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Apocalipstick (The Invisibles, Book 2)

Apocalipstick (The Invisibles, Book 2)

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $13.57
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Something special this way comes
Review: Apocalipstick, oh so cleverly named, is the second book of Grant Morrison's Invisibles series. After the drearily necessary Acadia story arc, these short stories are really what this series needed.

There are some real great single issues, particularly the Best Man's Fall, a story told through the eyes of a military peon.

The main arc, Apocalipstick, centers on Lord Fanny, the transvestite member of the Invisibles. I have to say, this is great stuff, all of the craziness seems rooted in reality, and makes the comic much more human and reasonable.

Morrison's characters are fleshed out in these stories, and these stories show a real desire on his part to get on track and tell some great stories. One of Morrison's weaknesses is to get too lost in the details, but that doesn't happen here.

A real enjoyable read, highly recommended.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: My own fault
Review: I bought Invisibles book one (Say You Wanna Revolution) because I am fan of Mr. Morrison's work. By the end of the title, I was quite confused.
No point, generic kooky characters, mind-boggling powers with zero explanation or reason, fighting the corrupt system because its what all good unrealized geniuses talk about. This couldn't be the Grant Morrison I knew. His stories have points and, you know, don't suck.
Something had to not be right. It had to be me. I just didn't get it. That's what it was. I didn't get it. I didn't have enough to sink my teeth into to find my place.
Easy solution: get book two. With more of this incredible story, I'll realize what Mr. Morrison is up too and I'll enjoy it like I was told I would.
So I got book two. It sucks, too, but then a sudden realization came over me. It wasn't that I didn't get something. I got it: rage against the machine, wear leather and be a sex god. It's that it was bad. It's slow and dull and goes out of its way to claim that black is white and white is black and if you don't know then you'll never know. It's as deep as the average middle schooler.
I give it two stars instead of one because its my own fault for haveing bought the second book.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: My own fault
Review: I bought Invisibles book one (Say You Wanna Revolution) because I am fan of Mr. Morrison's work. By the end of the title, I was quite confused.
No point, generic kooky characters, mind-boggling powers with zero explanation or reason, fighting the corrupt system because its what all good unrealized geniuses talk about. This couldn't be the Grant Morrison I knew. His stories have points and, you know, don't suck.
Something had to not be right. It had to be me. I just didn't get it. That's what it was. I didn't get it. I didn't have enough to sink my teeth into to find my place.
Easy solution: get book two. With more of this incredible story, I'll realize what Mr. Morrison is up too and I'll enjoy it like I was told I would.
So I got book two. It sucks, too, but then a sudden realization came over me. It wasn't that I didn't get something. I got it: rage against the machine, wear leather and be a sex god. It's that it was bad. It's slow and dull and goes out of its way to claim that black is white and white is black and if you don't know then you'll never know. It's as deep as the average middle schooler.
I give it two stars instead of one because its my own fault for haveing bought the second book.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good continuation of the Invisibles saga
Review: I didn't find this book to be as mind-blowingly delightful as "Say You Want a Revolution," but it's still darned good reading -- plenty of madcap ideas from the mind of Grant Morrison. (If you haven't read "Revolution," you really should before you read this book, since "Apocalipstick" is the second collection of the first volume of the comic series.) There are a couple of standalone stories that do a great job to set up the larger world in which the main characters operate. They may seem like interludes or digressions, but they're really the heart and soul of this book. The longer arc that returns to the main plot -- inasmuch as The Invisibles can be said to have a main plot -- is good, but I think it suffers in comparison to the 'Arcadia' arc from "Revolution." It does do a good job of exploring the background of one of the main characters, though. The book also has a lot of different artists, and as a result it shifts in tone and style a number of times. More consistency might have been a benefit, but it does increase the chance you'll find something you like.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good continuation of the Invisibles saga
Review: I didn't find this book to be as mind-blowingly delightful as "Say You Want a Revolution," but it's still darned good reading -- plenty of madcap ideas from the mind of Grant Morrison. (If you haven't read "Revolution," you really should before you read this book, since "Apocalipstick" is the second collection of the first volume of the comic series.) There are a couple of standalone stories that do a great job to set up the larger world in which the main characters operate. They may seem like interludes or digressions, but they're really the heart and soul of this book. The longer arc that returns to the main plot -- inasmuch as The Invisibles can be said to have a main plot -- is good, but I think it suffers in comparison to the 'Arcadia' arc from "Revolution." It does do a good job of exploring the background of one of the main characters, though. The book also has a lot of different artists, and as a result it shifts in tone and style a number of times. More consistency might have been a benefit, but it does increase the chance you'll find something you like.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good continuation of the Invisibles saga
Review: I didn't find this book to be as mind-blowingly delightful as "Say You Want a Revolution," but it's still darned good reading -- plenty of madcap ideas from the mind of Grant Morrison. (If you haven't read "Revolution," you really should before you read this book, since "Apocalipstick" is the second collection of the first volume of the comic series.) There are a couple of standalone stories that do a great job to set up the larger world in which the main characters operate. They may seem like interludes or digressions, but they're really the heart and soul of this book. The longer arc that returns to the main plot -- inasmuch as The Invisibles can be said to have a main plot -- is good, but I think it suffers in comparison to the 'Arcadia' arc from "Revolution." It does do a good job of exploring the background of one of the main characters, though. The book also has a lot of different artists, and as a result it shifts in tone and style a number of times. More consistency might have been a benefit, but it does increase the chance you'll find something you like.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HALLELUJAH! FINALLY, MORE TRADES FOR VOLUME ONE!
Review: Thank the great god Ganesh for removing the barriers that have held back the publication of trades pertaining to volume one of the Invisibles series (those of you in the know will see the secret references in this statement easily...and I didn't even have to resort to the 64-letter alphabet)! Now us latecomers that found volume two can get the backstory on one of the most influential comic series EVER! We have waited too long for this! Grant, you are NOT a wanker, don't let them tell you otherwise! I read volume one in fits and starts, and now I can fill in the gaps! People, pick this one up, and the first one in the series, Say You Want A Revolution. And later this year, get "Entropy in the UK", which I think will include the remainder of volume one! YEEEHAW!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best. Title. Ever.
Review: The Invisibles hits an early peak with this collection, which features issues 9-16 of the series' first volume. It kicks off in slightly arbitrary fashion with 23: Things Fall Apart, which surely would have been more comfortable nestling up at the end of Say You Want A Revolution as a coda to the Arcadia story-arc reprinted there.

Still, beginnings as endings is a recurring theme throughout the series so it's just possible that the editors in charge of the Invisibles' release in graphic novel format are less incompetant and insane than the books' slapdash release schedule would seem to indicate.

Even this early in the title's run Grant Morrison is already going out of his way to shade our perception of the story and its protagonists, sowing seeds that will only grow to full bloom a year or more down the road. This can be seen first in the characters' varying reactions to the bloodbath of the opening issue, but it's telling that Morrison is willing to take (almost) an entire issue away from his main characters to continue the process, resulting in one of the best, most innovative stories of the entire series - the elegant, borderline-heartbreaking Best Man Fall.

From that high (or possibly low) we're immediately picked up and pitched straight into another. The She-Man arc is an example of that rarest of comic-book beasts - a back-story that actually serves to make the character involved more interesting. It helps of course that the character in question is the dazzling Lord Fanny ("I'm an international freedom fighter AND a photogenic witch, darling. I'm the most glamerous creature you'll ever meet!") and helps even more that the immensely talented Jill Thompson is on pencilling duty, but the net result is a story of initiation that's both brutal and - no pun intended - magical. Oh, and for good measure it concludes with the biggest, sheerest cliffhanger of the series so far, one that'll have any sane person scrabbling to get hold of Entropy In The UK, the collection that concludes Volume 1.

Throw in the always-fun Jim Crow making his scholck-horror debut, Jack/Dane trying (and mostly failing) to come to terms with his new place in the world, and a couple of absolutely belting covers and all in all you've got what is, despite strong competition, probably my favourite Invisibles graphic novel.

Plus it's got the best title of anything, ever. This isn't even open for debate.


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