EAGLE: THE MAKING OF AN ASIAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT
by Kaiji Kawaguchi
The deal: Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President is the story of New York Senator Kenneth Yamaoka’s rise to the Presidency. The series is complete, and the final English edition was released in 2002. It is a fictional account of the 2000 American election.
The summary: The story opens with a news program showing Senator Kenneth Yamaoka declaring his candidacy for the presidency. Japanese reporter Takashi Jo is watching this on the television until he is called away to confirm the identity of his mother at the morgue. He has no other living family members except for an absent father he doesn’t know, so when he is asked to follow Yamaoka’s campaign trail in the U.S. he accepts. Eagle sees Takashi Jo follow Yamaoka’s campaign from it’s inception till it’s victory. The outcome is no surprise, as it’s in the title - Eagle is really about the long road to the White House.
The review: I picked Eagle because of it’s relevancy. This is a political manga through and through, with the personal lives of several characters woven into the main storyline of the campaign. It’s also a rather good look at our political system from a “how it works” point of view, since it comes to us via Takashi Jo, a Japanese national who is on the outside of this political process looking in. There’s lots of political maneuvering, and you end up seeing a lot of familiar faces under different names - Al Gore is represented as Al Noah, there’s a mysterious Bill and his wife Ellery (obviously surrogates for Bill and Hillary Clinton). The majority of the books show Yamaoka battling his way through the primaries, surviving scandals and snafus with the advice and experience of his advisors and his own sound judgement. He forges alliances while sticking to his guns - if there is one thing that some people may find unbelievable, it is that Yamaoka is too idealistic a candidate - but speaking from the chair of the reader, I’d argue that that is what makes him interesting. This is entertainment, after all.
There are some underlying mysteries that become integral to the plot as well - what kind of man Yamaoka is, and a more literal mystery that bubbles to the surface and explodes in the last volume. The focus of the series seems to waver here, but by this time Eagle gets back on track and comes to an end.
The recommendation: Anyone who enjoys political thrillers or political fiction will enjoy this. It’s obvious that Kaiji Kawaguchi has done his research, both in terms of the political system itself as well as the players within. It’s also been nominated for four Eisner Awards, in the categories of best new series, best continuing series, best writer/artist, and best U.S. edition of foreign material. I have to stress, though - if you go out to pick this up, make sure you pick up the big volumes. The big volume version is 5 books long.
From Viz, Manga, 5 volumes, $19.95 or $22.95 each (depending on volume)
DEMO
by Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan
The deal: Demo can be found as a trade paperback collecting the original 12-issue miniseries. It is written by Brian Wood, who has also written Channel Zero, DMZ and Supermarket, among others. Becky Cloonan has also done East Coast Rising and been a featured artist in several volumes of Flight. The art is black and white.
The summary: Demo is what X-Men would have been if it had been conceived of in the 21st century. There are 12 stories here, each unrelated to the others in everything except theme, which is as follows: someone discovers they have a power, and they are then forced to face the ramifications of having that power. The visual styles and the stories themselves run the gamut, with some being a straightforward view of events while a few of the stories take a more abstract, narrative approach.
The review: I grew up reading X-Men, and I always liked the idea of normal people discovering powers, but I always felt like there was something very unbelievable about people putting on tights and fighting other people in tights. Don’t get me wrong - it can be entertaining, and I grew up on superhero comics - but Demo provides a look at the concept from a fresh approach, and I love it. Each of these stories is more about the humanity of the characters (or lack thereof), and it does something that superhero comics don’t - it sets the fantastic in the mundane, wisely reminding us that real people still have real problems even if they suddenly get a power.
The recommendation: If you want to try something new, give this book a look. I think this appeals more to a general audience than it will to hardcore superhero fans, but there’s something in it for everyone. Very interesting read!
From AiT/Planet Lar, 1 TPB collecting 12 issues, $19.95
This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Rant, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I read eagle too, I liked how that kenneth’s friend from vietnam stuck with him. Its also kinda like starwars in one respect(hint hint). Also you didnt mention that it has sex scenes in it.
Yeah, the Vietnam friend was pretty cool. As far as the sex scenes go, I omitted mention of them because they weren’t really integral to the plot. They’re there, though. XD
Haven’t read any political thrillers, and it doesn’t seem like my type of reading material. The closest thing to it, from my viewpoint, seems to be Deathnote. (You should check that out, too.) Demo should be up my alley, it seems a lot like Heroes, which is the best show on TV now-a-days. You knew someone was going to make that comparison eventually. Although the realistic superhero isn’t exactly new, (it’s what made Spider-man famous, after all) I still love checking them out between billionaire geniuses and super powered aliens. The real question is what kind of powers are we talking about here? Coming to terms with teleportation is quite different from having to deal with your nightmares becoming reality and killing your parents. (There’s an image from X-men with a little girl enveloped in transparent red in the shape of a horrific demon, with one hand through an officer AND a wall, grinning, covered in blood… and its always been one of my favorite panels.)
Spiderman has a menagerie of villains and swings around in tights, so I wouldn’t call him too realistic - but in the context of when he was created, yeah. I see what you’re saying. :D
Telekinesis, super strength, and immortality are some of the more straightforward ones. The stories in Demo take place on a much smaller, less epic but more personal scale than in X-Men.
Ah, but isn’t Eagle essentially out of print in the US? I seem to remember you having to go out of your way to pick it up.
Yes! I should have mentioned it - grab the big volumes if you see them, there’s a finite number floating around!
Demo is a great book. Plus they’re doing Demo 2 with Vertigo pretty soon (I think it’s a 6 issue series this time around).
Really … ! That’s great news, I hadn’t heard about it!
Bing!
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=147868
Ooh, thanks!
Ohhhh Becky Cloonan. I love her work. I have read part of Demo, and it’s amazing. One day I’ll gab that trade paperback, unfortunately, my comics quota is up for the month. :(
I really like her work in Demo and Flight! East Coast Rising was pretty, and it had a neat premise, but I’m not crazy about the book overall I think.
I haven’t yet gotten to read East Coast Rising, though the artwork I’ve seen for it was nice. I haven’t seen Flight either, I’ll look into that. I really wish I could find the little black and white comics I sent her like 10 bucks for back in the day before all this. :D
I enjoyed her stuff in Flight - it was like tattoo art turned into sequential art.
I read the first volume of Eagle a few years back–Hee, I actually brought it to a Poli Sci class and showed it to my instructor, and he asked me to talk to the class about it. My first foray into incorporating manga into my college education. =D I’ve always wanted to read the rest, and I keep seeing it at conventions…
That’s really neat! It’s a fun read if you like political stuff.
Demo does sound alot like Heroes but then again it does sound a bit interesting…. But then again i just say that with just about evrything i hear about but i’m sure this one will be good. (That’s if it’s orderd over to the UK)
I’m not so sure about volume 1, but the upcoming volume 2 is from Vertigo, which means it’ll most likely be available in the UK.
Can’t wait!
I’m such a geek that you had me at “Demo is what X-Men would have been if it had been conceived of in the 21st century.” =)
It seems like areal good read actually. I do really like the over the top factor of superheroes in tights and gaudy colors, but the modern feel and take on the story seems to be something I’d enjoy. In the end, what attracts me to superheroes or people with superpowers is the eternal conflict in their situations: if you are less of a human, are you also less humane or should you have a duty to be more so? Are you suddenly better than others, or are you a freak? And should you risk your own life, constantly and unbudging to save others, even though they might never accept you?
Now to see if I can find it in Sweden…
Haha, I like that sort of stuff to. Some of the stories in Demo acknowledge the fact that even with a power, some people will not have the scope or vision to do what a more altruistic person would. It’s not presented in a negative way - it’s just that consideration of the world at large, outside of the microcosm of the the one person’s experience, is not even brought into the picture.
“Demo is what X-Men would have been if it had been conceived of in the 21st century.”
Man that sounds like “Heroes”. But then, this is a thing I’d like to see as less of an anomaly, and more of a standard. The superhero genre has let that original “disguise to conceal my true identity” thing mushroom into this elaborate, formalized Noh Theatre of costumes, tights, secret identities, and a bunch of other generally strange things that don’t make sense to most people and tend to turn them off from the whole genre.
It’s good to see it getting back to its roots.
Heroes is closer to X-Men than Demo, if I had to put them on a scale. Heroes still deals with people with powers as heroes and the impact of that on a global scale - I like the show’s take on the genre. Demo is more about Small People and their Small Lives.