Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #1 Flips the Script
When you can wear a thousand faces, what happens when someone steals the only one you want? Basil Karlo has been doing it most of his life. Karlo, aka Clayface, has made a career of becoming other people from the beginning, as an actor. But after tragedy gave him the power to transform, he has spent much of his time becoming other people to benefit himself for criminal ends. But now the script has been flipped on him, and he must navigate the idea of having his self stolen from him in Clayface: Celebrity Dirt. Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Fran Galán, Patricio Delpeche, and Tom Napolitano explore unwarranted legacy, identity, and a very different angle of body horror in their Clayface debut.
There are at least 8 Clayfaces in the DC Universe. 8 different people who can become anyone they want, shift and slide through the world taking the face of anyone they desire, and all of them have resorted to villainy in one way or another. The man masquerading as Basil Karlo says that’s because of the abuse of the drug that created them, Renu. But the man in the movies isn’t THE Clayface; he is just a clayface. Basil Karlo sits locked away in a heated box in Arkham Tower. But you cannot keep a small ego maniac for too long, because the real Basil knows he’s a star. After escaping, he is on the hunt for the truth of his stolen identity.
Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Fran Galán, Patricio Delpeche, and Tom Napolitano take many of the elements that make a villain interesting and turn them in a whole new direction. The idea of multiple versions of the same villain has always fascinated me, especially when they weren’t in a clear line of succession or connected to one another beyond their powers. What happens when one of the lot decides that they are the main protagonist? That’s exactly where the heart of Clayface: Celebrity Dirt hangs its hat. When the legacy isn’t enough, what if one of the other 7 Clayfaces decides to become the biggest one and steal Basil Karlo’s entire being? For a character who prides himself on his acting and name, it’s a fascinating way to examine who he has become since his debut in June 1940.
Basil Karlo didn’t decide to let others steal the legacy of the monster he became. Other writers and artists did that for him. They populated the world with more clay than it could handle, and now they’re brushing up against each other. It’s less a lineage and more stolen valor from Basil Karlo, who pioneered the supervillain role of his caliber. Watching a villain see what he has done to so many happen to him is such an interesting arc for his character.
Jude Ellison S. Doyle’s take on the character is already character-defining. We are shown Basil, who is on the ropes and locked away in a literal box. He is being made to feel small by shrinks and hospital staff. But we get moments of pure clarity from Basil that he is big, that confines like this cannot hold him back. It takes him little effort to make an escape, as if he were allowing himself to be kept all that time. As long as the series keeps that level of introspection on the character, it will be one of the best titles of the year.
Fran Galán and Patricio Delpeche depict one of the most frightening looks at Clayface that I have ever seen. There is a scene during his escape in which Clayface drips from the ceiling into a beautifully colored sea of eyes, mouths, and faces. In a way, it’s reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs when Hannibal Lecter makes his big escape by taking someone’s face. With a horrifying depiction of his powers, Fran Galán and Patricio Delpeche show the body horror that is Clayface. He is a monster without true size or shape, but with a mind warped by years of defeat, heartache, and brutal beatings from Batman.
Most of the issue has Clayface in human form, with the monster shown sparingly. That is another great strength because we never see Clayface in a corporeal form as a solid figure. We see him in a box as a sea of clay but never as a human. It is a clear look at where his psyche is when we find him. There are even doubts in his own mind about whether he is who he thinks he is. There is a true horror in not even knowing oneself, especially when that self is a monster capable of so much evil.
Basil Karlo has risen up from the depths of hell before, step by step, rung by rung. But now, when he reaches solid ground, someone else is wearing his face. Clayface: Celebrity Dirt #1 sets the stage for a play starring a villain who so many people already know in a world where he doesn’t even know himself. The creative team has opened a can of worms and poured them into the muddy clay below to explore what it means to be the monster when there are so many other monsters with your name.
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