Saturday Splash Page #100

 

"Metatextually Correct," in Tales of the Unexpected #3, by Brian Azzarello (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist), Jared K. Fletcher (letterer)

Post-Infinite Crisis, DC released several mini-series that were, I think, mostly meant to get people hyped for changes they'd made to one character to another. There was a Creeper mini-series, one about an OMAC (the Infinite Crisis types, not the Jack Kirby guy), yet another attempt to reinvent Billy Batson, and Tales of the Unexpected.

The lead story in Tales of the Unexpected was to sell former Gotham Central lead character Crispus Allen as the new human host for the Spectre. For some reason, DC thought having that story to end with Allen being forced to take vengeance against his own son, for the crime of killing the bent cop who murdered Allen, was a good idea.

As far as stories about the DC Universe being run by a cruel and capricious god go, the back-up story by Azzarrello and Chiang worked a lot better. Professional skeptic Doctor 13 and his daughter Traci get caught in the crosshairs of the mysterious four "Architects", who've decided they and a variety of other oddball characters - including Captain Fear, Infectious Lass and Genius Jones - from DC's past no longer have a place in it.

And Dr. 13's an odd character. Difficult to like, arrogant, condescending, cynical. A guy who calls Doctor Fate "Doctor Fake", and assumes every weird thing the DC Universe holds is the equivalent of a Scooby-Doo villain of the week. Can you have a character like that in a fictional universe like these, and not have him become a complete punchline? The guy who insists, no, that vampire is just some really determined cosplayer on PCP. No, there is no way Nazis trained a bunch of gorillas to try and fight for them. No, a caveman would not write a warning in modern French alongside their cave painting.

But that being the case, why wouldn't he deny that four weirdos - never referred to by name, and often masked, but it's Morrison, Waid, Johns and Rucka - even have the capacity to deny his existence, let alone erase it?

Chiang and Mulvihill make the whole thing look beautiful and bright. Let the weird characters look and be weird. I, Vampire gets hit by a subway train, he's still talking to Dr. 13 while his body is gruesomely chopped across the rails. Dr. 13 insists there cannot be a bunch of Nazi gorillas fighting a tank and a Confederate ghost, and Jeb Stuart's horse drops a load of ghost horse crap on his face. It's a big fictional universe, there are gonna be odd little backwaters. Or there should be.

While I'm not sure Dr. 13's appeared since, Traci was part of Jaime Reyes' supporting cast for a time, and I, Vampire got an ongoing series during the New 52. Though I'm pretty sure it was one of the first wave that got canceled, so it's still hard to get by out there on the stands.

Random Back Issues #23 - Beware the Creeper #5

I feel like this is what most mysteries I read are thinking of me. The part about being a poor detective, I mean. Hopefully not about being a lousy excuse for a man. That's going a little too far.

The final issue of the Vertigo mini-series finds the citizens of Paris turning against the Creeper, as she's accused of the death of both a small child and a lady of the evening. I would think being excommunicated by the Surrealists would make you their King. Or maybe that's the Dadaists. Madeline is cracking under the pressure as everyone believes her sister Judith is responsible, including Inspector Allain. She's drinking a lot, fending off the lecherous advances of Ernest Hemingway, although he thought she was Judith. Story of Madeline's life, everyone wishing she was her wacky sister.

Allain isn't sure what to do, trying to find the killer who might be a woman he loves, while trying to deal with whatever he feels for her much quieter, more sensible twin sister. Emotions are difficult, so he focuses on work.

The Creeper appears in the home of the crazy rich boy and frustrated painter Mathieu Abrogast, who is the actual killer but protected by his mother's wealth and influence. Not protected from an angry lady in a costume with a sword, though. The Creeper forces a confession from him and hauls him away.

While all that's happening, the cops are nosing through the sisters' home, only to learn one of them is dead, and has been for some time. The Creeper tosses Allain a note, telling him to come to the Eiffel Tower alone. Once there, he gets ambushed and loses his gun to one of two people dressed as the Creeper. One's tied up, the other's extremely pissed.

Allain only finally figures out which sister he's actually dealing with at the end. Too late to keep Madeline from leaping off the Tower with Mathieu in tow. Allain finds Mathieu's body on the ground, the note pinned to it, right before the lights on the Tower overload and go dark. Allain goes ahead and fudges his report to pin all the Creeper's actions on Mathieu, and leaves out the part where there was a harness hanging from the Tower, suggesting Madeline is still alive somewhere. Assuming she didn't burn up when the wooden scaffolding did.

Allain's left to mourn how much of a dumbass he was, and undoubtedly become one of those detectives who drinks too much while listening to jazz to cope with how emotionally closed off he is.

{2nd longbox, 182nd comic. Beware the Creeper (vol. 2) #5, Jason Hall (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Dave Stewart (colorist), John Workman (letterer)}

Sunday Splash Page #80

"Because Everyone's On a Lot of Drugs," in Beware the Creeper #1, by Jason Hall (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Dave Stewart, (colorist), John Workman (letterer)

An early 2000s Vertigo mini-series I grabbed on a back issue hunt last year. The story doesn't have any relation to the Jack Ryder Creeper we usually see, as it's set in 1920s Paris, and focused on two sisters. Judith is an artist, the wild child, vocal, doing whatever or whoever catches her fancy, while Maddy is the quiet, responsible one, who pays the bills, and writes screenplays when she can. After Judith is attacked by a psychotic rich boy, the Creeper arrives on the scene, striking at that family in various ways.

There's a whole thing where the Creeper is initially embraced by the Surrealist Movement, given her seemingly random actions that poke at and humiliate the various institutions and people that had historically been granted respect. Whether those things had ever deserved that respect is another matter. But you know how it goes with popularity; first they raise you up, then they tear you down.

Cliff Chiang and Dave Stewart make a good art team. The Creeper outfit retains the green-red-yellow color scheme, although with a lot more green. The red boa or stole is replaced with more of a crest or ponytail on top of the head. In the streetlights the getup looks bizarre, but in the shadows it can look quite threatening and unsettling.