![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glaurung posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyWhisper ran as a 10 page short in "First Adventures" for five issues; issue 5 ran a double installment to wrap up the storyline before the launch of Whisper's new standalone title.
It was in these short installments that Grant started experimenting with a storytelling trick that would become the hallmark of the series: caption boxes that delivered a narrative more or less disconnected from the events occurring in the panels in which they appeared.
Disconnected, but still somehow apropos, in a weird sort of way. Sometimes they were diary entries or letters, other times they were a monologue, but you wouldn't learn who was saying the monologue until several pages in, or even several issues later.
The diary entry concludes: "She hungers for the storm," as we see Alexis at work, and her boss (Culver Whitlock) calls her over to meet someone:
Lesa was with Senator Canales for the launch of his reelection campaign when a group of masked men with guns (calling themselves "squadron 49") took them and some of the Senator's staff members hostage. They tell the police that they have explosives and will blow up the campaign HQ if attacked. It's night, and Alexis and Sasha study some blueprints; the Whisper costume hangs on the closet door in the background. Then Sasha is alone, and the costume is gone.
A window shatters with a "blam" and one of the gunmen is perforated; then that fistful of pencils get embedded in the arm of the gunman holding Lesa, and the hostages make a run for it; the last gunman tries to shoot them, but is shot, and then "bar-room" the whole building goes up, and Lesa, in the Senator's arms, shouts "Alex? Alex!" (to be continued...)
Next issue, Alex (carrying only her purse) accompanies Lesa (carrying shopping bags) on the sidewalk; it seems Alex escaped being blown up by using old bootlegger tunnels beneath the campaign HQ building, which was once a speakeasy (presumably the tunnels were shown on those plans she was looking at last issue). Alex doesn't like the senator and is being more and more blunt about it with Lesa. Then:
Meanwhile, the senator has come to meet Culver Whitlock. Whitlock dismisses a shapely blonde named Cynthia: "I'm sure the senator wants this discussion kept completely confidential." Senator: "your squeeze?" Whitlock: "my daughter! and keep your oily hands off her!"
[The unconnected captions over this scene are of somebody making their confession to a priest; we don't learn the context of that until the last installment.]
Turns out Whitlock has received incriminating papers about the Senator's mob connections from an anonymous source. Unless the senator votes the way Whitlock wants, the papers get sent to the press. The senator threatens to sic his mobster pal, Sonny Roman, on Whitlock, and gets told to go ahead, but if he does:
The woman with the Senator takes off her wig, and we see it's Cynthia. (that didn't take much time).
Meanwhile, Alex is wrapping up her date:
Next issue, Alex and Canales talk over lunch. Canales wants her to steal those incriminating papers from Whitlock's safe. He alternates not very convincing threats ("Whatever [you want kept hidden] is, I can put it out in the open if you don't play ball with me!") and sniveling ("I don't want to answer to him or Sonny, I just want to be my own man... is that so bad?"). Alex refuses to help him.
All of this conversation is being watched, though, by spooks who work for Eckart; Eckart is heading an investigation of Squadron 49, and they have Canales under surveillance. Eckart considers warning Whitlock, then decides against it -- "If I tip Whitlock and Devin gets caught, Canales will figure someone's on to him! and I want every one of them -- especially Alexis Devin!"
Whitlock berates Cynthia -- this is not a loving father -- and resumes his meeting with Kirk Mallinder. Cynthia calls Canales in tears: "Tell me you love me, John! That's all I want, just tell me you love me"
Later, the office manager at Whitlock's firm is working late when she gets a call from Alex, who says she lost her purse. While she's looking for it, Whisper sneaks into the building and:
Whitlock's speech there on the last page formed the caption boxes for this installment.
Next issue, and everyone is attending Whitlock's funeral. Lesa tells Alex she and Canales are getting married, and then (spectacular bad timing) Alex drags Canales off. She shows him the papers she stole from Whitlock's safe, and says she'll send them to the media if he doesn't back off: "You leave me alone, you leave Lesa alone. Starting right now, neither one of us have anything to do with your sordid little life."
But Canales isn't intimidated: "Hurt me and it hurts her. I know you Alex. You wouldn't hurt her any more than you'd hurt your cat." Besides, he says, he really does love Lesa.
Cynthia, hiding behind a tree, hears this last bit and her face goes crazy.
Later, at home, Alex tries to work herself up to telling Lesa all she knows about Canales's sordid little life, but can't manage it. Lesa heads off to an important modeling interview (six months in Paris if she gets the job), and Alex takes out her costume. Meanwhile, at Canales's campaign HQ, he sits at his desk and does stuff with a suitcase full of money, when:
The caption narratives this issue are both repeats: Lesa's diary entry from the first chapter, and the mystery confession monologue.
And now, the penultimate chapter:
Canales, unshaven and downtrodden, makes his confession. Outside the church, he meets Sonny and goes for a ride with him. Sonny just wants to know who was responsible for spilling his half a million dollars all over the sidewalk, and who leaked the story about Canales's mob connection to the papers. Canales tells him it was Alexis who spilled the money, and Cynthia who leaked the papers to the press. Canales: "You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Sonny: "No, John." Then Sonny gets out of the car, which drives off a ways, and there's a gunshot. (Let this be a lesson to us all: never believe a mobster when they say they aren't going to have you killed).
Sonny tells his colleague the names of Cynthia and Alexis, and says "What they know could make big trouble for us. Let me know when it's done, and make it clean."
On that ominous note, Lesa and Alex return home. Lesa: "I don't understand why you won't go shopping with me, Alex." Alex: "All that stuff you fashion models wear is made by kinky men who don't care if women are comfortable or not..." Lesa: "Well, sometimes you dress like a slob!" Alex: "...but mostly, I like dressing like a slob."
Just as Lesa learns that Canales is dead ("an apparent suicide") from the TV news, Alex walks into her room and gets knocked out by a blow to the head. Then:
And now the final chapter: A doctor reassures a mostly unhurt Alex that Lesa will be healing for several weeks but is going to be OK. They think Cynthia is dead but haven't found her body.
Alex meets Eckart. "Did you have our place bombed?" she asks. Eckart says no, "If you're looking, try the senator's backers. Someone lost them a lot of money on Times Square last night."
That night, Alex infiltrates Sonny's home:
Much later, in Lesa's hospital room, the phone rings. Alex answers, and it's Cynthia: "I know where you've been and I saw what you did." Alex: "Goodbye Cynthia. Don't call here again." All this wakes up Lesa:
Whisper next appeared in Whisper (vol 2) #1. This time the publisher didn't go belly up, and the series continued for 37 issues. I may post more synopses here if there's interest, but probably not until next week -- winnowing down the pages and writing up the summaries for a plot heavy book like this takes a lot of time.
It was in these short installments that Grant started experimenting with a storytelling trick that would become the hallmark of the series: caption boxes that delivered a narrative more or less disconnected from the events occurring in the panels in which they appeared.
Disconnected, but still somehow apropos, in a weird sort of way. Sometimes they were diary entries or letters, other times they were a monologue, but you wouldn't learn who was saying the monologue until several pages in, or even several issues later.
The diary entry concludes: "She hungers for the storm," as we see Alexis at work, and her boss (Culver Whitlock) calls her over to meet someone:
Lesa was with Senator Canales for the launch of his reelection campaign when a group of masked men with guns (calling themselves "squadron 49") took them and some of the Senator's staff members hostage. They tell the police that they have explosives and will blow up the campaign HQ if attacked. It's night, and Alexis and Sasha study some blueprints; the Whisper costume hangs on the closet door in the background. Then Sasha is alone, and the costume is gone.
A window shatters with a "blam" and one of the gunmen is perforated; then that fistful of pencils get embedded in the arm of the gunman holding Lesa, and the hostages make a run for it; the last gunman tries to shoot them, but is shot, and then "bar-room" the whole building goes up, and Lesa, in the Senator's arms, shouts "Alex? Alex!" (to be continued...)
Next issue, Alex (carrying only her purse) accompanies Lesa (carrying shopping bags) on the sidewalk; it seems Alex escaped being blown up by using old bootlegger tunnels beneath the campaign HQ building, which was once a speakeasy (presumably the tunnels were shown on those plans she was looking at last issue). Alex doesn't like the senator and is being more and more blunt about it with Lesa. Then:
Meanwhile, the senator has come to meet Culver Whitlock. Whitlock dismisses a shapely blonde named Cynthia: "I'm sure the senator wants this discussion kept completely confidential." Senator: "your squeeze?" Whitlock: "my daughter! and keep your oily hands off her!"
[The unconnected captions over this scene are of somebody making their confession to a priest; we don't learn the context of that until the last installment.]
Turns out Whitlock has received incriminating papers about the Senator's mob connections from an anonymous source. Unless the senator votes the way Whitlock wants, the papers get sent to the press. The senator threatens to sic his mobster pal, Sonny Roman, on Whitlock, and gets told to go ahead, but if he does:
The woman with the Senator takes off her wig, and we see it's Cynthia. (that didn't take much time).
Meanwhile, Alex is wrapping up her date:
Next issue, Alex and Canales talk over lunch. Canales wants her to steal those incriminating papers from Whitlock's safe. He alternates not very convincing threats ("Whatever [you want kept hidden] is, I can put it out in the open if you don't play ball with me!") and sniveling ("I don't want to answer to him or Sonny, I just want to be my own man... is that so bad?"). Alex refuses to help him.
All of this conversation is being watched, though, by spooks who work for Eckart; Eckart is heading an investigation of Squadron 49, and they have Canales under surveillance. Eckart considers warning Whitlock, then decides against it -- "If I tip Whitlock and Devin gets caught, Canales will figure someone's on to him! and I want every one of them -- especially Alexis Devin!"
Whitlock berates Cynthia -- this is not a loving father -- and resumes his meeting with Kirk Mallinder. Cynthia calls Canales in tears: "Tell me you love me, John! That's all I want, just tell me you love me"
Later, the office manager at Whitlock's firm is working late when she gets a call from Alex, who says she lost her purse. While she's looking for it, Whisper sneaks into the building and:
Whitlock's speech there on the last page formed the caption boxes for this installment.
Next issue, and everyone is attending Whitlock's funeral. Lesa tells Alex she and Canales are getting married, and then (spectacular bad timing) Alex drags Canales off. She shows him the papers she stole from Whitlock's safe, and says she'll send them to the media if he doesn't back off: "You leave me alone, you leave Lesa alone. Starting right now, neither one of us have anything to do with your sordid little life."
But Canales isn't intimidated: "Hurt me and it hurts her. I know you Alex. You wouldn't hurt her any more than you'd hurt your cat." Besides, he says, he really does love Lesa.
Cynthia, hiding behind a tree, hears this last bit and her face goes crazy.
Later, at home, Alex tries to work herself up to telling Lesa all she knows about Canales's sordid little life, but can't manage it. Lesa heads off to an important modeling interview (six months in Paris if she gets the job), and Alex takes out her costume. Meanwhile, at Canales's campaign HQ, he sits at his desk and does stuff with a suitcase full of money, when:
The caption narratives this issue are both repeats: Lesa's diary entry from the first chapter, and the mystery confession monologue.
And now, the penultimate chapter:
Canales, unshaven and downtrodden, makes his confession. Outside the church, he meets Sonny and goes for a ride with him. Sonny just wants to know who was responsible for spilling his half a million dollars all over the sidewalk, and who leaked the story about Canales's mob connection to the papers. Canales tells him it was Alexis who spilled the money, and Cynthia who leaked the papers to the press. Canales: "You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Sonny: "No, John." Then Sonny gets out of the car, which drives off a ways, and there's a gunshot. (Let this be a lesson to us all: never believe a mobster when they say they aren't going to have you killed).
Sonny tells his colleague the names of Cynthia and Alexis, and says "What they know could make big trouble for us. Let me know when it's done, and make it clean."
On that ominous note, Lesa and Alex return home. Lesa: "I don't understand why you won't go shopping with me, Alex." Alex: "All that stuff you fashion models wear is made by kinky men who don't care if women are comfortable or not..." Lesa: "Well, sometimes you dress like a slob!" Alex: "...but mostly, I like dressing like a slob."
Just as Lesa learns that Canales is dead ("an apparent suicide") from the TV news, Alex walks into her room and gets knocked out by a blow to the head. Then:
And now the final chapter: A doctor reassures a mostly unhurt Alex that Lesa will be healing for several weeks but is going to be OK. They think Cynthia is dead but haven't found her body.
Alex meets Eckart. "Did you have our place bombed?" she asks. Eckart says no, "If you're looking, try the senator's backers. Someone lost them a lot of money on Times Square last night."
That night, Alex infiltrates Sonny's home:
Much later, in Lesa's hospital room, the phone rings. Alex answers, and it's Cynthia: "I know where you've been and I saw what you did." Alex: "Goodbye Cynthia. Don't call here again." All this wakes up Lesa:
Whisper next appeared in Whisper (vol 2) #1. This time the publisher didn't go belly up, and the series continued for 37 issues. I may post more synopses here if there's interest, but probably not until next week -- winnowing down the pages and writing up the summaries for a plot heavy book like this takes a lot of time.
