THE UN-MEN #7 REVIEW

[Stephanie Kay]

Reviewer: Stephanie Kay, children_of_paradise@hotmail.co.uk
Story Title: Children of Paradox, Chapter 1

The Doc treats that gaff like he’s family. But sure as a pig on a tanning bed smells bacon, he most definitely AIN’T.

Writer: John Whalen
Art: Mike Hawthorne
Colorists: Tanya & Richard Horie
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Cover Art: Tomer Hanuka
Assistant Editor: Mark Doyle
Editor: Jonathan Vankin
The Un-Men created by: Len Wein & Bernie Wrightson
Published By: Vertigo / DC Comics

Issue #7 starts off the new Children of Paradox storyline, which presents a whole new set of shenanigans occurring down at Aberrance - a ‘freak resort’ which is half reservation and half theme-park tourist attraction. So this new chapter provides an ample opportunity for people to jump on-board this slightly underappreciated cookie. The Un-Men has risen, perhaps a little unexpectedly, to a position of one of my favorite Vertigo titles being released currently. But with the impending end of American Virgin, Crossing Midnight and now The Exterminators I feel that my protective nature has gone into over-drive: one hopes The Un-Men will remain as the horror cornerstone in Vertigo’s line-up.

And that is what I consider the shell of The Un-Men to be; a tastily repulsive piece of mystery horror. But the current creative team go even better than that by lifting concepts which could so easily be pigeon-holed as some sort of ‘niche’ attraction, and adding in some extreme, although very culturally fitting ethical questions. We do have all the ‘old school’ macabre style, the theatrical self referential villainy - but we also have some perfect reversals and parodies.

The Children of Paradox storyline goes full steam ahead with its variation of the detective genre. Well Kilcrop has always be the investigative force in this series, but here he returns to Aberrance in a role endorsed by Cranius: Kilcrop is now the new Security Advisor. Niko is happy about this (oh yeah) and J. J. most certainly isn’t. Kilcrop has already identified the ideological divisions which run incredibly deep throughout the district: specifically concerning the artificially enhanced Un-Men and the Gaffs, the natural-born ‘freaks’. In a way similar to a mutated Ethnocentrism with beliefs of supremacy, the Gaffs are segregated and repressed by the Un-Men. It’s a rather distasteful hierarchy, and one which evidently disgruntles Kilcrop, an albino African American.

So Kilcrop is back and assigned to investigate Tony Campos, a gaff going by the Elephant Man title, who is rustled away in a mysterious white van - and where we know he gave ‘birth’. The cover (which the thumbnail in this review doesn't show all of) should probably give you some idea. And if you’re wanting to see the cover for #7 which DC didn’t want going to print, then have a look over at Tomer Hanuka’s blog. Too bad. Still if they censored a breast removal on a Y The Last Man cover then we shouldn’t be too surprised should we.

That said we do get the fabulously gory Hawthorne and the Hories’ version - the interior opening sequence of Campos has to be one of the most memorable moments in a comic so far this year. Lets just say many Brits have had a ‘baby phobia’ since Trainspotting and this one sort of crosses over with the birth in Alien. In fact this issue is ripe with visual moments which seem right out of a moviedom bizarre premise - the Freaktease club with performers and clientele who stopped by after appearing in Total Recall. These are probably more allusions, and it does help The Un-Men feel distinctively unique.

It seems Cranius is now also now having problems ‘un-creating’ thanks to the aftermath of Damien Kane in issue #5. And we also get a potential femme fatale introduction in this issue with Nadia, who is certainly going to be a snag-in-the-road on the relationship front. She also seems and looks surprisingly ‘normal’. There’s no way there isn’t something afoot with that.

Still even with some noir conventions popping up, we can still muse that Kilcrop will never ever be the hard-boiled detective type. The creative team have been successful since the inception of this series to add subtle layers to Kilcrop’s character: he’s a miss-fit, in his employment, socially outside Amberrance, socially inside Aberrance. It makes him a little stilted and unsure occasionally - and his relationship with our one armed angel Niko for me borders on charming. He’s not quite dithering, but there is sweet awkward chemistry between them. Kilcrop’s depiction benefits from the unique situation of having his inner reactions ’revealed’ through his physicality - the albino blushing. The Horie coloring-team add a few subtle, cute occasions of Kilcrop’s discomfort.

This is a particularly strong first issue to the Children of Paradox storyline, and we can safely expect a new selection of physical ‘abominations’ coming up, as well as some returnees from earlier issues and the Un-Men canon. It also provides an intriguing set-up involving birth and abortion - frequent imagery found in the horror genre, and yet two topics which are not particularly tackled in mainstream comics. Horror comics themselves never tend to be appreciated quite how they should be, even when they are pushing the envelope. The Un-Men is certainly doing just that. Like the cast of characters found in it, The Un-Men is ‘unique’, slightly surreal and wholly memorable. Give it a try; I can promise you will not be reading anything else quite like it.

RATING:


Buy The Un-Men at X-WORLD and SAVE!

[Jos1988]

hold up:

with the impending end of American Virgin, Crossing Midnight and now The Exterminators I feel that my protective nature has gone into over-drive

i did NOT know that!

[Anthony Devlin]

Originally Posted by Jos1988

hold up:



i did NOT know that!

about which one?

[Bernard Murnane]

This is a beyond awesome book that many people need to be reading. Its bizzare, gross, and fun as heck. Spread the word to the streets. Its amazing.

[Jos1988]

that ANY of them were ending. where did you find that out?

its really unfortunate that vertigo is rapidly running short of good titles now that the big gun maxiseries are over.

[Anthony Devlin]

Originally Posted by Jos1988

that ANY of them were ending. where did you find that out?

its really unfortunate that vertigo is rapidly running short of good titles now that the big gun maxiseries are over.

american virgin finished in January.. i think and was announced towards the end of last year; not too sure when the other two finish but again the news about their demise came at the end of last year. although i'm sad to see two of the three go, DEMO 2 is coming out this year via Vertigo so im stoked!!!

[Jos1988]

DEMO good?

atm im digging in vertigo back catalogues to find anyhing decent to read (among with stuff like Invincible from image and the new "definitive" Queen and Country trades)

[Anthony Devlin]

Originally Posted by Jos1988

DEMO good?

Given your into a lot of vertigo; with a taste for the Indies, I would say you’d most definitely enjoy DEMO. You should have a look on eBay for the trade to the first series as you can pick it up quite reasonably.

Originally Posted by Jos1988

atm im digging in vertigo back catalogues to find anyhing decent to read (among with stuff like Invincible from image and the new "definitive" Queen and Country trades)

Shade the Changing Man is a Vertigo classic. Sadly Vertigo has not only published one trade for the entire series but if you don’t mind buying the individual issues, then like above, they can be found on eBay really cheap.