Shadowy authorities organizations. Covert, and typically not-so-covert, investigations of bizarre goings-on with the swankiest of devices. Mining the depths of the DC Universe. A private motive to mistrust and dislike superpowers and vigilantes. And a want to get to the secrets and techniques on the coronary heart of it. This was the world that served as a backdrop for the instances of Cameron Chase, an agent of the Department of Extranormal Affairs. It felt like a sequence that was properly forward of its time.
“So, Bats, how’s the wife and kids?”
Chase #7-8, from D. Curtis Johnson, JH Williams III, Mick Gray, Lee Loughridge, and Comicraft, sends Agent Chase to Gotham City to trace down a mutagenic drug that’s altering folks into demons. Only it’s type of a feint. While there may be a bootleg drug ring, there’s a second objective to Chase’s journey to Gotham, discovering out the true identification of Batman.
Though there’s a persevering with throughline of Chase’s private life and her familial motive for her place relating to superheroes, this story just about stands by itself and could be learn with none prior data. It revels in Chase’s cynicism and sarcastic wit, including a type of gallows humour and irreverence to the thriller points. The dialogue from D. Curtis Johnson positively retains the story flowing. It’s additionally very fascinating when the story shifts gears and we see the assumptions which can be made about who Batman is perhaps.
The credit for the problem don’t state who at Comicraft in the end lettered these points. Not even a credit score to “Richard Starkings & …”. It is, nonetheless, some nice work, taking part in with the totally different shifts in narrative construction, incorporating a aptitude for type into the general design of the pages. The textual content conversations, digital journal entries, and distinctive balloons for the demons add to the general inventiveness of the story.
“Whoever he is, he’s too damn good to catch this way.”
I really feel like JH Williams III actually levelled up between 1996 and 1998. He locked on to a mode of his personal, synthesizing varied influences into a singular and distinctive type. During this era, he began incorporating web page borders into his layouts, together with experimenting with spherical panels and variants on grids. To me it makes the pages fascinating even simply from a design side. I discover it very structured in comparison with what’s going to come later, although that’s a part of what makes this period fascinating.
It’s pretty darkish, shadowy, and that includes thick strains. A big a part of which is probably going partially to Mick Gray’s inks. Gray takes an analogous method to artwork from Patrick Gleason. It’s an exquisite look, completely becoming each the shadowy DEO investigations and the grittiness of Gotham. The Williams and Gray staff actually simply appeared to provide masterpiece after masterpiece.
The noir parts of the story and artwork is enhanced by Lee Loughridge’s colors. The blues and yellows that centre the color palette work properly to floor Gotham/ It additionally permits for the reds of the demons stand out much more as an alien component.
“You youngsters – no patience at all.”
Sadly there have been solely two extra points after this arc. And considered one of them was a flash-forward that tied into the DC One Million occasion. I feel that with its emphasis on a type of legislation enforcement and exploration of what makes superheroes tick, Chase presaged different sequence as disparate as Gotham Central and Planetary. It’s a disgrace that it didn’t catch on on the time. The “Shadowing the Bat” arc, nonetheless, in Chase #7-8, from Johnson, Williams, Gray, Loughridge, and Comicraft stays an entertaining crime story that evolves right into a declaration of rules.
Classic Comic Compendium: Chase #7 & #8 – Shadowing the Bat
Chase #7 & 8 – “Shadowing the Bat”
Writers: D. Curtis Johnson & JH Williams III
Penciller: JH Williams III
Inker: Mick Gray
Colourist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Comicraft
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: June 17 1998 – July 15 1998
Available collected in Chase and Tales of the Batman: JH Williams III
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