Age of Bronze 32

 Mythic Manipulations

Readers waited two years between issue 31 and 32. That’s an impressive wait for what once was a monthly comic. Thankfully, it was worth the wait, and there were some good comics to read during the 2010-2012 interim.

  

Age of Bronze is a black and white comic written and drawn by Eric Shanower. It tells the story of the  Trojan War starting from the abduction of Helen to the sacrifice of Iphigenia, to the Achaean landing at Troy and the ensuing siege. In the current story arc, Shanower incorporated the story of Troilus and Cressida.

Age of Bronze 32 continues the story of Troilus and Cressida, lovers foiled by the draconian political demands of war. The story is old, but not quite as old as the Trojan War. The resolution to Troilus and Cressida’s romance is far from secret and can be found in Chaucer, Boccocio, Shakespeare, Dryden , and others, so suspense of how this love story ends (the affair goes badly for  Troilus, prince of Troy) remain dim factors (most likely) for spurring readers to read this story to which they already know the ending.

So why bother reading it at all?

And what of superheroes? Just like readers know how this resolution of this ancient romance, so, too, do we know the origin of Spider-Man , Superman, Magneto, and a host of other characters. So, too, do we know that nothing ever ultimately changes in superhero comics.

Yet this permanence harbors a strength for the story. With the plot and the main details of the story already familiar to the audience (superheroes fight bad guys…Greeks invade the Trojans…Good guys and Greeks win), the variations on the tale (which can theoretically be infinite) accommodate imagination and creativity, yet the ending spot of the story takes the reader and character back to the familiar, to the known.

 So what?

Why bother?

These twice-told tales remain essential. Such adaptations or new versions of the same old stories (like super-hero origin stories) explore the power and possibility contained within the story.  Retellings allow the story to grow, to regenerate, to adapt to needs of both the teller and audience, and still provide familiarity and constant elements that comfort readers and allow a greater chance for the story to endure.

Shanower simplifies this tale of Troilus and Cressida into beginning, middle, and end, with a clear narrative, characters, and setting. An X-Men story, or an issue of  Justice League Dark  imposes a narrative structure within each issue.  Order exists in 20 pages of stapled and folded papers.

 

Shanower’s lines possess preciseness that suggests an architect’s renderings.  These formal sharp lines fit the epic mood of the tale and the place of honor the tale of the Trojan War occupies in western culture.

This rendering of the story draws out the exact treatment of Cressida, the daughter of a traitor, who is delivered from Troy to her father who resides in the Greek camp. How would the Greek soldiers and kings treat this beautiful Trojan woman? Roughly, according to Shanower.

 

How should a reader respond to these adaptations of “Troilus and Cressida”— as escapism, entertainment, a focus for purging discontent, literary analysis, or a jumping off point for philosophical considerations for a point in the story?  The choice rests with the reader. These multiple retellings and versions of a story, along with contradictory interpretations, can exist simultaneously. A new version of the tale (for example, the Fantastic Four defeating Galactus) can add new twists, details and understanding given the artistic variations and the events going on in the world at the time the work is published.

Superhero comics contain a mythic aspect in the sense that the same stories are relayed, with variations, even though the larger plot remains the same.  This narrative aspect mirrors humanity in that ultimately all of us are born, live, and die. All eat, drink, breathe, learn, love, lose, etc. But even though the lengths and experiences of the lives differ, the beginning and ending remain the same. Nothing ultimately changes with humanity, just like nothing ultimately changes with superhero comics.

 Potential comfort and inspiration await within each variation of the story. So go ahead, grab a book retelling an ancient story, or a book where characters in brightly colored tights and capes and enjoy the variations of a tale to which you already know the ending.