~post by Joe T.
The first thing we have to do as we begin this reread of The Invisibles is to establish one essential ground rule: how we refer to the issues, volumes, and collections that make up the series. Originally composed of three stand-alone volumes (i.e. there are three issue number ones) with issues running from 1-25, 1-22, and 1-12 respectively, they have since been repackaged into 7 graphic novel/trade paperback collections with no indication of actual breaks in volumes.
So how do we distinguish between them? Luckily, none of the volumes overlap in the collections, so I will refer to the book first, the volume second, and the issue lastly. Thus, it is with great fanfare that I present:
The Invisibles, Book One: “Say You Want A Revolution,” Volume One, Issue One: “Dead Beatles.”
Recap:
“Dead Beatles” is very much an introductory issue. Like a pilot episode for a television series, it exists to establish the world, characters, and themes that the story will be dealing with throughout the run. On this level it succeeds. But it also fails for the same reasons that pilot episodes fail, the creators just don’t quite have a feel for the characters and ideas yet, and that vagueness is apparent in “Dead Beatles.”
This story is about two men. First, a man named Gideon, faintly Asian in appearance with multiple facial piercings, who seems to be on a quest for a new member for his group; a replacement for someone named John-A-Dreams, whom something has happened to, but it isn’t made clear. The other focus in the story is Dane McGowan, a teenager from Liverpool, with all the rebellion and more that being a teen entails. In fact, he’s quite the arse. He steals cars, throws a molotov cocktail into the school library, and assaults a teacher who attempts to prevent him from burning the whole school down.
As the story progresses, we follow Gideon as he seeks advice from a man in Egypt, an elderly woman in Paris, and the god Ganesh (in the form of John Lennon). Dane’s exploits have landed him in a juvenile facility called Harmony House. Eventually, it’s revealed (as if you didn’t already realize it) that Gideon is looking for Dane.
Harmony House is not the kind of place you want to be sent.Turns out that Harmony House is sucking the personality out of the youthful offenders sent to it. Using arcane, scientific means, the Headmaster replacing all emotions of the boys with harmony, and leaving them as voids– fit for molding and manipulating .
Just as things are looking bad for Dane, when his teenage rebellion is about to be reduced to adult conformity, Gideon arrives at Harmony House with all guns blazing. After a bit of ultraviolence, Dane is freed and many people are killed, including the Headmaster who has been turned into a beetle before being stepped on.
The issue ends with Dane in London and Gabriel disappearing, leaving the young man alone and homeless with the forces of law and order after him.
Thoughts and Observations:
Time Is A Flat Circle: Time is the centerpiece of Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles. It is interwoven into the story in ways that it is not quite clear at first. Especially in this issue. We get some inklings about the meaning of time and it’s role in human evolution, but it’s only laid down waiting for future development.
On the first page, we get the Egyptian Elfayed speaking the first words in the series:
“And so we return and begin again. Kephra, the sacred beetle, goes down into darkness and rises again, bearing the sun in his mandibles. Some say that when we leave the planet, we will leave as insects. When our bodies are no longer needed, we will end out our spirits as a swarm of golden beetles, carrying the sun pf pure understanding out of the abyss to our new home among the stars.”
So, from the very beginning we get the idea of the circular nature of time as well as the overriding theme of human evolution at work. It may take 60 issues for everything said here to be fully explained but once you “return and begin again,” it’s shocking how everything Grant Morrison wants us to know and learn can be reduced to two panels on the first page.
Later, Gideon meets with an elderly woman named Edith in Paris, France. “You never change, do you Gideon? You’re just the same today as you were in 1924,” she says as she mourns her youth; angry at the fact that she’s dying. How can Gideon (who looks to be a man in his 20s, early 30s at the most) have been alive in 1924 and yet not aged a day since? Perhaps time is not as linear as we are used to experiencing it.
Dane McGowan, as he runs rampant throughout Liverpool, is constantly confronted by the graffiti KING MOB. He says, “It’s sort of like I’ve seen it before, but I haven’t.” Later, as he speeds away from Harmony House in Gideon’s car, they pass the sign welcoming one to the house; but it has KING MOB spray painted over it, revealing Gideon to be King Mob. Time is once again circular.
Before stealing a car and attempting to burn down the school, which is the act that causes hims to be sent to Harmony House, Dane is exiled from his flat by his harpy of a mother. As he wanders along the Mersey, two men appear. They talk about being in a band, about Hamburg, and about how they want to die. The two men are Stu Sutcliffe and John Lennon, just at that pivotal moment before Stu left The Beatles. Time has overlapped and once again proves to be nonlinear.
Dead Beatles: The title is referenced many times throughout the issue, both thematically and jokingly, starting on the first page. After Elfayed recounts the parable of the sacred beetle, he presents Gideon (hereafter referred to as King Mob) with a sign from the desert, a mummified scarab beetle. Of course, John Lennon, who is summoned by King Mob and seen by Dane, was, along with Stu Suttcliffe, the only dead Beatles at the time the book was written. And at the end of the story, when the Headmaster’s spirit was transferred into the body of a beetle after King Mob has killed his human form, the beetle was killed by Dane when he inadvertently steps on it. These are all, “Dead Beatles.”
Ultra-violence and Unlikeable Characters: While the promotional material, the trade cover art, and the very plurality of the title The Invisibles imply that this is a team book, the first issue really only introduces us to two: Dane McGowan and King Mob. One is a juvenile delinquent who steals cars, commits arson, and assaults a teacher. The teacher, Malkie, is probably the only sympathetic character in the issue; and the way Dane’s assault on him is framed, it makes him look positively diabolical. King Mob on the other hand breaks into Harmony House with guns in both hands. Firing away, he kills multiple soldiers, attendants, and faculty and never once exhibits mercy, always going for the kill shot with a quip.
Whilst we can blame Dane’s attitude on his youth and implied horrible homelife, King Mob is only a hero because he’s cool. For all the talk of war between individuality and conformity, of chaos versus order, good against evil, it is only King Mob who resorts to physical violence and murder. The people behind Harmony House may steal your personality and identity(soul); but, so far The Invisibles steal your life.
Duality: Not so much in this issue, but more in later ones to come, the idea of duality comes into play. Throughout the series, we’ll see how the techniques of The Invisibles are not that much different from those of their opponents. This is subtly hinted at with the use of one word: mill. Before King Mob takes on the Harmony House, he consults with one Ragged Robin, a member of The Invisibles who appears dressed as Raggedy Ann. King Mob has her read the Tarot for him in regards to his pursuit of Dane. He tells her that they are going to have to put him, “through the mill.” Apparently this does not refer to what McGowan is going through at Harmony House, a factory mill that creates sexless, lifeless drones, but what they themselves will put him through once they get him free.
And, one last thing before I leave. Who’s running the show behind Harmony House? I love that Grant doesn’t really reveal too much, but what he does reveal is a doozy. Who are The Invisibles really fighting against?
All this and more might just be revealed in our next issue as The Invisibles put Dane McGowan through the ringer in “Down And Out In Heaven And Hell Part 1.” So join us in two weeks. Until then leave some comments ‘cause I haven’t talked about all the things that make this issue interesting. Let’s get a conversation going!
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All books in The Invisibles series are available on our shelves or online via bookpeople.com.
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