Starting here . . J Michael Straczynski has joined the DC cast of creators. Right now he's being tasked with integrating the Harvey Red Circle characters into the DC Universe. And the first one up . . is the Hangman. I read some of these book, back when they were published by Harvey, but . . I didn't follow them religiously. So I know of the characters, but nothing really specific. But that's ok. I'd much prefer going into this looking at them as new characters, rather than trying to compare them to previous incarnations. For this one, Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz are doing the art. From the creative stand-point . . what more could you ask for? This issue is mostly spent on giving us the Hangman's origin. He's a union soldier that was caught behind enemy lines in Arkansas, 1864. His name is Dr Robert Dickering. When he's caught the Confederate's are in a hurry to leave, so they hang him for spying. However, a ghostly intervention offers him reprise . . as long as he agrees to the deal he's being offered. "You will wander the Earth, drawn to the torment of accused souls. You will determine their guilt or innocence. If they are guilty, you will facilitate their punishment. If they are innocent, you will do all that is necessary to save their lives, their fortunes, and their honor. And you will do this . . throughout time, unceasing, until you are destroyed by methods equal to my own . . or until the end of the world itself." We then see, in the present, that he's a Doctor by day, and a Vigilante by night. We see a little bit of his adventure, but not his connection to the DC Universe. Not yet. I'm sure we'll see that when the monthly titles start coming out. It was an ok book. It was informative and served it's purpose. Now we know where this guy came from. It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here. By the way . . welcome to the jungle . . Mr Straczynski.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
The Red Circle: the Hangman #1 - DC
Starting here . . J Michael Straczynski has joined the DC cast of creators. Right now he's being tasked with integrating the Harvey Red Circle characters into the DC Universe. And the first one up . . is the Hangman. I read some of these book, back when they were published by Harvey, but . . I didn't follow them religiously. So I know of the characters, but nothing really specific. But that's ok. I'd much prefer going into this looking at them as new characters, rather than trying to compare them to previous incarnations. For this one, Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz are doing the art. From the creative stand-point . . what more could you ask for? This issue is mostly spent on giving us the Hangman's origin. He's a union soldier that was caught behind enemy lines in Arkansas, 1864. His name is Dr Robert Dickering. When he's caught the Confederate's are in a hurry to leave, so they hang him for spying. However, a ghostly intervention offers him reprise . . as long as he agrees to the deal he's being offered. "You will wander the Earth, drawn to the torment of accused souls. You will determine their guilt or innocence. If they are guilty, you will facilitate their punishment. If they are innocent, you will do all that is necessary to save their lives, their fortunes, and their honor. And you will do this . . throughout time, unceasing, until you are destroyed by methods equal to my own . . or until the end of the world itself." We then see, in the present, that he's a Doctor by day, and a Vigilante by night. We see a little bit of his adventure, but not his connection to the DC Universe. Not yet. I'm sure we'll see that when the monthly titles start coming out. It was an ok book. It was informative and served it's purpose. Now we know where this guy came from. It'll be interesting to see where he goes from here. By the way . . welcome to the jungle . . Mr Straczynski.
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I'm glad you reviewed this one. I was thumbing through it the other day in my local comic shop, but ended up putting it back on the shelf.
ReplyDeleteI love JMS & the art of Bill Sienkiewicz, but I didn't even recognize BS' style within the pages. The cover is beautiful, but the Civil War origin wasn't intriguing enough for me to open up the wallet.
Yeah, it really was just an orgin issue. Which is what I think all of these one-shots are gonna' be this month. They're interesting, but . . I don't know. It depends on the art. I'm really looking forward to the ongoing stories when JMS can really sink his teeth into these characters.
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