Annihilator #6 (Legendary)

via Paste Magazine

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Frazer Irving

There are few authors as universally acclaimed without a single novel universally considered a classic as the late Philip K. Dick.  (I realize I may have just angered all of his fans, right there.)  As acclaimed as his fiction is, Dick's lasting impact to date is in the wide body of film that has been adapted from it, beginning with the cult phenomenon Blade Runner.  My personal favorite, since its release in 2011, is The Adjustment Bureau.

I begin my review of Annihilator's final issue like this because, in the end, its story ends up being a lot like Adjustment Bureau.  In the first issue, with an excerpt refreshed in everyone's mind thanks to Legendary's 2015 FCBD release, Max Nomax boldly proclaims that he will find a cure for death.  He does in fact do that in this finale.  As it turns out, Ray Spass's whole odyssey of meeting his own fictional creation while struggling to complete what looks to be his final screenplay because he's got an inoperable tumor that spells his imminent death...is actually all part of Max's ultimate defiance of fate, this whole universe his contrivance, and in turn Morrison's answer to life, the universe, and everything.

I've said all along, or I began saying it at some point early on (and in fact named Annihilator the top comic in my 2014 "best of" QB50), that this is in all likelihood Morrison's best-ever work.  With this conclusion, I'm now fully prepared to endorse this assertion to its fullest.  What he's always lacked until now is a full-blown and yet fully accessible version of his wildest tendencies.  And that, friends, is Annihilator.  This was an inkling I'd previously had about Joe the Barbarian, but I came to appreciate that one more in hindsight than I did at the time it was originally being published.  With Annihilator there was no doubt whatsoever.  Other fans could rightly point to We3, although its brevity might always be its biggest (and only) weakness.  The funny thing is that during the midst of Annihilator's publication, Morrison also finally published The Multiversity, including the Pax Americana issue, which may actually be the leading contender for the second spot in his oeuvre.

Anyway, this is also a love story, a messy one.  I love The Adjustment Bureau a great deal, but Annihilator is like the epic version of The Adjustment Bureau.  Another of the reasons I've been so excited to see this unfold is that it is probably Morrison's best bet to finally join Moore and Miller in the mold Dick has long enjoyed, which is being a favorite of Hollywood.  Now that it's clear that it really does boil down to something as simple and accessible as a love story...I mean, at this point I look for weaknesses, some misstep Morrison made along the way.  And, really, he's got everything covered.  This is his most complete, best work.

So here's the grand pitch: Annihilator = The Adjustment Bureau + Interstellar + A.I. Artificial Intelligence + Adaptation...Chances are, even if there are movies in that computation you don't like, it gives you an idea of how far-reaching the story really is, and how intimate at the same time.  And where there are so many associations to be made, it's also very clearly unlike any of them, almost a Princess Bride in that it's also a story about the story, a commentary on itself without being too meta, and it's obnoxious in all the ways people love about Quentin Tarantino movies (it's hard to say if Annihilator is more like Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, or even Reservoir Dogs)...

End of story.  Happy ending?  Well, pretty much.  And really, it could never be any other way.  And that's the genius of it.

Annihilator #5 (Legendary)

via Previews World

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Frazer Irving

The penultimate issue begins to explain everything and brings the story to its long-impending climax: the death of Ray Spass.

The Hollywood screenwriter attempting to revive his career with a brilliant new script who instead embarked on a quest with the dubious figure of Max Nomax to figure out how Max, the lead character of Ray's script, survived an epic conflict, has now reached his fateful moment.  He's near completion of the script, by the way.  And dying from a tumor in his brain.

He's discovered that Max isn't the hero after all, but a true villain, who gambled away the love of his life to settle the score with his rival, fueled by a madness that has been waiting for its own culmination from the start, when he declared that he would find a solution to death.  To bring back the woman he sacrificed?

Along the way, Ray's ex-lover, Luna, was also introduced, and this issue we even learn details of the big hit Ray has been trying to live up to.  Grant Morrison has been especially lucid, if typically heavy on the big ideas, and Annihilator as a result seems like a good way to introduce his work to movie audiences.  Have I mentioned Terry Gilliam as a possible director already?  Because the connection is too obvious, increasingly so.  If another director, then Christopher Nolan, who would have ample material to slow the pace down to a more contemplative interpretation.  

Frazer Irving's art is indelible to this project, a match step-for-step with the chaos Ray has been experiencing and the full grandeur of it.  Art direction has always been key to both Gilliam and Nolan's careers, aside from their storytelling.

There's so much to say before the story concludes, there seem to be several moments on which the issue could have ended, but there's always another step to be taken, and Morrison, always a step ahead of his readers, is keen to remember.  Every time Irving zooms in on a detail in the midst of a page otherwise concentrating on something else, it's a reminder of how in sync they are.

The ending will be most interesting...

Annihilator #4 (Legendary)

via Previews World

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Frazer Irving

Morrison's latest bid for immortality continues with an issue that goes a long way to unlocking the entire story.

Hollywood screenwriter Ray Spass has met the lead character of his latest script, Max Nomax, who tells him he's real and that Ray needs to finish the story so that he can remember how he defeats the cosmic forces working against him, which include Makro, who has begun impersonating Ray.

Makro shows up at the door of Ray's ex-girlfriend Luna, but thankfully Max and Ray intervene in time.

And then we learn from Luna more about Ray, and we see more about Max, and then Max's full story is explained, and by the end of the issue, Makro's impersonation has reached true crisis proportions...

So yeah, a pretty big issue.  It also continues the thread of what I picked up with the last one, with Annihilator acting as a kind of therapeutic release for Morrison.  This is not just another Morrison-does-a-story-about-a-character-meeting-his-creator thing, as one of the comics blogs I follow recently concluded.  This is one of those culmination projects, a sum of everything Morrison has sought to accomplish in his career.  It reminds me of Kid Eternity, in some respects, which when I read it became another signal project that unlocks much of what Morrison has tried to do in his career.  

And as it currently stands, I've pegged Annihilator as the best comic of 2014.

Annihilator #3 (Legendary)

writer: Grant Morrison

artist: Frazer Irving

via Previews World

Obviously I'm a big fan of Grant Morrison, and I've already talked glowingly of this project from previous issues, but this might be the one that unlocks the whole thing.

Ray Spass, the dying screenwriter who has just met the lead character from his latest script, has been thrust into the story of his life.  Max Nomax is a lunatic creation who claims he's real and that his story was downloaded into Ray's brain.  Except now Ray explains how he came up with Max in the first place, inspired by a series of previous efforts on a character who's become copyright-free.

And now the movie Annihilator could very well become is beginning to emerge.  Here are a bunch of quotes from the issue that could easily comprise the dialogue in the trailer:

"This man's creativity demands a ferocious, unpredictable expression." 

"It's the story of a rebel artist wrongfully imprisoned in a haunted lunatic asylum.  In space.  What the hell does it look like?" 

"You're a fallen specimen, Ray, weak and self-indulgent.  This so-called screenplay of yours is the work of a contemptuous, self-loathing creator." 

"I'm dying -- I just woke up thinking it was all a dream and then I remembered -- I'm actually dying." 

"I pitched them the whole idea in space.  'The Shining meets Alien.'" 

"This world.  This mortal sewer." 

"Send me to the abyss.  I'll show you the source of all art."

Cast Brad Pitt as Ray Spass, have Terry Gilliam direct, the long-awaited reunion after Twelve Monkeys.

What's more, especially with those first three quotes, I can't help but begin to view Annihilator as Morrison grappling with his creative legacy.  His admirers think Morrison is a genius and he remains one of the most respected creators in comic books, but he's never attained the same wider respect as Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman, as if his entire life's work has already been refuted.  Time and again I've attempted to do my part in explaining just what he's done, but I can imagine that it must be frustrating to think all his efforts have been in vain, all the praise he's received being, in the end, hollow.  For so long, Morrison has dedicated himself to the vital expression of superheroes, and yet this has proved impossible to distinguish or contend with what Moore achieved with Watchmen, a work that transcended the form because of its ironic detachment.  Morrison believes in big ideas and has consistently chased after them in his work, but he's long sought an anchor that makes his ambition accessible to wide audiences, not just visible but vital. 

After the release of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, I think something like Annihilator might have room to exist in greater context.  Nolan's career has had the benefit of wide appreciation following his superhero work with the Dark Knight trilogy (somewhat ironic, there), and to some (such as myself) his latest film is a clear culmination of his prior films.  Annihilator is very much like that for Grant Morrison.  Yet it's being released by a relatively anonymous publisher, which may make it all the more important that it receive the treatment Morrison may have intended for it, adaptation into a major motion picture, something Moore and Gaiman have received on numerous occasions but which has still eluded him.  I'm becoming more and more convinced that Annihilator is exactly the project he's been waiting to deliver for the honor.  At first I wondered if it could stand out or even sound plausible as a blockbuster.  The longer the story continues, the more I'm convinced.  He knows exactly what he's doing.

We'll see.

Annihilator #2 (Legendary)

writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Frazer Irving

via Previews World

I'm officially really starting to love this one.

Here's Grant Morrison with a big idea again.  Here's Grant Morrison writing a comic about a screenwriter with an inoperable brain tumor trying to complete his latest script, and realizing that the biggest obstacle is actually going to be the lead character, who has manifested himself in front of the screenwriter!

The screenwriter is Ray Spass and the lead character is Max Nomax.  Together they have some great back-and-forth dialogue.  I think that alone, which was an element that also helped distinguish Morrison's earlier Happy!, might be one of the biggest selling points of Annihilator.  That's best thing to take away from the second issue, regardless of whether it continues to be a running feature for the length of the mini-series.

Ray, of course, doesn't believe he's actually talking to Max.  It's crazy, right?

Morrison famously said years ago that his work was the result of trying to channel actual experiences he'd had, meaning The Invisibles was interpretation as much as story.  The Filth had a similar vibe to what Annihilator is doing, but it lacked the streamlined quality Morrison later perfected within the pages of the brilliant We3 and especially Joe the Barbarian.  It feels as if Annihilator is Morrison's attempt to explain what he meant all those years ago, but in a more straightforward, concise way.  There are elements that are typically gonzo Morrison, but they're analogous to sci-fi concepts you'll be familiar with (Aliens, Terminator, even Inception), presented from a standpoint of a real world situation that's taken a slight deviation.

As in, Ray is dying.  Are his subsequent experiences to be believed?  Is he hallucinating (another central question of Happy!) or can he take Max at face value?

But more to the point, Morrison has found a pair of characters who work really well together and can sell all of this quite easily.  Frazer Irving helps keep all of it visually mesmerizing.  He's part of a recent trend that has reemphasized the role of art in comics storytelling, the polar opposite of what Image was doing twenty years ago, when it was only about the art and the story didn't matter, something creators worked against for years until the art didn't really matter anymore.  Now we have artists like Irving and Fiona Staples (Saga), taking big ideas and presenting them that way, playing in concert with the writer and helping to make the whole thing a complete experience, the way comics are always supposed to be.

Long story short, Annihilator is developing into another career-defining work for Morrison.

Annihilator #1 (Legendary)

writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Frazer Irving

via Previews World

So, Grant Morrison.  The guy who seems to have gone completely crazy tackling Big Ideas.  Considering that he's been doing that for years means either that he's definitely crazy, or that he can't possibly be crazy.  Of course, that isn't necessarily true for his readers, too...

Morrison is part of the class of the '80s British Invasion that included Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.  Of the three, he's the only one who has failed to make a mainstream name for himself.  Either he's tackling his Big Ideas or he's merrily competing with Geoff Johns for the title of Most Iconic Writer on whatever major superhero series he happens to be working, be it JLA, Batman, or Action Comics.  His fans consider such work as We3, All Star Superman, and Animal Man to be among the best comics ever published.  He himself considers The Invisibles to be the unacknowledged source of The Matrix.  His Final Crisis was considered too esoteric by just about everyone, even his greatest admirers.

I think he's a genius.  I swear by Joe the Barbarian, personally; think The Mystery Play and Kid Eternity might be his best work, Arkham Asylum the best Batman comic from a period better known for The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns.

But even I sometimes wonder what will happen to his legacy once Morrison stops working.  Will he become too obscure for later readers to discover him anew?  Do his Big Ideas in fact consume themselves?

Then he goes and seems to try and answer that question himself, not for the first time.  That's Annihilator in a nutshell.  It's the story of a Hollywood screenwriter faced with such a task, working on a new script, trying to come up with a Big Idea and failing miserably, swallowed by all the ways he tries to inspire himself.  He has an Idea, but doesn't know where to go with it.  Then he meets his main character.

This character, Max Nomax, has decided he will tackle the ultimate challenge, beating death itself.  In a way, it's Morrison throwing down the gauntlet on his own greatest ambitions, or as Douglas Adams would have said it, the subject being nothing less than "life, the universe, and everything."

via Superhero Hype

The outlet for this effort is an upstart publisher connected to a movie studio.  Does this mean we can expect another stab at Morrison hitting the big screen?  If so, he's got to know critics and audiences don't exactly go gaga for ambition of this kind, unless it comes from someone like Christopher Nolan.  Does that even matter?  There are five more issues to see where he goes with it, see if Morrison streamlines (as in We3, Joe the Barbarian) or verges on incomprehensible (Final Crisis).  At the start, it looks like, at last, he's found a way to blend the two.  This is a very good sign indeed.

The artist on record is Frazer Irving, who's worked with Morrison before (Seven Soldiers of Victory: Klarion the Witch Boy, Batman and Robin).  He's a master of transcendent horror, humanizing the grotesque (he does a mean Joker, then).  Once again, therefore, an ideal collaborator for Morrison.

As a fan of Grant Morrison, I always love to see a new project become available (or, as in the case of Zenith, finally become available again).  Something like Annihilator is a chance to witness, once again, history in the making.  And perhaps this time, the mainstream will start paying attention.