Rating: 3.5/5 – A Good ‘Wait For the Trade’ story.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.
I like a lot of what Grant Morrison has written over the years, really love some of it, and don’t care for some of it at all. I simplify this in my own mind as thinking of “enjoyable Grant Morrison” and “baffling Grant Morrison”. It’s not an objective measure, it’s purely a matter of personal taste and storytelling preference. I find some of his writing intricate and bewildering. Some people absolutely love this kind of writing and study it intensely to glean the hidden meanings and messages whilst praising the god-like nature of his storytelling mastery. Me? I read comics to be transported to new worlds and for some light entertainment. If I have to work really hard to get into a complicated story it’s not that enjoyable to me; but again, that’s me, Your Mileage May Vary.
In short: I found this to be an example of “baffling Morrison”. On the face of it we have Hollywood writer Ray Spass (pronounced ‘space’) and Nomax in space near a black hole called the Annihilator. Nomax is a character in the screenplay Spass is writing…or is he? What is real, what is fantasy? Do I care? Well, frankly, I don’t, but you may. At least the art by Frazer Irving is very pretty to look at.
Annihilator jumps back and forth between Hollywood and deep space. Along the way we get drug abuse, sentient teddy bears, killings, hookers, and a decadent orgy; all beautifully rendered by Irving. A lot of things happened, but most made little connective sense to me. In the end I share the assessment of the agent who reads Ray Spass’s screenplay “This is a rough draft of some of Act One”. I can see the pieces all laid out on the playing board, but I’m not seeing how they’re all going to fit together yet. My main fear is that by the time I get issue #2 how much of the intricacies of issue #1 am I going to remember while trying to fit this narrative together? This might very well be a good “wait for the trade” story.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
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