Culture lesson on this one folks. It's 1987. The US comic reader is used to some of the better takes on superheroes coming through thanks to Moore and others, but in the UK the superhero was still this American 'thing'. Yes you can have your spandex and clawed maniacs old boy but we've got stiff upper lips, crumpet and ultra-violent comics like 2000AD that were better than most of your tat.

And then there was Morrison. He had been handed the job of coming up with a bona-fide super-hero for the then-28pence 2000AD. Up until that point Morrison had written a few FUTURE SHOCKS, ZOIDS, DOCTOR WHO and the like for UK comics but this would be his big stab at a continuing series of his own and he didn't disappoint.

Dipping into comic history and taking some tasty moments that appealed to him and adding in the 1980s obsession with style over content, the Super-hero pop star Zenith was born.

Many have felt that Zenith or Morrison's later take on Animal Man was the first super-hero to wear a jacket. They weren't as that honour belonged to Pete Milligan's Parallax, but Zenith and Parallax did have something in common and that was that their look was co-created by Brendan McCarthy but by the time the series came about Morrison's artistic accomplice on ZOIDS and another, unpublished, project Steve Yeowell came on board. From the opening prologue Morrison lets us know that this is world used to having superheroes, with two of them battling it out as the atom bomb is dropped on Berlin in 1945. By the end of the prologue though we know there is evil afoot as a twin of the bad guy is found and about to be resurrected for use as a shell for Lovecraftian like old gods.

Reading the next installment was where Morrison introduces us to the hero though and he's a teenage, drunken, idiot of a popstar who has no interest in being a super-hero like Superman. His main concerns are getting to number one in the charts and getting the phone number of French film star Beatrice Dalle. And even though, compared to what was to come, Morrison was being fairly conventional, he still built a story up well in five pages, getting in more detail than many America writers manage in 22 and it's something he would continue to do throughout the series, even as he went on to bigger and better projects across the pond.

As the first series progresses, we learn that the Dark Gods ­ who were linked to the Nazis - are planning to take over the Earth and need to inhabit superhuman bodies, which is where Zenith comes in. All of the other UK superheroes - the USA has none in this reality - have either died or mysteriously lost their powers years ago. As the story goes on, it is revealed that the others did not lose their powers and that Zenith's parents mysteriously died.

Morrison also uses the strip as a chance for a look at UK politics with the Lennon-like superpowered hippie from the 60s having turned into a senior Conservative Party politician. Zenith eventually gives in to helping the older heroes find other older heroes and just as you think there is some good in the boy, he reveals his reason why: so they can fight. As he says, he's not a boxer and he's got upcoming television appearances so why should he get his head kicked in. While this sort of approach was fresh for a hero - and would be harder for the US to accept at the time - in the UK it seemed entirely plausible as everyone was out for themselves and doing the right thing was only done if it brought you a nice sum of money.

However Zenith is still dragged into the fight and it ends up a battle involving him, Ruby Fox and the politician Edward St John, against the evil Masterman. The battle rages across London and it looks as if things are not going the heroes way but intervention by St John throws the battle and Zenith punches a hole in Masterman's body, leaving them to think that the fight is over. Not so. They only killed the host body, leaving them with the Dark God entity to defeat, which appears to become a problem as they are trapped in the God's stomach in another dimension. There was to be no fighting out of this one, again showcasing the change in comics across the Atlantic as most US heroes would have punched their way out and then went and fixed the damage back home.

Not here. Morrison had already shown the reader the end in mid-series and just never told them about it - another trick he would use in ANIMAL MAN - and brains rather than brawn brings Book One of the series to a close. Book Two was expected to bring more of the same, with the fans expecting the Dark Gods coming back for more and the super heroes saving the day. Book One had been 15 episodes - about 82 pages of story and Book Two was to be 20 episodes long, so this was to be a big dramatic battle and so on, thought the fans. What they got was more than 100 pages of chat with a few minor battles.

It was not Zenith and co down the pub talking as if written by Garth Ennis. It was a look at the back story to Zenith, meeting the man who created his parents and how the former superheroes came about, while also dealing with a plotline about a Richard Branson-type holding London hostage with a kidnapped nuclear sub.

In the hands of lesser talents, this could have bombed immensely but Morrison slows the pace down while still giving the reader enough to keep them coming back. He also displays hints of humour when he lifts the Doctor Who gag of US Intelligence being a contradiction and also touches of horror as one character, looking at Zenith, says "He has his mother's eyes..." only for another to say "I thought we had them?" as the panel shows a jar with eyes in them.

As part two progresses, we see Zenith procreate with two clones and he later learns that one of these is a clone of his mother and while it seems like nothing, this is layering for Book Four. The book also continues Morrison's look at politics with the Conservatives using every trick they can to deal with dissidents in the party but everything is left as hints and subtlety, showing the shadowy nature of UK politics at time. By the end of the book, Morrison has started to drop more hints in about what's coming up with mentions of alternate Earths.

The book ends on an ominous note when one of the members is killed as they attempt to escape an alternate Earth occupied by the Dark Gods. He fails and as he dies he is comforted by one of the heroes reading out a passage from the chaos magician??? Another hero then puts on a white badge - a motif that would be seen again in The Invisibles.

Book Three wastes no time in getting down to the basics. Never mind your Crisis-type events, this was the real deal - every alternate universe was at threat here, the bad guys were winning and all that was there to stop them was a ragtag group of heroes - some of whom would be familiar to longtime readers of British comics - lead by a blind Superman-power level character. The situation painted is grim and the black and white artwork certainly helps here as million of normal humans are left on doomed alternate Earths. However it appears our heroes can save the universe by destroying three alternate Earths and all that is on them, which they set off to do, but at the last moment a traitor is revealed in the ranks and it is revealed that what the heroes have done is actually aid the Dark Gods in breaking through to this dimension. Inevitably - though it involves the death of many of the characters Morrison has introduced us to and had us build an affinity with - the Dark Gods are stopped, but not for long...

Book Four is where Morrison puts all his cards down as the Dark Gods break through, Zenith is killed and St John appears to be on the side of the demons after all. The action only stops in Book Four for either a plot twist or a shock and there is plenty of both, ending the series on an incredible high note.

If Zenith had been released in the States in '87 there would have been outcries as it was totally different from anything you had seen with selfish heroes, massacres of millions, almost tasteful outfits, transsexual superheroes and hyper-kinetic art. However re-reading it from this side of the pond 13 years on, you realize that what Morrison has done - and continued to do - is look at what made comics and concepts great - and then added in issues that he has wanted to along with some satire and social commentary.

Zenith is a series that has dated slightly because it was a series made for that moment, but it has not dated as badly as, say Watchmen, and is still an excellent read.

The first three books were collected over five large trade paperbacks by Titan but these are long out of print, though it has been suggested that the new owners of 2000AD, Rebellion, may be starting an aggressive trade collection program over the next 12 months. In which case, Morrison fans should hope that Zenith is in there somewhere.

Craig McGill is a writer for SFX and the author of the books FOOTBALL INC. and DO NO HARM.

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