The blank badge and everything that surrounds it: an Invisibles reread

Liverpool!

For some reason I like Paul Johnson's art here more than the previous Dane issue - you get the impression that he's under harsh interrogation-room lighting the whole way, unable to really relax - the cover brings out some of this (and is also just amazing Sean Phillips work, the fact that the same guy did this and the Sheman covers and the next three that we have coming up..!)

It's really rough on him too - one of the problems with any kind of superheroes in that they end up estranged from the people that they're doing it 'for' and this is the episode that he feels the punch of that. He gets a pretty solidly hitting vision as well, one that the others won't have (although, if King Mob is Polish...)

"Except wake up, I guess," always amuses me.

Yeah, me too.

Week 10, vol 1, issue 23: The Last Temptation of Jack, and issue 24: Good-Bye Baby Rabbits

I miiiiiight do 25 later today just to finish the volume off and resume with Volume 2 in the New Year?

https://i.imgur.com/jnA9PvI.jpg
I hadn't noticed before doing this, but the covers of 22-23-24 all fit together, bookended by Fanny. Not sure how I feel about Boy being relegated to the background of 24 though, especially as she's the mirror for Jim Crow on 22? Maybe it foreshadows her Volume 2 role a bit?

Anyway.

We know Jack doesn't die because the issue opens in 2012, with him recounting this story to a homeless man he's got cradled in his arms. This is an old friend of his who calls him Dane.

Mr Six's way of twirling his eyes out of their sockets is terrifying! And to do it with all those horrors rampaging about too.

Mr Six is clearly as powerful as has been hinted at; he tells Boy to stay close to him unless she wants cancer. Boy is freaked but not too freaked out not to snark baxk with "Right. Funny I don't remember that from the 'How To Date Boys' book." Ha!

Fanny is still calling King Mob Gideon. I think Fanny is so far the only character we've seen break code like this, right? Sir Miles is watching Miss Dwyer and taunting that King Mob is dead. It's all going to shit, isn't it?

And then there's Jack.

Tom's Tesco bag contains a box of cigarette ends, which Jack crumbles and scatters around him in a circle. We get this delightful reflection:
https://i.imgur.com/MbhYiGr.png
This magic is no different from ToTEP in issue 21. Jack believed in it, so it was. And so it is here too.

He protects himself from the King-of-all-Tears, but the King can still touch his mind. And so he does.

"Put your money where your fucking mouth is, dickhead." This reminds me of King Mob at the beginning of Vol 2 responding to Roger saying Jack might be the Buddha, "if the Buddha grew up poor in Liverpool and swore a lot, he might be a bit like Jack."

Jim Crow is tickled by the zombies and jokes about Mickey Mouse being scarier, but Robin's not so comfortable. Jim dispatches them with the zozo gun and asks Robin how she's doing. "This is great. It's just like watching a film." One that she wrote, perhaps.

https://i.imgur.com/IaOJ8F7.png
Jack tells us some more about how the Archons work, which we've already seen a bit of with Mary Brown.

Flashback to Dane's youthful love with Crystal Quinn, back in Liverpool. This reminds me of Tom O' Bedlam breaking through the walls built around himself when Dane thinks "You couldn't love your mum and dad. Not really. You couldn't love your mates or you'd just be a poof. The only person you were really allowed to love was your girlfriend." The King-of-all-Tears finds this tale of youthful heartbreak, and within it Dane's ache for love and to be loved, and pulls it out and confronts him with it.

Miss Dwyer is running rampant in the room with Fanny and King Mob.

Back to Dane's memories. As he marks the permanent record of his love on the bus windows, he sees Crystal pass by outside on the arm of an older man. You can hear his heart shatter in real time.

Crystal rubs salt in the wound when she snaps that the other guy "at least knows what to do."

Here the King-of-all-Tears invents a cruel twist in the story out of whole cloth, and that's where it tries to hit Jack hardest. That's where Barbelith comes in.

https://i.imgur.com/SYs1tWw.png
That's Barbelith there on his forehead, like an inoculation scar protecting him from the King-of-all-Tears's attempt to shit on his soul.

"We made it to save us," Jack says, and he means humanity here, rather than himself?

Now we skip forward to the far future, where 70 year old Dane is dying in hospital. I appreciate the casual reference to him being "pre-Jack", which in this context I read as some sort of technological leap forward? Anyway, him dying just as he's struggling to tell the doctors to fuck off is funny and hilariously in character, especially as one of them then remarks, "Good timing, huh? Pub's open in ten minutes."

Next Dane is confronted by the soldier he killed while escaping from the windmill. Shades of Last Man Fall on fast forward.

The next vision is the most convincing, with Boy and Mr Six. I think it's really notable that it's these two - Boy who Jack fancies, who taught him to fight, and Mr Six, who he definitely listened to in school even if he affected otherwise.

Older Dane is the most convincing, mainly because most of what he's saying is true!
https://i.imgur.com/tlj0y5y.png

Outside, Jim's overpowered the ghouls and zombies. And then Jim, who misses nothing, asks Robin about what year she was born. Time traveller confirmed!
https://i.imgur.com/e1wbBUz.png

Dane is seeing the entirety of existence written before him, far from the joke shop and the King-of-all-Tears.

"I even knew what 'Manichaean' meant."

Mr Six loses sight of Dane, but he and Boy have more pressing problems as the abscess continues to grow, spewing giant maggots and other obscenities. Onto the next one!

https://i.imgur.com/rI4soKn.jpg
Again, everyone is very glam on the cover. Robin's half-hidden face foreshadows her Volume 2 storyline.

King Mob's voice comes through the dark - temporary telepathy. Direct line to Fanny's head. And King Mob has an idea. Just in time too, as Miss Dwyer has Fanny bound and at her mercy and Fanny's panicking. And the plan is Key 17.

Robin and Jim are approaching the room where it's all happening and the vibes? Are extremely bad. I really enjoy her sulk here.
https://i.imgur.com/6XopFIP.png

Mr Six knows what he has to do because what you always have to do in these kinds of stories is make a sacrifice to seal the abscess. Boy can't stand it and she collapses, and it's tearing at the very fabric of Mr Six himself. And he battles through the horrors to know what he has to do.

Barbelith brings Jack back from bliss, and he's not happy about it. But there is, after all, still work to do.

"I am not the god of your fathers," it tells Jack sternly, "I am the hidden stone and break all hearts." It tells him the Archons must withdraw if he knows their names and that he must remember.

In the abscess room, Mr Six is battling to stay upright. And we learn how long he's been undercover and how deep as he sacrifices his Brian Malcolm cover identity.
https://i.imgur.com/eQoVWKS.png

In the other room, King Mob asks Fanny to hit Miss Dwyer with a sigil to make her drop her armour, and Sir Miles realises too late (isn't he a telepath?!) what's happening. Fanny hits her hard, and King Mob gets the space he needs to inject her with the Key 17.

Miss Dwyer starts to say an outer church 'prayer' meant to strike them both down with "pure sonic cancer", but King Mob uses the last of his strength to whack her upside with the rifle. And screams desperately for Fanny to write something, anything. And, panicking, Fanny is struck with inspiration.

https://i.imgur.com/wpGRatg.png
Whose mug is that anyway? Frankland's or just one of the random ones you have knocking around office kitchens? I hope the latter.

Jack is with the King-of-all-Tears and he's not afraid to leave the circle, because he knows the truth he needs to win. He knows the King-of-all-Tears's real name. This is a potent power in any manner of fairy tales, from Rumplestiltskin to

Jack's stupefied face reminds me of when they time travel back to revolutionary France and surprise the Invisible there, and King Mob says "somehow it's always a shock when it works, isn't it?"

The King-of-all-Tears withdrawing dismantles the reality he brought with him, and things start to change back. Only one question. "Who is telling this and to whom?"

Jim finds King Mob and Fanny. King Mob is rapidly bleeding out, but Jim only has eyes for Miss Dwyer. "Only one for death today."

Some of this imagery comes back when Colonel Friday takes Quimper to the Outer Church. It's all pretty horrific and this and Miss Dwyer's reconstruction/armour mskes it clear how much the process of modification demands from a person.

Jack comes up to the group in the hall, and his experience with Barbelith has changed him. He knows what to do to save King Mob.

I really enjoy how awed everyone is and then Jack telling them to shut the fuck up, lol.

"Come on! Get off your arse and help us here!" And King Mob lives.

King Mob is gloating about tearing Sir Miles's aura off so much that he doesn't notice Jack going and putting it back. Sir Miles is shocked, and Jack tells him "Nobody knows what I am."

Jim says he'll get them out of the country and their story continues in Vol 2! As for Vol 1, we have Division X next (my faves) and I'll do that one tomorrow I think.

Andrew, I'll respond to you then later.

And here's me thinking I might catch up. Nice one on getting it back on schedule!

Everyone looks glam on this cover, ngl.

Yeah, but denim and a nipple ring?

KM on this cover reminds me of the interview with Steve Yeowell in Anarchy for the Masses for issue 4, where they were asking him "how do you feel about others drawing your designs?" and he basically said well that's the job, but also he was a little disappointed that King Mob lost the slight East-Asian caste that he'd given him - but that maybe that hadn't actually come across in the art.

The Mary Brown scene is pretty grim - rereading I realise that I'm not sure that when it says 'before SHE hatches with them' whether it means Mary or Miss Dwyer? I don't think the second one makes sense with the second 'SHE'?

You can get pretty far with voodoo, but you can get further with voodoo and the secret voodoo boot!

There's a figure that keep recurring in the just-outside backgrounds - page 12 panel 4, page 6 panel 3 maybe page 7 panel 1 - and I can't tell if it's supposed to be meaningful, or Steve Yeowell just likes drawing people with short hair.

I've always really liked this panel; the lack of colour and the tiny scale makes it look as unreal and meaningless as the normal world now is to Dane.

Yeah, but it also reminds me of a framed photo - whatever about her (very justifiably!) freaking out just before, this is the bit that he'll carry with him.

I'm fond of the massively distorted moustache of Mister Six in Page 23 panel 2.

The letter column starts 'GRANT MORRISON IS DEAD' because it's by Mark Millar, roped in to do it because Grant Morrison is very unwell, with a punctured lung, pneumonia, and a fungal parasite. He (Millar) has a lot of fun with it: a letter that just reads 'Grant, you are just fucking brilliant' gets a response that reads 'I wish I got letters like this', and one that provides a multiple choice question on who Gideon Stargrave is gets 'Gideon Stargrave is Grant Morrison with a girlfriend, cool clothes and no stammer'. I have a lot of time for this-period Mark Millar - he was writing the second best run of Swamp Thing at the same time.

The Boy issue is a weird one, partly because in the context of the Invisibles, Boy stands out as the 'normal' one - she has no magic / sufficiently advanced technology - and so neither does her origin story. In the framework from the last few standalones, there's a lot that happens here because it's assumed that everyone already speaks the language of US cop show.

I say there's no magic but there's still the same questions about backstory and twists - how long is "all this time we've been partners", is it just co-incidence that it's the invisibling of his partner that's the upshot of all of this? See also: how long had Mister Six been Big Malkie?

And "is it just coincidence?" is the eternal question of the conspiracy theorist (or rather "no" is the eternal answer) - one angle hinted at here is that for decades conspiracy theory belief was higher in African Americans than the rest of the population, partly because a lot of conspiracy theory-ish stuff did happen - there was a Black Wall Street, and the government did bomb it. I'm just guessing, but I wouldn't be surprised if the racial pendulum has swung back in the last 4-5 years. There's a passage from Grant Morrison in the letter column of #18 bigging up Paradox Press's Big Book of Conspiracy Theories, which I wish I still had a copy of.

I hadn't intended this to be topical, but I see that the idea of anything to see in Pat Finucane's death is also now a conspiracy theory.

I mean, show Michael Gove a button marked 'memory hole this immediately"... But yeah, it was a tenuous link.

Invisibles Live

This is what it’s like living in Windsor. You go for a walk in the morning and find grown men parading down the high street in fancy dress pic.twitter.com/zBt0Up35XJ

— Chris Morris (@thatqueerchris) December 14, 2020

Anyway, on to the last two regular issues, and I'm delighted but not surprised that they're as good as I remember - the only real criticism is that for a "bringing the whole team back together" story, Robin and Boy don't actually do anything? The same page that Robin turns on her nanomachine bracelet, Jim lets her know that he doesn't need it. They're exposition sponges mostly - but on the plus side I do love hearing GM's exposition gabble.

The framing device in 2012 Liverpool has an establishing shot of the Liver Building - I can confirm that it and its imaginary birds, Bertie and Bella, survived until at least then.

"It's like something out of a film, like a computer simulation, you look at it and it's just so unreal you have to accept it" - this has a resonance for me that it didn't have at the time. Just over 3 years ago now, me and Jen came back to mine, turned the electric blanket on to warm it up, and five minutes later it caught fire. We were in a different room, so it was only when the smoke alarm went that I went to open the bedroom door, and at the corner of the bed where the lead from the socket was, there were three tall narrow flames, straight up. They looked completely unreal - but it turns out it doesn't matter, you still react as you would to 'real' fire.

Completely otm on the link between Crystal being the outlet for Dane's love and the second issue.

I fucking love 'I knew the third word on page fourteen of "The Cat in the Hat" and I knew that it was "fear"'

That's Fanny on the cover triptych twice (though the er sun seems a lot brighter on the last one?)

The line on how the resealed abscess would result in "an anomaly, a haunting, a cold spot" reminds me a lot of Sapphire and Steel.

"Nobody knows what I am" stuck with me a lot.

blows dust off this thing

Hello! Never meant to go so long until updates, but well, life.

Today I'm finishing off volume 1 & will resume with Vol 2's first two issues tomorrow.

Week 11, vol 1, issue 25: 6 and a Half Dozen of the Others

https://i.imgur.com/uKUaisS.jpg

Division X, Division X, Division X! I love the Division X lads A LOT, and none more so than Six.

https://i.imgur.com/LWCGeEm.png
we open with some fairly arresting imagery. The fly on the roulette wheel, which foreshadows the reveal about this woman later (the roulette ball, whuch is moved by someone outside the wheel, is watched over by the disgusting figure of the fly). And yet, we need flies, don't we? They perform an important role in processing waste and all manner of detritus.

Jack is trying to sort out his TV's reception while he talks to George about Father Ted, and how it reminds him of The Third Policeman. George doesn't know either O'Brien or Father Ted, but he does have an anecdote about shooting a one-armed IRA bloke. I really enjoy the rapport between the Division X crew.

Pretty amused by George crediting his youthful looks to Eva Fraser's facial workouts. That concession to modernity aside, our lads have attitudes as embedded in the past as their clothes (and the characters from various 70s police drama they were lifted from).

"I swear by it, I'm shagging birds half my age."
"You always were, you dirty sod."

They chat about Six for a bit, he gets called the third policeman (which I love even more, having read it since the last time I read this series), and just like always happens, Six corrects Flint with one hell of a technicolour entrance.

"The third policeman, eh? Bloody Six..."
"That's 'Mister' to you, Jack."
https://i.imgur.com/NIBFQsG.jpg

George has been throwing darts, but not at a board, and he finishes what he's doing as Six opens some champagne to toast the return of Division X. George "joins the dots", by marking the words formed by his darts. The message is simple: CROWN IT.

Jack curses the evident royal connection that the message seems to imply while George drives, glass of champagne in hand.

They meet their boss, Paddy Crowley ("rhymes with foully") in the joke shop where everything's gone down with Miss Dwyer and the King-of-All-Tears. The normal specislists can't hack it, so Division X have been taken out of storage.

The joke shop looks even more sinister in the light of day; grotesque pig masks, tarantula figures and what looks like a Ku Klux Klan hood in the background.

Crowley has a mysterious jar that has been appropriated from the Prime Minister. The substance in the jar scans and imitates thoughts. Six sees a naked woman, Crowley sees rabbits. Magic or Watership Down?

Cut to a glass-lampshaded room and a group of old women huddled over a ouija board.

The planchette starts moving, to the horror of the scam magician running it, and spells out "you're nicked, my son." As Six says, style never goes out of fashion.

In the bathroom, Flint is engaging in an old-school water-based interrogation. First the shower, then the toilet. The toilet works; Flint starts to get answers. Benny has been asked to help with a shoggoth, and starts gasping out "tekeli-li!" between dunks. Satisfied, Flint leaves after learning the identity of the van driver, but not before telling the old women at the ouija board "Gerald says will you stop bothering him, you grasping old cow. He spent the money on drugs."

Next, the gang confront the van's driver, a National Front psychic who's taken a Masonic oath. A little pressure applied from Flint and Eddie the Wigan Wanker opens up like a face smashed into a wall. Eddie leads them to Quimper, which is where the issue starts. But why, Division X wonder, is there such secrecy around the mirror he was paid to drive down from Scotland?

While waiting for Quimper, they talk about the Invisibles. Again, Six has the best line:
https://i.imgur.com/7zuSgJe.png

George is approached by the woman (Denise) from the start of the issue, who quickly tells him that "they're making the girls do it with aliens...Tracy from in here was half-mad when they found her..." but before she can say much more she's interrupted by Flint and Six returning from questioning Quimper. However, George has a tape Denise has slipped him.
https://i.imgur.com/wjrQJMW.png

Soon, however, they're held at gunpoint for the tape and Flint hands it over, to George's horror. Some quick work by Flint and Six gets them out of there alive, but without the tape.

Back at Division X HQ, Jack reveals he slipped them his Father Ted tape, and he's still got George's.

The tape shows a vampy-looking woman with sharp fingernails having sex with a woman "got up to look like Princess Di," however, the truth is soon revealed, and the woman is revealed as a shoggoth. This loops in to later strands of plot, mainly volume 3.

They return to the club, but Quimper has physically left the premises, leaving only Denise for him to speak through.
https://i.imgur.com/kwUWmTd.png

The envelope reveals the name of Sir Miles Delacourt, our old friend.

"Christ, we've had it. He's untouchable. This goes right to the top," Flint says, with dismay.
"Then, gentlemen, so must we. So must we," Six replies.

On first reading, you're like, how do these guys fit in with everyone else? But on later rereads there's lots revealed earlier than you think or left to simmer for vol 3.

Resuming with vol 2 tomorrow, will reply to previous posts as well!

Thanks for this!

I... don't love the Division X lads? I don't know if it's being male or just a half-generation older, I feel that generation of TV shows as a more solid and malign presence.

That said, while I draw the lines at their social attitudes, I do like a bit of police brutality if it's funny. And I love the idea that a big lad who's into all of the drama of the masons and the NF would also be into other drama in ways unacceptable to that lot.

I love Mark Buckingham, but I swear I saw one of the faces at the séance in Miracleman as well.

the woman is revealed as a shoggoth - I've been reading this as the twist is that she is Diana, and this is the attempt mentioned in #11 to breed a 'better' moon-child.

Two nice catches from Anarchy for the Masses - Quimper is dressed like John-A-Dreams, and the jar with the mysterious green substance appears to be similar to the ones in Harmony House. Also the statue of Churchill that they careen past in their commitment to drunk driving looks like Quimper in profile.

Lads, I'm so fucking bad at this and I can only apologise. The only thing that makes me feel less bad about it is the fact that, with the exception of Andrew F, you are too.

Volume 2!

Week 12, vol 2, issue 1: Black Science, Part One: Bangin' and issue 2: Kickin' (Black Science Part Two)

https://i.imgur.com/s2v9BQC.jpg

This full page reminder of what it's all about is overwhelingly text-heavy to the point I look at it with my 2021, stuck-inside-all-the-time eyes and think "Dr Bronner".
https://i.imgur.com/vWt8GPj.png

I love that the volume opens with Jolly Roger in midair firing both guns. I love Roger a LOT and I will talk more about this as the volume goes on. Volume 2 is the patchiest of the three, but it's got some of my favourite parts, and Roger is a big part of that.

We go to the live context: Roger is fighting for her life in Dulce, New Mexico. If you're a conspiracy type that place already has meaning to you: it's the site of a conspiracy theory about the US government holding aliens and conducting top secret - it's Roswell in the desert basically.

As Boy says later this volume "She's good, that Jolly Roger." And she is. She's carving through the base's soldiers without sweating.

But like all hard women, Roger has a vulnerability and it's her cell, who get shot and captured right in front of her. We see Roger fight through to gaze at something as yet unidentified and murmur "It's real. It's fucking real."

Here's the title, and King Mob's dive seems to sync with Roger's leap at the beginning - not a coincidence. We see he's training, but there's fun in it too; he shoots a single balloon as he splashes into a pool. Robin asks him about "Nice and Smooth" as King Mob climbs out dripping. Robin's wearing a tshirt, knickers and a pair of boots and there's this easy intimacy between them that underlines, along with the guns, exactly how different this volume's going to be. Big budget bangs, guns, sex, glamour!

The rest of the cell has been apart from them for a year, and they are soon to reunite. In the meantime, "I think I've lost one of my fillings," is a fucking hilarious thing to say during a sex scene. Robin's wordless speech bubble suggests she thought it was worth it. Also, KM's head in her lap echoes the mannequin's head deja vu back in vol 1.

Here's our host/benefactor/patron??? Mason Lang. Big Bruce Wayne vibe off him.
https://i.imgur.com/fDcF82J.png

Mason gives us the backstory: he experienced an alien abduction as a child and has since been obsessed with the secrets of things. Luckily unlike the rest of us he's a billionaire, and can pursue his passions.

The liquid software reminds me of the Matrix downloading knowledge to people. Or vice versa, rather.

And then Roger shows up! And King Mob knows her! Now he gives us the backstory: she trained with him in North Africa and she leads a leabian cell called the Poison Pussies. I don't think our cell has a name, does it?

Robin is looking at a polaroid of a big fluffy cloud, but won't explain it. I appreciated this bit of sauciness:

https://i.imgur.com/SKHXjrf.png

Out in the garden, KM and Roger are practicing shooting and catching up. They have this great exchange about Jack.

Roger: This the kid everyone's talking about? Some people are starting to say he's the Maitreya, the future Buddha.
King Mob: I suppose if the Buddha grew up poor in Liverpool and swore a lot, he might be a bit like Jack.

The year is for the cell to rest and recuperate from the trauma at the hands of Sir Miles. Yet as KM admits earlier in the issue, the single day has scarred him.

Everyone else arrives! While Jack is flopping on Mason's chaise and talking about wanting to live on top of the Chyrysler building, Boy instantly picks up on the changed vibe between Robin and King Mob.
https://i.imgur.com/we6HkiO.png
Fanny, as usual, gets the best line.

Roger and Fanny eye each other suspiciously and the temperature drops about fifty degrees. Celsius.

Roger tells them then about the botched base invasion we saw at the beginning of the issue - and that the enemy has a cure for Aids. She then says that the virus itself was engineered. This is where I went off to Wikipedia and found this highly depressing fact about Aids conspiracy theories:

According to Phil Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, conspiracy theories are becoming a barrier to the prevention of AIDS since people start to believe that no matter what measures they take, they can still be prone to contracting this disease. This makes them less careful when engaging in practices that put them at risk because they believe there is no point. "Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV is man-made. More than one-quarter said they believed that AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA... At the same time, 75 percent said they believe medical and public health agencies are working to stop the spread of AIDS in black communities."

Horrible.

Back in Dulce, Colobel Friday enters the picture, talking about fucking with remote viewers who project into the base looking for aliens. And we have Quimper! Who quickly reveals he has a mole in the Invisibles' camp. Well.

Back with the crew, Mason is talking about one of his favourite things - film theories. Speed is about evolution, he says. Everyone listens hsalf-interested but they're really more interested in the food - particularly Jack, who tears through a whole portion of tortillas for sharing. And King Mob is upset by the gussied-up bowl of cornflakes he's served.

While Mason goes on about Invisibles coding in films, Fanny goes to the bathroom. The men's bathroom. Where she upsets a local hick.

The guy follows Fanny back to their table for a fight but underestimates King Mob, who's in no mood for this shit and he hasn't even had his breakfast dammit. I'd be cranky too.

https://i.imgur.com/FlKOKfz.png

After Fanny tells the guy he does have a lovely dick, he's had it, but KM knocks him on his arse without too much fuss and then they get the fuck out of town. Alas this happy ending has a stinger - Quimper is controlling Roger somehow. Great!

Issue 2 later this week, and hopefully 2 more on Sunday. AF, I will reply to you this week!

Lads, I'm so fucking bad at this and I can only apologise. The only thing that makes me feel less bad about it is the fact that, with the exception of Andrew F, you are too.

I'm still reading and enjoying Gyac, but haven't made the time for a reread myself, so don't have much to contribute! But keep it up...

I do remember finding the first arc of Vol 2 completely thrilling.

There's a pandemic on, neither of you should beat yourself up.

As promised (for once), here's issue 2.

https://i.imgur.com/6F3l8Zy.jpg

Kickin' (Black Science Part Two)

Where were we? Oh yes, on the big shiny enamel train to getting fucked, thanks to Quimper.

We open up with Oppenheimer solemnly intoning "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds." Mason's quote is actually slightly wrong, but never mind. Wikipedia says At an assembly at Los Alamos on August 6 (the evening of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima), Oppenheimer took to the stage and clasped his hands together "like a prize-winning boxer" while the crowd cheered. He noted his regret the weapon had not been available in time to use against Nazi Germany. However, he and many of the project staff were very upset about the bombing of Nagasaki, as they did not feel the second bomb was necessary from a military point of view.

Boo fucking hoo, you made your choice, and at least you got to live with it. Mason's arm outstretched towards the sun's rays recalls the flag of Imperial Japan; this and the Oppenheimer quote are our first serious indicators that his morals are a bit...flexible.

The crew is in New Mexico; the men are off their faces on top of a mountain, the women are down below fighting and planning. (Where is Fanny? With neither camp, hmmm.)

Boy and Robin both agree they don't trust Roger.

Back on the mesa, some of the chat when they're tripping is funny the way things are funny when you're off your face:
https://i.imgur.com/87hQxK5.png

The way they descend the hill is how I go down stairs when I've been drinking. Fully validate it.
https://i.imgur.com/IVNyjo3.png

We hear more about the structure of Invisibles cells for the first time since Edith talked to KM about it in Paris way back in volume 1:
https://i.imgur.com/cjWURk0.png

Quimper and Colonel Friday are talking at the base and Quimper demonstrates his "total control" over his puppets, by means of a certain code phrase.

Robin is waiting on the roof of a house for something. She won't tell King Mob (listening to Kula Shaker ffs) and he says he won't pry. He goes and she waits. We see what's drawn her attention: a little girl getting out of a car nearby. We see then that the girl is past Robin, in this universe, and that Robin remembers every word said at this seemingly meaningless encounter. This factors into her writing the story later - she comes across like an author lingering over a favourite line.

Anyway! Turns out Robin drew Air, which makes her the leader and she's got to dress the part. In flashes we see everyone else's draws: Fanny gets Fire and Boy is Spirit. That's important.

Lol @ Fanny:
https://i.imgur.com/u1bIM0m.png

The gang breaking in - King Mob, Robin, Roger, Boy - get in without much trouble, but King Mob is distracted by a cage containing a gleaming, formless substance. At the same time we see the porcelain train gliding by.

The backup team in the hotel room - everyone else - are listening to Mason theorise about Independence Day and then a ghostly form that resembles Quimper appears in the wall and hisses "fuck you all!"

Back in the base, King Mob can't tear his eyes away, Robin and Boy are freaking, and Roger gets hijacked. Shit's fucked basically, Boy otm.
https://i.imgur.com/LR0Keug.png

I've forgotten a lot of Volume 2, I have a vague memory that it's my least favourite, but we'll how that goes.

I definitely wasn't expecting it to get off to so much of a bang - into a Secret Government Base twice in two issues!

her cell, who get shot and captured right in front of her

She mentions later that two of them get out - it might just be Bobby that's gone.

The T-shirt that Robin's wearing is basically painted on - I understand Jill Thompson was pretty pissed off about what happens with Robin's sexiness in this volume.

I think the "small dining room" line is actually nicked from Batman-the-film!

It's an interesting bit of operational security that King Mob just says "A friend" got them over to the US when we know that it's Jim Crow.

King Mob: I suppose if the Buddha grew up poor in Liverpool and swore a lot, he might be a bit like Jack.

Yeah, this reminded me of Fanny's "What are we looking for, darling? A little lump of smouldering charcoal that says 'Fuck' every five minutes?"

It's worth noting that the year-long gap papers over the business of Jack (dressed here more or less as Keith Flint) and the rest of them actually becoming friends and team-mates - he's less of a standoffish figure than at the end of Vol. 1

It'll surprise absolutely no-one that Phil Jimenez was given tapes of Grant and his mates chatting shit while on LSD to write up.

Nothing more late-90s than film-student level enthusiasm for "my theories about films" including something from Tarantino, followed by lampshade-hanging it as like something from Tarantino.

(Except maybe the line "Drag Queens and Dykes hardly ever get along")

I wanted to go along with the re-read but my damn Invisibles trades have vanished. A year later and going through I think pretty much my entire collection and they are just GONE...

Makes you think. ;000

🐦[The Queen will be taking it easy for the rest of the year. https://t.co/lOBm0inhBx🕸
— Glasgow Live (@Glasgow_Live) November 15, 2021🕸]🐦

_Lads, I'm so fucking bad at this and I can only apologise. The only thing that makes me feel less bad about it is the fact that, with the exception of Andrew F, you are too._

I'm still reading and enjoying Gyac, but haven't made the time for a reread myself, so don't have much to contribute! But keep it up...