{"id":270,"date":"2007-01-14T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2007-01-15T00:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegerber.wpengine.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2007-01-14T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2007-01-15T00:23:16","slug":"some-thoughts-on-zauriel-part-2-finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/?p=270","title":{"rendered":"Some Thoughts on Zauriel – Part 2 (Finally)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t already, go read Part 1<\/a>, then come back and join us for the next paragraph.<\/p>\n

As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I always find it intriguing to write a sympathetic character whose view of the world is completely different from, even diametrically opposed to, my own. Zauriel certainly qualified as that, but he posed another, more peculiar challenge.<\/p>\n

In order to write a character as more than a construct, I need to believe, at least during the act of writing, that the character is *absolutely real*. Talking duck, fifteen-year-old prison inmate, angel of the Lord — doesn’t matter. I have no idea how to render a character credible to readers if it feels “made up” to me.<\/p>\n

See where this is going?<\/p>\n

Accepting Zauriel as real also required that I accept his creator — in this context, God, not Grant Morrison — as real. I would have to shelve my agnosticism for a while and, somehow, allow myself to think like a person of faith. (One heck of a leap for an inveterate wag who considers nothing sacred.) Then, I had to figure out at least the broad strokes of *what* I would believe, *if* I believed.<\/p>\n

And *then*, I had to find a way into the character himself. How does an angel think? What motivates him? Now that he’s been flesh and blood for a while, how does he feel about living in the material world, and what does he make of the human condition?<\/p>\n

Editor Joey Cavalieri provided me copious research material, including photocopies of Zauriel’s *JLA* appearances and the Mark Millar-written miniseries, all of which certainly helped. And I poked around online, also, for whatever I could find about the character.<\/p>\n

In the course of said poking, I came across an interview with Zauriel’s creator — in this context, Grant Morrison, not God — in which he explained what he had in mind when he conceived the character. According to Grant, Zauriel was an attempt to use Judeo-Christian lore as the basis for a superhero in the same way that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby drew upon Norse mythology in the creation of Thor.<\/p>\n

For me, that was the key. Now I understood how I could get to know this character.<\/p>\n

There was a very famous early-1960s issue of *Thor* that opened with the god of thunder sitting in a Manhattan malt shop, sipping a milkshake and conversing congenially with the other, mostly teenage, patrons.<\/p>\n

Zauriel’s mission on Earth is to proclaim God’s existence and demonstrate His love for humankind in a more tangible, more visible way. If Zauriel took that mission seriously, it would bring him into constant contact with ordinary human beings — indeed, he would actively seek out opportunities for such contact.<\/p>\n

What I needed for the opening of this story was Zauriel’s equivalent of Thor in the malt shop.<\/p>\n

In that ’60s scene, Thor is idolized like a celebrity. The other patrons crowd around him, angling for a better view, wanting to touch him, asking for his autograph. He leaves the malt shop flattered and feeling good about his big, blond, Asgardian self.<\/p>\n

I won’t reveal what the equivalent Zauriel scene turned out to be, but I will tell you that he doesn’t get quite the degree of adulation that Thor did, and he’s more than happy to depart when matters call him away.<\/p>\n

Writing that scene, I discovered as well that Zauriel works best for me as a vehicle for raising questions, not for handing down answers. He’s unique in that he can simultaneously discomfit non-believers and the devout, while still somehow remaining lovable to both. His very existence is a mild affront to non-believers. His commentary on humans and their beliefs can convey supreme reverence, sublime innocence, and playful heresy (from the narrow human, not the broader angelic, perspective), all in the same sentence, confounding the faithful.<\/p>\n

In the end, I had a lot of fun writing the *Zauriel* one-shot. My only frustration was the limited number of pages. The story I wanted to tell really should have spanned two or three issues. Still, I’m very pleased with the end product, including Mike Kaluta’s magnificent cover and Peter Snejbjerg’s wonderful interior art.<\/p>\n

I’ll be interested to see what you folks think of it. If nothing else, I have a feeling it’s going to be the subject of fan debate for quite some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t already, go read Part 1, then come back and join us for the next paragraph. As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I always find it intriguing to write a sympathetic character whose view of the world is completely different from, even diametrically opposed to, my own. Zauriel certainly qualified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}