They just keep getting better...As far as I'm concerned, so far this has been the year of Dark Horse Comics. Week after week as 2010 unfolds, the titles that consistently deliver the most original stories without leaving me feeling angry or disappointed are Dark Horse comics. In an age where shock and awe seem to have replaced genuine character development and legitimate plot lines, Dark Horse refuses to jump on board the bandwagon of sensationalism and is producing quality books where story rules the day and strong characters prevail over strong language and even stronger sexual overtones.
As other companies continue to stock their stables with ever raunchier purveyors of sleaze and soft core porn merchants, Dark Horse continues to provide a home for writers and artists who see the world as something more than a crap-hole that only looks good when filled with half naked women. Don't get me wrong, Dark Horse understands the nature of our imperfect world. Their books don't shy away from the realities of snakes feeding upon kittens or or the fallibility of the human species. Unlike other companies producing comic books these days Dark Horse also understands that in spite of the worst in the world there are moments of nobility and sacrifice that are just as valid as the muck and mire in which we spend much of our collective time.
Dark Horse recognizes the need for balance. Simply because nothing exists in a pure state doesn't negate the truth, reality or value of good. Even if the world is little more than a crap-hole, the real story is in the rising above and not in the wallowing within. I for one am tired of the wallowing stories where only the torment of the players and the final bloody body count are what matter to the tale. These stories may be sensational, but they are not the true story of the human condition. Yes, we may be less than the best we can be, but we are certainly more than the worst we can be. I want stories about more than the dark side of humanity. I want Doctor Solar.
Like Doctor Solar, each one of us contain the spark of divinity. Each of us possesses the ability to perform the miraculous and the power to change daily moments in ways that can change the world. Each of us also contains a dark spark of the ravenous beast that seeks only to feed upon the world and perpetuate no other survival but that of our own. And then there is our humanity; ignorant and unsure, trying to find our truth and purpose with little more to guide us than an insatiable curiosity about all things and a thirst for knowledge. For all his outward appearance of God like power Doctor Solar is still a man. He is an imperfect being with great power trying to make sense of the world and find his place in the universe.
Like all of us, Doctor Solar wields the power of the divine with the less than fully enlightened intellect of the common man. Sometimes he performs miracles and other times, in spite of his best intentions, he produces terrible tragedy. And just like every single one of us, Doctor Solar lives with memory of his actions and tries to make peace with himself and the world around him as best he can. This is the real story of the human condition and not the sleaze filled crap-hole where the only truth is: Abandon all hope, all ye who enter within. I don't care how many hip, young writers at D.C. and Marvel try to convince me that the only real story is that of us wallowing in the crap-hole. I don't care how often they promote the only truth as, nobody gets out of the world unscathed or alive. I've seen better and I know better.
Jim Shooter is the perfect writer for Doctor Solar. In many ways Jim Shooter is Doctor Solar. Jim's a great talent who has produced some amazing comic book work and yet there have been moments where he's stumbled over his own imperfect humanity and produced some incredible tragedy and disaster in both his personal and professional life. Jim has walked through the heavens and he's wallowed in the muck with the best of us. If anyone truly understands Doctor Solar, Jim Shooter is that man.
It is often said that a writer should write what he knows best. If that's really true, Jim Shooter should tell his own story through Doctor Solar- The story of great talent and fallible humanity learning from experience while surviving both great success and soul crushing tragedy and how he's come to make peace with both himself and the world around him. I'd pay money to read that story. And in the end, neither the character's past nor his potential future would matter as much to me as where he stands now. I would not ask of him the ultimate truth, I would only ask of him the truth he knows right now.
Whatever Jim has in store for Doctor Solar I'm just glad the two of them are back. I'm a big fan of both characters and the comic book world is a better place whenever they're a part of it.
As other companies continue to stock their stables with ever raunchier purveyors of sleaze and soft core porn merchants, Dark Horse continues to provide a home for writers and artists who see the world as something more than a crap-hole that only looks good when filled with half naked women. Don't get me wrong, Dark Horse understands the nature of our imperfect world. Their books don't shy away from the realities of snakes feeding upon kittens or or the fallibility of the human species. Unlike other companies producing comic books these days Dark Horse also understands that in spite of the worst in the world there are moments of nobility and sacrifice that are just as valid as the muck and mire in which we spend much of our collective time.
Dark Horse recognizes the need for balance. Simply because nothing exists in a pure state doesn't negate the truth, reality or value of good. Even if the world is little more than a crap-hole, the real story is in the rising above and not in the wallowing within. I for one am tired of the wallowing stories where only the torment of the players and the final bloody body count are what matter to the tale. These stories may be sensational, but they are not the true story of the human condition. Yes, we may be less than the best we can be, but we are certainly more than the worst we can be. I want stories about more than the dark side of humanity. I want Doctor Solar.
Like Doctor Solar, each one of us contain the spark of divinity. Each of us possesses the ability to perform the miraculous and the power to change daily moments in ways that can change the world. Each of us also contains a dark spark of the ravenous beast that seeks only to feed upon the world and perpetuate no other survival but that of our own. And then there is our humanity; ignorant and unsure, trying to find our truth and purpose with little more to guide us than an insatiable curiosity about all things and a thirst for knowledge. For all his outward appearance of God like power Doctor Solar is still a man. He is an imperfect being with great power trying to make sense of the world and find his place in the universe.
Like all of us, Doctor Solar wields the power of the divine with the less than fully enlightened intellect of the common man. Sometimes he performs miracles and other times, in spite of his best intentions, he produces terrible tragedy. And just like every single one of us, Doctor Solar lives with memory of his actions and tries to make peace with himself and the world around him as best he can. This is the real story of the human condition and not the sleaze filled crap-hole where the only truth is: Abandon all hope, all ye who enter within. I don't care how many hip, young writers at D.C. and Marvel try to convince me that the only real story is that of us wallowing in the crap-hole. I don't care how often they promote the only truth as, nobody gets out of the world unscathed or alive. I've seen better and I know better.
Jim Shooter is the perfect writer for Doctor Solar. In many ways Jim Shooter is Doctor Solar. Jim's a great talent who has produced some amazing comic book work and yet there have been moments where he's stumbled over his own imperfect humanity and produced some incredible tragedy and disaster in both his personal and professional life. Jim has walked through the heavens and he's wallowed in the muck with the best of us. If anyone truly understands Doctor Solar, Jim Shooter is that man.
It is often said that a writer should write what he knows best. If that's really true, Jim Shooter should tell his own story through Doctor Solar- The story of great talent and fallible humanity learning from experience while surviving both great success and soul crushing tragedy and how he's come to make peace with both himself and the world around him. I'd pay money to read that story. And in the end, neither the character's past nor his potential future would matter as much to me as where he stands now. I would not ask of him the ultimate truth, I would only ask of him the truth he knows right now.
Whatever Jim has in store for Doctor Solar I'm just glad the two of them are back. I'm a big fan of both characters and the comic book world is a better place whenever they're a part of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hello fanboys and girls.
Gotta a little love you'd like share? Go right on ahead and feel free to lay it on me. (Even if it's the tough kind.)
Just remember, the only place anonymous comments ever land, is on the cutting room floor...