I Walked With a Xombi, Part 2 (of 2)

"...Please remember that being deeply weird is supposed to be FUN. You seem to think that weirdness makes a comic IMPORTANT. There's already a Vertigo out there; last time I saw him, there was already a Grant Morrison, too." - John Rozum, letters page of Xombi#2

Although Milestone was barely one year old by the time Xombi launched, already its fans had certain expectations about the super heroes who inhabited its shared universe. As the letters page of Xombi bears witness, many thought the adventures of David Kim did not belong on the Milestone label, repeatedly wondering why it hadn't been published with Vertigo. Frequent comparisons were drawn to Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, as you can see in the quote above.

What I have to say about shared universes might be the last thing you'd expect from a former Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe contributor. I feel within shared universes, even when the caretakers of said universes attempt to maintain consistency, the wonderful moments where multiple creators compliment each other's efforts are balanced by the frequent contradictory statements they make. But there is nothing offensive about this; when you consider the sheer number of extraterrestrial races, superhumans, hidden civilizations and advanced technology in every shared super hero universe, you realize no real universe could function this way. It's a good thing, then, that comic books are fictional, not real! The worst thing about the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe - before and during my involvement with it - is how it codifies what supposedly exists, robbing its world(s) of a sense of mystery.

After the careful and gradual universe building seen in other Milestone titles (many of the Milestone superhumans shared a common origin), some readers seemed unable to comprehend how quickly Xombi suggested a much larger universe living side-by-side with Icon, Static, Hardware and their friends. Not only does the foreground of "Silent Cathedrals" feature Sheer Shears, Rustling Husks, Lesion Dogs, the Garden of Spires, Carnivore Clouds, the Lord of Fumes, Nomatoads and Meat Man, but we only learn in passing of other weird characters inhabiting this world such as Trapeze, the "secret society of blind aerialists."

Those of you who came to super hero comic books since the rise of the super hero action movie phenomenon may be surprised to learn there was a time when heroes and villains need not shared common origins, nor even obey the same scientific principles. In fact, there was a time when super hero comic books had no particular structure in how they were maintained, it being left up to the talent of the creative people involved. Jack Kirby's one-time assistant Mark Evanier tells a story about how Kirby created the Black Racer for the New Gods and Evanier thought he convinced his boss to hold the character back for at least another issue and spend some time on the newly-introduced Metron instead. But after just two pages of drawing Metron, Kirby shrugged his shoulders and introduced the Black Racer.

It's this same love of creating for the sake of creating which permeates John Rozum & J.J. Birch's Xombi. Much as Bob Hope would tell his jokes quickly then move on to the next one to avoid dwelling on jokes which didn't work, Rozum & Birch's "Silent Cathdrals" introduces one bit of weirdness, then moves on to the next one. The caretakers have told us this isn't how you build a shared universe - there have to be rules and classifications within classifications. Rozum & Birch were under no illusions: they knew they were crafting a work of fiction. I believe their efforts produced heartfelt and genuine moments (some discussed in the previous blog entry), but primarily they were seeking to create, to have fun and to entertain others. There may be no "importance" behind the Carnivore Clouds, nor a need for the Sheer Shears to be the villains masterminding the latest super hero crossover; Xombi was a pure comic book, a throwback to the days before rules and expectations were institutionalized. Defy your sense of order and seek it out for yourself.

I Walked With a Xombi, Part 1 (of 2)

In 1994, John Rozum and J.J. Birch served up the comic book series Xombi, which survived for 22 issues (issue #0 + 1-21). It was briefly revived last year by Rozum with artist Frazer Irving for a mere six issues, which is where I first discovered it. Eager to learn more about the series' backstory and to learn whether the initial series was as fascinating as the latter, I recently purchased the original Xombi#0-6.

Xombi#0 actually doesn't belong with the other six issues - it was the first published issue of Xombi and explained the character's premise, but it was set chronologically at a point after issue #6. It served primarily to establish the hero, David Kim, and set him up within the Milestone Media comics universe (I didn't recognize any Milestone characters in issues #1-6). Arriving in stores six months before issue #1, the #0 issue was really just a teaser and featured Milestone founder Denys Cowan on art, rather than Birch.

This out of the way, let's look into "Silent Cathedrals," the six-part story which opens Xombi.

We meet middle-aged scientist David Kim as he welcomes his one-time student and protege Kelly Sanborne to work at Organitek; because Kelly is a woman and David is presently engaged to someone else, David's co-workers delight in teasing him about being involved with Kelly. The truth is, David and Kelly are immensely close friends, not lovers, but platonic friends in the truest sense.

Kim is developing "the Cabinet Beast," a nanotechnology device which can reshape organic materials into other substances (ie, paper can become chocolate). David doesn't think his work is particularly impressive, not compared to his collegue Gerald, who trains ants to perform in a miniature circus.

As you may have gathered, the world of Xombi is not quite ours and I haven't spoken of the man made from sausages or the ghosts of dead insects. In the course of issue #1, David is fatally wounded by creatures who are after his nanotechnology; Kelly saves his life by using the nanomachines to repair his cells. It works: not only are David's wounds healed, he becomes physically younger and his nearsighted vision is fixed. Unfortunately, the process requires raw materials and because Kelly was hugging David during the ordeal, trying to comfort him, the machines used her body for spare parts. David awakens to find Kelly's partially decomposed body next to him, in the story's most horrific visual.

In what follows, David sets after the creatures responsible for Kelly's death, soon discovering because of his rebuilt body, his nanomachines have rendered him unkillable. He soon finds allies, such as Catholic Girl (a Catholic schoolgirl who can fly by crossing herself, create a force field by chanting the Hail Mary and shoots energy beams through her rosary), Nun of the Above (Catholic Girl's superior, who can view people within a 30 mile radius), occultist Julian Parker and Rabbi Sinnowitz and his two Golems.

The latter characters are worth highlighting because I had met each of them in the 2011 Xombi series. There, I noticed not much effort was made to reintroduce the characters to newcomers, but looking back to "Silent Cathedrals," I see little was done to introduce them in the first place - like so many of the elements which emerge during the storyline, people like Catholic Girl simply are; from their dialogue, you quickly grasp they've been dealing with strangeness for some time (and thus readily accept David as their new ally), but you learn more about them from their following actions, rather than any exposition. In Xombi, weirdness seems to have always existed, it didn't originate with David and it certainly doesn't end with him.

Amidst the weirdness, Xombi reveals itself as a super hero story, a horror story and a comedy. You really must appreciate all three genres to have any hope of enjoying Xombi, but the fast-tracking narrative mostly encourages good-humour. For instance, there's the sequence in Xombi#3 where Julian and David are attacked in a library by "Sheer Shears," creatures with scissors instead of heads. Julian explains them thusly:

"The Sheer Shears. The best agents to send into a library. That book won't do you any good. You can't use books, or the ideas contained within, against them. Which is why magical spells are useless. Anything you've learned from reading is ineffective. Only the oral tradition is effective, because as everyone learns as a kid... scissors cut paper. But... rock smashes scissors."

Julian delivers this speech solemnly, but the entire concept is so absurd - and yet logical! - that his eventual solution was a laugh-out-loud moment for me. Perhaps your mileage varies?

Xombi's strengths do not entirely revolve around the weirdness. Probably the book's greatest asset - because of the quick pace, gigantic cast and aforementioned weirdness - is how Rozum develops his characters. Everyone, even the series' villain Dr. Sugarman possesses at least a quirk of some sort which makes them stand out. In issue #1, a security guard is introduced and killed in a single page, but Rozum spends the page developing the guard's personality and his love of composing poems while working; when the guard dies, we feel the tragedy of a human life snuffed out; he was not a faceless extra, we glimpsed something of the uniqueness in every human being.

One of David's earliest quirks is his fear of pain. Before he gains his powers, David is mocked by his co-workers about wincing when his blood is drawn. Even after become unkillable, David flinches at pain. It's no small thing for David to break his arm because he reacts like a human being whose arm has just been broken. Compare this to comicdom's most famous unkillable hero, Wolverine, who shrugs off fatal wounds with "clever" one-liners. When a giant monster steps on David he can only gripe with his allies who want him to get back into action: "I think every bone is my body is broken, and you want me to move?"

By the end of "Silent Cathedrals," David has saved the world, but failed to capture Sugarman, the man who orchestrated the death of Kelly. But it wasn't just Kelly who died that night at Organitek, with security guards and a cleaning woman amongst the victims. One of David's co-workers remarks "I heard about what they did to the cleaning woman." David answers: "Her name was Cecilia." It's an insight into David; not only is he sensitive to pain, he's sensitive to others. Throughout issue #6, David recalls his friendship with Kelly, recalling the party games they would play, strange things about her diet, her favourite jokes... not only do these memories seem to keep Kelly alive, he hopes his nanomachines will be able to restore her body, just as they did for him. Unfortunately, Kelly's body has already been cremated, scuttling David's plans. David is forced to make his peace with Kelly's memory, deciding he doesn't even want vengeance on Sugarman, knowing it wouldn't bring Kelly back to life. Since his body was rebuilt using Kelly's, he decides part of her is alive within him and he will live as she would've wanted to.

Comic book culture commonly derides the 1990s and the glut of over-produced material was certainly a nadir for the industry; however, quality work existed then and it's worth unearthing it now and granting it the recognition it deserves; if you think you've read all the 90s had to offer, think again: you need to reckon with Xombi. I hope to visit the other 15 issues in time, but I'm now certain "Silent Cathedrals" is one of the best super hero tales of the 90s.

More on Xombi #1-6 tomorrow.