5 out of 5

Remember ‘Falling Down’?  Sure you do.  You also remember how much of a massive letdown that movie was, its concept derailed by blaming Michael Douglas’ askew view on mental problems and devolving into a dumbass family drama.  Howzabout Mark Millar’s ‘Wanted’, derailing against the status quo to reveal inner hardcoreness translated as super powers that let you fuck and fight with abandon… and that description right there already shedding light on how much of a posturing dip Millar can be and how empty his writing generally is.

Anyhow, think of a dozen other ‘fight for what’s right’ movies or books or comics, and chances are, there will always be either an excuse – Falling Down – or some kind of excess that trades any legitimacy for hypocrisy.  And then there was ‘Foolkiller.’  Which doesn’t get mentioned in the same breath as ‘Dark Knight’, and Gerber often skipped over to slobber at the altar of Morrison or Ellis, but Steve – certainly recognized by the comics community but not by your general Superman reader (who does recognize Watchmen) – and this mini-series were leaps and bound… are leaps and bounds ahead of most things in the same vein, and is a braver tackling of the always fucked up state of the world, all without having to go ‘Elseworlds’ and even including Marvel guest stars like Spider-Man.

But I think Steve’s lack of ‘household’ name stardom is because of his niche – while he worked on plenty of hero books, his star titles weren’t defining runs on Batman or X-Men.  Rather, he’s best known, probably, for Howard the Duck, which most, without reading, will call a funny animal book.  Following this would be Man-Thing, which again, without reading it, will be judged as a Swamp Thing knock-off with funny 70s covers.  But we Gerber fans can attest to how much extra Steve would pack into these books – layers and layers of possibilities and What Ifs and open, challenging questions – while, yes, maintaining this sorta kooky comic randomness that would sometimes overtake the books and become a fallback tactic.  However, when kept in check (and it was, for a miraculous chunk of the dude’s impressive amount of output over several decades), the work was magic, truly spawning this unique blend of internal Gerberness and external Universe (generally Marvel) interactions without losing face on either plain.  Despite his well-publicized struggles with keeping Howard his, Steve cooked up a small pot of characters he was able to toy with (which somehow remained mostly under his control), and one of these – introduced, initially, in Man-Thing – was the Foolkiller.

The original FK was a crazed religious nut.  I don’t think we ever know where he got his ‘purification gun’ – which reduces people to ash – but gots it he did.  For an issue, and then he died.  …The role picked up by Foolkiller II, who I think added the crazy costume flair and was equally disturbed but without the religious angle.  FK III – Kurt Gerhardt – is inspired to get into contact with FK II – Greg Salinger – when he sees Mr. S – who is institutionalized – appear on a talkshow to explain his methods.  While Salinger has since ‘recovered’ from his dress-up desires, his views are still intact, and he seeks to express them logically and clearly to reach an understanding audience.  Kurt, having lost his father in a petty mugging, his job due to ‘downsizing’ (a bank corrupted by corporate overspending which, when defaulting on payments, ends up being covered by a government bailout… pre-dating ‘Occupy’ by 20 years…), and his wife due to his dwindling confidence and social abilities… Kurt is ready to hear the message about the world being filled with Fools easily led astray by money and status and the draw of a life without effort.  Kurt and Greg start to communicate through BBS (something Steve championed super early on as a way to communicate with fans, so it was cool to see him hype it in comic form as well), and soon enough, Kurt picks up the ‘fight’ where Greg left off.

And we follow him for ten issues, through ups and down of understanding his definition of Fools… determining if the hypocrisy of his task makes him a fool… feeling guilty, feeling fulfilled.  While Foolkiller started as a mix of commentary and parody of the anti-hero, the mini-series is a pretty straight forward questioning of the world as it is.  It does not glorify its violence – and in fact makes a point, through J. J. Birch’s gritty but cleanly effective art (inked with a perfect balance of sketchy blacks by Vincent Giarrano) that killing is not a pretty and pleasant business – and rages, fairly, on all sides of the coin – those affected by Fools, those indirectly affected, and the positive and negative consequences that occur when those Fools’ licenses to live are revoked.  1990, Marvel Comics, in continuity, and Steve calls bullshit on every cause there is… but not in a careless, tactless ‘Wanted’ manner, rather in a way that embraces the ridiculousness of the whole cycle; the big Catch-22 of life, pursuing what’s essentially pointless when we are guaranteed that it will one day end.

There are some truly haunting moments in this tale that suggest Steve pushed his pen to the limits.  And though the final page seems to be a release from the doom and gloom prophesies leading to that point… take a look at that final picture and name.  It looks like Steve, and the address is Nevada, and the name – Gregory Ross Curtis – well, Mr. Steve Ross Gerber… ‘Wouldn’t Want to Forget… Who I Am,” go the final words of the Foolkiller mini.  Indeed.