Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • In Search of... Sal Amendola

      Ray Sonne
      June 18, 2001
      It's BobRo the Answer Man!
    Recent
    • Revisiting the Witchblade/Fathom/Tomb Raider Crossover

      Daniel Gehen
      February 8, 2021
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • Leading Questions: Young Animal is Something Comics Desperately Needs

      Ray Sonne
      April 6, 2017
      Big Two, Columns, DC Comics, Leading Question
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • OBLIVION SONG Being Developed for the Big Screen

      Ray Sonne
      June 12, 2019
      Image, News, Press Release
    Recent
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • 5.0

      You Need to Read USAGI YOJIMBO: THE HIDDEN #1 (Review)

      Ray Sonne
      March 22, 2018
      Dark Horse, Indie, Reviews
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • 2.3

      Review: SAVAGE #1 Needs Taming

      Daniel Gehen
      February 16, 2021
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Fred Chao: Building Your Everyman's Hiro

      Ray Sonne
      July 16, 2009
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Werewolf By Night #1

      Ray Sonne
      May 4, 2012
      Classic Comics Cavalcade, Columns
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: X-O MANOWAR (2017) #10

      Ray Sonne
      October 16, 2017
      Indie, News, Previews, Valiant
    Recent
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • SAVAGE DRAGON IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 17, 2021
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade: 'Grave Business' by Graham Ingels

      Ray Sonne
      September 25, 2015
      Books, Classic Comics, Classic Comics Cavalcade, Columns
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Collecting Profile: Blue Beetle
  • Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia
  • Collecting Profile: Kraven the Hunter
  • Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good
  • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY
  • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN'S UNIVERSE
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Classic Comics

Looking at The Enigma: A Love Letter

Ray Sonne
October 13, 2016
Classic Comics, DC Comics

Disclaimer: The below was initially conceived as a love letter for someone dear to the author.

Dear You,

The Enigma by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo is a twisted comic book, to say the least. Fegredo’s inks are so heavy you can sometimes barely tell what’s happening on the page, but the grotesqueries are always clear. The characters’ horrified expressions, The Head’s ass, Mother’s two-backed design. Then there’s Milligan’s words, especially his captions: sarcastic, witty, and often metaphorical. Sometimes between Fegredo’s panels and Milligan’s narration it seems like The Enigma is two stories at once, the words and pictures angrily contradicting one another. These disagreements sometimes make it difficult to discern which elements of the comic to trust, sharpening the psychological thrill of each issue and deepening the modern ideas of the superhero with very little heroics present. Reading The Enigma isn’t necessarily fun so much as it’s unpredictable. Perhaps that’s what twistedness really is at its core: Unpredictability.

enigma1

Enigma #1 cover by Duncan Fegredo

Unpredictability saves Michael, The Enigma’s protagonist, in the end. Before then, we see how

his mother’s abandonment and her last words of, “Be a good boy” leave him paranoid and neurotic, winding up his life so tight that he has no room to live. Every day the same, every week the same. He’s not happy because as life trickles by, he mentally remains on the sidewalk where she left him, reading comics and awaiting her return. Only when The Enigma, the superhero in the comics he reads, comes to life and pulls him out of his routine does he grow into something better. Deep down Michael desired that change, but he certainly did nothing to move toward it and did not anticipate it.

Unpredictability is also likely why Vertigo editors permitted The Enigma to have queer protagonists, which is how most people think of the book today. It’s the queer 90s Vertigo superhero comic; nothing in The Enigma was traditional, so why not make the sexuality untraditional too? Queer, at the time, was unexpected. Queer, at the time, was largely associated with the unreal or wrong or the kind of dizzy aura Fegredo’s pencils and Milligan’s impatient words spit out. In a heteronormative society, no one expects to realize they’re queer, either. Did you when you picked up this comic for the first time? Were you surprised to open up the pages and find yourself within? You must tell me some time… because I was.

I read The Enigma for the first time long before I met you. At the time, I was Michael. Milligan and Fegredo probably intended that on some level we are all Michael. Granted, Michael seems more pathetic than we are with his one orgasm a week as the ultimate signifier of his life’s lack of flexibility and excitement. However, most of us have that job we hate, that celebrity we envy, and that relationship that’s become too comfortable to either fulfill us or empower us to cut loose.

Now I reread the book knowing you and unable to get through most days without my thoughts spinning in circles around you. I’ve become The Enigma.

The Enigma is more what we think of as mutant than superhero. He is born with his abilities, spends much of his life living alone at the bottom of a well, and eats lizards for sustenance. This makes him more similar to a creature from a fairytale than those many colorful characters invented by impoverished Jews, pressed into existence by desperation and cheap printer inks. He could also be compared to a Greek tragic figure. That is how Fegredo draws him when he’s pulled into civilization. He’s in a world too large and abstract, filled with paint strokes of grays. Then he’s the little man, pencilled and inked into a physically ideal body, but rigid and cowering beneath the sky.

from Enigma #7 by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo

from Enigma #7 by Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo

The Enigma is also unlike a superhero because he does not possess a distinction between good and evil actions. He does not start as The Enigma, he makes himself into The Enigma. But in order to fully fashion himself into the superhero, he must recreate the villains as well. So he takes completely innocent people and transforms them into The Head, The Truth, and Envelope Girl, then kills them, or attempts to. He equivocates humans with the lizards he eats, massacres, and changes.

And yet for all his pain and anger–caused by the agony of having a God-like brain in a world of humans–he still seeks love. That’s how he finds Michael–from the love left on the pages of the comic books left in the rubble of Michael’s childhood home. The mutant shapes himself into the image he finds on the pages because he wants the love it receives. Based on the post-coital scene between The Enigma and Michael, wanting and moving toward that love shows that even a seemingly amoral, unhappy person is capable of feeling love, and finding belonging through it.

When I was Michael, The Enigma’s ending disturbed me. Not the part where The Enigma turns Michael gay, of course. I agree with the text in that there is no moral issue there. It was the part where Enigma made Michael fall in love with him that disturbed me.

It seems very similar to rape, doesn’t it? A person starts out as the result of genetics, nurture, and learning from life experiences, like any other. Another person crosses their path, violates a very personal boundary, and changes them internally forever by doing so. The first person then becomes something altogether different, something they didn’t desire and likely would have rejected if given the option.

But then again…

Is love ever willing?

From Enigma #1 by Peter Miligan and Duncan Fegredo

From Enigma #1 by Peter Miligan and Duncan Fegredo

Many people stay in relationships that don’t work, based on the love they have for their partners. A lot of people date others who seem perfect on paper, but can’t make themselves fall in love with them. Love can’t be turned on. Love can’t be turned off. It just happens.

I truly did not intend to fall in love with you.

You probably will never fall in love with me.

I would like to say I’ve accepted this. Instead, I’m writing this letter.

There’s no evidence to suggest you would be your happiest and best self with me, but I believe it with all my heart. My heart, which leaps whenever it sees you. Which stretches toward you until it strains. Which I hold back along with my lips as my eyes travel over to your mouth. This belief is not factual. This belief is a delusion.

I don’t care.

The Enigma tells Michael of all his ugliness: The horror from which he originated, the pain he had inflicted, all the wonders he had created. The truth does devastate Michael, but he’s quick to see that everything The Enigma did was for love of him. They embrace. They go to fight The Enigma’s final battle together, bound by their hands.

You know not what I would make myself into, the people I would hurt, all the wonders I would give to you. To have you smile at me. To make you laugh again. To feel our eyes burn and our throats close in sync.

This is the ugliness who loves you. I have removed my mask.

 

Duncan FegredoEnigmaPeter MilliganVertigo Comics

Share On:
Tweet
Box Brown Discusses Tetris and Gaming as a Part of Life
Leading Questions: I Hope Teen Superheroes Die Before They Get Old

About The Author

<a href="https://comicsbulletin.com/byline/ray-sonne/" rel="tag">Ray Sonne</a>
Ray Sonne

Ray is a contributor to Comics Bulletin, Women Write About Comics, and Loser City. Her favorite bread is Challah and white chocolate is the root of all evil.

Related Posts

  • SECOND COMING and Modern Religion

    Daniel Gehen
    January 31, 2020
  • Leading Questions: Young Animal is Something Comics Desperately Needs

    Mark Stack
    April 6, 2017

2 Responses

  1. Jeremy Carrier October 19, 2016

    If the world was fair and just, Enigma would be rightly hailed and studied as Watchmen, Maus, DKR, etc.

  2. Jo December 2, 2016

    This is disturbed.

Support Us!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Friends of the Site

  • SOLRAD
  • Your Chicken Enemy
  • Psycho Drive-In
  • Women Write About Comics
  • The Beat
  • Loser City
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders