Black Summer

Out today in comic shops: the zero issue of Warren Ellis' miniseries Black Summer, for the low-low price of 99 cents. I've made a habit of waiting for the trades in most comics lately -- something that's easier to do since most of the comics I like are coming out once a year, rather than once a month. But frankly, this was just too good.

Ellis, the guy behind Transmetropolitan and The Authority (among many others), has a real gift for taking genres and reviving them, blending them, and sometimes beating them stupid out behind the bar at night. His Strange Kisses series reinvented the James Bond type as a sorcerer; Transmetropolitan put Hunter S. Thompson in the future; and Ocean was a detective story set in the orbit of Jupiter, with the biggest freaking murder weapon imaginable.

But Black Summer is so high-concept it could inspire nosebleeds. Here's the logline: a rogue super-hero walks into the Oval Office and kills the president. Hijinks ensue.

Oh, and the reason the super-hero decides to kill the president? Seems the prez led his country into a disastrous war with fake intel. Which leads the super-hero to conclude that if you intentionally cause the deaths of tens of thousands... well, that makes you as dangerous as any super-villain.

Screw Civil War. You want super-heroes in the real world, this is how it's done. And, as Ellis himself notes in the short afterward to the issue, it's precisely the kind of thing you can't do with Superman or Captain America. This probably won't generate the same hysteria that the "Death of Captain America" did in the mainstream media, aside from a few Limbaugh clones sputtering and harrumphing.

Of course, as the girl at the comic shop said when bagging up my purchase, Ellis will probably have a hell of a time getting a visa into the U.S. for Comic-Con. Unless they plan on grabbing him at JFK and transferring him direct to Gitmo from there.