CREEM ONLINE: Off Register

June 2004

The last time a comic book was reviewed in the august pages of CREEM was back in November 1988 when I interviewed writer and illustrator Howard Chaykin about his infamous porno-cum-vampire treatise Black Kiss.

Since then he's been so busy making a name for himself in the television industry as a producer and writer that, lamentably, Chaykin's most recent forays into comics have been solely as a writer working in tandem with other artists. Yet despite his habitual protestations that he doesn't want to make a living out of using his motor skills, the fact remains that the best artist to illustrate a Chaykin story has always been Chaykin himself.

As a result, Chaykin's career highs have consistently been either the intelligent iconoclastic titles he's single-handedly created, written, and illustrated himself (American Flagg!, Time², Midnight Men, and his satirical masterpiece, the overlooked and under appreciated Power & Glory) or his radical revisions of classic DC Comics characters, all of whom he's dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century (The Shadow, Blackhawk, Batman, and the forthcoming Challengers Of The Unknown).

When I interviewed Chaykin, I called him the undisputed modern master of sex and violence in comics, an appellation he proudly accepted. And judging from Mighty Love, his newest hardcover graphic novel for DC, it's a title he won't soon be relinquishing—which is only fitting when you consider that, going right back to his earliest Cody Starbuck days, it's Howard Chaykin who first put the 'graphic' into graphic novels.

Mighty Love builds upon the same dual protagonist pattern that Chaykin's been carefully honing to a fine edge ever since he paired Michael Gorski with Allan Powell in Power & Glory, and then subsequently teamed Bruce Wayne with Kitty Grimalkin in Batman: Dark Allegiances.

In Power & Glory, main characters Gorski and Powell are extreme polar opposites who start out with a mild dislike each other. However, circumstances beyond their control force them to work together until, predictably, by the end of the story, they both end up severely hating each other's guts. Predictably for Chaykin, that is.

In stark contrast to that savage detest fest, Dark Allegiances strikes a far more conciliatory tone. Begrudgingly united to fight the Axis during World War Two, both Batman and Catwoman end up romantically linked with each other.

But with Mighty Love, Chaykin has taken both premises an extreme step further by managing to simultaneously combine both the loathing and the loving aspects in the same two main characters at the same time. It's a deft balancing act that results in a schizoid screwball comedy that has to be read to be believed.

Always the healthy skeptic, once again Chaykin uses the superhero genre as a vehicle to make his usual provocative socio-satirical moral statements about race, sex, and violence. And while I'm loathe myself to quote from a book's back cover blurb, this one happens to summarize the scenario far better than I ever could simply by rewording it:

By day, Delaney Pope is a conservative cop serving a corrupt administration—enraged by her murky world of ethical compromise. But by night, Delaney becomes Skylark—a bleeding heart masked defender of the very justice she circumvents by day.

By day, Lincoln Reinhardt is a liberal attorney, defending criminal scum—infuriated by the moral morass through which he wades. But by night Lincoln becomes the Iron Angel—a hard-boiled masked defender of the very justice he circumvents by day.

In other words, not only do both protagonists hate each other daily in the courtroom for legally advocating what the other one detests, they also hate each other nightly on the streets when they're in their costumed alter egos, making amends for their day jobs—each completely unaware of who the other really is.

But it's not all brickbats and bouquets: there's also the matter of an armored car heist involving a cool million bucks in single dollar bills that needs to be laundered. Plus, of course, the usual Chaykinesque gamut of gamy duplicitous back-stabbing broads.

As for the artwork, well, suffice to say that it's about as close to classic Chaykin as you can get, this side of Black Kiss. Mercifully, it's not anywhere even remotely close to the ham-fisted hack job called The Scorpio Connection that Chaykin mailed in years ago.

Indeed, if there's any complaint to be had, it's that longtime special effects letterer Ken Bruzenak and background color artist Richard Ory are both missing in action this time around. However, Mighty Love's subtle computer coloring job is far superior to the harsh Day-Glo hues seen in Batman: Dark Allegiances. And Kurt Hathaway is a good replacement, even though nobody can make type move like Bruzenak can.

Then again, neither Bruzenak nor Ory could salvage The Scorpio Connection, which tells you all you need to know about how important is it for Howard Chaykin to be at the top of his game. And make no mistake, on Mighty Love, he most definitely is.