31 Days of Scans - Day 14

It took a little longer to choose a subject than last week’s, because I would think of a writer, then think of a project they did that either sorely disappointed me, or had not interested me in the slightest. Then the answer came to me, and it was so obvious I couldn’t believe I didn’t hit on it immediately. Don’t get me wrong, it took like 5 minutes to figure out, but it was a long 5 minutes at the time.

John Ostrander’s the only comic writer I can think of where I’ve sought out complete runs of 4 different ongoing series he wrote, all of which were at least 20 issues, 3 of which were over 60 issues. I’ve even considered buying his run on Firestorm, and I don’t give a flip about Firestorm, but Ostrander wrote it, so I figure it might be worth a shot. I’ve considered buying Star Wars comics, just because he wrote them (I didn’t buy them, but he’s the only writer that got me that far).

The first time I read Ostrander’s work and knew it, was GrimJack. My cousin had given me a box of comics he couldn’t sell, and inside were the first four years of that book. The cover for the first issue did not impress, so I passed it over. But once I’d read everything else in the box, I had no choice. And I was hooked instantly. Gaunt being this old, battle-scarred guy, for hire for just about any job you’d care to name. In spite of his outward (and justified) cynicism about the world, he nonetheless has certain principles he tries to stick to. He tries hard to be a good friend, he tries to get at the truth of things, and to see a job through to the end, but can’t escape the fact his friends tend to die, and the truths he uncovers cause a lot of damage (both the truth itself, and what he does to get at it). All of this set in a bizarre world, where anything or anyone could be waiting around the corner. GrimJack was the first series where I felt compelled to track down what I didn’t have. First, just through the end of Ostrander’s run with Tom Mandrake, so I could see how the battle with the Dancer played out. Later, all the rest, the Jim Twilley run with Flint Henry, the Demon Wars saga, the Demon Knight graphic novel, the Starslayer back-ups, the mini-series he and Tim Truman did that IDW published in 2005 and 2009.

By then, I’d been in the comics’ blogosphere enough to hear about Suicide Squad, and so I had to go get all of that. Chris Sims talked at length about what made that book so great a few weeks ago – the development the surviving villains get, all the bad ass moments everyone gets, Amanda Waller in every way possible - but I also like the bits of humor Ostrander includes. Dr Light’s desperate attempts, first to fit in, then to be the big hero, all of which backfire on him horribly. Waller and Boomerang’s back and forth, leading to the bit where Waller plays a massive joke on Boomerang because he’s been posing as Mirror Master to commit crimes while pretending to honor the terms of his deal. The unknown pie thrower of Belle Reve. I would expect a certain amount of gallows’ humor in a book where characters can die at any moment, and there is a fair amount bit of that – or maybe it’s just the cruel joke many of their missions are for nothing – but a lot of it is just straight up meant to be funny. Pie gags are always good.

There’s his Heroes for Hire run. It’s not mentioned as often as some of his other work. It’s considerably shorter, it kind gets undercut when Heroes Reborn crapped out after a year (the premise being Iron Fist had formed a team to try and pick up the slack in the wake of all the heroes “dying” fighting Onslaught). It uses the High Evolutionary, and no one likes that guy, and pits him against Exodus, and nobody likes him, either. But he pulls together a lot of disparate characters, some of whom I like already – Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Scott Lang – but others I don’t care much about, like the Black Knight and Thena of the Eternals, and makes me care about them. They have their own stories that take them into or out of the book in ways that make sense, and also contribute to the feeling Danny didn’t really think this through, as usual. It gives the cast a makeshift, almost Defenders feel to it, though with considerably less infighting. 

The book has a much more irreverent tone, as the narrator is prone to freaking out when things start to look bad (to the point She-Hulk tells him to scram in one issue, back when she was still breaking the 4^th wall regularly). There’s also a strong core of friendship in there, which is something Ostrander often seems to write well, especially between two guys. Luke and Danny, obviously, as old friends, but even between Luke (who is sort of being a triple agent, working for the Master by joining H4H, but really trying to learn the guy’s plan and stop it) and the bad guy. Luke understands the man’s goal, but can’t tolerate the methods. When Luke mentions he is not going to call the guy “Master”, the villain relents, and gives Luke a name he can be called by (I don’t have the issue handy, but it was something like Esau, maybe). You could consider that simply good management strategy, but it’s clear he respects Luke enough to care it would bother him (he didn’t have any trouble treating the U-Foes like lackeys). He’s genuinely hurt when Luke turns against him, and Luke actually feels bad for the guy. I know, Ostrander writes a compelling C-list villain, big surprise. But it was good stuff.

And again, the humor. Namor and Jim Hammond chatting it up like old buds.Calling Hammond "Firebug", which is cute and friendly, but also maybe a little condescending, which sounds about right for Namor. I like the idea that Hammond is one of the people Namor will loosen up around a little, as opposed to most other heroes, or even Captain America. For the record, I know the dialogue is blurry, and I tried to find a better scan online, and you all let me down. So you’re stuck with a picture I thought was a lot clearer when I took it.

In the last year, I hunted down his Spectre run with Tom Mandrake. I’m not religious, but I enjoy the conflict between how Corrigan and the Spectre see themselves, the ideals they claim to serve, the reality of what they are, and what they do. There’s some interesting work there about the nature of faith, and forgiveness, the lies we tell ourselves, the crap we let weigh us down, the judgments we make in ignorance, also about the ideals of the United States versus the reality of its history.

A lot of his work seems to deal with the nature of people, their flaws and hang-ups, and whether those can be overcome. Most of the characters in Heroes for Hire have made bad decisions in the recent past, usually when they were at a low point, or otherwise desperate, and there’s a question of whether they can fix things, or pick themselves back up and try again. That book seemed to respond in the affirmative, but Suicide Squad and GrimJack are somewhat less positive. The members of the Squad seem eternally tripped up by their issues, Waller’s struggle for control and power, Flag’s Daddy issues, Bronze Tiger’s fears about himself, Deadshot’s myriad family and guilt issues, even the question of whether anything good can be accomplished by something like Task Force X. The overarching feeling seems to be no. Most of their missions fail or are pointless, and by the end, Waller’s legacy may be that someone else took her idea and used it as a merc scheme for super-villains to help run a country. As for GrimJack, Gaunt is constantly making the same mistakes, unable to see when he needs to bend a little, pissing off the wrong people, being callous when a little more compassion might have made the difference, then letting it all eat him up inside until he does something stupid and dangerous, which usually causes more trouble for him down the road. He’s survived too long doing things his way to really change, except for temporary moments where he recognizes a singular past mistake, and by then, the damage is done. And when in doubt, he will constantly revert to that willful type that enjoys making people in power look foolish because he can, thumbing his nose with no regard for the consequences. And there are always consequences.

John Gaunt covers all the theological bases in the second part of “Mortal Gods”, a two-part back-up story running in Starslayer (probably issue 11, but I took this from a reprint in GrimJack #24), by John Ostrander (writer), Tim Truman (artist), John Workman (letterer), and Janice Cohen (colorist). The universe shudders at Amanda Waller’s fury in Suicide Squad #21, by Ostrander (writer), Luke McDonnell (penciler), Todd Klein (letterer), and Carl Gifford (colorist). Luke Cage feels bad about stopping the misguided, would-be savior, and Namor wonders how an android grows a beard in Heroes for Hire #12, and #8 respectively, by Ostrander (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Jamie Mendoza (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), and Jon Babcock (letterer). Corrigan and the Spectre reflect on the nature of the lives together and apart in Spectre #62, by Ostrander, Tom Mandrake (artist), Todd Klein (letterer), Carla Feeny (colorist), and Digital Chameleon (color separations).