Rating: 
Summary: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the INVISIBLES!
Review: Alan Moore's *Watchmen* dropped into the mid-80's Zeitgeist like a nail-bomb, embedding white-hot shrapnel into fertile young minds, shredding long-held preconceptions about the genre, and, all in all, signifying a new level of maturity to the medium of the 'illustrated lit.' - or comic books, if you prefer - with its adult themes and meta-narrative complexity. *Watchmen* tore through the boundaries, building upon the template of the "graphic novel" as pioneered in the early 80's, and therein expanding the potentiality of it ten-fold...it threw down the gauntlet, cocked the hammer of the duel-pistol; it challenged artisans to ~step up their game~, evolve beyond superhero tights and Golden Age clichés; it left a huge vacuum in its wake - and, as we all know, nature abhors a vacuum.
Thus we come to DC's Vertigo imprint, a label intended for mature stories, and more specifically to Grant Morrison and his *Invisibles*, the self-appointed (and occasionally self-conscious) heir to the post-modern *Watchman* wake. Begun in 1996, during a widespread industry slump due in large part to greed and mismanagement, and concluded at the end of 1999, on the eve of the new millennium, *The Invisibles* sought to achieve the depth, breadth and influence of Moore's juggernaught, to give a greater perspective to the fringe-elements of contemporary society, to reveal/ridicule/rise above the morass of ~popular paranoia~ as embodied by the X-files, Fortean Times, David Icke and other exploiters of conspiracy theory... "This is the comic I've wanted to write all my life," Morrison stated at the end of issue 1, "a comic about everything: action, philosophy, paranoia, sex, magic, biography, travel, drugs, religion, UFO's..." In no uncertain terms Morrison envisioned the be-all end-all illustrated compendium of out-there speculation, a kitchen-sink omnibus entailing all theories and systems, a 'hypersigil' that would influence/embody the outward reality it modeled itself on - and, hopefully, make our world a better, more entertaining place in which to dwell. For only with an open mind can we really reap the benefit of life's ongoing pageant, boogie down to syncopated pulse of the information era.
Morrison lacked neither ambition nor energy in his resultant craft, *The Invisibles*, a seven-volume conspiracy-epic that begins here, with 'Say You Want a Revolution.' Does it succeed even moderately to its stated intention? Well, yes - albeit somewhat fitfully. For this volume, besides being the opening gambit of the whole affair, nicely encapsulates the heady potential of Morrison's material, the verve and style, as well as the excess and superficial assimilation that occasionally brings the whole thing into the perilous straights of pretentiousness, of under-compensated imagination-overload. It is fantastic, frustratingly vague, epic and tangent-flabby, a borderline-smirk to all its influences and to those influenced. It's like nothing else on the market - and that alone assures its position on the top-shelf graphic novel 'classics' space.
*The Invisibles vol. 1: Say You Want a Revolution* compiles the first two story-arcs of the series: firstly, the initiation of Dane McGowan into the mysteries of the Invisible order, and secondly, the Arcadia time-warp continuation. The first story is arguably the better and more effective of the two, being a variation on the classic hero/fool's journey from wild agitator to learned acolyte. The art reflects the influence of the 60's that infuses Morrison's storytelling: the draftsmanship, inking, coloring and framing is highly reminiscent of the Ditko/Kerby et al. styling of the Aquarius-Era renaissance in comic books. The second story, Arcadia, veers between two dovetailing plotlines: the Invisibles journey back to the French Revolution to secure the 'psychic projection' of the Marquis DeSade, and find themselves trapped in the libertine's most infamous work, while the Romantic poets Shelly and Byron pontificate about literary influence ("a cannon fires only once, but words detonate across centuries") and cope with personal tragedies. This second story-arc gets a bit messy (literally), but also contains superior writing and art, and builds into an effective climax that, in the end, had me scrambling to collect the rest of the series. Morrison's hypersigil had me.
A literati l'enfant terrible, the author packs his narrative with a mind-boggling assortment of allusions, occult references and outright assimilation. A short list (deep breath): Egyptian symbolism, Situationist propaganda, Rock n' Roll quotation, Irish mythology, psychological probes and split-personalities, Mind Control, Satanic sacrifice, Freemasons, Templar Holy Grail metaphors (including the head of John the Baptist!), the Tarot, UFO's, Alien paradigm-shift assistance, syntax-manipulation, Gnosticism, Aztec demonology, multiple dimensions, etc. etc. Literary references include Shakespeare (King Lear), Carlos Castaneda, Browning, Shelly and Byron, and most explicitly, DeSade's *120 days of Sodom.* Some of these influences are made obvious, some are revealed only via visual interpretation, and some reach the threshold of gratuitous - not all works as well as it could (envisioning DeSade as a contemporary anti-hero is a bit of stretch) - but, overall, the confidence Morrison displays, and the generally successful accruement of his various sources, lends *The Invisibles* the impressive resonance of the meta-narrative, the glamour-sheen of a work in tune to the reverberation of the Zeitgeist, more than ready to challenge its current state, insert the past into the present and therein shape the future mass-consciousness. Morrison claimed that *The Invisibles* would have the same sort of repercussions as the Sex Pistols, hence my review-title; I'm doubtful of this claim, given that *The Invisibles* still remains relegated to underground highbrows, but it ~did~ influence those who made *The Matrix* (striking parallels can be found in the hero's journey segment of this book) - and that cinematic epic, for better and for worse, has forcibly inserted hyper-referential meta-narratives into the cultural identity.
It's easy to criticize ambition. Certainly this book is messy, occasionally pretentious, overly stylistic and a bit smarmy in tone - but throughout, Morrison's intent remains pure:
"And in my mind, I see the sun rise on a new and better world."
Highly Recommended
Rating: 
Summary: This is as good as comics get!
Review: As an avid reader of comics and lover of chaos, this is the one work that draws me back time and time again. I originally read the first 10 issues in college while I was bored one night. The next day I cracked open my student load to pick up this graphic novel and complete my collection to the current issue (around 23) More than any other literary work I own, this one has drawn me back repeatedly. I'm currently reviewing the series for the 8th time. Most comics I only read once...maybe twice. This comic is a keeper
Rating:
Summary: "It's brilliant, but it's mental." -Jack Frost
Review: Essentially, it's what would happen if Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, and Robert Anton Wilson were to have a few drinks and then write a comic book together
Rating:
Summary: The Grand Introduction
Review: First let me start by saying that I might be a little biased in this review. I started reading The Invisibles with the Second Series, so it wasn't until after a few of those issues that I went back to the First Series.After the totality of violence and conspiracy in the story "Black Science" in the Second Series, I felt a little slowed by the pace of Say You Want a Revolution, with the focus mainly on Jack and his scholarship under Tom O'Bedlam. The introduction was a needed aspect of the story; however, since we are essentially initiated at the same time that Jack is. The second story arc "Acardia" was an interesting look at the workings of the The Invisibles as a whole and how each one interacts with the other. I think we could have all done without the perverse nature of the Marquis de Sade, but you slowly come under the realization that Morrison is trying to shock all the taboo out of your system, in order for you to let your barriers down and stop thinking with the mind that "they" developed for you. Morrison is an incredibly creative and intelligent author who mixes real science and philosophy into an ultimate tale of violence, conspiracy, magic, and sex. This first book may be a little slower than the others, but the entire series quickly picks up speed and you'll soon find yourself unable to read anything else until you finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Hell, yeah!
Review: Great, but why doesn't Vertigo reprint the whole darn thing?!??
Rating:
Summary: First Half: 5 stars; Second Half: 3 stars.
Review: I have to agree with one of the earlier reviewers that this would have been a better book if it had stopped halfway through. In the first half, we are introduced to the eerie world of the Invisibles from the perspective of the young Jack Frost protagonist, with whom we can relate (obnoxious as he might be). But the second half of the book suffers from jarring time travel sequences, high gross-out content, arcane conversations, and a lack of sympathetic characters. The Marquis de Sade is, I think, *intended* to be such a viewpoint character, but I found him too strange and off-putting to have much sympathy for him. And the Invisibles themselves already seem to know everything. That said, I have to conclude that it's a very ambitious and engrossing book nonetheless. The high point for me was Jack Frost's initiation to the Barbelo and whatnot, at the end of the 4th chapter. That had me really hooked, despite the fact that things got less interesting as the story went on. I can definitely recommend this book to people who liked THE ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY and some of the more paranoid Philip K. Dick novels; that sort of thing.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but where is the rest of the story?
Review: I love this book. When I finished reading it, it seemed incomplete though. Then I learned through the diehard fanbase that it is actually part of a larger piece that has not been released in collected form. My question is, why not? This is a great start, why not release the rest?
Rating: 
Summary: Let the invisibles disappear
Review: I made some mistakes in my early review; the main one being that the fifth Beatle was not Peter Finch but Pete Best (Peter Finch was a popular actor in the 1960s and JFK's brother-in-law). However, I still would like to go on the record and say that this is not Grant Morrison's best work. The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution is just way too hip for it's own good (I feel the same way about Warren Ellis'Transmetropolitan: Back on the Street). A much better work along the same lines (and also by Grant Morrison) is Doom Patrol: Crawling from the Wreckage. In the Doom Patrol it works for the characters to be strange and weird, that's who they are. However, in the Invisibles, the characters' oddities just seem forced. Stay away from the Invisibles and get the Doom Patrol, because the Doom Patrol is what the Invisibles should have been.
Rating:
Summary: One hell of a good book
Review: I picked up the Invisibles when I was bored in my local comic book store and was blown away. No, not at first, not at the begining but a tid bit later when the information began to sink in. How much references and information does Grant Morrison have in his head? This book makes you think, and wonder about the modern world and the obstructed view of the world in which we live in. Anyway, it's a goddamn fine book so I recomend that you buy it and send Grant cash.
Rating:
Summary: Morrison has written better
Review: I suppose I was expecting more from this book, than what I actually got. I come from the old "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you" school of thought, and when I first read the reviews for this book, I could not wait to get my own copy. However, I was disappointed. This is not the story I though I was getting. Granted, there are some good moments. The Harmony House for example, where individuality is stripped away leaving a person an open receptacle for the world around him (and any new fad that just happens to wander in). The god of chains is another, and seeing the ghosts of John Lennon and fifth Beatle Peter Finch walk down the Liverpool streets, is a standout. However, these sequences are few and far in-between. The problems come in the second half. Jack Frost, after a long initiation, finally meets the team of Invisibles. My main problem, here, is with is the Invisibles themselves. The characters are idiotic and more resembling the cast of the MTV's Real World than a subversive group of anarchists out to buck the system (and I really, really, really hate MTV's THE REAL WORLD!) Grant Morrison would have done better, if he had left the team of Invisibles a presence lurking in the shadows, than bombarding us with their "quirkiness". Had he left the Invisibles as just another truth for young Jack Frost to unravel in the unfolding brave new world before him--then this would have been a better story. As it is now, the Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution is just a pale imitation of The Prisoner. Spend your money instead on the JLA, which is Morrison at his finest.
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