Comic Book Cats, number 40: Twilight Book 3, drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, written by Howard Chaykin, lettered by Ken Bruzenak and colored by Steve Oliff, published by DC Comics in 1991.
Twilight was a three issue bookshelf miniseries featuring a satirical deconstruction of DC’s Silver Age futuristic sci-fi characters. At the time it was published it was not well received by some who felt Chaykin had ruined the characters. If had come out just a few years later DC would probably have just slapped an “Elseworlds” logo on it and no one would have complained. It’s unfortunate, because Chaykin did some good writing on Twilight, and the artwork by Garcia-Lopez is absolutely stunning.
During the course of Twilight humanity gains immortality… and it very quickly becomes apparent that this is a curse rather than a blessing. Many people eventually succumb to suicidal ennui. Worse, criminals and sociopaths become ever worse over the centuries, seeking greater and grander depravities to assuage their boredom.
The story is told in flashback by journalist Homer Glint (originally from the “Star Rovers” feature that ran in Mystery in Space between 1961 and 1964) who lost his sight during the cosmic event that endowed humanity with immortality. Glint eventually gains a new form of vision by getting implants that allow him to see through the eyes of his talking cat F’Tatateeta.
Now, you are probably saying to yourself that sounds like a really impractical, if not completely ridiculous, way in which to try to restore your sight. And you would be correct. Indeed, half the time F’Tatateeta knocks the implants on Glint’s forehead off, blinding him again. The other half of the time the cat just bounces around the room shaking his head, making Glint nauseous. But, hey, remember what I said about immortality making everyone bored and leading them to do really stupid things to try to keep themselves entertained? Yeah, getting a cybernetic seeing eye cat definitely falls into that category ????
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