In which I discuss comic books, including the endings OR Spoilers? I got ‘em
Reading something in a trade that’s written that way can be a lot of fun. Reading the single issues, not so much. A single issue that’s part of a larger arc can often feel like a small part of a story. Like you’re reading a single chapter of a book (which you kind of are).
The Brubaker Captain America stories are some of the worst offenders. Reading them in single issues, they move forward slowly, and then seems to lurch forward. It’s definitely a story that needs to be read as a whole, since the plot advances like a larger story. Thankfully, he tells the stories well enough that you don’t mind the pacing or the fact he’s killing characters off or bringing dead ones back.
The Whedon Runaways stories were like that. The story took the titular runaways and threw them back to the dawn of the 20th Century. Anyone remember when travelling back 100 years meant cowboys? Good times! At least we weren’t subjected to Runaways Vs The Kids (Rawhide, Two Gun, and -Colt).
The Runaways hook up with some early 20th C supers, called Wonders in that early day. There’s a large number of them created, with a variety of factions on all sides of the law. Whedon makes the super-citizens of 1907 New York an interesting bunch. To be honest, it struck me as a neater setting than the 1602 one Gaiman created, since it does more with the Marvel setting than the Elizabethan translation did. I can honestly say I’d like to see some more stories told in Marvel Universe at the dawn of the 20th century.
The story reads much better as a complete unit, although there are still gaps in the story filled in by verbal exposition. The story leaves the heroes back where they were, but changed, with one new member from the past, so it’ll be neat to see the culture shock of that particular storyline. Apparently Runaways is rebooting again, so we’ll see where they take that.
Last week also saw the release of the tenth and final Y: The Last Man trade. Y has been a very enjoyable series (and one that my FLCS has found to be a good seller), and the finale was strong, if not exactly what I was hoping for. Yorick, the eponymous last man, does not get the happy ending we’d been hoping for.
It seems rather cruel to send him around the world on a pair of quests, and to have one succeed in spite of him, and the other be such a total failure. Vaughn described the book as “the last boy on Earth becomes the last Man on Earth”, and Yorick ends up suffering quite a bit in his journey.
The end sees him denied both of his true loves, and spending the rest of his life with the mother of his daughter ‘for the children’.
I mean, wow.
Vaughn’s worldbuilding is one of the best parts of the books; he played with stats to see what a world where the men just vanished one day would look like. For example, what countries have enough women under arms to still have a military? Who would be President of the US? What would happen to planes when 94% of pilots die on the spot?
That’s just the starting point, of course. Midwestern Militias and House Republicans all find themselves changed in the wake of the Gendercide. I wonder what ends up happening to the Klan? It seems to be a fairly patriarchal organization. Gaming cons will likely become much smaller.
Man, imagine the adventures of a group of SF fans in the world of Y? I can see enough authors to produce material, but would there be enough readers?
Foolish speculation, in any case. The ending was not satisfying, personally. I can see it eliciting more than a few boos if they keep it for the cinematic adaptation. You have to admire Vaughn for his bravery for ending the story that way, even if it does rob the audience of a certain satisfaction.
