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Summary
Tom and Dane muck about in the countryside, and then blow up a car. It
is time to prepare for the leap from Canary Wharf. Tom gives Dane some
of the blue mold to smoke and they take a lift to the top of the tower.
Dane doesn't want to jump, but he does, and they both fall. Tom disappears,
but Dane falls softly onto some strange grass under an odd light that
changes colour. After biking around for a while he finds himself back
in the real world with a note in his pocket. He goes to the address on
the note and meets King Mob, Ragged Robin, Boy and Lord Fanny. They were
pretending to be the hunters before. Jack agrees to join them when he
hears the enemy is approaching. When the enemy arrive they find a grenade
with no pin in it waiting for them. Smile.
Characters
o Jack Frost
o Tom O'Bedlam
o King Mob
o Ragged Robin
o Boy
o Lord Fanny
o Orlando
Analysis
o Barbelith
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Annotations
o [page 1]
[panel 2] The frisbee makes a red circle; paranoia or Barbelith again?
[JBU]
o [page 3]
[panel 2] "...I stayed for you because I was asked. An old friend asked
me." That old friend would be Edith. [JB] [panel 4] "What a long, strange
dream its been." Has a Grateful Dead quote somehow slipped into Tom's
endless King Lear allusions? [RM]
o
[page 4]
[panels 2-3] "Our languages hypnotize us and traps us in little labeled
boxes." In 1.19, we'll learn there's a demon who confines our thoughts
through the alphabet. [PV] This is also an explicit reference to theories
of language propagated by author Robert Anton Wilson in some of his
recent books, most notably "Quantum Psychology." [JB]
o
[page 7]
The Canary Wharf building, which appears in 1.02, 1.03 and 2.10. [JB]
o
[page 8]
[panel 5] "Auric interference ??? [PV]
o
[page 9-13]
Jack's in the "other universe" where the Invisible College is. See 2.06
for more information on it and the nature of the universe. [CG] [pages
9-10] This jump that Dane and Tom take is a direct parallel to the jump
Gloucester took in "King Lear." Gloucester has been blinded (in a terribly
manner) and now wants to commit suicide. He meets his son, Edgar, who
is disguised as Tom O' Bedlam and asks to be lead over the cliffs of
dover. Tom does not reveal himself to his father, as he is being hunted
by his evil brother, the bastard Edmund. He takes Gloucester to the
beach at the bottom of the cliff, and tells him he is standing on the
brink. Gloucester jumps and thinks he has died, although he only falls
a few inches. Edgar, still in disguise, revives him, and says that it
has been a miracle he survived. Gloucester, through this miracle, starts
to see the point of life again and is put back on the path of redemption.
The building jump is mechanically similar to the jump taken by Edgar
(Tom O' Bedlam) and Gloucester. This would make Dane like Gloucester.
Also, Gloucester gained understanding, enlightenment, and insight (true
sight), which made up for his lack of real sight. Dane's jump similarly
brings him "true sight" or enlightenment. Sight is such a powerful symbol
in the first few episodes of The Invisibles, both with Gelt etc. having
no eyes, and the sequence where Dane gets the eyes of birds. [ZA] [page
13 panel 3] The Cosmic Traffic Light turns green, but Dane pulls back
from it. Was he just about to enter the Invisible College as King Mob
and Robin do in 2.06? [RM]
o
[page 16]
[panel 5] This is the same room from 1.01 where King Mob asked Ragged
Robin to read the tarots. [PV]
o
[page 17]
[panel 1] "Big brother is watching you." From "1984" by George Orwell.
[PV] [panel 4] "Smile": Smile was a Neoist multiple identity, like 'Luther
Blissett.' The tract 'Viva Neoism' says, "Neoists call their pop groups
Smile, their performance groups Smile--even their magazines are called
Smile." It seems that the Invisibles go so far as to give the name to
their hand grenades [RJ] [panel 5] "School's out" is the title of a
famous song by Alice Cooper. [PV]
o
[page 19]
[panel 5] "It's a man's life in the Invisible Army" is a reference to
the (former?) recruiting slogan of the British Army. [CG]
o
[page 20]
Sex orgies and cabinet ritual power collections of the CIA and upper
crust elite. In the conspiracy literature there are many references
to the "sex circuses of the CIA," especially in relation to the Monarch
mind-control program. These involve black magick rituals designed to
generate psychic energy and fuel to power covert and magickal operations.
(The same kind of thing that trapped Quimper into physical form in 2.20
and provided "quite a feast for the governors" upon the death of Princess
Di.) [JH] [panels 2 and 3] The blood on the table is from Orlando's
acquisition of a new face. How he does it is explained in 1.05. [RL]
** panel 3: "Rex Mundi" (Latin, "King of the World") was the Cathar
name for the Demiurge, the half-wit creator of the physical world and
its archons (Greek, "princes"), known to the early Gnostics as Ialdabaoth.
The Cathars were a Gnostic sect in southern France that was violently
wiped out by the Catholic Church, which in typical fashion, then proceeded
to justify such action on the necessary on the grounds that the Cathars
(often ascetics) were sexually deviant heretics. The Cathars are also
connected to Arcadia, the Holy Grail, and the motherload of conspiracy
theories through Rennes le Chateau and Nicolas Poussin's painting, both
of which are near the very heart of Catharism in southern France. [DMD]
[panel 5] Number 10 at the door is a clue that this is Downing Street,
traditional home of Britain's Prime Minister. [PV] "Cabinet ritual ...
up to our knees in blood and spunk" - American readers might want to
know that "spunk" generally means semen. [EB]
o [page 21] [panel 4] Myrmidons are the opponents' agents (1.05,
page 17). [RL] The Myrmidons were the warriors of Achilles. Achilles
was pissed off because his rival Agamemnon had claimed as his prize
a beautiful slave who "rightfully" belonged to Achilles. The Greeks
wrote a book about it. The Invisibles have just claimed their prize.
[DMD] [panel 5] Notice Boy writing on the chalkboard. [CG]
o
[page 22]
"The old Dane died in the fall... you can sit by his grave for the rest
of your life." This is exactly what Dane is doing in 1.23. [CGU]
o
[page 23]
"Forth...mad": This is Tom O'Bedlam's last speech in King Lear as well
as here. [CG]
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