I mainly started
watching the ABC series Castle for Nathan Fillion – like any
fanboy, I've really liked him ever since his brilliant portrayal of Malcolm Reynolds in Joss Whedon's Firefly. And Stana Katic ain't bad to look at, either. I can't say I've been terribly faithful in watching it. I tend to
drop in and out, finding it a pleasant diversion that usually doesn't
have any overarching story arc that compels me not to miss a week. I
go through phases. Often, it's one of my summer shows.
Anyway, the premise
– in case you don't know – is that Fillion's character, Richard
Castle, is a best-selling crime novelist who, through connections
with the New York City mayor, becomes a continuing ride-along, sort
of an unofficial partner to homicide detective Kate Beckett (Katic's character) for
research in developing his newest main character, Nikki Heat, the heroine
of such works as Naked Heat and Heat Wave. There
quickly develops, of course, a sexual tension between Castle and Beckett that
is generally expressed through amiable sarcasm and bickering
reminiscent of the old Bruce Willis-Cybill Shepherd TV series
Moonlighting.
 |
| Richard Castle and Kate Beckett |
In a brilliant
multimedia move, the Nikki Heat novels have been appearing in
real life (ghost-written, of course) since early in the series'
television run. In what I at least consider an even more
brilliant move, one of Castle's earlier series of books, the Derrick
Storm novels, have been adapted into graphic novel format. Well,
at least that's how it's portrayed in the TV series, as a plot point. Of course, it's
really a (sort-of) ghost-written “adaptation” of a non-existent
book, but the result is sort of the same – a graphic novel that
duplicates something of the flavor of the Castle television
series, albeit with different characters.
The authors (“of
the adaptation”) are Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick;
art is by Lan Medina. It's a pretty solid story that basically sets
up private detective Derrick Storm as a quasi recruit into the CIA.
One thing I like is how the character of Storm is written to closely
duplicate the voice of Rick Castle in the television series. You can
practically hear Nathan Fillion's speaking the words you are reading.
Overall, the mood is very much like an episode of the series. There
is the beautiful CIA agent who ends up saddled with this amateur,
sexual tension and bickering resulting. But it departs from the
generally light-hearted style of the TV series toward the end when
tragedy strikes ….
… and
inadvertently messes up a lot of the carefully crafted verisimilitude
that is designed into this volume. By which I mean, the conceit that
this is a product of the character we watch on TV is maintained
through lists of Castle's “other books” on the front flyleaf; an
introduction wherein Castle tells how his first heroes and
inspiration for writing were found in comic books and consequently
how gratified he is to find his work adapted into that format by “the
remarkably talented Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick,”
“brought to life beautifully by Lan Medina's artwork”; and
several pages of plot-blurbs and cover images for his other novels –
which is where it breaks down, because obviously whoever wrote the
blurbs for the “other” Derrick Storm novels hadn't
actually read this one! They are absolutely inconsistent with
the tragic plot twist at the end of Deadly Storm which leaves
a major character unavailable to play a central role in all those
later stories.
Unless, this being
comics, after all, we have a bit of retconning or rebooting going on
here as well!
It's a faux pas
that would not detract from the reader's enjoyment of the story
itself, unless said reader has (as I did) already perused those
blurbs for “later” stories before finishing this one, with the
result being a sudden “Huh--? Wha--?” and a feeling of
being played wrongly. I also wonder how Bendis and DeConnick intend
to write their way out of that box in subsequent Derrick Storm
graphic novels which have already been announced, given what seems to
have been a very positive reception for this one. Just from reading
various comic creators' blogs as well as comic-related message boards
it's been apparent that Castle has a substantial fan overlap
with the comic book community – probably like me many from our
ranks were drawn to it by Nathan Fillion. But hopefully there have
been some fans of the show who were not already comic readers
who have been drawn into the graphic novel format by this book. That
can only be a good thing.
In any case, I
found this a very good little read, a bit different from your typical
comic book fare. I recommend it as well as the Castle TV show that
is its source to comic fans who may not have discovered them
already, as well as anyone else.
Cheers, and Thanks
for reading!
