I TEGO ARCANA DEI
(Being an Overview of The Invisibles in Three Parts)
by David Hontiveros

Part 2: “Which Side Are You On?”

IT happens on the morning of December 22, 2012. On that day all of history impacts with an unimaginable Apocalypse, an Event glimpsed and interpreted by the prophets of every culture – the biblical Armageddon, Norse Ragnarok, the Aztec Fifth Sun, the Hopi Fourth World, the Breaking of the Seals, the Rapture, Eschaton, Doomsday. It’s almost here. Haven’t you wondered why time appears to be speeding up?
-- from the introduction to
The Invisibles Volume Two

“Darlings! The color in your lives has returned!”
-- Lord Fanny
The Invisibles Vol. Two # 1
“Black Science” Part One: “Bangin’”

On December 1996, the first issue of The Invisibles Volume Two (sporting an awesome cover by Brian Bolland, who’d done cover art for Grant Morrison’s run on Animal Man) bursts onto comic store shelves.

Beginning the four-part “Black Science” story arc, issue 1 is also a wonderful set-up for the entire volume, re-acquainting us with King Mob’s crew, and introducing new Invisibles such as moneyed UFO abductee Mason Lang, and Jolly Roger, the head of a lesbian Invisibles cell called the “Poison Pussies” (Roger was mentioned in Volume One though this is the first time we actually see her), and new baddie Col. Friday. Issue 1 also features the re-appearance of Mr. Quimper (from Vol. One, # 25), while succeeding issues of “Black Science” introduce us (sadly, all too briefly) to other Invisibles like the Scotsman Emilio, and the Indian medicine man Austin.

“Black Science” manages to balance the bigger, brasher tone of Volume Two with all the bizarre little bits we’d come to know and love from Morrison: these are just some of the topics the arc touches upon: film as the Invisibles’ own secret language; the true story behind Roswell (it wasn’t a UFO that crashed in New Mexico; it’s something that could very well be God!); the conspiracy behind AIDS; and the real names of Donald Duck’s nephews!

And, as you may recall, Morrison had discovered the magical nature of The Invisibles during Volume One’s run, and just as Tom O’Bedlam states in “Down and Out in Heaven and Hell,” there is magic, “… neither bad nor good, just there to be used by the people who know.”

So Morrison used the magic of The Invisibles to turn things around in his personal life.

“Then I thought, `Wait a minute, what if King Mob has a good time?’ So I took him to America and gave him Ragged Robin as a girlfriend. I did it deliberately. I got the Brian Bolland cover and I said, `I want to meet that girl’ and I did a magic thing on it. Within months I met a girl who looked exactly like Ragged Robin.” Morrison went on to say, “My life has become the comic, it’s become fiction, it’s become fantasy, and the more fantastic I make it, the better it seems to work.”

And, not only was Volume Two influenced by Morrison’s personal concerns for his health, its over-all tone was also partially determined by lessons learned from the first volume.

Despite it’s not-so-perfect timing, I still think “Arcadia” is one of the most incredibly written, deeply meaningful and significant story arcs ever told in comics, ever.
-- Phil Jimenez

Sales went from 64,000 to 20,000 in the space of a few months and have only just started to rise again with the new stuff.
… So… yeah. “Arcadia.” Trust me, it was a disaster. I really liked it but it almost torpedoed the book. I’m still telling the same story I set out to tell, I still know where it goes and how it ends and the magickal intent behind it remains as was, but if I have to mutate a little to survive then I bloody well will. Or as the divine Johnny once sang, “I use the en-em-ey…”
-- Grant Morrison

And “mutate a little” Morrison did, as Volume Two quickly proved to have more ammunition, blood, and brains flying about in a single chapter of “Black Science” than all the 25 issues of Volume One! Fortunately, the pyrotechnics and John Woo moments are there strictly to attract a wider audience, while Morrison continues to deal the weirdness out in spades.

Of course, there is (in my opinion) the most awkward moment of Volume Two, issue 7 (“The Sound of the Atom Splitting”) whose page count is divided into a protracted sequence of ultraviolence prolonged to the point of gratuitousness, and a wonderful set piece of surreal weirdness, as Fanny and Dane dance like mad to obtain the Hand of Glory from the Harlequinade. I LOVED the dancing bit, but the bullets and the brains…

The awkwardness of that particular issue is painful, but fortunately, it’s immediately followed by the excellent three-parter, “Sensitive Criminals.”

“If my expression fails to convey my genuine surprise, Mr. Skat, it is simply because I have cultivated the bored stare as an art form.”
-- Edith Manning
The Invisibles Vol. Two # 8
“Sensitive Criminals” Part One:
“Poor Little Rich Girl”

An evocative and moving period piece (set in 1924 and 1997), “Sensitive Criminals” introduces us to an Invisibles cell in the Roaring 20’s, made up of Edith Manning (from Vol. One, # 1), Edith’s cousin, Freddie Harper-Seaton (better known to us in his later years as Tom O’Bedlam, from Volume One’s “Down and Out in Heaven and Hell”), Billy Chang, Ronald Tolliver (the first King Mob!), and Beryl Wyndham (a.k.a. Queen Mab, whose other connection to the sprawling tale of The Invisibles is revealed in Volume Three).

As I mentioned in Part 1 of “I Tego Arcana Dei,” The Invisibles folds back in on itself at certain points like an origami figure (origami being a central image of Volume Two beginning in Issue 4). This is seen repeatedly in Part Three of “Sensitive Criminals,” “Parisian Pierrot,” which references events seen in issues 3 and 12 of Volume One (“Down and Out in Heaven and Hell” Part Two and “Best Man Fall,” respectively), and in a sly little warping of our perceptions, a sequence we see again in issue 9 of Volume Three (“Satanstorm” Four: “Digging Up Beryl”), as if past (Vol. One), present (Vol. Two), and future (Vol. Three) were all occuring simultaneously, that indeed, all time was one.

Of course, this is our perspective; to Edith and company, all these events are yet to occur in their “future.” Absolutely mental, eh?

And speaking of perception, Morrison screws around well with ours when he gives us a closer look at Ragged Robin and Boy. Robin’s tale is finally made privy to us (the salient points of which can be seen in issues 6, “The Girl Most Likely To,” and 21, “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” as well as some parts of “Black Science 2”); as it turns out, she was actually sent to the past from the year 2012 to be a pivotal element in the war against the Lost Ones (from a future where Boy and King Mob are conspicuously absent).

And, as for the early, persistent theory that Robin was actually Crazy Jane from The Doom Patrol, here’s a bottom line (one of many perhaps): Robin’s real name is Kay—as is Jane’s—and when we see an eight-year old Kay (in “Black Science”), she is clutching a stuffed rabbit. (Morrison based Crazy Jane on the real life case of Truddi Chase, whose mind-blowing autobiography—recommended reading, children—is entitled When Rabbit Howls.)

Robin’s story, however, is trumped by the exquisite mindfuck Morrison sends our way in the form of the three-part “American Death Camp,” which oh-so-effectively questions all we had come to know and believe about Boy’s past (as chronicled in Vol. One, # 20, “How I Became Invisible”). “American Death Camp” is a wild, dizzying ride that is undoubtedly Boy’s Moment in the entire Invisibles run.

And, since Volume Two does boast an American tone, how much more American can you get than the idea of… a sequel!!!

“`Individuality’ is the name you give your sickness. Your deviation from correct functioning. Understand this: we have come to free you from chaos and uncertainty. And `individuality.’”
-- Mr. Quimper
The Invisibles Vol. Two # 19
“Black Science 2” Part Three:
“Pavlov’s Dogs”

The four-part “Black Science 2” returns us to the New Mexico facility we first saw in the original “Black Science,” and, among other things, reveals Mr. Quimper’s connection to Fanny’s past, and shows Robin in the year 2005, writing a book called The Invisibles. (And in 2005, the process of writing entails placing one’s self amidst the words and architecture of the work, to, in effect, write one’s self into the work; this a recurring theme in Morrison’s body of work: reality impinging upon fiction-- and vice-versa-- and the results thereof.)

We also again see the chess-playing individual who first appeared in “Arcadia.” Here, Dane has an insightful conversation with him (while he again sits in front of a chess board), and though he is never actually named, the script for issue 19 (“Pavlov’s Dogs”) identifies him as “Satan.” (Having said that though, I must also point out that he utters dialogue that echoes lines spoken by the Christ figure in “The Last Temptation of Jack”-- Vol. One, # 23—and intimates that he has met Dane before. Make of that what you will, children.)

“I remember looking at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia when I was a little kid.
“That’s what I love about illusions; they’re right up there in front of you but somehow you don’t see them… until suddenly, you do… and I saw that I lived in a world where the symbol was more important than the reality. Where the menu was supposed to taste better than the meal.”
-- Mason Lang
The Invisibles Vol. Two # 22
“The Tower”

A re-reading of Volume Two has made me appreciate it more; I was initially doubtful of the ultraviolence that ran through its pages. In the end though, it is still The Invisibles we came to know and love from Volume One, albeit with the volume cranked way up, and the adrenaline rushing whitewater-quick.

The sly humor, the weird bits, the imaginative bravura; it’s all still here, beneath the blood and bullets. (In a quaint, self-referential moment from Volume Two-- # 5, “Time Machine Go”—King Mob visits his ex-girlfriend Jacqui. As they speak, he idly reads a comic book, commenting beneath his breath, “Christ! He’s making this bit too far-fetched…” When we get a glimpse of the comic’s cover, we see that it is actually a copy of the previous issue of The Invisibles!)

Next, “I Tego Arcana Dei” winds down as we take a look at Volume Three, where Grant Morrison’s ultimate conspiracy comes to an end. Till then, children, carpe noctem and all that Latin jazz.

“I’ve been asked to commend you for your participation in the assassination of the Moon Goddess, Diana. Or at least her earthly representative in this time section.
“The accompanying emotional climactic made quite a feast for our… governors.”
-- Col. Friday to Sir Miles
The Invisibles Vol. Two # 14
“Only Lovers Left Alive”