Scars (2008)

This book is the collection of the six issue comic series by Warren Ellis and Jacen Burrows. I presume that Ellis needs little introduction as his work appears almost everywhere – from Transmetropolitan and Hellblazer on Vertigo to Stormwatch and Planetary on Wildstorm to various Ultimate universe books for Marvel to many series on Avatar Press (including this book). He also publishes a free to web comic called Freakangels that is currently up to episode 125. The work of artist Jacen Burrows has been mostly published by Avatar Press and includes several collaborations with Ellis, Alan Moore and Garth Ennis including delightfully sick and twisted Chronicles of Wormwood.

In Scars, homicide detective John Cain’s fragile mental state is shattered when he takes on the case of an eleven year old girl who has been missing for three months but turns up dismembered in three boxes left outside a children’s charity. The case resonates with Cain who has just returned to active duty after having to deal with tragedy in his own life.He becomes increasingly frustrated with his colleagues and the justice system as he makes it his personal crusade to find the killer.

Each chapter is followed by two page comment/observation from Ellis (the first four chapters) and Steven Grant (the final two). In these Ellis repeatedly states that he wanted in this series to move from the normal sanitized depiction of crime in police procedural dramas and introduce more of the horror of real life. I am not sure that he has succeeded. The case while it is horrific, and the effect that it has on the central character is profound, it is still behind the comforting barrier of the printed page and so disconnected from reality. Ellis tries to make that reconnect in his comments by referring to real life cases that mirror some of the story but it is just distracting – we are all aware of some of the dreadful things that go on or are covered up in everyday life – and in one case slightly spoilery as something was mentioned in the comments before it came up in the story. The sense of unreality is heightened by the fact that the main character is seemingly allowed to unravel without any consequences – he attacks an assistant in the morgue and a fellow police officer from another precinct and is allowed to seriously harass his main suspect. Also the suspect once tipped off as to Cain’s suspicions continues to act in a way that is both suspicious and causes Cain to act precipitously.

Having said that I liked the story but was not affected by it in the way that Ellis was hoping – I don’t know that there is anything that anyone can say or do in a work that I know to be fiction that will genuinely sicken and horrify me anymore. The fatal flaw in this story is probably that we are not given a chance to build up any empathy with any of the characters - indeed the main character comes across to me as an unpleasant man for whom I have no sympathy at all despite the tragedy in his life.

First published on RevolutionSF on Monday Feb 21, 2011