Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Comic Con Odds and Ends - Part 3

Sometimes something just catches your eye and you have to stop and look. While walking by the Arcana booth, I saw a comic cover that was mostly black with a little white and just a splash of red. I thought it looked like some Frank Miller Sin City thing. And then I noticed the title, Helen Killer, and I knew I had to pick it up.

Helen Killer 1-4
Written by Andrew Kreisber
Art by Matthew JLD Rice
Arcana Comics

Helen Keller was tough by Anne Sullivan at the age of 6 how to communicate feeling sign language. But who knew that later on, Alexander Graham Bell created special glasses called the omnicle, which when used give Helen both sight and hearing. But there is also a couple side effects. Helen can see the aura of people, and the more evil they are, the blacker the aura. She gains super strength and agility. But also, the more she uses the omnicle, the greater the feelings of rage and murder well up inside her. Neat invention, huh?

Helen is approached by the secret service to protect President McKinley at the 1901 Pan American Exposition. But true to history, the assassin Leon Czolgosz is successful in shooting the President in a receiving line, despite Helen's best efforts. But there is a more mysterious plot in the works by Alexander Grahams Bells arch rival.

This comic is a fun romp through history. Kreisber uses many real historical figures to tell this story. But once you realize that it's pretty cool to see Helen Keller break into some sweet ninja action kicking henchmen ass, the realization that there is not much else to the characters becomes clear. Anne Sullivan just seems to complain that Helen shouldn't be out on missions. Alexander Graham Bell is like a melding of M and Q from the James Bond stories. Like any historical work of historical fiction, the writer needs to add more depth to the characters to make them interesting. Otherwise, the story just isn't interesting after a while.

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