The Invisibles #8

In the finale to "Arcadia," the Marquis de Sade confronts the decadent horrors of modern-day California while the Invisibles face a time-traveling assassin in Britain and Ragged Robin takes on a cypherman in France. Don't miss the ending of this surreal storyline from Grant Morrison!

Still traveling the ontic sphere, King Mob, Boy, and the Marquis deSade have ended up in a S M club in San Francisco. They meet a disillusioned hippie in a gimp suit who is being punished by his mistress. The Marquis is amazed that people are doing out in the open, what he was locked up for doing in private.

Meanwhile, at the Rennes-le-Chartre Cathedral, the Cyphermen boast that Ragged Robin is too late... they have the head of John the Baptist. They insert a key into the head's pedestal and the head springs to life. It starts reciting the "You Spin Me Round" song by Dead or Alive, among other things. One of things the head says is that time is speeding up. The Cyphermen pull out their bladed tools, and tell Robin that the head has demanded tribute. They want to make her into one of them...

Walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marquis asks King Mob exactly why he was brought to the present of 1995. KM tells him that they hope he'll create a plan for the future of humanity. The Marquis is disappointed. He doesn't want to live in any utopia but his own. KM tells him they want a future where everyone will get what they want... including the other side.

At the windmill where the Invisible's bodies are, Orlando playfully tells the frustrated Jack to try the gun's safety. Jack finally gets the gun to fire, but misses on his first shot. The second shot manages to hit Orlando, but the demon doesn't stop. Lord Fanny stands up behind him; surprising the demon who thought she was dead. Fanny reveals that his knife actually sliced the fake breasts she was wearing. She is ANGRY, and Orlando is in trouble.

King Mob and Boy go dancing in a club, while the Marquis learns English. KM tells her that they can go back to the windmill when deSade is finished.

Ragged Robin, meanwhile, scoffs at the Cyphermen. First of all she's just a psychic projection; they can't harm her. Second, the head just speaks "glossolalia"-random sounds. Everyone who listens to it hears different things. And unfortunately for the Cyphermen, all they can hear is instructions and orders. She tells them they can keep the head and exits the cathedral.

In the past, Percy Shelley is still grieving over the death of his daughter and has thrown himself into his writing. Lord Byron appears and sits on the doorstep drinking wine. He tells Shelley to "stop talking to the future"; his family needs him. Shelley goes to the door, and Byron vanishes. Shelley realizes that he was imagining his friend, but admits that he cannot stop. Utopia is in our minds; we just have to recognize it.

Back at the windmill, Fanny calls upon the Aztec god, Mictlantecuhtli. Orlando becomes frightened, and Jack manages to pierce his hand to a wooden post. Fanny tells Jack to shut his eyes as she opens a door into hell. She tells the demon Orlando that it's time for him to go back home. Orlando is struck by beams of light and melts away, vanishing. In San Francisco, a young woman wearing virtual reality goggles says that things are too weird and that she needs to take them off.

At that club, the Marquis is talking to a young woman in a blue dress and pigtails. Boy says that they really need to go back home, and KM asks the Marquis if he's going to be okay. The Marquis deSade giddily admits that he feels quite at home.

Outside the cathedral, Robin talks to the man playing chess. He tells her that the language that the head spoke was the true language of the angels; the language before Babel. He asks the Invisible if she would like to play; she declines and tells the chessman that he doesn't look that old. He answers that he never has.

In the past, Percy Shelley finishes his writing. Noticing his wife watching him from outside, he throws his papers up in the air. He goes outside and embraces her.

The remaining Invisibles have finally rejoined their bodies in the windmill. King Mob asks Jack if he's okay. The youth angrily shows King Mob his mutilated hand and pointedly says that he is NOT okay. Jack tells the Invisibles that they can go to hell. Outside, another group prepares an assault on the windmill.

Beneath an underpass, a young male prostitute stands. He reminisces about how his life is not as he had planned, when a car arrives and picks him up. The passenger in the back seat is the Marquis deSade, and his driver is revealed to be the young woman he had been talking to in th club. The Marquis tells the young man that he will be of no particular age or sex. He will be a new type of person. He pins a blank badge on the man's jacket and they drive off into the night.