"What other explanation for all this is there, Danny? You know it's the truth" -
Penny
Apologies for the short posting break, been obssessively replaying the
Mass Effect trilogy. And if you were expecting the final
Providence book, sorry that'll be next month after I get it for my birthday. So, more Moore. This miniseries was actually only plotted by Moore with his daughter Leah Moore and her husband John Reppion writing the actual script with art by Shane Oakley and George Freeman. The aim of the series was to revive interest in old British comic characaters from the 60's and 70's who were owned by IPC and who did a deal with Wildstorm to allow them to be used in this story. It includes a lot of characters mainly in cameos but Captain Hurricane, The Spider and Robot Archie (who also appeared in Grant Morrison's Zenith series) have larger roles. The main thrust of the series is that this is a world where superheroes exist, but are hidden away from the public in a castle detention centre where some are prisoners and some are guards. We follow the exploits of Penny, the daughter of one of the inmates, who is determined to reveal their existence to the wider public along with Danny an amnesiac collector of British comics. Flashbacks are drawn in the old style of the comic the characters first appeared in. I have to say I am pretty clueless when it comes to UK heroes pre-
2000AD so we shall see what kind of sense I can make of the miniseries as we dig in.
We start with a page of panels showing a man in what appears to be a coma. Two off-screen orderlies are checking on him, one asks what's wrong with him and the other says
"coma, trance, somethin' like that. Eagleton's not saying". They tidy the man up and one says it's today the
"Yank" is going to visit. The other says he probably wants to turn the place into a
"Camp X-Ray". They switch the light off and wonder what the unconcious man is dreaming about.
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| Danny buying comics. |
Elsewhere Danny is visting the shop he gets his comics from, run by the grouchy Mr. Love. He tells Danny to do what he likes, he's not arsed. Danny says some people would pay a lot of money for these comics. Mr. Love says Danny isn't one of them. He tells Danny to
"@%$* off" and leave him to read in peace. Danny picks up a Valiant comic saying this one must be the last one ever. We then get a two page spread of retro comic action involving
"The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark".
Danny buys it for fifty pence which Mr. Love says sarcastically that's his mortgage sorted then. And Danny leaves. He goes home to a place littered with comics and turns on the news. A criminal who has been at large for thirty years has been captured, his hideaway was discovered with not only stolen jewels but the remains of several bodies. His name is Gryleigh Gartside Fiendstein and he is going to be tried for over two hundred offences. Due to appear in court tomorrow.
The prisoners meanwhile are discussing the impending visit of the Yank and the fact this might mean this place gets shut down. Then a prisoner runs in with another hanging off his ear by his teeth. The nearby guard grabs him and says it's solitary for him permanently. He tells the prisoners that they are
"taking the piss today".
Fiendstein is being transported to the courtroom through angry crowds next day. Danny gets as close as he can manage and yells
"Grimly Fiendish!" And Fiendstein flashes a grin at him. Suddenly someone grabs Danny from behind and drags him away. It's a girl who tells him he shouldn't have done that,
"talk about risky".
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| Penny. |
She leads him to
"home sweet home" and introduces herself as Penny. The room is full of comics and renders Danny silent for a moment. She offers him a cup of tea and asks if he is a comic fan? He says he is and how did she know? She says it was him shouting
"Grimly Fiendish" that tipped her off. Danny says he wasn't sure he was, he looked like him though.
Penny: "Was that why you were there then? Chasin' comic characters? I've been doing that for a long time."
He tells her his name is Danny and doesn't understand what she means. So he shows him some film footage. We see a man called Mike Higgs who says he put lots of in-jokes in
"The Cloak" to make fans laugh. British fandom was just starting, it was a lot of fun to do. He is asked about the rumour that The Cloak was based on a real person and Higgs demands the tape turned off now.
We then see footage of the legendary Steve Moore, the man who mentored Alan Moore's early career, who says they all signed the Official Secrets act. He figured it was to do with the space program and
"Captain Dare". He is asked if he ever met Captain Dare, Moore says no,
"but Captain Hurricane came in once, went straight through the office." Terrifying bastard he was concludes Moore.
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| Steve Moore. |
Danny is having a hard time accepting they were all real people, but Penny tells him to come with her to Manchester where they discover Robot Archie on display in a shop. We get a montage of various imprisoned comic characters and we see Grimly Fiendish being dragged into a cell, he tells them they don't know who they are dealing with, but he ends up alone in a cell saying
"I'm not scared" to himself.
We then return to Penny and Danny having made off with Robot Archie and driven through the night back to Penny's home in Liverpool. She switches a light on revealing a whole bunch of puppets and robot dolls. Danny begins to freak out but she just tersely says he can't leave because he is a part of this, and if he's a part of it
"then you're either with me or against me... and if you're against me. You're dead".
Next we see the ancipated Yank arrive at the prison, he says his name is Nolan and no wonder he's been sent over, the security is terrible. He is talking to Eagleton who says that Nolan must have noticed the place can't be located by GPS. Nolan says that they are good at hiding the place from the outside, but it
"doesn't help keep all the freaks in, now does it?" Nolan is a fairly broad charicature of a boorish Irish-American, but Eagleton is also a fairly cliched uptight Englishman so bear that in mind as they talk.
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| Eagleton and Nolan. |
Back with Penny and Danny, Penny is still abusing Danny while getting him to help with re-activating Robot Archie. She reveals that her father was Eric Dolmann, master inventer who created Robot Archie. He says she can't be his daughter, Eric Dolmann isn't real. But she says he must see it's all true. He says he loves comics, they're the only thing he remembers from when he was a kid, but this is all a bit much,
"I mean.. you're taking the piss though aren't you?"
We then get a two page flashback to her childhood rendered in The Beano style, with her witnessing her father being arrested by
"The Spider". She saw a criminal arresting her dad and the police went along with it. She was put in a group home and she was relentlessly bullied.
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| Penny's childhood. |
Danny thinks then says
"Nah, I'm not having it". She assures him it's true. But Danny asks why would they all be arrested? What was it all about? She tells him about
"The Eye of Zoltec" and how that is real too, if she can prove that it exists, will he believe her? He says there was no Eye of Zoltec. She asks him how well he remembers the year 1984.
Back with Eagleton and Nolan, they are inspecting a tank with an unnamed person in it who is actually a colony organism. Nolan thinks this looks bad, but Eagleton says the facility has run for over twenty years
"you are only here because of some ludicrous statistics!" Nolan just moves onto the next inmate, the man in a coma, his name is Cursitor Doom. He owned the castle before the M.O.D commendeered it. He was in a coma then so he couldn't protest.
Nolan complains that many of the inmates are walking round like it's summer camp. Eagleton says those ones are no threat to security.
"International security, Eagleton. It means all of us, not just you" responds Nolan. Eagleton ignored this and takes Nolan to meet the source of the leak about the security arrangements at the prison. It's a robot skull-head attached to a box. It politely offers them both a drink.
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| The Brain. |
Cut back to Penny and Danny, she begins to tell him about 1984. It was the day the I.R.A blew a Brighton Hotel where much of the government was staying during conference time including then PM Magaret Thatcher. She survived of course. And the reason was, unlike in reality when she was on a different floor and it was still a near-miss, she was at the centre of the explosion. But she was wearing The Eye Of Zoltec, which can be seen on the video she shows Danny. It protected her and every PM since has worn it,
"It's just one of the little 'gifts' they got from people like my dad."
Penny: "It's all true, Danny. The heroes are real. And we're going to find them."
Danny. "What do you want me to do?"
Back with Nolan and Eagleton, the human-robot-head is actually called
"Brian's Brain". He seems to think he also runs the facility much to the annoyance of Eagleton. He sent charts to the C.I.A about their
"time-bomb situation" and thinks Nolan needs to judge for himself.
The other inmates are restless. They seem to suspect the prison is preparing for trouble. Another says they'll be a riot if the carry on like this. Nolan and Eagleton go and see The Spider. He is behind unbreakable glass and kept naked, his food delivered by automated hatch. Then it's time to visit Captain Hurricane.
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| Captain Hurricane. |
Penny and Danny are watching another interview with a comic creator. Rod McKie says he tried to rescue as much art as he could when they shut things down but he was told it was all going to be burnt as a
"fire-hazard" which broke his heart. But they gave him some to stop him
"whining".
Rod McKie: "More like they didn't want the evidence lying around anymore. They wanted it all forgotten."
Danny watches transfixed saying he can't believe all that art got burnt. Penny then asks him what got him into comics then?
Danny says it's a long story. They've always been everything he ever had.
"I've been like, drawn to them forever" he tells her. Although not in a
"creepy fanboy way with plazzy bags" (HEY!). He says his first memory is of being borned again after being pulled out of a bus crash that killed lots of people. He could remember nothing but his name.
 |
| Danny tells his story. |
His mum and dad might of been on the bus, he was interviewed but he couldn't remember his family so he ended up at a home as well as he was a kid. No one adopted him so he grew up in the place and all he had to comfort him was comics. He never remembered anything more not even how to spell his surname. Archie is bustling round now having been fixed cataloguing Penny's stuff. She says his program's old and weird. But she normal and she's hungry so they go out for something to eat.
Nolan seems unnerved by the massive Captain Hurricane. The Captain says he used to read about "Zip" Nolan when he was detective in comics. He wants to know why Nolan is here and is told it's about their security. The Brain has predicted a breakout or riot, Eagleton tells them. The man waiting on The Captain is
"Maggot Malone" who soothes him with words and makes him cups of tea. They reminsce about their time punching nazi's in World War 2. The Captain starts to get worked up, but Maggot gets some tea in him and calms him down. He says his mum would have been so proud of him. She didn't make the end of the war, doodlebug killed her. All this leaves him feeling tired, so Nolan and Eagleton leave him to his rest.
Outside his cell, Eagleton say that The Captain doesn't see himself as a prisoner, more a permanent guest. He is the culmination of hundreds of failed experiments to make a super-soldier, a freak and anomoly. His tea is laced with anti-psychotics which Dr. Maggot Malone keeps him dosed with, they are specially made on site by him for The Captain's particular brand of psychopathy.
Walking to the shop, Danny asks if Robot Archie will be OK on his own. Penny says he will, he inherited her dad's workshop when she was eighteen and taught herself from his notes to fix all the inventions. They drop into a bakery and Penny notices the comic he has had on hims all this time since he bought it the day before. She says this one was pulped and never released. He tells her he got it from a junkshop in town and she says they must go there.
Back in the prison one of the prisoners - The Steel Claw - reacts badly Nolan saying he thought he was
"one of us." He tells Nolan to
"$%£ off, you wanker" which pisses Nolan off. He grabs The Steel Claw by the shirt, but the other inmates watch intently and he backs off.
When Eagleton tells him again the place has worked fine for a long time now, Nolan says
"yeah, well not for much longer". Eagleton says he supposed Nolan would rather they had them strip and form pyramids. Nolan says he'll have the smile wiped off his face soon. They move onto a thick steel door. Nolan has to give an ID number and Eagleton opens it with a fingerprint and retinal scan,
"Welcome to the armory, Mr. Nolan. Do try not to touch anything" says Eagleton.
Penny and Danny arrive at the junk shop. Danny warns her that the man is a bit of a grouch. He calls for Mr. Love as they go inside, but the place seems empty. Then he comes in demanding to know what they want and Penny looks at him in shock. As Danny chunters on about the comic, she tries to tell him something, that it's Charlie Peace (a time travelling Victorian thief). But Charlie opens a draw and pulls out two flintlock pistols and tells them to get on their knees now.
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| Charlie Peace revealed. |
He says he doesn't know how
"you lot found me" but they won't live to tell anyone. Penny says they aren't who he thinks. He pauses and she tells him she is Penny Dolmann, Eric Dolmann's daughter and how The Spider came and took him away. She says they are keeping them somewhere. Mr. Love says they must be dead, why would they keep them alive,
"what do you think, then? They've got 'em all locked up or somethin'?"
Next chapter begins with a prisoner called Fred
"Faceache" Akely who can change his face to resemble different people. Pretending to be Eagleton, he accesses the cell where The Spider is imprisoned. They exchange pleasantries, with The Spider asking how everyone is coping with the American security review.
Meanwhile Nolan and Eagleton are in the armory where various items that the prisoner used have been kept. Nolan thinks it is unsafe to keep them all here,
"this place is a %£$*ing time-bomb". Eagleton says where else would they store these things? Nolan says maybe they should destroy these things. Eagleton says it's a combination of bureaucracy and the things being too
"precious and too dangerous to destroy."
Nolan says then why not use them? Eagleton says they might use them and some like The Brain are alive. They reach a large sphere with a man called Rollo floating in it doing a puzzle with another man. He says it won't be long now and he's going to miss this place. Eagleton tells Nolan they are time-travellers who surrendered, they just appeared in the prison one day so they erected the force field to keep them in.
Returning to Penny and Danny, Penny tells Charlie that one of her robots remembers and signal ending in Scotland. They cut out like they went underground or something. He still seems dubious, but Danny asks why they would go to the trouble of arresting them if they were just going to kill them. And Penny asks how he managed to not get caught? Charlie says he's had plenty of practice evading the law and we get a quick flashback to his Victorian days.
He escaped the noose and got himself sorted in London telling everyone he was Charlie Peace's grandson. He enjoyed the comics but one day he had a feeling that someone was on to him and he wasn't safe anymore. So he headed up to Liverpool and set himself up with a legit place. The newspapers barely covered the comic folk disappearing.
Charlie: "People dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. Not just the scum like me, but them who was helpin' the law too. People like your dad, eh, love?"
Penny reacts angrily to that. She says he's either the world's greatest burgler or full of it. He says what's left to burgle,
"the government have all the $%£$in ray guns and all that kiddie rubbish well away by now." Danny says if they were keeping prisoners secret they'd have all their gear kept too.
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| Danny talks Charlie round. |
Charlie says he's had enough of Danny's bollocks. But Danny persists say he can help them, they don't want the loot just Penny's father. He thinks on this, rubs his chin, then says
"get up. I know where they are. I've been there before."
In the prison the inmates are still on edge over the security review. One says to another, "we're already dead" and another agrees that
"no one's got anything left to lose." The Brain says the true nature of the threat is still unquantifiable but increasing exponentially. He recommends they formulate a plan of action.
Nolan and Eagleton put on winter coats to meet the next prisoner. He is James
"Rubberman" Hollis. He is being kept at such a cold temperature to prevent him using his abilities. He resided in there ever since a past
"incident" where he was able to change and attack several people. After that it was into the freezer.
They arrive at Grimly Fiendish's cell. Eagleton admits that Grimly is an old adversary of his. Grimly specialised in crime where he got to "warp the minds of innocents". Gleefully Grimly says:
Grimly: "And I'm proud of it! Children these days are oblivious to the great tradition of English monstrosity!"
Eagleton says he had his way for too long. The world is well rid of his influence. Grimly says it's that influence on him that made Eagleton the man he is today. Eagleton punches him in the face,
"I am my own man, Mr. Fiendish". He and Nolan leave as Grimly shouts after them that he is soft and doesn't know the true meaning of violence.
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| To be fair, he is a dick. |
Nolan tells Eagleton that was a
"good whack". Eagleton apologises saying it's been a long day. Nolan says he'd like to talk to The Brain again tommorrow and see what his angle is. They have finished for the day and Eagleton says he'll call for him around nine to continue where they left off tomorrow.
Robot Archie has joined Danny, Penny and Charlie as they travel to a remote garage. Inside is Charlie's drilling machine which needs some love from someone with Penny's talents. They won't drill all the way to Scotland but Charlie also has a boat. Penny says this is destiny, her and Charlie living so close. Charlie has also changed into his Victorian threads saying it's time to do things properly.
At the castle next day, one of the inmates is kicking off, he's restrained but Nolan witnesses this and says Eagleton will regret not taking The Brain's forecast seriously. Eagleton says the security is fine, and The Brain is
"treacherous" but they'll do some preparation. Nolan says The Brain says they are headed for something they can't prepare for.
"Well, thank goodness you are here Mr. Nolan" Eagleton says crisply.
They reach The Spider who had been chained naked to a chair so they can talk to him. He is introduced as Albert Chinard, an anagram of
"Arachnid". The Spider says his second name is
actually
"O'Pod" and his first name
"Arthur". But this is just a wind-up name too. Eagleton gets them back on topic, saying that they have a situation. The Spider says they are playing right into his hands bringing him the information. Eagleton outright asks what's going on. The Spider says that's what they're all here to find out.
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| Interviewing The Spider. |
On Charlie Peace's boat they hash out their plan, they are going to sail as close as they can then drill the rest of the way. Penny has also brought along her dolls and asks what other technology they have on this boat. Robot Archie and Danny are in the cabin playing cards. Robot Archie is winning.
The Spider meanwhile is mulling over all the possibilities of what might happen. Nolan says maybe he should have stayed in the US where he was in the 60's. The Spider says not to believe everything you read in the funny papers. He spins some tales about his origin and his alien DNA, then says he's an imposter and the real Spider has never been caught.
Eagleton tells him to cut the crap and talk some sense. Nolan says he might be a Chinese born alien but The Spider was never a hero
, "you only wanted to eliminate the competition". The Spider says through his career his intellect has always been his driving force. The outwitting was more enjoyable than the material gains. Villians are just generally more intelligent than the
"good guys." Nolan says he doesn't look so smart strapped in that chair.
"And yet, here you are" responds The Spider.
The Spider: "People are so obsessed with good and evil. As if the two were ever mutually exclusive. Heroes and villains, they all want to kill each other."
The government employed him as a hunter of the super powered and gifted comicbook heroes. He lists some of the ways he took down various opponents, some were a challenge to outwit, some were children and gave no satisfaction and some needed brute force which was also not satisfying. But the goverment betrayed him, no pardon that he was promised he was caught in by a forcefield gun and brought to the prison.
 |
| No pardon for you! |
He sneers at Nolan saying his country was built on broken promises,
"men of God buying their brave new world with beads and trinkets." Nolan says he's just about ready to punch him. The Spider calmly corrects him when Nolan calls him Doctor Spockm saying he means Mr. Spock not the writer of a childcare book.
Eagleton says the banter is giving him a headache, lets return to the real reason they are here today. The Spider says it's because they believe he knows something that Eagleton doesn't. Nolan thinks he knows nothing and he'll stay here with the others until they all die.
The Spider says that just means no one has anything to lose. Eagleton tries to bargain, saying they'll give him books, music, additional priviledges. The Spider says he hopes he hasn't given the impression he knows anything about his problem,
"You know how I hate misleading people." Eaglteon leaves saying they've wasted enough time there.
The boat finally reaches it's Scottish destination, Penny is performing some modifications to Robot Archie who isn't enjoying that. Danny looks a bit morose saying he was supposed to sign on the dole today. Charlie says there are riches waiting for them in that place he can't even imagine. They contemplate the castle and Danny wonders if it's the right place. Charlie says it is, he never forgets a job, robbing that place changed his life.
Eagleton and Nolan return to The Brain which is caculating a multiple threat as the likely cause of the disturbance. But he can't give specifics to a frustrated Nolan. The Brain says it will probably happen in the next seventy-two hours and advises the place be put on red alert. He is absolutely certain he is right. Eagleton says it is unfortunate Nolan is here to witness
"such and unusual event." Nolan says he'll alert Washington and they'll send a team.
Penny, Danny and Charlie have departed the boat in the drill machine. Left behind is Charlie's two-man crew who discuss the situation. Once says he feels like they are on the edge of something massive. The other says things will work out. There is no sense worrying about Charlie, he's a tough old villain. One asks the other if they'll help the Captain when it happens. The other says they'll wait here, it's their job and now it's time for a cup of tea.
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| Robot Archie, distraction is go. |
In the prison Captain Hurricane is in a spittle flecked rage about not getting his dose of tea (and unbeknowest to him, drugs). He bellows for Maggot saying he wants his tea now! Then the place goes to red alert. Charging the prison from the outside is Robot Archie armed with gun-arm and shield. Eagleton organises a detail to the front gate.
In the drill machine they are making their way under the prison, the place goes deep, has lots of dungeons. But they hit something and try to pull up, Charlie says they must have built more floors below the old ones. They burst through the wall and into a room with all the weapons and stuff and also what looks like an inert giant robot gorilla. Charlie starts helping himself though does note most will need the owner to work it. Penny says you could start a war with this stuff. Danny says they should be getting on finding her dad, Robot Archie can't distract them forever.
Archie has entered the building, gunning down security sent to deal with him. Nolan asks why he doesn't send Captain Hurricane out to deal with Robot Archie, Eagleton says The Captain is a
"isn't just some obedient soldier, he's a superhuman psychotic" so they don't know what would happen if they unleash him. Then he gets alerted to the fact the armory has been breached.
Akeley has gotten into speak with The Spider again. He says he wishes he could be the same as him,
"all confident and stuff." The Spider says they are the same,
exactly the same... Security are scrambling to deal with the armory break in. As they walk past the comatose Cursitor Doom one says that all the inmates getting out would be
"like opening the gates of hell". And Cursitor opens his glowing eyes.
 |
| Cursitor wakes. |
Danny is walking past the cells, identifying the comic characters they are and letting them out. Penny bumps into her uncle Louis she asks if they can take her to her father, which the reluctantly agree to. The Brain meanwhile is saying this is just as he predicted. Penny is taken to her dad's grave. He had a heart attack and died in his sleep. They tell her he was very proud of her and always talked about her. She says his work lives on in her and she swears on his grave that
"The House of Dolmann will continue".
The inmates are crowding the halls and start heading to the armory. Also the special containment wing has been breached. Cursitor Doom walks up to Danny and says that he is his son and apprentice
, "at last we are reunited."
Doom: "Everything is just as it should be. All the pieces are in place. Now my end game can truly begin."
Two inmates are at the time-bubble trying to figure out how to get the occupants out. They say it is not necessary, the are time travellers who move back and forth in time experiencing key events in human history. They only travel where there is a record of them having been there though. They don't want to come out as the inmates will be armed soon,
"and you don't need to be from the future to know what happens next."
Indeed the inmates are reuniting with their beloved weapons and other items connected to them. Eagleton orders The Captain to got to the amoury like NOW! Robot Archie has finally been defeated, his head has been knocked off. Eagleton stalks out as Nolan says at least The Spider is still in his cell. Eagleton strides down to one specific cell, the one holding Grimly Fiendish. It's open and he stands in the doorway with his freaky monsters he's conjured especially for
"Eagle Eye" Eagleton, who gets dragged in and slobbered on by them.
He tells Eagleton that there is a big fight going on in the armory right now, they are also fighting for their freedom and retaking what's theirs and the guards don't stand a chance.
Grimly: "Don't let the rubber men and the ray guns overwhelm you Eagle Eye. Don't be afraid of those wonderful freaks. Instead revel in them... Revel in their absurdity, in their power, they are our bravest and best!"
Security call up trying to get ahold of Doctor Maggot Malone. The Captain is in the armory but he's turned on the guards Malone just tersely says
"what did you expect?" And hangs up on them.
 |
| Cursitor explains it all. |
Cursitor tells Danny this was all foretold six centuries ago. Danny was a young boy back then. Cursitor trained him in the ways of magical lore then cast him forwards through time. So he could fulfil his role as Cursitor's heir and successor. He arrived in the twentieth century just as all this began. He had to forget so he could meet his calling without detection.
Danny says that he has done well and now Cursitor can depart. Danny says isn't there a spell that means he can't leave the castle? He says he is still able to freely move through the fourth dimension without hindrance. He tells Danny that he is the
"Ipsissimus" now. His memories will return gradually and then his studies can resume. He will also be taken care of. A portal opens and Cursitor smiles saying they shall meet again in the meantime he must uphold the name of Doom. And in a flash he is gone. Leaving a somewhat baffled Danny behind.
Danny goes to the armory where Charlie and Penny are and Captain Hurricane is making mincemeat of the guards down there. But he turns on one of the inmates who told him to shut his yelling up and attacked her. But Penny uses a magic lamp to make genies that move the giant robot gorilla and have Gogra as it is called squash Captain Hurricane into the ground which knocks him out. Gogra reborn then walks out the castle through a hole in the wall and into the sea.
Nolan marches through the corridors and finds Eagleton trembling on the floor. He finds The Spider sitting calming further on. But he then transforms into the Rubberman who tells Nolan that The Spider left a message for him,
"he said... to tell you... that you've lost."
Penny, Danny and Charlie are saling back. Charlie is satisfied with his loot, Penny is at peace with what happened to her father and Danny morosely says he he has a
"head full of @#%*". Penny says he has a future and that's what's important.
Penny: "We don't have to think about the glorious past anymore. We can do it better ourselves".
Danny says that he's an Ipsissimus whatever that is, Charlie is just Charlie, so what about her? She plans to restore the House of Dolmann. Charlie says now the other lot are on the loose who knows what they might do.
 |
| The end...? |
Two months later a disembodied hand appears to Tony Blair and his wife in bed together. It demands the Eye of Zoltec. Blair says he can't hand it over, it's national security.
"Talk to the hand" it says and that brings this miniseries to a close. There is some bonus material, a potted history of UK comics before
2000AD and some sample pages showing the various characters featured here in their original contexts. Nice extras if you are interested.
So I mentioned Grant Morrison in the opening paragraph and I think it bears a comparison to his body of work.. First of all his
Zenith Phase 3 wove many old UK comic characters into an epic story of Lovecraftian gods and parallel universes. It was truly a thrilling read and one of my fave stories to appear in
2000AD. This was not a thrilling read. Oh, there are things to like about it, the dialogue is good, which it usually is with a Leah Moore story and the Danny character was someone you could sympathise with. But it failed for me because I had no emotional connection to the characters and unlike
Zenith Phase 3, the surrounding story wasn't strong enough for me to get past that. The fact I had to extensively use the wikipedia page for this miniseries to fill in context and detail didn't help matters either. The very weird meta bits with real life comicbook writers and artists interjecting felt like a Morrison rip-off as well. Also it does date itself to 2006 with mentions of the infamous Iraqi prison scandals and Tony Blair still being in power. Onto things I did very much like about it. The main artsyle is great, I like the angular characters and thick black lines, gave everyone a comicy look without fully sacrificing realism. The flash back art was good too, I especially liked The Beano style pages, because I briefly read The Beano before graduating to harder stuff. All-in-all, for me this was a failed experiment. It just didn't grab me. How much that is the fault of Moore or the writers I couldn't say. Leah Moore has gone onto carve out a career in her own right since this, and I'll be looking at something solely by her hopefully fairly soon. Otherwise this was, in the hateful internet term, "kinda meh".
