World Famous Comics: Bloody Hell in America (The Invisibles, Book 4)
Bloody Hell in America (The Invisibles, Book 4)
By: Grant Morrison, Phil Jimenez Publisher: Vertigo Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Vertigo Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 104 Publication Date: February 01, 1998 Release Date: February 01, 1998
Lotsa action and good artist! I think this is completely Jimenez illustrated trade. It is thin but it has pace other books missed. Lotsa violence, unnecesarry, though...
Sexcellent! This is a very interesting graphic novel. While slightly thinner than the other trade paperbacks published of The Invisibles, this one packs just as much punch. The artwork, as usual, is STUNNING. Verdict: Difficult to put down.
A 14 year old's review I recently attended Comic-con in San Diego, and bought all of the Invisibles books. I have read three so far. Say you want a revolution, Apocalipstick (which was incredibly confusing yet good), and Bloody Hell in america. I made the mistake of putting the books in the wrong order, So I've actually read books 1,2, and 4. I'm currently on page 105 of Entropy in the U.K.
Aside from that, this book shows great art, great thought provoking writing, and really starts to show character development and action. This book kicks off the more action oriented section of the Invisibles, which in some ways, I find kind of refreshing to the previous confusing misleading storylines (Of course, I did love the first books, "darling").
One great quality of this book is the development of my personal favorite character, Ragged Robin. Robin becomes the leader of the Invisibles, sporting a new leather costume (as opposed to her civilian clothing), and showing that she has potential to be a leader with her quick thinking and psychic abilities.
Grant Morrison is an absolutely brilliant writer, and the art really compliments his wonderful scripts. I look forward to finishing Entropy in the U.K., and reading all of the other Invisibles books....
Frighteningly good. Morrison is arguably the best comics scribe around today, and thus far Invisibles is probably (still) his masterpiece. Bloody Hell In America continues in the same vein as the previous story arcs, though this chapter is far more violent and "action packed" than anything we've seen before (as the title implies). These stories were of course written squarely in the Tarantino Era. In the midst of some blood-soaked & carnage-filled pages, even King Mob tells Jolly Roger that he is "beginning to question the already dubious morality of [his] actions". To call the violence "gratuitous" is missing the point.
And I wouldn't call this a good jumping-on point. If you're going to read Invisibles, start at the beginning.
The Invisibles, Book 4: Bloody Hell in America After the release of issue #25 of the Invisibles (collected in Book 3: "Entropy in the UK"), DC/Vertigo halted publication of the series for a few months. During this hiatus, creator/writer Grant Morrison revised his approach to the series. Deciding that the previous volume had been "British" and that the new one would be "American," Morrison abandoned the methodical pace of Volume 1 and filled Volume 2 with nonstop action, sex, and ultraviolence. Some say this new approach was a "watered down" version of the Invisibles, but I say that's hogwash. The stories collected in this book are the cream of the crop, and fulfill all of the promise of the very first issues of the series.
Book 4 collects the first four issues of Volume 2, and the change is immediately noticeable. First and foremost is the return of artist supreme Phil Jimenez. Last seen in Book 3's "Entropy in the UK" arc, Jimenez is probably my favorite artist who ever worked on the series. His art is detailed, clean, precise, and beautifully rendered; everything you could ask for, really. Morrison scored a huge coup when he brought Jimenez on board as the regular artist, something the series never had before. Therefore, there are no drops in artwork quality in this collection, as there were in the previous three trade paperbacks.
Picking up a year after the events at the end of Book 3, Book 4 opens with the Invisibles (King Mob, Dane, Ragged Robin, Lord Fanny, Boy) recouping in upstate New York, residing in the colossal mansion of millionaire Invisible Mason Lang. Lang is an interesting character, a neurotic Bruce Wayne-type who obsesses over the "hidden meanings" of mainstream films. The events depicted at the end of Book 3 nearly killed our favorite Invisibles cell, but now King Mob thinks the team is ready for more action.
Sure enough, Jolly Roger shows up, looking for help. Roger, a lesbian commando who's as deadly as King Mob, is the leader of her own Invisibles cell, and she's the only one who survived an assault on a high-level military base in Arizona. Those expecting "Area 51" shenanigans with little gray aliens will be surprised, because Roger's cell wasn't searching for extraterrestrial life: they were after the cure for AIDS. The government has the cure, has had it for decades, and now Roger wants King Mob's cell to re-infiltrate the base with her and make off with it.
What follows is enough gory action, cross-dimensional warring, masturbation-induced spells, mind control, kinky sex, and redneck-baiting to satisfy even the most jaded of readers. Did I mention the gore? King Mob goes on a kill spree in this book; Morrison claimed he was approaching this "new look" for the Invisibles like a big-budget Hollywood action movie, and he delivers. But beyond the mayhem, there's also some great character development, particularly for Ragged Robin, previously a blank slate. Here we learn that there's more to her than meets the eye: born in 1988 (the story takes place in 1996), Robin is definitely not an 8 year-old, but she offers no answer to this riddle.
There are only two drawbacks to "Bloody Hell in America." One: DC/Vertigo failed to include the last page of issue #4 in the collection. This missing page isn't integral to book; instead, it introduces Takashi, a Japanese scientist who comes to the fore in Book 5, and who has just figured out how to travel in time. Still, it would've been nice to have that page in here.
And the second drawback: Book 4 is rather short. Previous and later paperback collections are much larger, collecting more issues. This book only features 4 issues; this is because DC published it early in Volume 2's run, to capitalize on the title's new look and feel. But that's only a minor drawback; Book 4 makes up for in slam-bang action and thought-provoking ideas what it lacks in size.
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