|
By Jason Bourgeois
Unless you've been living under a rock for probably the past six months, then by now you've heard about Grant Morrison's grand, insane, and/or brilliant idea coming from DC, the massive, year-long event, the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
However, if you have been under said rock, and have come to this column first, well what the heck is wrong with you?? Go look at CNN, for goodness sake! Once you've done that, come back here and I'll gladly fill you in on what you've missed in the world of comics.
Are we all set? Good. Morrison's Seven Soldiers project is a massive undertaking of seven four-issue miniseries, kicking off with a zero issue, and ending with another bookend #1 once all the minis have run their course.
Yes, that's 32 issues total.
Each limited series is aiming to be completely self-contained, telling a four-issue story, introducing you to the star characters of each, yet building upon the groundwork laid down in the zero issue, and everything tying together with the finale a year from now. A person should be able to buy a miniseries, or even just an issue, and come away feeling very satisfied with what they've read, but anyone reading more issues, and especially the whole thing, would see a grand tapestry being woven, and laid before them when all was said and done.
I was a bit concerned with the amount of titles, since I'm the sort who likes the big picture, and seeing it all come together, and because of Morrison's last major project not being to my liking, I was a bit trepidatious about this outing, but terribly intrigued. It helped when I heard that a new issue would only be coming out every other week, so at worst that would be three issues in a month. That would be doable.
So far, the Seven Soldiers of Victor #0, and the first issues of Shining Knight and the Guardian have come out, with Zatanna right around the corner, to be followed by Klarion, the Witchboy, Mister Miracle, Bulleteer, and Frankenstein.
Long-time readers of my columns here know that I despised Grant's New X-Men run, for various reasons, and that is part of why I'm writing this. I'm not a Morrison hater, have liked various pieces of his work, but his X-Men were wrong on various levels, despite the stories being ok in and of themselves, if you imagine everyone as being all new characters in an all new universe, but I digress.
I actually like what I've read so far.
One of my primary complaints of the X-Men run was his characterisations of almost every character that came through the title as being off in small ways, to large, sometimes making the characters almost unrecognizable to their portrayals of, in some cases, the last 45 years.
I had the same fears here, since all of these characters were using existing names, but a number of them weren't entirely the same characters, but in many ways were. The Shining Knight is probably the best example of this. Both versions, pre-Morrison, and now, are both Sir Justin, from the time of King Arthur, with a magical horse, and tossed through time. Yet one looks different, and has a slightly different origin, and is a teenager. There are irreconcilable differences here, at least upon first glance, but there seems to be some mucking about with time, so things may work out in the end.
In the zero issue, Morrison did have a photograph with the original Seven Soldiers prominently displayed, including the original Sir Justin, the Shining Knight, so for now I'm taking it on faith that Grant knows what he's doing, since he is clearly aware of the incompatible versions running around here.
I had similar concerns with regards to the Guardian, since in several places, they were describing the character as the original, but this guy had a completely different origin. My fears were laid aside much more plainly this time around, since the first issue makes it very clear that the character is completely different, and the name and likeness were purchased from its previous owners, so no looming continuity glitches here.
The story in Guardian is just pure, absolute, brilliant lunacy. The Guardian is a mascot and superhero for a tabloid-like newspaper, which has made the common man the journalist, by taking in stories of what they see and printing them. The corporate offices are controlled by the mind of the paper's founder, which is contained in a jar on the 23rd floor, making the offices ostensibly his body. Oh, and he's protected by a Golem, whom he created as part of a four-person elemental based team back when he was ten years old. His newest employee, the Guardian, is dispatched to investigate reports of a group of homeless people living in the subways of New York City as self-styled pirates, one faction of which have acquired a map to New York's hidden subway system after they tear it off the back of a man where it was tattooed.
It's this kind of lunacy that makes me keep coming back and giving Morrison chances. The cliche is, that's so crazy, it just might work! And Morrison somehow manages to make it work. He loves the high-concept, big ideas, and these series are letting him play around in a lot of different genres, and telling some very far out there stories, which I love.
The big test comes later this month, with Zatanna, which is the in-continuity version, and this has always been where Morrison fails the most with me. Most of his work that I enjoy is when he's playing with original characters, and in his own sandbox. The next thread of the Soldiers' tapestry will really be a telling point for me, then.
So far though, Grant has done a very good job kicking off the start of his grand tale, so I'm holding my breath and hoping he doesn't drop the ball somewhere between now and the finish line a year from now. The issues so far have indeed been mostly self-contained, only leaving threads hanging for future issues of the respective series. There are little bits and pieces tucked throughout that feed back into the overall story, but they're very tiny, and serve only as flavour, and background detail for now. I suspect these miniseries will mostly serve as origin stories for our seven heroes, with only very loose ties for most of them to the overall arc of an impending alien invasion.
My fingers are crossed that Morrison can pull this off, and I hope he does succeed, because the comic industry could use as many good stories as it can get. I definitely recommend giving it a look, at least the zero issue with absolutely gorgeous art by J.H. Williams, who is one of the master storytellers of the industry today. Almost no one can craft a page like him. Also be sure to read some information on the various series, and see if there are any that strike the fancy out there. Pick up that first issue and see what you think. At worst, you're out a few bucks for trying it, at best, you've found a good story. Take it from me, you don't need to buy the whole thing. But you may still want to do so.
See? I'm not a Morrison hater.
Jason M. Bourgeois
|
