Retrospect of Chaz...
Okay there is news on the Chaos Comics front. Tales of Wonder (who bought the characters in the Bankrupsy Auction in 2003) is now working with Devils Due Publishing to bring back the remaining Cast.
http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31593
This lead me to take a trip down memory lane and re-read my old Chastity Books and see where the character went astray, which is what many Fiends thing happened to the char, so if you are bored here’s a play by play…sorry no picys this entry folks!
Evil Ernie: Straight to Hell- Chaz’s first appearance! And she started out pretty badass, a ruthless punk vamp assassin who has no trouble with slicing somebody wide open if necessary. That kinda went out the window when she met Evil though, ruthless vamp assassin to ditzy fangirl in how many pages? Ick.
Theater of Pain- Origin Story, repressed shy abused teenager gets drawn into the world of punk rock, becomes a vamp, gets a spine, a tude and releases a whole lotta repressed emotion then she starts kicking ASS! IMO this is still the BEST Chastity Series to date, showcases both sides to the char, her ruthlessness and the dollop of humanity she’s still got.
Evil Ernie; Destroyer- Okay I’ll be honest, I DID NOT like Chaz in this series, I put this appearance as the WORST one she has had to date. I hated how she was written here. She was a freaking ‘always in danger’/ ‘damsel in distress’ Sidekick to Evil here. UGH! I read this and lamented the loss of my kick ass vamp ;_;
Evil Ernie: Vampire Vengeance- Better than Destroyer, at least Chaz realized that tagging with Evil was not a fun thing and split, NOW can we please have our kick ass vamp back…pretty please?
Rocked!- And here is where I think the char went astray. Here we see Chaz less willing to kill, a direct contrast to what was established in both ‘Straight to Hell’ and ‘Theater of Pain’. I think the angle that they were TRYING to make is that Chastity prefers to make her OWN rules, ie if she is gonna kill it’s gonna be on HER terms and HER rules. While the High Council on the other hand was forcing her to play by THEIR rules. This POV fit with her Punk Background, however it got twisted into, Chastity doesn’t like killing, period, and would rather be an actress than an assassin. Well at least she’s not a Evil Ernie Groupie anymore right?
Lust for Life- Continued where Rocked! Left off, and the character suffered more, again I think the point that was trying to be made was that Chaz would rather live by her own rules and not the Council’s however the big impression that was made was that Chaz was more worried about her career as an actress than she should have been. And I have to agree here, Chastity loves to act…yes, however it’s not her sole reason for existence, as implied in this series. It was for a time an escape from the bad experiences of her childhood, this was covered in Theater of Pain and has been ignored ever since. At least Ed Benes art was pretty to look at.
Armageddon; YES we have our kick ass, ass kicking, smart mouthed Chastity back! Just in time for the world to end…bummer ;_;
Purgatori vs. Chastity- Post Armageddon, she starts out well, kicking (more like attempting to kick) Purgi’s ass. I mean full gas tanker and she RUNS PURGI OVER with it before letting it blow up! Okay that is just a tickle to Purgi but come on that was pretty bad ass by ANY definition!
Reign of Terror; Still on the right track! Not as good as it could have been thou too much retrospective and not enough meat in the story.
Untold Tales; This story is right up there with Theater of Pain, 3rd in my list of all time BEST Chaz stories, again a good balance between her determination and ruthlessness and her humanity and the sweet Peter Vale art didn’t hurt it at all.
Chastity ½- My #2 Fav Chaz story! Finally I think we are getting our Punk Vamp Assassin back! That poor serial killer never had a prayer.
Love Bites- Okay starting to drift again here, but then again this is a ‘love’ story…so that is to be expected and closes up the Billy plot thread.
Shattered- Slight drift again, more human than vamp, but a hell of a lot closer to her Theater of Pain Roots than any of the other series to date have gotten. But still a cool story and the whole ‘Feeding’ scene was frikkin priceless! The intro of Kyle Trent was cool, but he wasn’t used right…as shown in later series.
Bad Kitty; Reloaded- Again this was a great series, Chastity and Bad Kitty play well off each other, and we see here for the first time since Straight to Hell and Theater of Pain Chastity’s assertion that she LIKES being a vampire and has no interest in a cure to becoming human again.
Heartbreaker; Good plot, bad execution BLECH! Starting to play up the Chaz/Kyle plot a bit more here, which could be good or bad…
Crazytown- Would have been a hell of a lot better if they gave the writer another issue to work with. This was VERY rushed feeling especially issue 3 where it was like “OH SHIT gotta wrap this up!!” I didn’t like what they turned the Kyle character into, DID like how Chaz’s friends accepted her vampire nature, REALLY liked the idea of the ‘Darklight Inc’ introed at the end of the series pity this was the last Chaz series made.
Now Devils Due has stated they will pick up most of the chars post the Armageddon, where they world ‘ended’ and was ‘reborn’ Now how much of the post Armageddon (if any) plots they will snatch up remains to be seen. I just hope they don’t turn into an uber ruthless vamp (similar to Purgi) or an Evil Groupie. I assume they will go the Buffy/Blade/Angel route and this is where Darklight Inc could EASILY slide in. Supernatural Hunting plenty of stuff for ass kicking, humor, drama. Ect.
Hummm maybe I should do this for my RP chars too, might be good to clean them out a tad.
We shall see. Laters all!
SW
http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31593
This lead me to take a trip down memory lane and re-read my old Chastity Books and see where the character went astray, which is what many Fiends thing happened to the char, so if you are bored here’s a play by play…sorry no picys this entry folks!
Evil Ernie: Straight to Hell- Chaz’s first appearance! And she started out pretty badass, a ruthless punk vamp assassin who has no trouble with slicing somebody wide open if necessary. That kinda went out the window when she met Evil though, ruthless vamp assassin to ditzy fangirl in how many pages? Ick.
Theater of Pain- Origin Story, repressed shy abused teenager gets drawn into the world of punk rock, becomes a vamp, gets a spine, a tude and releases a whole lotta repressed emotion then she starts kicking ASS! IMO this is still the BEST Chastity Series to date, showcases both sides to the char, her ruthlessness and the dollop of humanity she’s still got.
Evil Ernie; Destroyer- Okay I’ll be honest, I DID NOT like Chaz in this series, I put this appearance as the WORST one she has had to date. I hated how she was written here. She was a freaking ‘always in danger’/ ‘damsel in distress’ Sidekick to Evil here. UGH! I read this and lamented the loss of my kick ass vamp ;_;
Evil Ernie: Vampire Vengeance- Better than Destroyer, at least Chaz realized that tagging with Evil was not a fun thing and split, NOW can we please have our kick ass vamp back…pretty please?
Rocked!- And here is where I think the char went astray. Here we see Chaz less willing to kill, a direct contrast to what was established in both ‘Straight to Hell’ and ‘Theater of Pain’. I think the angle that they were TRYING to make is that Chastity prefers to make her OWN rules, ie if she is gonna kill it’s gonna be on HER terms and HER rules. While the High Council on the other hand was forcing her to play by THEIR rules. This POV fit with her Punk Background, however it got twisted into, Chastity doesn’t like killing, period, and would rather be an actress than an assassin. Well at least she’s not a Evil Ernie Groupie anymore right?
Lust for Life- Continued where Rocked! Left off, and the character suffered more, again I think the point that was trying to be made was that Chaz would rather live by her own rules and not the Council’s however the big impression that was made was that Chaz was more worried about her career as an actress than she should have been. And I have to agree here, Chastity loves to act…yes, however it’s not her sole reason for existence, as implied in this series. It was for a time an escape from the bad experiences of her childhood, this was covered in Theater of Pain and has been ignored ever since. At least Ed Benes art was pretty to look at.
Armageddon; YES we have our kick ass, ass kicking, smart mouthed Chastity back! Just in time for the world to end…bummer ;_;
Purgatori vs. Chastity- Post Armageddon, she starts out well, kicking (more like attempting to kick) Purgi’s ass. I mean full gas tanker and she RUNS PURGI OVER with it before letting it blow up! Okay that is just a tickle to Purgi but come on that was pretty bad ass by ANY definition!
Reign of Terror; Still on the right track! Not as good as it could have been thou too much retrospective and not enough meat in the story.
Untold Tales; This story is right up there with Theater of Pain, 3rd in my list of all time BEST Chaz stories, again a good balance between her determination and ruthlessness and her humanity and the sweet Peter Vale art didn’t hurt it at all.
Chastity ½- My #2 Fav Chaz story! Finally I think we are getting our Punk Vamp Assassin back! That poor serial killer never had a prayer.
Love Bites- Okay starting to drift again here, but then again this is a ‘love’ story…so that is to be expected and closes up the Billy plot thread.
Shattered- Slight drift again, more human than vamp, but a hell of a lot closer to her Theater of Pain Roots than any of the other series to date have gotten. But still a cool story and the whole ‘Feeding’ scene was frikkin priceless! The intro of Kyle Trent was cool, but he wasn’t used right…as shown in later series.
Bad Kitty; Reloaded- Again this was a great series, Chastity and Bad Kitty play well off each other, and we see here for the first time since Straight to Hell and Theater of Pain Chastity’s assertion that she LIKES being a vampire and has no interest in a cure to becoming human again.
Heartbreaker; Good plot, bad execution BLECH! Starting to play up the Chaz/Kyle plot a bit more here, which could be good or bad…
Crazytown- Would have been a hell of a lot better if they gave the writer another issue to work with. This was VERY rushed feeling especially issue 3 where it was like “OH SHIT gotta wrap this up!!” I didn’t like what they turned the Kyle character into, DID like how Chaz’s friends accepted her vampire nature, REALLY liked the idea of the ‘Darklight Inc’ introed at the end of the series pity this was the last Chaz series made.
Now Devils Due has stated they will pick up most of the chars post the Armageddon, where they world ‘ended’ and was ‘reborn’ Now how much of the post Armageddon (if any) plots they will snatch up remains to be seen. I just hope they don’t turn into an uber ruthless vamp (similar to Purgi) or an Evil Groupie. I assume they will go the Buffy/Blade/Angel route and this is where Darklight Inc could EASILY slide in. Supernatural Hunting plenty of stuff for ass kicking, humor, drama. Ect.
Hummm maybe I should do this for my RP chars too, might be good to clean them out a tad.
We shall see. Laters all!
SW