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AMERICAN CENTURY #5
"The Protector"
Recommended (8/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writers: Howard Chaykin & David Tischman
Pencils: Marc Laming
Inks: John Stokes
Colors: Pam Rambo & Jamison
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Editor: Shelly Bond
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Following their rushed but intriguing opening arc, the creative team of American Century changes venues from Guatemala to Hollywood, landing in the realm occupied by L.A. Confidential. Though the venue has changed, the style of the book is much the same... sex, violence and sleazy politics are the order of the day, and I can't help it, I'm fascinated. With their character already set up and a less complicated political landscape this time out, I'm hoping for a stronger second arc.
I'm fascinated by the minutia of Hollywood, as depicted in The Player or William Goldman's books or Bendis's Fortune & Glory, and I'm just as intrigued by the 1950s studio style as I am the modern one. Harry's job as a night watchman gives him (and the reader) an interesting back alley view of Hollywood circa 1950, as we see the perversions and bad habits of studio executives and actors, staff on the lot and even writers, although the writer comes off better than anybody else in that regard. In addition, Chaykin and Tischman have added the inevitable story element of communist witch-hunts that can be found in most 1950s era stories, and if you're going to touch on that story, all the better to do it in Hollywood, where the impact was felt the heaviest.
If I'm ever trapped in a comic book, I think I'd like it to be in a Howard Chaykin comic book... because you can't go three pages in a Chaykin book without somebody getting blown, laid or otherwise sexually satisfied. It's as much his style as Claremont's distinctive dialogue or Morrison's wild throwaway ideas, and just like those two, it's just as glaring and annoying when it's overused. I can appreciate Chaykin and Tischman using the sex and drugs and violence to portray the seedy underbelly of the 1950s, but they're going a bit too far and making it almost comical, and they need to lay off a bit. For instance, I see no need to learn that Harry is sleeping with his landlady, as even the dimmest reader must have realized by now that Harry seems able to have any woman he wants... like most Chaykin protagonists.
Marc Laming and John Stokes seem as much at home in Hollywood as they were in Guatemala or suburban 1950s America, and I'm impressed with the way they make the clubs, lots and homes in the city come to life. I was particularly impressed with their establishing shot on Hollywood Boulevard. But the real talent these artists have is the ability to do realistic people while conveying outrageous or violent behavior, as with Sam Tabackin's "disciplining" of two writers or Harry's interruption of a rape in progress.
This issue is mostly the introduction of various characters and plot threads, and it's too early to tell whether the creators can follow through all of these stories into a more satisfying and well-paced conclusion than they did with the first arc, but as an opening chapter, this is a pretty good one, and probably my favorite issue of the book thus far.
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