The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Scarlet Issue 2

By Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev

Marvel Icon

Scarlet issue 1 was much enjoyed by Michael a few months back and I thought I’d stop by issue 2 to see if I could share in the fun. Straight off I can see exactly what he means, and it’s very much a semi return to form from Bendis and Maleev whom I remember so well from their run on Daredevil.

My trouble with Bendis is the same as my troubles with a lot of big name writers. It’s one of an all too familiar trajectory. Brilliant writing gets them noticed, the jobs come in, more brilliant writing means more jobs, and more jobs, until suddenly they’re 180 degrees away from what they did so well in the first place. It’s either exhaustion at taking too much on, or complacency at having made it, but something changes and the writer who was so brilliant, so innovative, so incredibly readable starts pumping out the same by the numbers garbage that sits on the shelves of your local comic shop each week.

Bendis started so raw and hungry – Jinx, Torso, Goldfish – and these books led to his brilliant run on Daredevil. But over the years, as the number of monthly books he committed to increased, as the massive crossovers rolled round, it all started getting flabby and Bendis became just another Marvel big name writer. But here, with Scarlet, he’s having a bit of a return to form, not 100% convincing perhaps, but certainly it’s got a big something of a classic Bendis book about it, with some of the familiar fire to Bendis’ writing.

In issue 1, Scarlet’s life got ripped apart by a little bit of police violence that left her boyfriend dead and implicated as a major drug dealer. It’s a very familiar scenario and we’re solidly into crooked cop territory here. Now, in issue 2, our girl Scarlet is on a mission and over the course of ten weeks she’s going to track down the cop who killed her boyfriend and exact her revenge. Bendis nearly convinces me that she’s not quite sure what she’s going to do when she does get close to him, but most of the time he’s just teasing us up for the inevitable shot of the red haired girl with the bright red blood splatter agaainst her cheek.

However, despite the story being a by the numbers crooked cop, revenge piece, it’s a Bendis by the numbers crooked cop, revenge piece and it’s Bendis on pretty good form. Pretty much pure exposition, setup and dialogue, something Bendis on his uppers does better than almost anyone writing for the big two right now.

(There must be something really threatening in the way she takes off the glasses, because the hardened ex-cop immediately decides to tell Scarlet every detail about the massive police corruption he was involved in. Bendis skimping on the realism just to move that plot along in Scarlet issue 2.)

But there are still worrying moments where it all just falters and the premise starts creaking a little too much, moments where it all gets a little too unbelievable and jolts you right out of the piece with a “what the hell?”.

Take the scene where our girl walks into the coffee shop where one of the cops who tore her life apart in the first issue now works. This is a cop who took part in, or at least was an accessory in, many terribly corrupt things, not least of which is the murder of Scarlet’s boyfriend. Are you really telling me that he’s going to spill every detail of a huge police corruption scandal after Scarlet walks in a simply asks him?  But he does, in just 3 pages and it’s all too easy, too unrealistic and spoils the moment.

And then there’s the silly little matter of Scarlet following Officer (now Detective) Dunes around for 7 weeks, in her BRIGHT RED VW Beetle. It’s all done for stylistic effect I know, but christ, this guy isn’t the greatest detective in the world to fail to miss that.

(Part of the double page spread of Scarlet – her hair growing longer and redder to denote the passage of time – one of Maleev’s good uses of multiple panels from Scarlet issue 2)

Maleev’s art is quite lovely, a scratchy, flowing thing, with minimalist colours except for all those stylistic reds. And it’s a really effective visual style, just as good as that Daredevil work I enjoyed so much. he does have that annoying habit of reusing his panels, either direct or as blowups. Sometimes it’s for brilliant effect, such as the double page with 12 identical headshots of Scarlet talking at the reader, time passing before our eyes, her hair growing longer and redder as her resolve grows with it. But sometimes it’s simply repetition, possibly for effect, possibly simply too much use of stock poses, but either way, it makes the art far too static at times.

I doubt I’ll be dashing out every couple of months for Scarlet as they come out, it certainly didn’t fire me up that much, but it’s got something, some spark of great, old Bendis that means it’s a good, entertaining comic. I’ll be there when they collect it to see if it holds up in the longer form. But based on Michael’s love for issue 1, my enjoyment of this second issue and the sense that Bendis is back on something at least near his old form here, I have a feeling it’s going to hold up very well indeed.

Scarlet issue 3 is due out in November 2010.