Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles is a three volume work encompassing 59 separate issues published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics over seven years, from 1994 to 2000. The story starts with a delinquent teenager, Dane McGowan, and a couple of his friends setting fire to their school in Liverpool, England. Dane is the image of a rebellious teenager, angry, uncouth, disrespectful of authority and resolute in his own self-competence. As punishment for his crimes, he is sent to a state run boarding school. We learn that he is being targeted by two sides of an unseen war being fought over control of humanity’s future. The first volume covers Dane’s transformation into Jack Frost, a member of the Invisible army that is fighting against the efforts of the oppressive forces of the Outer Church that are attempting to strip human individuality.
Dane, now known as Jack, joins up with a cell of the Invisibles led by King Mob, a bald headed revolutionary with a talent for extreme violence. The other members of their group are Ragged Robin, a mysterious redhead with Raggedy Ann style makeup; Lord Fanny, a Brazilian transvestite and an Aztec shaman; and Boy, a former New York police officer who is recruited to the Invisibles after losing her brother to the Outer Church. Together they spearhead the fight against the forces of the Outer Church and work to save humanity.
The first volume is largely an exploration of the characters themselves. Morrison imbues each character with an aspect of his own personality creates a hierarchy for the group based on the elements of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Spirit. This hierarchy shifts throughout the series with each member of the group assuming different elements. Lord Fanny and King Mob are captured by the Outer Church and the rest of the group must act to save them. In the process Jack is exposed to an otherworldly enlightenment and is exposed to the truth at the center of the conflict between the Invisibles and the Outer Church, although he is unable to recall it afterwards he accepts his role as the potential savior of humanity.
The second volume takes place in America. The group travels there to escape the attention they’d garnered in England. They team with a cell of American Invisibles to assault a secret desert base of the Outer Church that houses the cure for AIDs, a virus engineered by the Outer Church. The end game of the series also starts to come into focus. The group meets with a wealthy Invisible named Mason Lang and they start down the path of using his wealth to spread the ideas of the counterculture into the mainstream, utilizing corporations and consumerism. The members of the group create strong connections with each other before being driven apart as the volume ends. Ragged Robin returns to the future in a time machine powered by the Hand of God. Boy retires from the Invisibles. King Mob throws away his gun and turns his back on violence. Jack and Fanny embark on a wild adventure into the unknown, freed from their pasts.
The final volume presents its issues in reverse order, counting down to #1. Time is accelerating and the forces that the Invisibles and the Outer Church have set into motion are coming to fruition. The final date for the ascension of the human race is December 22, 2012. The final battle between the Invisibles and the Outer Church is set to take place. As Jack triumphs over the King of the Outer Church, the true nature of the conflict is revealed. The Invisibles and the Outer Church are two forces working towards the same goal. Reality has been infected with a virus that has led to the dysfunction of individual beings. The Invisibles are the force of resistance, embracing individuality and empowerment of the self. The Outer Church seeks to contain the dysfunction of the virus, personifying it and allowing it to be attacked.
The virus that has infected humanity is of our own creation. The constructs of society have created a flawed vision of the self that traps it in self-damaging behavior that it can’t escape. Depression, addiction, oppression and various human failings result from the struggle to cope with our self-inflicted anguish. The Invisibles ends with Jack freeing humanity from the virus. He looks outward to the reader, making one final statement: “Our sentence is up.” (“The Invisible Kingdom” 286) The individual is freed from its self-imposed restraints at last. Looking back at the entire series, the reader sees that this theme has been repeated continuously throughout. It’s never been about the fight of good versus evil, but about obtaining enlightenment in the madness of society.
