The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1993: Glory #2, January 2002

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Totally forgot to mention in yesterday's post the awesome flashback sequence by Melinda Gebbie. This series was definitely sticking to the format that worked with Supreme, and we get another flashback this issue. These are arranged through comics lying about in Gloria's apartment that are send-ups of the old Wonder Woman comics and the stories they told. Ms. Gebbie's art nicely characterizes the Golden Age tales in yesterday's issue. Today's flashback, by Matt Martin, is a little less apropos. While I love his covers on this series, I'm not sure his style fit what was meant to be a story from the weird superhero era of the 1950s. Instead of EC-style work, we get an Al Rio-esque romp, nicely told and amusing, but definitely not what comics in the 50s looked like. And, holy cats, are there a lot of just full-on panty shots.

And that's it for Glory. The story ends on a cliffhanger, and when we next see the character, she's living on an island, now separated from Gloria, and is discovered by a wandering teenager named Riley. And that series is fucking amazing.

 We'll stick with the remnants of the Awesome Universe for a bit after this, I think.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1992: Glory #1, December 2001

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So finally, finally, we get into the actual story of The Gate of Tears. On a quick art note, I'll say that I enjoy Marat Mychaels' interiors much more than his exteriors. When telling a story, he's a pretty good artist. But those weird pin-up covers don't do much for me. I've written about it elsewhere, most likely in my considerations of the Glory covers, about the different propensities for cover art, which can be broken, very generally into the pin-up shot and the action shot. Unsurprisingly, there's far more pin-up shots for female-led books than there are for male-led ones. Personally, I'd love to see some pin-up covers of Captain America, or Superman.

We've seen the opening of "The Gate of Tears" already, though it definitely looks nicer in colour. Granger Troy is still pretty creepy, though I'm getting the feeling that he's recognizing the goddess in Gloria West and is overcome with a desire to worship her, however he can. And though he continually worries that he's taking advantage of someone with fairly severe mental difficulties, he never takes into account Gloria's own desires or agency, which definitely skew toward her wanting the sex. It seems to me that we're being offered a critique of how neurotypical people see "mental illness" (I don't like that term very much), and of the ways in which we might view those in our world whose mental architecture is a little less Euclidean.

There's always been a link between the neurodiverse and shamanic magic in tribal societies. As with all things, the superhero genre softens and simplifies the metaphor, but it might do us well to listen to the neurodiverse in society. They may not be channeling divinities (though they may!), but they have very important, and different, views on how we might solve some of the problems we see in the world today.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1991: Glory #0, December 2001

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 Perhaps it's appropriate to go over the provenance of this series. The Awesome Preview from 1998 prints, in black and white, the entirety of the prelude story to "Glory and the Gate of Tears." The colourized version is presented in 1999 in the Awesome Entertainment zero issue. It's interesting, as that issue actually takes two of the pages and turns them into double-page spreads, albeit ones that are to be read vertically rather than horizontally. The the Avatar preview issue prints, again in black and white, the first few pages of issue 1. Add to this that today's zero issue includes a history of Glory, unique to the Avatar Press zero issue, which replaces sketchbook material that was included in the Awesome Entertainment zero issue. And it reverts the two double-page spreads to the single pages that were seen in the Awesome Preview. Which, since it's substantially different from today's zero issue, means I'll get around to reading the story again some time. As I've noted before, this is not a series that I'm in any way unhappy to revisit. Aside, of course, from the its truncated nature.

The prelude to "Gate of Tears" is a nice set-up not only for Glory's new situation (a Rick Jones/Captain Mar-Vell-style body sharing situation), but also for the exploration of symbolic nature that comes to its apex in Promethea. I touched briefly upon this in my introduction to the "Faces of Glory" series of posts, and Glory creator Rob Liefeld has often claimed that without Moore's work in the Awesome Universe, there would be no ABC Comics, Promethea, Tom Strong, etc. I find this amusing coming from someone whose biggest claim to fame is a team book that was originally a Teen Titans pitch. Again, however, there are substantial enough differences between both the characters and the universes within which they exist that the exploration begun here and exploration undertaken in Promethea would have been significantly different, even if they arrived at the same places.

Another thing to bear in mind about the Avatar Press series is that it was prepared as a mini-series, consisting of the zero issue and 4 regular issues. Which means, if I'm not mistaken, that there's at the very least bare bones outlines of what happens later in the series kicking about somewhere. And given how the series "concludes" in the second issue, I'd love to get at least a tiny bit more. Pun intended.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Posts

I've written a bit about Alan Moore for the blog. Mostly to do with Supreme and Glory.

And for a deep dive into Glory's origins, here's some stuff about Extreme Studios, from whence she originally sprang.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1990: Glory Preview, September 2001

 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.

 

 This series' title is one of the highest-occurring tags on my blog. And that's not likely to change in the future. Anyone who's read any of my other stuff about this series and the Awesome Universe that spawned it knows how much I love this stuff.

I talked a bit about this cover in my Faces of Glory series. Marat Mychaels takes over the artwork post-Awesome Universe, and I have to be very honest - his art is just not to my liking. Actually, I should clarify. I like his interiors fine. I find them a bit stiff, but they're light-years beyond what I could ever accomplish. But the exteriors, especially on this series, are basically pin-up model shots of superheroes. The cover of a comic is meant to draw the reader in, and give them an idea of what they're going to be paying for. This cover gives us nothing to do with the story within, which is actually a kind of creepy monologue from a man watching Gloria West, Glory's new human host, at the coffee shot she works at.

Though what I take away from it is the ridiculousness of a dude like this thinking that his purpose is to protect someone who is the avatar of a warrior goddess.

Like all women are.

I'll leave it there for a bit. This preview prints a few pages from issue #1, so I'll deal with the rest of the story tomorrow.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Posts

Mr. Mychaels has shown up a few times in the collection.

As has his usual publisher, Avatar.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1673: Yuggoth Creatures #3, July 2006 (Cthuliana Week)

I know it's not quite a week of comics. I think I have six for each theme, leaving myself the option of doing something completely random between themes. But I want to jump into my Cthuliana Week right away.

I'm calling it that, rather than "Lovecraftian" week because I'm wrestling of late with the figure of Lovecraft himself. It's no secret that Lovecraft was a horrendously racist individual. His stories revolve around old and revered white families mixing with foreign blood and literally turning into monsters. And don't even get me started on his poetry, which features a disgusting piece called "The Creation of N******s." It's awful.

So how do we go about reconciling ourselves with this if we love his stories. When I submitted an article to The Lovecraft Annual, it was accepted with the note that the editor, S.T. Joshi, wanted a section where I pondered this question removed from the paper. There are those who study or read Lovecraft who prefer to not quite ignore, but glance past, the racist overtones of the stories. I'm not sure, if we're to keep him as a canonically significant writer in the horror and American traditions, that we can do that. His work grows from a place of racism, couched in a fairly intense xenophobia. So how do we, or I, reconcile with this?

I started out thinking about Shakespeare. He's another writer whose name has become an adjective (Shakespearean; Lovecraftian), an adjective that we use with impunity. But Shakespeare doesn't exactly have a clean track record when it comes to inclusion and diversity. Shylock is not treated particularly well in The Merchant of Venice, and Catherine is little more than a prize in The Taming of the Shrew. While these two plays smack of sexism and antisemitism, Shakespeare is still lauded as one of the greatest writers in the language. The trouble is that we have few examples from Shakespeare's life to tell us if these were attitudes he held or simply things he decided to write about. Lovecraft has left us a much fuller archive.

I'm going to ponder these questions over the next few days as I read some "Cthuliana," some adapted from Lovecraft's work, some original. Today's issue is excellent, a series of strung-together narratives that tell the tale of an unfortunate researcher into the Cthulhu cult and the Old Ones. I assume that the first two issues of the series are very similar, and are part of the same story, as this definitely reads as the climax to a longer tale. The structure of the series nicely picks up on the creation of the Cthulhu Mythos through a series of smaller tales, ones woven together over the years by fans. There's also little actual dialogue in the comic, with the exception of the framing sequence, leaving the narration as text boxes, a technique that also nicely links the comic with the original prose source material. As usual, for an Avatar Press comic, it's gory and horrific, maybe a little too much to quite qualify as Lovecraftian, a word that more often means that we don't see the scary stuff, we just have to imagine it.

"He voiced terrible words, impossible sounds that I could not bear, nor shut out, no matter how I tried."

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #2 [Park Variant, Avatar Press]

The last of my covers from my store, and definitely one of my favourites. This, it seems to me, is Glory the superhero doing something righteous. I know it sounds silly, but given the pose, the speed-line-like background, the slightly out of it look on Glory's face, it's like she's welling up some all mighty punch to deliver to a demon that's about to eat the Earth, or something.

Y'know. Or something.

I really like Andy Park's covers. He's got one more variant that, glancing at the thumbnail, I'm not totally sold on, but I'll wait to see it for real before making any judgment.

This is the Andy Park variant of issue #2, published by Avatar Press. I know that my interpretation of the various themes I see in these covers very much elides the fact that all of the covers really have been of a scantily-clad woman conforming to the societal norms or expectations of feminine beauty. Please know that I know.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #2 [Haley Variant, Avatar Press]

I think this is my favourite variant thus far. Not gonna lie, this picture is hot. See what I did there?

When I talked about Matt Haley's earlier piece, I mentioned the darkness of the series. I'm not sure how the two characters would have come to understand one another, but this portrait to me is Glory and Gloria in sync. The character of Gloria returns in the Keatinge/Campbell reboot, and she's not unlike this picture - in attitude, at least.

This is the Matt Haley variant of issue #2, published by Avatar Press. As Haley captures the pensiveness of Glory in his #1 variant, here I think he captures her goddess-like cockiness. Just an overall great picture, I think.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #1 [Mychaels Variant, Avatar Press]

One last look for now at series artist Marat Mychaels. This is probably my favourite of his covers thus far. There's something intriguing about Glory's face in this picture. I wonder what it is she's about to attack?

And, yes, there's the giant boobs. I can't say that they're a major draw for me on the cover. It actually seems a bit lazy. What else from the series would have worked better than that big white space? Maybe Gloria's face?

This is the Marat Mychaels variant of issue #1 of the Avatar series. I don't have any of the Mychaels variants for issue #2, which is odd because I feel like these were the more common covers. I actually have no idea of the distribution numbers of these covers (which I feel like I've mentioned before).

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #0 [Martin Variant, Avatar Press]

Another of the sexy covers, I suppose, though this one is more in line with the Mychaels magazine covers than the more decidedly erotic of Martin's previous cover. Which, confusingly, was from a later issue. I have no idea why I didn't just do this in numerical order. Praise Chaos, I suppose.

This is the Matt Martin variant of issue #0 of the Avatar series. As I was writing this, I laid out the comics again, but arranged them this time numerically and then by preferred cover. I noticed what it was about the Finch and Churchill covers that makes them so different, and so much more reminiscent of the old costume: they draw the costume as a typical superhero bathing suit costume. But the Avatar artists draw it with a long, flowy loin cloth. As I noted back at the beginning of this series, Avatar Press know their audience.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #0 [Haley Variant, Avatar Press]

I really quite like the Haley covers of this series, though this one is perhaps my least favourite. Haley's covers seem to capture something of the pensiveness of the character, though this one is showing off a bit too much pensive butt to really mesh nicely with his other two covers. Well, sort of. There's butt, and then there's butt. You'll see what I mean when I post his next cover.

This is the Alex Haley variant of issue #0 of the Avatar series. I'll give Avatar some respect for the extra material in this edition of the zero issue. Awesome's is balanced out by some sketchbook material and a black and white preview of an upcoming issue of Supreme. In this edition, we have an illustrated history of Glory, one that, rather skillfully, manages to make sense of her convoluted continuity. I love seeing things like this, and they're actually indicative, to me, of the Alan Moore sensibility that was brought to the Awesome Universe. Rather than deny where the characters had come from, they instead made them tributes to the original heroes. There were some really amazing superhero stories coming from Awesome, and Moore, for a little while there.

The Faces of Glory - Glory Preview [Avatar Press]

As I go through the last of my already-owned covers, we'll go in numerical order, so to speak. With luck, by the time the last of these write-ups sees publication, I'll have found some more.

This is another Marat Mychaels cover, this time the non-limited version of the preview issue. Another take on Glory as warrior pretending to be model, I think. That's the feeling I get, anyway, from the two preview covers. Perhaps this is Glory posing for her Vogue shoot before the big comeback.

This is the Marat Mychaels regular cover for the Glory Preview from Avatar. Though I'm not a huge fan of his art, it was very exciting to see this issue come out - I'd have loved to see at least the end of the story, but what we get is worth it regardless.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #2 [Finch Variant, Avatar Press]

Another cover that really hearkens back to the 90s for me. It really does have to be Finch's artwork, and the formative effect it had on comics at the time. But that's not all I should be talking about with this picture. There's a reason David Finch is considered one of the top illustrators of that era, and it's because he makes a character move. Have a look at the first couple of issues of New Avengers v.1. The sense of motion, of giant bodies in small spaces, of bodies flying through the air (both of and not of their own volition). The same, I think is true of this picture. Where Glory is coming from, and where she's landing, we don't know, but we definitely know that she's moving between places.

This might seem like a small thing, but there's plenty of artists out there who draw figures as if they're frozen in place, and the human body never is.

This is the David Finch variant of issue #2 of the Avatar series. I really do think Finch manages to mesh the two costumes, original and current, really nicely here.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #1 [Wraparound Variant, Avatar Press]

I hope you'll forgive my attempt at stitching this picture. I'm not great at it yet. And, to be fair, the tech I'm using isn't the best either.

A bit more of the Mychaels work today. He's definitely got the sexy warrior vibe going in his pieces, less about the corporeal than Martin, but not quite the warrior that we see in Haley (wait until you see his issue #2 variant. Probably my favourite).

This is the wraparound variant of issue #1 of the Avatar Press series, art by Marat Mychaels. We'll see a bit more of Mychaels' art, and that villainess, and her utterly ridiculous cleavage, later on. I don't really understand this cover. Is the horned lady watching Glory getting angry at her readership? That seems weird.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #0 [Park Variant, Avatar Press]

Andy Park's Glory is the most superheroic of the bunch. This is a very important facet of the character, a remembrance of Wonder Woman from whence she sprang. I like this interpretation of the character - there's something of that Supermanesque nobility to her demeanour.

This is the Andy Park variant of issue #1 of Avatar's series. It apparently comes in a platinum foil edition, which I have to admit would look kind of cool. Fingers crossed.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #1 [Finch Variant, Avatar Press]

This must have been a bit of a coup for Avatar, wrangling a big name like Mr. Finch to do a couple of covers. And they're really very nice. This is a bit of a weird picture, though. It's certainly Glory post-battle. We see damage to her boot, and the cape looks a bit ragged. But she's also certainly got a bit of a come-hither look on her face. Not what one would expect post-battle, but then I've never been a mythic female superhero, so I don't really know.

This is the Finch variant of issue #1 of the Avatar series. I think Finch's pictures are actually the ones that most capture the spirit of the original Glory, rather than this reimagining. There's something of the 90s to them for me, though that may simply be that I associate Finch's style with the 90s. Y'know, in that he was instrumental in creating that style in the first place ;P

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #2 [Martin Variant, Avatar Press]

Thus far we've seen quite a bit of cheesecake, with the exception of the Haley #1 and the Linsner from last time.

But there's more. Come on. You knew that there was going to be more, right?

As I noted last time, there are artists who focus on a particular aspect of the character. I'd love to know whether this was purposeful or not. Matt Martin's covers, those I have, err far more on the erotic side of the character.

It would be easy to write this off as fan service, but it's also important to remember that Moore's project in this character, and Promethea afterward, was an examination of various aspects of femininity. We can debate another time the relative success or failure of that project. So I choose to read these portraits more as paeans to the erotic nature of the body, definitely an aspect of Glory's mythic presence.

This is the Matt Martin variant of issue #2 of the Avatar series. Something Promethea deals with is the shame that is erroneously associated with the erotic in Western society. It's a very strange thing to me to be ashamed of our ability to feel pleasure. So in a naively optimistic way, I like to think this is simply another facet of the character. But, of course, it wouldn't look quite so sexist if there were some sexy men covers in comics.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #1 [Linsner Variant, Avatar Press]

Finally got around to scanning all of these, so back to it. I will say, in the interim I have been looking in local stores for the errant covers. No luck yet, but I have a couple of places I want to check out soon.

Joseph Michael Linsner is very well known for drawing a very specific female form. He's very, very good at it. This Glory cover is no exception.

This is the Linsner variant of Avatar's first issue. I think, of the covers I have, Linsner's pushes Glory the furthest toward the realms the retooled character would chart in Promethea. There's something of a tarot card to this cover. I've noticed that each of the artists has a particular aspect of the character that they privilege. Mychaels errs more toward the fantasy warrior, closest I think to the original incarnation of the character. Park's covers (none posted yet) are definitely the most superheroic, Glory at her most Wonder Woman. Linsner gives us the metaphoric aspect of the goddess.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #0 [Mychaels Variant, Avatar Press]

Another Marat Mychaels cover (he is, after all, the artist on the series), this time covering the Avatar reprint of the Awesome Entertainment zero issue. There's also an extra section chronicling the various incarnations of Glory, and placing them into some kind of chronological sequence. This is a rare thing to see from a superhero comic, though the Extreme/Maximum/Awesome characters did seem to have much more stable continuities.

The Faces of Glory - Alan Moore's Glory #1, December 2001 [Haley Variant, Avatar Press]

I had a quick look in my database to see what other work I have by today's cover artist Matt Haley.

I have two comics that bear his work, and that's it. For an artist working in the mainstream (the two were DC comics), that's unusual. But if he's an Avatar artist, then chances are I don't have a lot of his stuff. I've never really taken to their output.

I like this Glory. She's pensive-looking, a mood that conforms to the sombre tone of the comic. Remember, Glory is experiencing the world through the eyes of a woman wrestling with mental illness. This is actually a pretty dark comic in some ways.

Maybe a bit too much hair.

This is the Matt Haley variant of Avatar's first issue. The official title of the series is Alan Moore's Glory, though I'm really not sure why. I don't know about distribution numbers for some of these, and I honestly can't remember if I was able to select which ones I wanted, or if I just got a random assortment at the store.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1349: Avengelyne: Revelation #1, January 2001

It turns out that a demonic enemy of Avengelyne's set up in ancient Rome, and she had to oust him. I think.

I'm getting the feeling that these different series of Avengelyne that Avatar releases are not really different series. The events of Revelation tie directly back into the end of Bad Blood, which I assume is the series that preceded it. I think the multiple #1s really ought to be treated more as story arcs, rather than series in and of themselves. This, of course, gives far more opportunity to print multiple covers for the issues, and to publish prelude and #1/2 issues when there isn't quite 2 comics worth of stories.

That sounded a bit snarky, but it wasn't meant to. For some people, this is the joy of the hobby, the collection of variants and premium comics. Who am I to disparage that? The reason that I bring up the idea of story arcs is that it shifts the way I approach the comics as I read them. If I pick up a full series, I expect to get a full story. If I pick up a story arc, I recognize that there will be much I'm not getting. The movement of the arc to series status camouflages the fact that this is actually an ongoing series. What it really means is that I'm reading this alternate Avengelyne out of order.

I have no idea why I'm so taken with this series. There's something vaguely magically  realist about the way that the people that Avengelyne comes into contact with in the first century seem to have no qualms with the way she's dressed. I mean, we would now, so I can't imagine what the uproar would have been then. I might read some more Avengelyne tomorrow. We'll see.

More to come...