"Watchmen" meets "Jerry Springer"

I may have turned my back on western comics, but that doesn't mean I can't glance over my shoulder - especially when a generous soul like DL gives me an infamous five-issue miniseries gratis. If Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" (1987) is the star pupil of sequential art, who absorbed every lesson and surpassed all his teachers (and I think it is), then Rick Veitch's "Brat Pack" (1992) is the kid in the back of the class who had natural talent but was more interested in biff, babes and booze...

In the city of Slumburg, the superheroes are predators, risk-takers, substance abusers and supremacists. When their sidekicks foolishly spring a deathtrap set by the laughable Doctor Blasphemy (supposedly a comment on DC Comics killing the second Robin, Jason Todd, in response to a fan poll), a new group of youngsters are recruited...and, over the remaining issues, dragged through hell.

Add a comment about exploitation for commercial gain, the sort-of reappearance of a legend (heavily foreshadowed) and two unmaskings (one obvious, the other an absolute groaner) and that's all Mr Veitch wrote.

But though "Brat Pack" is limited and flawed*, it's not without merit. As an exercise in demonstrating how unlikeable metahumans might actually be, it succeeds.
Witness Midnight Mink sleazing onto Chippy, Moon Mistress turning Luna into a literal ball-buster, King Rad forcing Wild Boy to drink, take drugs and perform dangerous stunts (sounds like Johnny Knoxville), and Judge Jury filling Kid Vicious with steroids, racist beliefs and anger - then tell me I'm wrong.

I should say something about the artwork at this point. Except for the covers, it's black-and-white, with an emphasis on ugly reality rather than the heroic ideal. This style helps emphasise absurdities of the genre that are being mocked, such as tough guy Kid Vicious' camp cowboy outfit and the borrowed NASA lunar module in which Moon Mistress travels. The panels are all over the place (the opposite of "Watchmen"'s regimentation) and the lettering's a mess, but like everything else about "Brat Pack", it somehow works.


*I believe Rick does some serious revising in the graphic novel version. I have the individual issues.