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Annotations
o [page 1] [panel 1] The Tower in the Tarot deck is an indication of violent change to come. The double entendre with the Washington Monument is a nice touch. [TF]
o [page 2] [panel 2] This may well be a nod to Scott McCloud's recent graphic novel "The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln". In the climactic scene, which takes place at the Lincoln Memorial, the protagonist talks about the danger of worshipping symbols while forgetting about the things that they're supposed to stand for. [CM] [panels 3 & 4] These same black helicopters and red sun were seen way back in series 1, issue #14 (pg. 2) when Colonel Friday and Sir Miles hold their dream conference outside the material plane." Obviously the "death of reality," as Grant put it, has already begun. [TW]
o [page 3] [panel 1] It's not really important, but the reflection in KM's camera isn't wearing glasses, while the real KM is. [TW] [panel 4] That's technically, true, about the state of emergency, near as I can tell; however it doesn't mean as much in practice as one might think. The Bruce Willis reference is probably to the action movie Armageddon. [TF] Re: "National State of Emergency since March 9th, 1933" Mason is referring to the "War and Emergency Powers Act" of 1933, signed by Roosevelt, which gives the President the authority to: "rule the country without reference to normal constitutional processes. Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens." For more information, see: http://www.thewinds.org/archive/government/eobf6-97.html. [TW] [panel 5] Mason's theory is remarkably similar to some postmodern and poststructuralist philosophy. Jean Baudrillard's theories are particularly relevant - in one of the chapters in The Transparency of Evil he talks about the common features of viruses, transexuality and terrorism. Ring any bells? [TEC]
o [page 5] [panel 1] Those are the clothes that they are in in [2.21 page 22 panel 5]. Presumably, what they tell KM is realted to Trump 16. Assuming that Trump means the Major Arcana of the traditional Tarot deck, that's the Tower. [TF] [panel 3] Supermodels bigger than Godzilla. See pg. 7 & 8 of the "We're All Policemen" short. [TW] [panel 6] In Barker's Weaveworld (1985), certain of the female characters have access to a magickal, female-only source of power known as the Menstruum. Morrison's depictions of the 'magic mirror' are suspiciously similar to Barker's descriptions of the Menstruum: mercurial liquid pours from the pores of the user, and is manipulated to achieve the desired effect. [Zenkidu]
o [page 7] [panel 3] More of the "this all a big hoax" alternative. Note the small demon skull in the center of the bridge behind Mason. [TW]
o [page 10] [panel 3] The baby (as seen by KM during one of his "shortcuts" in [issue 5] [page 12]) is no longer a cyclops. This is either symbolic of the fact that every traveller's perception of the hologram membrane is slightly different, (which sort of makes sense, considering the alternative track that the Invisibles are aiming for, which would give everybody the world they want) or that the inker really didn't pay close enough attention while skimming over issue #5 [TW] [panel 5] Our Nameless friend seems to be referring to the Arian Heresy, which was addressed by the Council of Nicaea. The details seem rather tricky, but the heresy seems to turn on how divine Jesus was. There's a pretty detailed discussion of the heresy at http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/HERESY3.TXT, but I really can't assess its veracity. [TF] A clue as to the Blind Chessplayer's origin? The Nicaean Creed was approved by the Nicaean Council in 325 A.D. Also, Quimper says, "once my name was John..." Quimper was John A' Dreams? Even though this seems to go against the whole antibody/UFO/spirit theory there are some pretty strong connections between the two. (I should have spotted the white suit and cane thing a long time ago) Plus, John A' Dream's name might in some way tie in with Quimper's ability to get inside minds, and predict the invisibles behavior. [TW] The Council of Nicea was convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine to resolve the doctrinal differences that were tearing apart early Christianity and threatening the stability of his state. During the Council, the Pauline/Roman wing of Christianity consolidated it's political power by limiting the
Christian canon to the books that today constitute the Bible. The sacred texts of Arianism/Gnostic Christianity - the major doctrinal rival of Pauline Christianity - were judged heretical and exorcised from the canon. This was point-zero for 'orthodox' Christianity's systematic exorcism of Gnostic Christianity from the historical record. This exorcism was so successful that prior to the unearthing of the Nag Hammadi texts in Egypt in 1945, primary evidence for Gnostic Christianity (and, hence, the Gnostic Christ - who is the not the Christ of our fathers) was limited to a few isolated scraps of text, and the attacks recorded in the works of various Church Fathers. [Zenkidu] RE: Nicea I must take complete exception to Zenkidu's notation. 1) The doctrinal differences at Nicea were neither threatening to
Christianity nor the Roman State. Unless you were a theologian. 2) The reduction of the Canon was a process that had started nearly 150 years before Nicea and was not complete until the ninth century. 3) Zenkidu talks about "Arian/Gnostic Christianity, the major rival of Pauline Christianity." That nearly made my hair stand on end. Arianism and Gnosticism had nothing to do with each other other than that proto-Orthodoxy disliked both. Gnosticism was never a serious rival to proto-Orthodoxy, wheras from the perspective of the fourth century, if anything, proto-Orthodoxy was the major rival to Arianism. Most Christians, including Constantine and his family, were Arians then. 4) As a matter of fact, Nicea had nothing whatsoever to do with the Canon or with Gnosticism! It was entirely concerned with hairsplitting issues regarding the nature of Christ and precisely when Easter was. 5) Furthermore, there was no such entity as "Gnosticism" in the same way that you would say "Christianity." It is a late nineteenth century
appelation for a bunch of groups that had certain similarities of ideas. As Zenkidu points out, we had almost no knowledge of these people before 1947 so it seems silly to use it, but the name stuck. Some of these groups identified themselves as Jews, pagans (Hermeticists, Neo-Platonists, Barbelists) or Christians, and often had much more similarity to those groups than to each other.
ie The Sethian Gnostic Saviour/Teacher is more like the traditional Jewish Messiah than like Christ, whereas the Valentinian (Christian Gnostic) Christ was very much the Christ of your fathers. Valentinus barely lost the election for Bishop of Rome in the mid-second century, a position that had some clout even then. 6) For the record, Gnosticism had been under serious attack by proto-Orthodoxy since c. 180 AD and Christian Gnosticism, outside of Manicheanism, had ceased to be a serious issue long before Nicea in 325. In fact, whether it ever had serious appeal outside of an intellectual elite is debatable. If the comment is meant to pick up on the other Gnostic elements in The Invisibles, such as the Archons or Barbelith, then I think Grant slipped up here, perhaps thinking of earlier or later Councils. I believe the Blind Chessman to be the Demiurge; however, if the Nicea comment was deliberate he is something else entirely, perhaps the physical Christ. [DMD]
o [page 12] [panel 3] Don't miss the Emp-TV on the television, presumably a slash at the ubiquitous American music channel M-TV. [TF]
o [page 15] [panel 4] "If..." is an allegorical story of a revolution lead by pupil Mick Travers that takes place at an old established private school in England (according to the IMDB)[TF]
o [page 16] The second volume has developed
a nice shape - with King Mob and his gun at Mason's house opening and
closing the volume. You can even see the swimming pool from issue 1
on [page 19] [panels 1 and 2] [panel 1] To save you a trip "the branch
of metaphyisics dealing with being, reality, or ultimate substance."
Webster's New World, 2nd. ed. [TF] The word ontology comes from Greek
roots - logos (word/argument/rationality) and ontos (which is the participle
of 'to be' - 'being') [TEC]
o [page 17] [panel 1] Sir Miles says: "It's Sunday, Colonel Friday". In GK Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday", Sunday was the head of the Anarchists council where each member is given a codename after a day of the week. Sunday was also the Chief in charge of destroying the anarchists and the council made up of Police, and at the end Sunday is
revealed as the Devil and God at the same time. "Do you know what Manichaean means?" The book itself is also subtilted: A Nightmare. Referring to the idea of this perpetual struggle between God and the Devil. [SD] [panel 3] There is a shadow of someone standing behind Colonel Friday in the floating mirror. Could this dark shape be his "successor," or perhaps his immediate superior? Whoever it is, it isn't a soldier, because the figure doesn't appear to be wearing a helmet. Also Quimper "reverted to his ...original condition." If Quimper really is a part of John A' Dreams then we might be seeing him in series III (only time and Grant Morrison can tell!) [TW]
o [page 21] King Mob's detonation of Mason's house at end of #22 is tactic straight from Peter Sellers 007 film Casino Royale, which is brilliant in it's own right. Same tactic, used to destroy the original Bond's material connections to the life he'd created, leaving him with nothing but the blank badge. [DGM]
o [page 22] The Graffitti includes: "Chris Weston signing off", "Trust no one under IQ 150" See [page 1] of the "And we're all policemen" story in Vertigo's Winter Edge. 98. Dialogue goes as follows: Blond Groupie- "Look at me! I can be the perfect girl! I'll do anything you've ever wanted! Anything!" Gideon- "Hmm. What's your I.Q?" Blond Groupie - "120!" Gideon- "Forget it, retard." "Generation Rex" is an allusion to 'And we're all policemen' (see pg. 6, frames 3&4) Gideon's sister has a "child," via in vitro insemination of cyogenically frozen Tyrannosaurus spunk. Don't ask. [TW] ALso see "Bobbit" on Jolly Roger's knife - I'm assuming there is not need for further clarification. [TEC]
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