Influential: Noble Causes
Welcome to Influential, a recurring column where I look at some of the books, comics, games, movies and other media that have influenced aspects of my work.
One thing I like about tales of super-powered beings is their flexibility. While most of them are written as action-adventure fiction, stories of super-powered beings really can fit into any genre. I believe it was writer Steven Grant that explained that superheroes aren’t really a genre, but a “setting”, a window dress that fits over other forms of fiction.
And one of the most influential of those over me is soap opera. I grew up on Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men (which could be several Influential columns on its own) but I feel the superheroes-meet-soap story that most contributes to my own writing is Noble Causes by Jay Faerber and company.
The Image series followed the lives and tribulations of the Noble family, an extended family of superheroes and their interpersonal relationships. Faerber created a fascinating team out of whole cloth from super-scientist dad Doc to robotic strongman Rusty to normal human Liz Donnelly-Noble, our entry point character.
The book does nothing to hide its soapy influences with death, cheating and scandal front and center. Noble matriarch Gaia has a bastard son in Frost while Rusty has an ex-wife in Celeste (who of course keeps the Noble name) and almost everyone has a secret (or three) to keep.
The layered histories of the characters and their interpersonal relationships proved a major inspiration for several projects — both current and upcoming — but proved key in the development of Epsilon. I wanted to make sure the characters of Epsilon were people in their own right, with lives and back stories that influenced them outside of the makeshift family they have formed at the Eastman Academy.
That kind of interpersonal dynamic — and the developing branches of narrative that rise out of it — will come to play an important part in several upcoming works from yours truly, including one that will take an interesting turn in at least one upcoming adventure, where the choices will be far more dynamic than in anything I’ve ever written before.
Noble Causes sadly ended a few years back, but the series is still easily available in two massive Archive editions from Image Comics. Both books, over 50 issues total, are now sadly out of print, but used copies are easily picked up for as low as 10 bucks.
The creative team went on to become bigger creators overall though. Original artist Patrick Gleason rose to superstardom at DC and more recently drew Amazing Spider-Man for Marvel. The book’s final artist, Yildiray Cinar, has had an eventful career at both publishers, though has never quite risen to the level of success as Gleason. Jay Faerber still dabbles in comics now and then, but he’s moved on to television writing for the most part in the last few years, working on short-lived shows like Ringer and Zoo, before finishing out the last few years of Supergirl at the CW.
One last note on how influential Noble Causes is on me? The entire Influential column series is inspired by Faerber’s “Under the Influence” pieces that would run in the back of later issues. If you can get your hands on single issues, they were always fun reads.
