I Really Should Read This 20: The Invisibles Book Four, by Grant Morrison and many, many artists

The Invisibles Book Four, by Grant Morrison and many, many artists 

1999!

What's it all about? I don't know. I understood many of the pieces of this, but I'm not sure it made any sense at all, except in the most vibing of ways. And that's good enough for me.

Rock!

I started reading the Invisibles last summer, starting with book one and finishing book four this week, and that seems to be a fair pace. The series came out in three parts over a number of years, but it's barely coherent as it is, so I can't imagine trying to draw it out for years and stay wrapped up in it. For that matter, I can barely imagine reading any monthly comic anymore, so it's just as well I got this in the collected edition.

Yes, that's right

What's it all about? Something about a demon being crowned king of England, and the secret group called the Invisibles who are out to prevent this reality ending event. That's what it seems to be about, but that's not particularly interesting. So it's about the Invisibles and how they navigate reality. Sometimes the book is about reality warping, and sometimes it's about embracing the subversion of normalcy. Again, I can't say what it is about.

Who are the Invisibles? Anyone. You could be one.

What's this about?

There is a plot, and it's the least satisfying part for me. What I enjoy about the Invisibles is how it embraces the fringe. I really wish I had been reading at the time. I was so into subcultures and anything weird the 90's, and I think the book would have pushed me just that much more into the weird. Morrison took every fringe concept he could get his hands on and inserted them either as a part of the narrative or as set dressing for it. Some of it I knew of at the time, but it would be very minor subculture, not well known at all.  I think those things would have been hooks to get me to use the book as a roadmap to other strange subcultures. For example, in a few places Guy Debord and the Situationists are referenced, something that was very exciting to me as a 20-something, but had pretty much no mainstream representation. In another place, he references Terrance McKenna's self-transforming machine elves of DMT, an exciting concept to psychedelic explorers, but had no place in a mainstream culture that was still just saying no to drugs. And those are but a few references, the book is littered with ideas. Does it pull them all together? Not at all! But this was before Wikipedia and the ability to look up any tossed off reference with the click of a button. Underground culture was something that took a lot of effort to cultivate and learn about. It's just a treat to see them referenced so liberally. Shelly Bond was a generous editor to the series.

Is there a difference?

If the book has a unified idea, it seems to be that much like how the universe is unified, a thousand disparate concepts of the underground share a common thread: they are variations on a theme, there is something else. This thing we see is not what it is. Then the book drops some spy shenanigans on top of that for the sake of making a comic book narrative. It's like a capsule to contain the medicine.

Subtle

I loved Lord Fanny. She is a transgender character, and she is a character. She is equal to any other character and is a lead character. This feels so transgressive now, as media is making an effort to have some trans visibility, often looking clumsy with from the obvious effort involved. 

I loved reading a book that, while having some interest in morality, had no interest in being moral regarding anyone's sexual interests, much less orientation.  Characters have sex and enjoy it as they want to.  And it's very human feeling, not over-romanticized. I love the normalization of the fringe. I don't think they should make a TV show out of this unless it's x-rated. Not XXX, just treating sex as a normal human activity.

Do what you wanna do

I loved Edith, the 99 year old Invisible on the cusp of death. She is an old woman and we see her as a sharp, forward thinking woman. I personally make an assumption with seniors that they just don't have a compelling inner life, and sometimes talk to them as if children: don't swear, mention sex, mention anything other than the weather. It's a stupid thing to do, especially as I'm on my way to becoming one myself. It's a product of being young and thinking adults just don't get anything you do, and grandparents really don't seem to. Seeing a character like Edith, and getting to know her, it's not your typical rock and roll comic fare. 

Edith is endlessly interesting because she is interested in the world

The Invisibles is not a clear comic. It's a collection of concepts mashed together. It's a hodge podge. The first run of the series had multiple artists, and that was blamed for weak sales, so the second series only had two artists in its run. Series three has three arcs, with different artists in the first two. But then the final arc has different artists from page to page. It's a lot of whiplash visually. Characters shift from highly rendered to cartoon, from garish to noir, with each page turn. 

Sean Philips inked by Jay Stephens... When I thought the book couldn't get any weirder

I'm sure it was on purpose. If the book was about mashing a thousand ideas together, then maybe that final arc was about mashing a thousand images together too. Whatever the concept, it wasn't normal. But it all fits together.

Ultimately, the book ends, and there is an epilogue issue which I found very abstract. After reading the whole of it, I want a break from this world.  But if I see an article about it, I'm bound to read it. I don't think the story makes much sense at all, but I'm interested to see if others think it made a lot of sense. Are there folks who analyzed this the way some folks analyzed Inception a decade ago? 

Ten years from now, I'm sure the whole thing will get a re-read from me. There are ideas inside I want to puzzle over.

Lord Fanny took my heart a little

What was it about? A bunch of underground agents save the world.