Hard Time (comics)
Hard Time | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | DC Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Format | Ongoing |
Publication date | Vol. 1: April 2004 – March 2005 Vol. 2: December 2005 – June 2006 |
No. of issues | Vol. 1: Twelve Vol. 2: Seven |
Main character(s) | Ethan Harrow |
Creative team | |
Written by | Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes |
Penciller(s) | Brian Hurtt |
Hard Time is a
The series returned from hiatus in December 2005, titled Hard Time: Season Two. With the demise of DC Focus, this run was published under the unfocused DC bullet.[1] The comic ended with issue #7 of Season Two in June 2006.
Storyline
Backstory
Hard Time focuses on 15-year-old Ethan Harrow (early publicity referred to him as "Ethan Chiles"), who was involved in a high-school shooting scare gone wrong which cost several students their lives. For two years Travis Danes and the
After the shooting, Travis was paralyzed and Brandon was dead, along with four others. Although Ethan was not directly involved with the murders, he was tried as an adult and given fifty years to life in
Season one
While in prison, Ethan continues to manifest a superpower called the "KHE-CHARE" that appears as
While in prison, Ethan encounters a number of people, including:
- Prison Staff
- Harvey Brickman, the warden
- Dr. Robert Dinkens, a psychiatrist
- Inmates
- Hubert "Curly" Wallace, Ethan's cellmate and grandfather to Norma "Red" Rothenberg.
- George W. Cole, who gives Ethan the nickname "Prodigy". Released in 2009 and dead in 2010 in attempting a robbery.
- Alonzo "Fruitcake" Mullins, who knows of Ethan's powers. Dead on December 16, 2012, stroke in bed.
- Arturo Lopez, a Latino gang member whose girlfriend Mercedes is pregnant; later on in life (40 so years later) he is a "Don Arturo" and released.
- Cindy Crane, a sexual reassignment surgery, and inherited her mother's salon.
- Swift, Cindy's lover and a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, deceased.
- Gantry the Preacher, an arsonist, deceased.
- Lewis Gatherwood, a rapist, deceased.
- Raeder, the gang boss of the Aryan Brotherhood.
- Alcazar, the gang boss of the Diablos, a Latino gang.
- Kilo, Samoan, big man willing to throw his weight, for a candy bar or two.
- Everly, a craftsman who makes things out of glass, plastic, or wood for porn.
- Brazo, a one-armed artist who always needs supplies.
- Saeed, a prison smuggler who likes cigarettes, pruno.
- Duane Cutter, serial killer who carved up his victims.
While Ethan is in prison, life goes on outside. Ethan's mother, Sheila Harrow is dating Jack Forbes, his lawyer. Norma "Red" Rothenberg, the granddaughter of Curly corresponds with Ethan. Also, Alyssa Nichols, now institutionalized and currently residing at the Shady Grove
On Ethan Harrow's 16th birthday, Red, the granddaughter of one of Ethan's fellow inmates, takes his virginity against the door of the visitor's restroom. Mercedes goes into labour as she and Arturo are being married. Ethan's lawyer asks his mother to marry him, but she said no.
Season two
The first issue of Season Two was released on December 7, 2005.
Ethan met with his lawyer, who is trying to get him a new trial, and Red's parents, Julius and Truth Rothenberg, representatives of "The Prisoners'
A new inmate named Cutter, who is a psycho, arrives at the prison. Cole starts schooling Ethan in "Prison Economics". Ethan's Khe-Chara starts having violent revulsion to Cutter, so "Fruitcake" gives him a "Third Eye". The Cutter befriends Hardin and Cindy into his "Sphere of Influence".
Hard Time Season Two #7 jumps ahead 49 years to the year 2053, to the end of Ethan's sentence. His mind is scanned, to determine whether he is genuinely repentant for his crime; in the process, the various fates of everyone he met while in prison are revealed, as are many details about how his superhuman power functioned (which allowed him to send out his astral form to experience numerous activities outside the prison), and what happened to the people outside of prison. Eventually he is ruled to have truly atoned, and is released. He walks out the prison gate and sees a floating limousine is waiting for him; although the readers do not see who is inside the limousine, Ethan does, and gets in.
Bibliography
- HARD TIME (imprint DC Focus) #1–12 (April 2004 – March 2005)
- HARD TIME SEASON TWO #1–7 (December 2005 – June 2006)
Collected editions
The first series has been collected into trade paperbacks:
- Hard Time: 50 to Life (collects Hard Time #1–6, 144 pages, 2004, ISBN 978-1401204716)
- Hard Time: Sixteen (collects Hard Time #7–12, 144 pages, 2013, ISBN 978-1401237943)
Notes
- ^ "Steve Gerber's blog". Retrieved 2011-01-25.
External links
- SteveGerber.com
- The Hurtt Locker
- Hard Time: Season 2 – A Few Quick Notes
- Internet Archive Wayback Machine archives of dccomics.com webpage for Hard Time
- Hard Time (2004) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Hard Time Season Two at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)