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And – hey – let’s not hear any more nonsense about the Hand being the bad guys, or the “vision of loveless normalcy under Status: Q”, or anything like that, eh? I mean, whose side are you on, anyway?? Get with the program, dammit!!
Sorry, no, that came out wrong. I meant to say: Come on, fellows, let’s get into the spirit of things, eh? Good show.
(Otherwise we’ll have to pronounce you an anti-person, and you wouldn’t want that, now, would you?)
Whoops. No, sorry, ignore that last bit; what I mean is:
Look, I can’t see the Hand as bad guys. And I think you’re possibly misunderstanding the phrase “Status: Q” if you think it just means the social status quo.
You know how the worse things get, the further down the alphabet the agents go to refer to the situation in their communications? From “Status: V” to “Status: W” and so on? Well, when the Hand say their mission is to “maintain Status: Q”, it’s just reflecting the melancholic/blackly humorous (realistic?) world-view of The Filth.
The other side of the alphabet (letters P and up) is the responsibility of The Invisibles. The Invisibles are the cool, sexy, optimistic agents of evolution towards “Status:A”. The Hand are the poor fuckers who have to clean up when the Invisibles’s plans go splat. The agents of the Hand have to do their best to prevent devolution of the world towards “Status: Z”. At least, that’s how I’ve been reading it.
The doctor who correctly diagnosed what was wrong with GM and probably saved his life, back in Vol. 1 of the Invisibles? He was an agent of the Hand. See?
So if someone says something like “In The Filth, we enter the point of view of the agents of order; those cruel, villainous forces of control and oppression; those loveless bastard asshole control-freaks who want to –“
– well, I think they’re missing the point.
I imagine things will become more ambiguous and complicated as the series continues, but for the time being, as far as I’m concerned, you can heckle them as much as you like, but the Hand are just as much the good guys as the Invisibles were in their adventures.
“Which side are you on?” Ha! |
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