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Summary  The team are planning their mission when Robin comes into the room. She is wearing a Quimper mask. Boy and Jack are practising martial arts - Boy is worried about losing her new man. Colonel Friday is showing the Blind Chessman around the Dulce installation, when the attack happens. Roger, Robin and King Mob blow up the train and then tride into the base. Jim Crow sneaks in another entrance. Jack remains outside waiting, until he is captured. The military arrive to remove the time machine from Mason and Takashi. King Mob and Roger emerge into a chamber. Quimper was expecting them.... Characters o King Mob o Jack Frost o Lord Fanny o Mason Lang o Jim Crow o Jolly Roger o Ragged Robin o Boy o The Blind Chessman o Quimper o Colonel Friday Analysis Our heroes confront their nemesis |
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Annotations "Einstein's Monsters" is a short story collection by Martin Amis; his preface says the title "refers to nuclear weapons, but also to ourselves ... not fully human, not for now." [EB] o [page 14] [panel 1] "How could you have imagined a universe smaller than an atom?" This description of Colonel Friday's first Outer Church experience is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce," an allegory which proposes that Hell is much smaller than our present universe, which in turn is tiny compared to Heaven; souls in lower states can be crammed into a smaller space because they have less substance. [EB] It's interesting to note that there is a Big Bang theory which proposes that the Big Bang was actually a perfect ten-dimensional Universe fracturing into two seperate universes: the four-dimensional universe we inhabit, and a second six-dimensional universe. While the four-dimensional universe expanded explosively, the second universe did the opposite: it contracted into a microscopic "ball" that is all but unobservable. Also interesting is that when the "Big Crunch" (the violent contraction of our universe, the opposite of the Big Bang) comes, this infinitesimal universe may open up, providing a means of escape from the universe's ultimate demise by allowing travel to other "universes." This sounds similar, though not identical, to the theory King Mob put forth to Ragged Robin (the Christian Fish). And when the Outer Church is depicted, there is sometimes a large "ball" present. These theories are described in much more detail in the book "Hyperspace" by Michio Kaku (Anchor Books, 1994) [PJW] Compare this panel with page 4, Panel 5. There's a certain visual similarity between this stranger and Mason Lang (based on the little we know about him so I'm reaching here!). They've both done things to make us doubt which side they are allied to...the Stranger appears very ambivalent to the Outer Church's cause...and 2 issues ago Mason seemed to be acting as if he didn't believe in the Invisibles' cause. [Loz] panel 2: Friday was apparently on the USS Eldridge when it allegedly travelled through time or whatever -- see title notes for 2.15, "The Philadelphia Experiment." [EB] Allegedly, in the fall of 1943 a U.S. Navy destroyer was made invisible and teleported from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Norfolk, Virginia, in an incident known as the Philadelphia Experiment. More information on the subject can be found at http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm or at http://www.wincom.net/softarts/philexp.html [Whisper] o [page 19] [panel 4] Are those just shooting stars in the night sky, or are they entering the compound? [Loz] |
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