Comic Info
Comic Name: The Stand: Hardcases
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Artist: Mike Perkins
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2011
The Stand: Hardcases #1
Reprints The Stand: Hardcases #1-5 (August 2010-January 2011). The sides are being drawn in the battle of good and evil. In the Boulder Free Zone, the followers of Mother Abagail are finding establishing a society is more difficult than they believed while agents of the Dark Man are secretly among them in the guise of Nadine Cross and Harold Lauder. Meanwhile in Las Vegas, Randall Flagg’s forces are growing and a new soldier known as the Trashcan Man could be the key to the battle. As the tensions grow, Mother Abagail’s next move might surprise them all.
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, The Stand Volume 4: Hardcases continues the Marvel Comics adaptation of the 1978 Stephen King novel. Following The Stand Volume 3: Soul Survivors, the collection features art by Mike Perkins and was well received upon its release.
I love The Stand and it probably is my favorite Stephen King novel because it stands on its own as a literary work in addition to being an outstanding novel in his vast writing. That being said, I do like portions of the novel better than other portions…and this collection is one of the segments of the novel that I start to skim when I reach.
The Stand: Hardcases #4
This volume of The Stand is rather dull. It is all build up rather than any specific events. It is necessary in the series, but I always enjoyed the plague/post-plague portion of the novel to this segment of novel which involves the espionage and government establishing. I liked more of what the Free Zone did to make a working society, but didn’t care much about the Flagg’s actions out west. With such a powerful beginning to the story, it feels like it really slows down. Mother Abagail leaving is interesting, but the establishing of the government doesn’t really make for the best reading, though it must be told.
The big introduction in this story arch is the Trashcan Man. I always thought he was kind of a weak link the story. With such a controlling aspect in Randall Flagg, I don’t know that he would bring in another figure of chaos. The Trashcan Man is chaos…he has no rhyme or reason, and he’s a figure that plays as a wild card. Flagg is so controlling that I don’t think he’d allow wildcards. The Trashcan Man might know about explosives and things, but with all the wackos coming to Las Vegas, I’d think that there would be someone who knows about explosives that isn’t insane.
The Stand 4: Hardcases is a necessary evil in the telling of The Stand. It is essential to the story and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa does what he can to make it relevant, but it still isn’t the best. The story does pick up in the next volume. The Stand 4: Hardcases is followed by The Stand 5: No Man’s Land.
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