The Kents - Part 1
Nov. 27th, 2012 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyFrom a time in the mid-90s when the only way someone in DC could make a Western was to tie it in to a superhero franchise, there comes... the Kents!
This miniseries by John Ostrander follows on the idea of what exactly lead the Kents to gain the values that would cause Clark to become Superman? And the result is a story that tells of the history of Kansas up and through the American civil war to the eventual end of the time period known as the Wild West, as told through the letters of two brothers: Nathaniel and Jeb Kent.
As with most historical fiction it involves them bumping into various famous people of the time period, both actual people and DCU characters, but it doesn't really feel as contrived as, say, the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
The story begins with Jonathan Kent digging up a box filled with manuscripts while digging in the barn, and is suprised to find that they're from when the family originally moved to Kansas from Boston...
It begins with the Kent Brothers and their dad, Silas, being established as being part of the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves to up through the Northern States to Canada, where they happen to bump into one of the aforementioned Famous People...
Their abolitionist cred established, the actual plot gets started, when in April 1854 the Massachussets Legislature incorperates an Emigrant Aid Society under the leadership of Amos Lawrence and Amos Sawyer, with their intention being that it would encourage abolitionists to settle in Kansas now that the territory has been opened up.
Silas announces that because of this he's going to move to Kansas with his elder two sons, much to his wife's dismay. Her pointing out that, at his age, if he decides to go it would probably mean that they'd never see each other again. But he goes anyway, because he believes in assisting in the abolition movement THAT MUCH.
On the way there though, Jeb voices some confusion over why his dad is this invested in freeing slaves...
November 1854, the abolitionist settlers have built their homes in their new little town (NOT Smallville, that's later, this is Lawrence) and it's time to elect their territorial representative to Congress. Unfortunately, the Sentator in Missouri has told the people on his side of the border to take part in the election too, which is interpreted as guys riding into Lawrence on horses, beating the people trying to vote and setting fire to stuff. Silas starts yelling about how pro-slavery people can't win votes without chicanery.
March 1855, Silas has established a newspaper in Lawrence and he's the first to meet John H. Lane to the town, who claims that he's here to help his fellow abolitionists but Silas suspects that he's actually a politian.
Back in the present, Clark asks Lois whether she and John are related somehow (kind of racist there Kal El, just because they're both humans called Lane doesn't necessarily mean that they are).
Luther Reid and his men go on a rampage, tarring and feathering the election judge, and then selling him in a mock slave auction. Silas says in his narration that reports of this happened all along the border. With a mob behind him, Luther attempts to have Silas Kent lynched for spreading lies about him in his newspaper, but he caves when Silas shoves a shotgun in his face and yells that he only printed the truth.
Not wanting his own blood to be spilt, Luther makes a hasty exit, but the work of the pro-slavery men had done its damage. Not a single pro-abolitionist candidate was election, not even in Lawrence, with some towns having four times as many votes as there were citizens. In the town hall people are understandibly upset at this, including John Brown who objects to slavery on religious grounds and Silas who points out that the new legislature plans to force through the Fugitive Slave Act as law in the territory of Kansas.
This means that it would be illegal to help a slave insurrection by spoken or written word, meaning death or imprisonment for expressing an opinion calculated to help a slave escape. This is in addition to a $500 fine for refusing to help apprehend an escaped slave, and if you don't take an oath to uphold the Act then they can take away your right to vote.
Silas is naturally enraged by this, and says that he's going to print the entire declaration of independence in his newspaper to show why their treatment is wrong, and that they should shake off the chains of tyranny. They have new elections for the Free State of Kansas, with the abolitionists actually winning across the territory this time, including Jim Lane from earlier winning a place as Lawrence's representative.
Unfortunately Silas doesn't live to see the fruits of his labours though, as he's gunned down by a mysterious assassin one night as he's closing up his newspaper. Losing their dad makes Jeb want to just pack it all in and move back to Boston, but his elder brother Nathaniel says that now that Kent blood has watered Kansas soil that they have to stay.
They signal this by threatening Luther at gunpoint when they see him gloating about Silas' death. Luther responds to this by writing an official (poorly written) complaint to a sympathetic sheriff, saying that the Kents were wild, dangerous and should be arrested, as he feels that his life is in considerable danger if they're allowed to stay free...
See, this is a very wordy comic, which is why I've held off on posting it before now.
This miniseries by John Ostrander follows on the idea of what exactly lead the Kents to gain the values that would cause Clark to become Superman? And the result is a story that tells of the history of Kansas up and through the American civil war to the eventual end of the time period known as the Wild West, as told through the letters of two brothers: Nathaniel and Jeb Kent.
As with most historical fiction it involves them bumping into various famous people of the time period, both actual people and DCU characters, but it doesn't really feel as contrived as, say, the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
The story begins with Jonathan Kent digging up a box filled with manuscripts while digging in the barn, and is suprised to find that they're from when the family originally moved to Kansas from Boston...
It begins with the Kent Brothers and their dad, Silas, being established as being part of the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves to up through the Northern States to Canada, where they happen to bump into one of the aforementioned Famous People...
Their abolitionist cred established, the actual plot gets started, when in April 1854 the Massachussets Legislature incorperates an Emigrant Aid Society under the leadership of Amos Lawrence and Amos Sawyer, with their intention being that it would encourage abolitionists to settle in Kansas now that the territory has been opened up.
Silas announces that because of this he's going to move to Kansas with his elder two sons, much to his wife's dismay. Her pointing out that, at his age, if he decides to go it would probably mean that they'd never see each other again. But he goes anyway, because he believes in assisting in the abolition movement THAT MUCH.
On the way there though, Jeb voices some confusion over why his dad is this invested in freeing slaves...
November 1854, the abolitionist settlers have built their homes in their new little town (NOT Smallville, that's later, this is Lawrence) and it's time to elect their territorial representative to Congress. Unfortunately, the Sentator in Missouri has told the people on his side of the border to take part in the election too, which is interpreted as guys riding into Lawrence on horses, beating the people trying to vote and setting fire to stuff. Silas starts yelling about how pro-slavery people can't win votes without chicanery.
March 1855, Silas has established a newspaper in Lawrence and he's the first to meet John H. Lane to the town, who claims that he's here to help his fellow abolitionists but Silas suspects that he's actually a politian.
Back in the present, Clark asks Lois whether she and John are related somehow (kind of racist there Kal El, just because they're both humans called Lane doesn't necessarily mean that they are).
Luther Reid and his men go on a rampage, tarring and feathering the election judge, and then selling him in a mock slave auction. Silas says in his narration that reports of this happened all along the border. With a mob behind him, Luther attempts to have Silas Kent lynched for spreading lies about him in his newspaper, but he caves when Silas shoves a shotgun in his face and yells that he only printed the truth.
Not wanting his own blood to be spilt, Luther makes a hasty exit, but the work of the pro-slavery men had done its damage. Not a single pro-abolitionist candidate was election, not even in Lawrence, with some towns having four times as many votes as there were citizens. In the town hall people are understandibly upset at this, including John Brown who objects to slavery on religious grounds and Silas who points out that the new legislature plans to force through the Fugitive Slave Act as law in the territory of Kansas.
This means that it would be illegal to help a slave insurrection by spoken or written word, meaning death or imprisonment for expressing an opinion calculated to help a slave escape. This is in addition to a $500 fine for refusing to help apprehend an escaped slave, and if you don't take an oath to uphold the Act then they can take away your right to vote.
Silas is naturally enraged by this, and says that he's going to print the entire declaration of independence in his newspaper to show why their treatment is wrong, and that they should shake off the chains of tyranny. They have new elections for the Free State of Kansas, with the abolitionists actually winning across the territory this time, including Jim Lane from earlier winning a place as Lawrence's representative.
Unfortunately Silas doesn't live to see the fruits of his labours though, as he's gunned down by a mysterious assassin one night as he's closing up his newspaper. Losing their dad makes Jeb want to just pack it all in and move back to Boston, but his elder brother Nathaniel says that now that Kent blood has watered Kansas soil that they have to stay.
They signal this by threatening Luther at gunpoint when they see him gloating about Silas' death. Luther responds to this by writing an official (poorly written) complaint to a sympathetic sheriff, saying that the Kents were wild, dangerous and should be arrested, as he feels that his life is in considerable danger if they're allowed to stay free...
See, this is a very wordy comic, which is why I've held off on posting it before now.
