Third World War: Book 1 (CRISIS #1-14)

"Wean the peasants away from subversion.  Win their hearts and mind" - Freeaid slogan

Given that I was raised by a hardcore lefty, during that most political of decades, the 1980's it probably comes as no surprise that I'm a pointy-headed lefty myself.  But while I would have become one sooner or later, it was actually a comic strip that opened my eyes to the inequalities of the world, it was a comic strip that really radicalised me age fourteen, and that comic strip was the Pat Mills written and Carlos Ezquerra drawn "Third World War" in the mature readers comic CRISIS.  Having not read it for around twenty years I was interested in seeing how much of it holds up.  And I think with it's attack on globalised capitalism and condemnation of western interference in the developing world, it's almost ahead of it's time.  Yes, it can be preachy in places, but it's basically a left wing propaganda series, preachy comes with the territory.. It's set in the near future (for a 1988 strip obviously) and shows us the damage being wrought by monolithic western capitalism on the communities of an unamed Central American state through the eyes of some "peace volunteers" who are in fact semi-soldiers suppressing dissent on behalf of their capitalist masters. It's an angry, diatribe by UK comics most political of authors, published during a period of stifling conservatism in Britain. This was the lead story in the first fourteen issues of CRISIS, running alongside The New Statemen's revisionist and gay friendly look at superheroes.

Eve is drafted.

The backstory in detail is that it is the year 2000AD.  After a global uprising of some description in 1996, the west and the Soviet Union nearly wiped each other out in a nuclear war. And it goes to show what a shock the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and then collapse of the USSR was that this comic, the majority of which was published less than year beforehand has it still alive and well and imagines the 1990's as a decade of violent turmoil in the west not the relatively peaceful "sigh of relief" it was after the end of the Cold War and before the start of the War On Terror.  Anyway after that it seems Western governments and huge multi-national companies decided it would be in both of their interests to collude in "freeing" the peoples of Central and South America and Africa from undesirable (ie: communist or Marxist inspired) rule via massive interference in their countries with the lie that they are bringing them "stabilty" when in fact they are acting purely in the economic interests of the big corporations. 

Left to right: Paul, Eve, Ivan, Trisha and Garry.

This is enacted by a type of army that drafts young adults from western countries and sends them out as a policy called "Freeaid".  Our five protagonists are all British, Eve is a black English student who narrates the story from her perspective noting the huge gap between the propoganda and the reality.  Paul is a secretive New Age pagan type.  Trisha a vacuous fundamentalist Christian who belives she is going through a time of tribulation before being "Raptured".  Ivan, a crazy punk who is the son of a high ranking military officer but who was kicked out of military school for subversive behaviour and Garry, a laddish cretin who volunteered because he thought he'd get lots of foreign poontang that way.  They are a squad in a collection of squads known as the "Psychos", Eve having been placed there because she tried to commit suicide after she was drafted.

Their first mission see's them attempting to displace a village.  One woman called Mrs. Garcia with a young son resists.  She tells them she won't move to the supposedly fabulous new accomodations provided by Multiburger, not even with bribes like a years supply of them.  When Garry gets aggressive with her, a man with a gun bursts out of the cupboard.  Thinking he's a guerilla, Garry is about to shoot him but Eve talks him down.

Bringing "peace" to the people.

However they persist on trying to get them out there and Trisha says he'll have to come and be interrogated to see if he is a subversive.  Mr. Garcia lunges forward in fear and Garry shoots him dead.  They then take Mrs. Garcia away with her son on the back of some trucks. Garry says he must have been a subversive as he was running an adult literacy group unathorised.  Eve sarcastically responds that teach adults to read is really subversive.  After they leave the area it is napalmed to scorch the Earth ready for conversion to farmland.

On their way to the Multifood village, Ivan gets on a skateboard and is pulled behind their truck.  Unfortunately this is misconstrued as enemy action by the planes escorting them and they drop a can of white phosporus which hits Mrs Garcia.  When they finally reach the new village, she catches fire again because her wounds weren't cleaned properly and refuses to let them near her as she burn, simply saying one word: "Basta!" as she burns to death.

Mrs Garcia makes a stand.

The next couple of issues take a shot at cola manufacturers.  Eve has been tasked with writing a positive story about what Freeaid is doing but is having a hard time.  They meet a gang of kids who are totally addicted to "Coola Cola" apart from one kid call Raul who just says it's OK.  The kids ask our gang if they can get a tour of the Coola Cola plant they are gaurding and Trisha says she is sure that can be arranged.  Even Raul seems keen to come along, much to the suspicion of Paul.

Sounds delicious.

When the group have time to relax, Ivan tunes the TV over to rebel propaganda.  But when their immediate superior, their sadistic sergeant finds out, he twists Ivan's arm nearly to breaking point.  After he leaves Paul says they need "mutate to survive" and the reason he is here is he forgot that.

Paul: "You're not at one of your student demos now Eve!  These people are dangerous...! If you stand out, they'll break you!"

After that incident, Eve who submitted her story is called to the Lieutenant's office about it.  He sighs and pinches his nose before finally saying:

Lieutenant: "I think you have an attitude problem Eve".

He belittles her attempts to write the truth saying they're fighting a different kind of war now, a "Third World War".  Winning doesn't matter and preventing it escalating into "Wargasm" is their job. Then he threatens to move her to a combat unit and Eve folds, saying she'll play along, "as I too, became part of the lie".

The smug Lieutanant.

She returns to her unit and is told to get tooled up in riot gear as there is a demo planned against the Coola Cola plant.  They put the demo down with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.  But the Coola Cola plant explodes, it was sabotaged by the kids who were so enthusiastic about the stuff and the tour.  They run past chucking grenades shotuing "Basta" and get lost in the urban jungle.  It's then that Eve realises even the kids hate them and want to stand up to them now or when they are older.

The next story is about the ethics of crop spraying and intensive farming.  In a barrio (shanty town) the team are installing televisions in the people's houses, gifts from Freeaid so they can watch their propaganda being pumped out.

The team chat for a bit about how they joined.  Trisha revealed she joined so her parents could get social security under a "parent-help" scheme.  She lived in Apartheid South Africa and her parents were very kind to black people, they even let their houseboy live in a shed at the bottom of the garden even though they could have got into trouble.  After an uprising, they had to flee to the UK and were left with nothing, hence Trisha joining up (the relatively peaceful transition out of Apartheid was also unimaginable a couple of years before the release of Nelson Mandela).

Poisoning the land and people.

 We then see a plane spraying the crops heavily.  A farmer tells Trisha the sprayings have got heavier and heavier as the pests get used to the poison.  The farmers are made sick by the poison and have to sell their oranges for tiny amounts compared to their real worth to the big orange juice manufactuers.

Paul and Eve go off and have a private chat, Eve tries to probe his past.  He resists then changes the subject to wanting to broadcast all the crap they are doing to the Third World and how the only problems it has are caused by the First World.  Then they kiss and start to make love.  They are being watched by some real guerillas who say they'll attack tonight.

Eve and Paul have sexy time.

That night Ivan, Eve, Paul and Garry bond by holding a mock seance to freak Trisha out.  When they tell her they are joking she tells them that what they were doing was dangerous and hands them a pamphlet on the dangers of role playing games, rock and roll records, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, with the instruction to throw them away which Eve thinks is "a bit of an over-reaction."

As they drink round the fire with other members of their Freeaid platoon, Trisha asks Eve if she's shacking up with Paul because he's scruffy like her.  "I happen to like him" says Eve.  Trisha says it's more like he's put a spell on her, she's convinced Pagan = Satanist. Suddenly they are attacked and a mortar lands close by.  Paul is knocked out and the sergeant gives a panicky Eve an assault rifle.

Eve's first kill.

Eve suddenly realises she has brains spattered all over her shirt and runs to wash it off.  She is surprised by a guerilla and fires at her killing her.  She recovers and searches the corpse because she wants to know about the woman who tried to kill her.  Paul chews Eve out for killing, saying she should have stuck to her priciples. Even if it meant dying for them she asks?

Paul: "Especially if it means dying for them. If I'd been in your position it would have been time to put my personal belief in reincarnation  into practice."

God, Paul is such a sanctimonious douche.  He admits to being put in the position to kill before, he was a soldier on patrol and they stopped a man whose identity had a "shoot to kill" note next to it.  He opened fire and Paul fired back but wide, the man escaped and Paul got put in jail for a while.  "It was another country.  Another war."

The guerilla's uprising quelled, the Freeaiders leave the barrio.  Somehow the dish Paul erected is able to get the Pirate channel and this story ends with an old man watching the anti-western propganda being broadcast on it.

Local hero.

The next two-parter is drawn by Angie Mills (nepotism?), so let's all applaud the first female artist featured on this blog (it's taken too long, mea culpa).  The first part is mainly a long debate about the ethics of Third World debt. They are operating their hearts and minds bit in another barrio. To combat them, a luchador appears and is introduced as "Super Barrio!".

He points out that their trillion dollar debt is being paid for by the people who never saw a penny of the money originally as it was paid to dictators and warlords. Now the poor are being heavily taxed to compensate the west.  Their country had to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund, which meant they cut government spending to the bone instituting austerity measures and closing schools and hospitals.  Hah! Sound familiar boys and girls?

Discussing the mysterious "Finn".

The gang go for a meal at the nearest fast food joint and conversation turns to a wanted man called "Finn" who is some sort of big shot eco warrior the governments are after.  Paul wants to change the subject and says there is no proof he exists, but Garry says he does and they have found out he's a deserter from Northern Ireland who let a terrorist escape who then ran over one of the other soldiers in his unit.  CLANG!  That was a pretty unsubtle hint as to who he is...

The team are tasked with moving the inhabitants of another barrio to a brand new location which is a prison camp in all but name.  To combat Super Barrio Eve is forced to dress as a superheroine called the "Silver Saviour" and Garry as "Multi-Man".  They start telling the folks they are going to be moved to a much nicer place when Super Barrio appears and starts telling the truth.

Eve saves Super Barrio's life.

Not only is the new place like a prison camp, they'll be farther away from where they work and with the bus fares doubling to help pay the debt they'll be poorer than ever.  The Lieutenant orders Super Barrio's arrest and he tries to escape.  Garry comes charging in on top of a bull dozer and grabs him. Eve thinks Garry is going to kill him and whacks Garry over the head with a stick.  Then Super Barrio starts having a heart attack and Eve performs CPR on him.

Eve: "Some photographer took a picture of the Silver Saviour  "kissing" a "dangerous subvert".  And I guess with everything else that had gone wrong, they decided to shelve plans to clear the barrio - for the time being..."
Super Barrio survives and thanks her as he is taken away for treatment.  She then says to Paul she knows he tipped Super Barrio off about where the people were going to be moved to. She says she read his body language and that he should be more careful.  When Paul asks if Super Barrio said anything more to her, she says he said, "To hold people down forever is like putting a hand up to the sun".

The next two-parter deals with government sanctioned death squads.  Our gang end up rescuing a young woman called Monica from a death squad and take her to a safe location.  She tells her sad story to them (click the image for the full story).  Basically her husband Sergio was a union organiser at a Multifood factory, they were captured by a death squad.  She was tortured and raped and beaten so badly she has memory problems now.  They let her go after five days but she hasn't found her husband, he has been "disappeared".

Monica's sad story.

In the bar Paul acts like he has "seen a ghost".  Actualy who he has seen is his old Sergeant Major.  He's a Freeaid soldier now, here advising the fascist government.  Paul tells Eve he escaped from prison and he's a deserter.  Eve says he doesn't look anything like he used to so he should be OK, but we get a close up of his old Sergeant Major's face showing he has recognised Paul.

We then travel to the dump outside town where the bodies of the disappeared are dumped where Paul and Eve help Monica try to find her husband.  They search the bodies and Eve photographs them.  While they are there, Paul offers up his loathesome philosophy of life.  He waffles on a bit but in short, he cares not for human life which is generally against nature.  Humans are not set apart from living things despite the apartheid they have created between them and nature.

Paul: "I don't believe in the sanctity of life, you see?  Because that's not how nature does things."

Looking amongst the dumped coprses of the "disappeared".

They fail to find Monica's husband and return to town.  They return to town and Monica thanks them for helping.  Eve asks how she copes with her bad memory.  Monica says she keeps a diary about their happy times "so I can never forget him".

Later Paul and Eve are in bed together, Paul wakes up from a bad dream crying out (and as with The New Stateman kudos for having an obviously sexual interracial relationship without it raising any eyebrows).  He says he dreamt his old Seregant Major had come for him.  Eve says she can't imagine him in the army.  Paul says he joined up for comradeship and to muck around in the great outdoors because he loved nature.  When he ended up in Northern Ireland he let the terrorist go rather than shoot to kill, Eve asks him why he didn't if he doesn't care about the sanctity of human life.  "I don't.  But it doesn't mean I have to go out and kill people" he responds hypocritically.

He ended up in military prison after the terrorist ran over his mate and killed him, something he refuses to feel guilty about.  And soon he escaped saying Eve is "better off not knowing" about what it was like in jail.  Later they go to secretly hand some food aid to Monica's guerilla friends.  But they are surprised by the death squad from before, and Paul's old Sergeant Major is with them.

Yes, hit Paul go on, he deserves it!

He confronts Paul and Paul tells Eve to run.  Paul and his Sergeant Major get into a fist fight after Paul tells him he sees no difference in what the army does and terrorists do.  Eve is grabbed by the sleazy death squad leader and it looks like he is going to rape her

Then the cavalry arrive in the form of Monica and her guerilla friends.  They mow down the death squad and shoot Paul's old Sergeant Major.  As Monica leaves, Eve says she'll think about her. Monica replies:

Monica: "No - because that may make you sad, you know?  Think happy thoughts Eve.  Think about the revolution.. when the death squads are gone and there are no more 'disappeared'.  Think about when we are free!"

The cavalry arrives.

The next story has the gang trying to persuade a Mayan tribe to stop growing maize and start growing cash crops for Multifoods instead.  With them is a huge truck with nuclear material in it, a portable food irradiator driven by a chubby woman called Susan.The Mayan leader Xoyon refuses to play ball.  He says that:

Xoyon: "Maize is the basis of our religion.  Without it, we lose our Indian identity.  Our Holy Book, the Popol Vul, records how the first men were made of mazie paste after the gods rejected mud as too soft and wood as too hard.  We are made of maize.  What are you made of?"

Eve walks with Xoyon and asks him why his government wants to change their way of life.  Xoyon says they are "Ladinos - they have forgotten their roots."  He says that "private ownership of land makes as much sense as private ownership of the sky, the weather or sea.  Is crazy!".  Trisha says that makes them "Marxists".  Xoyon says they are not, both Marxism and Capitalism is against the natural order.

Xoyon: "We want to survive, the Ladinos are waging a war of genocide against us.  Forbidding us to wear our traditional clothes.  Speak Mayan.. or hold land in common.  So we have to fight."

Trisha tries friendly persuasion.

He says there is a holocaust going on in Central America.  Cash cropping makes the people poor.  When they protest, they are shot.  They are herded into camps to be more easily managed.  When guerilla's are captured they are publically tortured and executed.  Trisha says that's the government not Multifoods doing, Xoyon says, "Scratch a government and you find a multinational, yes?"

Meanwhile Paul seduces Susan and has sex with her.  The next day Xoyon is still standing firm about not giving in to Multifoods.  The gang have a chat about Finn as they make to leave, apparently Finn's Green Army attacked a nuclear irradiator back in Britain.  Ivan says "It's not terrorism - it's eco defence."  When he then says they never caught Finn, Paul says he "must've found a good place to hide."

The irradiator crashes.

It starts to rain and they and the portable irradiator truck leave.  They negociate some treacherous roads and the irradiator truck's brakes fail and it plummets off a cliff.  Later Eve confronts Paul, saying she knows he tampered with the brakes  He sacrificed Sue's life in an irresponsible act.  Once again he tells her "Human life is meaningless to me." when Eve presses him about Sue.

Eve says the Mayan Indians paid the price.  The army thought they sabotaged the truck and steamed in wiping the village out and burning their maize fields.  Only a handful escaped.  Paul says she shouldn't lay a guilt trip on him, he didn't pull the triggers.  Eve retorts that he gave them an excuse.  He says he has to act to protect Mother Earth in the same brutal ways it's being exploited in.

Eve: "And that's your way... Finn."

The village pays the price.

The story then jumps forward a non-specified amount of time.  Eve, Paul, Ivan and Trisha are sat in the Freeaid compound.  There is a violent uprising going on and the government is falling.  Garry has had to leave as he contracted HIV from his slutting about.  In the compound are the upper classes of the country hoping that the west can fly them away safely.

They talk about what they'll do next, Eve says Multifood have offered her a scholarship to study in the US.  Paul says she's "selling out".  She says he can wear his own hairshirt, "it's better than killing people."  Then they are sent to collect some orphans so Multifood can get some good publicity in their final hours there.

Eve is distressed by the spare part kids.

At the orphanage they get the orphans then there are protestors outside.  Eve goes to talk to them then returns to the jeep and tells them to get the kids out and to hand them over to the people.  As they drive off, Eve tearfully says that orphanage was locally known as "The House of Frankenstein".  The orphans were being used as spare parts for rich westerners, one kid being worth around "two hundred thousand and a million dollars on the black market."

They report back to the Lieutenant saying they didn't find any children.  The Lieutanant doesn't really care, he makes sure the whole compound has been rigged to explode.  Then they get the final signal to get to the helicopters and leave.  Paul asks Eve is she has mentioned he is Finn in her diary, she says of course not, and as they leave he smiles to himself.

The rich fight  for worthless money.

Two million dollars is dumped in a fire as Freeaid leave, the rich scramble for it as it floats down. When they realise there will be no escape for them they start rioting and rushing to the helicopters.  Paul tells the Lieutenant he should have one last look around make sure they have everyone.  The Lieutenant agrees and Paul and Eve go off.  Actually what Paul is doing is defusing the thermite bombs so the compound won't blow and all the incriminating evidence of Multifoods and Freeaid's collaboration with the fallen government will be left for the rebels to find.

With that done they make their way back to the helicopter being chased by the rich people.  Paul makes it to the helicopter first and doesn't tell it to wait for her because he's a fucking prick, but luckily she is picked up just as it takes off.  And they leave the rich folk trapped and helpless behind them.

Eve is nearly left behind.

Later the new provisional government announce that their revolution was not communist inspired, "it is injustice - not Marxism - that is the source of our revolution."  He goes on to say certain documents have fallen into their hands and Multifoods may not be compensated for lost land.

Then we join Eve as she goes to see the Lieutenant.  He says "I'm sure you'll be a future asset to the company" and hands her a visa so she can go and do her studying in the US.  Before she leaves, he asks for the diary she's been keeping, "call it a small test of loyalty to the company."  He says it might be embarrasing if her thoughts got published somewhere.  "Everything costs something in this life.. surely you realised that? So.. what's it to be?"

Eve's conscience gets the better of her.

Eve then has a flashback to various people she met and realises she can't accept and tosses the visa back on his desk.  He shrugs it off saying she can't get it published anyway under the Official Secrets Act.  He mocks her writing and she says that at least "they've beaten you, they're free, they've claimed back their lives."  She starts hallucinating the Lieutenant looking like the Multifoods mascot as he says "have they really?"

Having failed to win their hearts and minds, they're going to do things "the hard way."  They might cut off their economic aid and blame the starvation on their leaders.  Or finance armed counter-revolutionaries to do the job.  They might even invade directly using manufactured evidence that they support terrorism.  When Eve says they'll be stopped, he says in a few years time everyone will do what the multinationals want.  "It's not 'later than you think'.  It's too late."  And Book One ends.

Multifoods personified.

This is a piece of work unashamed about its leftwing, anticapitalism, enviromentalist bias predating the likes of Naomi Klein's "No Logo" by many years.  I wish there were comics around today with the balls to critique the western world so directly.  One of the few I can think of is DMZ's angry condemnation of the War on Terror and even that had to make up a fantasy scenario where North Amercians were the victims and well as oppressors to make it more palatable for readers. Although there is a lot of talking, the five main characters are given just enough personality to make the dialogue seem natural because if you find yourself in the propaganda wing of western corporate interests of course you're gonna discuss it with your fellow "volunteers".  The build up to the reveal of Paul actually being Finn is a little unsubtle but I can't honestly say I did or didn't see it coming when I first read the series. Overall, it had a lasting effect on me, I joined Amnesty International age fourteen and incorporated a long-sleeved T-shirt bearing their logo into my school uniform.   I still donate to them monthly (and Oxfam too) to this day although my activism is restricted to what I can do in response to their email appeals. 

Third World War came out twenty-seven years ago and in highlighting all the horrible things the west did then to the Developing World, it's depressing to note that this kind of bullshit is STILL going on both as a part of the fallout from the War on Terror and in big corporations exploiting and cheating their dirt poor workers and propping up dictatorships all over the world still.  Bah.  This series did get a sequel which chronicles the further adventures of Eve as she returns to a Great Britain that is virtually a fascist state and is a far less effective strip as it exaggerates all the most paranoid intellectual left-wing fears of the eighties and extrapolates something that is so far removed from what the nineties and beyond were like that it verges on dystopian comedy.  I did intend to cover it but to be honest as a story it quickly devolves into a series of barely connected points about racism, animal rights and Northern Ireland meandering from one awful event to the next without much in the way of narrative glue holding it together as well as fetishising "blackness" to an incredibly uncomfortable degree.  very poor.  For now though, the original Third World War:  powerful, influential (on me) and radicalising.  Less a comic and more a treatise on how the world sucked and still sucks.  No wonder I grew up so cynical.

Marshal Law: The Kingdom Of The Blind (one-shot)

"A lot of people say I hate heroes.  That's not true you know...you see I just LOVE beating the crap out of them!" - Marshal Law

If you haven't read my two previous posts on Marshal Law then here is a quick summary.  He's an ex-soldier from a catastrophic war between the US and various South American countries.  Genetically fiddled with, the soldiers were given super strength and resiliance and when they returned to civilian life many ended up very messed up and Joe Gilmore became Marshal Law, a secret policeman who specialised in dealing with "heroes" roaming the wreckage of the former San Francisco now renamed San Futuro after a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the city.  At the same time the government was making supersoldiers they were also creating more traditional superheroes as propaganda tools, who were murderous, venal and corrupt yet worshipped by the masses.  The first miniseries I looked at, "Fear And Loathing" saw Marshal Law tangle with "The Public Spirit" his earth's Superman analogue.  The Public Spirit was assassinated by the government after becoming an embarrasment to them with his drug fueled murderous antics.  This 1991 one-shot follows directly on from that first miniseries and has a very somber tone. "Marshal Law Takes Manhattan" which came after this one saw the finger of fun being poked at Marvel's superhero line-up in a slightly more humorous tale.  This time writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill take on the Batman archetype, in a typically savage and bloody deconstruction.  This one-shot was another "TOXIC Presents" deal, but has been collected in the hardback Complete Marshal Law book, which I don't own hence the rather murky scans of a twenty-four year old comic printed on crummy paper.  Let us continue.

Introducing The Private Eye.

The story begins with a mocked up newspaper front page called "The Public Eye".  It claims that a hero called "The Private Eye" is the cure for the crime epidemic sweeping San Futuro.  We then see a huge building and zoom inside it as a man narrates his thoughts, he is billionaire Scott Brennan aka The Private Eye.

He thinks about how he has the same dream every night.  Lots of hands grabbing and grasping trying to "take it all away from me."  They are animals, diseased, parasitic dog-meat.  So every night he goes out and deals with them.  But once he's cut out their greed he's doing them a favour, they'll become "victims" and then "they'll get sympathy from all the do-gooders and bleeding hearts".
He ruminates that some people speculate that he has "something wrong in the bed department".  But "sex is a poor mans polo" and he keeps himself pure because there are "more exciting things to do at night."  He then puts on his crime fighting uniform asks the shrine to his dead parents if they approve of what he does?  Does he have their blessing?  "After all, you were the ones who taught me to love the dark".  They were shot leaving a video rental store when he was a teenager.

He drives out in his Eye-Mobile, while a news report fills in the role of Marshal Law in local law enforcement over the radio.  Private Eye accosts a young man who just robbed an off-licence.  He beats him badly and tells him:

Private Eye: "I am a specialist of criminal disorders. And I intend to cure this city of the infection that is eating its soul."

Interesting um.. weapon there Suicida.

Meanwhile a crazy war vet called Suicida and his gang are causing a commotion at a sex shop that caters for superhero fetishes.  Suicida thinks it's explotative of the ex-soldiers.  The clerk says they donate money to a veteran's rehabilitation fund.

Suicida: "I don't want to be rehabilitated!  I like being a psychopath!"

Then Marshal Law arrives and they have a knock down, drag out fight that Marshal wins.  He drops Suicida down a hole and then tells the rest of his gang to tell him the war is over.  "You know our war is never over" snarls one gang member back at Marshal, who is then called away.

He finds Private Eye in the process of slicing up a criminal.  Marshal calls out to him to stop or he'll fire.  "Somehow I don't think so, Marshal" says Private Eye, and he swoops away.  Marshal speaks to the criminal who is now minus seven fingers.  Apparently Private Eye offered him the choice, ten years or ten fingers.  Marshal notes he's been left three fingers, "time off for good behaviour?"  This incenses the man:

Criminal: "I don't believe this! Marshal Law the hero hunter, siding with the hero! Why..? What's so special about Private Eye?"

Marshal says nothing.  Back with Private Eye's thoughts and he notes that Marshal "reveres him as a God."  Falling for the myth he has created of the avenging hero looking after the city.

Private Eye: "He turns a blind eye to the truth.  That I secretly fear them as much as they fear me... that I'm terrified my dream will come true."

Definitely one of the best designed and coolest characters ever.

He runs over another criminal, the underside of his car cutting then stitching up the man as he drives over him.  He arrives at an orphanage and a nun introduces the kids to him.  The nun thanks him for coming, Private Eye notes that his father would invite orphans to their house on Christmas day "to share in their good fortune" so he's always had an interest in them.

She says he's done good work placing children with his rich friends.  He says he wonders if he has the right to "adopt another after the tragic death of my last six wards?"  Then he asks how number seven is shaping up and is introduced to a young boy in a green superhero costume called Tom.  Private Eye asks how he'd like to be the next "Emergency Ward?"  Tom is excited and says yes. 

After a conversation about his shruken genitals courtesy of the anti-masturbation pills the nuns give the children, Private Eye says he'll have fun with him, no time for girls. Tom says he might end up like Public Spirit.  "Yes, I think you probably will" says Private Eye.

The new Emergency Ward.

And in a grimly humourous cut, we shift to Public Spirit's funeral, which is well attended by screaming fans.  In his underground base, Marshal Law and his friend and fellow cop, a huge man called "Kiloton", are watching.  Marshal says he wishes he could have been there, "to kick the corpse".  Kiloton says Marshal Law hates heroes even when they are dead.

Marshal Law says Public Spirit was "murderous scum" and that it's a "pity the government had to cover up what a slime he really was."  They spot Scott Brennan giving the eulogy.  Everyone knows he is Private Eye and Kiloton says they need to go after him next.  Marshal admits he bumped into him the other night and let him go, much to Kiloton's horror:

Kiloton: "Joe, he's even more of a shit than the Public Spirit."

Marshal: "Oh, I don't know.  I used to really admire the guy."

Marshal says he has an aura like Dracula, a "ruler of the night."  Kiloton points out he's a "pervert who enjoys pain" and in the thirty years he's been hacking up criminals crime has actually sextupled. 

Marshal says Private Eye is an American institution, Kiloton says he belongs in one.  Kiloton then shows him an article by Scott Brennan criticising Marshal Law and when Marshal shrugs it off, Kiloton says that it's a warning shot.  Private Eye knows Marshal is responsible for the circumstances around Public Spirit's death and will come after him. Marshal says they are both in the business of "dealing with punks".

Do YOU feel lucky?

Kiloton says the difference is that Marsal has the badge behind him.  Then he asks Marshal why he thinks Private Eye goes on about the deaths of his parents so much  He would love to know what really happened the night they were murdered.  This leads us into a flashback to said night.  At the video store, a teenage Scott is checking out the porn.  His father says it's not suitable and his mother has picked him something wholesome from the cartoon section.  "'Wholesome', that's rich coming from you" says Scott as they leave.

Then outside his parents are shot by their butler Albert.  His mother dies instantly his father is injured but still alive.  Scott thanks Albert then asks for the gun to finish his father off and blows his brains out.  Back in the present, Private Eye thinks back to how he learned so much about manipulating the human psyche to create a hero figure, from his father's notes. "Enabling me to declare war on them and make them love me for it."

Private Eye's Secret Origin.

He walks up to the coffins holding his parents remains and says "thanks pop".  He walks outside his "Eyrie" which towers above the city and takes a piss over the edge, over "his" city.  Then he goes back inside and is attacked by Albert, this is allowed as it keeps Private Eye on his toes.  Albert is still working for him thanks to Scott blackmailing him about his role in his parent's death.

Private Eye sits and thinks and we get a flashback to his parents who are scientists doing cruel experiments on animals.  Most crucially sewing up a newborn kitten's eyes then finding out when they take the stitches out weeks later it can't see.  They also decapitate Scott's dog and keep it alive via machinery.

Then they start experimenting on Scott, on Christmas day he is allowed to open his presents and play with them in the morning, then in the afternoon they invite orphans to come over and force Scott to give them his toys.  Then they tested how he would react to sight deprivation and make him wear a hood all the time.

Private Eye: "For months I staggered about in the dark.  I was as blind as a bat... and I learned to love the dark."

Flashback to Scott's childhood.

He began plotting the deaths of his parents then too.  In the present Kiloton has gained access to one of Scott Brennan's slaughterhouses and found that as well as animals he's been keeping the bodies of his wards, including Tom as organ donors for him and sold to others too.  Kiloton shows Marshal this via a comm link:

Kiloton: "The Private Eye is Dracula, okay... a vampire preying on young boys."

Then Private Eye swoops down and rams a huge chainsaw through Kiloton, this galvanises Marshal Law into action, "It's time Marshal Law. I'll be waiting for you" taunts Private Eye.

Marshal Law arrives at the slaughterhouse to be greeted by the dismembered corpse of Kiloton.  He admits he was blind to Private Eye's true motives, but now he sees Private Eye for the monster he is.  His thermal imaging gun detects someone and he fires, killing Albert.  Then Private Eye bursts out from some hanging cow meat and attacks.

Ewwwww.

They trade gunfire and Marshal Law gets knocked down and lands besides Private Eye, before he can get up Private Eye applies an electro-shock weapon to Marshal's nuts.  Marshal pretends it hurts, before revealing he had that area reinforced and he kicks Private Eye away.  He grabs a nearby hammer and strikes Private Eye in the chest, but Private Eye has that area armoured as well and he draws a gun on Marshal.

Private Eye sneers at the rest of humanity, but Marshal just insults him by insinuating he has sex with his wards.  He then jams some hanging meat into Private Eye and escapes down a conveyor belt.  He uses his camoflague cloak to disguise himself and hides in a pile of cow guts.  He then rises up and grapples Private Eye into a tank of boiling water where he hits him very hard.

Batman had celebrated his 50th anniversary a couple of years prior to this.

They get ejected down another conveyor, Marshal lands safely but Private Eye ends up hanging over a huge meat grinder.  He pleads for help from Marshal.

Marshal Law: "Not even Private Eye deserves such a hideous, cruel death...gotta... gotta save him.  Just as soon as I've blown my nose."

Private Eye loses his grip and falls into the grinder.  A huge fountain of blood sprays up and an eyeball falls into Marshal's hand.  He squishes it in contempt.  Then he returns to the body of Kiloton and salutes it, the comic ends with him thinking:

Marshal Law: "I'm a hero hunter.  I hunt heroes.  I guess maybe I found one."

Paying Kiloton the ultimate tribute.

"Kingdom Of The Blind" is very Marshal Law take on Batman.  It wickedly skewers elements such as the fetishisation of his parents death and his habit of putting young boys in danger as his wards (Jason Todd had recently been killed when this came out and of course Damien Wayne got killed not long ago as well.  They got better eventually) but with, of course, a sadistic and murderous twist.  Having him as a "hero" who in some ways Marshal looks up to adds an interesting frisson to the story and Kiloton stepping up and taking things into his own hands of course gives us the wonderful moment when Marshal realises he finally found a hero, albeit at the cost of Kiloton's life.  If I have a criticism, it's that parodying The Dark Knight Returns use of a long inner monologues makes some parts extremely slow and wordy when perhaps a couple more pages would have stretched them over the action more effectively, although maybe I am just hungry for more Kevin O'Neill art!  Anyway, this is Mill and O'Neill once again at their savage best, providing the kind of shotgun blast deconstruction of the superhero concept that writers like Garth Ennis would got on to perfect a decade or so later. Great stuff.

Marshal Law Takes Manhattan (one-shot)

"You just said the magic words" - Marshal Law

In 1991, a short-lived UK comic called TOXIC was launched by Pat Mills who wanted a comic that had some of the edginess he felt 2000AD had lost over the years.  It was pretty bad, a noxious mixture of bad art, lowest common denominator writing and the finances were so badly managed that many of the artists and writers quit stories before they were completed due to lack of payment.  I've dedicated a tumblr to it if you're interested in checking it out.  The comic folded in the same year it began after thirty-one weekly issues.  However during that period the publisher "Apocalypse"  released two Marshal Law storylines that followed on from the six issue miniseries published by the defunct Marvel imprint Epic, which I covered here.  These two storylines, the bleak "Kingdom Of The Blind" and the slightly dafter "Marshal Law Takes Manhattan" were published seperately in 1991 as 48 page one-shots and it is the Manhattan story I'm covering today (I'll be looking at "The Kingdom Of The Blind" later in the year). 

Marshal Law lived in a world were the US government had genetically engineered superhumans to serves as soldiers in an ongoing war in South America.  Joe Gilmore, the man who became Marshal Law was one of those soldiers.  He developed a deep hatred for other superheroes and in the shattered city of San Futuro (a renamed, earthquake devastated, San Francisco) he took on the job of policing the superheroes who returned home to find a society that had no place for them. 

Marshal Law doesn't pussyfoot about.

The original miniseries, which I covered last year was a scaborus attack on both US foreign policy, CIA dirty tricks and the concept of the superhero as a whole, and if it wasn't a huge influence on Garth Ennis's later series "The Boys" I'd be very, very surprised.  Helped by Kevin O'Neill's grotesquely beautiful art, Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing was a frantic tone poem of bile and disgust, a kick to the crotch of the superhero archetype.  Marshal Law Takes Manhattan however is a slightly lighter concoction thanks to its colourful array of Marvelverse parodies and humour at their expense.  It still, however, finds space to be absolutely enraged by the CIA's use of torture on foreign combatants and civilians.

Can you identify all the parodies?

The story begins with an Ant Man parody confessing that he is a superhero in the manner of a person attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He is welcomed to "The Institute" by "Mr Fantastic", he says they've been treating people who suffer delusions by superpowers for years.  The nurses then wheel out a trolley with all their medication on. "Thor", "Submariner" and "Captain America" all take their pills, but "Doctor Strange" resists and has to be restrained and sedated.  The nurse says a specialist will be coming to see them soon and we are introduced to Marshal Law.

He is talking to Commissioner McGland who is telling him about a superhero called "The Persecutor" who has been murdering Hispanics in his district.  McGland tells Marshal he has been accused of encouraging vigilantes by employing a certain "fascist thug".  Marshal saracstically commiserates.  He then goes on to say that if he doesn't get the cash to run his precinct properly others will have "to do the job for us." 

MacGland and Marshal Law.

He's learned that The Persecutor has been arrested in New York and is trying to escpae justice by getting admitted into The Institute  For Mentally Disturbed Superheroes.  "How big is this place?" snarks Marshal.  McGland says that superheroes are needed, they show the world what America is still capable of.  The general public however must never know what superpowers can do.

Marshal Law: "Because they don't want to know."

McGland: "Of course. That's the purpose of the asylum - to keep the American public's fantasies intact."

McGland wants Marshal to bring The Persecutor back if his application to The Institute fails.  Marshal says it will be a pleasure.  When he was a soldier in South America, The Persecutor was a CIA operative called Don Matrione, who demonstrated all different forms of torture to them.  When he returned home to his wife and two kids, he was attacked by two hit squads at once, one from Brazil the other from Uruguay.  Although he escaped, his family were killed in the crossfire. 

I'm surprised Marvel didn't raise a fuss, so on the nose the parodies are.

He refused to take the blame for their deaths and turned himself into a superhero, waging a one man war on terrorists, subversives and mobsters.  Or who he believed to be them at any rate.  He's basically The Punisher.

Marshal Law: "Mmm. You're my kind of hero Persecutor.  You're gorgeous.  I love you and want to have your babies."

We then cut to The Persecutor at The Institute.  "Who do I have to see about entering this nuthouse? " he asks arrogantly.  "Mr. Fantastic" tells him "us of course".  The Persecutor responds "but you're mad."  Who better to judge you worthy replies "Mr Fantastic" and he queries whether or not The Persecutor fits the criteria of superhero as he never had the surgery to give him superpowers.  The Persecutor points to "Hawkeye" and says he doesn't consider having a bow a superpower.  "Mr. Fantastic" says they've tightened things up since then.

The Persecutor: "I'm a serial killer!  Isn't that good enough for you?"

Not really says "Mr. Fantastic" they are all in The Institute because the surgery they underwent affected their minds as well as their bodies.  As they talk, two nurses are watching them.  One of them is from South America and is disgusted The Persecutor is even being considered.  The other nurse says she should be grateful for America giving her sanctury from her war-torn country.

Nurse: [thinks] "I would be if you hadn't screwed mine up in the first place."

Don Matrione, CIA thug.

The Persecutor begins to panic, saying Marshal Law is coming for him.  Meanwhile Marshal thinks back to when Matrione was demonstrating torture techniques to them.  It was in the guise of torture counter-measures. But Joe as Marshal was then, points out that it seems they are being taught how to carry out torture themselves.

Marshal Law: "No, none of that was ever taught or intended.  'Cos we were the good guys. Ha."

The superheroes of The Institute come to a decision and reject The Persecutor's application.  The Persecutor freaks out and disarms the cop guarding him, kills him and shoots a security guard.

The Persecutor: "Men are animals.  It is in our nature to kill.  Killing is beautiful.  Kiling is noble.  Killing is art."

The Hispanic nurse attacks him with scissors, but he guns her down.  While the Persecutor fights, there is a pisstake of the tendency to massively overwrite that makes Marvel comics of a certain vintage completely unreadable for me.

Ahahahaha, Pat you're a card.

The Institute goes into lockdown, but Marshal Law arrives and enters.  He is accosted by two orderlies but easily shrugs them off.  A doctor puts out an announcement that Marshal Law must be stopped before he harms any of the patients, and the assembled superheroes decide they'll deal with him.

The heroes trick Marshal into releasing the Human Inferno, a man tortured by being constantly on fire.  Marshal manages to escape him and starts to lay into the rest of the heroes.  "Mr. Fantastic" gets "Captain America" to join in the battle by telling him Marshal was responsible for the death of The Public Spirit (the original superhero from the miniseries) who was called Buck.  In revenge for "Bucky", "Captain America" helps overpower Marshal and they drop him down a liftshaft where he gets tangled up in a mass of sticky webbing made by "Spiderman".

The Human Torch Inferno.

Back with Commisioner McGland, he thinks about how he warned The Persecutor that Marshal was coming for him in the hope that both would take each other out as Marshal has become a bit of an embarrasment since the death of The Public Spirit.  He ruminates on how, when Marshal was a soldier, he punched Don Matrione for demonstrating torture on a civilian.  In retaliation, Matrione put him in a box with a hood over his head for days then water-boarded him.

Returning to Marshal, he is trapped in the webbing still and The Persecutor is torturing him with a live electric cable.  He tells Marshal he wasn't just some deranged sadist, he was a CIA operative acting with full authority and following proceedure.  It's still a crime what he did, says Marshal.

The Persecutor: "How can we be in the wrong?  We're the guardians of the world.  We really are superheroes!"

The anti-torture message is welcome if not exactly subtle.

This causes Marshal to rip himself free and he and The Persecutor set about each other on top of a lift.  The rest of the heroes head to the roof where the Human Inferno has broken the water tanks in an attempt to put himself out.  As Marshal brings the cuffed and subdued Persecutor out of the building, the heroes ride the water down and all end up splattered across the pavement.

Marshal Law: "What... what a terrible tragedy.  Can America ever recover from the lost of its finest superheroes who've done so much for our culture?  I.. I'm just glad I've a little left on my boot to remember them by."

Alas poor supes.

On the way back to the airport, Marshal decides The Persecutor isn't worth the cost of an air ticket.  He boots him out of the car, still bound, and the last we see of him is him being roasted on a spit by cannibals using the Human Inferno as a fire.  Marshal returns to Commisioner McGland and tosses Matrione's dog tags on the desk, and the story ends with a full page image of the messy remains of the superheroes.

Marshal law Takes Manhattan is a compact little story of quality.  I loved Marshal Law back in the day, he was my favourite comicbook character of that era by far.  By using a spoof of The Punisher, a psychopathic creation that already sits somewhat uneasily in the Marvel Universe of Fantastic Fours and Avengers, Pat Mills was able to cleverly blend a critique of the complicity of the US government in the torture of foreign detainees (that hits even harder today with what we know of Extraordinary Rendition, CIA Blacksites and Guantanamo Bay) with hilarious parodies of various Marvel characters.  Characters he rendered pathetic and delusional just to hammer home how immature he believes the superhero concept to be (note the barbed and meta "done so much for our culture" comment from Marshal). 

I don't agree with his view of superheroes, but man, Marshal Law is cool.  Yes, he's an unrepentant psycho who anticipated the worst excesses of comic's 1990's Dark Age, but thanks to Kevin O'Neill's fantastic design and the character's frank self knowledge  it's hard not to be rooting for Marshal as he deals with the menace the superheroes pose to the world.  This adventure I believe has been collected in the hardback Marshal Law collection along with the other one shots and the "Fear and Loathing" miniseries, so there is no excuse not to check it out.

Marshal Law: Fear And Loathing (#1-6)

"I'm a hero hunter.  I hunt heroes.  Haven't found any yet" - Marshal Law

A slight cheat here, although the creative team on this book is British, the comic was actually published by Marvel's Epic imprint, an attempt to do a more mature and creator's rights friendly publishing arm.  But while it's American in that way and indeed set in the USA and about the very US concept of the superhero, the way it approaches that concept is very British. Something I've touched on a few times when dealing with superheroes as written by British writers is how suspicious those writers tend to be of the superheroic archetype. The most famous example of course is Alan Moore deconstructing it in works such as Miracleman and Watchmen.  But he was comparatively gentle compared to fellow countrymen like Garth Ennis who has no time for any superhero apart from Superman. Or Warren Ellis versus The Fantastic Four. Or here with the first 1989 miniseries Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing, the 2000AD writer and editor Pat Mill's along with artist Kevin O'Neil at his most "ugly" aiming a double-barrelled shotgun at the superhero concept and letting fly with their story of manufactured "superheroes" who are pawns of the military-industrial complex, in a dystopic San Francisco of the near future, being hunted and controlled by the hate-motivated, S&M leather clad Marshal Law himself.

Once again I turn to Grant Morrison, the only UK writer it seems to unequivocably love superheroes to sum up Marshal Law in his book Supergods:

Grant Morrison: "[Pat Mills] saw superheroes as emblematic of regressive, reactionary forces and disastrous foreign policy. They were America's self-delusion, a fantasy of US omnipotence that Mills depised and set about eviscerating with the glee of a revolutionary on the purge... This was hardcore lefty comics, taking the superhero back to his socialist roots with a shot of sleazy, antisocial satire".

The man himself.

Confession time.  I was fifteen when Marshal Law: Fear And Loathing was collected in the trade paperback I still own.  I was (and still am) a hardcore lefty myself and loved Marshal Law so much I painted him on a T-shirt I also still own when none seemed forthcoming officially.  Yet while I see Marshal Law as the extreme end-point for superhero satire and one that ran out of steam when mere hate couldn't sustain it past a few more miniseries and one-shots, I find I can still love both it and it's complete ideological (Morrison-penned) opposite, All Star Superman. 

One thing that is most noticable is the sheer amount of content in these six issues, there is tonnes of detail including excerpts from a thesis examining the psycho-sexual image and influence of superheroes in the Marshal Law world written by Marshal's civilian identity's girlfriend (she is unaware of his violent alter ego and has amusingly determined that Marshal Law must be gay), as well as pertinent quotes from real world publications kicking off each issue. 

Marshal Law, Public Spirit, Celeste and Sleepman

The background to the story is that artificially created superheroes like the Superman analogue "Public Spirit" inspired many young men to join the army in exchange for superpowers, they then found themselves taking part in a Vietnam-like mess of a war in South America resulting in hundreds of traumatised superhuman war vets coming back home to the rubble of earthquake devastated "San Futuro".  This betrayal as he sees it, by  the glamorous superstar heroes is what fuels Marshal Law's hatred of them in his new career as a policeman and as he begins an investigation into the anonymous superbeing called "Sleepman" who has been raping and killing women dressed as the Public Spirit's girlfriend, the "Siren" named Celeste.

Sleepman's twisted credo.

The story begins with Marshal flashing back to when he was a kid and felt the magic of superheroes.  The JLA - Jesus League of America led by the public Spirit inspired him to join the army in exchange for superstrength and resilience and found himself in a world of hell called "The Zone".  While this was going on, Public Spirit went on a mission to the stars, which due to relativity took two years for him and twenty-five years passed on Earth.  Now his return has coincided with the Sleepman's attacks on prostitutes and strippergrams dressed as Celeste and he is Marshal Law's number one suspect.

The action then cuts to a Celeste strippergram desperately trying to outrun the Sleepman.  He catches her and throws her off the top of a building say she "must fly". She lands near a "hero" called Sorry, The Nearly Man, whose only power is that he has a tail.  A criminal gang led by a hero called Gangreen find him with the body and decide to mete out some justice, but before they can kill Sorry, Marshal Law arrives and saves him.  He fends off Gangreen who promises to beat him next time.

Marshal beats down Gangreen

Marshal picks up some groceries before returning to his secret base.  We meet Father O'Brian and Mrs. Mallon who runs the shop.  Then in the underground base we meet the wheelchair bound Danny, who is Mrs. Mallon's son who is his computer whiz.  Marshal is told that his request for the Public Spirits DNA has been rejected.  Then an alert sounds that Gangreen's forces are attacking.  Marshal Law decides against wiping them out and just blocks off the tunnel.  He says killing them would just inititate a huge gang war and anyway:

Marshal Law: "They're just the symptoms... I'm after the disease!"

The narrative jumps forward a little, and Marshal finishes his shift and changes into his civilian identity of Joe Gilmore and returns home to his flat where his fiesty, feminist girlfriend Lynn is waiting.   When she sees Celeste on TV she has the following disgusted reaction:

Lynn: "God, look at that sexist cow. The unbelievably long legs... the enormous bosom... the mass of hair... and the exceptionally small head. Do you realise her head is smaller than her breasts?"

Lynn and "Joe".

She says she and some college friends are going to the Superdome the next day, dressed up as heroes to mock them.  We then cut to the following day at the Superdome which is like a superhero theme park.  The Public Spirit is giving an appearance, so Marshal, Danny and Mrs. Mallon are all attending.  Mrs. Mallon is highly critical of Celeste, while Danny says she is beautiful.  We are then told that Danny hacked the SHOCC computer and discovered that Public Spirit had a previous Siren girlfriend called Virago before he left on his star mission.  She died mysteriously out to see one day when she and the Public Spirit were out training though her body was never found.

The Public Spirit gives a speech, then Marshal asks him if there is anything he is not capable of.  Public Spirit gives a trite answer to the affirmative so Marshal starts listing superpowers Public Spirit doesn't have and begins to fluster him before holding up a small card asking if he goes around with a bag over his head raping women.  With Public Spirit on the ropes he then goes on to accuse him of killing Virago because the possibility she was carrying his child would have disqualified him from the star mission.

It's a valid question...

This cause something of a commotion, meanwhile Lynn dressed as Celeste is in serious trouble.  The Sleepman appears and grabs her.  She pleads with him to at least take his mask off, which he does, revealing a horrifically lumpy face.  Then he graphically rapes and kills her realising that Marshal law will kill him for this and it would be what he deserves.

When Marshal realises the latest Sleepman victim was Lynn he his completely gutted, holding her boody close to him in grief.  Then the Sleepman releases the supercriminals held in a stockade nearby and as they invade the Superdome Marshal engages in some cathartic hero killing.

In the chaos Marshal fights his way to the Sleepman.  It goes to show how nihilist this comic is that when the villains throw children exhorting them to fly, unlike say, Miracleman, no one is there to catch them. The Sleepman and Marshal fight though Marshal is no match for him.  The Sleepman grotesquely cradles Marshal's head thinking "I love you", then flies off.

Sleepman's "real" face.

Back in his civilian identity, Marshal mourns Lynn.   How she helped open his eyes to what he did in the military.  He thinks about meeting her parents to tell them the bad news and how they really didn't get their daughter. He looks at a photo of her.

Marshal: "The photo didn't do her justice.  It didn't show the food stains on her blouse or the dandruff on her shirt.  Or that she'd opened up my world."

Back at his base, Marshal is told that the Sleepman and the Public Spirit share the same blood group.  Marhsal wonders if the motivations for the killings is jealousy. He meets with his boss who describes himself as a super-liar.  He tells Marshal the Public Spirit is to be left alone at least until after his wedding to Celeste.

Commissioner McGland: "I explain about the scandal and I appeal to his patriotism.  He looks uneasy.  He's always had that weakness...he still believes in the dream. That's why he hates the Public Spirit. He thinks he betrayed the dream."

He then tells Marshal that the Public Spirit is donating a million dollars to the home for down and out heroes.  Marshal has to give a speeach and it nearly kills him, especially afterwards when he and the Public Spirit deal with Gangreene's men outside and the Public Spirit slaps his back describing it as a "team up".  Marshal just thinks that the Public Spirit is safe until the cheque clears and after his wedding Marshal will be coming for him.

Bad Ass.

The next chapter starts with the Public Spirit sat on a toilet, shooting up anabolic steroids.  Celeste ponders this as she doesn't want to use them herself.  She works out with She-Beast who is hugely muscled and sees nothing wrong with artificially enhancing their powers.  Then Celeste sings her Siren Song to the Public Spirit and they engage in a bit of flying sex.

The action then cuts to Marshal Law and his neverending war on the superhero gangs.  Mrs. Mallon's grocery store gets trashed in a battle.  Meanwhile Danny has found evidence that the Public Spirit uses steroids, which Marshal Law says his increased sex drive would be another pointer to his guilt.  Marshal then questions Father O'Brian to clear up something that's been niggling him.  He wants to know why O'Brian wouldn't marry the Public Spirit and Celeste.  O'Brian admits that the Public Spirit told him that he drowned Virago all those years ago because she was pregnant but he suspects she survived and gave birth to a son.

Danny.

We then return to Celeste getting ready for the wedding, just after she dons her bridal gown, the Sleepman comes crashing through her window. Marshal arrives on the scene to find her dead, violated body.

Marshal Law: "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Should have realised it was you all along. Only I wanted it to be him so bad."

He then goes down to where the Public Spirit is waiting with the rest of the guests.  he wants to shoot him dead, but controls himself and grabs one of the servants instead.  He pulls of her wig to reveal Mrs. Mallon, who in turn reveals herself to be Virago.

Virago revealed.

The next chapter is entirely narrated by Danny, now revealed as the Sleepman. He flashes back to his childhood and how whenever he flew his mother would beat him and call him a "dirty boy".  He's waiting by the seashore saying he saw him at the wedding where he was hoping to see him kill the Public Spirit.  Public Spirit and Virago flew off and are arguning close by to Danny.  When Marshal Law got into his helicopter to begin looking for them Danny appeared to lead him to them.

Back with his childhood, everytime he expressed an interest in heroes, his mother spanked him calling heroes "filth" and "bacteria".  When he was bullied at school he used his powers for the first time to kill his tormentor.  After this, with Danny now a teen, Virago tells him the truth of who his father is.  She says that when he grows up he'll get his revenge for her, he says he'll make them all "suffer".

Uh oh.

After some background into the creation of Virago and the Public Spirit, we are told about how South America started experimenting with superheroes before turning to Marxism to solve their problems.  So of course the US invaded and thousands of young men were given superpowers to fight in The Zone.

Danny: "The war dragged on for years with no definite direction. It seemed to me that Doctor SHOCC  had made an excellent job of ruining countless young lives... as my parents had ruined mine."

When Marshal Law returned to wage his war on the criminal superheroes of San Futuro, Danny's hacking skills got him accepted into the police force and assigned to Marshal.  Virago commands him to kill Celeste but he couldn't face her at first and started killing surrogates. He and his mother tried to manipulate Marshal Law into killing the Public Spirit and nearly succeded.  Now he waits for Marshal Law as his parents argue about him.

Worst. Parents. Ever.

Virago commands Danny to kill Public Spirit, but Danny holds back as a raging Public Spirit finally kills Virago for good.  Then Marshal Law arrives.  Danny expected there would be quite a showdown between them, and removes his lumpy mask.  But Marshal Law merely says "bacteria" and shoots Danny in the heart.  Danny falls into the water and sinks to the bottom thinking:

Danny: "...now I'm out of the way you can go after father.  Now he's finally killed mother he can't escape justice. And I can sleep forever."

Danny "dies".

The final chapter begins with Marshal hunting the Public Spirit, he finds a lookalike sent to confuse him and menaces him into telling him where the Public Spirit is fleeing to. The police try to arrest the Public Spirit at the airport but he bulks up and punches right through them.  He then goes on the rampage, while Marshal Law arrives to take him down.  Marshal flashes back to something Lynne told him. About the symbolism of the Public Spirit.

Lynne: "The archetypal sun hero who proves his manhood by destroying things with phallic beams."

Marshal says this proved to him that the worlds greatest superhero was a "dickhead".  He and the Public Spirit fight as Marshal reflects on how he used to idolise him as a kid.  The Public Spirit knocks Marshal down then accuses him of being a negative influence on Danny, how if it hadn't been for his hatred of him, Danny might have been able to resist Virago. The action during this has been cutting back to Danny in a hospital bed, the psychiatrist has presented him with two artificial mothers to choose between.  Danny mumbles "ma.. ma.. Marshal Law."

Kind of a one-sided battle really.

Back with Marshal and Public Spirit, Public Spirit attacks Marshal Law calling him a "faggot" and a "leather clad tinkerbell".  Before he can kill Marshall, he gets a faceful of fear gas which makes him confront his biggest fear, that of failing.  Which he had.  He slumps back down to normal size and Marshal Law beats him up.

Public Spirit: "They expected too much of me."

Marshal Law: "They wanted you to be a superman."

Public Spirit: "It's impossible! No one can be superman! No one!"

Then suddenly his brains are blown out by a police sniper.  Marshal Law's boss says that they'll be covering all this up and arrange for it to be known that Public Spirit went out in a plane crash, much to Marshal's disgust.  The story ends with a mourning Marshal Law visting Lynnes grave.

Marshal at Lynn's graveside.

Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing is still a remarkable book.  It hasn't dated in the slightest.  The main unfortunate aspect of it is that it preceeded a whole host of grim and gritty psychopathic heroes created during the nineties that kept all the violence but had none of the smarts Pat Mills wrote into it.  Even later Marshal Law series fell into that trap, but this first series is fantastic.  It's probably my favourite example of Kevin O'Neil's artwork as well, his distortions of the human body and physical exaggerations are still grounded in a full understanding of anatomy and perspective. Marshal Law is a compelling character, a man of two parts driven by hatred and later sorrow to war on his own kind, yet could still pass for "normal" when living with his girlfriend.  The Public Spirit is an incarnation of how no one could live up to the expectations placed upon them as the worlds greatest hero and how Superman feels unreal by comparison.  It's a deeply cynical view, and not one I share, but it's typical of Pat Mill's fierce dislike of the superhero concept.  This edition is long out of print, but luckily all Marshal's adventures have been collected in a swish hardback and it's definitely worth checking out if you enjoy a more complex look at superheroes and the kind of world that would create them.