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9-11 VOLUMES ONE AND TWO
(Best of the Week!)
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics
Creators: Various
Price: $9.95 US/$16.95 CAN |
Was there really any doubt, given the success of previous 9-11 efforts, or the staggering amount of talent involved in these projects, that these two volumes of stories would be anything but incredible? Probably not, and certainly not from me, as I'd read a similar compilation of work in Alternative Comics's 9-11: Emergency Relief. What I wasn't prepared for was
to be hit once again with all the emotions, and to be so affected by the
stories. By the time I finished reading these two volumes, I was emotionally
drained, and I have to admit that I had cried more than a few times. These
stories, by virtue of the variety of creators and, quite frankly, the inclusion
of super-heroes, have more flaws than the stronger collection by Alternative
Comics, but there are also stories here that were incredibly effective, despite
the inclusion of fictional characters and in some cases because of them.
It has been my feeling that
super-heroes really didn't belong in most of these 9-11 relief efforts. It
trivializes the reality of the events, and if done poorly, it can be somewhat
offensive. There are definitely stories that suffer from the inclusion of
super-heroes, or in some cases a somewhat simplistic super-heroic black and
white morality. However, it's hard to reconcile that with one of the strongest
stories in the book, a tale set in Kurt Busiek's fictional Astro City that
doesn't directly reference the events of 9-11 but speaks right to the heart of
what it means to be a firefighter, a policeman, an emergency worker, one of
those that we have all come to recognize as true heroes in the wake of the
events.
Some of the messages of these
stories have been sent and received and I thought I would get tired of seeing
the same thing over and over again. But I find infinite variety in tales of
families reuniting happily at the end of the day, or families gaining strength
and going on in the wake of their loss, or people examining the hatred and
prejudice that followed and in some cases showing that people can overcome their
base human emotions for the betterment of everyone. And I certainly never get
tired of seeing the heroes of 9-11 lionized in print; while these fallen heroes
would probably be embarrassed, perhaps even angry, at being raised to such high
levels, it's hard not to feel they deserve it. And whether it's in a story that
examines their heroism such as Brubaker and Lark's "Scene of the Crime" story or
a simple one panel picture, such as Tim Sale's incredibly poignant portrait of a
child imagining himself as a New York Firefighter rather than Superman, these
reminders that heroes are among us made me glad I still believe in the ideals
comics have instilled in me over the years.
 I was stunned by the variety of viewpoints in these books,
and more to the point, how these sometimes conflicting viewpoints all came
together to speak with a larger message. Some of the pieces are reactionary, a
little hawkish, others speak more clearly for peace than my heart will allow me
too, but the intentions of the creators seem to meet somewhere in the middle.
And while there are a few stories that seem to indicate that humanity was at its
worst in the wake of 9-11, there are far more that demonstrate us at our best.
The amount of talent in these
books is astounding, and though I honestly only recognized about half the names,
I could find fault with few of the stories on the level of craft. Even those
creators who don't usually resonate with me generally delivered some of the best
work of their career. And the stories, whether they were modern-day
slice-of-life type stories or more fantastic tales, often had a lot to say. I
loved William Stout's tale of a cabby affected by CARE America as much as I did
Peter Gross and Darick Robertson showing us a future where the terrorists are
all but forgotten, but the unity that resulted after 9-11 remains.
I know there's a temptation
to pass up these books. For one thing, most of us have spent a fair bit of money
on 9-11 response books already, and for another, a lot of us would probably like
to put the emotions and stories of 9-11 behind us and look ahead. There's also
probably a tendency to think that, because these stories center on a specific
day and event, these are one-read books that will be put on the shelf and never
touched again. It's not true. While the stories came out of the terrorist attack
on 9-11, what they have to say is universal and powerful and important, and told
by a variety of master craftsmen and women of the field. You need these
books.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
