'Calamity Jack' by the three Hales (Shannon, Dean and Nathan) is the sequel to 'Rapunzel's Revenge', my current favourite comic of all time. While I don't think it's as good as the aforementioned great, original, twisty-take on the 'Rapunzel' fairy tale, 'Calamity Jack' is a fun and colourful read in its own terms.
'Rapunzel's Revenge' was entirely Rapunzel's story - about her and her high-swinging, hair-lassoing, beast-riding, fighting-for-defence adventure: set in the Old West where she abolishes slavery, overcomes adversity, and learns more and more about her home land and who to love and trust in it.
'Calamity Jack', the continuation, is her partner Jack's story. This adventure is about the overcoming of corruption and greed in Jack's home turf, which is a city with an almost steam-punk design to it. I think it takes its inspiration from the industrial revolution period in America in the 18th century.
A retelling of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' in a city rather than a farm, 'Calamity Jack' tells of our male lead's backstory. He was a young schemer, plotter, thief, and in general a "criminal mastermind"... with not much of the "mastermind" part. He soon wishes to prove to himself and to his poor widowed mother that he is worth something. Planning to get revenge on a literal business giant named Blunderboar for damaging his mother's bakery, Jack uses a magic bean to grow a huge stalk. He climbs and sneaks into the giant's forbidden flying fortress, guarded by a deadly flying Jabberwock (and later, screeching brownies). The only thing of worth he steals is a goose said to be able to lay golden eggs. The chopping and collapsing of the beanstalk in his escape ends up destroying his mother's home and bakery (not to mention causing the death of one of Blunderboar's henchmen). She is disappointed in her son, and they have no money left to repair damages and start over. Jack goes into hiding from the giants to the West, and waits for the useless goose to lay those damned golden eggs so that he can return home and pay for the rebuilding of his mother's bakery.
This all happens in the first chapter, and it sets out to explain why and how Jack ended up in the West in 'Rapunzel's Revenge'. At the end of that comic, the goose finally laid some golden eggs, so Jack can now return home, and make his mother proud of him. He brings his new *ahem* "friend" Rapunzel along as well.
But the city has changed for the worse since he had left. Mysterious "ant people" - there are a lot of large creepy crawlies in this comic - are endangering innocent civilians and are wreaking havoc on certain parts of the city - areas where newspapers and big corporations do their business. Blunderboar has become a big-shot tyrant, and has Jack's mother working for him...
Let's get right down to the good stuff I want to talk about.
Jack is a wonderful protagonist. I was afraid he wouldn't be interesting or dynamic enough to sustain a 144-page story where he is the main lead, not the side-character like last time. But his determination to do well and please his mother are well-written and garnered sympathy from me. In fact I liked him more than in 'Rapunzel's Revenge'. He reminded me of the titular character from Disney's 'Aladdin' - a street-schemer with a heart of gold who has good intentions for his thievery (incidentally, Aladdin was my childhood cartoon crush). Jack constantly tries to make things right with his plans, and when they fail they fail badly with harmful consequences. But when they succeed they are brilliant: Jack's cunning nature might even make Doctor Who proud.
I never really believed Jack to be a "bad guy", as he keeps saying he is throughout the comic. He's too sweet - for a thief, I mean. As a kid he may have been a prankster who made another kid's nose bleed (quite graphically, I might add), but he has grown tremendously since then and is now aware of what the consequences of his actions are doing to himself and to his family. Mostly Jack is worried about what Rapunzel might think of him if she were to find out about his criminal past - one worse than what she's already seen of him in the Old West. Normally I hate this type of cliché were someone is afraid that his/her lover might suddenly hate him/her should they find out a dark secret about them. It's as if he/she doesn't trust his/her lover enough to understand him/her, regardless of the past. But in the case of 'Calamity Jack' this anxiety is quite reasonable: Rapunzel cannot abide greedy law breakers who selfishly ruin the lives of innocent people.
Jack's still-growing relationship with his mother is also touching to read about, and it's the mirror opposite of how Rapunzel's relationship with her own mother is developed in 'Rapunzel's Revenge'. Rapunzel wants to free her mother Kate from imprisonment and slavery, and despite barely knowing her, Rapunzel still loves Kate and wants to know her better; it is an already positive family dynamic. Jack wants to free his mother Maude from imprisonment and slavery, he knows her very well, but their relationship is rocky and filled with disappointments; he feels Maude is ashamed of him and he will do anything to make everything up to her, saving her life along the way.
Since 'Calamity Jack' is told entirely from Jack's point of view, it is his development we see. It is his hero's journey we follow as he grows from an irresponsible and foolhardy boy into a respectable man with a clear head on his shoulders. Because of this, Rapunzel doesn't get as much panel-time or character development as in her own story in the previous comic. But she's had the spotlight on her already, I guess, and she still kicks arse as a secondary character. Plus, she and Jack are adorable together. How they play off of each other and understand how the other is thinking and feeling shows how far their relationship has come since 'Rapunzel's Revenge'. The ending is especially sweet and shows how much they truly mean to one another.
It's not just Jack and Rapunzel who are the stars, either. There are two new characters: Prudence the pixie (they exist in the city as sparkling showgirls), Jack's old partner-in-crime who is obsessed with hats (she is adorably awesome, and surprisingly complex as is later revealed in the story); and Frederick Sparksmith the Third, the handsome but bumbling newspaper industry owner who is also an inventor, and is smitten with Rapunzel (there is a sort-of love triangle, but thankfully it doesn't get in the way of the story, and we know that the oblivious Rapunzel will never fall for Freddie anyway).
Some of 'Calamity Jack''s low points, however, include: the villain, Blunderboar, isn't very interesting. He's just a huge, monstrously-ugly businessman, and not much else. In the third act there is a "Not So Different" talk between him and Jack which had the potential to be really deep and meaningful, but it didn't quite reach that level - too much happens too fast. Due to the fast pace, I think the story is not as fully-realised in potential as in Jack and Rapunzel's previous adventure. It is rather predictable, and some side characters do not get much development beyond their initial purpose to the plot. For example, who was the strange magician who gave Jack the magic beans in the first place? He only appears in one page and he is never mentioned again.
Of course there are still fun, hilarious and clever moments in 'Calamity Jack'. There's also the scary underlying threat of giants cooking humans in furnaces and eating them, which is never glossed-over. But I was hoping for something a bit more. Maybe I was merely overhyped because of my love for 'Rapunzel's Revenge', and was expecting to be equally amazed once again.
I'd still say give 'Calamity Jack' a go. Have some fun. Parental love, bugs, pixies, beating tyranny and fraudulence, character development, cunning plans, humour, and romance aplenty.
The artwork is also very good; as rich and cartoony as last time, only set in an industrious city instead of the Old West (points to Nathan Hale the illustrator).
Final Score: 4/5
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