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

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...