Reviewer: William Cooling
Title: The Cure: Pt. 2
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colourist: Hans Allred
Letterer: Virtual Calligraphy’s Cory Petit
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics
This review contains lots of detailed spoilers!
I’ve experienced something very strange whilst reading this comic; I empathized with a Peter Milligan character. This is strange because Milligan doesn’t do empathetic or sympathetic characters. He doesn’t by the use of his personality as a Brechtian device distancing us from the rogues’ gallery he presents. Yet in the course of this and the previous issue I have fully empathised with one Myles Alfred. You see I am a (¾ closeted) bi-sexual and with his use of Myles Milligan accurately reflects so many of the feelings that (some of) my friends and myself have felt. This exploration was hinted at last month when Myles accepted the offer of a Dr. Finlay to be cured of his werewolf-esque mutation. This was a pretty stark and blunt exploration of the question that every fag, queer, shirtlifter, dyke, etc dreads and that is “Do I want to be normal?†which I thought Milligan through Alicar answered better than Shakespeare. However, there was a lot of other stuff going on in that issue which thankfully is jettisoned this month as we concentrate fully on Myles (and Dr Finlay).
We first see Myles adjusting to life as an ordinary human without the trappings of fame and membership of X-Statix. Although this may very well seem to be a different strand to the issue I disagree, to me this is Milligan commenting on the issue of homosexuality in a more subtle way. You see Myles fame was intrinsically linked to his membership in the mutant sub-culture; whilst X-Statix was a club he gained access to due to his mutant gene. For this read the gay scene, which is (in my limited but growing experience) similarly loud, brash, utterly superficial yet something you sooo wouldn’t want to give up. The proof that fame is a metaphor for the gay lifestyle is the fact that by giving it all up he is allowed to see his dear old mum, although here all subtlety deserts Milligan. Yep, we get the scene of naïve, desperate hope as a mother prays that her son is “normal†and from this pathetic desire to reintegrate her son into norm society we get the invite to (horror of horrors) daddy’s birthday.
Now I must stress that I actually love and respect my dad, he’s a great man who is currently working himself into serious health problems to provide for my family. Yet, similar to Myles, I live in complete and utter terror of his unthinking bigotry, desperately wanting to impress and so gain true acceptance from him yet with the grim, inescapable realisation that such reconciliation is impossible. Milligan’s writing is wonderful with the scenes showing Myles getting ready for the party and waiting to see his father showing us all the angst such a gathering would cause without the luxury of Bendis style reams of talking heads. As he has in Human Target, Milligan shows himself to be a master of terse, efficient but meaningful characterisation.
Of course, as much as I might like to dwell on Myles, there is the small matter of Dr. Finlay. You may recall from the top of the page that he was the doctor that “cured†Myles yet he did so for an ulterior motive- to be the new Vivisector. Having devised and taken a serum to achieve this end he now awaits the hairrifying (sorry) experience. However despite numerous attempts to make him angry (all of which are caustically well written by Milligan) he is still as smooth as Randy Orton (I love Randy Orton, btw!).
In what is an inspired move, Milligan explains that the to become the Vivisector you need to feel the same pain and anger that Myles’ feels, particularly that directed against his father. This is fantastic as it recalls Joe Quesada’s excellent advice to wannabe Epic writers that superpowers are metaphors. Here the beastly state of Myles and now Finlay is what the psychoanalysist Jung would call Myles’ Shadow i.e. all his repressed fears and desires. With Vivisector II this shadow is full only of the hatred and pain that homophobic parents cause and so we get a more monstrous and determined Vivisector who does what Myles cannot in confronting Myles’ father. Here again we see Milligan using the conventions of the superhero genre to act out the internal debate within Myles between confronting and appeasing his father as he has Myles fight Vivisector II to save his Dad. Again this is an excellent scene with Myles eventually overcoming of Vivisector II shows his triumph over the feelings of inadequacies and despair that had haunted him. The fact that in the immediate aftermath his powers return, in addition to the change in stimulus for his transformation to Vivisector shows that his “Shadow†has changed to one of self-confidence and comfort.
Now as much as I’d like to laud this brave and much-needed comic as perfect there is the question of the art. Whilst Nick Dragotta does a passable Allred impression, indeed, to begin with, his scratchier and messier style does an excellent job with Vivisector II there is a steady decline in the detail and a shocking collapse in quality of the inking, which by the end appears to be done by a black felt tip pen. Yet, so f’ing what? I didn’t buy this comic nor read it multiple times for the art. I did so because it offers a glimpse at real life. MY real life! Milligan manages to craft a tale that whilst staying true to the cynical and superficial nature of X-Statix (as best shown by the gloriously sharp final page) offers an enchanting and moving story of one man succeeding to live his life with his conviction.
