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Underground > Comic Books >

7 Soldiers: The Bulleteer

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The Natural Way

09:58 / 05.11.05

Indeed.

10:49 / 05.11.05

Kovacs, I almost wrote a similar post yesterday. I'm glad you're less lazy than me.

Good stuff.

miss wonderstarr

15:19 / 05.11.05

Thanks!

23:56 / 06.11.05

I think her wedding ring kept a little sliver of skin normal, and they were able to give her a life-saving injection through it.

Well... I'm not quite sure what to make of the wedding ring. While it's an obvious motif here and clearly is significant (appears in lots of panels, often close up, and it's mentioned specifically by the paramedics), Alix isn't actually wearing it when she gets covered in the metal smartspunk - but it's appeared on her hand in the hospital scenes. Is this carelessness on the artist's part (as with Alix's amazing disappearing bra-strap), or does it mean something? Lance has taken his wedding ring off - it's sitting there by the computer keyboard - but what's up with Alix's?

I'm also somewhat dubious of the chances of giving a life-saving injection (of what? anti-chokingsteel serum?) via the ring finger...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

00:35 / 07.11.05

I -think- it was more a concern of exposing some skin for her to breathe through, but I could be misinterpreting. And, if you're desperate enough, I imagine injecting into the ring finger might do -something-, but then I don't know much about medicine.

The disappearing ring's most definitely an artist issue, from my reading.

00:59 / 07.11.05

It's a bit peculiar. Made me wonder about what happened between panels, made me wonder at her trying to explain that she wasn't a robot, about that train crash.

Her last name, most likely her husband's name taken in marriage (another instance of her taking on a male aspect for herself), is most certainly not a coincidence with the Sheeda and their repeated mentions of harrowing the earth, even if the parallel is only meant as metaphor.

So we have Alix as another example of the tarnished female figures rising up through various means, like Gloriana, like the women of Limbo Town.

I think she may have actually died in that operating room, or that basement, though I've no ideas as to how we're where we're at now from there.

It could be as simple as "She lived because she left her wedding ring on", which has a lot of other connotations.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:03 / 07.11.05

All the aspects drive Alix to be such a positive figure - the work with autistic kids, the self-esteem to feel comfortable with her body in spite of media pressure and her husband's ravingssure, she knew she was attractive, but Alix is presented as being at peace with and comfortable with, rather than enslaved by vanity. The problem was that amongst those positive aspects was a fairly clean love for her husband, and a desire to keep that relationship, their marriage, healthy - positive, yes? Positive but apparently, even though she casually deflected his attempts to destroy her esteem, Lance's tendencies turned that into a major weakness that she didn't realize was there.

Lance's attempts to kill her self-esteem - to "convince" Alix that smartskin was the way to go, that becoming beautiful, eternal superheroes was what she needed with "all those lines" on her face? They strike me as being a very subtle form of destruction to produce resurrection, on Lance's part. He's trying to destroy the woman he claims to love so that he can rebuild her ("We can make [her] better, stronger, faster...") - kill her self-esteem, he thinks, and she'll be ready and willing to transform. Fortunately, Alix doesn't crack and basically ignores the whole notion. So Lance has to destroy their marriage more directly - and kill himself - before Alix is remade. One attempt at destruction fails and needs to be made more drastic - their marriage must be truly harrowed - before Alix will become the Bulleteer, and even the she doesn't want to be.

I'm still fascinated/focused on the notion that Alix will never again be naked - she'll always have that smartskin on - but she perceives herself as naked and must cover up. I haven't quite worked my way through that yet, but the origin wipes away her confidence rather than creating it (an inversion of wish-fulfillment).

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:13 / 07.11.05

Addendum to above.

Alix's transformation: she starts out as a Hapless Girlfriend/Wife - her husband is a brilliant scientist and therefore by DC Comics Golden Age rules is destined to gain superpowers through his own splendid experiments. For the sake of hilarious pun, let's just compare her to Carol Ferris - confidence, verve, she's really got it together and is comfortable with herself, seems reasonably self-actualized. And then EVERYTHING SHE THOUGHT SHE KNEW WAS A LIE! And her husband, the scumbag, gives her an Origin. Which wipes away all the cool, comfortable sense of self that she had before and remakes her into a heroine tortured by her own powers and ends up as a Sixties Marvel Angstful Hero. I could say heroine, but she starts out a lot more effective than Sue Storm was in the beginning.

The Angsty Marvel Imperfect Hero angle is hardly a new idea in this thread, or to Seven Soldiers - but I like the idea that she starts out as a DC character with a Golden Age husband only he's not what he appears and she jumps heroic status as a result.

That make any sense?

miss wonderstarr

06:41 / 07.11.05

Yes, although couldn't you also see it as a leap from Silver Age DC to 60s Marvel? Wasn't (for instance) Iris Allen in the same position, as the loyally long-suffering fiancee to a scientist-turned-super?

11:17 / 07.11.05

I can buy that she died metaphorically, flesh being replaced with inorganics, her old life being replaced by the spandex set. But I don't think she necessarily died in reality. Her husband was already much more progressed in the smart skin than she was, and her fidelity (ring) allowed her the life saving injection. Plus "Now what?" as a sign of moving on.

12:06 / 07.11.05

Her metaphoric "death" was the breaking through the laboratory wall (Penetration/Allegory of the Cave). The little boy who said "Help" brought her back.

Excellent analysis, Papers.

12:18 / 07.11.05

The ring has to mean more than "fidelity", though. I think it's important to the nature of her character, for all the reasons Ganesh brings up... But it has to mean more than gender roles and stuff. It doesn't sit right with me if that was all it meant. We'll have to see.

12:41 / 07.11.05

I -think- it was more a concern of exposing some skin for her to breathe through, but I could be misinterpreting. And, if you're desperate enough, I imagine injecting into the ring finger might do -something-, but then I don't know much about medicine.

Even if that little band of finger remained flesh, it'd hardly be enough for an entire suffocating body to breathe through (we tend to use our lungs for that). And even desperation wouldn't make the piddlingly tiny veins in the average ring-finger any bigger. I can see the symbolic value of the ring/fidelity as saviour, but it doesn't bear much scrutiny.

The disappearing ring's most definitely an artist issue, from my reading.

It still puzzles me. If the wedding ring's integral to the plot (without it, Alix would've died), I'd have thought more care would've be taken to show it present at the time Alix was enveloped in steel. I mean, we're clearly shown the presence of both partners' rings in the wedding photo flashbacks, we see Lance's ring removed and sitting by the keyboard, and Alix's ring is present and correct in the hospital scenes - so why the artistic carelessness with something that's not incidental? There's at least one close-up of Alix's left hand (when she dials for a paramedic) and it's not there.

If it's purely an "artist issue", then it's one that casts doubt upon an otherwise straightforward origin tale.

16:42 / 07.11.05

Early on Alix mentions that "maybe the smartskin doesn't like artificial scaffolding" or something to that effect.

Perhaps the presence of the wedding ring as a mineral (gold verse silver?)slowed down the progression of smartskin's bonding to collagen. As a result, was she exposed to a lesser amount (a thinner layer)? Enough to give her her powers but not enough to coat her lungs and/or inner organs.

When her husband dies he seemed to solidify. He became a sort of statue. Presumably the smartskin invaded his entire body rather than remaining on the surface. It became hard to breath, he became "heavy."

<reaching> Maybe there's some thematic connection to being turned to stone by Medusa's glare; what with the similar last name and the Medusa-like appearance of Glorina... </reaching>

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:30 / 07.11.05

Kovacs: Yes, although couldn't you also see it as a leap from Silver Age DC to 60s Marvel? Wasn't (for instance) Iris Allen in the same position, as the loyally long-suffering fiancee to a scientist-turned-super?

Iris Allen is a better fit than Carol Ferris, but lacking the metallic pun.

Iris and Alix certainly parallel each other, but I was more thinking about Lance in terms of the Golden Age scientist-heroes who were more likely to intentionally invent something to aid the war against crime, rather than Barry Allen, who was an accidental superhero. It certainly happened in the Silver Age, but there's something very Golden Age about square-jawed men who went out of their way by developing superstrong potions and cosmic rods.

09:13 / 08.11.05

Just in regards as to why Alix maybe survives bonding with the Smartskin:

pg. 9 panel 1: "It (Smartskin) only spreads effectively when it bonds with collagen and copies tissue growth."

Pg 11 panel 4: "I'm just saying, Smartskin bonds to collagen fibers and makes them indestructible."

Alix in the next panel looks pissed off and tells Lance to stop being obnoxious.

Not only has she (possibly) survived because she's been under the knife, but Lance probably forced her to have plastic surgery in the first place (fairly plausible). Maybe an ulterior motive for it was for Alix to have her superhero origin. A nice little twist on the T&A superhero type.

Paquette's art's alright, but he looked a lot smoother on Terra Obscura. Bair's inks on his pencils make it look a bit rougher than on TO.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:23 / 08.11.05

About one quarter of all of the protein in your body is collagen. Collagen is a major structural protein, forming molecular cables that strengthen the tendons and vast, resilient sheets that support the skin and internal organs. Bones and teeth are made by adding mineral crystals to collagen. Collagen provides structure to our bodies, protecting and supporting the softer tissues and connecting them with the skeleton. But, in spite of its critical function in the body, collagen is a relatively simple protein.

A

09:25 / 08.11.05

Huh? I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that Alix has had plastic surgery, and I'm really not sure why you think that having had plastic surgery would have been the reason she survived.

A

09:31 / 08.11.05

(...that was in reply to Brett E's post...)

09:32 / 08.11.05

Erm, quite. Even if she had had cosmetic surgery (and we've zippo evidence for this), what bearing would this have on the ability or otherwise of smartspunk to bond with Alix's collagen fibres?

miss wonderstarr

09:40 / 08.11.05

I was more thinking about Lance in terms of the Golden Age scientist-heroes who were more likely to intentionally invent something to aid the war against crime, rather than Barry Allen, who was an accidental superhero. It certainly happened in the Silver Age, but there's something very Golden Age about square-jawed men who went out of their way by developing superstrong potions and cosmic rods.

I like your theories, Papers, but I would modify them a little.

I think we're looking at quite an evolution of the Golden Age hero here, with Morrison's wannabes. Seven Soldiers #0 had people buying super-gimmicks off Ebay, as I remember. Convincingly, Morrison is sketching a society where superheroes are celebrities and civilians want into that lifestyle. Lance isn't really motivated by fighting crime -- he wants fame. Also might be worth noting that while Lance does try to plan his secret identity and powers (like a GA-scientist, by your reckoning) he (and more crucially, Alix) gain their uncanny nature through an accident (like a SA-scientist or Marvel character?)

10:39 / 08.11.05

MA = exploiting someone else, and using them to test your scientific theory to create a superhuman? IE Wolverine...

Alix is kind of all those things.

10:56 / 08.11.05

Now I am assuming/reading that Alix has had plastic surgery, yes, as in the way the character is presented as compared to say Ystin or Agent Helligan (who I'm guessing is the dying FBI agent appearing in the next issue). Not an unreasonable assumption I'd think given that she is presented with quite a bust and very pouty lips, a lot like the stereotypical T&A girl in comics.

Lance also has a fixation on Alix's appearance ("You didn't use to have those lines") as well as on super-heroines. Lines such as "You finally got your way Lance" seem really loaded with unknown meaning and you can look at them in any number of ways. Looking at it in the 'Golden Age-style meets contemporary reality' context of Seven Soldiers, how would a hornbag scientist make himself and his girlfriend into superheroes? Getting in peak shape, perfect their bodies, get the right build. That line I quoted before from page 11, in the context of that conversation, when you give it an analysis from the metatextual aspect (such as the Terrible Time Tailor with the Newsboy Army, the Seven Unknown Men revamping Spyder, 'What's his gimmick?'),from the detatched ironic view of the TTT, aware of the context of that character, how they relate to their archtypes, stereotypes, contemporary presentations and so on.

I am going off sketchy memories that collagen injections are for the lips, and maybe for breasts as well, though. I don't know much about plastic surgery (obviously, and, thankfully). It just seems that from the ironic view, her 'enhancements' helped save her life. That extra boost in her body, and that appearing and disappearing ring, seemingly saved her life. It's not ha ha funny in the context of the story, but from the TTT view, that is pretty much in the cynical reader's perspective, it can be an ironic observation given the context and history of bad girl comics and that style of art.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:01 / 08.11.05

Look, just admit you didn't know we all have loads of collagen in us already, and it's not something you get through plastic surgery. I used to think that too! It doesn't make you dumb or anything. Just admit that was what you meant and we'll all move on and it won't be a thing.

miss wonderstarr

11:13 / 08.11.05

Now I am assuming/reading that Alix has had plastic surgery, yes, as in the way the character is presented as compared to say Ystin or Agent Helligan (who I'm guessing is the dying FBI agent appearing in the next issue). Not an unreasonable assumption I'd think given that she is presented with quite a bust and very pouty lips, a lot like the stereotypical T&A girl in comics.

I'm not saying you're wrong, though the reading that smartskin doesn't "take" with Alix because she's had implants or injections seems to do an awful lot of work on behalf of the reader to explain something that the author doesn't make adequately clear.

However, as I tried to suggest on the previous page, I do think it's ironic that the representation of a woman with large breasts seems to be quickly classified as stereotypical T&A, and/or silicon-surgery. The portrayal of Alix isn't more "unrealistic" than that of Lance. He's like a Men's Health cover model, but we're not saying he's a stereotypical beefcake pecs-and-abs image of masculinity or wondering if he's taken steroids.

Our response to comic book drawings of women has come to a funny stage when (as I think is the case) heroines with small busts are responded to as more "realistic" than those with large busts. I've been out with girls who look like Alix Harrower, give or take the stylisation of this artwork (which of course applies to all the characters). She is just a woman with a certain kind of build; women like her exist, and I doubt they see themselves as walking stereotypes.

The way Alix currently presents herself is amply justified by what we also learn about her character -- through the way she poses and spends a lot of time in front of mirrors, for instance -- and, through dialogue, her marriage. If she was portrayed as someone who wasn't much concerned with appearances and prioritised her work over her image, that might be different (but wouldn't make it any more unrealistic for her to have large breasts).

11:13 / 08.11.05

Ok mum. So collagen is not used in plastic surgery is what you are saying, yes?

You could have just said that in the first place so I didn't type that second mini-essay out, ya know. The result of you being too glib that time Petey

.

Anyway, Helligan as the dying FBI agent in the next issue? Seems reasonable. A bit of a parallel and reflection of Alix's situation, given how she was the last time we saw her. Although rather than gain super-powers from her super encounter, she's slowly dying.

11:27 / 08.11.05

(That was to Petey, not kovacs btw).

I agree with what you are saying kovacs. Busty doesn't always equal dolled up if you will, but the more public perception of busty is your Pam Anderson-styles than a more natural style. I'm going to have a look through the issue again and see how Alix and Lance compare to the other character's portrayls in the book. I don't think it's a necessary angle that we have to take on the character, but if we want to (Lance trying to control her image) the puzzle pieces do seem to match up if we want them to.

The portrayal of Alix isn't more "unrealistic" than that of Lance. He's like a Men's Health cover model, but we're not saying he's a stereotypical beefcake pecs-and-abs image of masculinity or wondering if he's taken steroids.

Now, see I was assuming he was actually, given that he has this real desire to be a super-hero. So did Dyna-Mite Dan, but we know he's a crappy 6th rater just by looking at him. Lance seems like that wannabe with the real desire to really grow through with it, and all the working out, keeping fit and taking all the 'supplements' that would entail.

It's amazing with these Seven Soldiers characters how you can just really get a feel for them

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:51 / 08.11.05

Kovacs: The way Alix currently presents herself is amply justified by what we also learn about her character -- through the way she poses and spends a lot of time in front of mirrors, for instance -- and, through dialogue, her marriage. If she was portrayed as someone who wasn't much concerned with appearances and prioritised her work over her image, that might be different (but wouldn't make it any more unrealistic for her to have large breasts).

Oddly, I took the posing and mirror-gazing to be an example of her sublimation by the masculine and the objectification angle - she doesn't really start until the origin happens, and I'd suggest that either (a) she's being ironically bitter in front of the mirror or (b) on a subtextual level, she's soaked up some of the vanity that results in Lance's demise. I quite like the implication that unlike most "makeover" stories (I'm thinking of movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding or She's All That) this change isn't a positive one at all, and she's sitting at the mirror obsessing about what's happened to her, and bitterly acting like one of the 'Eternal Superteens" pornstars (hence the posing and the weird standing on tiptoes thing) - she's grieving, and messed up. The point of the page before that, when she sees a shrink, is that Alix will at some point be able to take this senseless thing and transform it into something for herself, something positive, even if it seems random and hurtful. She's just making the first baby steps, and I read them as very angry ones.

Now, map the final page "Bang" onto Nancy Sinatra's "Bang-Bang, My baby shot me down..." Actually, that could be a kind of theme song for the comic...stupid Tarantino using it first, stupid single-media comical books...

14:56 / 08.11.05

Yeah, that last page is strange. Sad, Angry, and definitely posing. Superheroes are a ridiculously sexualized bunch of folks, and the scene in front of the mirror is her acting the part.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:08 / 08.11.05

Something tells me she's going to be the traitor. Why? Because "everything has to die." Because she'll still be so angry at the idea of superheroes.

Compare her having to explain to her students that she's not a robot, to the revelation about the giant spiders.

15:17 / 08.11.05

But she's the Goodest.

No WAY will Alix betray the team. She may be pissed off at being a superhero, but Ystin isn't a superhero and neither is Klarion, MM, or Frank. That leaves happily in love Jake, and big gun Zatanna. Alix isn't selfish. She works with autistic kids - kids trapped in psychological shells! If anything, she'll be the one to die.

15:24 / 08.11.05

Something I wonder about...

How can one of the Seven Soldiers betray the team, if the team never ever meets at all?

miss wonderstarr

15:28 / 08.11.05

Now, map the final page "Bang" onto Nancy Sinatra's "Bang-Bang, My baby shot me down..." Actually, that could be a kind of theme song for the comic...stupid Tarantino using it first, stupid single-media comical books...

Doesn't the secret cop codenamed "Mr Orange" perform the same gesture in a mirror (I should check, really) when he's psyching himself up before he meets the Reservoir Dogs gang for the heist? Telling himself, and of course I have just checked this, "Don't pussy out on me now. They don't know. They don't know shit. You're not gonna get hurt. You're fucking Barretta. They believe every fucking word cus you're supercool." That is, getting himself into the superhero character, casting himself as a persona in the mirror. A fictionsuit, if you like.

Pulp Fiction has the same themes about "getting into character" as gangsters.

Of course, Reservoir Dogs also nods to Marvel Comics (funny how Joe Cabot/Lawrence Tierney wasn't cast as the Thing).

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:49 / 08.11.05

That reading of the last page also elegantly connects back to the Whip, and her musings on when the act stops being an act. Making Alix into Little Miss Orange does lend itself to some speculation about her future...will she achieve her death wish...

And the traitor angle isn't necessarily a negative characteristic in this case. It's possible she'll be able to stop thinking like a hero and be herself again and look for a different solution...

While some of the Soldiers aren't superheroes per se, Alix seems to me - having no Frankenstein to compare to - to be the one most likely to disengage from the ongoing battle and world-view and question what's happening. Shilo might as well, but depending on how we read his history (how much of it is canon in this particular version of the DCU) and how much credit we give him for being able to "escape" backward mind frames. But Alix has been presented someone who knows when to quit, knows that nothing worth it can last forever, and is enough of a defeatist.

I'm not sure what exactly I'm getting at - it could be a positive or negative expression of the traitor idea, but I -do- think at this point that Alix is the only one capable of withstanding the Time Tailor's debasements and humiliations...

Wow, that was all over the map.

17:06 / 08.11.05

Alix seems to me - having no Frankenstein to compare to - to be the one most likely to disengage from the ongoing battle and world-view and question what's happening.

Well, let's wait for Frankenstein then, cause I'd wager that that's pretty much what his mini is all about. Bigger pictures and whatnot.

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