For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.
Let's jump back into the Awesome Universe for a bit, shall we? I decided that I'd read Moore's take on Youngblood for the next few days, encompassing this series and the sadly unfinished eponymous series. Moore uses Judgment Day to transition the old Extreme Studios characters into the Awesome Universe, as publisher Jeph Loeb mentions in the editorial in today's comic. Indeed, the idea of the hyper-violent early years of many of these characters becomes a salient plot point in the series.
Today's issue, more than most of the Awesome U stuff, links to Moore's later work in Promethea. This "sourcebook," more a preview story really, is narrated by Mercury, a linguistic deity who plays a prominent role in Promethea's origin. My favourite lines from today's issue are his final words, "Spellbound, forget about the laughs and thrills that words may change a world...and language kills." As well as being a Youngblood story, Judgment Day is a stylized look at the way that language and words shape our world in a very real, phenomenological way. I emphasize this when I teach English and Literature, but I think only a very few of my students consider the real ramifications of this. Even the stories we tell ourselves are built of the language that we know, and it is these stories that shape the very way in which we view, and interact with, the world.
Mercury's only half right, though. Language may indeed kill, but it also births and creates. I guess the point of the series is that the two can, sadly, happen at the very same time.
Also, I will always, 100%, read a story written by Moore and illustrated by Sprouse and Vey. Utterly, utterly brilliant combination of creators.
More to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment