to feel that way. Of course, I don’t participate too much (mostly I’m on there to talk to the show hosts Chris ‘n’ Matt) and the whole ecosystem that’s built up feels like I’m reading someone else’s mail, despite the fact I’ve listened to every episode of that podcast. At any rate, I got no back-up on my particular feeling about this panel, but it’s not the first time I’ve died on a hill occupied by nobody else.
So with the the news that Diamond is ending its print edition of the Previews catalog, let me send it off when one last End of Civilization entry:
p. 127-131: various Boom! Studios titles:
“Cover to be revealed” — by Penguin Random House, I presume!
It seems more like a Jason Todd move than a Dick Grayson move.
There’s a WRA discord now? Awesome!
I commented a while ago about how strange it seemed (to me) that Alpha Flight had never been reprinted beyond the first 29 issues.
Well, I discovered this week that Alpha Flight by Mantlo & Lee collection issues #30-70 is coming out in January.
Eventually everything will end up in an omnibus.
That Previews page is hilarious!
Expert staging by Chris Samneecin the Robin sequence above. I actually reacted more strongly to Batman’s response and the way Samnee’s artistic choices made the reaction feel so visceral.
I had a similar reaction to that panel, thinking “oh geez, Batman’s going to be PISSED!”
I can’t locate the specific image but I had a similar reaction reading one of Brubaker’s Captain America comics and seeing a flashback seqeunce to WWII Bucky wielding a big knife as he & Cap bust into a Nazi compound, with the clear implication (and maybe even explicit monologue caption) that he was there to kill, if needed. That’s always been something quietly ignored in the comics-coded silver age depictions of Cap’s wartime adventures. It’s jarring to be confronted with the reality of the “reality” portrayed, the actual violence taking place and the deliberate placement of kids in those adventures for the sake of marketing/reader identification.
“various Boom! Studios titles”
They couldn’t dummy up something for at least a few of those?? Pft.
“Diamond is ending its print edition of the Previews catalog”.
I’m surpised it’s lasted this long. over 100 pages of MOSTLY CRAP that I’d never buy.
“It seems more like a Jason Todd move than a Dick Grayson move.”
100% agree!
“Well, I discovered this week that Alpha Flight by Mantlo & Lee collection issues #30-70 is coming out in January.”
NICE! His run is under-rated, esp. the earlier parts.
“but I had a similar reaction reading one of Brubaker’s Captain America comics and seeing a flashback seqeunce to WWII Bucky wielding a big knife as he & Cap bust into a Nazi compound, with the clear implication (and maybe even explicit monologue caption) that he was there to kill, if needed.”
Yup, it does fit, though. Frankly, I think Cap would’ve had a gun at least part of the time. It was WAR. Against NAZIS.
@Michael Grabowski and Snark Shark
Go to mycomicsshopdotcom and look at any number of Timely Comics from the WWII era, but especially Young Allies, and Captain America Comics and Bucky is invariably depicted holding a Thompson submachine gun or other weapon of warfare while leaping at severely deformed and/or racist caricatures of Axis powers soldiers…
you should have titled it “The End of the End of Civilization”
“It’s the End of Civilization as we know it and I feel fine!”