AUG 1990
By Rick Veitch and Gary Fields
Meet the bratpack... they are the sidekicks of four superheroes... very disturbed sidekicks, of very disturbed superheroes. They don't live long... because death sells.
Boy, I'm not even sure if this review will make it to anyone.
I was always intrigued by the cover of the first issue of Bratpack, but it wasn't until now that I finally made up my mind to read it. Now, reading it is complicated, because this is a story with a revised ending. As in... there is a considerably different ending from the original. It has been that way for a while, because Rick didn't like how it ended, and after seeing he wasn't the only one thinking this way, he decided to fix it.
I have to say that I prefer the new ending.
Apart from that, the collected edition (IDW, 2018) also contains additional pages, with some of them fitting so well in the story, it's almost bizarre they weren't there in the first place.
So, what is Bratpack? At glance it looks like yet another deconstruction of superhero comic-books, but I'd say this was more like an exorcism of what the comic book industry had turn by 1990. In fact, none of this makes sense, without the story of how Jason Todd was killed (and I am not talking about the Joker, I am talking about the people who phoned in to kill him).
The story was almost published through DC, but the deal fell through after the whole Swamp Thing #88 fiasco. The book ended up getting printed by Tundra, and has been in publication ever since (through different publishers, because this is creator-owned).
In his original pitch, Rick said he was somehow inspired by the "seduction of the innocent" book by Frederick Wertham. He wanted to play around with some of the more negative aspects of adult/adolescent relationships in society. He mentioned "The jealous parent" (Moon Goddess), "The hyper-critical parent" (Judge Jury), "The Parent who never grew up" (King Rad), and the "Parent who's sexuality takes precedent" (The Mink). So... that means that the sidekicks of these heroes... are like the kids of those types of parents.
Now, I must warn you that this is a very adult comic book. It's not for everyone, you really need to appreciate very dark humor.
Let's say that, if you survived reading Preacher, or The Boys... this is the original.
But it has a hard mix of many things controversial... too many. But I highly recommend reading through the prologue (by a certain known British writer no one likes anymore), and an essay at the end from Veitch with a bunch of additional material. Reading through Veitch's notes really help you understand what you just read.
vaporwave
pixelskylines
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
