Just about a year ago I spotted the news that comic god Stan Lee was associated with a graphic novel adaptation of Shakespeare entitled Romeo + Juliet : The War.  At the time I wrote, simply, “Want.”

Well, lucky lucky me tripped into a complete pre-release copy (digital only and heavily watermarked), and just read it cover to cover in one sitting :)!   Yayyy!   Love.

This telling takes place on “a planet you recognize…yet in many ways, you don’t.” It is a war-torn planet, populated by two super races: The Montagues, a race of cyborgs (half human, half machine) and the Capulets, a race of genetically engineered superhumans.  They were both bred and created for the same purpose – defeating a common enemy.  Once that task was complete, they turned on each other. As far as the “two households both alike in dignity” and the “ancient grudge” go, I buy it. 

(Let me just break in here on myself to mention that, in the introduction, it says “Respectfully based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”.  I like that.  None of this “We all know that original boring story blah blah we think our version is better” stuff.  Respect.  Carry on.)

The story they tell is a bit different from Shakespeare’s, as retellings often are (see our West Side Story discussion for more on this topic). This version, like many others, significantly plays up the violence.  Every Montague hates every Capulet, major characters included.  Romeo and Benvolio are both right in the mix and ready to draw Capulet blood at every opportunity.  There is no Lord Capulet moment where he says “It is not so hard for men as we to keep the peace.”

This is a common approach (heck, even Gnomeo and Juliet did it) but I think it takes much of the depth out of the story.  I much prefer an interpretation where the grudge is basically old and buried, and it is only recently “broken to new mutiny” by guys like Tybalt who refuse to let it go.  I think that’s important character development there.  Just making everybody bloodthirsty doesn’t really do it for me.

Anyway, soapbox off.  The rest of the story elements are there – the party, the meeting, the secret wedding, the over -hasty marriage to Paris, Friar Laurence’s plan.  I will say that it takes a very different turn right in the middle (during the Mercutio/Tybalt confrontation) which is definitely in line with their world building, even if it is not exactly what Shakespeare wrote.  For as much as I don’t love some of the liberties that storytellers take with my beloved source material, I do have respect for those that can stand confidently in *their* story and carry it through to the end. The ending is satisfying, based on how they get there.

I’m always torn when digging into a work like this, because my brain says, “Yay! Shakespeare content!” and then I start reading and three pages in my brain says, “Wait a minute, this ain’t Shakespeare.” I don’t really know what I want as a solution to that problem. Sometimes the retelling will sprinkle in direct quote. There’s not too much of that here.  The goal seems to be, “Retell what Shakespeare said, and say it in a way so that the reader knows what we’re doing, but not so that it looks like we just tried to flat-out translate the original into modern text line by line.”  Does that make sense?  Keep it close, but not too close.

Sometimes they try too hard. Every single time there’s an opportunity to say “Ha, the Montagues are clearly the good guys and Capulets the bad guys!” expect there to be somebody who is quick to point out that the Montagues are just as guilty. They really hammer home the whole “these two sides are exactly alike” thing. We get it. Don’t let us develop our own feelings for these characters or anything – tell us exactly how we have to feel.

As far as the visuals go, the artwork is just beautiful (and I think they know it).  On
numerous pages you’ll think that you’re looking at a scene out of
Terminator, The Matrix, or some other hugely successful science fiction
movie that jumps immediately into your brain. They have a very clear idea for the world they want to show, and pull it off brilliantly.  Frequently there’s a shot of nothing but the landscape, just to show how impressive it looks. Honestly if there wasn’t a gigantic watermark across my copy, there’s a handful of pages that would be gracing my laptop’s wallpaper right now.  (UPDATE – They have downloadable wallpaper on the website!) There are a bunch of places where it’s overly violent for my taste, and a number of fight scenes where it’s hard to tell what’s going on, but I think that has more to do with me looking at it primarily as a Shakespeare fan and not a comic fan.  I’d bet that the comic aficionados in the crowd wouldn’t mind it at all.

You know what? I said that it looks like a movie. I think that if somebody tried to tell this version of the story as a movie, it could be pretty awesome.

I can’t wait for this to come out for real. Although there is plenty of bloodshed (and a surprising scene of near nudity which I think was completely gratuitous) I would almost certainly let my kids read it.  Well, at least my oldest.  I’d probably call it borderline PG-13, as there’s a very definite “Romeo and Juliet, now married, are in bed together” moment that’s hard to talk my way around. Relatively speaking I’ll take the gratuitous almost-naked scene if we could leave out the almost-naked-and-in-bed-together scene.

Be on the lookout for this one!  Coming out officially in “late 2011”, but I don’t have word yet on when exactly it will be available. I find no listing in Amazon, not even for pre-order, but that doesn’t prove anything.

This discussion came up on Twitter, and I thought it might be good to put it someplace where it won’t scroll away in a couple of hours.

Question:  Everybody knows that West Side Story is basically a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet.  Montagues and Capulets, Sharks and Jets.  BUT!  There are some pretty crucial differences.  Juliet lives in WSS, for one.  Discuss the differences, and how they alter your feelings toward the story.  Is WSS an entirely new thing and they can do whatever they want?  Or do they suffer for it, the farther they get from Shakespeare’s original?

Here’s a random thought that came to me while waiting for my wife’s car at the shop (yes, again – don’t buy a VW Routan.)

Of the few things we know about old King Hamlet, we know that he fought Old Fortinbras in honorable one-on-one combat.  True?

Claudius, on the other hand, is a sneaky backstabber who poisons King Hamlet in his sleep, and then later not only tries to pawn off his dirty work on England, but when that fails, he manipulates Laertes into doing it.  Claudius isn’t much for facing his enemies.

So, then, where does Hamlet fall on that family tree?

Thinking Claudius to be behind the arras, he doesn’t exactly say “Come out and face me,” now does he? He blindly runs him through and hopes for the best.

Then, later? When he finds out about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s secret mission to have him killed (a mission they didn’t even know about), does he do them in? Nope – a little trickier with the note and he, too, lets England do his dirty work.

It is only in his final rage (panic?) that he murders Claudius in front of everybody.  An unarmed Claudius, mind you.  Granted, Claudius didn’t exactly deserve a fair fight after everything he did, but still. You’d like to think that the good guy at least attempts to win a fair fight (I’m thinking Romeo/Tybalt – Romeo didn’t sneak up on him, he came straight at him).

Kind of makes you wonder whether Hamlet’s more like his dad’s brother, than his dad.

“It’s a long way down the line,” but director Ralph Fiennes wouldn’t mind following up his Coriolanus with a shot at Antony and Cleopatra.

I hope that his Coriolanus does well, and that this represents a new trend in Shakespeare movies – away from our yearly versions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, and starting to show more love toward these other great plays that, really, are as good as lost to a modern audience. 

What plays would you love to see on Fiennes’ list?  I’d love to see him do something with the histories, ala Welles’ Chimes at Midnight. Not that exact story, but that idea — tell a large chunk of the history plays while at the same time telling your own story.

I’ve also heard praise for Timon of Athens, so I’m waiting for somebody to breathe some life into that one as well.