REVIEW: ‘Muhammad Ali’ – The Greatest deserves better
To sum it all up..
Biography is history. It concerns with one’s life, particularly his/her achievements, legacies, and motivations. It can be a hazardous source of information. If the author(s) has strong admiration with the subject she/he researches/writes, then expect its contents more glowing and almost hagiography in nature. On the other hand, this is same if he/she is highly […]
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Posted
November 5, 2016 by Paul Ramos
FULL REVIEW
Biography is history. It concerns with one’s life, particularly his/her achievements, legacies, and motivations. It can be a hazardous source of information. If the author(s) has strong admiration with the subject she/he researches/writes, then expect its contents more glowing and almost hagiography in nature. On the other hand, this is same if he/she is highly critical with the subject concerned. Thus, the outcome would obviously be in the flip side, despite the subject’s “accomplishments”. The late Muhammad Ali is anything but simple. He is both beloved and irritated due to his colorful persona both inside and outside the ring, private and public spheres. Both Titeux Sybille and Amazing Ameziane did a notable job of chronicling the boxer’s life in graphic novel form in Muhammad Ali.This graphic novel essentially chronicles very important historical moments of the boxer’s colorful life, from birth to his Parkinson’s disease battle. It points out the very key periods and boxing matches that made Ali “The Greatest” inside and outside the ring. Hence, this visual biography sorts out some rather trivial and/or insignificant parts of his entire life (no biographies are “objective” per se, live with that), just look how thick this book is. If look how the “facts” and/or “information” are assembled here, this one almost borders to hagiography except for the boxer’s failures, like his divorces, boxing defeats, and his disease. In fairness with the creative team here, this one tries to balance (not impartial) out the man behind “The Greatest”, yet obviously, it still portrays Ali as “The Greatest” nevertheless, as shown what most of his contemporaries (read: famous personalities) mentioned or described him in the most favorable or positive light.
Another significant creative process here is the colors applied by Amazing Ameziane. The colors are often dark and/or negative types to highlight Ali’s struggles and pains inside and outside the boxing, even his personal life. Perhaps the colorization is the one that tries to humanize, if not balance out, the performer’s colorful journey, from childhood, being a boxer, up to his political and religious activism.
I’m glad this graphic biographical novel includes the “Thrilla in Manila” part, but could have presented in more details and other interesting information since that fight and beforehand were highly publicized, including his return in the Philippines in the late 1970s to formally inaugurate the first mall in the Philippines, ALI MALL.
Muhammad Ali is laudable for there are some tidbits and other information that may inspire future generation and/or explain why Ali was, well, THE GREATEST. However, in the personal level, he deserves better, like treating his life in a very thick OMNIBUS/ABSOLUTE/DELUXE hardcover treatment to match his stature.
