Reviewer: Iain Burnside
Story Title: Run, Xoo! Run!
Written by: Grant Morrison
Penciled by: Cameron Stewart
Inked by: Cameron Stewart
Colored by: Peter Doherty
Lettered by: Todd Klein
Editor: Karen Berger
Publisher: Vertigo > DC Comics
Grant Morrison is an enigma. Along with Alan Moore he has been responsible for more reinventions of the wheel than any other comic book writers since superheroes became the norm. Unlike Moore, however, Morrison does not make his influences quite so obvious. His writing is incredibly subversive and open to any number of interpretations. Half the time it is unclear whether or not he has a specific agenda to his tales or if he is deliberately throwing as many unorthodox ideas out there as possible in order to kick back and laugh at reviewers trying to interpret them. His work is certainly an acquired taste, and one that Marvel has shown an aversion toward. Having shaken things up significantly during his New X-Men tenure, Marvel quickly reverted to the status quo as soon as he was off the title. They went back to the safe, comfortable cocoon of soap opera melodrama (Austen) and ill-timed nostalgia (Claremont), while Morrison returned to another publishing company, one that always appreciates innovation. He returned to Vertigo, home of The Invisibles and The Filth, and all seemed right with the world.
Face it; you already know if you are going to buy this comic. Morrison adding a fresh lick of paint to existing characters like the X-Men is one thing. Morrison left to his own devices to paint a brand new picture is quite another. If you enjoyed his previous creator-owned tales then you will enjoy this one too. If you didn’t then, well, go back and join Marvel in the ‘70s and we’ll talk in a few years. Whether taken as an offbeat superhero tale or as an allegory for post-millennium culture, Seaguy looks set to become the mini-series of the year.
Right from the off we delve into surreal territory. In a strange riff on Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal the first page has Seaguy playing chess with Death himself. Meanwhile, in the background Seaguy’s companion, a flying, cigar-chomping tuna fish with an attitude problem named Chubby, floats around in front of a seaside diner called the Educated Man’s Chicken that sells such delicacies as ‘monkey nuggets’ and ‘shark shakes’ while proclaiming “the sky is falling!†Throw in the fact that this Death never actually wins at chess because he is colourblind, and the new pieces Morrison uses such as ‘nurse’ and ‘executioner’ and this becomes all the more twisted. Death leaves on his gondola in a huff, vowing revenge on Seaguy and Chubby. So what does this all mean then? Is Seaguy’s continued ability to beat Death a reflection on the inability of comic book superheroes to stay dead? Does the diner, complete with billboard of the Educated Man cracking the egg, represent the GM crops issue? Was the book and titular character placed near to the sea in order to show mankind’s desire to return to simpler, freer days? It is all left irritatingly vague, which is typical of Morrison. Conversely, it is also his best quality. He stops just short of beating us over the head with his own political views, even though we are all perfectly aware of what they are, and allows us to bring our own interpretations to the book.
Delving a little deeper though, the real impetus for our lead character does become clearer. Just take a look at this strange new world. People are offered less choice of product in supermarkets than before but will buy all the new stuff anyway, even if they don’t know what it actually is. After all, it’s new. It’s Xoo! Likewise, people are content to watch the same show for the hundredth time because their levels of lethargy are far greater than their levels of energy. They will quite happily go to the same old places they always go for no other reason than they have been subliminally tricked into it by advertising. They will quite happily ignore distressing news, such as a freak attack by rampant balloon animals, in favour of inane entertainment that literally squashes ambiguity in favour of conformity. If any of that doesn’t sound familiar then I envy you for either living in the most exciting place in the world or being dumb enough not to notice. The rest of us feel the same way Seaguy does. We don’t really want to go to the “Mickey Eye†theme park or watch the “Mickey Eye†TV show over and over again. We want more. We want to find love, just as Seaguy wants his She-Beard. We want to be able to do what we were born to do, just as Seaguy wants to be a hero again.
Unfortunately for Seaguy, his kind is few and far between. More and more people are quite happy to keep living their lives in vicious circles of nothingness. Just look at Dr. Hero, a former superhero who lost his powers and spends his days wiling away his life on a theme park ride to try and compensate for it. Some people may not feel particularly fond of this strange world, such as the screaming kids that hate Mickey Eye, but they are powerless to do anything about it. There is a whole hell of a lot for Seaguy to fight after all, and now it seems he may be waking up to that fact. And that’s not even mentioning the strange behaviour of the moon, or the surprise appearance of the real Xoo…
Meanwhile, over at Marvel, people are quite happily reading the same old stories as before without daring to question things. It’s a funny old world after all…
