Comments on: John Seavey’s Storytelling Engines: Killraven

By: howyadoin

howyadoin — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:20:41 +0000

Yeah, count me firmly in the McGregor camp, for reasons Mark S and SwanShadow have already stated.

By: SwanShadow

SwanShadow — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:12:36 +0000

I’m always a tad surprised to discover that anyone prefers the Roy Thomas-penned Killraven to Don McGregor’s version. I’ve always enjoyed Thomas’s work, but his approach to Killraven was mostly a gussied-up retread of ERB, Howard, and plenty of other similar swashbuckling fantasy.

McGregor — as he was wont to do — grabbed the concept and made it fresh and new. Verbose and melodramatic in that patented McGregor manner? Sure. But still lightyears ahead of the been-there-done-that stuff Thomas was writing.

By: Mark S

Mark S — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:18:18 +0000

“After all, if youâ€™re not interested in writing fast-paced pulp adventures of a brash, tough-talking gladiator, why did you sign on to write â€˜Killravenâ€™?”

Well, it could be for the money, but it could be for the reason you already mentioned – to use the ruined USA as a vehicle for social commentary.

Speaking as a fan who much prefers the McGregor to the Thomas Killraven (and I’m a huge admirer of Thomas overall), it’s because I prefer what feels like thoughtful 60s “New Wave” sci-fi, unheard of in comics at that point and not exactly routine even now, to the hackneyed seen-it-a-zillion-times warrior nonsense in the earlier episodes.

McGregor being McGregor, it’s far from perfect – predictably, it’s too wordy, McGregor wears his heart on his sleeve a bit too much, and is just a tad too in love with his own characters – but the story structures are surprisingly taut, the dialogue has a lot of bite and when bad things happen, they feel real, and they hurt. Plus you’ve got P. Craig Russell at an early peak. It stands in relation to the quality SF of its time much as the EC SF comics did in theirs.

McGregor’s Killraven is, in brief, probably the definitive example of mid-’70s Marvel at its best: weird, thought-provoking and highly distinctive work a long, long way from the largely tired flagship titles. Had it stayed in its original format, it would be just another silly swords-and-saucers tale, of which there have been all too many.

By: Omar Karindu

Omar Karindu — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:53:43 +0000

It’s even stranger when you look at McGregor’s very brief run on Power Man, where the introspection is completely displaced into the narrative for awhile, and then the thematic weight of the story shifts over to McGregor’s new character, Det. Quentin Chase. McGregor doesn’t seem to have found a way to write Cage himself in those issues, and as fun as some of the elements are — Cockroach Hamilton, the pimp with the six-barrelled shotgun he named “Josh” — it’s not too hard to see why McGregor was swiftly replaced by Marv Wolfman.