|
posthumously become one with comics. Literally. |
by D. Trull
Enigma Editor
dtrull@parascope.com
Founded on the oxymoronic principle of "realistic super-heroes," the fictional world of Marvel Comics is a pathologically muddled mythology, chief among whose contradictions is a troubling love/hate relationship with death. Killing off popular heroes and villains is a great way to boost sales, but because of fan demand and the lucrative commodity values at stake, the resurrection of dead characters is an everyday occurrence.
I was a faithful Marvel Zombie once, and the two most significant characters to die during my early '80s tour of fanboy duty -- Phoenix in X-Men #137 and Elektra in Daredevil #181 -- were reverently left to lie in peace for years before both ladies were inevitably yanked from their graves. DC Comics belatedly jumped on the Lazarus bandwagon with the ludicrous "death" of Superman, and now every super-person worth his or her spandex has died at least once, bizarrely reducing the indomitable reality of death to a cheap ephemeral gimmick.
Marvel's game of patty-cake with the Grim Reaper has now reached its apotheosis. The pandering publisher has issued a comic book that takes death to a never-before-seen and highly collectible extreme -- and this time around, it's 100% guaranteed the deceased won't ever be coming back. A special collected edition of the Squadron Supreme series has been printed with ink containing the cremated ashes of its late author, Mark Gruenwald.
A longtime member of the Mighty Marvel Bullpen, Gruenwald was Marvel's senior executive editor when he suddenly died of a heart attack in August of 1996, at the age of 42. Though his passing was untimely, Gruenwald had prepared his final wishes in an extraordinarily colorful will. He indicated that he wished to be cremated and have his ashes mixed into the ink for the print run of a comic book.
"This is something that he really wanted because he really loved comics," said Bob Harras, Marvel's editor-in-chief. "He wanted to be part of his work in a very real sense."
And now he is. Gruenwald's widow Catherine arranged for his request to be granted in a trade paperback collection of Squadron Supreme, which originally appeared as a 12-issue miniseries a decade ago. The Squadron began as Roy Thomas's parody of DC's Justice League of America, a roman a clef cloning Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and the rest of the Distinguished Competition's gang. Gruenwald's new twist was to depict the Squadron -- who lived on an alternate Earth outside the Marvel Universe -- getting fed up with war and crime and imposing superhuman martial law throughout their world, like the real JLA never had the balls to do.
Squadron Supreme was well done, but it came across as too much of a knock-off of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's unsurpassed Watchmen. Other works of Gruenwald's leave me with much fonder memories. His excellent Hawkeye miniseries revitalized the Avengers archer and was a rare showcase for Gruenwald's talents as an artist. He also scripted one of the single best Marvel comic books of all time -- What If? #32: "What If the Avengers Had Become Pawns of Korvac?" Oh man, this was an epic cosmic battle that dwarfed even the Galactus Trilogy and the Kree/Skrull War, and it concluded with Korvac using the Ultimate Nullifier to obliterate all of eternity! How could another comic book possibly have made a more fitting receptacle for a man's ashes? 'Nuff said.
And above all else there stands the greatest achievement of Gruenwald's career: his role as creator of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. This was an encyclopedia of all the major characters, cataloging secret identities, origin stories and all the minutiae a self-respecting fan needed to know. Here at last was a definitive means of settling Hulk vs. Thor arguments, giving Marvelites a sorely needed equivalent to the hefty stats books consumed by sports fans. Previous editors would have have thought that no one would buy a comic book full of dry text with no fight scenes, but Gruenwald knew better. He knew what the fans wanted, because he was one of them.
Verily, Mark Gruenwald was a "Make Mine Marvel" True Believer, a comics geek's comics geek. He was no frustrated novelist or corporate suit, but a kid who grew up and got the dream job of playing with the characters and worlds he loved. He was a skilled and noble craftsman, but still nothing more than a fan, and not a pioneer of creative new visions.
Which is why it's only right that his physical remains should be incorporated into a Marvel comic book. Whereas it would be unseemly and demeaning for the ashes of a comics great like Jack Kirby to be poured into a printing press, it seems a fitting fate for someone like Gruenwald, whose life and work were so driven by being a fan and caretaker of the legends others had created before him.
See you in the funny papers, Mark.
Sources: Associated Press; D. Trull's misspent youth.
(c) Copyright 1997 ParaScope, Inc.
 |
More Fortean Slips! |
|
Share your views in the Fortean Slips message board! |