Pure Morrison
Morrison's trademark is present right from the start. The first issue of this series has a cover that screams absolutely nothing at the top of its lungs. An Andy Warhol-esque picture of a hand grenade. It dares you, nay, challenges you to deduce its meaning. A task which is likely impossible upon the first issue alone. But it's odd artistic simplicity sets it apart from the rest of the comics out there. This is a cover that really grabs the eye with its unique style.
Steve Yeowell's art is kind of interesting. It's not a style I could say is particularly great, but I also couldn't say it was particularly bad. He gets the point across with eficiency in every scene, a few of them looking genuinely excellent. The only big problems I have is the occasional background missing panels in scenes where that doesn't quite work, though he makes up for this by being completely on fire during the scene where King Mob invokes the Godhead John Lennon.
Morrison gives us a strangely sympathetic protagonist. He's a bad kid, with few redeeming qualities, but then we see the weight of the world placed on his shoulders. He comes from a neglectful household, he's very intelligent but doesn't know how to channel his mind into anything other than fighting the establishment. And he's kind of rewarded with the chance to do so.
Morrison leaves all kinds of subtle foreshadowing through the issue, and a fair amount of it pays off surprisingly quickly but leaves millions of other possibilities open. We follow Dane from his life in the streets of London to the beginning of his dive into the insane world of the Invisibles. It's a classic framing device and Morrison handles it perfectly. The forces of control take bizarre forms with a frightening familiarity and conformity, but we're rescued by the colorful forces of the Invisibles. In the world of a comic book, The Invisibles are the ones who seem normal in their outlandish and unique garb; and its the uniform conromity who seems more strange in this story.
Of course this IS Morrison, and it IS pretty much the defining series of his career; so there's plenty of seeming non sequiters that just kind of confuse. Enough of it feels like it'll make sense, but there's a few more poetic lines that just read like the gibberish of someone high as a kite. Of course, all things considered... But the story had me interested from beginning to end, and then salivating for more.
In Conclusion: 4/5
Standing alone, this issue isn't perfect. Morrison's work isn't exactly easy to properly review in this format, or even in trade form. It's much simpler to take an entire work he's done and reflect upon the entity as a whole. His stuff practically always requires at least two rereadings, but second readings can give such a sense of satisfaction when you catch all the subtle foreshadowing and realize the meaning of all the non-sequitars and the like. So I haven't finished the Invisibles, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to; but judging this first issue simply by its own merits, it's a damn fine start to what will either blow my mind or cause it sever pain. Or maybe both. The point is, from the start it's already obvious that this is classic Morrison. This is pure quality Morrison, untempered by the DC Universe unlike the rest of Morrison's Vertigo work. Nothing against his other work, but this has to be a damn personal project, giving us an unfiltered look at Morrison's vision.