The Fairer Sex, Part II: Fatale #2

The only comic book you’re likely to read that boasts about its sagging breasts

I don’t know what you were doing at age 13, but I’m pretty sure that none of us were contributing as much to the business of comic books as the lead co-writer of our next book. Jim Shooter started selling both art and stories to DC comics when only a teenager. Even though he never expected to stay in the business, his stories proved so popular that fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes coaxed him back after he graduated from high school. His path lead him from DC to Marvel as an assistant editor sometime in the mid-seventies. Marvel’s editorial top spot was a proverbial hot-potato at the time and it wasn’t long before Shooter took over the seat. For close to ten years he guided Marvel through some of its (arguably) best years, ending his tenure in 1987 when the company changed hands. By this time comics must have gotten into his blood, and Shooter founded Voyager Communications with a comics publishing unit under the banner Valiant Comics. He was ousted years later in a corporate dispute with Valiant’s partners. We’ve seen where he headed to from there, as we found him with the “Warriors of Plasm” title as writer and EIC for Defiant Comics. We’ve already learned that Plasm caused a court battle with Marvel over their failed British imprint “Plasmer”. A court battle that spelt the end of Defiant Comics.

It wasn’t the end of Jim Shooter, however. Shooter went on to startup Broadway Comics, an offshoot of Broadway Video. Broadway video was the production company of Saturday Night Live and did editing work on many of the SNL movies. Broadway Comics was short lived. It produced a handful of titles (including “Knights on Broadway”) before it was sold to Golden Books who scuttled it.

The only title that got a chance to complete a story arc was Fatale, a book that tried very hard to distance itself from the supposed pack mentality of superheroine comics at the time. While I think everyone should judge this book for themselves, I find very little in it to differentiate it from any other books on the shelves now or then. It did feature newcomer J.G. Jones doing art chores and many of the art panels show his greatness to come. But great art wasn’t the core of what Fatale was suppose to be about. Shooter, the three co-writers and Jones take up eight pages in the back explaining how 200 pages of written information had been compiled on Desiree a/k/a Fatale, how they didn’t like that the portrayal of women in comics was the same as male superheroes (I think the phrase “Rambettes” is thrown around quite liberally.) and how much effort they put into doing a big-boobed heroine who had to fight gravity by wearing proper supporting garments. I’m not lying about that last part either. Shooter even mentions that he wants readers to notice that Fatale lives in a world with “gravity”.

They all talk up the character into this living, breathing, realistic blow-your-socks-off breakthrough yet the issue shows just another overly busty action chick. A "Rambette," to borrow their term, and not a very effective one either. Fatale is an energy siphon similar to Rogue. She doesn’t have superheroes to drain as far as I found, but she gets by pretty good sapping regular Joes. It also seems that she is in complete control of this power because in the next issue (I have it too) she does a multitude of things that cause her skin-to-skin contact with people who show no side effects. And no, that skin-to-skin contact isn’t in an erotic free-for-all. To start off this issue, she’s been captured by a crack team who knows her powers and how to defeat them. They’ve also captured her current love interest who happens to have the exact same power. Here we have Desiree struggling to get free from the captors while they are being chased by a mysterious benefactor.

Get comfortable with that pose. Fatale ends up trussed for about 60% of the book. I guess in real life superpowered women would be tied up by non-powered men a lot. Seems rational. Bill, her boyfriend with superpowers, gets the same treatment only worse.

"Just drop him. He can't be hurt." Later on these same guys will try to prove that by taking turns hitting Bill in the crotch with baseball bats. Natalie, the leader of the agents doing the capturing, is possibly the best written character in the book. Here she is being bossy to one of her guys that got sloppy.

But no one is near the ass-kicker as the guy following Desiree. I’m not even sure that he doesn’t have superpowers at this point. Look at him take on hordes of ninja clad secret agent dudes. Even if Blondie isn’t a mutant or alien or something, I’m telling you right now, I wouldn’t want to mess with him.

No matter how good mystery man is, he still can’t prevent the agents from escaping into the sewers with their prizes. It’s down these dank holes that we discover that Natalie and Bill have some history together. Something tells me they didn’t part as friends.

Woah, woah, woah Bill. This lady has both you and your current girlfriend helpless and at gunpoint. I believe it’s time to rethink the strategy of pissing her off so she’ll make a mistake. What do you think this is? A Sable: Return of the Hunter book?

I’m telling you Bill, this isn’t looking good. Natalie’s likely to shoot you in the head and leave you in the sewer.

Well, some plan of Bills appears to work out, because the guys carrying him slip up enough to where he can kick them into the guys carrying Desiree. She busts free and hot foots it down a sewer tunnel with a couple of guys in pursuit. Natalie doesn’t take Bill’s actions so well.

I don’t think even Dr Phil could help them get back together, do you? I tried to warn Bill, you are all my witnesses. Meanwhile, Desiree trips a guard and finds some exposed skin to use her draining touch on. Note that this shot features a realistic bosom with added gravity drooping action. Remind me again why this was something I wanted to see in a comic.

 

Desiree drains one more guy and then Natalie catches up with her. Only Natalie. No other agents around. My thoughts at the time I read this plot development were that Natalie was toast. Desiree has the combined strength of two agents at this moment. So let’s see how it goes, shall we.

Yes, Natalie hands “Fatale” her own head on a pike. Damyum, girlfriend. Who needs superpowers? This just makes me wonder how many pages of background the four writers of Fatale have on Natalie. Because after this knock-down fight, I’d rather read Natalie’s adventures than Desiree’s. Who cares who’s boobs are bigger. (Did I actually say that?)

Guys with guns show up and separate our two combatants. Desiree heroically crawls on her hands and knees (Dragging her boobs? Yes. Dragging her boobs.) through a sewer pipe to safety.

It’s all for naught as she is caught anyway. The good news is that these are blondes’ men from the beginning chase scene. He’s here to rescue her from the Natalie’s bad guys. Also he’s willing to shell out for plastic surgery to fix her recently broken nose. (Way to go Natalie!)

Then begins the 8 pages of product endorsement/congratulatory mutual hand jobs that all four writer/creators engage in over their success at making a truly different super heroine. Two of them are unfinished art for a planned mini-series origin story. The company folded before it could be published but according to Shooter it was plotted and ready for artwork. So Fatale had a brief run and then the company bites it. Never fear though, we'll see Shooter again. Also, I’m not against Fatale, but the idea that this was something different is utter nonsense. Perhaps that should read udder nonsense.

The Fairer Sex, Part IV: Fathom #2

Anatomy isn’t the only thing that’s contorted in Fathom’s second 3-issue miniseries

In the mid-80’s, Bill Willingham created a comic book for Comico called The Elementals. Acting as both writer and artist, Willingham took superhero concepts and freely mixed them with fantasy. He created a team book of four superheroes who each gained the powers of the four elements by dying. That's right: DYING! Morningstar was a female detective who gained the power of pyrotechnics, Monolith was a teenage boy with the power to turn into a giant Earth golem and Vortex was an army pilot with power to control winds. 

Lastly we have Fathom, who in her former life was  a rich young woman who drowned only to come back with the power to turn her body into water and make like a fire hose. I admit that I only have a limited uneven run of the issues of the original The Elementals comic that Willingham created. My local comics shop sold out of the issues too quickly for me to pick up the book. It was wonderfully illustrated, with very clean lines and layouts. The story was graphic in terms of violence and had a decidedly anti-religious slant to it. I would love to run across the trades in the future.

Unfortunately, Willingham left the series sometime in the early 90’s. He retained creator rights to the characters for a time, but came to an agreement with Comico allowing the company purchase them. Comico the company wasn’t doing so well in the early 90’s, having been pushed off the shelf by the big two and under competition from the steadily gaining Dark Horse and recently emerged Image. The loss of a majority of its other titles forced Comico into bankruptcy, yet it still pumped out several mini’s and one shots of Willingham’s characters before closing its doors in 1997. Many of these books had only a dabbling of Willingham if any at all. The second miniseries of Fathom had none. Sadly the art and story quality fall way short of what you expect in an Elementals book.

That cover brings me pain. I’m not sure if it’s Fathom’s facial expression, her left arm which seems to have two elbows, that each thigh is as big around as her torso or the fact that she appears to have both enormous boobs and a slight “package” where her crotch is. Art duties inside are by Tim Elred, and while they are better than the cover, they ain’t much better.

Not to be outdone in the sucking department, David DeVries writes a Fathom story so convoluted by flashbacks and flashforwards you’d swear he was Guy Pearce’s character from Memento. Not to worry. Just read the inside of the front cover and you’ll make it through the book just fine. Because in a very novel approach to comic writing, the “The Story So Far…” box tells you what happened last issue as well as what’s happening in this issue.

I’ve never read a book that gave away its whole plot in one paragraph before. Maybe David was just trying to spare me from Tim’s mediocre art? We get about 1 page of actual story this issue outside of what you learn here. I know that most middle books in a trilogy are filler, but this is pretty ridiculous. On to the whirlwind story we go, though. Mainly because I want to see if you get lost in the maze of backwards and forwards narrative progression.

We start with Fathom in the desert of ancient Turkan, AD 992, with Mustapha, an Arabian dude who had Fathom’s “genie” bottle. The bottle made her Mustapha’s servant for the time being. Mustapha has just been attacked by Bushyashta, a dust demon and two horrid creatures. Bushyashta grabs Fathom’s bottle and orders her back in. Fathom resists and attacks him while Mustapha is ganged-up on by the two followers.

He’s melting! MELTING! Okay, so he's going to be a bit more trouble than the witch from the Wizard of Oz but really, he's a DUST demon. Shouldn't he turn to mud or something? Mustapha does really well fighting the two goblins, even getting one to kill the other. But he appears winded, leading Bushyashta to use him as leverage to get Fathom to surrender.

  

Pay very close attention to this panel. It occurs at the end of a flashback later with no warning that you’ve re-entered the present-day in the storyline. Yay for poor plotting. The next page we are treated to what happened to Fathom right after she was trapped by the elemental goddess Aqua in the bottle and it was given to Mustapha. So this is Fathom’s flashback. You need to pay careful attention from this part on.

After a brief chat with Mustapha, he begins to recount his own story to Fathom. A story that will be shown to us IN A FLASHBACK! That’s right we are now having a flashback inside another flashback. If you get lost here you’ll never get out.

Mustapha tells his brief background, how he was tasked by the Sultan to make the waters of the Caspian sea return. He took a ship out onto the sea to find the deva Apaosha, Lord of Drought. Apaosha sends out a demon to sink it, only to be met by Fathom who has just been transported back to this time period by the goddess Aqua. This is basically a recap of last issue. Seems not much happened then either. Mustapha’s flashback ends.

Now we should be in Fathom’s flashback, but for some reason we get a full page of Lord Apaosha directing Bushyashta to attack Mustapha and acquire Fathom’s bottle. Since Bushyashta already attacked them in the present, this must be happening in the past, at the same time as Fathom’s flashback. But she didn’t know about their little private conversation, so why is it included here? Next we have Fathom getting ticked off at Aqua while trapped in the bottle (still in her flashback.) Aqua then does something that is totally unexpected: she recounts Fathom’s origin in a FLASHBACK.

Meanwhile (really meanwhile? I’m not sure anymore.) Mustapha happens upon a temple in the desert. While he kneels to pray by the sacred fire pit, the priest who escorts him in makes a play for Fathom’s bottle. She escapes from it, but the priest, temple and fire pit end up being an illusion and we are back to the beginning of the book again.

Seeing as how we’ve already watched this battle in the first seven pages of the issue, our writer now has no place for us to go. This is a major problem with his idea of telling the story using all these flashbacks. He has now broken up the narrative flow of his story so badly that he has no choice but to skip over to the end of the battle. And so he does, losing any buildup and confusing the gentle reader with his ham-fistedness.

Yeah, we’ve heard that before somewhere. To end this silly mess, he has Fathom attack the demon by turning into water and splashing him. He endures the soaking and then proceeds to drink her up then spit her back into her own bottle.

* insert your own joke using the word “suck” here * 

Mission accomplished, he takes bottle and Fathom back to his master, leaving Mustapha lost and alone in the desert. Many a reader knows how Mustapha feels at this point.

Doug Potter’s Denizens of Deep City #1

  

It made me cry and that’s a good thing.

In the introduction to Doug Potter’s first issue he writes “Most of these characters…I couldn’t tell you what will happen to any of them. You never know why a person will act a certain way and they’ve done some things I didn’t plan.” While this sounds like a sophomoric attempt to cover up bad plotting, Deep City ends up being a very cohesive and absorbing story of oddly realistic characters. Potter both writes and illustrates, doing a fine job with each.

Our focus in issue one is Jamey Hooter, an accountant whose sole comfort is his late night TV shows. He lives in an apartment complex that will house a bunch of our main characters. One night he arrives home to find his apartment burglarized. Note what his main concern is.

In the real world you file a police report, make an insurance claim and buy a new TV with the proceeds that is better than the one that got stolen. In Deep City you file a police report, buy the TV but find it doesn’t work. You soon find that no model TV will work with your apartment’s cable except the one that got stolen. Also in the real world you never hear from the robbers again. In Deep City…

Why am I imagining Reservoir Dogs with a TV set now? Possibly it’s just me. So Jamey shows the cops and they treat him quite a bit better. Even make a big deal about how long it would take someone to paste up the note he got. They even setup a sting operation with snipers and everything to catch the TV-nappers.

 

But the bust goes bad as a wino mistakenly picks up the drop and the real perps get away. Who are these diabolical miscreants? Two preteen boys, a modern day version of Oliver Twist and The Artful Dodger have acquired Mr. Hooter’s TV. Unfortunately all of this excitement with no pressure release has caused Jamey to lose many nights of sleep.

That “thunk” was the newspaper boy making a morning delivery. While all this is occurring, we meet several of Jamey’s neighbors in the apartment complex and get to know a bit about their personal lives. This is all buildup for future stories and it is done well enough to keep us interested but doesn’t distract us from Jamey’s plight. Note also the quality of Potter’s art. He gives enough details and nuances so we get a range of character emotional depth from the pictures, yet the still retain a very simplistic, cartoony look. 

Deep City keeps pouring it on for Jamey too. The TV hijackers continue to harass him by sending more envelopes. Filled with what you might ask…

Jamey’s going to be picking at those parts for some time. Two other characters in the apartment complex try to picket against the owner because of the substandard quality of the place. They get picked up by police on a trumped up charge, yet Regina uses it as an opportunity to make a date with her arresting officer. Jamey becomes frustrated with rebuilding his lost set and continues to lose sleep becoming more agitated in the process.  

Meanwhile, one of our robber children meets with his friend Scotty, who is now working the paper route to Jamey’s building. Scotty thanks the other boy, Lee, because he got the job when Lee left to his current life of crime. And so the next morning we come to a vicious kind of full circle as Scotty is delivering the morning paper outside a mentally unstable Jamey.

I can say that this scene didn’t seem overly violent when I first read the book. It’s sad but not a particularly likely an occurrence. Or maybe it’s an all too likely occurrence in our modern day world and I’ve become a bit jaded. But it’s the next few pages that really give it impact. Jamey is completely meek after being taken in, apologizing for waking anyone up. It’s clear he’s completely lost it. This however get me right in the gut.

Shit! The character wasn’t even alive for 6 freaking panels and I’m tearing up here. It’s all in presentation and careful plotting. Push the right buttons and you’ll have the audience eating out of your hand. And Doug Potter is clearly a good button-pusher. Not all things end badly in Deep City.

And with that bit of odd, screwed up justice, I take my leave of those streets and gladly head back to my own.