Special Forces
Written & Illustrated by Kyle Baker
Published by Image
I have no idea what to make of this comic book. I’m usually a big Kyle Baker fan, but this book has just perplexed me on every level. It’s some sort of ungainly hybrid of war comics, humor comics and Frank Miller comics, mashed together, slow roasted for a few days, and then genetically enhanced with Looney Tunes animation.
I’m not even sure I liked it; in fact, I probably didn’t, but it was such a strange reading experience that I can’t wait to go through it again to see if I can figure out what Baker’s intention was for this Frankenstein’s monster. Within pages of the book’s opening, Zone, an autistic soldier (whose military status was inspired by a real one!), and Felony, a three-time loser looking to avoid jail time, are the only survivors of a U.S. squad in Iraq. Their mission to capture the leader of an insurgency leader appears dead on arrival, but Zone – tailor-made for military life, with a single-minded focus on his objective – won’t let it go, and Felony is along for the ride.
On some pages, Baker is channeling a Frank Miller-esque noir-pastiche, with full-page splash pages and grizzled monologues turned up to the 12th degree. Other pages, he goes into topical satire, with a rundown of the fringe benefits mercenaries in the warzone have that U.S. military lack. Torture jokes follow. It’s a book that’s so smart it wallows in stupidity, and the dichotomy doesn’t always work in its favor.
Baker’s artwork has evolved in interesting ways. He does nearly everything on computers now, and maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but it still looks its best when he’s giving the illusion of pen and ink drawings. He knows how to use shadow, and how to lay out a comic book page. His caricaturing is especially effective at depicting the outrageous cast of soldiers, mercs, terrorists, and murdering children (yes) Zone and Felony encounter. The coloring is mostly solid, although a few pages and panels have a noticeably tint that threatens to overpower the line art. Some of the backgrounds, the CG elements, don’t entirely mesh with the line art elements, as they have a hard quality that isn’t present elsewhere. For example, when Zone and Felony chase their foe into a facility full of hidden weapons of mass destruction, the factory and missiles were clearly composed separately from the character figures.
Special Forces is an intriguing book, and there are moments throughout it that surprise and startle me. Yet the humor doesn’t always come through, and it’s too overamped to be taken seriously as an action piece. Sometimes a book succeeds by swerving when you least expect it, but Special Forces isn’t quite able to manage the feat. It’s a curiosity, and fans of Kyle Baker will find a few positive moments within. However, it’s not really a book for action fans, nor for comedy fans, so I’m not sure who Baker intended as Special Forces‘ audience.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I liked it for the elements you list right in your first paragraph. Just my kind of weird, I guess. Did the trade include the back matter from the single issues? Baker clarified a lot by explaining what he was lampooning at the end of each chapter.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I’m pretty sure that Mr. Baker’s audience for this book was anyone who was dumbfounded, resentful, aghast, etc., at what the Bush administration did, and tolerated, in Iraq and anywhere else for that matter. It is not a book to be enjoyed, but it is a brave work of art of tremendous merit. It provokes strong feelings and with any luck will keep this type of thing from happening in the future. Er, make that a lot of luck.
It also shows that Mr. Baker is multifaceted and willing to take tremendous creative risks. He could very easily be doing nothing but “The Bakers” – and even watering that down to a more commodifiable product. But he is willing to make something willfully ugly, suitable for an era of willful ugliness.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I’m with elvee about liking Special Forces. I grew up watching such movies as The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes, and the more traditional war movies (A Bridge Too Far, D-Day) and TV series (Combat, Garrison’s Gorillas, Rat Patrol, Twelve O’Clock High), etc.
November 30th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
elvee, the back matter was not in the trade. It might’ve made a difference, I suppose.
matches, I think the book is unsuccessful at provoking any feeling other than confusion. I am the audience you describe, yet I don’t see this book in anything like the light you do. Some pages are intelligent, some pages are funny, but Baker’s attempting too many things at once. It fails to coalesce into a satisfying whole. For my money, anyway.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Special Forces makes the same mistake Starship Troopers made; it’s meant to be a scathing satire of wartime mentalities but like Verhoven Baker’s getting off on it too much so the message is muddled.
January 17th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
You should consider starting an subscribers list. It would take your site to its potential.