Polite Dissent

Aquaman #31, the conclusion to the “Kiss of Death” story arc, was marginally better than the preceding issue – mostly because it wasn’t as deep into pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo and bad medicine.

The Kiss of Death storyline:

A serial killer is stalking Sub Diego, killing people by breathing into their lungs. In order to find a pattern to the killings, Aquaman talks to Arkham Asylum inmate Jonathan Crane (the Scarecrow) who points out that the initials of the victims, plus the letters CA, will spell out “I can’t take it anymore.” With this, Aquaman concludes that the killer’s next victim must have the initials “CA.”

Aquaman, Lorena, and the remaining members of the police department split up to find the killer. With his keen detective skills, Aquaman has a good idea who the killer is — and he’s right. The killer has a gun that shoots paralytic darts, but Aquaman and Lorena are able to restrain and imprison the killer.

The basic concept of the story is sound: a serial killer is loose in Sub Diego. The execution of the story could have been better.

The scientific and medical technobabble was painful to read. I discussed most of it at length last month (as did Scipio). In terms of this issue, I will just quietly point out that it would be very hard for someone who is paralyzed to talk.

Another problem with the story is that the serial killer doesn’t act like one. Serial killers are disorganized thinkers. They kill to relieve a mental itch and prove their superiority (superiority over whom varies by the killer). While they may taunt the police with letters or notes, it’s quite a stretch to think that one would plan ahead enough to spell out a phrase with the victim’s initials, or as another example, base murders on the seven deadly sins. (I’ll readily admit that I’m not a forensic psychologist so my understanding of serial killers may not be 100% complete.)

Finally, I was very impressed that the Scarecrow was able to take the letters EONTMRNYTAEIITAK and right off the bat realize that — with the addition of two other letters — it spells out I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

This is particularly impressive considering that the original letters by themselves can be rearranged into over one-hundred-thousand legitimate anagrams. My favorites include:

I think any of these probably would have led to a better story.

• Internet Anagram Server
• Crime Library: Serial Killers