The Exterminators
is an American monthly
comic book
series
, published under the
Vertigo
imprint by
DC Comics
. The comic was created by writer
Simon Oliver
and artist
Tony Moore
and follows the employees of the Bug-Bee-Gone
extermination
company.
[1]
The book is notable for its graphic and darkly humorous take on the extermination business. The first issue was released on January 4, 2006 and the series finished at issue #30, initially been envisioned as a 50-issue series.
History
[
edit
]
The Exterminators
initial incarnation was a TV pitch and pilot outline
[2]
as writer Simon Oliver was working in the film industry at the time. After consideration, Oliver realized the story wasn't really network material. Oliver then decided to pitch it to a comic book publisher. A
film producer
friend of Oliver had become good friends with
Karen Berger
of Vertigo Comics after they had discussed
100 Bullets
.
[1]
Through this friend, the pitch of
The Exterminators
reached an interested publisher. After some reworking with editor Jon Vankin, the project was
greenlit
and the first issue was released in January 2006.
[3]
A short preview of the comic before its initial release appeared in an issue of
Y: The Last Man
.
Story
[
edit
]
Characters
[
edit
]
The main character of
The Exterminators
is Henry James. Fresh out of jail, he starts working for his stepfather Nils Peterson's extermination company Bug-Bee-Gone. Henry lives in an apartment with his girlfriend Laura, a high level employee of Ocran Industries, manufacturers of chemical products. One of these products is Draxx, a new poisonous gel for exterminating
cockroaches
. Draxx has some serious side effects which have been discovered by Dr. Saloth Sar, the in house scientist of Bug-Bee-Gone (Saloth Sar is also the birth name of the infamous Cambodian leader
Pol Pot
).
Plot
[
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]
Henry is training with his partner, AJ, under Bug-Be-Gone, an extermination company run by Henry's father, Nils. Henry is out of prison, and after AJ overdoses on Draxx, the insect-killing gel that Bug-Be-Gone uses, the police try to solve a break-in at the extermination company.
Sal, the head scientist at Bug-Be-Gone, discovers that insects mutate after prolonged exposure to Draxx, skipping their evolution up several generations. After Henry and his new partner clean out a run-down apartment complex and a swarm of mutant cockroaches attack them, Henry breaks up with his girlfriend who is working at the company that produces Draxx and plans to market it as a street drug to wipe out poorer neighborhoods.
One of the apartment's mutated cockroaches finds the resurrected AJ, now calling himself CJ, who is actually a reborn Egyptian pharaoh who worships insects. CJ murders one of the employees of Bug-Be-Gone to prove himself to the mutant roach leaders, as fruit from Madagascar infested with Hisser cockroaches is shipped to America. The hissers eat the Draxx, and evolve into Mayan hissers, responsible for that civilization's destruction. Henry's ex-girlfriend, now the head of the Draxx producing company, is herself removed from the board after the hissers paralyze her, and Henry moves on to a new girlfriend.
CJ, now recognized as the resurrected pharaoh, attacks the city with the hissers as Henry and the other exterminators destroy them. In the final battle Henry loses an eye, and he marries his new girlfriend.
The Box
[
edit
]
The box in question is of unknown origins, though it carries a distinct
Egyptian
motif. Henry James found it in AJ's truck just before AJ died, and the subsequent flashback sequence indicates that the box was found during AJ's stint in the Marine Corps, in the
Gulf War
. The box appears to be made of stone, and has an elaborately carved scarab on one side. On another are four keyholes and a
swastika
. It is entirely possible that the box is Egyptian, as it may have been carried by
Roman
soldiers into
Iraq
, and then rediscovered sometime before AJ's military service.
The box's significance is elaborated on in issue #25.
Adaptations
[
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]
In July 2008,
Showtime
announced that it would develop the Vertigo series as a one-hour drama. Executive producer Sara Colleton's credits include the Showtime hit drama
Dexter
.
[4]
Later in February 2011, Oliver revealed in an interview that the project is currently in limbo.
[5]
Collected editions
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Irvine, Alex
(2008), "The Exterminators", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.),
The Vertigo Encyclopedia
, New York:
Dorling Kindersley
, pp. 67?70,
ISBN
978-0-7566-4122-1
,
OCLC
213309015
- ^
First Books - Simon Oliver's The Exterminators
- ^
Carper, Will (December 30, 2005).
"Simon Oliver: Exterminator for Hire"
.
Comixfan
. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27
. Retrieved
May 27,
2020
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link
)
- ^
Trechak, Brad (July 9, 2008).
"Showtime is calling The Exterminators"
.
TV Squad
. Archived from the original on 2013-02-05
. Retrieved
May 27,
2020
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link
)
- ^
Rogers, Vaneta. "Vertigo's NOCHE ROJA Takes Crime Noir South of the Border"
.
Newsarama
, February 4, 2011
External links
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Pre-Vertigo
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1993?1999
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2000?2004
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2005?2010
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2012?2016
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2018?2019
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