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REVIEW: INVISIBLES: BLOODY HELL IN AMERICA
Fabulous in a whole new country…

Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Phil Jimenez
Inker: John Stokes
Published by DC/Vertigo 1998
Trade Paperback, Collecting Invisibles V2 #1-4
$12.95

Reviewed by Scott J Grunewald

The invisible counter culture revolution raging against the coming of the individuality crushing, worldwide monoculture continues!

Boiled down to it's purest form, THE INVISIBLES is the story of a group of cultural subversives working in secret to stop an extra-dimensional invasion force from bringing about the apocalypse. Of course trying to describe THE INVISIBLES in one sentence is about as effective as referring to the dress Jennifer Lopez wore to last years Grammy's as "A tad revealing".

The perfect fusion between story telling, characters, and pure unfiltered and insane ideas; Morrison uses the plot of THE INVISIBLES as simple skeletal framework for a scathing look at the hyper-commercial future that we seem to be headed for. A future that some people don't want. A future that the invisible army is going to try and prevent. Armed with style, sex appeal, magic and high caliber firearms, The Invisibles are the people who look at the world side ways. Who live in a reality one step to the left of the rest of us. They immerse themselves in the pure cultural stream and go fishing for lies. Conspiracy theories, government cover ups, and crack pot stories of all shapes and sizes are all real, and are all signs of the coming apocalypse.

Jolly Roger has a problem. Her lesbian paramilitary Invisible cell was captured while breaking into a secret military base in Dulce New Mexico trying to uncover a rumored AIDS vaccine hidden within. Finding herself alone, she has no choice but to seek out her old friend King Mob and his cell of Invisibles.

Staying in a luxurious Invisibles safe house recuperating after the his last near fatal mission (Such a long story I couldn't possibly go into it here) King Mob, just starting a torrid relationship with the mysterious time displaced psychic Ragged Robin, calls together the rest of his team. Boy, an ex-cop, Jack Frost, the future Buddha, and Lord Fanny, a shamonic transvestite. So begins the storyline collected in THE INVISIBLES: BLOODY HELL IN AMERICA.

Morrison tells his story as if his life depended on it. From beginning to end, this four issue storyline is a roller coaster of triple crosses, exploding heads, terrible secrets, masturbation induced spells and complex mind games all told at a hurried, breakneck pace that stops just short of being disorientating. Morrisons strength as a writer isn't his wild plots, clever dialogue, perverse subtext or insane logic, it's his ability to tie them all together in a maddening story so dense that each reading reveals new truths and exposes old lies.

Helped along by Phil Jimenez artwork just as dense as Morrison's script, the story takes on a life of it's own. Each panel tells a new story, each line makes it real and each word echoes through you mind. THE INVISIBLES is truly a modern masterpiece, and the Black Science story told within the BLOODY HELL IN AMERICA collection is the penultimate expression of Morrisons vision.

After immersing yourself in the series you can't help but be swept up by the hyper-cool epic that's one part sexy action film, one part secret map to the mind of Grant Morrison, and one part paranoid, drug induced, masturbatory fantasy. Like a Pop Culture Meme, Morrison has created a series so damn cool that you can't get it out of your mind.

Strongly Recommended


Scott J Grunewald is publisher of PopImage.


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