Cla$$war

by Rob Williams, Trevor Hairsine (Contributor), Travel Foreman (Contributor)

Love your country then rip it down! The critically-acclaimed indie superhero hit gets its own paperback collection for the first time! Beloved supersoldier, American, uncovers the dark truth behind The White House and burns the word 'Liar' into the forehead of The President on live TV. Now on the run with a rogue CIA agent, he intends to reveal everything he now knows to the world. Can his former teammates, the superteam Enola Gay, stop him?

Collects CLA$$WAR #1-6

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Dystopia, Superheroes

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Daryn Moore]

You know the drill.
The government can't be trusted...
Superheroes are assholes...
Basically; check this out if you like THE BOYS and so forth.

Yes, it's a little too heavy on the politics and too light on the characters and seems to end scenes before they really get cooking, but hey; last I checked this series was left unfinished, so who knows what they had planned for the missing issues.

[Paul Spence]

At a glance, Classwar is a political-superhero-war story with a penchant for sex and ultra violence that can feel reminiscent of The Boys, but I would venture to say more thoughtful in its critique. American, a “hero” made to fight on behalf of American interests alongside other super soldiers on the team Enola Gay, sees the failures of America, and it shakes his patriotism to the core. American feels motivated to expose the evils of his country while still clinging to its ideals.

American is juxtaposed by his partner Isaac, a Black man who he is reluctant to work with but does so out of necessity. While Isaac is given the room to explore his motivations and story, he can feel at times like he has fallen into the “magical negro” trope. Isaac is already well aware of the failings of America as a Black man while American is being given Isaac’s insight and pointed in varying directions with Isaac’s knowledge. With the potential for this trope, it is understood that American is our protagonist, and as he wakes up to America’s many evils, he can function as a white saviour, taking it as his responsibility to right America’s wrongs. As the story explores the systems and ways in which they are utilized, it engages with race and class and can stumble a bit though it is apparent that writer Rob Williams was well intentioned as he crafted this narrative and the critiques made are valid as he critiques political positions, the drug epidemic, and foreign intervention in the name of “freedom.”

On American’s journey, he gets into violent interactions, one of which where he punches off the jaw of one of his former teammates who, like the others, are pretty content to abuse their power and do the bidding of the government. There is an inherent critique of power here through Enola Gay; these are people that feel a sense of entitlement and access, heightened by their powers and it feels telling that all but one of them are white.

This is elevated by the origins of the super soldier program here and it’s Nazis. Of course it’s Nazis. This works to the ideas of white supremacy that are at play in these racial critiques and power structures. Enola Gay’s power is affirmed by their superpowers and the feeling of superiority they have over “humans” as this difference is pointed out explicitly on page 74 during a tense exchange between Icon and her previous sexual partner. Capitalism and consequently white supremacy, as structures, only function when there is a hierarchy and in this, someone has to be on top.

The Black member of the team is characterized as a sellout. He is beyond the point of being in the struggle yet continues to oppress the Black community with crack and cocaine that he is responsible for moving and protecting on the government’s behalf. He holds himself out as someone that made it out but he only made it out through harm and violence and even after, continues to facilitate harm and violence not only within his community but on people of colour outside of America’s borders.

It is a challenge to tell an anti-war war story and further still, to utilize superheroes in this because there is supposed to be a spectacle to seeing them in action but, with this story being a critique it has to toe a line and visually, artists Trevor Hairsine (pages 3-82) and Travel Foreman (pages 83-154) deliver on blending the spectacle and horror in these obvious violations of the Geneva Conventions. Both artists bring something different to the art where Hairsine has a very heavy use of spot blacks, Foreman’s line work has a pencil quality and they both shine in different regards while approaching the story and its characters.

Across both, they give the room within their panels to sit with the carnage, placing their cameras intentionally to control mood and pacing even when we hit particularly grotesque and gruesome moments. The colour work of Len O’Grady is a testament to his versatility in being able to adapt to the styles of both artists while keeping the tone of the book. The colours elevate the art in Classwar across the board making the book a visual treat to read as long as you have the stomach for the violence and body horror.

Tying the words to the images are the letters of Eddie Deighton who gives voice to the characters and distinction between caption boxes and balloons. The balloons used for technological communication didn’t quite work for me as well as his other lettering work throughout but it was different and a clear visual indicator of where a voice was coming from. There wasn’t a moment of questioning who was speaking throughout the book and it helped keep a clear focus from moment to moment.

Classwar is a mature superhero story with a lot its trying to say about American institutions and the creative team works well together to play between horror and spectacle.

[Doreen]

With, in my opinion, extremely important art continuity provided by colorist Len O'Grady. A transition between artists can feel really jarring, but Mr O'Grady did a spectacular job of keeping things consistent, such that I wouldn't even have noticed a different artist on my first reading if I hadn't already known that going in.

And while technically this is the first volume of Cla$$War, the rest has yet to be written. Will it ever be? Never say never, but I'm leaning towards no, given that the series first appeared in 2002, with the last three issues of six coming out a full two years after its debut.

That said, how do you top a book so sorrowfully prescient, that helped pave the way for not only monster cultural hits like The Boys but also demonstrated how the Internet would enable the world's ongoing disillusionment with politics, particularly American? Sure this title seems like a natural bridge between relatively mainstream books that began to seriously question power in the real world, like Ultimate Avengers and The Authority (heck, even WildC.A.T.s), with more cynical explorations of how power is misused, a la The afore-mentioned Boys. More importantly it captures that turn of the 20th century era in American history when the public's eyes were opened to the shocking overreach of our government. From the drug and illegal arms sales of the 80s, to the Wag The Dog expose of the 90s, onto Dubya's copious missteps, this is a book that directs an unflinching eye at American politics in all its messiness and lies. It probably helps that this was written by a Welshman who had no illusions about this side of the Atlantic: it's genuinely hard to think of any American in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 writing so honestly on these topics. It also probably helps that Britain has a much better history of skewering politics through comics than we do, as Alan Moore's widely acclaimed V For Vendetta masterfully shows.

Mr Moore was definitely an influence here, as Rob Williams attests in his afterword, originally written for the 2008 collection. It's weird how timeless his words continue to feel, as American governments and administrations -- and likely many more around the world; I'm not naive enough to think that we're uniquely compromised -- continue to think they can get away with lying to their citizens. On the plus side, our reality is blessedly free of government-sponsored superheroes, to be misused as weapons by those in control.

Smart, sordid, and nowhere near as gratuitous as some of the books that have followed in its footsteps, Cla$$War is a thoughtful take on superhero titles -- with tons of parallels to existing heroes that somehow manage to elude direct imitation -- that is well worth a read for anyone with an interest not only in mature tales of supers and sober examinations of American politics, but also in the history of comic books. It feels very much an important step in how the culture of British anti-establishmentarianism was brought into the American comics mainstream, and deserves wider recognition and acclaim.

Cla$$war (Vol 1) by Rob Williams, Trevor Hairsine & Travel Foreman was published August 8 2023 by Image Comics and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

This review first appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez]

Partiendo de una estampa inicial potente como pocas, lo cierto es que Cla$$war deja pasar esa gran promesa inicial para pasar al ruidoso mamotreto en esa tierra de nadie post The Authority y pre-The Boys. También el angst político aún lamiéndose las heridas del terrorífico 11-S, se muestra aquí de formas de cólera gratuita.

Este fue de los primeros trabajos comiqueros de Rob Williams. Y desde luego se deja entrever en todos esos checklists que parecemos ver entre las viñetas de cada página. El planteamiento inicial de tener a un superhéroe hiper patriótico por fin abandonando la embriaguez de esos preceptos de los Padres Fundadores que hoy en día solo excusan a intereses ajenos al bienestar del individuo. Y quedando flotando ante la Casa Blanca, en la mayor protesta pacífica posible. Debería dejar vía libre a un argumento algo más intrincado y jugando con el hecho de tener a un "Superman" prefabricado por el Gobiernos Estadounidense actuando menos con los puños y visión calorífica. Pero, claro, en nada se nos presenta al supergrupo de turno enlazado a este AMERICANO. Quienes realmente son sociópatas que logran enmascarar sus tropelías con el rol asignado por el Gobierno de "Supergrupo Americano". Y estos no tienen problema en estar atados con correa a Whasington D.C: si pueden seguir masacrando y drog*ndose sin consecuencias. Por lo que se darán estos super encontronazos (más el trasfondo de los superpoderes enlazados, cómo no a un científico nazi de la operación paperclip mientras la parte política queda en el plano militar de conflictos extranjeros motivados o orquestados desde Estados Unidos y la siempre amenaza de cabezas nucleares del Tío Sam.

Cla$$war es un super comic book de lectura de fácil olvido también en el plano gráfico. Con un trabajo de "currito" de poco más que engrosar una maquinaría editorial que ya empezaba a traquetear por el oxido de la visión hiper cínica y hiper violenta de los superhéroes que sí que había logrado mantener el género vivo en la crisis de los 90. Pero que ya empezaba a verse la formula caducando y no haciendo mucho más que reflejar los horrores y desgracias del mundo real. Cuando los superhéroes desde su concepción deben de mostrarnos panoramas más esperanzadores e insuflarnos ese interés en hacer nuestros modestos actos de heroísmo diario.

[Alex Sarll]

I bought the first two issues of this back when it was the hot new post-Authority superhero book, I think from scuzzy Soho basement shop Orbital – and if any of that means anything to you at all, you'll know how long ago we're talking. Even at the time, I think it felt more like a book that was very now rather than one that was necessarily very good (although never underestimate the boost a comic gets from an early scene of one guy punching another guy's face off), and revisited two decades on... Well, put it this way; writer Rob Williams' afterword freely admits that this, his first published comic, is often clumsy and politically naive. And that afterword is itself now 16 years old, written back when a Texan with daddy issues was still the most corrupt, mendacious and dangerous President a satire could picture, and when people were starting to really understand spin, but it was still possible to write with a straight face a scene where getting the truth out online could blow a conspiracy wide open in any sense that might matter. Yes, the notion of a Superman/Cap type going rogue and using his heat vision to write LIAR into the forehead of a dodgy commander-in-chief is still lip-smacking wish-fulfillment, but after that the heroic American is something of a blank, while his former teammates consist of such rounded characters as Blaxploitation bruiser, ditzy psychic, a photocopy of a photocopy of Pete Wisdom, and the sexy one. But then, almost nobody here is more than their plot function; the book was written on a self-confessed diet of Noam Chomsky and Bill Hicks, and it shows, except that bar the odd gross-out gag there's little sign of even attempting Hicks' wit. Artists Trevor Hairsine and Travel Foreman both do great work in a vaguely Hitch mode, and would understandably be poached by the Big Two in short order; Williams would go on to write all sorts of other comics, many of them very good (although one, The Royals, would return to similar themes and somehow be even worse). But this early outing is strictly of historical interest, and if you were there, even that is as embarrassing as an old, unflattering photograph.

[Peter Evett]

1.5 is somewhat more fair. I had to quit in issue 4. I got tired of being beaten over the head with evil America - it felt like a 15 year old was really revelling in his ooooh bad superheroes bad America grind. Obviously Watchmen did this many years back and so very very very much better. This was near pornographic in its gratuitous violence and 2 dimensional story telling. I really wanted to give this a fair read so I dragged through mulitple issues. Bleh.

[Yazman]

If you like The Boys, I dare say you'd probably like this too. A good little take on a superhero & politics.

[Hawk]

Fun

[Joe Adams]

Wow. Extremely underrated and underseen gem that makes me wish Com.X had had more success at the time.

Would love it if Dark Horse or someone would pick up a second series.

[livres cam]

pas toujours clair politiquement mais c du bon comics 👍

[M S]

Super first major effort by Rob Williams. Conceptually, it's on the money. It falters in execution here and there which is why I gave the book a 3 star instead of 4 star rating. In many ways, Williams initial conceit was more prescient than he might have inspected, given the unbelievable hubris of the Bush II ® assault on sanity. And it's perhaps in regard to this that I felt the weight of the dropping ball in Williams' script. Maybe I expected too much. Nonetheless, the work is a very good effort and well worth seeking out.

[Felix]

Superheroes and politics. It felt rushed toward the end. I liked the direction it was taking, a true blue hero realizes he's just being used as a weapon, and finds out how the U.S. government and corporations have tried to keep the people oppressed, and as a response he turns on the government. I hope Williams follows up on this story, because there's quite a few loose ends. Nice artwork by Trev Hairsine as well.

[Jdetrick]

I think this is a good example of a comic loved for its art. Trevor Hairsine's art is certainly gorgeous, but it's the only thing that makes this story stand out. The story isn't bad, but it's certainly nothing new and it's somewhat lacking in its telling. We also never get a sense of who these characters are as people, which distances us from something that we should be more personally attached to.

[Adam Weinert]

I think the idea for this comic was great. The execution of the story wasn't so great. If you want to do a story about U.S. foreign policy/big brother/currpution, you need a bigger story. The art was ok.

[Stephen]

This book is kind of like Noam Chomsky through the lens of Mark Millar. It's a decent premise but it hammers its point home a little too often and with not enough finesse.

[Royce Rasmussen]

Brilliant story and great art.

[Doug]

Just when it felt like it was picking up real momentum—dead end.