SILKEN GHOST #1 [Archive]

MattBrady

05-09-2003, 07:24 AM

<a href="http://www.newsarama.com/CrossGen/01SGOOFN.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.newsarama.com/CrossGen/01SGOOFN_t.jpg" width="200" height="308" border="0" align="right"></a>Press Release

<blockquote>THE SILKEN GHOST KNOCKS 'EM DEAD!

Mysterious Warrior Leaps From The Pages of Way Of The Rat Into Her Own Adventure!

She slices, she dices...and she looks cool doing it! Her face masked and her words few, the enigmatic fighter known as the Silken Ghost quickly captured the attention of WAY OF THE RAT readers. Now the silent sensation leaps into the spotlight to star in the five-issue SILKEN GHOST miniseries!

When a crisis strikes the Temple of Ghosts, five banished warriors are called home to defend their master... and should they fail, the entire world will fall to an evil from beyond the grave! What is the true nature of this mistress of the martial arts...and just who is the Laughing Ghost? We'll all find out on May 14th, when writer Chuck Dixon, penciler Will Rosado, inker Chuck Gibson, and colorist Michael Atiyeh prove that spirits can kill!</blockquote>

Click on the thumbnails for larger versions.

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Foobster

05-09-2003, 11:41 AM

Will Rosado! Yee-ha! Somehow I think Dixon had a hand in this recruit too....

Dang, I've missed this guy since Green Arrow. I was going to buy it before, but now I'm throughly excited about the darn thing. Dixon and Rosado together again. Yea!

:cool:

Nathan Jewell

05-09-2003, 03:30 PM

Here is proof that women in comics can be cool without being scantily clad.

Ive said my piece...

Nathan Jewell

FIG

05-09-2003, 03:33 PM

The art looks clean and solid but the thing that bothers me is that there is no blood. Those characters are fighting with bladed weapons for chrissakes, why does CrossGen feel the need to make everything looks so 'Disney'. They don't do this type of thing in Sojourn. Whats up with this? Whatever the case I'm definetly buying this one when it hits the stands.

Cray_ws

05-09-2003, 04:25 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Nathan Jewell:
Here is proof that women in comics can be cool without being scantily clad.<hr /></blockquote>I'm glad you pointed that out. I have to agree, infact I find Silken Ghost to be far more mysterious than Elektra. And a less contrived character as well.

MattBrady

05-09-2003, 08:05 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Cray_ws:
And a less contrived character as well.<hr /></blockquote>How is Elektra contrived and Silken Ghost isn't? Both were planned and calculated pieces of the main story they split off from, and neither were spontaneous or natural. Just running from the definintion of "contrived," but the shoe seems to fit both of them.

I'd argue that, as ongoing characters in their own right, Elektra was less contrived, as she was a character that served a particular purpose, and her arc was ended. Her popularity (and subsequent ressurection) came from fan response and demand for more, rather than something planned or calculated.

I'm also thinking that the Silken Ghost mini was in the works since shortly after that series began. Not a slam against CG at all, just an observation that there's not much happening spontaneously in the industry anymore, and woefully few instances where publishers are suprised by an overwhelmingly positive fan reaction, and therefore use that as their motivation for their publishing plan.

MattB

beta-ray

05-09-2003, 11:46 PM

Isn't a "character that served a particular purpose" in a way contrived?

Perhaps the SOLO SERIES of the Silken Ghost can be considered contrived, but not so much the character... *shrug*

MattBrady

05-10-2003, 03:27 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by beta-ray:
Perhaps the SOLO SERIES of the Silken Ghost can be considered contrived, but not so much the character... *shrug*<hr /></blockquote>Why not? I'll admit I'm not familiar with the character, but doesn't she fulfill a role within the larger narrative, and therefore is contrived in that regard?

Not so much arguing that one is more contrived than the other, but rather that contrived was probably the wrong word to use. I'm thinking that, within the top 5 publishers, you'd be hard pressed to find a property that isn't/wasn't 'contrived' in its creation within the past decade or two, and especially moreso now, when characters are more often than not, referred to as properties.

In that sense though, (and beating my dead horse into dogfood) I would argue that Miller's creation of Elektra (a closed loop as it was, as Miller's Elektra never came back to life, she was only redeemed in the afterlife...) was less contrived, in that she was a piece of the narrative, rather than a character designed, created, and exploited in a manner to have a particular aesthetic, and perhaps one day carry a project on her own.

But since she's come back to life...well, all of those bets are way off.

In that sense then, I would argue that the Silken Ghost (as well as virtually any move with Elektra in the past three-four years) has been made with one and a half eyes on the comics and half an eye on the possibilities of exploiting the character in other media. To do so, the character has to be designed and displayed in a particular manner that will make her attractive to other interests, as well as appealing to as many readers as possible. Hence, contrived from creation, in a sense.

Again, not that Elektra isn't - like all characters that are owned by corporations (Marvel, DC, Crossgen, whoever), she has to be protected. I'd argue that all work for hire comics work is contrived.

As long as there is a movie deal for Elektra and Way of the Rat in the works, stories concerning the two characters will continue apace in a manner to ensure the safety of the movie - or any other deal (remember how Elektra was to be Marvel's "virtual model" at one time?).

That is, you're not going to see Elektra take a philosophical stance against the US government based in its foreign policy, and become a terrorist, sympathetic to al Quada, nor will you see the Silken Ghost take up a stance in Chin...er...CG China, where she decries the destiny of the workers and peasants, and seeks to free them from their corrupt overlords and establish a democracy in a political manner that would have analogues to the politics of modern-day China.

Either move, while making, arguably, for interesting storytelling, would more than likely kill the movie deals (and distribution to China, and the view of Elektra wihtin the US market) dead.

Both characters will follow roads that are largely safe and rather prescribed, and, well, contrived, in a broad definition of the term.

MattB