The Invisibles
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The Invisibles is a comic book written by Grant Morrison and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. The Invisibles is a psychedelic epic that details the adventures of a group of superheroes/terrorists/freedom fighters who battle against physical and psychic oppression using time travel, magic, martial arts, guns and transcendental meditation. Its influence on The Matrix trilogy of films can be inferred from thematic and aesthetic similarities. It is widely believed by Invisibles fans, including Morrison himself, that the Wachowski brothers essentially plagiarized Morrison's work to create the first Matrix film.
Morrison says that he distilled 1990s conspiracy culture and just about every fringe notion he could find into the book, whether or not he believed in it, creating a hypersigil with the intention of jumpstarting the culture in a more positive direction. He predicts that the comic book will, in the long run, be as influential as the Sex Pistols. It is too early to say whether or not this prediction will prove true, but the comic does contain a lot of provocative ideas.
At the start of the story, the leader of the Invisibles is King Mob, a character based on author Grant Morrison. The rest of the team consists of Lord Fanny, a Brazilian shaman and transvestite; Boy, a former NYPD officer; Ragged Robin, a telepathic time-traveller, and Jack Frost, a young street punk from Liverpool who could very well be the next Buddha.
Their enemies in this struggle are the archons of the Outer Church, interdimensional alien gods who have already enslaved most of the human race. Villains such as Ms. Dwyer, Sir Miles and Mr. Quimper do the bidding of these beings.
The Invisibles was originally published as three separate comic book series. All of the series have been collected in a set of trade paperbacks:
- Say You Want a Revolution (vol 1, #1-8)
- Apocalipstick (vol 1, #9-16)
- Entropy in the UK (vol 1, #17-25)
- Bloody Hell in America (vol 2, #1-4)
- Counting to None (vol 2, #5-13)
- Kissing Mr. Quimper (vol 2, #14-22)
- The Invisible Kingdom (vol 3, #12-1 - the series was numbered backwards)
Summaries
Say You Want a Revolution
In this first volume, we are introduced to Jack Frost, the Invisibles' newest member as he is educated in the nature of the universe by Tom O' Bedlam. After joining the Invisibles, he joins the group on a mission to France during the Revolution in order to recruit the Marquis de Sade for their war of psychic liberation.
Apocalipstick
During the Apocalipstick storyline, the Invisibles escape from a demon known as Orlando. Jack Frost, who lost a finger battling the entity, runs away and kills an enemy agent. The next storyline reveals some of Lord Fanny's backstory as she and the other Invisibles search for Jack, and introduces the characters of the Moonchild (who is being groomed to be the shell the King Archon will inhabit when he enslaves the human race) and Jim Crow. The volume ends with King Mob and Lord Fanny in the clutches of the enemy.
Entropy in the UK
King Mob undergoes torture and we go with him on a non-linear tour of his history as Sir Miles attempts to interrogate and break him. We experience both flashbacks to earlier events in his life and glimpses of the hallucinatory adventures of his alter-ego Gideon Stargrave. Boy also finds Jack and convinces him to help her save King Mob. As Jack battles an Archon, he is contacted by a future version of himself who tells him he will bring about the apocalypse and evolve humanity into a more sophisticated lifeform on Dec. 21, 2012 (in volume 5, Counting to None, it is revealed that our universe is actually the result of two meta-universes overlapping and therefore an illusion. Jack's purpose is to bring humanity with him into the "good" universe so as not to be enslaved by the "bad" universe, which belongs to the Archons). The last issue introduces the character of Mr. Quimper and Division X, a trio of detectives led by Mister Six brought together to find the Moonchild, who is as of yet an enigma. As befits the overall title of entropy, an atmosphere of decay, dissolution and pain predominate here, making this the most grim and harrowing installment of the series. After this segment Morrison decided to lighten up the mood quite a lot.
Bloody Hell in America
A year has passed since King Mob's torture at the hands of Sir Miles and the Archons, and he has transplanted his Invisibles cell to America, specifically at the home of billionaire playboy and fellow Invisible, Mason Lang. King Mob and Ragged Robin have begun to fall in love, while Jack Frost and the others tour NYC. The cell's vacation ends when one of King Mob's friends from the Academy, the lesbian gunfighter Jolly Roger, comes to Lang's estate, seeking help in freeing her cell and stealing an AIDS vaccine from a government facility in the Southwest. There they encounter the dastardly Mr. Quimper and his accomplice, Colonel Friday. They steal the vaccine, but are unable to free Roger's teammates, who have become the subjects of gross medical experiments. They also learn the Outer Church has acquired a sample of the magic mirror substance, a powerful source of interdimensional magic.
Counting to None
This volume of the Invisibles collects three storyarcs. In the first, King Mob and Ragged Robin must fight a sadistic pair of Japanese gangsters intent on capturing Mason's associate, the brilliant Takashi (who is trying to invent a time machine), while Jack Frost and Lord Fanny are dispatched to a local club to retrieve the mysterious Hand of Glory from the Harlequinade. Robin takes a bullet, and King Mob takes her to the Invisibles' universe to be healed. it is revealed that two universes have overlapped (one belonging to the Invisibles, the other to the Archons), creating what we perceive as reality. It is the Invisibles' task, and Jack Frost's destiny, to free humanity before the Archons can enslave them. We also learn that Ragged Robin was sent back in time by the Invisibles to inform Takashi how to invent the time machine. the last thing she saw before she was sent back was the Archons breaking free into Takashi's lab, presumably to stop her from fulfilling her mission. In the second arc, King Mob sends his consciousness back in time to the 1920's to find out how to activate the Hand of Glory. There he meets Edith Manning and a young Tom O'Bedlam, as well as the original King Mob. Meanwhile, Jack Frost admits his love for Boy. Back in the 20's, King Mob learns that the Hand of Glory can open a portal into the Archon's universe, and it may do more harm than good. he returns to the present with this news, only to find Boy has stolen the Hand and is heading to Seattle to find her brother, who was rumored to have been captured by the government and put in a prison camp. In fact, she had actually been brainwashed by the Outer Church into infiltrating the Invisibles so she could bring the Hand to them. She is intercepted by a group of Invisibles, who try to debug her. They capture King Mob and the rest of the Invisibles and order her to kill him. She resists and turns on them, thus succesfully being debugged. She leaves with the Invisibles, who travel to New Orleans to give her some time to relax after her ordeal.
Kissing Mr. Quimper
This volume opens with Boy expressing her love for Jack Frost, while Ragged Robin informs King Mob that Mr. Quimper has been trying to possess her ever since they stole the AIDs vaccine from him. They decide to trick him into thinking he has fully possessed her, and Robin lets Quimper fulfill his perverse fantasies by "making" her allow King Mob to dominate her sexually. After they finish, she and King Mob go to Philadelphia, where their former leader, John-A-Dreams, disappeared. There they are manipulated by new weapon developed by Mr. Quimper and Colonel Friday, who are showing it off to the enigmatic Blind Chessman, actually an ally of the Invisibles (though that has never been formally announced). The weapon, codenamed Scorpio, makes them paranoid. They believe John-A-Dreams actually defected to the Outer Church and is stalking them in the catacombs of an ancient church. Robin figures out Quimper's plot, and they meet up with the other Invisibles in New York with Mason Lang. They have decided to retrieve the magic mirror substance from the facility in New Mexico, along with Jolly Roger and Jim Crow. Boy does not wish to accompany them, and decides to leave after she completes Jack Frost's martial arts training. The former Brit punk has now completely dedicated himself to the Invisibles and their cause. Sans Boy, they travel to New Mexico where they infiltrate Quimper's government complex. Quimper believes he is drawing them into a trap, and allows them to enter with ease. He captures King Mob and Jolly Roger, while Jack Frost is taken to the Blind Chessman, who is still masquerading as an ally of the Archons. Ragged Robin comes to Quimper, and reveals herself to actually be Lord Fanny in disguise. It is revealed that Quimper was once an ally of the Invisibles until he was raped by a group of humans. Fanny assimilates him into the magic mirror substance, thus purging his soul of corruption. As the other Invisibles escape, the Blind Chessman and Jack Frost walk into the substance and are transported into the Archons' universe. The story cuts to Mason's labs, where Robin is about to be sent back to the future in Takashi's completed time machine. King Mob sees her off, and reunites with his cell at Mason's estate. Boy leaves the team, and King Mob blows up Mason's mansion to "free" him from his material bonds.
The Invisible Kingdom
Another year has passed, and Jack Frost is being trained at the Academy in Africa. King Mob has been traveling in India where he has been questioning his violent ways, while Division X has been tracking Sir Miles, whom they have linked to the Moonchild. King Mob returns to England, where he, Mr. Six, and Six's assosciate Helga devise a scheme to kidnap Sir Miles. They capture him, and Helgs begins to interrogate him. Jack Frost and Jolly Roger are dispatched to a government facility where they sabotage the Outer Church's cyphermen so they can't be used to guard Westminister Abbey where Sir Miles plans to summon the King Archon into the body of the grotesque Moonchild. King Mob goes back to India, where he sees Edith Manning, who has returned from a visit with the Marquis de Sade. She says goodbye to King Mob, and kills herself in an act of defiance. He then regroups with Jack, Jolly Roger, and Fanny in England. Meanwhile, Helga releases Sir Miles, and he travels back to Westminister Abbey to summon the King Archon. As Sir Miles is about to summon the King Archon, the Invisibles attack and all hell breaks loose. Jack Frost single-handedly defeats the King Archon and then travels back into the magic mirror where he meets the Blind Chessman, who tells him all humans are larvae being prepared to hatch into flies (meaing all humans are going to evolve into a higher being and thus be able to break away with the Invisibles' universe when it separates with the Archons' universe). Back at the Abbey, John-A-Dreams, who apparently defected to the Outer Church like King Mob had suspected, reveals that he had stepped outside of time and reentered the "game" (presumably the Invisibles' battle against the Archons) as himself, Mr. Quimper, and a member of Division X, Jack Flint, to manipulate the outcome of their struggle. The Invisibles then leave Westminister Abbey after Sir Miles breaks down and kills himself, and King Mob vows never to use violence again. He quits his Invisibles cell, leaving Jack and Lord Fanny to start anew.
Fast forward thirteen years. It is 2012 and Jack Frost and a member of his Invisibles cell, a girl named Reynard, infiltrate an organization called Technoccult that has created an Invisibles game. King Mob is actually its leader, making true on his promise of nonviolence by promoting peaceful forms of anarchy through his company. He reveals to Reynard that he has built a gun to fire a single shot that he has been dreaming about since 1999. We are then taken to Dec. 21, 2012, the day destined to be the end of the world. King Mob, with his gun, enters the lab where Takashi had sent Ragged Robin back in time. The Archons had been defeated, but Takashi and the others, except for an obese Lord Fanny, had all been killed. The King Archon then attacks him, but King Mob shoots him and he explodes. Ragged Robin then appears, bringing with her the supercontext that will assimilate the false universe with her. She hugs King Mob, finally reuniting with her lover. Meanwhile, Jack Frost fulfills his destiny, declaring "'OUR SENTENCE IS UP.'" before evolving with the rest of humanity.
External links
- Unproduced scripts for BBC television series (http://www.grant-morrison.com/invis_tv.htm)