Broken Frontier

One of the things that I have most enjoyed about the last few years of reading comics is that I have finally embraced the diversity of our little corner of the literary world. When I started reading comics everything I picked up was heavily laden with spandex or sword and sorcery. These days, I hope my reading is a little more diverse. I don?t really have a store pull list at the moment. The Australian Dollar is at near record highs against the Green Back (as I write this column, $Australian 1 buys $US 0.88c), yet floppies at my local store still cost $AU 6.60. As such, I am moving to read new titles in trade. With the Australian Dollar at such levels, I plan to do some online shopping this weekend. Two of the series that I have recently picked up are Cable & Deadpool (Volume 1 and 2) and Y: The Last Man (Volume 1 - 4). Neither have inspired me to tell new stories, but both have rekindled my love for comics ... and that?s a good thing! Cable & Deadpool Earlier this year I was overcome by a sudden need to spend a lot of money on comics (how unusual!). Now by the standards of most fans, I don?t buy a lot of comics; at its most extensive, my pull list has never had more than 15 books on it and many of those were indy titles, so you could hardly call them monthly books. Unsure where to start my spree, I went back to what I really like in comics and decided to branch out from there. I don?t have the same level of passion for his work as I did many years back, but my favourite comic creator remains Rob Liefeld. So, it seemed only natural that in looking to expand my reading, I would lean back on something somewhat familiar. In the early 1990s Liefeld revolutionized comics, first at Marvel and then at Image. He moved from Hawk and Dove at DC to New Mutants at Marvel. When he arrived, the title was in a tailspin. Liefeld?s first issue, #86, was the start of something big ? no, let me re-type that: it was the start of something HUGE. Later, New Mutants mutated into X-Force and sold four million copies with its debut issue. At the core of these titles? popularity were two mutants: Cable, the son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of the X-Men?s Jean Grey) returned from the future and Deadpool, the wisecracking Merc? With A Mouth ? both characters were co-created by Liefeld. I found the first story arc of Cable & Deadpool incredibly hard to get into. From memory, the story revolves around a cult whose answer to all of humanity?s ills is to turn everyone blue (or something like that). I enjoyed the interaction between the two main characters, Deadpool?s ?Spidey-on-speed? dialogue and the all out action, but the storyline threw me for a loop. Through it all Cable struck me as a much more complex and engaging character, at war with elements of himself and his destiny, just as much as he was with the One World Church. The Church appeals to both Deadpool and Cable as they both have elements of their personality that they are keen to cure. The most interesting outcome of this arc was how both characters became dependent on each other, from bodysliding to exchanging each other?s bodily fluids, this story set the scene for a quirky, fun and balls-to-the-wall action series. I found the second trade ? The Burnt Offering ? much easier to get into. This story is more in line with what I would call ?classic? Cable/ Deadpool/ Liefeld storytelling; regular fight scenes, guest appearances by the dozen, mutant mayhem and indulging in character excesses. In The Burnt Offering, Cable decides to become the saviour of humanity. Once again this arc delves much more deeply into Cable?s psyche and what emerges is much more than a post-apocalyptic, gun-wielding nutcase. Instead, Cable comes off as a Messiah intent on improving life for humanity, whether they want improvement or not! Some of the best action of the story is left for Deadpool and this, combined with his offbeat wise-crackin?, is the true highlight of the book. Deadpool faces off against ninjas, The Cat, Genetech goons, AIM goons, the Fixer, Agent X ? and you can be guaranteed plenty of explosives and verbal bombs flying left and right. I enjoyed these two trades and with the exchange rate looking so good, just might indulge in some further arcs ? just for the fun of it! Y: The Last Man About one year ago I discovered that my local library carries a whole shelf of TPBs; about 85 percent of it is manga (I don?t really enjoy manga), but I have discovered some great comics including Red Star, Bone, The Fantastic Four and Y: The Last Man. I always felt that Vertigo took comics too seriously and just wasn?t for me ? how wrong I was! Unmanned, the first arc of Y, is gripping, tense and simply the best story I have ever read in a comic book! The concept, the story begins with a plague that wipes out every living being with an X chromosome except for one man and his monkey, is compelling enough. Yet that one man who survives ? Yorrick Brown ? is incredibly complex and one of the most fully realized characters on the spinner racks. In the story?s first arc we see all the men fall, bar Yorrick and his helper monkey Ampersand (named after the & symbol on a computer keyboard). We are also introduced to a secret organization called the Culper Ring, the enigmatic Agent 355 and the geneticist Dr Allison Mann. Together, these four unlikely characters come together to try and save humanity. But, it isn?t that simple. As (presumably) the last man, Yorrick is the most wanted person on the planet and among those hunting him are his mother (a powerful politician), his sister Hero (an activist with the femi-Nazi Amazons) and Israeli Special Forces! In the second trade, titled Cycles, we get a deeper look into post-male America. Herein lies the brilliance of the world created by writer Brian K Vaughn and artist Pia Guerra. With the death of all men, the old order has crumbled and a new society is born, complete with man-hating gangs, prison towns, murder, extreme sibling rivalry and a space-bound surprise. The tension is ratcheted up, made all the more compelling due to the stunning realist art style. Book 3, One Small Step, indulges in Russian secret agents, women-acting-as-men, a potentially world saving space capsule and a small town with a predilection for the theatre. I am only half way through the fourth trade Safeword, yet it is the most compelling and gut wrenching of all the arcs I have read. Featuring sadomasochism, psychological revelations, a militia who have cut off a highway our heroes need to pass through and a surprising birth, this arc reflects the shocks, twists and ?Omigosh!? moments that are characteristic of this unique and brilliant piece of sequential storytelling. At a time when I was looking to expand my reading in the world of funny books Cable & Deadpool and Y: The Last Man have taken me in two very different and ultimately rewarding directions. Next: Words are weapons.