Comics
[Comic Book Review] “Arkham Manor” #1 Gives Gotham’s Insane A Housewarming
By the end of “Arkham Manor” #1 your groans of familiarity will wash away with excitement. The Batman universe has go through a huge transformation under group editor Mark Doyle, and Gerry Duggan brings a different type of Batman to the page, one I didn’t think I wanted, but one I’m very happy to have.
WRITTEN BY: Gerry Duggan
ART BY: Shawn Crystal
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: October 22, 2014
It’s very clear to me that “Batman: Eternal” is really trying to change the status quo of Gotham. What better and more twisted way to celebrate 75 years, than tearing down the very sturdy foundations of the old universe. Right for the opening pages, Arkham Asylum is no more. The mad house that elevated Batman to a literary icon in the eighties has closed it’s doors and the insane of Gotham are in need a new home.
Luckily billionaire Bruce Wayne’s home is just laying around empty waiting to be acquired by the city. It’s bought up, it’s secrets are put to rest, and Arkham Manor is born. The gigantic home that gave birth to Gotham’s most twisted mind now houses an entire population of maniacs.
The premise alone should be enough to sell any longtime Batman reader. Gerry Duggen ensures to make it worth your way by bleeding as much heart into the old building that he can. This isn’t a story about Batman, but about the place in Gotham that made him. There is a sense of moving on, and longing on the page here. The transition is handled with a certain sense of trepidation, that breeds excitement.
Shawn Crystal’s distinct style brings Gotham to muddy life, and adds a little rougher edge to the New52’s Batman than you might be used to seeing. He’s a little more rugged, worn down, and weathered. But it’s for the best.
Crystal’s ability to channel the transition and longing in this moment is incredible. A two page spread showing the difference between the Manor then, and now is striking. Bruce’s jaunt down a hall is populated by ghostly flashbacks to his past that tell a deep story about his relationship to the now insane asylum.
It’s only fitting that Duggen bring his story to a boiling point at the end of the issue. But, somehow keeps in grounded in a more street level version of Gotham than we’re used to. It’s something I found in his co-writtten issue of Batman with Synder and something we’re seeing again here. In the wake of an incredible rogues gallery, Duggen opts for something a little smaller and more human. It makes the push of the issue all the more interesting.
Is Batman doing this for the prevention of crime, or does he care more about the building than his own wellbeing. Is he so concerned with petty murderers that he needs to forget about the likes of TwoFace, Scarecrow and the like, or is he just heading inside to check the locks?
I suppose we’ll find out in thirty. Until then, consider me sold.
Comics
[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream
Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.
“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”
Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.
Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.
Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.
Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.
Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.
Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.
Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.
Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion.
Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.
‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.
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