Welcome back to Thinking Critical this Wes
and let's talk Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt number
1.
This is my first venture into the series and
I must say up front I came away very unimpressed.
I normally find most Dynamite books to be
good quality and very entertaining but this
one didn't hit my feels spots in a good way...at
all.
Peter Cannon as a hero is very much of the
deconstructed variety and the story is heavily
influenced by the Watchmen, the seminal achievement
of the great Alan Moore.
Watchmen is one of the most influential books
in comic history and often duplicated with
results normally falling flat.
There are definitely some good qualities in
the book but I personally found failings in
the artwork, characterization and plot.
Kieron Gillen is the writer on the series
and I'm a huge fan of his run on Darth Vader
and his current series, Die, at Image Comics
is also excellent.
I'm a bit surprised this effort falls so flat
but Mr. Moore casts a large shadow and unfortunately
Kieron's work doesn't hold up in comparison.
The primary artist is Caspar Wijngaard and
I believe this is my first time reading a
book with his illustrations.
Let's get into the review and start with Mr.
Wijngaards artwork.
The book opens with three establishing shots,
which felt a bit repetitive.
Nonetheless Caspar's art is at its best in
these beautiful splash pages.
There's a tremendous amount of detail and
you get a good sense of what the alien tech
looks like but not too much this early in
the book.
The color artist, Mary Safro, does a great
job bringing depth to the visuals and to be
perfectly honest outshines her counterpart
in this issue.
If all the art work in the book was to the
standard of the splash pages it would get
a great overall score but unfortunately there
are too many pages like this that feel unfinished.
The action sequence is well done and flows
great but the background details, apparent
in the top three panels, disappear in the
final six.
It leaves the visuals feeling bare and lackluster.
For this reason I give the artwork in the
book an overall 2.5 out 5.
We do get a bit more details of the aliens
later on and they look pretty cool.
Nothing groundbreaking but certainly fine
for the story.
You can again see the background details are
missing but the action is visually stimulating
and flows well.
One thing that confused me on this page is
the non-uniformity in the lettering.
The letting in the top panel is much larger
than the middle.
At first I thought it was meant to indicate
yelling or emphasis but the words killed and
city are bolded to indicate that in the second
panel.
I'm surprised if this kind of editing error
would have made it through and I'm still not
sure what the larger font was meant to symbolize.
Like I said the art is serviceable but where
the book really starts to fall apart is in
the characterization.
The first 5 characters we meet are Pyrophorus,
The Test, Baba Yaga, Nucleon and Supreme Justice,
pictured from left to right.
The only one of these characters to get a
good amount of development is Supreme Justice.
In this page he's referred to as the meta-agent
of unfettered capitalism.
You get the feeling the writer isn't much
a fan of capitalism so the character is defeated,
easily, by the titular character soon after.
The most important thing to know is that these
meta-agents represent the powers of America,
Russia and China and it's hinted by The Test
that the nations are on the precipice of World
War at the time of the alien invasion.
I will mention here that while most of the
character designs are fine I find Nucleon
to be severely underwhelming.
As the name and hazmat suit indicate she is
likely hazardous to normal people but you
would hope they could have come up with a
better suit design.
She does emerge from her yellow bag later
in the book to an equally uninteresting look.
So let's get to the elephant in the room,
the titular character, Peter Cannon.
He was one of the original characters Alan
Moore had in mind when writing The Watchmen
and his role would become the Ozymandias character.
You get the feeling this book is an homage
to Moore's Watchmen.
The problem lies in that Ozymandias is not
a hero.
He wasn't a hero in Watchmen and Peter Cannon
(the character he's based off) is not a hero
here.
In fact, he's one of the worst main protagonists
I've read.
I can't imagine writing a lead protagonist
in a less heroic way, honestly.
After he easily dispatches Supreme Justice,
the symbol of capitalism, with his unnatural
speed and reflexes you get a real feel for
the character.
To be honest I'm not sure if these are the
words of the character or the writer but I
do find them repugnant nonetheless.
"Time after time I have said how little I
care for this civilization.
It is NOT worth saving.
So WHY should I care now.
The answer: your civilization consists of
PEOPLE.
The continued existence of people is the only
hope for something OTHER than your culture."
Its no accident he's speaking directly to
the symbol of capitalism about his contempt
for society and why it isn't worth saving.
I very much get the feeling this is the author,
Kieron Gillen, telling the audience how he
feels about capitalism and Western society
in general.
Either way these aren't the words of a hero,
these are the words of a villain.
The only reason he's willing to save people
being murdered and destroyed by an alien invasion
is the hope that one day their culture will
die and he needs fresh bodies to build the
new culture he wants.
He is much more akin to Lex Luther or Doctor
Doom than Superman or Reed Richards.
His motivation to intervene in the genocide
of the human race is at its heart evil.
These aren't the words or motivations of a
sane person let alone a heroic one.
Given that Peter Cannon is supposed to be
the hero I would say the characterization
is an abject failure and I score it an overall
1 out 5.
But there is more character work I need to
talk about.
Soon after, his friend Tabu tells The Test
the origin of Peter Cannon.
Peter's parents took him to a village in Asia
to fight a plague that eventually took them
both.
The villagers took Peter in and raised him.
The plague later returned and claimed the
rest of the villagers, leaving only Peter
to have access to their ancient scrolls and
knowledge.
And the reason he hates Western society is
among the flimsiest and most childish, I've
ever read.
The world is unworthy of existing, in Peter's
mind, because the world let those that raised
him die.
Pretty thin, am I right?
Peter is a grown man who at this point in
his life should understand that death is a
part of life.
He should certainly understand that its not
Western culture that killed his parents or
the villagers.
It was disease that did it, and if I infer
the story correctly the West sent medical
personnel (his parents) into great peril to
try and save them.
So I will admit this has the hallmarks of
a superhero origin but his response, to blame
the world, is certainly not heroic.
Peter is also portrayed as highly intelligent
but his insistence to blame disease on the
world makes him feel less so and emotionally
stunted.
Certainly not the hallmarks of a hero.
Let me hit the plot real quick and I'll give
my final comments and overall score for the
book.
And I am going to spoil the end of the book
so if you plan on reading this I would end
the video at this point.
Peter meditates with his ancient scrolls and
emerges in his hero garb and lets the team,
representing the worlds superpowers, know
they must follow his instructions precisely
or the word will fall.
I imagine the bottom pose and words, "We must.
We can.
We will."
are supposed to be heroic and invoke an emotional
response but I was so turned off to the character
at this point it was impossible.
The heroes run right through the aliens, seemingly
easily, and let Cannon know his plan worked.
Of course we never see him leading the defense
of earth or even layout the plan, we just
have to take the characters words for it.
I'm more of a show me don't tell me kind of
reader, so this doesn't work for me at all.
The representatives of the world's superpowers
are amazed they saved the world under Peter's
leadership and explain the tensions between
the US, Russia and China will now be a thing
of the past.
If you've read The Watchmen I'm sure you see
where this is going.
I also love how they exclaim that his is a
"born leader."
We never witness him leading anything or experiencing
a setback only to readjust his plan and motivate
his troops.
He just talks like he's better than everyone
else and bosses them around.
Some of you may or may not know this but I
was Senior NCO in the military with 20 years
of service.
This isn't how leadership works and definitely
not an example of a "born leader."
But I digress.
In the end Peter and Tabu are talking about
the victory and the reveal that anyone who
read The Watchmen knew was coming happens.
The alien invasion was planned and executed
by Peter Cannon (the inspiration for Ozymandias
himself)...but not this Peter Cannon.
One from an alternate dimension.
Wah Wah.
I'll give the plot an overall 1.5 out of 5.
I don't like this book at all.
I like the hero even less.
I'll give Gillen points for trying to build
on Moore's timeless work, using the inspiration
for one of his most influential characters.
Stealing the final act from Watchmen and trying
to throw it on its head didn't work for me.
If you're a fan of Watchmen and villains playing
the role of hero you may enjoy this book.
Unfortunately, that's not the kind of book
or hero I enjoy and I'll give peter Cannon:
Thunderbolt Number 1 an overall 1.5 out of
5.
The art is fine but the title hero is terrible
and the plot is completely derivative and
basically steals the ending from the most
influential comic book of the last 30 years.
Some may see this as an homage to Alan Moore,
but I felt like I was reading a good writer
crumble under the pressure of the work he
was trying to celebrate.
Of course these are just my opinions.
What say you?
Did you enjoy this book, did you think Gillen
did Moore's Watchmen justice?
Please let me know in the comments down below.
