| |
|
Ooooh -- loved this!
I noticed that some folk (not so much here, but on the internet in general) seem to have found issue's #2 and #3 completely incomprehensible or something... seemed pretty straightforward to me, in a completely insane sort of way!
Very tight too -- the way the ending of this issue brings it almost full-circle... chilling and strange! But, as Flyboy said, everything's not quite how it used to be. I want more!!
The artwork was perfect throughout -- the "comfort zone" Seaguy and co live in is shiny and fun looking, just like Cameron's art, but is still very evidently sinister, something that Cameron (with no small amount of help from Peter Doherty) always keeps foregrounded.
And when we get into the high adventure stuff in issue #2, well... it looks every bit as thrilling and bizarre as it should, but there are costs to be payed for this sort of adventure, and the more melancholy/creepy elements of these parts of the stories come through brilliantly as well.
I think that was what I really liked about this series -- Seaguy is just a naive guy who wants to go on adventure, and whjo can blame him? The world he lives in is deeply sinister and flawed, but the critique of this world is, I think, stronger because Seaguy's dissatisfaction with it isn't a sneery, condescending one. He is part of "the masses" -- it's just that his taste in escapism is somewhat different from most folk's. Furthermore, as has been mentioned in discussions about issue #1, Seaguy ends up on this particular adventure (which takes him directly up against the current world order) because of his status as a consumer of Xoo. As of the end of issue #3, Xoo is still free, and is currently roaming the world as a "living pirate foodstuff." Dare I suggest that we will see more of this creature in the later volumes? Since in issue #2 it seemed to recognise and not want to hurt Seaguy and Chubby, I can only hope so!
Another thing I like is the focus on ancient civilizations with weird technology (artificial wasps that can extract oil from pollen, jackal-men who can extract "heavy air" from dung). There's a definite sense of wanting to re-discover all of this crazy stuff, but at the same time these places aren't wholly depicted in a positive light. The Pharaoh in issue #3 may have achieved something wonderfully barmy (the moon is his burial home for fuck's sake!), but he did so out of rediculous vanity and drained his people dry in the process. Similarly, for all the thrills that he may have achieved while climbing Mount Poseidon, the Wasps of Atlantis still cost Seaguy his best friend.
"Xoo is multi-purpose. Xoo is low cost. Xoo makes people happy. And what's so wrong with happy?"
So says the scary suit in issue #2 and, well, while there's nothing wrong with happy, there is something wrong going on in this world. What about the children that were being carted away in issue #1? This is another of the thematic points that I really like in this series: the idea that in defeating Anti-Dad the heroes had defeated evil seems to me to be analogous with the idea of fighting a sucessful war on terror. Evil cannot be vanquished in a big heroic fight; people will still want to nasty stuff after the dust has settled. It is a part of human nature, and to ignore this fact is folly.
The ending of issue #3 is, I think, the most upsetting and sucessful part of the book so far. The scene's with Seaguy and Doc Hero being reprogrammed were funny and nasty in equal measures, and as for Lucky El Loro, I hate the bastard, but this is surely the point. He matches the same formula as Chubby, but somehow completley lacks the charm of that character.
All said, the last page is probably my favourite one -- the Eye Moon and "No XOO Today"/"Sold Out" signs, as well as the prescence of Lucky, make that little wink Seaguy gives all the more unsettling. He thinks he's playing a game with no stakes, but he as we know far to well, he's very, very wrong.
Good god, this post is getting out of hand. Anyway, suffice it to say that this rocked me more than any Morrison project since... I dunno, either Kill Your Boyfriend of Flex Mentallo, and that I am eager for more. I want to see this world fleshed out more; I want to learn what's going on with Seadog in greater detail; I want to see Seaguy get another chance. Mission accomplished, guys -- I'm hooked! |
|
|
