Enormous post incoming. Indulge at your discretion.
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Now that the buzz has waned from some and some dissection can kick in, these are some of my Seven Soldiers #1 thoughts.
Page 1
The 7 Unknown Men pages in this issue follow a panel pattern - 9 panels of the 'Men' and 1 of the outside/background world of Slaughter Swamp. If you count the title panel it makes 11 this page, but the other two are 10 even, so I'll assume it shouldn't be counted. They also follow a hot/cold color pulse, here from purple to green to orange to white-hot, not unlike the panel colors in SS#1 representing the different rooms in the house of the 7UM.
Previous appearances of the 7UM have shown them speaking in individually colored speech bubbles, presumably to denote separate personalities, but that's abandoned here. The panel colors may be a clue to the changing identity of the speaker, but I see no indication that's the case.
In Issue 0, only 6 of the 8 7 Unknown Men spoke. This may simply be the secret, silent, last unknown man finally speaking, possibly Morrison himself.
Page 6
Aurakles fights the Kirbula Man.
Page 9
The Sword in the Stone, in one of the four ancient cities of the New Gods - there's a plug for it, extending into the snow, or a vacuum tube of some sort. Cute.
Page 11
More emotional fall and rise. The Fall of Camelot, the Fall of the Super-Neanderthals, all the same as any personal fall, personal tragedy. Tragedy and loss clearing the table, inoculating against future tragedy. Emotional fall making superheroes rise from the ashes of pain and despair through imagination and self-belief; all major themes of this series.
Page 12
They've killed Cyrus Gold and shaved Zor's face with a straight razor here, intending to pass him off as the about-to-be-lynched Gold (who will become Solomon Grundy) as his 'punishment' for mucking about in the universe and trying to make it dark, edgy, and angst-ridden. Dialogue sounds like Greg Saunders to me, but I may be inferring based on clues from the first SS issue. The 'Heh' is something Ali-Ka-Zoom does…
Same panel structure. 9 twisting panels and the 10th as the background of Slaughter Swamp. Colors move from Red to White-Hot to Green. Possible to infer some Kabbalistic meaning here, but I don't know how relevant it is, though it's almost certainly conscious on either Grant or JH's part.
Page 14
"This isn't some fairytale, mom!"
"Okay, Honey. I'll take your word for it."
As the fairy folk and cartoon grasshoppers smile on. It's a fairytale in here, it'll have a happy ending.
Page 17
The New Secret Origin of Comet the Superhorse
Page 18
On the ground, all 7's up Zatanna's sleeves. 7's of Diamonds. She's been preparing for her trick.
Ali-Ka-Zoom, suspiciously always there when you need, no matter how many times he dies, has a 'horsefeather' in his hat. Horsefeathers being synonymous with 'bullshit', magic, and tale-telling. Fake it 'til you make it, as a big part of the 7S themes.
Page 19-20
Klarion, JH Williams taking the storybook feel of Irving's art to an even further conclusion. Maybe GM was reading Barbelith again.
Page 22-23
The Secret Origin of Hannah Control, previously hinted at in Guardian #3. "I made you, Hannah Control!"
Father Time makes explicit again what's been pretty strongly touched on in previous issues.
The Bride makes a stand with the people of New York in front of the Hero Museum, last seen in Klarion #3 and Mister Miracle #3. The person in the background wears one of the stolen protective suits looted by the mob referenced by Ed in the newspaper on page 15.
The feathers of the Winged Pegazeuses of Gorias float all over the city, bathing it and the story in horsefeathers. Appropriate.
Page 24
Frank at the helm of the Sheeda flagship the Castle Revolving, which he brought here after destroying most of Gloriana's invasion fleet in Frankenstein #4. Frank is the cause of Hurricane Gloriana, bringing the Castle Revolving to DC Earth; but Klarion's bored of the invasion and wants to try out his new toy - the Sheeda Side of life.
Page 25
Zatanna strikes, using the merlin to take control of her own narrative. Like Dr. Metron said in Mr. Miracle #4, "…Life itself is yours to direct and manipulate." The cards she had up her sleeves come flying out, giving us the illusion of a magic trick that she's making happen with the help of the reader, the help of our collective perception. The disembodied backwards 'Ready' is our signal to her that we're willing to do our part.
As will be seen with Spyder and even Misty, Ali, and Sally Sonic, the 7 Soldiers are more than 7 and their total number is unknowable. We are them. Just as there are 8 or more of 7 Unknown Men, there are many teams of 7 soldiers. "Could This Be YOU?"
Page 26
Zatanna, spent, hoping it works. Jake and Carla get their fairytale. This feels like a gift from the 7 Unknown Men to me, like Buddy getting his family back at the end of Animal Man.
Page 27
Like Papers previously said, Ystina faces the last enemy of Camelot, the enemy that even Galahad gave into, and takes her pound of flesh, refusing to back down. Even if she dies, Camelot is avenged, in her mind.
Page 28-30
Mr. Miracle comes, transformed by his experience in the black hole, to free Aurakles, the first super-hero.
Darkseid/Dark Side, still burning up under the combustion of time in this body as in MM #4, reveals in secret godspeak to Shilo that he apparently gave permission to the Sheeda to raze the North American continent in exchange for the custody of Aurakles, who was precious to his enemies, the New Gods. He says he would use the Harrowing to root out the New Gods and kill them.
The panel borders are black, except when Shiloh is on panel - until he's shackled, in Dark Side's irons and in his black, restrictive panels. I love the hateful psychedelic machine-god graphics that Shilo's godsight shows him of Darkseid.
Without hesitation, Shilo sacrifices himself for Aurakles, with faith that he will triumph over anything Dark Side can do to him. Dark Side says this was all part of his plan to remove Shilo from the equation as the avatar of freedom, and kills him in the most blunt, direct, and uncreative way he can. There is no chance Mr. Miracle survived this, no visual trickery or explanation for a way out of it.
And yet the final panel is colored lightly again, his corpse mugging to the reader, no expression of pain on his face, the pinging of motherbox remaining audible, the ping of imagination.
Like I mentioned before, this seems to me a symbolic act by Shilo - giving himself up for the freedom of the first superhero, and superheroes as a whole - assured that he'll escape from any fate that Darkseid/Dark Side can put him through - through any despair or suicide or pain, loss, or death he can muster. Imagination escapes the gravity of tragedy.
This makes me think of very much of the statement that the colors of this aeon would be 'Red and Bleeding Gold', the colors of the final panel on page 30.
Page 31
"We'll beat you somehow."
Ed, still driving the bus from page 15, knows that they've finally taken revenge against the Sheeda and the Terrible Time Tailor. (Ed's eyes are a different color than previous here, incidentally - they're previously been blue)
We'll beat you, hopelessness, we'll beat you self-loathing, self-destruction, self-labeling, the idea that we're predetermined for failure and pain and misery.
Ystina is spared Galahad's fate through friendship, and teamwork.
Page 32
Spyder as the 8th Soldier.
The 7 Soldiers of Miracle Mesa were all a plan to make Spyder unkillable with Sheeda technology so he could kill the Sheeda Queen. Again, the total number of 7 soldiers is unknowable. Spyder was part of their plan all along. The ultimate hunter, a spider in part of the ultimate web.
Page 33
Gloriana in the street outside the Hero museum as her flagship leaves her and returns to Sheeda Side.
Through an accident brought about by her act of kindness, the Bulleteer slays the Last Enemy of Camelot, and is apparently freed from the further influence of the 7 Unknown Men, for now. "You're free." "Am I?"
Incidentally, they state that of the three women in the crash, (Alix, Sally, and Gloriana), only Alix survived.
Page 34-35
Above - Sally's mask floats through the flames above the wreck.
Below - The same 7UM structure as previous. 9 panels plus real-world (kingdom) background) . Red to Gold to Gray/Black. 7 word bubbles.
They finish sewing up Zor, trapping him as the soon-to-be Solomon Grundy - The bad creator, the bad father-figure, the hateful, hackish storyteller. Eighth of Seven Unknown Men.
The Seven Unknown Men are in many ways characterized as comic book writers, and I think more than one might be a writer who's appeared in his comics previously.
"Threadbare and ragged - the work of too many hands to ever fit properly…" He's talking about continuity, about writers, good and bad, hacking together the collected history of the DC Universe and it's individual characters.
"Not much of a disguise, but you watch it fool the locals." Written fiction as a disguise or suit for those who write it - barely hiding themselves in everything they write, but still unnoticed by most.
"I'll take that back." That's either Zatara or Ali-Ka-Zoom saying that. My money's on Ali since he's only once seen without his hat.
"We played by your rules…" We tried it dark and gritty and pained and angst-ridden. "…And you lost." Now as punishment we'll trap you forever in a zombie from the Golden Age of comics through to today, identity and history and behavior changing forever from writer to writer, decade to decade.
That "Heh" is again something Ali-Ka-Zoom regularly does in his speech after a pithy remark. (See Zatanna #3)
Page 36
"Ystina the Good" Ali may be lying here. I don't think it matters. He's illustrating the point of the series about human coping - that after great loss or tragedy we have an opportunity to rebuild better than before, wiser, stronger, if it can be imagined.
Page 37
Zor's screams echo through the swamp, now beginning to bloom with comic color as obvious the presence of the Unknown Men fades away with the panel borders.
The third road is our individual road of choice. Not defined by righteousness or wickedness. Defined by our choices, our doings and beings.
Page 38
Klarion's individual road of choice. Yikes.
When I last saw Grant speak and spoke a bit to him afterward, I heard him mention to someone who was a big Klarion fan that after 7S the character would actually end up basically where he was in his old incarnation. I see what he meant now - part of an alternate dimension where magic reigned, popping into ours when he gets bored to make mischief.
Page 39
The fanboy from Bulleteer #3 was right about Millions.
Darkseid as the Dark Side of existence and stories and comics and life. He believes himself the true victor of the failed Sheeda Invasion because he believes he has conquered the last enemy of evil, put freedom and hope and imagination into the ground.
Page 40
This page is the same as the final page of Flex Mentallo. But better on its own, in my eyes, more potent.
No panel borders, no restriction.
The black flower denotes a secret.
Imagination Beats Death. Imagination beats pain and darkness and loss. Imagination beats Dark Side. I don't think it's a lead in to a new series or any event, though it may be used as such since we know a New Gods event is incoming in the DCU.
Regardless, I think this page is a continued mission statement from Morrison the comics writer. From the 7 Unknown Men of the DC Universe, and the New Supreme Architect of the Universe, whose name may or may not remain hidden. Imagination is Freedom. Imagination is Hope. Imagination wins. The horesfeather wins. |
