OT: Die Hard: Year One

I was at Barnes & Noble today picking up the Destiny trilogy when I decided to take a look at the graphic novels. I notice a book called Die Hard: Year One by Howard Chaykin. Apparently it was set in the 70s and features John McClane as a young beat cop. Have any of you read it? Is it worth buying? I have to admit I never ever considered the idea of a Die Hard prequel but the more I think of it Die Hard Goes 70s sounds like a fun if goofy idea.

 

Oh, I thought it would be about the origin of Sears' car batteries.

 

Er, wouldn't the novel The Detective be the Die Hard prequel...?

 

That would be the prequel to Nothing Last Forever, no?

 

I dunno. Do you think Bruce Willis looks like an older Frank Sinatra?

 

JJ Abrams could make it work

 

I'll ask next time I see him.

 

The original Die Hard is my favorite movie. The second is also one of my favorites, and the other two are better than your average sequels these days. I'll have to pick that book up.

Why does your nick say Admiral and the rank pin on your pic says Captain?

 

Nostalgia.

 

Yep, it's the previous novel

 

He certainly doesn't sing like him, as anyone who's heard Bruce's warbling will know. But take the rug off Frank's head and there might be a resemblance ...

Is the comic any good? I have to admit to prequel fatigue (though I liked the SW prequel and the recent Trek movie) but I love the Die Hard series to bits and the idea of a young McClane during the era of flares & disco did appeal to me.

 

Bruce's cover of Under The Boardwalk is a cult classic, and I'll set the dogs on anybody who says different...

 

I haven't read it. I was hoping one of you had.

 

It's not bad -- Chaykin and Thompson do a good job of capturing the feel of 1970s NYC -- but it takes a bit too long to get to the action, which results in a rushed climax. I haven't read the second story arc yet, but it has McClane as a detective rather than a uniform, so that may open up some other possibilities....

 

I know that the second arc is setting during the blackout and that's about it. What happened during the blackout? Was there a lot of looting and violence?

 

I'll be sure to wear my protective armour and smear myself in pepper.

 

Quite a bit, yeah. The city was already a mess, nearly broke, the cops were talking about going on strike, crime was up, infrastructure was a mess, and the place was a powderkeg. Unlike the blackouts in 1965 and 2005, which were pretty orderly, the '77 blackout resulted in, as you say, looting and violence.

(I was in Manhattan during the blackout, actually, seeing a production of Threepenny Opera with my parents at the tender age of eight. I also did my own fictionalized account of the event in my Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Blackout...)

 

Which is an awesome story that any Buffy fan should read.

 

^Yup. I was lucky enough to get my copy of Blackout autographed by KRAD at the ECCC a few weeks back.

 

For anyone who isn't familiar with it, it's the story of the few days of Slayer Nikki Wood's life.