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arbre_rieur (arbre_rieur) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-10 19:32:00

Entry tags:

char: badrock, char: violator, creator: alan moore, publisher: image comics, series: when alan moore was crap, title: violator vs. badrock

When Alan Moore Was Crap (Violator Vs. Badrock, Pt 1.)
I originally said I was going to post Spawn/WildC.A.T.s, surely the nadir of Moore's sub-par Image work, next. But I've decided that I'd rather build up (down?) to it first. So I'll be posting some of the other projects Moore did for Image during the mid-90s that, while not as bad as Spawn/WildC.A.T.s, are still pretty durn bad. Here's Violator Vs. Badrock.

Yes, Alan Moore really wrote this.

Before reading this mini-series, all I knew about Badrock was that he was actually a kid in the body of a hulking monster-man, and that he's a member of Youngblood. After reading this series, that's still pretty much all I know about him.

Violator is Spawn's arch-enemy or something like that, a demon who sometimes transforms into a fat clown.

As the story begins, Violator's been committing a string of murders in Washington, DC. On his latest excursion, he gets lured into an ambush by Badrock and some guys working for something called the Whiteside-Parsons Institute.

The Whiteside-Parsons Institute, as it turns out, investigates on the border between the scientific and the paranormal. They're named after John Whiteside Parsons, the noted scientist and occultist. They want to use the Violator's body to power a portal into Hell. They've hired Badrock as security.

Badrock asks the Violator just who this trespasser is.

Celestine, by the way, is a Moore creation. Badrock agrees to free the Violator so that he can help out against her.

"...kingdome come." And that's when Celestine busts in.

While she's pummeling Badrock, the Violator ambushes her from behind and rips out her heart. He asks her to guess the title of the the Robert DeNiro movie he's thinking of.

So, yeah, she uses her own body to power up the gateway to Hell that the scientists have made. Oddly, however, the machine doesn't seem to work.

(Post a new comment)

	jcbaggee 2009-08-11 03:31 am UTC (link)
	Hey, even Alan Moore's gotta have money to eat, now... (Reply to this) (Thread)

	colonel_green 2009-08-11 01:25 pm UTC (link)
	All those pharmaceutical-grade narcotics don't buy themselves... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	thebat_man 2009-08-13 03:36 am UTC (link)
	No one was forcing him to write for Spawn. He could have gone back to DC and wrote John Constantine stories, Superman, Batman. Any character he wanted. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	comicoz 2009-08-11 03:35 am UTC (link)
	Good lord the bazooms... (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ashtoreth 2009-08-11 04:47 am UTC (link)
	I wish I knew how to incorporate the entire video.. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	salad_barbarian 2009-08-12 01:10 am UTC (link)
	Not all that safe for work but the song seems appropriate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZWGjeu2nA&feature=related (Reply to this) (Parent)

	kamino_neko 2009-08-11 03:37 am UTC (link)
	That is one thoroughly disproportionate woman, that is. (Reply to this)

	bj_l 2009-08-11 03:41 am UTC (link)
	waits quietly for the posts explaining Moore's amaazing use of symbolism and irony and such (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kenn_el 2009-08-11 03:55 am UTC (link)
	If irony had a crotch... (Reply to this) (Parent)

domino_blue
2009-08-11 05:57 am UTC (link)

Moore is clearly deconstructing the idea that any comic with Spawn and Youngblood can be good by showing how shallow both of them are when we see Badrock who is younger then he looks acts like an adult shows a black and white view at heaven, and the attempts at keeping Violator alive despite him being a nasty piece of work show how bad the comic industry had fallen at this point when a clearly unlikable character such as him despite how stupid it would be to keep him alive.

He's also deconstructing the idea of angels of being asexual beings by showing her in tight leather thereby showing and the pleasure she derives from the pursuit show angels as humans who are much more driven with different mores on what's appropriate for them.Also since she's clearly invulnerable she wouldn't need protection anyway from outside elements. The only reason she wears anything at all is a misplaced sense of modesty that just like wearing bondage gear.

God that was a lot of bullshit. Reminds me how much Image in 90's was made of fail.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	red_cyclone 2009-08-11 06:59 am UTC (link)
	Worryingly, the stuff with about the angel is what I would have said too, or at least similar, but than I did an English degree and can therefore bullshit with the best of them. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	domino_blue 2009-08-11 04:37 pm UTC (link)
	It helps if you took a few Sociology courses as well if you want to get some good bullshit. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	aegof.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 08:18 pm UTC (link)
	I may have written that essay once. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	domino_blue 2009-08-11 09:34 pm UTC (link)
	god I can't tell you how many time I had to bullshit symbolism. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	arbre_rieur 2009-08-12 09:30 am UTC (link)
	Bravo! (Reply to this) (Parent)

liarashadowsong
2009-08-11 03:51 am UTC (link)

Okay, what I don't get here is how what's-her-name angel chick was drawn in an anatomically semi-realistic way for the duration of the panels where she was wearing the skirt suit, and then became oddly disproportionate the moment it got exchanged for that purple thing that I'm not even going to grace with the title of clothing. ...That purple thing made her boobs look like water balloons or something. *is confused*

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	sir_razorback 2009-08-11 04:04 am UTC (link)
	My guess was that skirt-suit is made out of titanium-based polymers. Once it was shredded, she just couldn't contain herself anymore. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	arbre_rieur 2009-08-12 09:32 am UTC (link)
	~~A wizard~~ An angel did it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sandoz_iscariot 2009-08-11 03:58 am UTC (link)
	Celestine hurts. (Reply to this)

	aaron_bourque 2009-08-11 04:36 am UTC (link)
	Wow. No wonder Moore grew to hate the grim 'n' gritty garbage that came out because of his own work (well, I mean, aside from the general badness of most of it, and how it permeated the industry for far too long). He was forced to wallow in it just to survive. It's like penance. (Reply to this)

	foxhack 2009-08-11 07:32 am UTC (link)
	Is it wrong that I liked this? Maybe? A bit? hides (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kamino_neko 2009-08-11 07:48 am UTC (link)
	Your feelings are tainted by sympathy caused by Liefeld's encounter with Yellow Hat...it'll pass. >_> (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	foxhack 2009-08-11 07:50 am UTC (link)
	Not really, no. I really did like it. At least it TRIED to have a story and explain what was going on, unlike a lot of the crap from that era. :( (Reply to this) (Parent)

	persoconchii 2009-08-11 08:12 am UTC (link)
	um...err.... couldn't get past the awful cover (Reply to this)

	alschroeder 2009-08-11 10:34 am UTC (link)
	I DID like the way the government was interested in annexing part of Hell, but thought it "judgemental" to call it that. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ex_menagerie993 2009-08-11 06:19 pm UTC (link)
	I actually really liked this as well and glad I'm not the only one. I also sort of like the whole discussion of what angels are. The perfection, the eyes that have beheld the Glory, all of that makes them sound damn terrifying. They overdid it on her a bit (I mean responsible for all the nasty Biblical disasters? That's a bit old hat for scary angels). (Reply to this) (Parent)

	wizardru 2009-08-11 11:24 am UTC (link)
	This is just Moore doing light, super-hero stuff. It's actually not terrible, it's just weak for Moore. This isn't that far off from his Tom Strong ABC stuff, really. The problem is that he's working with garbage in/garbage out. I mean, he's working with Badrock and Violator, here. He's doing his best, but there's only so much to do with this as your starting platform. (Reply to this)

	icon_uk 2009-08-11 11:39 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, this strikes me as Moore just treading water in someone else's paddling pool. The story elements themsleves aren't too dire (Government seeks to invade Hell for the Mineral rights. No one ever said Angels were NICE), but some of the characters (if "The Violator" van be graced with the name) are weak and the art is pretty awful. (Reply to this)

halloweenjack
2009-08-11 02:03 pm UTC (link)

The closest I'll come to an apologia for Moore is:

1) Image would have been publishing crap comics with big-boobed female protagonists whether they had been written by Moore or Todd McFarlane's inbred cousins. Better that the paycheck went to Moore.

2) Considering how many times Garth Ennis has gone to the ruthless-angel well, it's no big deal if someone else occasionally takes out a dipper-full.

(Reply to this)

ex_menagerie993
2009-08-11 06:29 pm UTC (link)

This actually isn't that terrible writing wise. I mean the notion of governments wanting to annex Hell (which they won't officially call Hell mind you because that might be offensive to the local denizens) and get mineral rights. That's pretty interesting in and of itself.

The notion of super heroes, angels, and demons, all coexisting on the same earth is quite rarely addressed. (Zauriel from Justice League occasionally sparked this, but it's rarely addressed by anyone outside the occasional story with Mr. Terrific as far as skepticism goes). For dimension hopping oddballs, Hell would just be amongst the myriad of scientifically reachable places. I would have liked to have seen this continue on in that vein honestly.

Violator telling Bedrock what angels actually are actually are did make them seem extremely frightening. I've never gotten on with the image of the white winged pretty boys and girls who are full of light and fluff, as popularized by a culture vastly ignorant of its own holy books (and paying even less heed to historical connotation of them). Angels were originally described as quite terrifying and inhuman. I like it when people remember that in some form or fashion.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	liarashadowsong 2009-08-11 07:13 pm UTC (link)
	I'm going to agree with you here. The writing really isn't that bad. At the very least, I've read much worse and stuck with it the whole way through. It's the art that makes the total experience painful, as you said in your second post. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ex_menagerie993 2009-08-11 06:30 pm UTC (link)
	I also want to say that the art is fucking awful. I got a bit over excited and sent too soon. Ahem. I will say that Violator is actually where I learned to draw monstrous fangs though. Violator strikes me a bit as Deadpool before Deadpool was actually amusing. He was wacky, flippant, and extremely dangerous. I'm always a bit entertained by that. (Reply to this)

	ozlelila 2009-08-12 01:05 am UTC (link)
	This SO needs a "Boobs don't work that way" tag.... (Reply to this)

	zordboy 2009-08-12 01:07 am UTC (link)
	I think the best part is how even the angel winds up wearing shreds of clothes over a tiny thong/bikini/whatever. Ick. (Reply to this)

	galateus 2009-08-12 01:55 am UTC (link)
	This art is an eyesore. (Reply to this)

	proteus_lives 2009-08-12 08:03 am UTC (link)
	Well, I did find Violator amusing. (Reply to this)

psychop_rex
2009-08-12 08:11 am UTC (link)

OK, first, this writing really isn't that bad. The bit where Violator is talking about how scary angels actually are is fairly effective, and the notion of annexing Hell is an interesting one. (Also, the fact that the scientists are obviously reluctant to accept the fact that it IS Hell, or if it is, it shouldn't be CALLED that, because it's offensive somehow. 'No, no, NO, you can't call it Hell! That's Religionist!'
Second - how on Earth could you expect anyone to do brilliant writing when saddled with cover art and character designs like those? THAT WOMAN HAS BREASTS THAT ARE LARGER THAN HER HEAD! You could write like Dostoyevski, and still all anyone would talk about afterwards would be the woman with the outsize mammaries dressed in fetish gear that your average dominatrix would pass up as too tacky.

(Reply to this)

	chocochuy 2009-08-12 11:39 pm UTC (link)
	SO 90s,DO NOT WANT!!!!! (Reply to this)