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Sunday, December 03, 2006

Another Character I Don't Get...

You know what character I really really don't get? Jericho. I sincerely do not understand this character or what makes him appealing.

I'll be honest, the only experience I have with the character is during the first arc of the new Teen Titans series and the current issues. I remember seeing him in the background of the few early Titans issues I've actually read, but that's not really enough to truly get the character.

I know Jericho's related to Deathstroke and that he can't talk and he does some sort of possessing thing...(which I think is actually a pretty clever use of codename/powers), but that's about it. I do know of quite a few people who are very fond of the character though, so I'm curious about him.

If you guys know any good stories that really highlight Jericho and what makes him tick, please let me know!

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posted by kalinara @ 6:43 AM  

14 Comments:

  • At December 03, 2006 9:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I completely and totally agree. For some reason, a lot of the Wolfman/Perez Titans just whooshes right past me.

    I will admit that the bit in the new issue, where he's attempting to speak to Rose and she can only go "I... I don't know sign language" was a good one, but that is the absolute most interested I've been in the guy ever. :/

     

  • At December 03, 2006 10:06 AM, Blogger Zaratustra said…

    I'm recalling this from my olden days of reading Teen Titans comics at my friend's house.

    Jericho's a mutant because of Deathstroke's abuse of controlled substances, and can possess someone if he makes eye contact with them. When he was like six terrists cut his throat halfway because his father does not negotiate with terrists.

    Eventually he turned evil and his father impaled him dead or something. I didn't read that one.

    And now he's ressurrected and SOMEHOW is still a mute. I bet they're blaming it on Emoboy Prime punching the fourth wall.

     

  • At December 03, 2006 10:50 AM, Blogger Seth T. Hahne said…

    Wait. Jericho's appealing?

     

  • At December 03, 2006 2:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    "And now he's ressurrected and SOMEHOW is still a mute."

    But this time around he actually gets narrative captions, which he never had before. (Never had thought balloons either, for that matter.) Very jarring.

     

  • At December 03, 2006 2:21 PM, Blogger Elayne said…

    He's been resurrected? And he's no longer Bulked-Up, Evil and Talking (TM me, you can look it up on Google Groups)? This has potential!

    Melissa, I'm not sure I can explain the character's appeal to me, but I assure you he's probably my favorite Titan. Maybe it's the visuals, I've always had a thing for curly blond hair. :) But I think it's that he was always shown as very respectful towards women, very much in love with the idea of love, very creative and open and almost innocent, and his muteness gave him an appealing passivity in a genre full of male aggression. Also, the whole "jumping into people's heads" thing served to further emphasize his empathy. I don't have the time nor inclination (nor the memory!) to look up specific stories for you, though, sorry.

     

  • At December 03, 2006 2:22 PM, Blogger SallyP said…

    All I know about Jerico, is that he is LAME and has THE worst hair in the entire DCU>

     

  • At December 03, 2006 2:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    All I know about Jerico, is that he is LAME and has THE worst hair in the entire DCU

    Oh! I figured it out.

    Jericho is Greg Land's model for Johnny Storm. Check out the hair! It fits, you know it!

     

  • At December 03, 2006 6:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Jericho is an artist's character: that artist being George Perez. He was designed so that a good artist would have to actually know how to draw: to convey emotion and feeling via the art, and not any dialogue (or thought balloons).

    The problem is that Perez was really the only one who could do him justice.

    The Judas Contract is the best place for learning about Jericho: it deals with his origin, his powers, etc. Eventually, he falls for Raven (sensitive new age guy and girl from hell).

    Anyhow, I like Jericho, but he rarely works without a decent artists, which the Titans is currently a few short on.

     

  • At December 03, 2006 8:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Actually, I liked Jericho back in the days of Wolfman/Perez. In fact, I think I'm the only person in the known universe who loved his costume. But, I didn't love him so much that I wanted him to come back and be the other member of the Titans. I would have much preferred to have seen one of the many Titans who joined during the missing year. I think that would have been more interesting. Hell...I'd like to see more teens in the Teen Titans.

     

  • At December 03, 2006 9:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think Jericho is basically a failed character. He debuted at the climax of Wolfman and Perez' main arc on the original New Teen Titans, and he played foil for both Raven and Changeling over the next couple of years, but he was never more than a supporting character.

    Unfortunately, Perez left the title and Wolfman basically ran out of ideas on the second NTT series, so the series basically fell apart during that period. Jericho was not much more than a blank slate when he first appeared, and he never truly developed.

    So I'd agree that he's not really a good character. But, that's life.

    Personally, I find it hard to care about any Teen Titans title these days. I started reading the current title, dropped it after about 5 issues, thumbed through some later issues, and found it to be pretty generic. I'm not sure what it would take for me to care about the series again. Well, other than better writing, of course.

     

  • At December 04, 2006 1:06 AM, Blogger notintheface said…

    The one question rattling through my mind when Jericho was resurrected was: What was the POINT? Murphy was dead on when he said that Jericho was created by Perez as an artist's character, although I feel that Tom Grummett was the only other artist capable of "getting" him. Current penciller Tony Daniel is a great artist, but he's not always around and when he's not the art's a crap shoot.

    And now Jericho has narrative captions, practically whizzing in the face of George's original concept for the character.

    So I ask you again: WHAT WAS THE POINT?

     

  • At December 04, 2006 8:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yeah, Jericho is total rubbish.

    He completely ruined the Teen Titans for me, though all the crap writing after George Perez left might have played a part in it.

    What I used to hate most about him was everytime he said something there would be a panel of him signing then a panel of someone saying "oh, Jericho says..." which really annoyed me for some reason.

    I also found his whole super kind-hearted schtick really forced. I hated how every single time he hit a supervillain or something there would be a caption saying "Even though Jericho abhors violence, here he understands its necessary." Every single time!

     

  • At December 05, 2006 12:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Jericho? You don't get JERICHO?

    You don't understand he's the True Paragon of Virtue? The Sexy Beast? The Millennium Bug? The LARGER THAN LIFE SUPERSTAR???

    Haven't you ever seen his impossible to break WALLS OF JERICHO???

    What is WRONG with you??

    Oh, wait, wrong Jericho. Yeah, I don't get him either.

     

  • At December 05, 2006 12:41 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Coyle wins, hands down.

     

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