Okay, I know that Tomahawk is DC’s Revolutionary War hero (complete with vaguely NAMBLAesque sidekick situation, just so you know he’s a DC property), but even so, the idea of a dastardly villain who is a British officer is still kind of comical. It’s totally a mindset thing; you have to initially shake off the mental image of him saying things like “Pip pip, cheerio, old boy – oh, Tomahawk, you dasher, you’ve winkled my plans but good, you Yankee devil you!”
But I really love the art here, because it really does make Lord Shilling look like a nasty badass, or like Jason Isaacs’ total bastard character in The Patriot (a movie which, while often kind of silly, at the very least had Jason Isaacs in it – plus, Donal Logue as A Racist Who Learns A Lesson!) – competent, merciless, and one hundred percent All Business. Lord Shilling doesn’t have any superpowers beyond being an excellent athlete and a brilliant spy, but he doesn’t need any powers to fuck you up. And if you beg Lord Shilling to show you a gentleman’s mercy, he’ll do it by cutting your throat open. He’ll be polite, though, and wait until after you’re dead to remark upon how bloody stupid a request that was.
Really, the more I look at Lord Shilling, the more I like him. He’s from the other school of British characters, the James Bond/John Steed/anonymous badass SAS colonel mode. He’s exactly what a good bad guy should be: competent, cool, can shoot your eyebrow off at fifty paces with a flintlock pistol, and likely has a cutting remark for any situation, even when Tomahawk barely manages to one-up him.
Still – shame about the wig, though.
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I protest. In that time and place, it’s unfair to hold a powdered wig against a man. Are we simply to declare whole generations pansy-fied?
Powdered wigs = badass. Check out Plunkett and Maclean or the Scarlett Pimpernell for evidence. Of course dour Puritan in black surrounded by Powdered wigs also = badass so I’m conflicted.
Yeah, England and France are both conflicted in Comics. On the one hand you have incompetents, on the other hardcases like Union Jack and this fellow. For France you have…well…ok, Mademoiselle Marie is pretty cool, but that’s it. The French have been “demonized” as wusses for so long that just being French is seen as a drawback.
Shilling is kinda cool. “Masters of disguise” aren’t physical threats very often.
France has Batroc. Yes, yes, I know, Batroc is, well, Batroc. But he’s also a man with no superpowers whatsoever, who has not only held his own against Captain America (and lost, eventually), but done so on multiple occasions. He’s a dashing ladies man, always has a witty remark to accompany a foot to the face, and is a former Foreign Legionnaire. And in the world of super-powered mercenaries, he’s still on the A-list, even when all he has is a mastery of savate, a terrible costume he somehow makes work, and The Mustache.
Batroc is awesome.
Batroc was used very well in the recent Union Jack miniseries, too.
I guess you could also put Warp in the French’s corner, although his entire contribution to the DC Universe is being various supervillains’ teleport bitch.
Have you ever thought of looking at Amadeus Arkham’s entry? It’d make an interesting comparison with his portrayal in Morrison’s ARKHAM ASYLUM…
Tron: You can get away with anything as long as you have an awesome mustache. Just look at Dan Backslide.
About Lord Shilling: I don’t know what it is, but I love that name. It should be the dumbest, goofiest, most lazy name I’ve ever heard, but everytime I say it it becomes more captivating.
Picture this: Shilling as just captured an American spy. ‘Lord Shilling’, the spy says with distane. ‘An apt name for a man who for the love of money would cut down those who fight for freedom.” Shilling draws his rapier. ‘You know what they say,’ as is one swift motion the spy’s aorta is cleaved by Shilling’s rapier, ‘”In for a penny, in for a pound.”‘
Sounded cooler in my head, not sure now. Plus the description says nothing about Shilling’s motives for doing what he does. He could very well just have been fighting for King and Country.
@Thomas:
Used poorly in Joe Kelly’s run on Deadpool, though. Don’t get me wrong, Kelly did an awesome job otherwise. But in this issue Batroc attacks Deadpool and Monty in their hotel room just because he’s angry that they won a lot of money from him. He throws Monty (this is a cripple btw) out the window just for the hell of it.
I always thought Batroc was better than that.
Anyway, Deadpool eventually beats him and drops him several stories into an empty swimming pool. Batroc’s later seen looking miserable with both his legs (and IIRC his pelvis too) in a cast.
So, this guy was the hero, right? British patriot, expert swordsman, horseman, hand-to-hand fighter, pistol shot, master of disguise – plus, a perfect Magnificent Bastard smirk.
They should resurrect Lord Shilling for a morally ambiguous series in which nobody’s sure who is the good guy.
No, the hero was Tomahawk, an American patriot tought by tthe natives who fought some truly epic craziness. The sort of thing modern man leaves to REX, THE WONDER DOG!
I have no time for dirty Colonials who resist the divine will of their rightful monarch. Clearly, Tomahawk’s dominance was the result of misaimed fandom.
It was a fine day when I first found this blog, and every time I go back it makes me happy. Most of these characters never made it to Sweden but to know that they were published somewhere is enough. Thanks.
[…] Revolutionary War comic character. He fought the British – including the notoriously awesome Lord Shilling (fun fact: this site is now the #1 search result for “Lord Shilling”) – and, uh, other […]
It would be really, really damn easy to resurrect a ‘modern’ version of this guy.
Lordships are hereditary. There could be TWO Lords Shilling, even. A good one and an evil one that faked his death.
Badass agents of my homeland make for fine villains. Villains we can be proud of.
What I’d love to see, even though no one else would care:
GERALD SHILLING….RISE!
[…] in various DC anthology comics and then had his own title which lasted for twenty-two. He had a great villain and a bunch of unimpressive or ill-considered spinoffs, so you know he was popular. Basically, he […]
A DC villian who could fit into a Bernard Cornwell novel? THIS PLEASES ME.