Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing

In hindsight, Marshal Law is what would happen if Alan Moore and Evan Dorkin has a love child and abandoned it in a dumpster. Not only do I mean that as a compliment, but that's also, in a way, what happened. Marshal Law came out in the late eighties, when comic books were reaching a larger readership than ever that included an increasingly adult audience, yet mainstream America was still treating comic books as childish escapism, as was demonstrated by whatever the hell Tim Burton's Batman was supposed to be. Some comic book creators (such as the aforementioned Alan Moore) were eager to embrace this growing adult readership, and some did so by taking a more visceral and clinical eye to the realm of costumed super-heroism.

Enter Marshal show more Law, a super-powered superhero hunter saddled with the job of policing rogue superheroes in a world now lousy with capes and costumes. Marshal Law is a self-hating superhero that enjoys his job, but he finds himself more involved than usual when he follows up on his suspicion that a Superman-like celebrity superhero The Public Spirit is also a serial killer/rapist calling himself the Sleepman. Behind the plot-line is a world filled with the worst of humanity transformed and magnified in the actions of its supermen, a dark and gritty reality that is perfectly rendered by Kevin O'Neill's sharp, busy, frenetic artwork.

Marshal Law was ahead of the curve when it first hit the comic stands in 1987, and while the concept of not taking comic books seriously is a bit alien with today's epic comic-book saga Hollywood franchises, it was a much needed catharsis for an adult audience looking for something with a harder edge to it. While not as philosophical or grandiose as Alan Moore's Watchmen, Martial Law: Fear and Loathing is just as important a read for those interested in exploring (or reliving) the evolution of comic books at the tale-end of the twentieth century. show less

Marshal Law stood out from the many nihilistic characters crowding the pages of late 80s comics. Literally an anti-hero, Law hates and even actively hunts superheroes. Set in San Futuro, a near-future version of San Francisco, Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing collects the first over-the-top storyline (originally published as six issues) of this scathing indictment on religion, establishment politics, war, bigotry, and hypocrisy all wrapped in the cape of super-heroics. Writer Mills, founder and longtime editor of the famed British comic anthology series 2000 A.D., and artist O'Neill, perhaps best known now as the co-creator (with [a:Alan Moore|3961|Alan Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1182935774p2/3961.jpg]) of [b:The League of show more Extraordinary Gentlemen|297627|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1|Alan Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255573805s/297627.jpg|797], deliver a unique hyper-violent, bloody reality populated with oddities such as the Jesus League of America, the Public Spirit, and Hitler Hernandez. This exploration of superheros in post-modern America belongs on the shelf beside similarly themed works as [b:Watchmen|472331|Watchmen|Alan Moore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1238274511s/472331.jpg|4358649] and [b:The Dark Knight Returns|59960|Batman The Dark Knight Returns|Frank Miller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266462244s/59960.jpg|1104159]. show less

Bad art, childishly violent. Some cool ideas and formats.