Heroes Never Rust #37: Man or Monster?

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Heroes Never Rust #37 by Sean Ironman

Man or Monster?

Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, is the focus of the final issue of Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules. The cover is of Ben unconscious with a bloody lip and with a small panel of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman laughing at The Thing who’s on his knees and covering his face in defeat. The issue begins with Ben’s girlfriend smashing dinner plates, telling him to rot in hell, and storming out. While this could be thought of as Ben’s issue, the opening is layered with Reed Richards’s interiority.

“Science relies upon observation. The more data one collects, the more likely one can predict future behavior. But what happens when behavior belies all known data? When there is chaos where there should be order? Must I surrender to the premise that the only constant is randomness and instability? Can I accept these implications of how illusionary the world we’ve conjured for ourselves is? How easily it can come apart?”

We’re never told why these characters are in the situation in which we find them. We get hints about Ben Grimm’s time during the war. We don’t know why Reed is dating Susan. Or why Susan would want to date Reed. Or what happened to Susan and Johnny’s parents. They are all messed up and can’t see their way out. Susan flirts unsuccessfully with a young colleague of Reed’s. Ben unsuccessfully hits on a woman at a diner. Reed wants to marry Susan and practices his proposal even though it’s obvious he doesn’t even understand love.

Reed wants to organize life. Everything must have a purpose, must make sense. He doesn’t understand the world and attempts to figure out it out. He wants to sit and watch from the outside.

But that’s what he comes to learn. There is no observer in life. He’s a part of it. Reed runs late to the dinner party Susan throws for Reed and his colleagues. By the time he arrives, he finds Susan and Ben in the bedroom making out. It wasn’t planned. Susan and Ben weren’t sneaking around behind Reed’s back this whole time. Actually, Ben is more remorseful over what happened than Susan. So many things had to happen to get the two to that point. So many random things.

Susan finds Johnny gone (He’s on the beach getting beaten up from issue three). Reed’s running late. Ben can’t fit into the crowd downstairs and searches for Susan, who’s crying over Johnny having run off. Reed comes home two minutes after Ben and Susan start kissing. It just happens to be the night Reed wanted to propose to Susan.

In many stories, these coincidences wouldn’t work, or at least would feel more contrived. Coincidences can be difficult to write. Characters decisions should drive the story forward. But Unstable Molecules is able to manage it because the coincidences still revolve around characters’ choices and it becomes part of the story, instead of trying to trick the reader into not noticing.

Johnny is gone because Johnny chose to run off. Reed chooses to propose. Ben chooses to come to the party and look for Susan. Susan chooses to kiss Ben. They all happen in the same night because that’s life. What one person does affects another person. We’re not separate creatures. We share the same space. Our lives pull and push against other lives. We’re connected.

That’s what Reed had wrong this whole time. He realizes he was studying life from afar instead of realizing he’s a part of it. His life affects another life. It might seem like coincidence or randomness at first. But it’s not. Everyone is in control of the choices they make, but those choices affect more people than just that one person. A choice I make today affects someone else. In turn, what that person does affects a third. And so on down the line. We’re not bouncing off of one another. We’re bound together.

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Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

Heroes Never Rust #36: The Playboy

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Heroes Never Rust #36 by Sean Ironman

The Playboy

The third issue of Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules switches things up, and, instead of the point of view character being a member of the Fantastic Four, the point of view character is Johnny Sturm’s best friend, Richard Mannelman. I’m a fan of stories where the protagonist is not the point of view character, and this is no exception. In the regular Marvel Universe, Johnny is popular with women and enjoys the team’s popularity in pop culture. People look up to him, so it’s fitting to see Johnny through the eyes of Mannelman.

The two are pretty normal boys for the 1950s. They get bullied. They try desperately to see sexualized women, regardless of whether they are nude or not. They search for something new. The difference between the two is that Johnny is lost but still has something going for him. He’s bored with the town, but he could easily be one of the popular kids. “Johnny could have been popular—he could fix cars and girls thought he was cute. And yet he hung out with me.” Mannelman, on the other hand, has nothing. He has no other friends, no real skills to speak of, no real family. It’s a sad life, and because of it, he clings to Johnny, hoping that when Johnny makes his way in the world that he’ll take Mannelman with him.

In the end, Johnny has the turning point, not Mannelman. Johnny decides to split town, to “escape for good.” He doesn’t quite make it this issue due to some bullies catching up with him. The issue ends with Mannelman and Johnny getting beaten on the beach. But Mannelman isn’t upset about the scuffle. “If they broke all of our bones then Johnny couldn’t go. He’d have to stay. Stay with me. In Glen Cove.”

Reed and Ben don’t appear this issue, and Sue’s only in it briefly. But that makes sense, even in the regular universe, because Johnny started as a person more concerned with goofing off and with the fame then whatever serious things the others were going through. This issue also heavily features an old boyfriend of Sue’s named Joey King. A beat poet, Joey is back in town briefly and ends up convincing Johnny that he needs to leave town.

At the end of each issue, the writer, James Sturm, includes fictional information about his research. This issue features spotlights for Joey King and Mannelman. Joey’s writing is described as a pale imitation of Jack Kerouac and that he was “a minor beat poet at best.” James Sturm was unable to find Joey for an interview. Turns out (although fictionally) that Mannelman wrote a book called Hot Times and Hot Rods, My High School Years with the Human Torch. That book was his claim to fame. In a way, he did follow Johnny out of Glen Cove. James Sturm did try to interview the now fifty-two-year-old Mannelman for the comic and describes a scene in Mannelman’s New York apartment where Mannelman refuses to answer questions ,and then Mannelman’s mother calls from the other room. It was a sad scene, and made all the sadder with the photo accompanying the article of Mannelman as an adult overweight and with glasses. He looks like the cliché comic book nerd.

Mannelman and Joey King wanted fame. Mannelman focused on Johnny. King focused on Kerouac. Both became blips on the cultural landscape. King published a few poems and started a failed artist’s commune. Mannelman became an author, although his only book was about his old friend. Johnny became the famous one—the basis for a member of the Fantastic Four. But even with that, no one gave a shit about Johnny Sturm, other than someone using him as a superhero. In Joey King’s section at the back of the issue, James Sturm wrote, “King’s lasting contribution was the inspiration he provided for others.” That seems to be the case with everyone. Johnny inspired Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to create the Human Torch and Mannelman to write his book, which added to this James Sturm’s tale. Joey King inspired other artists and beatniks. Perhaps the only escape a person can really have is through inspiration.

___________

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

Heroes Never Rust #35: The Invisible Woman

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

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Heroes Never Rust #35 by Sean Ironman

The Invisible Woman

Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules #2 switches focus from Reed Richards to Susan Sturm. We see that the four-issue miniseries takes place in one day, with this issue beginning with Reed’s phone call to Susan from last issue. We also get a little bit of superhero action with panels from the fictional Vapor Girl comic, which Susan’s younger brother, Johnny, read in the first issue. It opens with a short excerpt from Vapor Girl. The heroine is imprisoned by aliens and shot with an “atomic manipulator ray.” When the comic switches to Susan Sturm, she wakes on the couch and doesn’t recognize the room for a moment. “It’s an odd sensation waking up and feeling as if you are a stranger in your own home.” She goes about her tasks of preparing for her book club by reading the book and baking a coffee cake.

On the surface level, this issue could be seen as the typical story of a woman wanting more than being a housewife. But, this issue succeeds (and it’s the best of the miniseries) because Susan isn’t concerned with female rights. At no point, does she say or think anything about the treatment of women at the time. It’s there because it’s integral to the story, but she doesn’t vocalize that idea. Instead, Susan deals with a life she doesn’t want, and in the end comes to realize “I do not like my life and I want it to change.” By avoiding talking about feminism directly, the story gains in two different ways.

First, the story becomes relatable to anyone. Each of us, at times, has wanted more than the life we had. It’s why we learn things, go to school, get a new job. It’s why we pretty much do most things in life. So the story is able to become more universal.

Second, the story is able to get more specific, which, I know, may be confusing since I just said the story became more universal. But, remember, specificity breeds universality. The character doesn’t act as a mouthpiece for feminism. We get specifics about Susan’s life—her relationship with the neighborhood women, with her brother, with Reed. Today’s readers are smart enough to pick up on the feminist aspect of the story. We’ve seen that story a hundred times. But we haven’t seen Susan Sturm’s story before.

Instead of trying to be herself, Susan tries to be her mother, who died some years earlier. Susan does what her mother would have done. She takes part in a book club, even though she doesn’t like the other women. She deals with Reed’s uncaring attitude, even though there seems to be no love between the two. Other than the phone call, we get nothing more about their relationship. There isn’t anything more. Unstable Molecules is about people wanting more for their lives. They seek happiness in roles they think they should live in, and they all know deep down it won’t help. At one point, looking out at the neighbors Susan hates, she thinks, “I allow myself to hate them.” Allows herself to hate. She has trouble even allowing herself the freedom to feel.

In the end, I think one of the things this comic says is that it’s okay to hate, to be emotional. Throughout the issue, Susan doesn’t let herself feel. On the phone with Reed, she just accepts things the way they are. With Johnny, she does the same. She says nothing when Johnny tells her that he hates her. But by the end of the day, she can’t continue anymore. She breaks down on the couch, waiting for the dinner party to start. “I miss my mom. I do not like my life and I want it to change.” She takes no action this issue, but she’s reached an important moment. She’s come to terms with this not being the life she wants, and we’ll see by the end of the mini-series what she does to change things.

___________

Heroes Never Rust #34: Alone Together

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

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Heroes Never Rust #34 by Sean Ironman

Alone Together

In 1961, Marvel Comics released The Fantastic Four #1, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. That comic changed the comic book industry. In the first issue, the Fantastic Four wore no costumes. Instead of having their abilities from birth, or gaining them through hard work, or finding some piece of alien technology, the Fantastic Four gained superpowers by being reckless. They defied the U.S. government and tried to beat the Russians in the Space Race. They crashed landed on Earth and succumbed to the cosmic radiation due to the spaceship’s weak shielding. The comic began the Marvel Age of Comics and new characters became more and more human. The Fantastic Four succeeded not just because of the wild ideas presented in Lee and Kirby’s run, but also due to the relationship between the four characters. It’s the same reason why most stories succeed.

In 2003, James Sturm wrote Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules, a historic fiction about the “real” Fantastic Four. Unstable Molecules is a four-issue miniseries that tells the story of the people who formed the basis of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s The Fantastic Four. There were no such people. Sturm is making it up, even going so far as to have a “Notes and Sources” section in the back of the comic with fake resources such as Harvey L. Beyers’s The Fantastic Four: The World They Lived In and the World they Created. Imagining people who may have formed the basis of the superhero team is an interesting idea, but the comic is one of the strongest Fantastic Four stories because nothing is in the way of studying the characters. This might as well be a literary short story written by Raymond Carver. It’s a study of the relationship between these four individuals and how alone they truly are.

The first issue isn’t really about anything. In 1958, Reed Richards is working with sub-atomic particles and is called in to help the U.S. government on a project to beat the Russians. Sue is alone at home, waiting for Reed, waiting to be rescued from nothingness. Johnny, Sue’s kid brother who she takes care of, masturbates to Vapor Girl comics and wanders around with a friend on his way to school. Ben, an aged boxing coach, is about to celebrate his one-month anniversary with a twenty-three year old. Characters talk, or in Sue’s case listen. Johnny masturbating in his bedroom is about the only “action” scene we get. But their mundane lives are fascinating.

Each issue focuses on a different character, although the others play a role. The first comic opens with Reed looking at particles through a microscope. “If anything, I know far less now than when I began. The closer I look, the greater my confusion. I’ve succeeded in isolating the sub-atomic particles but after months of research they defy any predicable behavioral patterns. There has to be a stable pattern.” Reed is brilliant and dumb at the same time. He’s one of the nation’s leading scientists, but he knows nothing about people. He doesn’t understand emotion, only logic. Later, he realizes he forgot about a cocktail party he is supposed to attend and calls his girlfriend, Sue. We watch this conversation from Sue’s point of view. We don’t get his words, only her responses, which are short and mostly consist of “Yes, Reed.” Halfway through the conversation, she sits and folds into herself while still on the phone. Reed misses everything.

Sue yells at Johnny to get up and get to school. Johnny seems depressed, maybe angry about his life. He barely says anything in the issue, a far cry from the fun playboy in The Fantastic Four comics. Sue doesn’t see it, doesn’t care to see Johnny for who he is. She is responsible for him and he needs to go to school. What he’s thinking or feeling doesn’t matter to her. Ben is distant from the other three, never actually interacting with them in this issue. At one point, he heads into the city. People greet him. He’s well liked, but he has no real conversations with anyone. When he’s in bed with his girlfriend, she’s talkative, but he only wants sex. When he’s coaching a boxer he speaks a bit more, but it’s nothing personal, just to hit harder, to push his athlete. A man working at a newsstand greets Ben and introduces his son. We don’t get the rest of the conversation, probably wasn’t much of one, if any. The newsstand man tells his boy, “Ben and I fought together in the war, Marty. Ben as a real hero, yes sir!” Ben walks into a dark porn theater.

Except for Reed’s phone call with Sue, and Sue yelling at Johnny to get to school, the characters are never in the same scene together. Instead of ending scenes at the end of pages, the comic begins scenes at the end of pages. Many of the scenes overlap. It gives the comic unity even though characters are apart. It’s all happening at the same time. There’s still movement even though little happens here. The scenes bleed into one another. Like what Reed opens with, the characters defy any predictable pattern. It’s life. It continues from one thing to the next, mostly consisting of small moments instead of those big ones everyone is waiting for. That’s what’s going on here. People waiting for something to change. Reed waiting for his big discovery to break. Sue waiting for Reed. Johnny waiting to grow up, get a girl, get a life. Except for Ben. Like in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s comics, Ben Grimm is the monstrous one, the different one. Ben’s not waiting. He’s given up. In a contradiction of his rocky state in the superhero comics, Ben is alive on the outside, the guy everyone wants to talk to, but he’s destroyed on the inside. He’s succumbed to waiting for his life to mean something. All the characters want their life to be more than what it is. It doesn’t seem like it will happen. It’s up to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to give them a fiction of being superheroes so that they break free of their lives and be in the spotlight where everyone can see them, where they reach beyond what they imagined they could do.

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