February 17, 2004
SCARS
Written by Warren Ellis and Drawn by Jacen Burrows
Published by Avatar Press
Detective John Cain has seen it all. There isn’t a homicide left that can make him vomit up his last three meals. But then someone does the damned near unthinkable: three small boxes are left outside a children’s charity. Their contents? The recently cut up remains of a missing eleven-year old girl. That sets off a chain of events in Cain’s head that leads to a dark promise, and a path that could turn Cain into one of the monsters he’s been trying to put away for his entire life.
Warren Ellis is a fascinating writer. Seemingly ruled by two different personalities, you can never be quite sure just which Ellis is going to show up when you buy one of his books. There’s “Concept Warren,” a man with ideas bursting forth from his head like a unicorn’s horn; think MEK, TOKYO STORM WARNING, or MINISTRY OF SPACE. Then there’s “Humanist Ellis,” the guy who has a deep and abiding caring for things and who wants to share that caring, even if it may unsettle the audience. Think TRANSMETROPOLITAN, ORBITER, and this book, SCARS.
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The humanist elements are in SCARS from the very start. Detective Cain is obviously depressed and anguished by the loss (in some unknown manner) of his wife and daughter, and he is back on the job and overcompensating for that loss with some off-kilter behavior. Assigned the case of the missing/now found young school girl, it doesn’t take long for Cain’s professional detachment to erode and for him to absorb the girl’s death into himself, the way he absorbed his own daughter’s passing. It’s moments like that that shine through the brutality of the crime Ellis’ story focuses on. Ellis is the father of a young girl himself, so you know he’s expressing feelings and concerns that he has as man away from the keyboard. I myself have an eight-year old future stepdaughter and was immediately drawn into Cain’s pain and anguish at the events he was being drawn into.
When Cain continues to fall deeper and deeper into obsession with the case, Ellis smartly backs off a bit and allows the supporting cast to dig their claws in and start passing judgment on him. This has the interesting effect of making the reader question his own feelings about the character, because at that point, right or wrong, you’re either on Cain’s side and along for the ride until he ends the story in the only way you feel justice will be accomplished, or you have to disengage yourself from sympathizing with him and wait for what you can only fear is the inevitable.
In this book, however, Ellis never stands up and provides answers for you, which is unusual for him, even in his more humanist work. TRANSMET was a book in which there were clear answers and conclusions at almost every turn, because Ellis wanted the reader to reach a particular feeling and sentiment. ORBITER also had a very clear point of view that Warren wanted the audience to get to. So SCARS final few pages were a real stunner, creating a scenario in which he never manages to truly make obvious… well, anything.
SCARS is off the beaten track from most recent Ellis work, as most of his latest projects have been intellectual exercises that he didn’t seem to have a great deal invested in emotionally. TOKYO STORM WARNING was a bust because you never believed for a moment that he gave a shit about giant robots and monsters, and those stories are only successful when the writers are in love with giant robots and monsters, because the suspension of disbelief has to be very, very deeply ingrained for the stories to work. It was also saddled with bad art. MEK had potential to be interesting, but in the end, you could tell that Ellis was more interested in the idea of body modification than in telling a story about it. Wrapping the tale around a ho-hum mystery only increased the level of distraction from the concept itself. The currently running TWO-STEP is a bit better than most of his other “pop” projects, as it has shown the potential for a decent satirical edge, but it’s still mainly a lark that allows Ellis to make a few jokes and stand back while the amazing Amanda Connor cuts loose and draws like a madwoman. But overall, you never get the sense from any of these projects that he gives a shit about the characters or their stories. They’re a lark that won’t continue to live on in his head.
At times in the past, it’s almost seemed like Ellis has been reluctant to openly give a shit. He’s put himself out there pretty publicly with the internet communities he’s created and help build up, and there’s a persona he has that it seems like a lot of fans and readers seem to demand he stick to. I think that’s more than a bit unfortunate. When Ellis opens up his mind and starts letting the things he feels on paper, he produces some of the finest graphic novels being published today. SCARS, aided and abetted by some tremendous art by the underrated Jacen Burrows, comes along as a career highlight for a man who has had more than a few. Grade: A-
Should It Be A Movie?
SCARS is the closest thing to Seven that comics has ever produced. Gritty, dark, and deeply morally troubling, it is filled with rich characters, and strong story beats that would make for an excellent motion picture adaptation.
I would hesitate to say that David Fincher should revisit this territory again, but an A-list quality director with a sense of subtlety and mood is definitely needed for this material. SCARS is a story that requires telling through setting, expression, and lighting. John Cain has not been written as a wordy character; instead, Ellis chose to let the art and the setting speak to the reader, showing not telling. It would be an enormous blunder for a writer adapting this book to turn Cain into someone who is seeing a therapist, which is an obvious temptation in order to get across expository information. A better talent behind the camera can get that exposition out without adding a word of dialogue and treating the audience like they’re stupid.
The story could be told in America or England, broadening the possibilities for both casting and locations. Either way, SCARS is a tale that could be filmed at a quality level on par with ROAD TO PERDITION or GHOST WORLD, the kind of film that makes people forget it’s pulpy roots. What else can you ask for?
E-mail me from the link below. Review copies may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ 85285. See you all next week.
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