WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: The Difference 25 Years Make, Steve (SLUDGE, SLUDGE: RED X-MAS)

Supposedly, Steve Gerber had no idea for what he could write as his contribution to the Ultraverse. Sure, he was doing Exiles, but that was a short term stunt designed to let readers know that no character was safe. And according to our dear friend Roland Mann:

"The idea was that he should write something along the lines of Man-Thing or Swamp Thing and he wasn't for it. So Chris Ulm said something like "Yeah, you probably couldn't think of anything new to do anyway. So--Sludge. "

And, yes...on the surface, Sludge is Swamp Thing relocated from the swamps of Louisiana to the sewers of New York City. But in its twelve issues and a special, it rapidly became something more--and easily lies alongside Firearm as my favorite Ultraverse title so far.

Frank Hoag is a a crooked cop doing tasks for the Marcello crime family. But one task he won't do is murder a fellow cop. So Frank is shot down in the middle of a chemical lab and dumped in the sewer. The mix of the chemicals he was bathed in and the sewer detritus transforms Hoag into a hulk blue goo monster with an addled brain and a serious case of malapropism...who's still stuck in a conflict between three...unusual gangs.

The thing that I love the most about Gerber is his strange combination of misanthropy, social concerns and humor...and given how light the reins were held on him, Sludge is magnificent. Even though you can see he is taking inspiration from his previous works, he manages to improve upon the original. You just have to look at Bloodstorm, who appears sporadically after being introduced in the second issue--there are elements of Man-Thing villain Foolkiller as well as his recurring motif of a fat kid's bullying ending up tragically (something he did in issues of Giant Size Man Thing and Omega The Unknown in the 70's) in this hitman...and yet his nihilistic worldview makes him compelling and his emotional arc is darkly entertaining. Making one of the other gangs a Triad that owns 'Paygo' (read 'Nintendo' or 'Sega') Electronics has echoes of both Howard The Duck and The Defenders. One of my favorite supporting characters is investigative reporter Shelly Rogers, who artist Aaron Lopresti explictly makes the niece of one of my favorite fictional characters of all time in a Easter egg in issue #4 and serves as a platonic Beverly Switzer to provide commentary as the story gets more and more absurb.

And then there's Pistol and his boss...

Lord Pumpkin is not Gerber's creation, according to Mr. Mann:

"I think, though, that Lord Pumpkin was the brainchild of Dan Danko. Gerber ran with it, but I think Danko is the one who came up with the nuts and bolts."

--and boy, did Steve run with it. In earlier articles, I've discussed the later appearances of this character and expressed some confusion as to why so much emphasis was put on it in the post-Marvel buyout world. In reading these early appearances, I certainly now understand why fans were so enthusiastic about him. Lord Pumpkin in Sludge is as charismatic a villain as can be, putting on a gentleman's demeanor and acting as a surrogate father to his bodyguard, an adolescent hitman. Both dress in classic 30's gangster style, and there seems to be an actual affection between the two of them. And when we do get some of Pistol's backstory (we'll get to that in a minute), we understand the dynamic even more. I get the impression that the duo's plan, involving marketing a magical drug called Zuke, was supposed to be bigger and somehow connected to Godwheel and Prime, but this was never expanded upon fully because the book was canceled after twelve issues.

Apparently Gerber's trouble keeping deadlines, which led back in 70's to such things as the 'Dreaded Deadline Doom' issue of Howard The Duck*, continued in the 90's which led to artist Aaron Lopresti plotting a handful of issues, all containing weird monsters like a giant crocodile man, a Frankenstein satire and an evil witch that spurs on a fight between Sludge and Prime in the last issue. Other than the inclusion of these monsters, they fit seamlessly into the series and not just because Gerber contributes dialogue. This may have been a case of writer and artist having such similar semsibilities that they create exactly what they had in their mind. Lopresti's artwork is moody, dark and distorted...which makes it perfect for this series.

After the end of the series, Sludge did pop up in an episode of the Ultraforce cartoon as well as an issue of Foxfire. But his last significant appearance may very well have been his best--and Mr. Mann seems to agree:

"I think Sludge was our best title. Sludge Red X-Mas being the single best book we did. "

Not surprisingly, Sludge Red X-Mas was a Christmas special that reunited Gerber with one of his key collaborators on his classic run on Man-Thing, Mike Ploog. It focuses on, in addition to Sludge, some minor characters from the main run as well as Pistol and ties them up in a plot about a union leader who's not as heroic as he seems. It's a wonderful story, especially in regard to how it makes us see Pistol from another angle, making him more than a weird sidekick to become a sympathetic character. I don't know if I can say it is my favorite single issue story given I still have a number of titles to read...but it certainly is one of my favorites.

It's a shame that Sludge is long out of print, especially given how there is so little crossover that it can be read as a standalone. I know that Marvel is highly reluctant to even acknowledge the Ultraverse's existence, especially now that they're owned by Disney, who might be nervous about what happened to one of the imprint's founders...but surely it's worth it to have this prime example of Gerber's later work to fans like myself who love his quirky and weird world view?

Next time, I'll be looking at an Ultraverse title I literally didn't even recall until I started this project. It's the third title by the problematic Gerard Jones, and it's may be more the Ultraverse's answer to Batman than Night Man was...mixed in with some pulp and film noir tropes. It's time to put on the purple and blue and walk down these lonely streets as we examine Solitaire!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

*--This famous illustrated text issue pretty much inspired Vinegarette, a character who pops up in the later half of the book and resembles the Vegas chorus girl and ostrich fighting a lamp in one memorable double page spread in the Howard The Duck issue. 

WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: What Was I Made For? (SIREN, SIREN SPECIAL, ERADICATOR)

Siren is pretty much the last character to hold down her own series who debuted before the Black September reboot.  She shows up in the background of Eradicator, a miniseries that spun out of Ultraverse Premiere*, interacting with the hero only long enough to ask if he is her father.  Her appearance isn't heralded by the trumpeting that preceded the debut of characters like Hellblade and Foxfire, but according to Roland Mann, Siren's appearance was intended to be a 'back door' pilot:

"Eliminator was a bone thrown to us, made ever sweeter because Mike Zeck was drawing. So we worked Siren in because that was one of the projects Hank had pitched and was working on with Chris Ulm. He (and I agreed) thought that might help to kickstart Siren--and it did."

 

Her next appearance, in Ultraforce #8, was overshadowed by the cover-touted appearance of The Black Knight.  She's a minor part of the next two issues, leading to Ultraverse/Avengers and Black September, after which she gets her own series and a follow-up special.

And that might be why this series lasted only four issues before she was shuffled back into the Ultraforce line-up...she's being overshadowed constantly in issues where she's supposed to be front and center.

You see, Siren Infinity literally dumps Siren into the Marvel Universe and onto Taskmaster's bed, where she insinuates herself as a prospective student and ends up paired with Diamondback, a character from Mark Gruenwald's Captain America run who's looking to destroy Taskmaster's operations.  They're both assigned to kill James Rhodes--at the time running Worldwatch Inc. and rocking a goofy alien armor--and ends up failing on purpose, but also picking up a really, really annoying teleporting kid called Kyi**  During the course of all this runaround and intrigue, Siren discovers she is an hydrokinetic and learns how to use it to her advantage.  By the end of the series, she's dumped back into the Ultraverse in the middle of the desert.

This led to Siren Special #1, which finally lets us know what the origin of the character is.  After she's abducted by Aladdin for wandering near their Groom Lake facility, she learns that she's really Jennifer, one of three genetic experiments using DNA from Rick Pearson.  Rick goes on to become Eliminator and Jennifer ended up in care of her aunt before deciding to be a thief with make-up that disappeared when she sprayed something on it.  Aladdin intends her to become one of their black ops agents and sics her on Shuriken, leading to a fight with her and Juggernaut before Jennifer returns to Aladdin, plants a virus provided by Shuriken that makes its computerized leader believe he controls her.  She has the doo-hickey that Aladdin put in her neck that coerces her to obey removed and...that's it.  She returns to the pages of Ultraforce, where she hangs around long enough to fight some alien invaders and disappear.

Siren was the creation of Hank Kanalz .  If there's one thing that her solo adventures show, it's that (and I suspect it's the fault of the Marvel takeover) no one could decide upon what the character was.  Throughout these few issues, I got a sense of what she could be--at times she looks like she's being set up as a Gambit-like ambivalent hero, a Green Hornet-esque 'hero pretending to be a baddie to fight crime from within', a sassy bad girl ala' Harley Quinn, or a rogue spy ala' Black Widow.  But they don't ever stay with any one character take for very long.  It also doesn't help that her powers and abilities change from moment to moment.  Hell, there's a moment in the special where Jennifer appears to use mind control on Juggernaut, and it felt like that ability was added suddenly when someone remembered her name was actually, you know, Siren.

The artwork is pretty excellent--Mike Zeck does the Eliminator issues, and Kevin J. West (whose style seems even better suited here than it was on Foxfire) did all her solo issues save for the special, which was done by John Fang.  All of these pencillers are very action-oriented, and some of the set pieces are exceptionally fluid and kinetic.  I really thought much of it worked visually.  I just wish it was in service of a series that was more focused than what we ended up with.

After finishing all the issues, I wonder if Siren's development couldn't have been better handled by putting the special in between Eliminator and her initial appearance in Ultraforce.  There's this nagging feeling that all the adjustments and readjustments poor Jennifer went through in her main series wouldn't have occurred if Kanalz had cemented her origin and powers before Marvel gained majority control.  But as it stands, the constant course correcting coupled with the forced Marvel connections obscures what could've been an interesting heroine.  The series and the special are readable and has good looking art, but I would not call it recommended.

We're ramping up to the grand finale of my journey through the Ultraverse.  Coming up next is Steve Gerber's other regular Ultraverse series, in which takes he one of his most celebrated Marvel characters, relocates him to New York City and drops him into the middle of a noir crime epic where one of the gang bosses is...Lord Pumpkin.  Be sure to wear full protective covering when we make the acquaintance of Sludge!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

*--This was the second series I read during this project.  It made no sense to me then. I figured at the time that the series, a strange fusion of martial arts, cyborg and Stephen J. Connell-style characterization, would make more sense as I got deeper into my re-read...and here, over halfway through, I still don't know what that was all about.  And by now, I understand the first book I read, Break/Thru...I think.

**--For some reason, the Ultraverse was all in on the kid sidekick trend.  At least Kyi wasn't a speedster like Prime's Turbocharge or Rush, who was tacked on to the later half of Mantra volume two.