Downtime:
or, THRILLER and The Agony of Unrealized Potential

This is the story of THRILLER, a series published by DC Comics beginning in November 1983. It was, if I'm not mistaken, DC's first foray into the direct sales market with an ongoing series. It was one of the first, if not THE first, of DC's titles to use the higher-grade paper stock which would later be adopted by the Teen Titans and Omega Men titles, among others. Being a direct sales book, the directive was that such titles should have a little more edge than newsstand titles, skewed toward a more mature reader.

The first issue opens with a newscast anchored by Ronald Morris, a Walter Chronkite figure who reads for a global satellite network. He reports that a strange villain named Scabbard is holding people hostage in a mosque, demanding that the President of the US be surrendered in exchange. His prologue segues to a scene of twin brothers, Dan and Ken Grove, who are reporters for the network. They have broken into the terrorist camp and are going to interview Scabbard live. Ken, the reporter, attempts to interview the terrorist and his girlfriend “Malocchia,” who has a hypnotic gaze, while Dan films. When Ken slaps Malocchia in an attempt to resist her power, Scabbard draws a sword from the skin of his back (ugh!) and decapitates him- while Dan films it, heeding his brother's wish to get the story no matter what.

Cut to a scene of Daniel on what looks like the Brooklyn Bridge; he's thinking of jumping when he hears a voice speak his name. He looks up and sees a woman's face in the clouds: THRILLER!

The woman was Angela Salvotini, married to Edward Thriller. Edward and his partner Moses Lusk were geneticists who worked obsessively on cancer research, accidentally stumbling on a particle which Edward believed could be linked to reincarnation: one which carried our essence, or soul, into the next body. When he believed he had the particle identified, he decided to conduct an experiment to isolate it- using himself. What he didn't know was that his wife, concerned about his absence, came to visit the lab just as he was pressing the button to disintegrate himself (isn't that always the way?) Naturally she rushes into the chamber to stop him, and things go awry. Angela's body is disintegrated, but her soul particle remains- as part of him. She is now a spirit, able to manifest herself as electricity, air currents, magnetism, and other ethereal means. She has gained insight into the future, knowing that a mankind is heading for a catastrophe; so she assembles a team of operatives, known as the “Seven Seconds,” to avert it.

The other Seconds include Data, an “information specialist” who resembles an obese Yaphet Kotto who lives in a limousine and can control it with his mind; Crackerjack, a young boy from Honduras who can crack any safe or pick any pocket; Proxy, an actor who uses synthetic skin to create new faces since his original one was burned off while freebasing cocaine; Beaker Parish, a “test tube baby” who was raised by the church and later became am eight-foot-tall priest; White Satin, who can induce madness or ecstacy with a touch; and Tony Salvotini, AKA “Salvo,” Angela's brother. Tony is, in many ways, the focal point of the series: he was an expert marksman who got sick of black ops, but who has kept his skills as sharp as ever. He is such a good shot, in fact, that he can disable opponents without killing or even seriously injuring them (hence his motto: “Only flesh wounds! Only outpatients! I won't kill a fly, so don't ask me!”) When Scabbard kidnaps Tony and Angelina's mother in an attempt to force Tony to assassinate the President (who happens to be Data's father- surprise!), the team combines forces to rescue her and get a little revenge for Dan's brother.

The first four issues of the series is an arc which reveals the characters' backgrounds and prominently features Dan and Tony. Both have feelings of guilt about their fathers: Dan because his father was known as a heroic reporter who died attempting to rescue children in a war zone, Tony because his father died attempting to rescue his children during a house fire which Tony accidentally started. There is a particularly chilling scene in which Beaker Parish reveals to Dan the true circumstances of his father's death. Dan experiences the situation himself while Beaker explains that his father was very “law-abiding.” Dan realizes it was not his father's conscience or bravery which saved those children.

I was bowled over by those first four issues when I first read them, at around the same time that I joined AC. In fact, my second AC zine ever reprinted the covers of THRILLER #1 and #5. Robert Loren Fleming, apparently in his first pro comics job, wrote some very smart dialogue considering the fact that DC essentially seemed to want something to rival Marvel's then-titanic X-MEN title. Trevor Von Eeden's artwork was very challenging, the pages laid out so that you often find yourself reading the book a few times to fully understand what has happened. This was a common complaint in the letter column, but I welcomed the challenging nature of the book. In a few short issues we were immersed in themes of family and spirituality, witnessing scripts that juggled action with musings about the nature of humanity, artificial intelligence, World War III, and so on.

The book's tone became a little lighter for a couple of issues as it focused on a character named Kane Creole, one of several Elvis Presley clones who had turned to a life of crime as a bank robber. It also explored more about Edward Thriller, White Satin (whose real name was Janet Valentine), and her ex-husband, a mysterious figure called Quo who, in his pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, shed his physical shell and now hangs out as a ghost, not unlike Angie Thriller herself. Quo appears at critical points of interest in order to affect the outcome of an event.

Just as things seemed very promising for the series, it began to fall apart. The co-creators were having a conflict, either with each other or DC's editorial wishes. The letters page is somewhat enlightening, making reference to the number of complaints they receive stating that people don't understand what's going on, that there isn't enough action, etc. In the same issue that Robert Loren Fleming resigns as writer (#7), it's announced that the pace of THRILLER will be picking up. After one more issue, Trevor Von Eeden left as well. The new creative team, Bill Dubay and Alex Nino, were not well-received by the cult of fans that had formed.

Looking at the book with older eyes now, I think the problem was not so much with the new team's finished product, which was OK, but that the product looked and felt so different from the original. Gone were the dizzying page layouts and pauses for characterization. Dubay, presumably continuing from a plot which Fleming and the editors had envisioned, scripted a final storyline which bears no small resemblance to one of DC's greatest milestones of any decade: WATCHMEN.

The story is this: Edward's former partner, Moses Lusk, turns out to be a Veidt-like puppet master who has hacked into defense department computers and will cause an accidental world war for some reason. A heroic woman named Mrs. Verity, head of the UN, is held hostage by terrorists in Lusk's employ. Thriller has a plan- but it hinges on her brother breaking the code by which he lives, and shooting the hostage to make her a martyr. In a startling tenth issue, we see the war take place: millions die and then time is reversed, replacing what was lost with the participants aware of what they have done and how it must not be allowed to happen. To strengthen their resolve, Tony must make his shot. Most of this takes place in an extra-large tenth issue.

The eleventh issue shows the aftermath in the new world order, which of course cannot last. Unlike WATCHMEN, which leaves things up in the air (and is effective as a piece for doing so), THRILLER speculated about how quickly the world might forget the ultimate lesson. Unfortunately, the book's artwork had declined sharply since Nino came on board, making it very hard for this reader to enjoy. The final issue, #12, was a clever wrap-up of loose ends considering that it could have been just a knock-off; the decision to cancel was apparently made somewhere around #10. The last letters page, always an interesting aspect of the book, reflected a lot of unhappiness about the new creative team and accusations of DC paying too much attention to the bottom line.

All in all, THRILLER was a real anomaly. It started out very strong, forming an ethereal shape like its namesake, and dissolved into thin air. I consider it to be a lost classic, and if its creators had had a chance to execute that final story, we might not have been so impressed by WATCHMEN. The next time you're digging through the quarter bin at your comics shop, fish out those back issues of THRILLER and read them; they deserve it!