Looking back on Seven Soldiers (Part Three)

(For the previous parts, click here and here.)


Guardian

The Manhattan Guardian is the story of Jake Jordan, a cop who lost his job and his self-respect after accidently shooting an innocent boy. But he takes the chance when the Guardian newspaper offers the job of becoming the company's own reporter-superhero.

The series is a straightforward superhero tale, but full of fresh and exciting ideas: Subway pirates! The Newsboy Legion! And the mysterious cyberbetic owner of the Guardian, Ed Stargard.
I'm not sure if the pulp-like innocence of those colorful elements wouldn't fit better with a more lighthearted protagonist, instead of a whiny downer like Jake. And I'm not too keen on the cliche that his first mission involves saving his abducted wife. But I have to admit it works. The first two issues push all the right buttons for a mindless, breathless action adventure.
That the hero has to pay a big price at the end, since he could save his wife but not her father, is without question an ambitious addition, but again, I'm not sure if it really fits in the context.

Issue #3 is a nice little story about problems in an futuristic theme park. And then there's issue#4. At least, I am pretty sure there actually IS an issue#4. Only problem is, I don't have it. The issue was delayed, and somehow I totally missed it when it shipped.
So if Guardian #4 contains some amazing revelation that manages to turn the whole of Seven Soldiers into an amazing masterpiece, forget all I said before.



Bulleteer

Alix Harrower is a young woman who is not interested in becoming a superhero. But her husband is. Actually, he is obsessed with the idea. Fame, power, immortality, all that stuff. And since he's a mad scientist, he tries to make his dream come true, by developing a living metal skin which he tests on himself. And on his wife, against her will. Not a good idea. He dies, she gets superpowers. Guess that's what you call tragic irony.

The Bulleteer mini continues the irreverent look at superheroes begun in Seven Soldiers #0. Alix didn't want powers and isn't really sure what to do with them. But she has a good heart, so she reluctantly tries the role of a hero.
In issue #2 she cooperates with the FBI. We meet again the female agent from Shining Knight #3, Helen Helligan. We learn what traces the authorities found of the events in Seven Soldiers #0. Alix and agent Helligan (who suffers from the consequences of a Sheeda bite) question an old villain in prison who fought Greg Saunders back in the day. By means of inventive threats they manage to make him talk, and he actually has a few infos about the upcoming Sheeda invasion.

After that events take a weird turn as Alix helps agent Helligan hurry to her sisters wedding, which she doesn't want to miss - because she wants to expose the groom as a werewolf.
It's not clear if he really is or if Helligan just made that up. Nevertheless the whole thing almost makes sense with its own strange dreamlike logic. At the start of the issue Helligan is all matter-of-fact and businesslike, but as her health problems surface she more and more focuses on private things, culminating in the desperate rush to the wedding where she collapses after her dramatic allegation.
I'm not really sure what to make of this issue. It begins with a lot of exposition and turns into a strange experiment. But an experiment I approve I guess.

In issue #3 Alix visits a superhero convention, working as a bodyguard for a mermaid - excuse me, a female person of marine origin. She doesn't do her job very well - the client is killed by her son while everybody is distracted by another murder attempt: On Alix herself, by our old friend I-Spyder, the traitor from Seven Soldiers #1.
But only in issue #4 Alix finally meets her real nemesis: The eternally teenage supervillain girl Sally Sonic, who had an e-mail affair with Alix' husband.
Sally's origin is tragic and impressive. We see how she started with best intentions to become a hero but was slowly perverted, and lacked the will-power to take control of her life. Her story is easily one of the best parts of Seven Soldiers.
But her fight in the present is less well-done. It lacks a climax or a real resolution. Bulleteer simply wins at the end, without any sort of emotional breakthrough. Maybe that was the point, to demonstrate how she and Sally are more alike than she wants to admit? But Sally declared she would have embraced the chance to become a real superheroine that Alix is so hesitant to take, as well as given Alix' husband what Alix didn't want to give him. It fits that Alix refuses the subsequent summons by the ghost of Greg Saunders to join the fight against the Sheeda. Instead she wants to bring her injured enemy to a hospital. A strange but somehow appealing set of priorities. And while driving to hospital she will save the world anyway, without intending to do it.

After Klarion Bulleteer is the Seven Soldiers mini I like second best. Obviously it takes a critical look at the superhero genre and its fans. Morrison uses superheroes here as a metaphor for media stars, not unlike Bendis and Oeming did in Powers. Especially the convention in issue #3 provides lots of opportunity for parody and insight about superhero stereotypes.
But once again the stories themselves are lacking a bit in regard to dramatic structure and conflict. Maybe that was intentional, since Alix is a very reluctant, passive kind of hero who is not sure what to do with her new powers. And the issues read well enough, so I guess I shouldn't nitpick and just say that it's quite good stuff.