Dance With the Devil by the Pale Moonlight
Jack arrives in Hell, and it's like Harry Potter walking down Diagon Alley. Strange, unusual and different. All the shop signs are indecipherable. It's an Old West town, with skeleton cowboys and horses and mules with horns. The only way to absorb and appreciate this issue is to have already read the Talking With David issue. James Robinson has littered and peppered each issue with some easter egg that makes sense a few issues on. I'm not that familiar with Kirby's Etrigan, except for the times I've seen him team up here with Ted Knight and elsewhere with Batman or the Justice League. The last time I read anything about Neron, it was in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps. I'm more familiar with Trigon from the New Teen Titans. I think my favorite storyline from that was when the Titans faced alternate images of themselves. Vic saw himself whole, without prosthetics. Gar saw himself cool and hip. What was cool about that was the images were gray. Like, what's that dot stuff, zip-a-tone. But solid grey. With red eyes.
Back in the Old West, Marty - I mean Jack - rescues the Doc - I mean Matt O'dare from Biff's outlaw gang. I like that amid all the chaos of action and battle, Robinson keeps in mind that these are three dimensional, fully rounded characters, not unlike real people. I know that Jack is a fictional character, and that there probably will never be a Jack Knight Starman movie - animated or live action - but he seems real and tangible just the same when he wonders while saving Matt if he should shoot a horse. Some characters might just do it or not. The cool thing is the wondering. The getting there, half the fun.
I wonder if either Robinson or Harris were influenced by Stephen King's The Stand in anyway in designing this demon. A eunuch with rams horns. Oh, and a monocle. 'Cuz nothin' makes you look classier than when you wear a monocle. Look at The Gentleman Ghost. Monsieur Monocle. Mr. Peanut. That guy from Monopoly. I think the monocle is consolation for being a demon eunuch.
This demon has constructed and ironic hell for both Matt and The Shade, who is now dressed all in white, much to his chagrin.
What happens next is really amazing. Almost like that Titans story I like so much. Jack is on a beach, and here comes his Mom. In the same dress she wore when he saw her last, after talking with his brother David on his birthday. Only this is a hellish, demon version of his Mom. And, she wants Jack's soul. So does a demon version of Merritt - a little redndant there, maybe? - that The Shade encounters on a side street in London. The deal is freeing all the people the demon has taken and removing Merritt for The Shade's soul. The same deal is offered Matt by Scalphunter.
And they accept! And so, beat the demon.
I've never seen an episode of The 4400. I've heard it is a pretty good show. That crazy guy that was the DA on Law & Order is in it. He was in Pale Rider with Clint Eastwood. Michael Moriarty. The final page of this issue reminds me of the concept of that show. The 4400. All of these people from different eras descending on Opal City. Displaced. Like Captain America, trying to figure things out.
Interesting.
If you're not reading Starman, you should be. Track down some back issues. Grab a trade paperback or two. Put the Omnibus on your Birthday or Christmas list. You won't be sorry. So far, it's been a helluva good read. I stayed awake all night for that one.
Back in the Old West, Marty - I mean Jack - rescues the Doc - I mean Matt O'dare from Biff's outlaw gang. I like that amid all the chaos of action and battle, Robinson keeps in mind that these are three dimensional, fully rounded characters, not unlike real people. I know that Jack is a fictional character, and that there probably will never be a Jack Knight Starman movie - animated or live action - but he seems real and tangible just the same when he wonders while saving Matt if he should shoot a horse. Some characters might just do it or not. The cool thing is the wondering. The getting there, half the fun.
I wonder if either Robinson or Harris were influenced by Stephen King's The Stand in anyway in designing this demon. A eunuch with rams horns. Oh, and a monocle. 'Cuz nothin' makes you look classier than when you wear a monocle. Look at The Gentleman Ghost. Monsieur Monocle. Mr. Peanut. That guy from Monopoly. I think the monocle is consolation for being a demon eunuch.
This demon has constructed and ironic hell for both Matt and The Shade, who is now dressed all in white, much to his chagrin.
What happens next is really amazing. Almost like that Titans story I like so much. Jack is on a beach, and here comes his Mom. In the same dress she wore when he saw her last, after talking with his brother David on his birthday. Only this is a hellish, demon version of his Mom. And, she wants Jack's soul. So does a demon version of Merritt - a little redndant there, maybe? - that The Shade encounters on a side street in London. The deal is freeing all the people the demon has taken and removing Merritt for The Shade's soul. The same deal is offered Matt by Scalphunter.
And they accept! And so, beat the demon.
I've never seen an episode of The 4400. I've heard it is a pretty good show. That crazy guy that was the DA on Law & Order is in it. He was in Pale Rider with Clint Eastwood. Michael Moriarty. The final page of this issue reminds me of the concept of that show. The 4400. All of these people from different eras descending on Opal City. Displaced. Like Captain America, trying to figure things out.
Interesting.
If you're not reading Starman, you should be. Track down some back issues. Grab a trade paperback or two. Put the Omnibus on your Birthday or Christmas list. You won't be sorry. So far, it's been a helluva good read. I stayed awake all night for that one.