Cover Date: April 1995; On Sale Date: February 1995
Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Keith Pollard; Inker: Bill Reinhold; Letterer: Bill Oakley/NJQ; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Marie Javins; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez
John Blaze has barricaded himself inside his trailer with the eyes of the Kristall Starrer, who has returned from the realm of shadow to reclaim his eyes for himself. While the other members of the Quentin Carnival watch over the frantic Clara, the shadowy Crystal Gazer makes his way to Blaze’s trailer. The eyeballs jump out of their tank to attack Blaze while the Gazer breaks through the barricade; Blaze responds by blasting it with hellfire and remembering how he got to this point.
Flashback to yesterday, when the corrupted Clara is visited by the Oculist who sent her the eyes of the Kristall Starrer. He tells her that she must take out the eyes because the Crystal Gazer has returned for them. The Oculist tells her the story of his childhood in Germany during World War II, where he was the assistant to the Crystal Gazer as he attempted to pass through dimensions to see the light from the beginning of time. When the boy woke up the next day the Gazer was gone save for his eyes, preserved in a jar of liquid. The Oculist tries to take the eyes out of Clara’s head but he’s stopped by Blaze and kicked out of the carnival. That night, after the stunt show, Blaze is told by police Captain Rawlins that the Oculist was found dead, strangled with his eyes gouged out.
Back in the present day, Blaze is firing hellfire at the shadow form of the Crystal Gazer but stops when he sees ghosts of his wife and children. John starts to strangle himself before realizing that the Gazer is just trying to guilt him into killing himself. Blaze grabs the headlight of his motorcycle and channels hellfire through it, producing a blinding light that sends the Gazer away. Rawlins and Clara break into the trailer and Clara reclaims the eyes, allowing them to burrow into her head despite Blaze’s warning that she should destroy them. Rawlins leaves, saying he knows when it’s time to walk away.
THE ROADMAP
Clara received the Eyes of the Kristall Starrer in Blaze (1994) # 1.
CHAIN REACTION
John Blaze fights a living shadow and a jar of eyeballs. This comic is great!
In a series proud of its weirdness, I’m not sure if anything matched the visual of the eyes of the Kristall Starrer jumping out of their jar and burrowing into Clara Menninger’s face. It’s almost the defining image of the series, it’s certainly the first one to come to my mind when I think of the title. Just look at the gnarly cover to this comic by Henry Martinez, it’s grisly and instantly attention-grabbing. It’s also, unfortunately, Martinez’s last contribution to the series, as this one features fill-in work by Keith Pollard and Bill Reinhold before a new artist takes over for the final arc. Perhaps Martinez saw the writing on the wall and knew the book was going to be canceled, which is a shame since it robs us of four issues worth of his stellar work.
That’s not to say the artwork in this issue is bad, far from it. In fact, the work done by Pollard and Reinhold reminds me of the early issues of Spirits of Vengeance, which Reinhold worked on alongside Adam Kubert. There is a roughness that just fits John Blaze. The art is also appropriately frightening, which goes a long way toward selling the threat of the Kristall Starrer.
Speaking of the Crystal Gazer, his character concept doesn’t disappoint. Hama had set up an intriguing mystery that had been building since the first issue. How can you not find sentient eyeballs that bore into people’s faces to be utterly fascinating? Finding out that the eyeballs belonged to a Nazi that kills by hitting you with so much guilt that you strangle yourself just adds to the weirdness. That weirdness is what I’m hoping for when I read an issue of this series, though, so this one lives up to expectations.
Losing Martinez was a blow that this series couldn’t recover from, but this issue is still a success. Recommended.
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