Crime & Punishment Marshal Law Takes Manhattan (1989)

All illustrations are © Kevin O'Neill & Pat Mills

First edition

This story was published as a one shot in the USA by Epic Comics in 1989, as a 48-pages prestige format comic book (softcover), printed on mat paper. Sadly Kevin O'Neill was not in charge of the coloring (Mark Chiarello), nor the inking (Mark Nelson, Kevin O’Neill has only inked 4 pages).

back cover

Plot

In an interview included in The mask / Marshal Law #1 (Dark Horse, 1998),  the authors recall that inspiration does not necessarily comes from superheroes comics. In fact, it could come from anywhere, a film for example. In this spirit, Marshal Law Takes Manhattan can be viewed of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) meets Marvel's Hall of Fame. The action takes place in a mental asylum for superheroes on the island of Manhattan. This asylum is actually an alternative to prison, for superheroes guilty of reprehensible actions, that have to be kept away from the public's ears. A new postulant has arrived to ask for admission, the Persecutor, and Marshal Law has been sent to escort him in case of a refusal.

such a great second of cover

Themes

Through the back story of the Persecutor, and the existence of this unusual asylum, the authors address the selective memory of imperialism (page 14, panels 8 and 9), control by US authorities of the public image of their heroes, and CIA abuses during conflicts in South America. In particular, they depict how the art of torture is taught indirectly to young CIA recruits, i.e. showing them ways in which torture can be performed, under the pretext of learning how to sustain them. This thematic is indeed announced in the title (see the reference section of this article). Obviously Pat Mills and Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine) share the same historical documentary sources regarding the CIA exactions.

The authors also continue to question what is the essence of a heroic character, as only "real" superheroes may be admitted to the asylum. Funnily, some iconic superheroes traits are put in perspective with psychiatric pathology profiles. For example, the equivalent of Thor in this story, is filed as a "paranoid schizophrenic", which is characterized by a propensity to grandiloquence, and a God like feeling. Marshal Law is no exception to this double reading.

References

References to comic characters

This time, these kind of references are numerous, and quite easily recognizable. Marvel Silver Age superheroes are reputed to be more neurotic characters than their DC counterparts, so it's seems natural that they have been chosen by Mills and O'Neill to populate this asylum.

• The Persecutor, to begin with, is an obvious reference to the Punisher character. Former torturer on behalf of the CIA, the Persecutor witnessed the death of family members, as they are caught in the crossfire between two gangs of Brazilian and Uruguayan, came to seek revenge against him (the family of the Punisher was decimated in similar circumstances by mafia gangs, although he was not responsible for that).

The real Punisher as illustrated by Kevin O'Neill

• Page 2, we can easily recognize counterparts to Thor, Spider-Man, The Silver Surfer, Hawkeye, Mister Fantastic, The Submariner, Captain America, Daredevil, Doctor Strange and Ant-Man. Other superheroes (The Human Torch) also appear within a few panels in this story.

Marvel Hall of Fame (notice the "Nurse Hatchet" graffiti)

Other References

• Page 2: there is a graffiti at the top left that designate the Chief nurse of the control room, Nurse Hatchet. It is a logical reference to the nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
• Many details can also make one's think of Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988), that had just met a smashing success at the time of publication of this story. First, this is also the story of a cop that crosses the United States to end up trapped in a tower (John MacLane travels from New York to L.A., while for Marshal Law it is the other way around from San Francisco to New York). Some action also takes place on the roof of an elevator, an the climax sees the explosion of the building roof, with the bad guys meeting their death after a free fall.
• Is there a hint in the title of the story to refer to Leonard Cohen song First We Take Manhattan? Really not sure about that one although Pat Mills is quite found of the artis.
• According to this Wikipedia's page, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866) is about a man that in attempts to defend his actions, argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a vermin. He also commits the murder to test a theory of his that dictates some people are naturally capable of such actions, and even have the right to perform them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov compares himself with Napoleon Bonaparte and shares his belief that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose. It echoes strongly the way The Persecutor justifies his deeds during his year as a CIA trainer in South America.

Epic Comics third of cover

Have you noticed ?

• Page 2: Mister Fantastic has a scarf for his arm! Moreover, his place is really in this asylum as he spends the entire story to talk to an imaginary character (his "invisible wife"). 
• By coincidence the Fantastic Four counterpart have the same insignia than Pixar's Incredible family (see picture above) 
• Page 3, panel 5 and page 28: and boom! Daredevil, the blind superhero!

Some juicy quotes

• From Marshal Law after learning there is an asylum for superheroes in New York: "How big is this place? "
• When the Persecutor is accused of not having super power:

I LOVE Hawkeye face

• No comment:

Reprints

In 1990, UK company Apocalypse Limited retrieved the rights to publish Marshal Law by means of a very interesting financial offer for the authors. Concomitantly to the the launch of the weekly magazine Toxic! in March 1991 (where Marshal Law will be the leading story), they have reissued Marshal Law Takes Manhattan (removing the pre-title Crime & Punishment). This second edition has been printed in larger size format magazine as Marshal Law # 2 (which probably also refers to Apocalypse Present # 2). The downside is the fact that it has been printed on newspaper quality paper, generating some yellowing (the cover is glossy newspaper). The US cover, second and third of cover, as well as the back cover have not been included. Instead we have a new cover and second of cover (from an unused back cover illustration for the Epic Fear and Loathing tpb), as well as an advert for the launch of Toxic! as third of cover.

second of cover

third of cover

In 1990 too, this story simply titled Crime and Punishment, was reprinted in the limited Graphitti Designs edition presented here. Again the original cover, third of cover and cover are not included.

Graphitti Designs edition back cover

The Fear Asylum paperbak, published by Titan Books in June 2003 collects this story. In this book, the story is reprinted in its original comic format, but the quality of paper (glossy) is superior to the two initial English language editions.

With the exception of the second of cover, all the material of the 1989 first publication were used (with even a new quote from Marshal Law "Super groups, the bland leading the bland! "). The cover of the UK magazine version is also included. This paperback features the back cover of the limited edition release from Graphitti Designs (featuring all the villains of Fear and Loathing and Takes Manhattan, see above).

International publications

Italian Edition

Here is the Italian edition published by Play Press as Crimine e punizione in 1991, as a supplement to Play Saga #11 (many thanks to Paolo Gugliuzza for pointing out the existence of this title). This edition is exactly the same as the US original one-shot (non glossy paper, comics format, identical back cover, second and third of cover).

This story has been collected again in 2014 by RW edizioni, as part of the translation of the 2013 US DC Deluxe edition in three volumes (here in the second softcover volume):

Only the second cover of the original edition is missing, and this reprint features the back cover of the limited edition release from Graphitti Designs (featuring all the villains of Fear and Loathing and Takes Manhattan, see above).

Spanish Edition

In Spain, the story was first published in 1992 in the same form as the Epic Comics US edition by Comics Forum in its Prestige Collection (#35, Crimen Y Castigo).

yep, the cover colors have been darkened a bit too much

It lacks only the second and third of cover illustrations from the original Epic comics one-shot, but on the other hand, it comes with quite better paper quality (glossy thick paper). The translation is credited to Lorenzo Diaz.

Similarly to the Italian edition, this story has been collected in 2014 by EEC in the second softcover volume, Odiosos Muertos, of their translation of the 2013 US DC Deluxe Edition:

 It lacks only the second of cover illustration from the original Epic comics one-shot.

Portugese Edition

In Brazil, the story has been published in comics format by Abril Joven in 1991 as Crime & Castigo, on rather thick glossy paper (and therefore the art looks better than on mat paper). It lacks only the third of cover from the original US edition. There is no credit for the translation.