Frezno's Comics Challenge: January 2024 (Of Thunder And Lightning)

Welcome to 2024 on Frezno's Raving Rants! I hope your new year has been fun and interesting so far. We're only three weeks in and mine has been quite productive. If nothing else, a theme for the early stages of the blog is starting to form. The media I've been engaging with has its own strengths and themes, and those strengths and themes are coalescing into their own synchronicities. There are even small tangible connections to what I'm going to talk about right now, but for now we must plant the flag and explain: What in the hell are we doing here with this, for the inaugural Frezno post of 2024? Allow me to explain.

Last year on the blog, my pal Joe inspired me to go on a cinematic journey of broadening horizons, to clear my head of the noxious fumes of genre fiction. The resulting journey, Frezno's Criterion Challenge, lasted ten months and was successful. I didn't finish the year out, but I got what I wanted out of the project. Horizons successfully broadened, some standout films watched that I would not have otherwise, and my edge as a writer honed just that little bit more. I successfully played around in a wheelhouse I would not have otherwise, and it was a good experience. I'm quite thankful to my pal Joe for giving me that, and they got me another year's worth of Criterion subscription so that I can truly spread my wings and watch whatever intrigues me that isn't restricted to a challenge watchlist. That's lovely, and once things calm down a little with the media (in a way, they have as of today, but that's a story for next time) I will dive into some more films on my list that I want to see. We're not here to talk films, though. We're here to talk comics. But why?

Among the folks who I am lucky to call friends is one Sean Dillon. Sean is an author and comics critic who's quite talented, and also a good mentor who helps to keep this meandering blog on the straight and narrow with their feedback on my words. Something spurred it on, and I'm still not quite sure what, but Sean lay down the gauntlet for me late last year. Since I had so much fun broadening my horizons and critical voice with fine cinema, why not do the same with their favorite medium? Challenge accepted. Over 2024, I will be talking about An Amount of comics, and talking about them to the best of my ability with the hopes of not just reading interesting stories, but honing that critical edge and becoming an adequate comics critic in my own right. Sean has given me comic suggestions for the annual Halloween marathons before, and I have read and enjoyed them... but the writeups are not exactly up to my usual standard. I'll be the first to admit that, and in one infamous case I just threw up my hands and went "I don't get it." 

Let us hope it does not come to that this time around. I have a general idea of how to start doing comics criticism better, a good enough jumping off point. From there, we shall see how Sean reacts and what advice they give on doing this thing better for next time. There's always room for improvement, after all. It's a nice bit of preamble, this, but it's delaying from the actual point. I have a comic to review, a graphic novel that I have held in my hands and read. Now I get to talk about it, no more stalling. Wish me luck, everyone, in your hopefully warm and cozy spots as you ride out the winter. We're about to dive into the wonderful world of comics criticism. Deep breath, leap... and plunge right on in. Let us begin... Frezno's Comics Challenge.

"This is the ultimate state of human emotion. More passionate than hope. Far deeper than despair. It is love."

Kimberly Wang's Of Thunder And Lightning represents a softball of sorts from Sean in their opening pitch of this baseball game metaphor I have locked myself into for some reason. It is, above all else, a love story, but its parameters are well within my wheelhouse. It is a story of dueling magical girls from opposing ideologies, fighting in the name of love and peace for their respective sides and finding a certain kinship on the battlefield. Again, this is all well-trodden ground on this blog from between the years 2018 and 2021 or so... and yet, there's something more going on here. There are depths both on display and hidden within the linework, deep dark pools which reflect upon the internal landscape my 2024 has become. The softball is an easy pitch, and yet hitting that ball out of the park has a certain complexity to it as I try to not only explain how this comic resonated with me, but the very landscape of myself that it resonates with. A big ask, but let's try and start with a simple question.

What does the color red mean?

Wang's comic is awash in one primary color besides blacks and whites, and that color is red. From lighter salmonish hues to deep dark crimsons, red is the language in which the art speaks to you. This is the first lesson Sean taught me about comics criticism: to talk about the strengths and uniqueness of its medium. When a film like Suspiria is awash in bright reds, you take notice and know that it means something. It impresses upon you its deliberate choice, and what it means. Of Thunder And Lightning is no different, so let us answer the question. What does the color red mean? What do you associate with? For me, reading the comic, a few words come to mind. Love. Passion. Blood. Anger. All of these are present in the comic, pumping through its red-hued pages like a steady beating heart. It is literal instead of figurative, as well; the first noises of the comic proper are muted gunfire (katatata) and the noisy beating of protagonist Magni's heart (TH-DUM TH-DUM TH-DUM). 

The thrill of the fight, the beating of your frantic heart in your eyes, the metallic taste in your mouth as you face your nemesis in mortal combat.... This is war. This is an all-out brawl between your sworn enemy, the one who stands for all you are against to your very core and who will stop at nothing to defeat you. It is a hellish thing, fighting for your very life... but it also something which makes you feel something, the sheer thrill of it all making you feel alive. Magni of the Yggdrasil Republic and Dimo of the Ark Empire feel this every time they cross paths, dueling with each other at the behest of their corporate overlords and ideologies. I watch their struggle, see the grins on their faces as they prepare to battle, and I know this feeling. I have marinated in this feeling for the better half of January 2024. Why? You'll find out next time... but know that I understand these two and their desperate dance of death well. The moment I realized this, on my second read of the comic, was when one of them actually wins. Magni blasts away half of Dimo, just missing obliterating her heart, and as she stands over her sworn enemy's body, Dimo grins. In the next panel, Magni grins as well. In such a desperate battle, you're sure to be wounded. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Again, it's that mad marinating feeling of being locked in a war waltz. Yes. God yes. This pain, this hurt, it makes me feel alive, and now I'll do it to you. This feels like a victory by any measure, but it's really not. Even ignoring the question of Magni's happiness, it's not. There are little glimmers of the truth of this world, and notably all of them come from the supposed resistance against the Empire. Their leader is a "King CEO" and news reports of Magni's victory question economic anxieties in the wake of Dimo's defeat. This is not a resistance. This is not a war. This is business, and business and profit does its best to maintain its stranglehold. The true opening of the comic, the first thing you see, is propaganda. A hyper-cartoonized Magni proclaiming to defeat the evil Empire "in the name of love and peace". The utopic message of my 2018, twisted and turned into PR to make your corporate overlords look good. The interlude of the comic has interviews with Republic folks, and not only is each page plastered with pop-up ads for Magni and her battles, but there's actual censorship happening. Words like God, Theseus, and Turing are all barred out, just enough remaining for you to see... but do the people of this world see? Even the comic itself, the physical object I hold in my hands, is not immune to propaganda. The corporate interests of this world keep the war going, for their own machinations, but they forgot about the other half of war.

They forgot about love.

Dimo returns, and a spectacular six pages of chaotic violence commences, the panel structure struggling to handle it all as her fury transcends across the jagged panels to strike at Magni with unbridled passion and violence. Even Magni herself can only grin, her heart absolutely pounding at the sight of her foe, her love, standing before her as the Imperial angel of Ark. It is war, it is passion, it is anger, it is love. It is red, beating strong and bleeding across the page, and it is fucking beautiful and terrifying all at once. It is the opening strike in a battle which ends the world, not even Imperial propaganda standing up to it and shattering to pieces within two pages. Dimo's fury ends it all. Not just the Republic, not just the Empire, but all things. There's one final fleeting attempt to censor, as Dimo is asked "You loved her, didn't you?". They may try to censor your love, may try to cut around it or otherwise try to suppress it, but this powerful red cannot be silenced or quelled. Those who try to will feel the red power of red strike them down, the fury they cultivated turned upon them. It is a downer, an abject misery, but there is hope at the end. Magni and Dimo find some form of happiness, somewhere, in a world of white and red, a world where they can reach out their hands instead of clenching them into fists. A world of love.

Of Thunder And Lightning is quite the comic, and what seemed at first a straightforward read about dueling magical girl robots took on this deeper significance within me, It resonated with some deep dark part of my soul, a part that I will lay bare soon enough. For now, I admire this tale of lesbians battling it out and finding love in their waltz of war, and burning the system that would dare try to censor and suppress them to a crisp. I admired this comic, and it will take its place proudly on my shelf. Keep in mind that theme, though. The rush of war, the adrenaline of battle, and a state of abject misery and dystopia. That is my 2024 internal landscape. I promise I'm feeling okay, but all will be explained later. For now, for this thing? That's one comic down.

So, Sean... What do you have for me next?