Comics
[Comic Book Review] “Arkham Manor” #2 Needs Less Batman
Now that Bruce has returned home, and determined to solve a double homicide in the newly formed “Arkham Manor” things can really get started. This month we’re treated to a briskly paced adventure through the former safe haven that offers further psychological analysis of what makes Batman tick.
WRITTEN BY: Gerry Duggan
ART BY: Shawn Crystal
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: November 26, 2014
It’s going to be hard for “Arkham Manor” not to compare itself to the seminal classic “Arkham Asylum” from Grant Morrison. Each story has a variety of similarities, and I applaud Gerry Duggan for being so bold as to emulate the story in his own way. Now that Batman is fully immersed in another personality, much akin to Matches Malone he can begin to understand the inner workings of the labyrinth.
It’s nice to see an oddly confident Batman in light of what Scott Snyder is doing on “Batman.” Duggan showcases his protagonist as overly confident to a point, and plays with the idea of reducing him down to nothing. Inside Arkham Manor he may have a home field advantage, but he’s got none of the tools he’s used to.
Instead we see Bruce attending group therapy and given what we know now about the identity of the Joker, things have an especially sinister tone in this issue. I can’t help but giggle when the whole group notices that Jack Shaw is hiding something. What’s more is their laser focus on Batman. They have him figured out there, even the petty thugs know why he does the vigilante thing.
Shawn Crystal is a sight to behold. His muddy pencils add a certain level of gritty charm to the newest member of the batman mythos: Arkham Manor. His pencils bring the property to life with such vigor that the building itself feels like the newest character in the book. Over the course of twenty two pages we’re treated to the inside, the outside, and the grand halls of Wayne Manor.
Combined with the dark sunken in eyes of the characters you really have something different and approachable. “Arkham Manor” doesn’t look like most other Bat books and it’s a good thing. It’s got a darker charm on its sleeve than it first lets on. It’s perfect too, because the final showdown on the last few pages plays with the darkness in such a perfect way that you’ll be on edge right until the final panel.
This book doesn’t do much yet to justify its own existence. We’ve learned nothing new, and so far it just reads like an extension of the Bat-book formula which is to say a different writer taking Batman on monthly adventures against a different set of backdrops than the core series. I can’t help but wonder where things will go when the trapped inside the manor storyline resolves itself. Because this book could survive without Batman, in fact at this point it’s just what the Bat-books need: less Batman.
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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