My thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for an advance copy of a reissue of a comic that was ahead of its time, looking at the fate of superheroes in a quickly changing world, where enemies can't be punched into the sun, and just surviving takes more out of a person than the mightiest of celestial threats.
I have read a lot of comics over the years. I have seen Spider-man on bad tv shows, and major motion pictures. Bright and sunny, and dark and gritty. Longstanding publishers go bankrupt, come back, or lost to legends. Comics sometimes don't last, even classic stories. Something that hits hard say in the eighties might look odd in our times. Some still have the capacity to surprise, still ahead of the curve, even if the curves are a lot more hilly. I have a memory of reading this comic when it first came out, but it has not stayed with me. Reading it this time I am surprised by how much is still relevant, how much has changed, and how much should be changed. Something that is rare even in comics now. Automatic Kafka written by Joe Casey with art by Ashley Wood is a story about the past, of heroes, evil governments, fame, reality, and expectations, a story that looked at the future we find ourselves in, a story that was spot on in many ways, many of them bad.
Automatic Kafka is an android superhero, one of the Stranger$ a super group of superheroes who ruled the 1980's. They fought crime, sometimes each other, but had a purpose and a reason for believing. The band broke up, and suddenly many of these heroes find themselves lost in a world of powers, with nothing to trust in, including themselves. Kafka is asked by a shady government organization, the National Parks Services to enter their clandestine world, and fight the good government fight. Kafka would rather sell out, shilling products, shilling himself, all in an effort to find a reason to go on. Things get darker for Kafka, hosting tv shows, drugs, meaningless liaisons, meetings with superheroes and super villains. Even a little light genocide. Kafka's search takes him all over the world, with answers found, as most good answers are, in a comic book shop.
The book came out twenty years ago and shows, as this was one of the darker times in comics, with bankruptcies, and multicovers for issues sending comics into a bubble that took years to recover from. There is a bit of darkness to the story. The grim and dark of Watchmen and early Image, with a lot of in-jokes and behind the scene humor. The comic is pretty odd in its treatment of women, but again we are talking comics, and especially the early 2000's were not the best. Sadly we seem to have returned to that era, at least a casual look at social media seems to show. The story goes in a lot of places, fame, celebrity, what makes a hero, justice, even creativity. Some of the work is pretty prescient, some just seems awkward. The art though is quite good, and holds up even now. The varied styles go with the metafiction of the writing, and really work well together. Again a rarity in comics even today.
This might be for older issues. Some newer ones might not get the references, Some might find the story familiar, deconstruction of heroes has become almost blasé. However the ideas still hold up, though the content towards women might be problematic.