Scan barcode
A review by uosdwisrdewoh
The Red King Syndrome by Rick Bryant, Rick Veitch, Chuck Austen, Alan Davis, John Ridgway, Al Gordon, Alan Moore
4.0
Alan Moore, accompanied by various skilled artists, continues his seminal work in this continued repackaging of his long out-of-print Miracleman run. As with the first volume, the over-the-top violence was revolutionary—and even bracing—when it was published, but it’s hard to see that clearly when it’s now obvious how it opened the door for things like Superboy Prime ripping limbs off characters in the pages of a major DC Comics storyline twenty years later. But even if the impact has been dulled by decades of imitators, Moore mixes the shocks with a degree of grace. When Miracleman bursts through a wall and bashes the heads of ex-Nazi guards together in an explosion of blood and eyeballs, it’s almost elegiac as it adorns the title of the chapter “The Wish I Wish Tonight.” Miracleman is on his way to save his wife and to face down his creator, which he does in another act of violence that Moore and Chuck Austen render almost tenderly. In other hands, these scenes would feel cheap or schlocky. Moore, though, manages to pull it off. His legendary reputation was coalescing here, and you can see why.
As with any ambitious, but pulpy, comic approaching its 40th anniversary, there are flaws, again, the most glaring being the character of Evelyn Cream. Moore attempts to give more shades to his character than the blaxploitation figure of his first appearance, but it still reads awkwardly. Cream’s inner turmoil in wrestling with the caricatures of racism reads more like Moore himself wrestling with these ideas through the device of a Black character whose main trait is his blackness.
And again I must take note of the steep price set by Marvel to read this work. It’s available online for a bit cheaper (if you want to deal with the nightmare that’s Amazon’s new Comixology interface), but to get this edition in print, you’ll pay $34.99 for 122 pages of story. The book does include nearly 100 pages of bonus material, but these are mostly uncolored process artwork, which are mildly interesting but not revelatory. They definitely don’t justify the expense. The book itself is well worth reading as a cornerstone of modern comics. Just try to find a discount copy if you don’t want to feel a bit ripped off.
As with any ambitious, but pulpy, comic approaching its 40th anniversary, there are flaws, again, the most glaring being the character of Evelyn Cream. Moore attempts to give more shades to his character than the blaxploitation figure of his first appearance, but it still reads awkwardly. Cream’s inner turmoil in wrestling with the caricatures of racism reads more like Moore himself wrestling with these ideas through the device of a Black character whose main trait is his blackness.
And again I must take note of the steep price set by Marvel to read this work. It’s available online for a bit cheaper (if you want to deal with the nightmare that’s Amazon’s new Comixology interface), but to get this edition in print, you’ll pay $34.99 for 122 pages of story. The book does include nearly 100 pages of bonus material, but these are mostly uncolored process artwork, which are mildly interesting but not revelatory. They definitely don’t justify the expense. The book itself is well worth reading as a cornerstone of modern comics. Just try to find a discount copy if you don’t want to feel a bit ripped off.