In the 52 limited series that occurred between 2006 and 2007, Black Adam lost his closest members of the family when his brother-in-law Osiris and his wife Isis were killed. The tragedy was so devastating that Black Adam put the blame on everyone and began to kill the human race and fight against superheroes. To stop the madness, countless superheroes of the Justice Society of America and the Justice League along with Teen Titans, and Doom Patrol assemble to take on Black Adam.
World War III is a four-issue limited series that gives the readers a clear thought about how powerful the ruler of Kahndaq is and what it means to be an antihero in the storyline. Again, the story inclines towards the emotional side of Black Adam that gives the impression of the superheroes fighting for the wrong cause whereas the case is different.
I am very impressed with the writing of this story. Keith Champagne wrote the first two issues, and John Ostrander wrote the final two. Ostrander is a comic book veteran and is well-known for writing a DC crossover series – Legends, introducing to us a bad-ass woman who heads A.R.G.U.S. – Amanda Waller, and creating a very popular identity and alter-ego for Barbara Gordon – Oracle.
A different artist was involved in each issue for penciling and inking. But that didn’t drop the reading enthusiasm or my mood of looking at the graphics at all. The whole story is shaped with a hard-hitting vision that emphasizes the wrath and the fury of Black Adam through those drawings. Especially when all the superheroes are about to attack Black Adam.
Martian Manhunter commentates in most of the segments and gives the readers a fair share of recognizing how powerful his appearance can be. He repeatedly proved in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) that the Justice League is incomplete without him. And here, where Black Adam knocked most of the superheroes, Martian Manhunter gave him the toughest time.
Black Adam film is not based on World War III events and you do not need to read this book before watching the film if you still haven’t watched it. This book is recommended to those who really want to understand how powerful is Black Adam.
‘My Friend Dahmer‘ is a graphic novel based on one of America’s notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer. The book was written by John ‘Derf’ Backderf and published under Abrams ComicArts. As the name indicates, Derf had personally known Dahmer and through this book, he recollects and highlights some eye-openers about the old times spent at Eastview Junior High and Revere High School where they were classmates.
The writing of ‘My Friend Dahmer’ took a few rounds. Derf wrote this back in 1995. It was an 8-page comic strip that was published two years later in the 18th issue of the Zero Zero series of Fantagraphics books. Derf decided to rewrite it full-length and then self-published a 24-page comic. After the death of Dahmer, Derf had made extensive research through other classmates, journals, news, and interviews that stretched to twenty years. When Derf was prepared to shape his fact-finding and exploration into a book of around 200 pages, Abrams Books published it in 2012.
The book is not just a graphic novel but also Derf’s personal memoir and to some extent critically a psychological case study about Dahmer’s personal life. By reading it, it may look as if Dahmer is backed by the author and shows sympathy but Derf actually points out what were the causes that unfortunately misled Dahmer to the path where he never turned his back and looked behind once he walked away.
DAHMER IN DIFFERENT MEDIUMS
For those who have finished watching Dahmer on Netflix starring Evan Peters, reading this book is totally a different experience. The show was dramatized from Dahmer’s narrative and thus, focused on his crimes, his motives, and his victims. Whereas the book helps the readers understand Dahmer’s school life that Derf and other friends observed. The book covers a lot of incidents that reflect Dahmer’s isolation, loneliness, silence, disturbance, and difficulties.
ZERO HUMAN CONCERN
‘My Friend Dahmer’ abandons the hatred and the outcries over Dahmer’s horrific crimes and in very smart writing, the author successfully complains; where were people when Dahmer needed them? The people include his parents, Lionel and Joyce. Where were the adults who could have guided him instead of shutting him down?
Where was the decency when his classmates bullied him? Why none of his friends at school helped him? He was let down by everyone.
The book confirms and the author indirectly admits that he himself along with his friends made a joke out of him instead of helping him. Derf does admit that he wanted to help Dahmer but couldn’t.
In a way, it is kind of a double standard that Derf somehow blames others but he also belonged to the same kind who didn’t shoulder him.
SCARY BOOK?
The readers are believed to have considered their reading experience of ‘My Friend Dahmer’ to be haunting. Maybe my mental capacity is strong enough to not feel it haunting or scary but I think readers who are not hypersensitive or too soft can read this. Maybe, the reader gets disturbed over looking at the pictures of dead animals especially when Dahmer madly chops a tiny fish or when you look at a mutilated dog carcass. But I reason the book to be less haunting because the book doesn’t illustrate those horrific crimes that Dahmer committed after leaving the school. And my first understanding about the book was that picturing his crimes in broad detailing will be the case but not at all.
ILLUSTRATION
I will especially praise the artwork of the book. Pencilling the black and white drawings reminds me of good old mini comic strips of the old newspapers that used to start someone’s morning with a cup of coffee. With a kind of subject and a dark tone the story settles in, I think this was a perfect idea to keep the presentation this way.
Every picture showing Dahmer mimicking the slurred speech of someone with Cerebral Palsy was so accurately drawn giving the reader an impression that Derf closely observed Dahmer’s mimicking because he acted that way most of the time. It looked like an exaggeration, maybe Derf showed us this strange character of Dahmer that he had no other choice of humor to fun around with ‘friends’ but to stick with the only comical act he got recognition around.
But Derf deserves the praise for establishing a reading impact. After many pictures of that mimicry, the readers come to know that he was actually mimicking his own mother. It was a sad revelation when Dahmer’s mother permanently leaves the house and isolates him when Dahmer’s depression alarms.
A Social Guide to Understand the Cornered People
‘My Friend Dahmer’ is a valuable source of understanding a disturbing teenager. If a student, teacher, or principal of an educational institution reads this book, will surely consider backing or assisting such kids in their lives before they turn into Dahmer.
I will recommend reading ‘My Friend Dahmer’ which has around 270 pages because besides five parts, a preface, a prologue, and an epilogue, that book also contains extra detailing about the making of this book and an explanation about a few important pages and some bonus materials.
CLOSING REMARKS
One valid question that breaks after reading this non-fiction book is, who was responsible for making Dahmer a monster? It is not a mystery but a curiosity. He was not an orphan nor did he lack the necessities of life. He wasn’t poor or belonged to some lower-class background.
His father was a chemist and the family lived in some mid-century modern home standing at nearly 2200 square feet back in 1968.
After watching the Netflix show and then reading this book, I think Dahmer was a society-reject who was canceled by almost everyone for his being visibly odd or awkward. In most cases, people like to generally hang around with those who are jolly, funny, friendly, and very extroverted. And Dahmer carries none of the traits.
No one was interested to understand Dahmer’s problems, not even his own parents because they were busy arguing, abusing, blaming, and fighting with each other. No teacher considered being his psychologist. Backderf and other friends used his mimicking and earned some money. He was cornered by everyone and therefore, the human contact distancing from him broke him and ignited him. An anger that will have scary consequences and will bring fear to society. The madness that he committed is unexplainable but this is how the fever starts, the pain instills. His silence became cancer, he moved on to the path that would turn him into evil. People around him failed him.
Previously, I wrote comic book reviews about the first two volumes of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá‘s The Umbrella Academy, Apocalypse Suite, and Dallas. The Netflix show with the same title that Steve Blackman ran and wrote had smart writing for any adaptation, complex but a method that suits the television audience and to a razor-edge point where the viewers can be convinced with.
The third season detailed the Sparrow Academy which was depicted by the end of the second season as a dramatic cliffhanger. It was more shocking for the comic geeks because the Sparrows are not really much introduced to comics. I happened to read the third volume, Hotel Oblivion, as the title gives me or everyone the precise impression that the third season is based on this book which is true but not entirely. The Sparrows show up to the Umbrellas at the end of the book just like the show’s second season as mentioned above.
That makes Steve Blackman’s writing the show in a very different direction really cool. We buy what we watch and there surely is a behind-the-scene geekery-geekery-gock discussion about the fourth book proceedings to refer to on television. When will the fourth book release, no idea but Steve Blackman’s idea about the show’s fourth season will now test him. Because so far he has done a really good job.
One major difference between television and comics is that Hotel Oblivion is a hotel in the former but a prison in the latter. A prison that is designed by who else than Sir Reginald Hargreeves himself for the most dangerous villains his babies have fought and defeated. There is no chance of escaping this prison unless they use a teleportation device, televator. But utilizing the televator will also not be enough because Scientific Man monitors Hotel Oblivion from space.
Scientific Man is The Umbrella Academy’s Doctor Manhattan with a better costume. While reading the fifth issue, surely his appearance to every reader like me was a surprise. He entered the scene like a messiah or a Superman. And I am not understanding why was this character not involved in the latest season. Or did he show up if I am mistaken?
The stories of both the television and the comics are extremely different. My whole enthusiasm to read Hotel Oblivion to broaden my understanding for the third season altered because, in the comics, the Umbrella Academy fights against the Murder Magician, a hypnotist, and Obscura, the jewel thief. Both of the villains manage to escape the Hotel Oblivion.
Speaking of the hotel, there is no mention of Hotel Obsidian in the comics. Hotel Oblivion is a one-dimensional prison built by Hargreeves to torture his villains. But the third season, I opine, edges over this idea in writing the third season. Steve Blackman introduced the concept of Hotel Obsidian, a hotel where Klaus used to get drunk more often. When the Sparrows show the Umbrellas the exit door, they take shelter in this hotel and later on discover the mysterious routes that take them to a bizarre version of Obsidian which is Hotel Oblivion.
Just like in previous books, Hotel Oblivion maintains dysfunctionality in the siblings. They are again scattered. Spaceboy is walking on the streets of Tokyo. Number Five is a hired assassin. Vanya again has a shorter appearance like Dallas and continues her physical therapy. But this time she is interesting to read when Vanya and her mother have a deep conversation in the fourth issue where the mother explains what makes her daughter so special.
Hotel Oblivion also deserves to be praised for developing the understanding of Hargreeves. A thought about Hargreeves creation to be a blessing also juxtaposes his vision on a broader scale whether he ended up being a villain after the revelation of his prison plan that happened after his death.
Just like the previous two books, the main issue covers and the introduction of the issue names had impressive drawings as well as some portions of the stories. Gabriel Bá’s illustration really reflects a darker image of the happenings. Notice his detailing in the fifth issue when all the villains march together. Or the nuclear reaction in the final issue. The comic-book partnership of Gerard and Gabriel is the key to The Umbrella Academy being an exciting brand to follow.
I think the third book was an offshoot to step into major parallels. The seven-chapter identity crisis story gave new meaning to thinking about renewing a universe. It was an interesting idea. Hotel Oblivion is completely different from the first two books, it is like waking up during a road trip to experience a totally new world.
REFERENCE
The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion Issues 1-7 (2018-2019)
Two time-traveling serial killers Hazel and Cha-Cha are on a quest for Number 5 (The Boy) whereas Number 5 lives fifty years in the future where he gets training by Shubunkin Goldfish (Carmichael) and later on an assignment to assassinate President Kennedy.
This storyline, Dallas, is second in line, which began to run its issues in 2008, exactly nine months after Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá concluded the first chapter, Apocalypse Suite. Just like the predecessor, Dallas also has six issues but the writing elements are darker and more complex than Apocalypse Suite. And it is the upgrade over the first chapter that the tag team of Gerard and Gabriel have improved the method of storytelling to the readers with a lot of potentials bettered for Number’s character.
Kraken, who is Number 2, is also a welcoming signal who looks physically visible to lead the perplexed team. The readers may get disappointed by not finding much presence of Vanya in Dallas as compared to Apocalypse Suite. But I sense it was a risky move to continue the story without not much contribution from Vanya who lies on her bed after what she has been through in the first chapter. But there are moments in one of the issues to read where Rumor holds grudge against Vanya.
The fifth issue is mostly based on the Vietnam War and has impressive writing. In fact, the one parallel that bridges both chapters is the marvelous take on the dysfunctionality of the lost children under the Umbrella Academy. The reader must have to keep his/her hours passed on the Netflix version aside because these two chapters were published almost ten years before what the global fanhood hooked up with on television.
NETFLIX ADAPTATION
I must admit that the writers of the Netflix adaptation did some hard work in giving the idea of presenting the original work to television in the rightest and most acceptable direction. The elements of both chapters are mixed to construct a plot that looks good enough to move on. I thought Hazel and Cha-Cha were created straight on television until I read Dallas. Because they didn’t appear in Apocalypse Suite.
CLOSING REMARKS
I think Apocalypse Suite will be remembered more than its sequel because of the plotline that inspired the first season of the show. But writing-wise, Gerard-Gabriel have matured their storytelling in Dallas. Surely, an important read one cannot miss at all.
The next in line is ‘Hotel Oblivion‘ which started to publish the issues in 2018.
REFERENCE
The Umbrella Academy: Dallas Issues 1-6 (2008-2009)
A space alien Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a.k.a The Monocle, is a world-renowned scientist and a wealthy entrepreneur on earth. He adopts seven superpowered children who raise them as superheroes. They are called The Umbrella Academy. Years later, after failing a mission in Paris, they split. Twenty years later, they return after they receive the news of the death of their adopted father, The Monocle.
INTRODUCTION
The Umbrella Academy was abstracted by the leading vocalist and co-founder of My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way. In 2007, Way completed the writing and visual artwork of the first comic book limited series ‘Apocalypse Suite‘ with the cartoonist Gabriel Bá. Dark Horse Comics published the graphic novel and was first presented in the annual promotional event Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) the same year. The first issue was immediately sold out and indicated staunch interest amongst the readers. By the next year, this graphic novel won Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
REVIEW
There are six issues in the graphic novel and each consists of 23 or 24 pages. Gabriel’s artistic work and characterization will somewhere remind the reader of Frank Miller‘s work on The Dark Knight Returns. The drawings are not really that captivating but I liked the sub-cover art pages of the issue titles. Yes, there are some pages that need attention to the detailing like Pogo testing number 5 and news reporting in the third issue. Or Kraken shutting down Vanya when she returns. I liked Vanya’s character development where it reflected that she wasn’t taken seriously and no one cared about her. Those two dark pages of music notes were quivering. Pogo’s soft corner for Vanya was also highlighted.
NETFLIX ADAPTATION
Twelve years later, Netflix adapted and created the streaming television series. In the first month of release, the show was watched by 45 million viewers and became one of the biggest hits of the year. The show achieved cult status and critical acclaim thanks to well-executed screenwriting.
CHANGES FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
This is not strange that the adaptation gets a license to make changes for visual dynamics to captivate the audience but I felt the sources taken from Apocalypse Suite were modified and to some extent, looked acceptable.
Just, for example, Vanya’s characterization; in comics, Vanya is powerful when she unleashes her powers by playing violin but in the show, she uses any sound wave. Ben (number 6) is almost invisible in the novel but has a fine supporting role like any of the other six. Ben and Klaus (number 4) are good friends in the show and are comic relief and fan favorites. So observing these two changes, I think no one will have an objection.
Yes, there were elements that raised the eyebrows like Klaus and Vanya were LGBTQ+ characters and were not in comics. Maybe that’s a Netflix thing and this Netflix show is no different in making those choices for the established characters.
CLOSING REMARKS
I think Apocalypse Suite is a very interesting beginning of the series that continues its story in the next three novels, Dallas (2008), Hotel Oblivion (2018), and the yet-to-be-released ‘Sparrow Academy’.
REFERENCE
The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite Issues 1-6 (2007-2008)
Sami Naik | Film Critic 