I’ve just recently been getting back into reading comics, since the opening of Local Heroes in Ghent and Frank Miller’s Ronin was something I had no previous knowledge of, despite being produced back in the 1980’s. It was just one of those “this looks good, I’ll buy it” moments. I’m really glad I bought it, and I am really getting into buying collected comic volumes as opposed to individual comic issues. It’s nice to have enough material in one book to read and then put down and then pick back up when ever its convenient. I don’t have desire to store and take care of new comics, and I really just care about reading the stories, so these collected volumes are the way to go.
The story for this book, when summarized, doesn’t really sound very good. Magic swords, demons, technological mega-complexes, telekinetic quadriplegics and feudal Japan don’t seem to be concepts that cohesively fit together for making a really plausible comic, but you’re just gonna have to go with me on this; it works… well. It works surprisingly well, in fact. The fantastic element presented in the beginning of the book does take a back seat throughout the story, which is satisfying. I always have hard to compromising between multi-genre collisions between science-fiction and fantasy. Ultimately this story falls into neither category, but requries elements of those genres to propell itself. The long and short of the story is that a the souls of a Ronin and a demon named Agat are trapped in a magical sword sometime in ancient Japan, the soul of the Ronin seeks out the host body of Billy, a quadriplegic with telekinetic powers who helps develop cybernetic limbs inside of a technological mega fortress, called Aquarius, located in post-apocalyptic New York City. With Billy as his host, he commands Virgo, to build him arms and legs and chage his appearance in order to fight the demon which can take the form of any living creature..
I told you it sounded nuts.
I promise you, it’s so good.
The art might seem quirky by todays standards, but its Frank Miller’s usual gritty style applied to a visually obsessive-compulsive mega future. The art is very 80’s in the sense that there is the feeling that technology is bristling from every corner of the page but its so vague and formless because the nature of the technology isn’t really important. Very different from today’s work where we feel the necessity to know what every bump on Batman’s utility belt does. There is a slight Japanese sci-fi influence, but not like one might expect from modern comics. Think more “Japanimation” and less “Anime.” While the buzzwords mean essentially the same thing, the generation gap between 1980’s and early 90’s fans of Japanese animation and Inuyasha is quite vast.
If you’ve read the comic, and I don’t want to spoil it for you if you have not (so stop reading at this point if thats the case), I wonder if anyone else seems to feel like the character of Billy represents comic book creators or artists as a whole. Armless, legless, impotent freaks without any power whatsoever in their real worlds, but gifted with vast mental power, imagination and the potential to change the world, and, at the center of this power the main motivation is sex. As always.
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