[.ca] Invisibles, The: Revolution VOL 01 (ISBN 1563892677)

The Most Overrated Series In Comics History:
This is a piece of fiction which characterizes the Marqui de Sade as a hero and advocates disobedience to authority (with all authority figures in the series given corrupt personalities by Morrison)as the pathway to "salvation" for mankind. The book earns 5 stars for offensiveness and 1 star for the artwork, which is lackluster. The writing, from the provenly talented Grant Morrison, rates a surprizing -5. It's that bad. Avoid this series like the plague.

The Grand Introduction:
First let me start by saying that I might be a little biased in this review. I started reading The Invisibles with the Second Series, so it wasn't until after a few of those issues that I went back to the First Series. After the totality of violence and conspiracy in the story "Black Science" in the Second Series, I felt a little slowed by the pace of Say You Want a Revolution, with the focus mainly on Jack and his scholarship under Tom O'Bedlam. The introduction was a needed aspect of the story; however, since we are essentially initiated at the same time that Jack is. The second story arc "Acardia" was an interesting look at the workings of the The Invisibles as a whole and how each one interacts with the other. I think we could have all done without the perverse nature of the Marquis de Sade, but you slowly come under the realization that Morrison is trying to shock all the taboo out of your system, in order for you to let your barriers down and stop thinking with the mind that "they" developed for you. Morrison is an incredibly creative and intelligent author who mixes real science and philosophy into an ultimate tale of violence, conspiracy, magic, and sex. This first book may be a little slower than the others, but the entire series quickly picks up speed and you'll soon find yourself unable to read anything else until you finish it.

Passing strange, indeed....:
It surprised me that I was drawn to this series. I should have hated it, since I'm middle-aged, middle-class, and from the middle-west. Yet, I read them all, or at least the six that I am aware of. Strange. Perhaps it is because I saw myself in "Tom-o-Bedlam" in this first volume. Perhaps it was the world-behind-the-world underpinnings, ala Phillip K. Dick (if you like the Invisibles, try the Valis trilogy.) Or maybe it was because there were so many synchronistic "hits" with my own life in issue after issue that I briefly wondered if I was slipping into schizophennia.... In any case this series was a delight. It was written with intelligence and erudition. There is just so much concentrated input on every page, both verbally and visually. As for the politics- this is also strange, for I have come to very simular conclusions. Perhaps that is adding paranoia to the schizophrenia.... There is an excellent bit of dialog when King Mob tells of how one of the other major characters read a story called "The Invisibles" and wrote herself a part in it. Yes, that is how magic happens....

Ee-gad:
This title is without a doubt the largest let down I've ever come across in the comics medium. Mr. Morrison has proven himself in other titles (Animal Man, JLA, Marvel Boy) to be a truly creative and fun writer and when I heard about this series, which he himself described as his most important work ever, I could not wait to get a copy. Wish I could have waited. It comes off like every self-proclaimed rebel's fantasy. We have a world where everyone is a souless puppet except for the beautiful, unappreciated misuderstood who are all total bad asses and take no guff. The bad guys are authority of any fashion and, so that we can have a liberal vs. conservative, old vs. new, rich vs. poor generic fight with the underdogs as moraly just, the world's establishments are all quite dispicible and consort with every evil ever conceived. So we can cut straight to the "we're so awesome, you can't contain us" anthem, the villains are shown as completely horrid with no point or back story. They're evil and we're great. Yay people with tattoos and bad credit. The characters go on to show a strange collection of powers, none of which are ever explained all that well, and the newbie character (Jack Frost) that we the audience are given as a point-of-view is the most unlikable brat to ever grace fiction. Throw in King Mob, the always one-step-ahead, man in charge, Mind's eye version of Morrison himself, and you got delicious cliche. Let cool for five minutes and serve.

A more innocent time:
Reading it now, the first 8 issues of the Invisibles seem almost childish. The conspiracy is painfully upfront with little mystery. The Acadia story arc that makes up the bulk of the issues is plodding and really quite dull. But if you look closely, in the little cracks, you can see a sort of incredible sincerity and a real desire to create something special. Jack Frost is a wonderful character, Buddha as british hooligan. Grant Morrison was trying to mold all of his greatest influences into one bold series, but it really comes off as a mess. But it's a great mess but a mess nonetheless. Morrison's effort on this was A1 and it's very obviously a great work of love. This is where it began, and it only gets better to get a little bit worse in the end.