Ryan Riley: October 2008 Archives

By Ryan Riley, Correspondent

It is now one week before we vote for the next President of the United States and not surprisingly, it is still very much on all of our minds. One of the things I find fascinating about comic books is that, at their best, they showcase the overall mood of the world that they are reflecting (or distorting) in their stories. Indeed, as comic book stories are becoming increasingly relevant to the reality we live in, the medium of comics has become almost as effective as the motion picture in getting a message across.

I detailed one of the most spectacular examples of a comic book election in my column from last week on the "President Lex" storyline in DC Comics. But it isn't, in my mind, the most well-executed. With that in mind, I've detailed some of the best recent examples of the election process (and often the abuse thereof) in comics.

1. The Smiler vs. The Beast, Transmetropolitan

This story is currently available in Transmetropolitan: Year of the Bastard & Transmetropolitan: The New Scum.

In a future inundated with weirdness like restaurant chains that serves up cloned human meat, household appliances that can make any object imaginable and bowel disruptors, it falls on outlaw journalist Spider Jerusalem to keep things real. After a self-imposed hiatus in the mountains, Jerusalem has returned to the city to spew his venom at an increasingly apathetic audience. But when the election comes around, he finds himself torn like never before. On the one hand you have the incumbent president, a.k.a. The Beast. During his time in office, the Beast has presided over an unprecedented increase in murder and poverty rates in the U.S. It sounds dreadful, but the Beast actually turns out to be the lesser of two evils in this election.

Gary Callahan, a.k.a. The Smiler, on the other hand, doesn't know the meaning of the word "integrity". He starts his path to the presidency by selecting a running mate with no stains on his record. He made sure of this by creating a clone and installing it as a senator two years prior. Once Jerusalem pulls the covers on these shenanigans, The Smiler successfully deflects the scandal and regains his approval rating by having his political director Vita Severn assassinated. Spider, who happened to be friends with Severn, suspected Callahan of having her killed. When Jerusalem confronts him with his suspicions in an official interview, the Smiler gleefully confesses to everything and goes so far as to threaten Spider's life once he gets elected. Unfortunately for Spider, the Smiler had all of his listening & recording devices nullified and erased, so he would have no record of his confession to use to prevent the Smiler from taking the oval office. And that is just the beginning of a term he spent attempting to delete precious freedoms from the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

2. Prince Charming vs. Old King Cole, Fables

This story is currently available in Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers & Fables: The Mean Seasons

The premise of the superbly-written series Fables is that many of the characters from the fairy tales we all grew up with, such as Snow White, The Big Bad Wolf and Pinocchio, have escaped from their conquered homelands and have been living in New York since the 17th Century. Since that time, their community (known as Fabletown) has only had one man as mayor, and that man is Old King Cole. The thrice-married (and thrice-divorced) Prince Charming, recently returned from travels abroad in Europe, sees a chance to gain access to unlimited wealth & power by calling for a special election and running for mayor of Fabletown. Charming, who has the special gift of wooing any woman he desires, applies his romancing tactics to the surprisingly similar field of electoral politics. This ability, coupled with some rather lofty campaign promises and a heroic showing in the battle against an invading army from their homelands, propelled him to a landslide election victory.

The question really wasn't whether Prince Charming would win the election; he always wins the object of his desire. Charming's rise to prominence is best summed up by an exasperated query from Dan Hedaya's character in the extremely underrated Tom Hanks movie "Joe vs. The Volcano": "I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?"

3. Mitchell Hundred vs. Rudy Giuliani, Ex Machina

References are made to this election throughout the various collected editions of Ex Machina.

Ex Machina takes place in the present, but there tend to be a lot of flashback sequences, many of which take place in the year 2001. The protagonist of Ex Machina is Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer that encountered a possibly extraterrestrial device that exploded in his face. Shortly after the explosion, Hundred found that he possessed the ability to communicate with and command any type of machine (kind of like Micah from "Heroes", but not nearly as smooth). After a spectacularly unsuccessful career as the superhero "The Great Machine", Hundred decides to retire, reveal his identity and pursue a career in politics by running for mayor of New York as an independent. The polls of the time have him in dead last, but he gets elected by a landslide thanks in no small part to his saving one of the towers at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.

Hundred makes a far more effective mayor than a superhero, but his superheroic past and his powers ensure that he, like Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" films, keeps getting pulled back into his sordid past just when he thought he was out. Word around the campfire is that the character might be running for president in the book, so that should make for even more interesting stories.

4. Randy Fisk (a.k.a. Ravenshadow) runs for president, Rising Stars

This story is currently available in Rising Stars Vol. 3: Fire & Ash

Rising Stars is written by "Babylon 5" creator & current Thor scribe J. Michael Straczynski. It tells the tale of 113 people from Pederson, Illinois that gained superhuman powers from a cosmic event that manifested over the town when they were all in utero (in their mothers' wombs). Referred to by the rest of the world as "Specials", some of them went on to use their powers to serve their fellow man. Others let their powers go to their head and used them for selfish purposes. One of them, Randy Fisk, made a name for himself as the superhero known as Ravenshadow. Eventually, the amount of good that Fisk was able to do on his own reached an impasse, and he concluded the only way he and his brethren can truly save the world is if he were to run for president.

He ran in 2008 as an independent and was soundly trounced. He did no better in the 2012 election. So when he decided to run once more in 2016, everyone started to wonder whether he took too many blows to the head as a superhero. What no one counted on was a sex/murder scandal at would implicate both the incumbent president and his rival candidate. With the election just four days away, it was a choice between "...a murderer, an adulterer/blackmail victim...and a superhero." Who would you choose?

After a landslide election victory, Fisk moved to the next phase of saving the world. With the help of a fellow "Special" that can speak with the dead, Fisk went into a closed-door meeting with both the Senate and the House of Representatives and blackmailed them with all kinds of dirty little secrets like who really killed MLK & JFK, where Jimmy Hoffa is buried, etc. With this knowledge he ensured the full cooperation of the legislative branch of government. In the end, Fisk and his fellow "Specials" made the world a better place, but they were ultimately destroyed by the military/industrial complex Fisk cuckolded when he first took office.

Hail To The Chief

The stories mentioned above were (in my humble opinion) well-written and thought provoking. But in the end, we won't be able to elect a superhero to save the world. Our future president, whoever it may be, will ultimately be just a human being. It is that fact alone that emphasizes just how carefully we should select the people that lead us.

By Ryan Riley, Correspondent

As I write this article, it is less than two weeks until the presidential election on Nov. 4, 2008. With the economy in it current state of disarray, there is more at stake in this election for the American people than in almost any other election in our history. We were brought to this precipice by our current president, a man that, to the majority of his critics, has done a woefully inept job leading our country. In fact, some of his harsher, more emotional detractors have been known to describe his actions as evil.

But you have to wonder what would happen if the American people elected someone that made old "W" look downright noble and heroic. DC Comics explored this quandary in 2000 by having Superman's most ardent foe, Lex Luthor, win over both Al Gore and George W. Bush to become president. This story concept played out over the course of a couple of years throughout not only all of the Superman books but was also touched upon in almost every other book that DC puts out. Many of these tales are available in trade paperback form (and I will cite those throughout this article) and paint a pretty unique picture of what it takes to lead the free world in the DC universe.

How in the heck did he get elected?

The answer to that question is in the collection Superman: President Lex. Luthor, seething as he always does over the fact that Superman's presence on Earth diminishes his own achievements, decides to address the problem by becoming the leader of the free world. After he is elected he steps down as CEO of his own company, Lexcorp. Between (possibly staged) attempts on his live by various super-powered ne'er-do-wells, he managed to win the support of voters hungry for an alternative to the empty promises of both the Democratic and Republican politicians. The fact that so many people got behind Luthor as a candidate irked Superman like never before. The Man of Steel knew the true colors of his nemesis but was hampered by the moral issue of whether or not to interfere with the freedom of choice he has fought so hard to maintain. To add even more insult, Superman will be under the command of Luthor whenever the nation is in peril.

Superman's annoyance is increased (albeit unintentionally, for once) by Lex during and after his election, when he selects Superman's childhood chum Pete Ross as Vice President, his father-in-law Sam Lane as Secretary of Defense and semi-retired superhero Jefferson Pierce (a.k.a. Black Lightning) as Secretary of Education. Somewhere along the line he actually manages an impressive diplomatic coup by negotiating a trade agreement with Atlantis and proposed ground-breaking legislation for a moratorium on fossil fuels to Congress.

By Ryan Riley
Correspondent

This will be the first in a series of interviews that spotlight comic book stores in Long Beach (sadly, a lot fewer than there have been in the past) and surrounding cities. After some deliberation, I felt it would be logical to begin this series with the store I frequent the most and am therefore most familiar with. That store is Pulp Fiction Books at 4501 E. Carson St., Suite 104 in Long Beach, located near the corner of Lakewood Blvd. & Carson St. I've been buying my comics from Pulp Fiction since they first opened their doors in 2003. Before they had opened I had blown my hard-earned money at various comic book stores, starting with the long defunct American Comics at Atlantic Av. in Bixby Knolls. I even served some time behind the counter as a comic jockey at Amazing Comics in Los Altos Center. Suffice it to say I've experienced the gamut of comic book shops and, more importantly, their proprietors and their regular customers. Some of them were pretty cool, and some of them make Jeff Albertson (a.k.a. Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons") look like Samuel L. Jackson.

I noticed an immediate difference when I first walked through the door. It should be noted that the main reason I found the place was the fact that my wife's favorite used bookstore and Chinese restaurant were right across the street. This was the first comic book shop I had ever seen that didn't devote at least half of its floor space to back issues.

Sure, there wasn't a heck of a lot of floor space to work with, but I could tell that there was a conscious decision to devote more display space to the rapid expansion of the graphic novel market. This was cool with me, since I gave up on collecting single-issue comics many moons ago.

The next thing that struck me was how knowledgeable yet unpretentious everyone in the store was. From the owner to the employees to the customers, it was a very relaxed comic book store experience. And the owner in particular was very open to helping out customers that weren't familiar with comics to find just the right comic, which aided my wife when she shopped there for my birthday and later for herself. The icing on this delicious cake is the fact that he consistently sells graphic novels at discounted prices, anywhere from 10% to 50% off the cover price. And so, without any further ado, here is my interview with the owner and operator of Pulp Fiction Bookstore, Mike Lerner.

Modern Mythology: So Mike, tell us a little about yourself.

Mike Lerner: Oh, I'm awful at those questions, let's go to the next question...
 
M.M.: When did you start reading comics?

Mike: When I was in elementary school, probably first or second grade. We're talking too far back for me to remember. I remember starting relatively early on Richie Rich, I don't know if that was the first. I remember early Flash, early Daredevil, whatever we could find at a 7-11 stand, Back then we shopped at 7-11, there weren't any comic book stores back then that I knew of. Pretty much whatever we could find is what we bought, until we found a comic book store, me and my friends.

M.M.: How did you get into the comic book business?

Mike: I guess you could say that it started when I was in high school. I was buying and selling in the days before the internet through a newspaper called Comic Buyers Guide. It was a national publication that had news and came out weekly. There were also ads in the back where people could exchange and sell back issues. There was also a convention in L.A. once a month at the Ambassador Hotel that at one point, believe it or not, had tens of thousands in attendance every month. It was gigantic, not like now where they have a much smaller version of that convention where you have maybe like 100 people show up, if that.

Now it's just a bunch of cheesy vendors. Back then, there were like 100 vendors. (The dealer presence there) was smaller than the San Diego ComicCon, but not that much smaller. Saw a lot of Hollywood stars there, they would bring their kids. I sold some stuff to Mike Farrell's (B.J. from the "M.A.S.H." TV series) daughter. At one point she was ordering stuff from me every month. It was a big convention, and between that and the Comic Buyers Guide I was doing a lot of business through mail order. I dropped out of comics in the 1990's, sold off everything around the time when the "Black & White" crash came, I saw the writing on the wall and dumped everything just at the beginning of that. I didn't pick up a comic for about 10 years.

By Ryan Riley

As I write this on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008, it has been one day since the second of three scheduled debates between presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain took place. It is appropriate that today marks the release of comic books that feature both candidates. The cover of Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon #137 featuring the titular character standing next to and heartily endorsing Barack Obama released a third printing due to overwhelming demand. More importantly, IDW just released biographical comic books of both Obama & McCain. These books could prove to be the most accessible way to find out what forces shaped the way both candidates look at the country they have aspirations of running. As partial as I am to Obama, I am going to read both biographies in order to give the readers kind enough to check out this blog an unbiased review of each.

 

To start with, neither comic makes any pretensions of giving the readers any new revelations about either candidate. It does, however, frame the history of each of these extraordinary men in a way that is informative and engaging at the same time. Readers are given the option of purchasing the stories in two separate comic books or in a single, flip-book format with McCain's book on one side and Obama on the other. If you're the type of person that bags & boards all their comics you would probably do well to purchase the separate comics. Personally, I'm more a fan of trade paperbacks (I have an entire large bookcase full of them), so I opted for the larger flip-book. The price is pretty much the same for both, so the choice is entirely yours.

 

Presidential Material: John McCain

Writer: Andy Helfer

Artist: Stephen Thompson

Cover Art by J. Scott Campbell

 

The story of John Sidney McCain III begins in a setting that his campaigners have ensured that all but the most uninformed of people will be familiar with: In the middle of his stint as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Artist Stephen Thompson does a wonderful job with the artwork of the opening page, creating a haunting image of a dejected McCain on the floor of his solitary cell, leaning against the wall and wondering if he will ever leave the cell alive. Helfer's narrative details the events that led to his incarceration in a manner that manages to be both factual and inspiring. The narrative and the picture together are very powerful, and set a high tone that this biography manages to, for the most part, maintain. Helfer also opted against spoken dialogue in the book for the most part, only using it with actual quoted statements taken from news coverage. This gave the story a tone similar to a "History Channel" documentary (which I am definitely partial to, by the way). Thompson's artwork throughout could almost be mistaken for actual photographs if you squint enough, which just adds to the documentary feel of the comic.

By Ryan Riley

AOL/Time Warner, which owns both DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures, recently gave the green light for a live-action Green Lantern movie.

The movie will be directed by Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Brothers and Sisters) and penned by comic book writers Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green.

Even though the track record for DC-based superhero movies is far from perfect (Bryan Singer's Superman Returns and Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin spring to mind), the recent success of Christopher Nolan's Batman films give me hope that they might actually do justice to my all-time favorite comic book character on the big screen.

I've been a fan of Green Lantern ever since I was a little kid. My first exposure to the character was on the cartoon series "Challenge of the SuperFriends", where the SuperFriends (known as the Justice League in the comic books) would fight the Legion of Doom (a grouping of the top villains in each hero's rogue gallery, not the wrestling tag team from the 1980's).

Even back then, I could sense that he was unique even among a colorful gathering of superheroes. I wasn't all that thrilled when the TV network that was airing the show replaced it with the earlier SuperFriends series from 1973. Marvin, Wendy and Wonder-Dog would have annoyed me even had I not been exposed to "Challenge of the Superfriends" first, so that annoyance was heightened because I was no longer getting my Green Lantern fix.