IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER/ARTIST: Howard Chaykin
COLORS: Jesus Aburtov
LETTERS: Ken Bruzenak
COVER: Howard Chaykin with Wil Quintana
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2017)
Rated “M / Mature”
The Divided States of Hysteria is the controversial new comic book series from renowned comic book creator, Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!, Midnight of the Soul). Chaykin's collaborators include colorist Jesus Aburtov and Chaykin's longtime letterer, Ken Bruzenak. Published by Image Comics, The Divided States of Hysteria is set in an America that is steadily being destabilized after the assassination of a sitting President and a worst-case terrorist attack that follows.
The Divided States of Hysteria #2 opens after seven pregnant women launched a terrorist attack using nuclear devices and a biological weapon that left much of New York City in ruins. Ambitious, ladder-climbing, CIA field officer, Frank Villa, is being blamed for the attack because he was supposed to prevent just such a thing from happening. New President of the United States, Michelle Taylor, fires Villa and contemplates having the Navy SEALs kill him. Even worse, Villa's wife, two children, and mistress are all dead because of the attack.
Now, Chandler Vandergylt, CEO of private prison corporation, River Run, Inc., is giving Villa a chance to help President Taylor help the country. And four mass killers: Henry John Noone, Christopher Michael Silver, Paul Evan Berg, and Cesare John Nacamulli, are going to help Villa help the President pull the country back together!
In his afterword to the second issue, Howard Chaykin says (basically) that if you don't like what he is doing in his new comic book, The Divided States of Hysteria, don't buy “the fucking book.” Ah, if only it were that easy. People are drawn to controversy, and this comic book is controversial. Just recently, Chaykin and Image Comics had to withdraw the cover art for the as-yet-unpublished fourth issue of this series after releasing an image of it as preview material for North American comic book distributor, Diamond Distributors.
See... this is not the 1980s when fannish comic book reviewers like Don and Maggie Thompson and R.A. Jones ran interference for Chaykin when people criticized Chaykin's legendary 1980s comic book, American Flagg! for, among other things, violence, racism, and objectifying women. [I think R.A. Jones even said he wished someone would objectify him.] Now, we have what we did not have in the 1980s, social media. Social media can amplify the voices of critics to the point that even the baddest, do-what-the-fuck-I-want comic book creator has to back down more than he ever thought he would. The Divided States of Hysteria is not going to get the honeymoon American Flagg! got.
All that aside, The Divided States of Hysteria is a surprisingly, really good comic book. It has a plausible, near-future, semi-dystopian scenario, and the second issue is a little more clear on who the players are, what's going on, and what might happen going forward.
I do think that Chaykin and (judging by this issue's letters' page) some of his readers are a bit naive about the divided state of America. America is a place divided by race, class, ethnicity, religion, etc. in its foundation. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution may say a lot of things, but at the end of the day, a lot of people don't believe that people whom they don't like are equal to them, nor should they be treated that way. There may have been times when the majority of White people in America were united. There may indeed have been times when a few Black people joined them, but the truth is that certain people were not allowed by the majority to join in on this unity.
The continuation of the bondage of African slaves and their descendants; the displacement of native tribes and the theft of their lands; and the limit of the franchise all basically established divisions in this country from its beginning. Billy Joel is right: we didn't start the fire. The divided states of hysteria is not an accident. It was a deliberately laid foundation. Rewriting history and pretending that there was a time when ALL of us were united as a county is not a reality; it is a part of an agenda.
I am not really interested in the points behind The Divided States of Hysteria... for now. I choose to enjoy it as near-future science fiction comic book with potential, rather than as a declaration of how we should be.
8.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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