The Twelve Days of Who's Who! Part Nine: From Anarky to Kadaver (1990-1993)

[about_faces]

By 1990, I suspect that DC was tired of the increasingly-crappy printing quality they were giving to their Who's Who books, and probably wanted to step things up for the collector's market. This is pure speculation on my part, just going by the fact that the new editions of Who's Who were a much higher quality, with better coloring and slick,

Comments

[about_faces]

Yeah, I sure as hell don't remember Anarky killing anybody! I suspect that Waid is a Capitalist running dog out to discredit the voice of the people! /Lonnie

Yeah, the fact that he really does have the best of intentions helps make him appealing, as does the fact that Grant did occasionally show him to be misguided, such as with Lonnie's plan to kill Batman. Unfortunately, the Batman he picked was unwittingly Jean-Paul, who proceeded to terrify the shit out of Lonnie after the latter's actions nearly allowed an innocent child to die. I need to read the Shadow of the Bat story with Anarky to see what, if anything, Lonnie learned from that royal screw-up.

As for Black Mask, yeah, it's like what you two are discussing with Clock King, how we're supposed to accept that a tangentially-related thing could spin out into a full-blown obsession. I wish we could see Moench try to revisit Roman now after all these years, but with Roman dead, I don't see that ever happening.

Kadaver seems to be a specialist in faking such situations - at least, that's what I gather through his origin as stated; maybe I'm wrong.

I dare say you're not wrong, from the two Kadaver stories I've seen. What sets him apart from other expert death-fakers such as the Joker and Hugo Strange is that Kadaver seems far more inclined to beg for his life and scream in horror. Whether it's genuine or all playing up to the death obsession is unclear.

[lego_joker]

According to Grant, he did originally intend to have Anarky kill his targets - Breyfogle himself claimed that he'd believed for years that Lonnie had killed the dope-dealing rock star, until Grant cleared it up in an interview.

I love Lonnie on the basis of his costume alone - Hat + Full-face mask + Flowing robes + Scepter = One Happy Fanboy.

(Also, I've never read V For Vendetta, so there's that.)

Also also, I love the Adam Hughes piece. I think that the murkiness really works for the other inmates - Joker's front and center, signifying that he cares the most about the audience, while the others lurk in the background, plotting their own agendas and whatnot.

That, and they actually sort of look like a team of Anti-Heroes. I'd buy the hell out of that book.

[about_faces]

But it's such a ridiculous costume! I love all those elements too, but he looks like he should be the night watchman at some cathedral fortress in a Vatican dystopia or something.

(Also, I've never read V For Vendetta, so there's that.)

Ooh, if you get the chance, you definitely should. How do you feel about Watchmen? In my experience, when it comes to those two books, people who tend to LOVE one feel kinda meh about the other. They seem to each speak to very different priorities when it comes to what people want out of comics.

That, and they actually sort of look like a team of Anti-Heroes. I'd buy the hell out of that book.

Well, when you put it THAT way, I sure as hell would too!

[psychopathicus]

Personally, I like both, but I'd say Watchmen is more fully realized. V for Vendetta is definitely good stuff, but it suffers a bit in collected form - if you were reading it in brief bursts over the course of who-knows-how-long, as it originally came out, that might not be an issue, but as a graphic novel, it works better after you've read it when you're thinking about the overall plot than it does while you're going through all the tiny little mini-chapterlets. (For the record, I love the V for Vendetta movie adaptation, so make of that what you will. Also, I'm a big fan of Moore's "Jaspers Warp" storyline in Captain Britain, which was published in the exact same way as VfV yet somehow reads much more smoothly - maybe because it's concentrating on pure superhero action as opposed to sociopolitical stuff.)

[psychopathicus]

Personally, I recommend the 'Batman: Anarky' TPB, if you can lay your hands on it. It collects several of Lonnie's earlier appearances, plus his initial miniseries. It's good stuff, even if it does kind of expand his role from 'smart kid who's good with gadgets' to 'mad scientist-level GENIUS who can amaze Darkseid'.
Oh, and by the way, I've got another comics-related article up on MRFH. Check it out, if you feel like it:

http://mutantreviewers.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/top-ten-other-comic-book-teams-that-should-get-movies/