This is another false alarm.
I still have a few more Willy sequels
left to reveal, despite this one, which was inspired by the title –
and only the title – of James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, “The
Last of the Mohicans.” I haven't read it, nor did I see the movie
version starring Daniel Day-Lewis, released about a year before I
drew this.
Had I been assigned to read it in
school, I'm not sure I would have given it a fair shake. I used to
say I only liked two books I had to read in school, but I can only
remember one of them – “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” I
complained about a lot of the others, and while I'm certainly
entitled to my opinion, I doubt that I was the kid whose critical
mind finally toppled years of wrongheaded literary criticism and
educational strategy.
Sometimes I think I should re-read some
of those books, although if I went through “The Scarlet Letter”
again, I believe I might still come away with a strong desire to go
back in time and give Nathaniel Hawthorne some periods to keep his
sentences under a page. Maybe I would figure out why some people
consider “Wuthering Heights” romantic; I just thought it was
about a bunch of psychos trying to ruin each other's lives.
I did continue the theme – OK, that's
wording it generously; how about idea? – of Willy being mutated by
toxic waste. That got me thinking about when comic characters (you
didn't really think I'd make it through a whole blog talking about
books without pictures, did you?) get altered or mutated further.
Superman turned blue and lightning-y
for reasons I never fully grasped (perhaps if I'd read those comics).
The Hulk went from green (back) to gray just before I started reading
the title semi-regularly after an attempt to cure him went awry. One
of my favorite Spider-Man stories as a kid was when he got cosmic
powers in the midst of the “Acts of Vengeance” crossover, which
is going to be another one of my back-issue bin targets.
(Spectacular Spider-Man #158, Sal Buscema; Superman (Vol. 2) #123, Ron Frenz)
Comments
Post a Comment
No profanity, no bullying, no harassment. Feel free to disagree, but do it respectfully and politely.