The story of Robert Smalls is rendered in comic book form and now finds him at a pivotal point of his adult life! Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls #2 continues his life story that had followed him as a boy last issue. The cover by Caanan White is a collage of Robert Small’s grim face as we glimpse scenes of the Civil War and his wedding! The story is Rob Edwards with the art team of layout artist, Darrell May, and Sean Damien Hill and Alex Paterson. We pick up with the older Robert Smalls and his grandson fishing on a lake. The grandson struggles with reeling in the fish and his grandfather encourages him into the fish is in his hands.
His grandson wants the story to continue, Robert corrects him that is “our story”, and he is reminded that it was left with two policemen about to punish him for staying out late. The young Robert Small is taken as what his older self says is the fish! He was trying to earn a hundred dollars to buy his freedom. The policemen free him for his fifth job, climbing a ladder as a lamplighter! Still, his efforts are collected by Mr. McKee who takes his money to give him a single coin! Robert explains that it took him ten years. McKee holds up the coin n his fingers. He is working at a hotel and sees an open door. This leads him as a young man to meeting his wife.
We see Hannah Jones, looking at him calmly while lit by the setting sun, great color by Mauro Salgado. Robert notes, “I felt like I’d been hit by lightning.” We see them together while his mother quietly is knitting. Then, a stroll in a sunset field. Hannah waits on a hilltop with a blanket. Robert walks up with a picnic box. He says he dreamed when they would be free in the North. A closeup of their faces. Then adds there is “one more thing in our way…” Robert asks to marry Hannah from her owner, Samuel Kingman. He is busy with a meal at his desk, their faces are solemn, and he says eight hundred dollars. Robert tries to argue with Kingman who counters that McKee owns nine hundred people.
He holds up a piece of meat on his fork and says that the price is out of his reach, but not so much that he won’t try to make it. Then, we see the happy couple on Christmas Eve, 1856, the result of both of their efforts. The look of the wedding, the happiness of the occasion at McKee’s backyard, including falling flowers that might be yellow jasmine glowing, is stunning work by May and Hill! It is three years later, Hannah has a new baby in her arms, and her daughter is folding clothes by the bed. Robert is also working with bundles and gets the news about Abraham Lincoln. There is a long panel spread across two pages with the battlefield of April 12, 1861, called the Picnic Battle.
Some ladies are dressed up for a picnic, horse and carriage, a line of Union soldiers waving the flag and then the Confederate soldiers on the far hill in shadow. Two gentlemen discuss the reason for the war to “gently encourage” the South to give up their economy. They toast to that notion with cheers of wine glasses. Then, one mentions sending the slaves back on boats. A woman greets her son, Junior, marching to war, he is shot in an explosion! His father sees the real cost of this war. I always think of the beautiful, soft song, “Two Brothers” that is in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland. I remember going to the Gettysburg National Military Park in 2004. A soccer field was at the edge of a battle field.
The battle turns with the civilains fleeing and the Confederates overrunning the Army of the Potomac. The narration notes that there were four more years of war and hundred and thousands of lost lives. It is an interesting shift in point of view from Robert to the Civil War. At the Smalls family home, a banging is heard at the door, Hannah tells doesn’t want Robert Junior taken. He tells them to hide from Kingman. We see Robert’s reluctant face at the door. His narration points out the prie of boys especially when Kingman plays poker and gets into debt. Kingman is at the door and kicks it in for his money. The money is exchanged in an envelope. We see the sleeping face of Robert Junior and then Robert gets his sixth job. A contrast since we saw a Junior die in the battle. We see in another long, two page panel, there is the ship, the Planter, Robert’s job is “Sailor for the Confederate Navy”! He will take McKee’s place to get his freedom. Freedom is running through the narrative of Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls #2, also love with his marriage and family, connecting to the grandson, and his act of bravery in the Civil War!
Five Telescopes out of Five!
#DefiantTheStoryOfRobertSmalls, #RobEdwards, #DarrellMay, #SeanDamienHill, #AlexPaterson, #MauroSalgado, #CaananWhite, #RobertSmalls, #HannahJones, #RobertJunior, #AbrahamLincoln, #SamuelKingman, #HenryMcKee, #StrangerComics, #LegionM
No comments:
Post a Comment