Review of Comic Book Villains (2002) by Edith N — 29 Nov 2010

Obsession, That Most Popular Subject.

Actually, we have two comic book stores here in Olympia, and they aren't bad analogues to the stores in this movie. At least visually and regarding the merchandise. Danger Room, downtown, is small and cramped and kind of dark. So much of the store is full of underground comics no one's ever heard of, possibly not even the people who work there, that it doesn't seem they can possibly have room for even just the current Marvel list, let alone DC, Dark Horse, and anybody's backlog. Then, there's Olympic Cards and Comics, across town in Lacey. Gaby bought a new building not that long ago. In the sense that she bought a plot of land, had the building which used to be there torn down, and had another built to her specifications. It's essentially a warehouse, and a lot of it is comics, yes, but there are sports cards, Magic cards, tons and tons of merchandise, and an enormous gaming area. So yeah.

Archie (the vaguely familiar DJ Qualls) lives in a town of two comic book stores as well. The one he frequents is run by Raymond McGilicudy (Donal Logue), a loner who's just that devoted to comics. Across town, there's a store run by Judy (Natasha Lyonne) and Norman (Michael Rapaport) Link. Their store is light and airy, and they sell, well, actions figures and Magic cards. This is on the sensible grounds that parents are more likely to go into that kind of store, bringing their checkbooks with them. Then local troublemaker "Conan" (Danny Masterson) tells all concerned that a local man died recently, having spent forty years collecting comic books. Conveniently, he stopped collecting long enough ago so that none of the store-owners know about him. But he is said to have all those years' worth of comics locked away, so they all want them. Only his mother, Mrs. Cresswell (Eileen Brennan), doesn't want to sell. It's what she has of her son, after all.

I have to tell you, I can kind of see where she's coming from. Her son doesn't seem to have made much of an impression on the world. I mean, okay, one assumes he must have made the money to buy all those comics somehow, but he doesn't seem to have friends. Certainly his mother is left with his belongings apparently without anyone else who might be interested. To be fair, she doesn't really have anyone herself, presumably because she put so much into her son. The only people in the movie who seem to have any sort of mature, intelligent relationship are Archie and Mrs. Cresswell. Yes, he's sent to talk to her by Ray, but instead of pressuring her about comics, he actually talks to her. What's more, he actually listens. It's never specified what her son died of, but it's generally agreed that outliving your child is one of the worst possible things. She is left alone, and even if she doesn't read all those comics, she has them.

And then of course, there is escalation. Oh, it starts out all tame. Norman washes Mrs. Cresswell's car, but while he is getting her to show her how squeaky clean it is, Ray splashes paint all over it. Heck, even Ray's turning the power back on while Norman is fixing her wiring isn't a huge thing, because it merely leaves to a live-action-cartoon moment, and while I don't like those, things could be worse. And when things are worse, it is because Ray has invited in Carter (Cary Elwes). Who turns out to have been a comic book fan of old. So he wasn't a mindless thug. He had a mind! Obviously, this is when the movie gets really silly, not just moderately silly. It's not even pretending that you should take it seriously anymore. On the other hand, there are a lot of intelligent but pretentious things I could say on the subject. It is, after all, our old friend Obsession returned to say hi, only this time, it's wearing tights and a cape.

I know there are a lot of people who would scoff at the outset, simply because they don't understand why anyone would care that much about comics. Fair enough. I think it's true that caring as much about comics as these people do is a little much. On the other hand, you should hear how giggly I get whenever I have personal contact, however minor and fleeting, with Roger Ebert. (He thinks I'm eloquent!) I think most people have something they're a little odd about. Yes, this movie is about taking it up to eleven; that's the point. It's also worth noting that it's only in part about the comics. Oh, Ray really cares about the comics, true. And to a certain extent, maybe Norman does. But Judy's only in it for the money. Carter happens to really like hurting people. The comics, as is so often the case, are really only there to represent a dream and being held back from it. So this time, they're the Marvel (and DC, and probably EC, and so forth) MacGuffin.