Books Overlooked #2

Hello to all the wild and crazy guys out there. Today, three more graphic novels that you might otherwise have left on the shelf.

The Boys
Vol 1: The Name of the Game
Dynamite Entertainment
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Darick Robertson

I'd like to start this review, and in fact this column, by saying that I believe Garth Ennis to be one of the best writers in the comics medium today. Some dismiss him as a purveyor of black humour and gory action and nothing else, and this is nonsense. Few writers have as profound a mastery of dialogue, plot or character than Ennis, and the extreme content he's recognised for is just one element to the comics he writes. Albeit an oft-repeated element.

The Boys is perhaps not the best example to bring up to prove this point, as it's one where Ennis is pushing heavily on profanity, rather than profundity. It's this remit that got the series kicked out of DC's recently-acquired Wildstorm imprint and picked up, eventually, by Dynamite. The cancellation wasn't particularly surprising - the series is filled with sex, violence and swearing, as well as taking huge potshots at the traditional superhero genre which still makes up most of DC's output. This is complimented well by Darick Robertson (of Transmetropolitan fame)'s grimy, characterful artwork, which really lends a great deal of personality to the characters and their grim deeds. However, this is not to say that The Boys is all about the shock value.

The Boys is about the eponymous CIA splinter group (at the start of the book, languishing in retirement) headed up by the vicious-sod-with-a-heart-of-flinty-gold, Butcher. The group's mandate is to monitor and police the activity of superheroes throughout the world. And superheroes like rough sex, drugs and sodomising each other just as much as any other breed of celebrity. With hilarious consequences. In typical Ennis style, the plot never lingers too long on a certain point, and retains an entertaining and compelling pace. The characters, although they might seem somewhat 2-dimensional at first, bear familiarity, and will almost certainly become more well-rounded as the series progresses.

Here, however, I'm talking about some of the supporting characters. The real star of this trade, Wee Hughie (based physically on Simon Pegg, who provides the book's introduction) is at times grumbly and miserable, at times upbeat and enthusiastic, and at times full of indignant rage. In other words - a fully-rounded human being, who proves instantly sympathetic. The Name of the Game is the story of his introduction into the ranks of the Boys, and it is certainly well worth your money. Providing you're not easily shocked. And have a sense of humour.

The Other Side
DC/Vertigo
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: Cameron Stewart

When the issues of The Other Side were coming out, I wasn't particularly interested. I'd never heard of Jason Aaron at the time (his other current comics project is Scalped, also for Vertigo), and expected it to be just another Vietnam war story. Which, of course, it is. However, having read it in collected form, it is one of the few such works to convincingly tell the story of the whole war - summing up the discontentment at home, the horrors of jungle combat and the confused morality behind the engagement - through one soldier's story.

Well, actually - two soldiers' stories.

The Other Side tells the story of Pvt. William Everette, an Alabamian conscript fighting on the American side, and Vo Dai, a young ex-farmer from North Vietnam, who volunteers for service with the South Vietnamese Viet Cong. The two men are from entirely different backgrounds, have entirely different attitudes towards the conflict, and are fighting on opposite sides. This book, however, is about how similar they are.

Vo Dai is convinced that by fighting back the Americans, he is taking on a noble responsibility to his people - one formerly taken up by his Grandfather, who previously fought to liberate the country from the French, and whose memory Vo Dai fights to honour. He is selfless, single-minded and ruthlessly dedicated to his cause, in a manner which his compatriots often fail to be. Everette, on the other hand, is self-pitying, miserable and frightened. He didn't choose to go to war, he doesn't want to kill anybody, and he just wants to go home. Both men are haunted by the ghosts of their forebears, both in different ways.

Jason Aaron (cousin of famed war veteran Gustav Hasford)'s writing is crisp and involving, and he keeps the reader hooked on the sequence of horrific, shocking and grim events that makes up The Other Side. He portrays both central characters convincingly, in a manner that neither writes off Everette as a coward, nor Vo Dai as a blinkered zealot, as the two men's lives rage on towards their inevitable convergence. The extra articles in the back testify to the amount of research that Aaron and artist Cameron Stewart did in trying to paint a convincing picture of the conflict, despite neither man having served. This shows throughout the work, particularly in Stewart's case. I'd enjoyed his work on Seven Soldiers: Manhattan Guardian, but I can't say I'd ever really been a fan. Here, however, he outdoes himself, with a diverse emotive, and occasionally grotesque cast of characters. Both writer and artist here do their utmost, and succeed, in creating a realistic and damning portrayal of the war, and one that highlights the tragedy in the lives lost therein. Excellent work.

303
Avatar Press
Story: Garth Ennis
Art: Jacen Burrows

This is the real left-field recommendation this time around, and one that I intend to speak at length about. This is more Ennis, in a deeply different vein. The first thing you might notice about this comic is that it is published by Avatar, and as such should be rubbish. Perhaps that's an unfair generalisation, but when a company's flagship title is Lady Death, what are you going to do? 303 is another trade in which I showed absolutely no interest in at first. Despite being Ennis, it was an Avatar comic, with uninspiring art and a generic-sounding super-soldier plot.

However, this man convinced me to give it a go, telling me 'it's really not what you think'. Once you get about halfway through this book, your expectations will have been shaken. By the final page: utterly and totally confounded. By its finale, 303 succeeds where so many comics (and indeed so many films or TV shows) fail, by being quite genuinely shocking. Please, do yourself a favour and seek this book out before looking up any more information about it, it is certainly a cumulative experience, and a powerful one, at that.

303 is, at the beginning, about a Russian special forces squad trying to beat their British counterparts to a crash site in the Afghanistan desert. They don't know what's there that means they have to shoot the shit out of theoretically allied soldiers, and for the most part, they don't care - except for the one ancient Russian commando who's thus far lived his life attempting to emulate his father, who fought in the Battle of Stalingrad. Thus far, he's never found any pursuit that has done this ambition justice. It's this notion of the lapsed honour in warfare that preoccupies the character, and the early part of 303.

Later on, 303 changes location to parts of the US, and goes on to deal with themes like the abuse of illegal immigrant labour and America's handling of (and attitudes towards) the War on Terror. These themes are handled in a less than cut-and-dried manner, and leave a general feeling of both helplessness and motivation in the mind of the reader. Despite continuing to cover the story of the nameless Russian commando, Ennis augments the plot with a cast of compelling supporting characters, all of whom have their story to tell in this comic book coverage of the death of the American dream.

Earlier I called 303's art uninspiring, and I might have spoken too soon. Jacen Burrows is certainly a competent artist, and he shows the ability to evoke horror and sympathy here. His art may not be exactly flashy, but he has a great sense of action to his drawings. It's the layout in his panels and the brutality of the violence which lends to 303 so well. But still... there's a certain disappointment to the manner in which 303 is delivered. Not even necessarily Burrows' work at all, in fact. The disappointment is that this series came out with all the appearance of your average hyper-violent Avatar shlock, when in fact it deserves far more thought and attention. It should have been a Vertigo title, released with a more flash inker for Burrows' line and a less gaudy colour job, with solicitation ads heralding it as the most controversial comic series of all time. However, in all honesty, given the contents of this comic, I don't imagine Vertigo could have published it.

Garth Ennis is about to make me break one of my own personal rules. Whenever any reviewers of entertainment media use this word, it seems spurious. A word tossed about by journalists to make themselves seem more in tune with modern culture than anyone else. Still and all, it is the only word I can think of to accurately sum up 303: this book is important. I say that with all conviction. However much the BBC's Culture Show goes on about silly toss like a comic book adaptation of the 9/11 report, it's comics like 303 that are really relevant. Ennis doesn't imply absolute right and wrong, he just gives you the facts, and leaves it unspoken how deeply, fundamentally broken things are. Other media that have taken on similar speculative fiction (television in particular, in recent memory) have been widely dismissed as sensationalist and/or timid, and reportedly rightly so.

303 strikes a perfect balance. It manages at once to be gripping, profound, beautiful and horrible. It is extremely graphic, and contains continuous use of explicit language and violence. It is certainly not going to be to everyone's tastes. Nevertheless, it is a book you should read.

I'll say that again:

YOU SHOULD READ 303.

So go on then. No, I'm serious. Get to it.

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'Beat' Nick is finished with being preachy. For now.