Francis, Brother of the Universe

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Comics That Time Forgot)

Francis, Brother of the Universe

(#1, one-shot, Marvel Comics, 1980)

Story: Roy Gasnick, O.F.M.
Script: [Mary] Jo Duffy
Layouts: John Buscema
Finishes & Color: Marie Severin
Lettering: Jim Novak
Editor: Jim Shooter

Although one could be easily forgiven for thinking otherwise, Marvel Comics has published more than just super-heroes in its history. I’m sure many of us will remember the various charity comics Marvel used to do, such as Spider-Man encouraging us to brush our teeth or Captain America warning us about the possible dangers of drug use. In Francis, Brother of the Universe, Marvel did something that it hadn't done often before.*

Religously-themed comics are nothing new. Various denominations have sponsored comics, and have used mainstream characters before as well—Archie being the most enduring example. Francis, Brother of the Universe was something of an experiment however. Instead of being sold only in religious bookstores, it was distributed both on the newsstands by Marvel and in religious bookstores by the Paulist Press.

The comic tells, from the point of view of the modern Franciscan Order, the history and lifestory of Francis Bernadone, also known as Saint Francis of Assisi. Born to a noble family, the comic tells that Francis soon becomes disgusted by the tragedy of war and the wastefulness of idle wealth. After hearing a voice from God, Francis dedicates himself to religious work and finds an Order with several distinguishing principles, among them, a vow of poverty, a vow of pacifism, and a vow never to pledge oneself to nobility. In the comic at least, the Pope seems to (reluctantly) endorse Francis’ new Order, and even asks him to make it open to both men and women, who are allowed to marry.

Francis is clearly not an objective history, but it also doesn’t pretend to be. It is written by a Franciscan monk and portrays Francis working miracles, such as calming an enraged wolf and conversing with birds. The final page is perhaps a bit of an overreach—it shows Francis in heaven, kneeling before Jesus, and Jesus is saying, "I thank my father for a brother such as you."

Regardless, Francis is clearly a well-done comic. It was scripted by a respected young writer and drawn by two of Marvel’s best artists. The comic includes a text-piece explaining the inception of the idea of doing a comic about Saint Francis, maps of the area he lived, and a translation of a Franciscan prayer. The story, although not fascinating, is relatively interesting.

It’s not easy to judge the success of Francis. My guess is it didn’t sell very well on the newsstands, and I’m not sure what to make of the fact that Marvel didn't do many religious comics thereafter. It appears to have had a decent distribution, however. An Internet search reveals that several people were introduced to Saint Francis through the comic, and at least one critic of the Franciscan Order cites the comic for evidence against the morality of the Order (in an essay entitled "Francis of A Sissy, a Saint that Ain’t").

*Marvel published a short series of religous comics in the 1950s, a biography of Pope John Paul II decades later, and, in the 1990s, co-published a line of religious comics. Thanks to Dagda80@aol.com for this info!

Even Prison Inmates Deserve a Fair Hearing

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Columns)

Even prison inmates deserve a fair hearing

JEREMY PATRICK (jhaeman@hotmail.com)

The Globe and Mail, August 22, 2005

When an inmate is stabbed 30 times by another inmate and has a collapsed lung and a fractured nose, has he suffered a "serious bodily injury" warranting investigation? When male inmates are lined up and strip-searched, is it reasonable to ask the uncircumcised ones to retract their foreskins? When an inmate is moved to solitary confinement, chained naked to a bed in a cell without a mattress, and then confronted by a prison guard who tells a surveillance-camera operator to "turn it off" seconds before the videotape is stopped, should authorities try to determine what happened next?

"No," was the initial response of Correctional Service Canada in each of these cases, events reported by the correctional investigator that allegedly occurred in federal institutions in the past few years.

Almost a decade has passed since then-Madam Justice Louise Arbour raised the alarm about CSC's inadequate response to inmate grievance procedures. In her 1996 report on the forced strip-searching and segregation of inmates at the Kingston Prison for Women, she noted that almost all of the problems examined during the inquiry had been first raised through the inmate grievance procedure, but were either ignored, answered several months late, or answered by someone without the authority to investigate the facts or provide an effective response. After stating that "the lack of observance of individual rights . . . is probably very much part of CSC's corporate culture," she concluded that instituting the rule of law in prisons "has no chance of success unless there is a significant change in the mindset of the Correctional Service towards being prepared to admit error without feeling that it is conceding defeat."

There has been no such change. The Office of the Correctional Investigator reports that neglect and indifference are still the common responses of correctional officials when both individual and systemic problems are brought to their attention. The service has long resisted reforms to reduce overcrowding, the use of force, and violence among inmates, as well as efforts to improve conditions for aboriginal and female prisoners.

Prison guards are among the few actors in the criminal justice system allowed to operate free of binding, external oversight. By contrast, police officers must face external complaints commissions. But the correctional investigator is empowered only to issue recommendations that the service can adopt or ignore at whim. As for the internal grievance system, which inmates view as "slow and not very effective" -- both the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the OCI have concluded that the process is ineffective in curbing abuses in prisons.
What can be done when an inmate is beaten with a baton, gassed, and then left wet and naked on a concrete slab (as documented in an OCI annual report), and correctional officials assert that there's no need to determine why it happened? The answer proposed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and others: Create a federal inmate grievance tribunal.

Operating in much the same way as the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, an inmate grievance tribunal would hear cases referred to it by the OCI. After hearing from both the inmate and correctional officials, the tribunal would issue a binding order; for example, if an inmate is placed in solitary confinement without good cause, the tribunal might order his release back to the facility's general population; if guards with a grudge destroyed an inmate's personal possessions, the tribunal might order compensation. Tribunal decisions could be appealed, as in hearings about police and lawyer misconduct.

Experience shows that three key principles are embodied in a good complaints system. The system must be unbiased, both in fact and in perception; it must be efficient and timely -- and it must have the authority and willingness to effect real change.

An inmate grievance tribunal would have to operate independently of the Correctional Service and the OCI. It would need fixed timelines, with members chosen according to merit. Finally, it should be able to issue orders and craft remedies to solve a range of problems.

No one expects federal prisons to be paradise. But let's agree that beatings, rapes and degrading conditions should be investigated and promptly remedied. The creation of a federal inmate grievance tribunal won't create perfect justice in prisons, but it will at least help to reduce present injustice.

Jeremy Patrick is a policy analyst for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. CCLA's Corrections Project is available at http://www.ccla.org.

Blooded

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy book reviews)

BLOODED

By Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder (1998)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: Season Two or Season Three

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Giles, Xander, Cordelia, Willow, Angel, Oz, Principle Snyder, Sheila Rosenberg

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: King Lear (vampire), Lord Chirayoju (Chinese Demon Sorceror), Sanno (Japanese Mountain King), Kobo (Watcher), Emperor Kammu

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY: “Chirayoju, a vampire of Chinese lore, and Sanno, the legendary Japanese Mountain King, have been locked in deadly battle for centuries. Literally. An ancient curse imprisoned the spirits of these two warriors in an antique sword. Until the sword arrives in Sunnydale. Freed by accident, Chirayoju searches for a host body that will allow him to continue wreaking havoc among the living and the dead. Now Buffy’s on the trail of this legendary vampire . . a bloody trail that leads straight through the heart of the Buffy-Xander-Willow triangle.”

REVIEW

The fourth original Buffy novel, Blooded opens quickly with a fun and rousing battle between the Scoobies and a vampire who fancies himself King Lear. Soon after the Whitehats’ success, Willow accidentally pricks her finger on an ancient sword while visiting the museum. Not surprisingly, havoc ensues as Willow is slowly possessed by an ancient Chinese vampire named Chirayoju--only things become even more complicated as Chirayoju’s ancient enemy, Sanno, decides to possess Xander in order to fight Chirayoju, with Buffy caught in the middle. Golden and Holder worked hard to draw upon Japanese and Chinese mythology, and incorporated several elements into the novel’s backstory.

Overall, Blooded is an average Buffy novel. The dialogue is okay with a few good laughs sprinkled in. Perhaps the best part of the novel concerns Willow (pre-possession) where she deals with her sense of vulnerability and inferiority to Buffy after being mugged by some street thugs. Other good moments include Cordelia and Xander’s constant bantering, and demon-possessed Willow beating Xander savagely. Unfortunately, the idea of one of the Scoobies being possessed by some sort of demon isn’t exactly unique in the Buffy mythos, and the novel has an overly long and melodramatic ending. Blooded isn’t a terrible novel, but with better ones to choose from should probably be of interest only to completists.

The Gargoyle

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Comics That Time Forgot)

The Gargoyle

# 1-4, Marvel Comics, 1985 (limited series)

J.M. DeMatteis: Writer
Mark Badger: Artist
Ken Bruzenak: Letterer
Bob Sharen: Colorist
Carl Potts: Editor
Jim Shooter: Editor-in-Chief

Search for "The Gargoyle" and "comic book" on the Internet, and you’ll turn up literally hundreds of links to a wide variety of fictional heroes, villains, and monsters. Marvel Comics itself has lended to the ambiguity by publishing comics with at least three different "gargoyle" characters: an Incredible Hulk super-villain, a cartoon tie-in, and a super-hero.

Marvel’s 1985 limited series The Gargoyle involved the last of these characters: Isaac Christians, an elderly man whose soul was somehow transported into the body of a semi-monstrous gargoyle creature. The Gargoyle, a long-time member of the famous non-group The Defenders, finally received a chance to star in his solo series by noted comics writer and co-creator, J.M. DeMatteis.

The Gargoyle does what every limited series should: it makes an important change in a character’s life and positions the character well for the future. In The Gargoyle, we learn several never-before-revealed secrets about the character’s origin and early life. For example, we discover, in one of those twists-of-fate that make perfect sense but that we perhaps never expected, that just as Isaac Christians’ soul was transported into a gargoyle’s body, that gargoyle’s soul was transported into his original body. Indeed, the major plot of the limited series involves a plan by the original gargoyle to get his body back by manipulating Christians through the appearance of characters from the old man’s childhood.

The Gargoyle is another one of those great comics that can often be found in quarter bins and should be snatched up immediately. The third issue is the weakest and I’m dubious about the need for the Last Druid character, but series still shines. As mentioned, it is not a standard adventure story for a standard super hero—it is a great story about an interesting, tortured old man who simply wants to be himself again. The covers are beautiful Berni Wrightson paintings (each of which I would love to have as posters), and the interior artwork is appropriately moody to fit DeMatteis’ dark story.

The Gargoyle has had an interesting, though convoluted history since the limited series. Although apparently destroyed near the end of the Defender’s original run, the character has appeared in a wide variety of comics since. More about the character’s recent appearances can be found at the Defender’s non-Page, www.geocities.com/Area51/Orion/4895/Profiles/gargoyle.html

Notably, this source states that The Gargoyle "represents one of the highest points to which a comic book can aspire." I agree.

Sexual Exploitation Laws Need Revising

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Columns)

Sexual exploitation laws need revising

Jeremy Patrick

For The Calgary Herald

Monday, June 19, 2006

When a 19-year-old Tim Hortons employee has consensual sex with the new 17-year-old employee she has been asked to show around and train, should this be considered normal teenage dating or a serious felony warranting several years behind bars? Under a provision of the Criminal Code amended last year, it is a straightforward case of "sexual exploitation" punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

For several years now, Canada has had legislation making it illegal for persons in positions of "trust" (such as a parent figure) or "authority" (such as a work supervisor) to have sex with a young person between the ages of 14 and 17. The rationale for the law is that young persons are unable to truly consent to sex when there is a high degree of dependency or power imbalance in the relationship. Last year, Parliament expanded this legislation by adding a new catch-all category of "relationship(s) with a young person that is exploitative of the young person." The legislation gave a long list of factors that could be examined in deciding whether a relationship is exploitative, including "the evolution of the relationship" and "the degree of control or influence by the person over the young person."

Canada's age of consent has been 14 for several decades. Recently, the Harper government announced its intention to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, possibly with an exemption for people no more than five years apart in age. If Parliament does introduce new legislation, the current law around "sexual exploitation" needs to be completely revised.

The first problem is the law does not define what it means by a relationship of "trust." We can easily think of examples that fit the concept: parents, babysitters, perhaps camp counsellors. The difficulty arises, however, when we try to apply the law to all-too-common relationships that aren't so intuitively wrong, such as family friends, older co-workers, tutors, and more.

In my study of published court decisions attempting to apply the "trust" element of "sexual exploitation," I found widespread confusion in the courts over how to go about the business of deciding what is allowed and what isn't. One trial judge, for example, said "I defy anyone, any legally trained person to come up with a workable definition of trust . . . It's impossible to . . . state what a position of trust is or what the Supreme Court of Canada seems to feel a position of trust is."

The second problem with the law is that last year's amendments added an incredibly broad, but vague catch-all collection of factors that could be used by a court to determine that a relationship is "exploitative." If we are to look at "the evolution of the relationship," for example, is it more or less exploitative for sex to occur after a long friendship or romance? If we look at the age difference between the parties, are we creating a crime out of society's moralistic tendency to look disapprovingly at age differences in general (such as frequently demonstrated in celebrity relationship gossip)?

The catch-all category of "exploitative" relationships creates another problem as well. It allows, and indeed requires, police officers, prosecutors, and judges to conduct a searching inquiry into the intimate details of every relationship involving an adult and a person between the ages of 14 and 17. This might seem perfectly legitimate when we find a 40-year-old man is having sex with a 14-year-old girl. But because of the way the law is written, it also means that when a 19-year-old female has sex with a 17-year-old boy, we've left it in the hands of the criminal justice system to declare it "exploitative" and send the older teenager to prison.

The only sensible solution is to return to the recommendations of the government's 1984 Committee on Sexual Offences Against Children and Youth (generally known as the Badgley Report). Instead of criminalizing relationships on the basis of vague terms such as "trust" or creating a list of factors, the Badgley Report recommended that certain categories of relationships be conclusively presumed to be exploitative when a young person is involved, such as parent-child, teacher-student, and employer-employee.

The benefits of having a list of prohibited relationships is that it provides fair notice to adults contemplating relationships with young persons and makes it far easier for the criminal justice system to determine whether such relationship is criminally exploitative. If a bill to raise the age of consent is introduced in Parliament, it will be the ideal time to revisit and thoroughly revise the Criminal Code's currently incoherent offence of "sexual exploitation."

Jeremy Patrick is a law professor whose article Sexual Exploitation and the Criminal Code is forthcoming in the Alberta Law Review.

Night of the Living Rerun

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Buffy Book Reviews)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING RERUN

Arthur Byron Cover (1998)

RATING: 3/5 Stakes

SETTING: First Season

CAST APPEARANCES: Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, Joyce, Cordelia, The Master

MAJOR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS: Samantha Kane (Puritan-era Slayer); Judge Danforth, Heather Putnam, Sheriff Corwin, and Cotton Mather (worshippers of the Despised One); The Despised One (demon); Sarah Dinsdale (witch); Reverend John Goodman; Daryl MacGovern and Eric Frank (reporters); Rick and Lora Church (occult investigators)

BACK-OF-THE-BOOK SUMMARY “As if real life wasn’t already overflowing with vampire-staking, now Buffy has begun to dream about slaying! Night after night, it’s the same thing. She’s back with the Puritans, a Slayer on the trail of a witch. What can it mean? Buffy gets a clue when Xander and Giles start acting like they have ancient alter egos. Now the stage is set for a symbolic replay of the night the Master was accidentally trapped in the other dimension. Only this time, the Master wants a happy ending--for himself. Buffy and her friends must prevent the Master from rewriting the script and escaping his supernatural prison before Sunnydale becomes history!”

REVIEW

My, where to begin? This thin book has it all: Prince Ashton Eisenberg’s Prophecy of Dual Duels; V.V. Vivaldi’s cursed statue “The Moonman”; Puritan-era Slayers, Watchers, and demons; spiritual possession, and most importantly, an attempt to free The Master from his mystical imprisonment. Through ample use of flashbacks embodied in the dreams of Scooby Gang members, we see the Puritan-era Slayer Samantha Kane’s attempt to track a witch named Sarah Dinsdale. Dinsdale, however, flees to the site of a ritual where four citizens of Salem are attempting to free a monstrous demon named The Despised One. Kane and the newly-summoned Despised One are sealed in a cave-in while locked in mortal combat, and both perish, while Dinsdale and the four evil citizens of Salem flee.

Meanwhile, in modern-day Sunnydale, four newcomers arrive seeking information. Eric Frank, host of a cable show on conspiracies, and Daryl MacGovern, a rumpled but intrepid newspaper reporter (a thinly-veiled homage to Kolchak, the Night Stalker, played by Darren McGavin) start snooping around Sunnydale High trying to find out why so many weird occurrences have been going on. At the same time, occult investigators Rick and Lora Church (a.k.a., "Nick and Nora") arrive to tell Giles that they have been contacted by a ghost from the spiritual realm to warn him of danger. As part of a rather complex plot by The Master, the four newcomers’ physical bodies are possessed by the spirits of the Salem citizens who had attempted to released The Despised One; only now, through the use of a statute made of moon rocks, they’ll free The Master, unless Buffy stops them in time (etc. etc. . . .).

Night of the Living Rerun thus has so much crammed into it that it can be hard to follow the first time through. The characters are fairly well-written (except for The Master, who uses words like “skedaddle”), but, like most Buffy books, there’s little of the show’s characteristic humor. The final showdown when Buffy tries to stop the ritual is almost laughably anticlimactic, but a strong epilogue helps the book end well. Overall, the novel has a certain kind of charm that’s hard to explain and elements of an original plot, but is not sufficiently entertaining to merit a high recommendation.

The Generic Comic

FROM THE ARCHIVES (Comics That Time Forgot)

THE GENERIC COMIC

# 1, Marvel Comics, one-shot,April 1984

Scripter: Steve Skeates

Artists: Unknown

Assistant Editor: Christopher Priest

Editor: Larry Hama

Not to be confused with the long-running Comics Conspiracy title, Marvel’s 1984 one-shot The Generic Comic is something of an oddity: an attempted parody of standard comic book themes published by the very company responsible, as much as any other, for the endurance of these very same themes. In fact, The Generic Comic resembles Marvel’s various Spider-Man titles as much as anything.

The Generic Comic tells a simple story, one we’ve heard before in a variety of ways: teenage boy having trouble with girlfriends and parents acquires super powers through radiation, and uses them to fight a nasty super-villain while still trying to make an honest day’s wage while working for an insufferable boss.

There are no credits for The Generic Comic and one wonders how many people would have actually spent 60 cents to buy it, since the Marvel Zombies of the time period were interested in the very comics it was attempting to spoof. An Internet search reveals that veteran comic writer Steve Skeates scripted it, while Christoper Priest and Larry Hama (of Crazy fame) edited it. Several artists took part in its creation, but no other specific details could be found.

There are send-ups of several super-hero conventions. For example, the hero acquires his powers through long-term exposure to glow-in-the-dark toys, and buys his super-hero uniform from a costume shop. The funny thing about The Generic Comic is that to a large degree, it manages to achieve exactly what it aims for. With a different title and a few changed details, one can easily imagine flipping through this at a comic book store and believing it to be a standard super-hero title of the time period. Importantly, there is very little humor, either real or attempted. In a way, it’s not so much a straight parody as an all-too realistic distillation of the era’s standard comic book themes.