Ragman

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Ragman (Eng. "Lumpenmann") is the title of a series of comic books published by the US publisher DC since 1974.

In terms of content, the comics of the Ragman series are located in a mixed area of ​​the genres "horror", "mystery" and "fantasy". They are about the adventures of the Jewish pawnbroker Rory Reagan, who uses a magical robe to protect the poor and the weak in his homeland, a slum in the American east coast metropolis Gotham City.

Publications under the Ragman title

The first series that DC was published under the Ragman title appeared bimonthly between August / September 1976 and June / July 1977. The series reached five issues before being discontinued due to insufficient sales. The stories in this series were authored by the writer Robert Kanigher , the visual design of the notebooks was done by the illustrator Joe Kubert . After this first series was discontinued, more Ragman stories about the character were published in the comic books The Brave and the Bold # 196 and Batman Family # 17.

Between October 1991 and May 1992, finally a second, monthly, Ragman series published which brought it to a total of eight issues, all of Keith Giffen (plot) and Robert Loren Fleming written (script) and by artist Pat Broderick drawn were.

The third Ragman series, which again appeared monthly from August 1993 to January 1994, reached six editions, written by the author Elaine Lee and put in the picture by the illustrator Gabriel Morrissette .

action

The plot of the various Ragman stories has undergone a fundamental change, despite the far-reaching continuity of the characters, their characterization and their optical design: While the original Ragman series was based on the events of the Vietnam War and the title character is in a genre typical for science fiction comics "Origin Story" lent the powers of various members of an old circus troupe in an almost ludicrous way, the newer Ragman series of the 1990s distance themselves from this content and tell the story of the origin of the "Lumpenmann" again and again under completely different auspices: That American 1970s trauma of the Vietnam War was deleted from the hero's genesis and instead of a bizarre accident, in this new variant, deep family traditions that are closely related to Jewish mysticism are the origin of the astonishing gifts Ror y Reagans. In addition, the basic tone of the Ragman comics of the 1990s has fundamentally changed compared to their predecessors from the 1970s; they are much darker in their actions, their narrative technique and their visual language.

The plot of the Ragman stories of the 1970s

The Ragman stories of the 1970s series begin with a small gathering in the garden of Gerry Regan, the owner of a pawn shop called "Rags'n'Tatters", attended by his son Rory and three old friends , all former circus performers (an acrobat, a "strong man" and a professional boxer). The meeting is abruptly interrupted when an armed man enters the garden: After a break-in, he had hidden his loot in the Regans garden and is now afraid - after he cannot find it again - they would have discovered it and taken it. At gunpoint, he forces all five men to put their hands on a power line running through the garden and let high voltage run through their bodies.

Four of the men die as the electricity rushes through their bodies. The fifth, however, Rory, is only passed out, survives and when he wakes up again has miraculously fed the extraordinary abilities of the four men with the current that first ran through the bodies of his father and his friends before it drove into him to get. In order to take revenge on the murderer of his father and his friends, Regan now dresses in a costume consisting of many rags ("The Tatterdemalion of Justice") and uses the extraordinary skills that are available to him thanks to the obscure accident, to act as a self-proclaimed avenger.

The plot of the Ragman stories of the 1990s

The newer Ragman series are based on the concept of the golem , a classic theme of Jewish mysticism ( Kabbalistic ), which is reinterpreted and varied in a modern way in Ragman.

The figure of the golem is an artificial, superhumanly strong creature conjured up by magical rituals, which acts as the protector and protector of the Jews against the stereotypes of their environment.

Ragman is a further development of the "golem" idea: the series is based on the premise that a group of rabbis who are well versed in the practices of mysticism in Warsaw at the beginning of the 19th century in view of the ongoing persecution of the Jews by the tsarist regime in the Russian-dominated part Poland come to the conclusion that the golem cannot offer the Jews sufficiently effective protection and therefore try to create a new magical protector for the members of their community.

Through a magical ritual, they give a carter's coat magical powers that give tremendous power to whoever puts on the coat. With the coat, the wearer is supposed to take on the role of the golem as the protector of the Jews.

The 1992 Ragman miniseries begins with the murder of Gerry Regan, who once fought as Ragman against the SS in the Warsaw ghetto. He is killed by two criminals after he has refused to use his pawnbroker shop "Rags' n Tatters" as a backdrop for shady backroom deals. His son Rory survives badly injured, finds his father's Ragman costume, puts it on and begins a campaign of revenge: Since the costume consists of patches that all have their own will, he is more the user of the costume than its user until him finally succeeds in taming this. As the series progresses, it turns out that whenever Ragman kills a person with a "bad soul", that soul becomes part of his costume as a new patch. From now on, he can call on these souls at any time to make use of their powers. However, this is always associated with the danger that Rory will be swallowed up by the "darkness" of the bad souls, whose strength grows with each newly "harvested" soul and tries to take possession of it.

As the miniseries progresses, Ragman fights drug dealers who are terrorizing his home district. He becomes friends with a wise rabbi and fights against a golem - the former protector of the Gotham Jewish community - which he can finally defeat and fights against the neo-Nazi group "The Aryan Reich".

Minor characters

  • Bette Berg : Rory Reagan's girlfriend in the 1st Ragman series. Bette, a freelance photo reporter for the newspaper "Morning Clarion Call" ("The Blade"), tried several times - in vain - to convince her to marry and give up life in the slum. Rory always denies this with reference to his responsibility for the helpless people in his neighborhood.
  • Opal : A young African American singer who is saved from a criminal who tries to shoot her in the 1st Ragman series. After that, Opal appears several times as a friend and loose love interest of Rory Reagan.
  • Teddy : A little blind and mute orphan boy who is saved by Ragman from a debt collector in the 1st Ragman series. Shortly thereafter, Teddy moves into Rory Reagan's household as a foster child with his cat, who is hinted at more than a foster child.

In other media

In the fifth season of the television series Arrow , Rory Regan / Ragman is played by actor Joe Dinicol .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Natalie Abrams: Arrow books Blindspot star as Ragman. In: EW.com. Accessed July 11, 2018 .