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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Madly ambitious while avoiding so many standard pitfalls and a clear preview of where Morrison would take superheroes.
This should be talked about in the same breath as Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Miracle Man as a post superhero thing.
This should be talked about in the same breath as Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Miracle Man as a post superhero thing.
As a child this one knocked me for six. The first two Phases had been clever and mindbending and knowing, but nothing prepared me for Phase Three. Yeowell as an artist has somehow stepped down from his peak in these issues, returning to a simple - if elegant - line for his work. But this is scratchy and nightmarish and bewildering and the perfect art for the story held within. And as calling cards for stories go, nothing beats Archie the android turning up as an Acid House freak. As a thirteen year old I knew exactly who Archie was, far more than I did Acid House music, so there was a real frisson of danger and, may I add, sheer deranged chutzpah as to what Morrison was planning
The first time we see a world decimated by the Lloigor it feels almost like Morrison’s own response to Moore’s Marvelman stories but - whisper it - better because there’s a real horror and shock here, created by using rubbish Fleetway and IPV characters in this world. It really gives the villains a sense of dread. Much as the Marvelman stuff is brilliant, the infamous Kid Miracleman sequence (complete with early Moore using rape as a plot point, that weird obsession he has again and again) just feels nihilistic - while this is bleak and, to my teenage self and as an adult, terrifying. It’s genuinely heartbreaking to see these childhood icons - and the characters inspired by them - suffer, but again this isn’t for cheap nihilistic effect. Even as a kid alarm bells were ringing about some of the so called heroes and their attitudes, and it’s to Morrison’s credit that these are not overstated moments but instead have an air of awful inevitability about them
It’s still a brilliant move on Morrison’s part to have Peter St John as our most responsible character, because we again know that he’s... got skeletons, to put it mildly. And Vertex is a wonderful character. Even I was taken in by *that* cliffhanger as a kid. The Metamaid punchline is a bit cheap but I like to think it influenced Morrison to create Lord Fanny in the Invisibles and correct some of that laziness
The first time we see a world decimated by the Lloigor it feels almost like Morrison’s own response to Moore’s Marvelman stories but - whisper it - better because there’s a real horror and shock here, created by using rubbish Fleetway and IPV characters in this world. It really gives the villains a sense of dread. Much as the Marvelman stuff is brilliant, the infamous Kid Miracleman sequence (complete with early Moore using rape as a plot point, that weird obsession he has again and again) just feels nihilistic - while this is bleak and, to my teenage self and as an adult, terrifying. It’s genuinely heartbreaking to see these childhood icons - and the characters inspired by them - suffer, but again this isn’t for cheap nihilistic effect. Even as a kid alarm bells were ringing about some of the so called heroes and their attitudes, and it’s to Morrison’s credit that these are not overstated moments but instead have an air of awful inevitability about them
It’s still a brilliant move on Morrison’s part to have Peter St John as our most responsible character, because we again know that he’s... got skeletons, to put it mildly. And Vertex is a wonderful character. Even I was taken in by *that* cliffhanger as a kid. The Metamaid punchline is a bit cheap but I like to think it influenced Morrison to create Lord Fanny in the Invisibles and correct some of that laziness