Gentleman Spawn (or "Don't fix what ain't broke")

While reading my comics this week, something reared its ugly head in the back of all my DC books that I want to talk about.

It's this. We need to talk about this.

That is the cover to Savage Hawkman #6. As you can see, that's Hawkman on the bottom there being pinned down by..."Steampunk Spawn"?

Actually, that's the new redesign for Gentleman Ghost.

This well-dressed, but obscure, chap.

And I hate it.

But of course I do. I'm a comic fan in the internet age. We live to hate. I mean, I'm interrupting my own way too long rant explaining why I hate Superior to complain about a costume redesign.

"OF ALL TIME."

And honestly, I'm not even the target audience for this. I don't read Savage Hawkman. I'm not a fan of writer Tony S. Daniel. I've never even read a comic with Gentleman Ghost in it.

Despite this, I am a Gentleman Ghost fan, aesthetically. I knew him first from appearances in Justice League Unlimited and a larger role in Brave and the Bold, and I fell in love with the character. As a concept, he was genuinely interesting to me. His powers and his personality were both a lot of fun. But most of all, I loved his design.

"Where my g-HO-sts at?" (I'm so sorry)

All-white suit, cloak and top hat? A cane? Dude's pimp as hell. The invisible body with a floating monocle is pure aesthetic genius.

But I hate this design. I am fully confident that it is the single worst redesign of all time.

Why? I'll give you two incredibly simple reasons:

Now, to be fair, this is going off the image alone, as well as the confirmation that this is Gentleman Ghost. But I'm of the mind that a costume design for a character should tell you as much as it can on first look. The original design was completely white, anachronistically arrayed, and with an invisible body. Those, combined with some artists depicting him as transparent, immediately hint that he's probably dead. His out-of-date, yet dapper, attire, complete with a monocle and cane, leads us to deduce that he's probably higher-class and possibly charming.  A "ghostly gentleman", if you will.

This new design fails to tell us any of that.

1. He's not a gentleman.

Admittedly, "gentleman" is more a mannerism than a visual style, but it was still something elegantly conveyed in the original design that I'm going to hold the new design to it.

This new wardrobe does not translate to me as a higher-class socialite. A top hat and a monocle does not a gentleman make. If anything, he just looks like the mainstream conception of "steampunk".

Nothing about him speaks "elegance" like the old design. His clothes are ragged. His cloak is tattered and his sleeves are torn. That cane just looks like an old piece of wood. I don't even know whats up with those lobster claw shoulder pads.

He's obviously been redesigned to be a "badass", which is a real shame. We have more than enough "badasses" running around in comics (most of which can be blamed on the 90s, which DC is trying to emulate in all the wrong ways). In my humble opinion, it's always a shame to see the more interesting villains disappear to make way for their "hardcore" counterparts.

What happened to the simple "Riddler is a genius in a sweet suit"?

2. He's not a ghost.

Again, going off that image, I don't see a ghost. He's tangible.  He has a solid form. Hell, he has a form at all. One of the most interesting aspects of the original GG was that he had no visible body. He was just floating clothes. It was visually different and engaging. He was unique.

This version has a very visible body. His skin a weird off-white and decomposing, so maybe he's a zombie, but he's certainly no ghost.

Now, his head is cloaked in shadow in the new image, but you can clearly see an eye and the outline of a face. We can see his arms and hands and the cybernetic implants undernea...

Okay, hi there. What?

What is going on with his arm? I see glowing green lights and metal. So not only is he a zombie instead of a ghost, but hes a cybernetic zombie?


And what's with the spider legs?

What I'm getting at is that all this stuff that's added in no way explains or improves the character, not only as he was previously understood, but as he is still currently named.

Nothing about him says "Gentleman Ghost" to me. "Dapper-Hatted Spider Cyber-Zombie", maybe, but that doesn't have nearly as nice of a ring to it.

And it's not like I'm against new interpretations. I actually hate the lethargic lifestyle of comics where the same ideas get rehashed over and over again, and nothing new or experimental lasts for more than a year. But you still have to respect what came before and, more importantly, understand the concept behind the character, even if it's as simple as accurately depicting the name.

To me, redesigning Gentleman Ghost as a zombie is like creating a new costume for Batman based around a mosquito because they also drink blood. Sure, there are some similarities where I can see the connection, but it entirely misses the point.

Now, because I like to think I'm a fair guy...

In the Brave and the Bold episode "Dawn of the Deadman", Gentleman Ghost's physical form in black attire can be seen when he is in contact with Nth metal.

Gentleman Grundy? I'd read it. Hell, I'd write it.

I will admit that I do not think this is canon. But it still could be what we're seeing on this cover, as Nth metal is a Thanagarian material attributed to Hawkman, as it's what allows him to fly. I believe his DCnU armor is made of it. It still doesn't explain the cyber skin and spider-legs, and it certainly goes against my statement that the first image should establish the character (if this is only his Nth metal form), but I figured I'd point it out.


And to go back to being unfair, I'll leave you with this graph someone sent me:

If you know who made this, let me know and I'll credit them.

Superior #7 review next week.

Laters.