Jun 042008
Could I love Spacedog‘s Helen Killer any more?
Actually, yes, I could, but first the good news. I have to give Kreisberg and Rice their due for avoiding the “second issue slump”, the annoying tendency of mini-series’ quality dropping off after a heady first issue. Helen Killer #2 pumps out the action from page one and brings Helene face-to-face with her arch nemesis, then unfortunately ends before they can exchange names. Hands down, this is the strangest and borderline tackiest para-history I’ve ever read, but, being a teacher of the deaf by day, I get no small thrill out of a comic book challenging the sacrosanct image of Hellen Keller. No doubt she was the original poster girl for “Deaf can do anything…”, but to see her do all these dirty deeds as a sighted- and hearing-person has raised more than a few eyebrows with my students.
The bad news is not all that bad: I want to see more of Helen’s character develop. The times that truly thrill me are when she has an interior monologue. I’d like to know what she’s thinking when the Omnicle is off. I mean, all that rage has got to come from somewhere. Helen can’t be a saint or a sinner with the flip of a switch alone. I want to know about Helen-in-the-dark.
If you haven’t picked up an issue yet, do it today! A
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