BATTLEWORLDBATTLEWORLD

 

ROUND 1, BATTLE 13

Follow the bracket here!

1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA

VS

YEARS OF FUTURE PAST

You guys, Battleworld Battleworld is getting insane! On the lucky 13th battle of this crazy shit, one book will reign supreme while the other will spend its time licking wounds inflicted by the cruel hand of fate. Which will be the victor and which will be vanquished? It’s 1602 Witch Hunter Angela and Years of Future Past repsectively. Sorry. Spoiler alert. I fucking always forget to build spoiler alerts into these articles.

This battle is won and lost in the writer’s ability to make tone match content. In a crazy twist, both books are written by Marguerite Bennett, someone that seems to have a strong idea of self regardless of what the content calls for. And while that may sound like a dig, it absolutely is not. As a writer, Bennett is supremely confident in her tone of voice because she seems to have a certainly that it will work to varying degrees (the worst of which is “good”) regardless of any coincidence that may occur because of that. Reviewing two of her works prove that while all of her ideas are good, some are more suited for her tone than others.

 

Okay, this is already more than enough vaguety for one article. This battle breaks down to the fact that Bennett’s tone of seriousness, focus and sincerity all work best in a book about and written in the tone of the 1600’s than they do in a book about mutants trying to liberate themselves from a government hellbent on destroying them. Again, her take on the struggles of an oppressed subset of humanity are all well thought out and presented. Years of Future Past, however ends up the hard luck loser going against such an amazingly well-written book as 1602.

In 1602, Bennett takes what I can only assume is an incredibly minor character from the Marvel universe and brings her to life. The battle for justice, the battle for credit and the battle to keep herself respected in a male dominated society all ring true. I am unsure if Bennett has ever had any struggles in this department being that she is a woman writing comic books, but there seems to be a realism in this book that can only be compared to a comic that is able to make you feel like his or her bits are based on a strict reality that has already happened. Though 1602 is steeped in the fact that witches and others have super natural powers, it is also rooted in a struggle that boils down to good people trying to do better for others,

In 1602, we see Bennett shine. Her ideas of what these characters can be and where the story should or should not go are so judicious it makes you wonder why more books can’t have the same laser focus while being so fucking enjoyable to read. The trick that Bennett is able to pull of so seemingly effortlessly in both books is an indiscernible line between what you need to see and what you want to see. Both books have incredible imagery (Wolverine punches a tiger in the face!!) balanced with even-handed story telling and pacing that is beyond reproach. The slight edge goes to 1602 for the mere fact that her Shakespeare-esque dialogue somehow feel less clunky than her mutant ramblings.

The most incredible things about both books is that the typical gender bias that this medium has come to be known for is not here. Both of these books are not about how great woman are in comparison to men, nor are they about how men are great and woman should just be attractive; both books in this battle treat all characters with respect except for the bad guys because fuck bad guys. They’re bad. It is literally in their title.

And so, it is with a very heavy heart that I am forced to kick out a Bennet penned book from this battle in favor of a slightly better Bennett book. In reality, you and I should probably be keeping up with both of these stories as they are intriguing and will seemingly be handled with a deserved amount of gravity and artistry. Sorry Years of Future Past, you drew an unbelievably short straw to run up against the aweseomness that is 1602 Witch Hunter Angela.

With love,

Jason R. Noble