UNIVERSIDADE de SO PAULO FACULDADE de FILOSOFIA, LETRAS e CINCIAS HUMANAS Movimentos da Poesia Maria Silvia Betti Noturno

14.05.12

Roberto Candido Francisco

Wolverines Fearful Symmetry

References to William Blake in the Graphic Novel Origin

William Blake (1757-1827), the English poet, painter and printmaker, is an ubiquitous reference in todays culture industry and pop culture. Although disregarded as mad by his eccentricities and idiosyncratic views, the expressive and creative character of his visual and poetic works, along with their underlying philosophical and mystical richness, granted him the status of one of the greatest British artists of all time. Blake is considered a forerunner of the Romantic Age, having earlier works categorized as Pre-Romantic and later ones as Romantic. According to Blake biographer Peter Ackroyd, although despised and rejected in his time, Blake decided that his was a special vision and that his work was in the context of eternity1. Blakes persona and ideas are still a very present influence to contemporary artists of varied fields. In literature, his model of illustrated books was often followed in the early twentieth century and his visual and literary works offered seminal inspiration for writers such as Aldous Huxley, C. S. Lewis, William Butler Yeats and are referenced in the writings of Thomas harris, Salman Rushdie and David Almond, among others. In film, examples of influence and reference are found in Ridley Scotts science fiction Blade Runner, in Jim Jarmuschs western Dead Man, in the game-based movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and in Gus Van Sants drama Last Days. In music, examples are found in the works of: Allen Ginsberg; The Doors; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Van Morrison; U2; Bruce Dickinson and Loreena McKennitt, the Brazilian rock band As Mercenrias2, among many others. In games, references are found, for instance, in Dantes Inferno, Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 2, Lost Souls and even in Yu-Gi-Oh! In visual arts, he was influential on Paul Nash, Dora Carrington and Ronnie Landfield and others. Another artistic niche in which Blake is highly influential is that of comics and graphic novels. This influence may be explained by the fact that Comics, like most of Blakes works, can be considered an ImageText, a term coined by W.J.T. Mitchell which "designates the composite, synthetic works (or concepts) that combine image and
1

William Blake, documentary produced by London Weekend Television in association with RM Arts. Excerpt available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHpJ216I-J4 . 2 Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Ytk9gl8VA .

text". Mitchell, in his book Blake's Composite Art: A Study of the Illuminated Poetry, uses Blakes works to develop his concept of imagetext and considers their tensions and flows as starting points to investigate comics, graphic novels and many other kinds of imagetexts (WHITSON, par 4). Another reason for this influence, especially regarding the superhero genre comics, may lie in the correlation between the imagery in the illuminated books and the gothic sensibility of contemporary superheroes with their bulging muscles and gigantic stature (WHITSON, par 3), as Ackroyd suggests in his biography of Blake.
Ackroyd briefly compares the "topical pamphlets, popular prints and broadside ballads" of Blake's London with "the modern comics devoted to 'science fantasy' and genre fiction in general" (180-1). Blake's abstract landscapes and mythic characters, especially in The Book of Ahania seem to evoke for Ackroyd the atmosphere of contemporary superhero comic books. He warns us not to take the comparison too far, since he argues many comics do not have the quality of Blake's illuminated books. But he sees a definite resemblance emerging from the fact that both Blake and many comic writers feel a sense of "alienation or exclusion from the conventional literary establishment" and are frequently "political radicals with an urban sensibility not untouched by an interest in the occult" (181). (WHITSON,
ref 3)

William Blakes etched songs and Prophetic Books may be traced as the origins of the graphic novel genre and of fantasy art. In addition, his relation with comics extends to his descendant and namesake comic book writer-artist William Blake Everett (1917-1973), who, under the name Bill Everett, created the anti-hero Namor the SubMariner and co-created the superhero Daredevil, besides working in several other publications.

Namor the Sub-Mariner

Daredevil the Man Without Fear

The key fact that makes Blakes art and mythology so appealing to comic writers is its deeply archetypal character, which is partaken by the comic genre, particularly by the superhero type.

His transgressive and transformational yet archetypal art and mythology have inspired a myriad of superhero comics writers. The legendary Allan Moore impregnates his works with references to Blake, as in V for Vendetta, Watchmen and From Hell, and is considered himself a kind of modern Blake due to his idiosyncrasies and extravaganzas, a kind of rebel, prophet, religious and occultist sage, in ideas and appearance3. Other author that cite Blake or are influence by him: Grant Morrison in Invisibles; J. M. DeMatteis in Shadowmoon and in a Spider-Man graphic novel called Kravens Last Hunt; Robert Crumb; Garth Ennis in a Punisher one-shot called The Tyger; Todd McFarlane in Spawn and the poem The Tyger is even cited in a Calvin and Hobbes strip. A very particular case of inspiration and citation related to Blake is found in the graphic novel in six chapters Origin, which tells the origins of the Marvel Comics antihero Wolverine, member of the X-Men.

Wolverines first appearance in 1974

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Created in 1974, the character became one of the most popular of the world, in the ranks of Superman, Batman and Spider-man. He had his past, even his real name, shrouded in mystery until 2001, when Origin was published. Its writer, Paul Jenkins, adopted an unexpected approach to tell this long-awaited tale of a mainstream popular character, opting on focusing on the subjectivity in the construction of characters and plot, as he explains:
My sensibilities seem to lay, I think, in characterization much more than events. And I think in the case of Wolverine, that's the way to re-examine that character right now if you want to make him back into the character he was and sort of has the potential to be. I think I have to examine his character and not just make it a

Whitson, Roger. "Panelling Parallax: The Fearful Symmetry of Alan Moore and William Blake." . ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 3.2 (2007). Dept of English, University of Florida. 14 May 2012. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2/whitson/>.

series of important events. Because they become meaningless if there's not actually people that you care about taking part in those events. 4

This focus on emotions and feelings, along with Wolverines notorious characteristics of being solitary and in connection with nature in a very peculiar way through his wild personality, would already have given Origin traits of the Romantic Age. Furthermore, it takes place in the late 19 th century and Jenkins cites Blakes poem The Tyger. Besides that, other Romantic Blakean elements recur in the graphic novel. On the cover of the very first chapter, comes the name of the first chapter The Hill, in which the three protagonist children meet and play on a hill and in a river.

The children lay down to rest on the hill, apparently surveyed by figures that resemble God or Urizen and the devil or the red dragon.

The chapter makes allusions to two Blakes poems called Nurses song5. The poems were published in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience and relate to each
4

PAUL JENKINS TALKS ORIGIN. Interview with Paul Jenkins available at: http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0105/24/index.htm .
5

Allen Ginsberg sings William Blake's "The Nurse's Song" (from Songs of Innocence), available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BImgrnzIfnM .

other, as in most poems in both books, by reflection, symmetry and difference, recurrent motifs throughout these works, as well as the defense of infancy and childhood.
Nurses Song (Songs of Innocence) When the voices of children are heard on the green, And laughing is heard on the hill, My heart is at rest within my breast, And everything else is still. Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, And the dews of night arise; Come, come leave off play, and let us away Till the morning appears in the skies. No, no, let us play, for it is yet day, And we cannot go to sleep; Besides, in the sky the little birds fly, And the hills are all cover'd with sheep. Well, well, go and play till the light fades away, And then go home to bed. The little ones leapd, and shoutd, and laugh'd And all the hills echod. Nurses Song (Songs of Experience) When the voices of children are heard on the green, And whisperings are in the dale, The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind, My face turns green and pale. Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down, And the dews of night arise; Your spring and your day are wasted in play, And your winter and night in disguise.

These motifs are also spread in Origin, both in the plot and the art. The first part of this first chapters plot relates to the lighter, innocently joyous poem on Songs of Innocence, while the second part, to the somber and bitter one of Songs of Experience. This change of tone is marked by a panel which tells about the difference between the lives of the children and shows a contrast of light and dark (similar to the cover) and a reflection to signify this difference: the characters that represent light and innocence are silhouetted against the sun, on the left as if left behind in the story; while the one that has a dark soul and represents the dark side of life, in the right as if signaling the shifting to the darker side of the story, is on the lighter side of the panel, looking at his reflection on the water.

After this panel, in the next page, an accident in which the boy James Howlett falls into the river and is saved from drowning by Dog Logan takes place, triggering the initial crisis which will lead to all the plots complications. This first chapter ends in a cold snowy night, in opposition to the sunny hot beginning, another Romantic device to reflect the inner state of the self, ones emotions and feelings in the case, Dog Logans sadness after being beaten by his abusive father. Another example of reflection and symmetry is found in chapter 4 Heaven and Hell6, in which a situation of the first chapter is mirrored, showing that, although in a different environment, there is another character to fit the archetypal role of the antagonist and that James condition of easy innocent prey is maintained.

Chapter 1

Chapter 4

A clear reference to Blakes The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

However, the most notorious reference to Blake is made in Chapter 5 Revelation7, which repeats in its cover the motif of reflection, symmetry and difference (right). James, also called Wolverine, is shown hunting with a pack of wolves after yielding to his wild side (down)

The hunt is accompanied by the poem The Tyger, which, the reader knows later on, is being read by Rose, James romantic interest. The poem The Tyger, from Songs of Experience, is the evil sister to the poem The Lamb, from Songs of Innocence, and is used in the graphic novel to express Wolverines change into a predator. The poem also exempts the character from being considered evil, showing this transformation as a natural process, in accordance with the Romantic concept of rejection of a scientific rationalization of nature since Romantics were distrustful of the world of men, and tended to believe that a close connection with nature was mentally and morally healthy8 though, in Wolverines case, this connection seems like overkill.
7

A reference to the Bible book to which Blake was commissioned to create paintings to serve as illustrations, the most famous being The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun. 8 Romanticism at Wikipedia, available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism .

References:
WHITSON, Roger. "Introduction to 'William Blake and Visual Culture,' a special issue of Imagetext." .

ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 3.2 (2007). Dept of English, University of Florida. 14 May 2012. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2/introduction.shtml>.

WHITSON, Roger. "Panelling Parallax: The Fearful Symmetry of Alan Moore and William Blake." .

ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 3.2 (2007). Dept of English, University of Florida. 14 May 2012. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2/whitson/>. William BLAKE. (2012, May 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:10, May 14, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Blake&oldid=492424412 William BLAKE in popular culture. (2012, January 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:14, May 14, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Blake_in_popular_culture&oldid=473100852 000: WHENCE CAME THE WOLVERINE from http://www.wolverinefiles.com/wolverine-true-origin/ , accesse in May 14, 2012. ORIGIN (comics). (2011, April 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:21, May 15, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origin_(comics)&oldid=425942418 ROMANTICISM. (2012, May 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:23, May 15, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Romanticism&oldid=492462034 BILL EVERETT. (2012, May 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:24, May 15, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Everett&oldid=492301071 PAUL JENKINS TALKS ORIGIN from http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0105/24/index.htm. Accessed in May 14, 2012. WILLIAM BLAKE DOCUMENTARY EXCERPT from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHpJ216I-J4 . Accessed in May 14, 2012.

Anexo 1
Verses em portugus de The Tyger da edio brasileira de Origin da editora Panini. Augusto de Campos

Jos Paulo Paes