Comic review: C.O.W.L #11- The Final Issue

Writers: Kyle Higgins & Alec Siegel
Art: Rod Reis
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: July 2015



I’ve read the entire run of C.O.W.L, and now it’s over.

So, was it worth it?

Just about.

I had problems with it. I still don’t understand why it was set in a make-believe version of the 1960’s. I don’t understand why you would do that when the world of NOW is so fascinating and there’s so much that you could say about it in a truly controversial comic book narrative.

The creators of C.O.W.L have already announced their next project. It’s an alternative history book, set in a future where the cold war tensions of 1985 led to nuclear detonations in Moscow and New York City.

Again, why do you need to go back? Is there not tension between Putin’s Russia and the neo-liberal, corporate US imperialist war machine of today?
Why not use that as a fictional launching pad as opposed to cold war tensions of over thirty years ago?

What are they scared of?

It bewilders me, but then again, perhaps not. Do US comic book writers really want to shine a spotlight on their country, and look at what they have actually done to the world in the past decade alone?

Looking at contemporary US comic books, it appears that they would rather not look.

I read comic books and I see safety, identity politics, personalities not issues, and a refusal to address the neo-liberal corporate consensus of our times. That’s what I see, and it depresses me that writers are either not smart enough, or not brave enough to tackle the important issues in our world today.

C.O.W.L #11 concludes with a whimper. The guy in charge of protecting the people from villains is the biggest villain of them all, and is probably funding, manufacturing or controlling all of the threats in order to justify and maintain his position.

Of course he is, that’s how it works. See the F.B.I and their counter ‘terrorism’ 'work' in the US for the past decade alone for more details.

That one idea, that those in charge of stopping threats have to manufacture them, is not enough to sustain an entire comic book series. It’s not really enough to sustain a one shot either, as it’s a twist that isn’t really a twist at all. For anybody paying attention to how the world actually works, it’s a given.

Perhaps I’m making assumptions here? Perhaps other readers think that the law exists to protect them? Perhaps other readers still think that cops are heroes and that politicians represent their voters? I don’t know about that. I like to credit people and assume intelligence rather than assume the worst.

Having said all of that, the main problem I had with C.O.W.L was not the obviousness of the plot. It was the needlessly complex structure of the narrative itself. This was a difficult comic book to read. It wasn’t just ‘involving’ it was a bloody maze with prickly thorns on every corner. I like reader friendly books, and I could never describe C.O.W.L as reader friendly.

There were too many people, too many plot threads, and too much going on. It was far too crowded and that took the fun out of it all. It should have been a simple comic, but it became too convoluted, too pofaced, not enough fun, and far too serious for it’s own good.

C.O.W.L probably thought that it was a bit cleverer and more important than it actually was. I hoped that it would be about something more than personality conflicts and office politics, but in the end, it really wasn’t. It was a book with a coathanger of a theme, but what it was really about was the individual characters and personalities involved.

A lot of comic book (and other fiction) readers, love to read about characters and personalities and how they manipulate each other in a big old gross Game of Thrones kind of way. They love that human intrigue stuff. They love the sex and violence, and betrayals and scandals and outrages. I personally couldn’t care less. I’m interested in issues, not personalities. People bore me, they always have done. I know you aren’t supposed to say that, but sod it, it’s true. I’ve always found people to be tiresomely predictable. They pretend to care, but only really care about themselves. I don’t want to read about people. I want to read about something more interesting than that.

I was the only person in my comic book shop that was reading this book. I had it on sub. Nobody else was interested. I thought that it was okay. It was not a bad book. It had one thing going for it, that idea that those in positions of government sponsored authority sometimes have to manufacture enemies in order to justify their budgets and positions. Apart from that though, it won’t linger long in the memory.

C.O.W.L (Chicago Organised Workers League) was a comic book about the 1960’s, a fake 1960’s. It had superheroes and unions in it. It had lots of characters, too many characters. They were all screwing each other over. It was very serious. Readers were turned off because it looked like a boring book about union issues and politics from fifty years ago. I think that it was trying to get an award, or something. Okay then, that’s a comic book.



Rating: 6/10 (C.O.W.L is no more. It lasted too long, was okay for a while, but I’m happy that it’s over)