Walter & Louise Simonson with Jon. J. Muth & Kent Williams
Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown (1988)
This was the comic book growing up. You can tell because of the prestige format printing, as it was known, with glossy high quality pages and a story told in four volumes rather than issues. Fancy.
There's little narration to spoil the illusion of something filmic, and the artwork is painted throughout, very striking, and kind of dark in ways which genuinely invoke Rembrandt and Goya. Nevertheless, this is still a pair of super types having a thrilling adventure seasoned with the kind of generic angst which has troubled Marvel heroes from the beginning. Havok and Wolverine are pitted against the schemes of three nuclear themed villains, of whom Meltdown is able to wield the mighty power of a nuclear er… meltdown; but he must first con Havok into absorbing the mighty power of a nuclear meltdown orchestrated by Neutron at an atomic power station in India; and he must then fight Havok so that he himself can absorb the mighty power of Havok's plasma blasts. I don't understand why he can't just go straight to the source and absorb the mighty power of the nuclear meltdown fresh from the cow, so to speak, particularly as he's chosen the name Meltdown. I suppose it could actually be his name - Gordon Meltdown or something - but that would be one hell of a coincidence, so personally I'm doubtful. There are a number of scenes in which we see Neutron moodily playing chess against no-one in particular with little Havok and Wolverine pieces on the board; and when the heroes have won the day, he opens a draw to fetch new pawns for a fresh game, chess pieces resembling Captain America, Spiderman and so on. You can almost hear those three dramatic notes of revelation in the background. But you can't mean—
Dan dan daaaaa!
The problem is not that this is in essence a ludicrous sixties telly Batman of a story, but that the gulf between the presentation and the narrative emphasises its inherent absurdity rather than fooling us into believing we're watching Tarkovsky like big boys do, all grown up and shit.
The art is accomplished but ill-suited, and I've never been convinced by Kent Williams' squirty looking people. He always makes everything appear greasy and turdlike - as though squozen from a tube, or even an arsehole - and Wolverine has a peculiar red nose and is apparently growing his hair into the shape of a mediaeval jester's cap. Meltdown might have gotten away with itwere it not for those meddling kids as a couple of fifty cent comic books drawn by a more average talent, but it feels like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius at the National Opera with Sir Ralph Richardson in the lead role, regardless of whether Sir Ralph Richardson can actually sing.
Never mind.
Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown (1988)
This was the comic book growing up. You can tell because of the prestige format printing, as it was known, with glossy high quality pages and a story told in four volumes rather than issues. Fancy.
There's little narration to spoil the illusion of something filmic, and the artwork is painted throughout, very striking, and kind of dark in ways which genuinely invoke Rembrandt and Goya. Nevertheless, this is still a pair of super types having a thrilling adventure seasoned with the kind of generic angst which has troubled Marvel heroes from the beginning. Havok and Wolverine are pitted against the schemes of three nuclear themed villains, of whom Meltdown is able to wield the mighty power of a nuclear er… meltdown; but he must first con Havok into absorbing the mighty power of a nuclear meltdown orchestrated by Neutron at an atomic power station in India; and he must then fight Havok so that he himself can absorb the mighty power of Havok's plasma blasts. I don't understand why he can't just go straight to the source and absorb the mighty power of the nuclear meltdown fresh from the cow, so to speak, particularly as he's chosen the name Meltdown. I suppose it could actually be his name - Gordon Meltdown or something - but that would be one hell of a coincidence, so personally I'm doubtful. There are a number of scenes in which we see Neutron moodily playing chess against no-one in particular with little Havok and Wolverine pieces on the board; and when the heroes have won the day, he opens a draw to fetch new pawns for a fresh game, chess pieces resembling Captain America, Spiderman and so on. You can almost hear those three dramatic notes of revelation in the background. But you can't mean—
Dan dan daaaaa!
The problem is not that this is in essence a ludicrous sixties telly Batman of a story, but that the gulf between the presentation and the narrative emphasises its inherent absurdity rather than fooling us into believing we're watching Tarkovsky like big boys do, all grown up and shit.
The art is accomplished but ill-suited, and I've never been convinced by Kent Williams' squirty looking people. He always makes everything appear greasy and turdlike - as though squozen from a tube, or even an arsehole - and Wolverine has a peculiar red nose and is apparently growing his hair into the shape of a mediaeval jester's cap. Meltdown might have gotten away with it
Never mind.
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