Surfin' the 80s, with Starlin and Wrightson

[causticlad]

This is a bit of a weird one, and not just because of its name. The Weird was a four-issue mini-series released by DC in 1988 and featuring two big names: writer Jim Starlin and penciller Berni (sans "e" as he signed himself at the time) Wrightson. For whatever reason, though, it seemed less than the sum of its parts, maybe just a little out of step with the times as two 70s comics icons found themselves in the late 1980s. The inks by Dan Green certainly didn't Wrightson's work any favours, and Starlin's interpretation of Superman is off, but on the other hand it's probably impossible for those two to go at something and not produce moments of worth.

That leads to these scans, from issue #2. The Weird is an energy creature from another dimension, escaped from slavery as a battery(!) to our world when his masters launch a plan to conquer the Earth. Unfortunately he can't live in this dimension in his non-corporeal form and solves the problem in the most literal way possible: he hijacks the body of the newly deceased Walter Langley and begins his quest to save the world. An initial encounter with the JLA gets him on the wrong side of the law, as they're concerned about the minor fact that his new body is unstable and when it blows he's taking a large chunk of the planet Earth with him -- The Weird knows this, but thinks he can finish his mission before that.

The nice moment is an extended sequence with Walter Langley's son, Billy (ummm....). Parts of The Weird still are Langley and he feels a need to find Billy and explain to him what is going before it ends up all over the 5 o`clock news.





"Having fun, Billy?" I think his second line should have been "Do you like gladiator movies, Billy?", but then they don't pay me the big bucks to write these things. And how 'bout that penultimate panel? On scans_daily it's never just you, but on this one I'm guessing it's pretty much everybody.



A nice little bit of symmetry there, as The Weird -- energy creature that he is -- is intrigued by his "son's" ability to pick up stones from the shore and does the same to demonstrate his strength.



And there's the first really pretty bit from Wrightson. It's funny -- I get the sense he was having more fun drawing the energy ball here and the boulder on the previous couple of pages that he was with the human figures. The Weird then transports Billy to his home dimension which is, alas, a bit of an artistic fail. Starlin asks Wrightson to draw (or Wrightson offers up) some retread Ditko Dr. Strange dimension on a completely white background which rather defeats the purpose of having Berni Wrightson drawing something for you. Starlin engages in heavy info-dump too, including the introduction of The Weird's adversary "The Jason" -- some guy named Jason who's sold out the human race and will act as a conduit to our dimension for The Weird's masters in return for a pony, a milkshake, and some superpowers. So we'll just skip that and wait 'til they return from The Dimestore Ditko Dimension to the beach and the heart-to-heart.



Ahhh, there we are. The sun begins to set and so, metaphorically, does The Weird's time with Billy.



As a result we cut half-way down this next page to meet The Jason himself. My goodness, Berni Wrightson is bored by straight lines, isn't he? That's a pretty perfunctory set of buildings and apartment corridor. Anyway, The Jason is evil and demonstates his eviltude and he has an evil laugh mwa-ha-ha and it's all a bit silly so I'm going to skip again. So there.




Back at Billy's house, The Weird reluctantly bids his "son" goodbye. Then it perhaps dawns on the reader that Starlin and Wrightson have spent all or part of 15 out of the first 19 pages of an ostensible superhero book to a chat between father and his only child and that's why this piece of work isn't entirely forgettable. Our hero's out to save the world on a strict deadline, but he wastes quite a lot of his prior-to-Earth-shattering-kaboom hours bringing some closure to a bereft little boy whose life he ignorantly complicated even further.



And so Billy wanders thoughtfully into his kitchen and living room where he sees his father's bottled ships and, confronted by his worried mother, hesitates and then says he's been "around". That's a good lad! Never share your feelings with anyone or else how are you going to be a psychotically repressed Batman villain ("The Billy"?) when you grow up?

The rest of the issue is dominated by a knock-down, drag-out with Superman, with whom The Weird trades fisticuffs on an even basis and during which Superman hits levels of dialogue dickery rarely seen outside of the Weisinger era. So we'll skip that too, but not before I do include Wrightson's nice apropos-of-nothing shout-out to Ditko's iconic Spider-Man #33 panel after The Weird collapses a building on him. Ain't it a thing?



To my surprise The Weird was reprinted in 2008's Mystery in Space Volume 2 after the character was re-introduced by Starlin into his various space-opera-ish titles in 2006, so if you like what you see now you know where to get it.

Comments

[blackruzsa]

Wait.... if he's supposed to be protecting the world, why the fight with Superman? Unless it's one of those perfunctory superhero battles?

Also, I like this. This was sweet.

[causticlad]

Superman is trying to make him leave Earth, The Weird declines, and then things get all fist-y.

[biod]

Favorite part: "Oh superstrength is cool and all, but can you skip it?". That was pretty much what all 10 year old boys would have said.

[halloweenjack]

I think that some of the issues with the art are that it almost looks like Wrightson pencilled and inked over Starlin's layouts, and Starlin has a very different style, much "cleaner" than Wrightson's. Also, I had to wonder if Billy's dad resembled Bill the Cat before he died. (Also, when was "bogus" a synonym for "cool"?)

Story-wise... eh. I know that it's supposed to be about this alien giving his son some closure about his dad's death (in that way, it's much like the movie Starman(or, as I like to call it, "E.T. for grownups"), only with the spousal relationship changed to a parental one), but I'm just not really feeling it.

[biod]

When was "bogus" a synonym for "cool"?
Halloween Jack, my fly mamma jamma, don't you know that only the grooviest of radical cats use "bogus" to describe something that is hip, happening, and out of this world? Well, shucks if I didn't know any better I would say a dapper mofo such as thyself be some jive-ass turkey. I hope this little message of schway has made your motormouth mind find some Hakuna Matata tranquility and shit.

[cainofdreaming]

(Also, when was "bogus" a synonym for "cool"?)

Around the time of "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey". If you don't remind me, I won't remind you. Deal?

[halloweenjack]

Not only was that an excellent movie, but the journey was bogus in the sense of being not not not not most heinous.

[proteus_lives]

I must admit, I love those movies.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

[icon_uk]

The Grim Reaper (in passing, to a smoker) - "See you REAL soon"

[proteus_lives]

"You may be a king or lowly street-sweeper but sooner or later you'll dance with the Reaper!"

[proteus_lives]

That second to last page was kinda sweet.