home • about • books • writing • zines • comics • design/animation • press • mollusc • contact
(this review was originally published on Comic Book Galaxy) G0DLAND is the story of Adam Archer, the only survivor of a failed mission to Mars who was granted freaky cosmic powers by a group of floating, glowing alien embryos. Archer and his three sisters are sequestered by the US military in a high-tech Manhattan skyscraper and called upon in situations of national emergency. The first G0DLAND trade collects issues 1-6 of the ongoing monthly series and depicts two of Archer's adventures. The first adventure sees Archer rescuing a giant green alien dog from supervillain Basil Cronus, whose desiccated head floats in a fluid-filled dome on top of a robot body. The second sees Archer rescuing both his sister and Crashman, a government-sponsored superhero, from the clutches of the torture-obsessed supervillain, Discordia. Interspersed between these action sequences are flashbacks from Archer's origin story and his musings on the long-term consequences of his transformation.
G0DLAND is easily lined up alongside other current superhero fare that looks fondly back to that fabled time when superhero comics were light-hearted escapist fun, not hamstrung by the need to tell stories imbued with gravitas and (supposed) psychological realism. Specifically, G0DLAND is firmly imprinted with a deep love and respect for the work of comics legend Jack 'King' Kirby, creator of many household-name superheroes (Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Thor, The X-Men) and multitudes more known primarily to comic book fans (Mister Miracle, Etrigan the Demon, The Inhumans). Kirby's prolific career had its peak in the '60s and '70s. For people who have been reading American comics since that time, a comic like G0DLAND taps into the nostalgia that a large proportion of that segment of the comic-reading public has for Kirby's work. For those people who weren't around to experience Kirby first-hand, or who haven't discovered him and gone back through the reprints, their reaction to something like G0DLAND is less of a certainty. Is it too different from the other things on the shelves at the moment? Is it relying too closely on familiarity with its source material? It's not too much of a jump to assume that Casey and Scioli are aiming G0DLAND squarely at the first group, but it's interesting to consider its possible reception by the second. Does G0DLAND rely on Kirby-nostalgia to get its point across, or is there something more to it than a simple remix project?
The answer is both, sort of. While G0DLAND is unabashed in its Kirbyisms, it does have qualities that set it apart from Kirby's work, that perhaps make it more palatable for contemporary audiences than the originals from which it draws inspiration. Like any good remix project, G0DLAND uses its source material as a base or a hook to draw an audience, but it also brings something new to the project. This is a good thing, because otherwise you might as well go straight to the archives and hear it from the source. The most obvious thing that sets G0DLAND apart from the body of Kirby's work is its contemporary setting in the post-millennial USA, a recognisable world of CDs and email and cable TV as much as it is a fantastic world of cosmic powers and secret Arctic hideouts. Another distinction is the dialogue, which is generally more naturalistic than Kirby's (or that of Stan Lee when the two were working together at Marvel Comics). Throughout G0DLAND you get the feeling that the characters are actually talking to each other, and even listening to what is being said to them, rather than the (enjoyable) litany of rants and proclamations that characterise Kirby's (and Lee's) work. This conversational style combined with the subtle placement of occasional interjections and mumbled ripostes serve as relief from the exposition and remonstration, and make the tone of the story-telling a touch less bombastic and self-important than it might have been.
Also contributing to the tonal distinction between G0DLAND and its inspiration is the extremely limited use of sound-effects (hardly a BAM! Or WHA-KOOOM! to be found) despite the multitude of action sequences that pepper this comic. In fact, many of the panels in this book that frame the action sequences are devoid of both sound-effect and dialogue, a decision that allows the art to stand on its own and carry the full weight of story-telling. The last distinction is that the characters themselves aren't merely simple reworkings of pre-existing characters. While there may be something of the Silver Surfer and Kirby's 2001 comics in Adam Archer, there are significant differences between him and those sources (his humility, his ability to transform in and out of 'cosmic mode', his unfamiliarity with the extent of his cosmic powers). Similarly, while Basil Cronus, Discordia and Crashman's character designs are seemingly riffs on the Red Skull, Kirby's New Gods and Captain America respectively, Cronus's motivation (the quest for the ultimate drug-assisted high), Discordia's confidence, articulateness and insight, and Crashman's vulnerabilities (admitting on national television to having had sex with Discordia) are new and original qualities for those kinds of characters.
These distinctions between G0DLAND and
its inspirations ensure that it doesn't map too closely to what
has come before, and elevate it beyond mere homage, tribute or
parody of Kirby's work. Additionally there is an awareness of
the parameters of this project that enhance the playfulness and
sense of fun, but which don't go so far as to be continually
saying, "Get
it? See what we did there? How clever we are? How like you we are?" 4 out of 5
|
|
