In a world of constant remakes and reboots such as Planet of the Apes, and Mad Max, what can we say for re-vamps within the comic book industry? Chris Warner’s Barbwire comes to mind at this point. With a limited series run from 1994 to 1995, the Dark Horse team (the original CGW) backed Warner’s creation during the cyber punk and post-apocalyptic settings of the early 90’s.
The story derived around Barbara Kopetski who ran the Hammerhead club in this futuristic tale, and was best known as a bounty hunter making ends meat to help finance her bar. With stories during this time such as Marvel’s Future Imperfect, and British magazine Deadline’s Tank Girl, a gritty and chaotic setting was the norm in terms of visualized art and storytelling. Although seen as a satire, Barb-Wire depicted a the typical male fantasy of a stripper like woman beating down a gang infested world of the fictitious Steel Harbor City. With Barb’s blind tech genius of a brother named charlie, rouge gangs such as the Prime Movers, and the Wolf Pack did not stand a chance. With a cult low-budget film adaptation that came out in 1996 starring Pamela Anderson, the movie made bad reviews only losing the Razzie Award to Demi Moore’s Striptease.
Yet what makes this “re-hash” so much more different? Lets analyze the characters from the perspective of the first issue. In today’s era, Barb is still a bounty hunter/bar owner in the same futuristic Steel Harbor City. Her brother is still a charismatic tech, while her two rival’s Mace, and Hunter are still two rival gang leaders trying to run Steel Harbor. At this point, one would think that Chris Warner would tweak this re-imaginative depiction of his creation from a different perspective. Its not to say that Barb-Wire was meant to be the most complex, and innovative depiction in the comic universe, because after all there are just simple times where readers want to kick back and see a hot heroine give it to those that deserve their up-and-comings. Yet, if you look closely, what makes this version slightly different is the way in which Barb has a stressful side rather than the thrill-seeking side from the early 90’s version. Our heroine at this point makes side cash by letting her bounty hunter business be part of a reality television show. Perhaps this portrays the increased popularity of reality TV and the way it has overrun our nation. Also, Barb at this point is stuck with a trashed club that local gangsters take advantage of with their bar-room brawls, while her current landlord evicts her from her bounty hunting HQ for a fine price. Perhaps this delves into the stressful human nature to one even as attractive as Barb.
One thing I must say is that with art work by Pat Olliffe, and Tom Nguyen with cover art by Adam Hughes, this grim take has less of a bright luminescence, and more of a darker neon glow similar to the fashion of Blade Runner. Adding to this is the choreography of the fight scenes, where the step-up in this case see’s Barb more as a trained martial artist. This stems from a declining laziness of having the character fight in a more thought out way instead of having random skills that are never explained from the get go. After reading the same old B level future story similar to Van Dammes Cyborg, I was about to give up. What brought a shed of light was the way in which the realty television of this future describes the mundane feeling that I have in which TV networks and viewers become bored of the same gangsters and mob bosses trying to take over. Instead we become engulfed with the obsession of “super-freaks” and supernatural entities that feed our cravings of higher challenges for our heroine. Thus with the ever growing hunger for our need to satisfy our desires with new threats, what does the network have in store for Barbara Kopetski? Dark Horse Comics releases Barb-Wire #1 July 1st, so stay tuned to see how this updated comparison is brought into the 21st century.
By: Adam Vega.
