Saturday Splash Page #40

 

"Courtesy Flush," in The Weird #2, by Jim Starlin (writer), Berni Wrightson (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Michelle Wrightson (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer)

I guess 1988 was the year for Jim Starlin to do 4-issue mini-series at DC. The more well-known is Cosmic Odyssey, but immediately prior to that was this 4-issue mini-series about a visitor from outside the known universe, whose presence endangers the Earth. The Weird is actually a sort of energy being, typically subservient to a different type of energy being, who escaped into the DCU and then reanimated a corpse to run around in. Two of the more aggressive, domineering energy beings eventually arrive and have to be stopped.

Since the Weird is energy himself, he can manipulate any energy he can touch and alter the molecular density of that corpse he's piloting. Intangibility, which also grants him flight, or increased density for super-strength. Wrightson gives Weird an unusual outfit, plus the one eye that's always wide open. The powers and backstory are explained in issue 2, by the Weird to the son of the person whose body he's using. While the Weird can share his memories with the kid, because as he says, brain waves are just energy, I'm less clear how he got the man's memories, since he'd been dead long enough for the Weird the gank the body during the funeral service. 

Still, it's a rather sweet issue of the boy not entirely understanding that this isn't really his dad, while the Weird deals with caring about this boy, and trying to say things the dad never got around to. It establishes an interesting thread through the story. The Weird escaped in part because it was intrigued by the notion of freedom it observed in the DC Universe. Yet, it doesn't exercise its freedom selfishly, ultimately allowing itself to be transported to a distant, uninhabited world before it can harm anyone innocent. It its native universe, it was forced to sacrifice, to act as a battery for those more aggressive beings. Here, it sacrifices willingly, probably in part to protect a kid it only knows from the memories of the a dead man.

(I'm not clear on why Starlin doesn't allow any sort of moment with the grieving widow. Her son doesn't tell her about his adventure in issue 2, and I'm not sure she ever finds out what happened to her husband's body. Seems kind of shitty.)

Unlike Cosmic Odyssey, there's no team-up between a variety of characters to save the day. Both Superman and the JLI are in the story, but they're basically cannon fodder. Well-meaning but ignorant and hapless dopes entirely outclassed by the threat of these sentient energy beings. The Weird pretty well runs rings around them, while the press looks on and comments about how useless they're proving to be.

Starlin also writes Superman as unusually arrogant and hot-tempered. When he chases the Weird, even though he can follow him with x-ray vision, Superman keeps flying through buildings to stay on his heels, though he says he'll fix the damage later. The Weird escapes by hiding directly under Superman's feet. I guess Superman's x-ray vision doesn't work on his own body? Or he's a fucking idiot. Did Jim Starlin write this, or Frank Miller?

Wrightson's art conveys almost a joking tone at times. The TV reporter has a jaw and smile that seem much too wide, and there's always a little starburst from sparkling teeth in each panel where he faces the reader. He hasn't the opportunity to draw much in the way of otherworldly horrors, and the world the Weird hails from is presented as a bunch of concentric rings of colored light against a backdrop of vague yellowish light. Green's inking tends to sharply define everyone's muscles, and makes Guy Gardner look either 90 years old or rabid. His face is constantly creased from furrowed brows or snarling lips. All that at least suits the overly aggressive approach most of the heroes seem to be taking.