Near Myths, a Grant Morrison Retrospective, Part 3

Welcome back to our retrospective look at the first series of comics Grant Morrison wrote:  the 1978-79 anthology series Near Myths. His first issue contained a 5 page story called, “Time is a Four Letter Word,” that was all over the place in terms of storytelling and execution, but still contained the hallmarks of Morrison’s writing style, along with early versions of ideas that he would seep into his Return of Bruce Wayne story arc. Last issue, we were introduced to Gideon Stargrave in the 7-page “The Vatican Conspiracy Part 1,”  Morrison’s Jerry Cornelius analogue (ripoff by some accounts) who would come back in the Invisibles, creating a very strange meta-textual reality loop.

With issue #4, Morrison was moved to the front of the book--the second feature--and his entry was now 14 pages, giving us part 2 and 3 of “The Vatican Conspiracy.” It’s impossible to know the behind-the-scenes process; but with this issue, Morrison’s storytelling really gets settled down, spending that extra two panels to stamp a scene shut, or transition to the next. I can’t say whether he drew parts 2 and 3 separately, or if they were intended to be lumped together in order to give him 14 pages to work with in one sitting, but the craft is definitely coming together.

Swinging for the fences, the first page picks up right where we left off:  in a helicopter chase. Morrison’s sarcasm is shoved in your eyes:  “USE THE SOUND PISTOL, JAN ~ IT’S ALWAYS GOOD FOR A LAUGH.” The page is a circular series of panels showing the dog fight with a
larger-than-life detailed portrait of Gideon smack dab in the center, as if ripping out of the paper to drag us in. Keeping his thesaurus handy, the description of the falling mechanical bird would fit right into Joe the Barbarian or The Filth--for example:  “THE GRACE OF A CRIPPLED DRAGONFLY IN ENDLESS SCREAMING SPIRALS, DOWN TO BURST IN RED AND ORANGE IN THE THAMES AT GREENWHICH.”

The second page greets us with the first large, almost splash, page yet. It depicts Gideon and Jan resting in some snowy mountains, looking at the map, keeping diligent watch for enemies, while a caption reads “YOU ARE HERE.” Clues are seamlessly dropped in before Gideon is attacked. Action, sarcasm, ridiculous paneling, rinse, repeat.

The plot moves fairly conventional after this:  the conspiracy reveals itself, Jan is kidnapped, and Gideon is wounded and left for dead, ending chapter 2 with a classic mental fight scene. A Vatican witch of some sort splinters Gideon’s soul and mind, leaving him a helpless amnesiac, before a backup Stargrave personality reestablishes itself, allowing the gunmen in bell bottoms to blow the witch away. Once again, there are hints of the ideas that would become integral to future stories, namely The Batman of Zur En Arh concept from Batman R.I.P.

Part 3 is the icing on the cake, where everything clicks. The movement from scene to scene is very natural as we follow Gideon on a last ditch storm on the Vatican, plowing through a series of foes from earlier. The setup is clearly defined and being brought to conclusion, especially the Joan of Arc mention from the first page of Part 1, which hits a very satisfying beat.

The sexuality is amped up to 10, but not 11. There are scenes of tantric, spiritual sex juxtaposed by a sexy blonde in a thong and spaghetti strap, with her ass to the reader, legs spread, preaching endless sex for world peace.

This all builds to a naked warrior, winged bronze helmets, and a spear in hand with breasts hanging for the world to see. Knowing what Morrison publicly acknowledges about his sexual endeavors, namely that it was nonexistent for much of his early adult life, these scenes conjour images, assumedly, of a 17-year old Morrison contemplating the line between porn and action tits.

The art is all over the place, especially a sequence of action towards the bottom of page 18 (in Near Myths) that is very similar to Frank Quitely’s art, particularly on We3 and Batman and Robin #16.  There are as many small panels as possible showing the smallest flinches and grabs, while the hero brutalizes a series of enemies. The panels go into each other like Tetris pieces, all well defined with “-SNAP!-" and “-CRACK!-"sound effects.

There are several larger panels, a few taking up almost 2/3 of the page (and the pages are much larger than current comic books in the US), that really let the scenes breathe and the characters relax. The scene transitions are more fluid and thought out, but there are still quite a few instances of the paneling being very extreme and hard to follow, with the bottom 1/3 of a page cut diagonally into six panels that spiral around each other.

Gideon is defined by the end of this series as a Wolverine-type tough, post-hippie, gun-slinging secret agent with a broad cast of characters and enemies. Stargrave has safe houses and connections around the world that allow him to travel with the apparent motivation of stamping out Order. It’s no surprise that the issue ends with the promise “GIDEON STARGRAVE RETURNS IN: THE ENTROPY CONCERTO!” which, sadly wasn’t the published story of Near Myths #5, but is similar enough to the “Entropy in the U.K.” arc from the Invisibles to assume there may have been some left over concepts.

I’ve never read anything by Michael Moorcock, and I know most of the animosity to the Stargrave character stems from his appearance in the Invisibles and not these short stories; so, I do not know how much has been lifted from the original Jerry Cornelius books, but with the close of the Vatican Conspiracy trilogy, Morrison has created a character that could return one day. Morrison built Stargrave, gave him the utilities of a protagonist, and should things have been different, Stargrave could’ve gone on to star in more features. I’m not saying I’m dying for “Gideon Stargrave/Batman: The Gods are Falling” (though I would blindly buy it), but these stories do not crumble in the way you would assume an experimental writer’s first forays would. There are enough out-there concepts, witty dialogue, and pleasantly kinetic art to warrant more than one read.

We finish our series with the best of the lot--Checkmate, man!