Rising Son Comic Series | A Rant

[galathea]

Last year I regularly commented on the issues of the Supernatural comic Origins, mainly to express my disappointment with it. I didn’t pick up that habit with the new series Rising Son, because I didn’t really think it was worth the effort. Yesterday though I read the latest issue of the comic and I was so outraged, that I needed to comment on it. It’s not pretty, you’ve been warned!



I was really looking forward to the new comic series Rising Son, especially after I saw the first drafts. The drawings were so much more appealing than the clunky Origins art and the first panels looked awesome. I expected a glimpse into the first years of the Winchesters on the road, adapting to their new life, maybe facing a couple of urban legends, which the show didn’t deal with so far. I expected everything the first series failed to deliver, because it was buried under canon inconsistencies and a huge retcon at the end. I thought it couldn’t come worse, but they proved me wrong.

Even though the Rising Son series took a direction for their storyarc that directly contradicts the show’s mytharc itself - just like in the Origins series before - I actually thought the first two issues were decent. There were some details that didn't quite add up in terms of canon, but at least there were also some interesting insights into Sam and Dean’s childhood. Surely but slowly though, more severe canon problems started to creep in again and at some point I didn’t really get any enjoyment out of the comics anymore. It started with minor timeline problems: The comic takes place in 1990 and even if Sam didn’t grasp the whole scope of the events that centered around him, it seems very unlikely that one year later, in A Very Supernatural Christmas, he still believes John is a salesman. Also, Sam and Dean’s familiarity with Bobby in the show's flashbacks suggests that they knew him a lot longer than just a couple of months. While I can ignore these timeline question marks, it’s the characterisation that’s really problematic.

Just one example: In issue three John takes an eleven year old Dean on a deer hunt and teaches him how to handle a shotgun. Dean complains that the gun is too heavy and subsequently misses a stag that’s standing right in front of him. Huh? We know from Something Wicked that Dean at age 10/11 already knew how to handle a shotgun, and we also know from No Exit that he was an excellent shot, who bulls-eyed every target when he was only 6-7 years old and John took him for his first shooting. So that whole scene makes no real sense. And to top the ridiculousness of that scene off, seven year old Sam, whom John left alone at home, hikes a ride with a total stranger and follows Dean and John out into the woods and then single-handedly shoots the stag in question with Dean’s shotgun. Right!

I thought that was bad, but I wasn’t quite prepared for what came next. Issue 4 of the Rising Son series effectively killed the whole comic series for me. It eliminated every shred of sympathy for the comics I still hung onto, despite all canon inconsistencies, and officially sent it down the drain. It’s bad enough that the comics desperately try to tie in with the mytharc and by doing so violate canon every step of the way, but it’s inexcusable to basically turn the family Winchester into a group of cold-blooded mass murderers in the process. I don’t want to live with a series where Bela’s statement that the Winchesters are a stone-throw from being serial-killers holds any grain of truth.

Okay, so here's the thing: In the latest issue of the comic the writers try to insinuate that a seven year old Sam killed a psychic. Whether the hunter who supposedly witnessed the murder was lying or not isn’t the question, what bothers me is that John expresses doubts at Sam's innocence and Sam himself insists that John needs to kill him. Even if the next issues should reveal the circumstances behind the psychic’s death as unrelated to Sam, the damage is done. The comic panels even go as far as to show John actually almost carrying out the plan to kill Sam - by leading his son like a lamb to the slaughter - only to change his mind in the last minute. I may not be the biggest John fan ever, but even I find that notion ridiculous.

Furthermore, John brutally murders two hunters who might pose a threat to Sam in cold blood, and Dean, who is only eleven years old, kills a third hunter with a shot to the head. Just like that. And I ought to believe that the boy, who will grow into the man who beats himself up over killing a possessed girl, shrugs that kill off with the statement: 'It’s over now Dad!'? Yeah, that’s not going to happen any time soon! I won’t even go into all the problems with canon that are created by suggesting that John already knew about Sam and his destiny as the leader of a demonic army in 1990. Or that other hunters back then were already able to acquire that very intel as well and set out to hunt Sam down. Heck, after the events in this issue, I even doubt John would have left Sam and Dean alone ever again for days at a time, while he went out on a hunt.

Honestly, I am not sure what they want to tell us with this story or what the authors were thinking when cooking up this tale. I don’t think these writers care about the characters of the show at all. How can they depict an 11 year old child as cold-blooded enough to kill a man without remorse? It’s not even in self-defence! Also, how probable is it that adult Sam and Dean just happen to not remember the grave incidents depicted in this storyline? That Sam doesn’t remember he felt that something was wrong with him. Or that he told John that he needed to kill him. Or for Dean not to remember that someone accused Sam of being evil/not John’s son. Or that Sam was targetted/abducted several times within a short timespan. I find the whole storyline of this comic preposterous and disturbing and almost wish the date and timeline errors of the Origins series back!

The way the wonderful opportunity to explore the early Winchester years is wasted with these comics, saddens me to no end. I hope that Kripke has no hand in this series or I would be really disappointed in him.

Edit: My friend llywela13 pointed out to me that it is very likely that the scene where Sam tells John to kill him was meant to be a dream, even if it is not stated very clearly. In the end though that doesn't diminish my general aggrevation with this issue at all.

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you wrote all that up so that I don't have to!

We already talked our hatred of the comics through in depth, so there is very little else to add. Oh, except that the scene in #4 where Sam tells John to kill him, I think that is meant to be a dream sequence. It isn't clear, but in the next panel John seems to start awake in the car, so that suggests dream to me. But it really isn't clear, and it needs to be.

Awful, awful work. :( And it had so much potential to be amazing and fill in so many gaps in those early years. So many stories they could have told, and instead they butcher the whole thing by contadicting canon so absolutely. :(

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Hm, I didn't see it as a dream, just thought they jumped to the next scene with them in the car, maybe I need to look at it again. Even if it was, it doesn't really diminish my aggrevation with the kill-issues. Plus, Sam and Dean are with John in that parking lot when Anderson has his rant about evil!Sam, so it is very unlikely that both of them don't remember that.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Looked at the issue again and you are right. It can be interpreted as a dream. I added that to my rant. :)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

It is definitely very vague - either way, they needed to make it a lot clearer. Although...well, they never should have included any of it in the first place! I just do not believe that John had such suspicions about Sam so early, and I especially do not believe that the hunting community at large had such suspicions about Sam so early. The whole storyline directly contradicts almost every piece of canon evidence from the show in so many ways it is breathtaking. And infuriating. GAH!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Well, I think they wanted to indicate that after killing the psychic and the 3 hunters there was nobody left who knew about these suspicions. I find that notion very unlikely though. If these hunters could figure it out so easily, what should stop others in the following 15-16 years to not find it out as well?

Also, I really, really find the end scene with John leaving Dean behind, leading Sam up the hill, telling him to go ahead and look out for the sunrise, with the zoom on John's gun and his sorrowful expression, insinuating that he plans to kill Sam there, distasteful and ridiculous.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Why is yahell not delivering my comment notifications? Why, yahell, why?? Grr.

The whole comic is ridiculous and distasteful, really, in terms of the people we know the Winchesters to be. I just don't understand why they have written it this way. This approach can only alienate fans of the show from the comics, and the huge discrepancies make it equally unlikely to draw comic fans into the show. So what do they achieve? Madness.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I am as baffled as you are. They basically reduce the Winchesters to a bunch of sociopaths, who have no moral boundaries at all at that's just not who these people are in the show. I mean, just take the 'John kills to protect his son' scenario: Remember BigPink's FitH where she describes a set-up in which something like that could take place and how heavily it destroyed Dean as well as John? Now compare it to the nonchalance with which John gorily slaughters these hunters here without remorse. I am not even going into Dean here. It's abhorrent!

These characters are slaughtered in the comics and that's a slap into the face of every fan of the show! :(

[denisitap.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are a lot of inconsistencies. Sam the antichrist? Lilith? What about the other psychic kids? Sam still wasn't the chosen one. Some people said that maybe Dean killed humans before, and that's why his eyes bleed in 'Bloody Mary', but even if he did, I can't imagine him killing them that way.

I find the whole storyline of that comic preposterous and disturbing and find myself wishing back the date and timeline errors of the Origins comic!

It is a comic. All the comics are dark and stuff. I enjoy (or something like it) this series, but I don't consider them canon.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not that I think Dean is not capable of killing a human, but it would call for extreme circumstances. Plus, we are talking about an 11 year old boy here. For me this isn't really in accordance with the young man we meet in S1.

I have no problems with gore or violence. I find Sam and Dean's childhood dark enough as it is. It's the characterisation that grates on my nerves, since it sails under the name of Supernatural but twists and bends the characters that I love into something unrecognizable. :(

[littlepunkryo.livejournal.com]

Yeah it goes worse and worse. And it started out so well! I was really hoping for an extended glimpse into pre-series life, and it turned out to be desperate attempt after desperate attempt to connect to the larger mythology of the show. The problem is, not even the boys know the full extent of it yet, and we're only at season 4!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Exactly! There's 22 years of a goldmine of untold Winchester stories that could be used to expand the SN universe and add a rich and layered background for our characters and instead they just totally screw it up. I have no idea why they so desperately want to tie it with the mytharc. They have to know that the fans know where they stir from the path of canon and resent them for that. The fandom uproar at the inconsistencies in Origins showed that clearly. And if they don't write for the fans, then who is their targetted audience?!