I have been pleasantly surprised with the Before Watchmen stories so far. They haven't been perfect — and I still question the decision to undertake this project in the first place — but Darwyn Cooke and Brian Azzarello clearly put a lot of thought into this undertaking. Sadly, I can't say the same for J. Michael Straczynski's take on Nite Owl. He's joined by Andy Kubert on pencils and Joe Kubert on inks with Brad Anderson on colors. On my first flip-through, I though this was the absolutely wrong team for this title — this artwork is just too light and cartoony for this subject matter. But as I dove into it, I gained an appreciation for Kubert's style (with one notable exception, which I'll get to later). In a way, this main cover is the perfection representation of both Kubert's art and the Nite Owl character.
On first glance, this looks like a neat, brooding cover that we've seen on hundreds of Batman comics. But when you look closer, you realize just how goofy-looking Nite Owl is to be sitting like that. Arms crossed, leaning back in a passive pose, with feet too high up to quickly spring into action. You'd never catch Batman in such an ineffective position. But it's perfect for Nite Owl, the most awkward and ridiculous character of Watchmen.
This variant cover by Kevin Nowlan reminds me of that Saturday morning cartoon spoof of Watchmen — and I mean that in a good way. It's a rather cheesy, goofy style that would work perfectly in animated form, in addition to being a great visualization of Nite Owl's romanticism of the Golden Age of heroes. I sincerely hope Nowlan was intentionally trying to make this cheesy, because that's the way I see it and I love it.
Jim Lee once again failed to deliver on his variant. This time, he messed up by drawing the wrong character. This isn't Nite Owl — this is Owlman, the evil version of Batman from Earth 3. Lee was so focused on trying to draw Nite Owl in a "cool," "serious" way that he failed to realize the defining characteristic of Nite Owl is his inability to look cool. He's a doofus. And despite his skills as a fighter, detective and inventor, he can never hide that doofiness. I think I understand now why Lee likes Zack Snyder so much. They both share the same shallow view of these characters.
Did Straczynski make that same mistake? A little bit. I think. Let's break it down. He starts the story in 1962 with a young Dan Dreiberg being chewed out by his father. We always knew Dan's dad left him a fortune, but we never got the sense that he was abusive, too. Anyway, Straczynski shows us that part of Dan's obsession with the first Nite Owl was an excuse to avoid his unsympathetic father. And being a fan of Nite Owl is apparently real easy now, since Hollis Mason has licensed his image on toys, comic books, calendars and more. I think even Adrian Veidt and Sally Jupiter would be a little ashamed by this merchandizing. However, I do kind of like Straczynski playing up Hollis' willingness to sell out. I would say he probably should have been a wealthier man in Watchmen, though, but I think you could justify that by saying he spent all his merchandizing money on his bizarrely futuristic owl-shaped car (which is also new).
Straczynski is also willing to show Hollis more of a publicity hound than most people think of him. After turning a handful of criminals over to the police, Hollis hams it up with the crowd of spectators, spouting off catchphrases and encouraging them to hoot like owls. This gives Dan enough time to sneak a tracker on Hollis' car, which leads him to Hollis' garage. I was slightly surprised at how many guns Hollis owned, but once again, I do like the idea of shedding his "goody two-shoes" image.
Dan leaves a note for his hero to meet him later that day at a park. He excitedly tells his hero how he discovered his secret identity and offers to help him protect it by becoming his sidekick. Hollis says he'll consider it, then warns Dan to be more careful, revealing that he came to the park armed, not knowing who he'd be meeting with.
Later, Straczynski kicks up the abusive father trope into high gear. Dan walks in on his dad savagely beating his mom with his belt. Dan hides out by a fire pit in the backyard and his mom eventually joins him, revealing that Dan's dad has suffered a heart attack, but she's choosing to let him die before calling an ambulance.
Deep sigh!
This isn't that bad. And in another story, it could be interesting — shocking, even. But here? It just doesn't fit. Why did Dan need a tragic backstory, too? This is such a lazy crutch of modern-day comics. Writers like Geoff Johns have this burning desire to insert melodramatic tragedy wherever they can, and most of the time it's completely unnecessary. Dan didn't need the extra motivation of an abusive father to become a superhero. He was just a big nerd with too much money and time on his hands. That's it.
Anyway, Hollis attends the funeral of Dan's father, which took place during the rain because of course it did. Hollis offers to start training Dan, and we're treated to a couple of pages of that montage, including Hollis' decision to retire. A couple of years later, Dan is the new Nite Owl, complete with his flying ship, Archimedes. He breaks up some looters during a blackout, then suddenly discovers a man in a trench coat with a black-and-white mask has snuck into his ship. Rorschach suggests they become partners and Nite Owl agrees to the stranger on the spot. Seriously. Just like that.
We get a one-page montage of Nite Owl and Rorschach working together until Straczynski takes us to the infamous meeting with Captain Metropolis. Dan is instantly smitten by Laurie (another odd and slightly creepy addition to the story) and he jealously looks on as Laurie quietly flirts with Dr. Manhattan. In another unnecessary addition, Captain Metropolis starts the meeting by having everybody write their name on a piece of paper, which he'll then pull from a bowl to pair them all up in groups of two. The first name he draws is Dr. Manhattan and the second is Rorschach. But before Captain Metropolis can read the second paper, Dr. Manhattan somehow causes the ink to morph into Silk Spectre's signature. If this doesn't make any sense, don't worry — it goes absolutely nowhere.
Straczynski then plays out the rest of the meeting as we saw in the Watchmen comic, but with an emphasis on Nite Owl watching Laurie and Dr. Manhattan check each other out. This is where Kubert's art really fails, as his lack of subtlety betrays the nature of Dr. Manhattan's character. A big part of Watchmen is Dr. Manhattan's lack of emotion. But these oafish grins completely undermine that idea.
The issue ends with Rorschach oddly saying they were lucky the Comedian didn't burn down the whole building (even though the main series seemed to indicate that Rorschach never actually did anything with the Comedian). Dan complains that he didn't get to be partnered up with Laurie, saying he felt like they were "fated to be together."
So with that clumsy attempt at needless foreshadowing, let's wrap this up. I did like some things about this story — namely how Straczynski wrote Hollis Mason. But his inability to focus on a single aspect of Nite Owl's origin severely hampers this issue. We're just constantly jumping around from moment to moment, like the whole issue was merely a montage itself. We could have spent a whole issue on Dan training under Hollis. But instead Straczynski felt compelled to rush ahead to the Nite Owl/Rorschach team, all while stuffing in pointless details about an abusive father and Dan's attraction to a teenager. We don't need to see Dan swoon over Laurie — we already know they end up together.
But what we did need was a better reason for Nite Owl and Rorschach to become partners. It makes no sense that Dan would instantly agree to work with a complete stranger who snuck onboard his airship. There's a lot of potential here that Straczynski just left hanging. Granted, we do have more Nite Owl issues coming up, plus the Rorschach miniseries, so maybe we'll get to see a more thorough examination of that partnership. But that doesn't make this issue any less jarring. And I'm sad to say that this is the first issue of Before Watchmen that really disappointed me.
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