Comic Two-fer

Summer's for fun, and all this heavy literature needs to be broken up with something a bit lighter. For some, this is television. For me, it's comics.

(Okay, there's only been one dense work so far this summer: "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which I haven't even finished. But next is "Gulliver's Travels", and another horror story. I have an excuse, okay?)

So, two comics that are both entertaining and well-written. Yes, these may be mutually exclusive; see most summer blockbusters for that.

"Runaways" is written by Brian K. Vaughan, author of the recent "X-Men: First Class" movie. Like the opening to that movie, "Runaways" takes an unorthodox look at superheroes. The chief plot mover is when six kids decide to spy on their parents and realize they are a clan of supervillains. From there, the kids investigate and find that they themselves have access to powers, gadgets, and telepathic dinosaurs. Their parents had hoped the kids would continue the legacy. Instead, they rebel and become... well, what?

Superheroes. That's the word that should finish that sentence, right? That's how the story goes. And at the end, they have a desire to fight crime, and most of them have powers. But they're not heroes. They're fugitives - what the X-Men always try to be. The X-Men happen to be more like refugees, though, because they always have a home in the X-Mansion. The whole point of "Runaways" is that they have no home.

The old origin story tropes are here. Shock at finding new powers, a raid against villains more powerful than they, luck and a bit of good strategy allowing the new heroes to win out in the end. They are buried beneath a linear narrative that doesn't only stick to those tropes (although, partially, that is the idea); very good characterization; and art that looks as pretty as a painting.

And right away we feel like these are the oppressed minorities, steeling our opinion that these kids are wronged by their parents. There are four females - one very young, and rarely taken seriously at first by her fellow teammates. One of the two remaining males is black. Even the white guy, a jock, feels oppressed because his parents are nerds, and highly disappointed in his academical failings. He has no idea how to operate the equipment he inherits.

Comics like "Ant Man" feel like a collection of tropes that, together, makes a story. "Runaways" feels like it's trying hard to be a narrative.

I also recently finished the first three adventures of the "Tintin" series, in preparation for the new film. I was surprised at the variety in quality.

These first few stories ("Tintin in America", "Cigars of the Pharaoh", and "The Blue Lotus") were written in three different styles. At least one ("Cigars") was redrawn several years later to keep a consistent style with later volumes; all were edited a decade or two after their original publication, to make them more accessible to the post-World War II masses; and all were translated from the original French, so some jokes are altered to make more sense to a British/American audience.

"Tintin" was originally published as a comic serial, and the first two stories reflect that. "Tintin in America" is the story of Tintin, junior reporter, and his dog, Snowy, as they come to Chicago in order to reduce crime and stop two bands of gangsters. They chase after first one, then the other boss, while capturing their mooks along the way. He really does seem to be removing them from the streets one man at a time. "America" feels episodic, but vaguely linear.

Meanwhile, "Cigars of the Pharaoh" is treated more as a mystery, but not one that Tintin goes willingly into. On a cruise, he meets an eccentric professor on the lookout for an Egyptian tomb. Finding some cigars there, he begins to unearth an illegal opium trade. Not for a long time does he know what he is unearthing, though, and the story emphasis is on the mini-episodes he encounters along the way, rather than on the bigger picture.

But the mystery is not quite solved in "Cigars of the Pharaoh"; the leader of the opium gang appears to die, but in fact survives and disappears. A mysterious poison that drives people mad is unleashed upon Tintin's friends. Tintin sets out to find an antidote, and shut down the opium trade once and for all.

"The Blue Lotus" is a longer journey than other Tintin books. It remains episodic, with Tintin steadily approaching the denouement of a bigger story, but the main objective is always in sight. The reader usually knows how close Tintin is to achieving it, and keeps in mind the obstacles he has already overcome. It's a coherent narrative, and it ties up nicely.

It's also remarkable how well author Herge depicts 1930s Japan. This was the book at which he began his tradition of heavily researching the areas he wrote about. Thanks to a letter from a Chinese teacher who wished to keep his students from balking at the Tintin comics, Herge was treated to a thorough tour of Japan's and China's cultures and heritage. The Chinese and Japanese characters are far more sympathetic than the American and Egyptian ones of previous adventures. There are even references to political events of the time, such as Japanese-Chinese colonialism.

The Tintin comics were said to inspire such famous adventure films as "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and I believe it. No matter what the situation or how good the overall writing, emphasis is always on two things: adventure and humor. The varying locals, the quick pace, and the constant slapstick are a refreshing frosting that lie on sometimes substantial baked dessert-stories. They are primarily fun, and secondarily deep, and that's what makes these books classic.