Seaguy, issues 1-3 by Grant Morrison, Cameron Stewart
Synopsis:
A three issue mini from the Vertigo line, Morrison sets this in a stand alone universe. Our protagonist is the likable but rather odd "Seaguy" a wannabe superhero in a world where, since the death of the "Anti-Dad" there has been no evil worth fighting. He's friends with an anthropomorphic, cigar smoking puffer fish by the name of "Chubby Da Choona." We get some nice exposition in the first issue, where we learn that Seaguy's life is boring despite his wishes for adventure. By the end of issue two, its off to the secret history of the moon, and a discovery of a plot by a vast, eye-ball corporation to replace things of wonder with mass marketed consumerism, which includes buying the moon. There's also a sub plot involving a living, sentient food source called Xoo, which everything from soda to cracker's is made out of.
Review:
You get from this very much a feeling that Morrison was introducing a lot of elements in this universe, including fallen former heroes, Seaguy himself, and this bizarre, normality enforcing corporation, that he intended to play with and refine, a feeling which is reinforced by the fact that this three issue mini was supposed to be followed up by another two minis. In a sense, a lot is left unfinished, which left me feeling a little discorcenated, and to be honest, a little uneasy. The last shot is the same we get at the beginning; a cheerful and unworrying Seaguy playing a friendly game of an odd form of Chess with an avatar of Death, called the Gondolier. This wouldn't be odd, except for the fact that Seaguy's best friend has been killed, and replaced, and Seaguy's memories have been destroyed in order to think that the replacement is perfectly normal. The comic is a powerful statement on our willingness to replace things of great wonder and hope with cheap and easy filler- repetitive cartoons and the Xoo food stuff. A little frightening and disqueting.
All in all though, you get a sense that if Morrison had more time to play with this, it could have been excellent, but as it stands, I've seen Morrison use these same ideas and to better effect- the consumerism and repetitiveness of life versus wonder and beauty was refined by him in Doom Patrol, Kill Your Boyfriend, and the unbelievable Flex Mentallo (gotta write a review for that sometime). The landscape of the comic is strange, enchanting, and well done, and if the universe of Seaguy had been more fleshed out, I feel like we could have gotten something wonderful.
Art, is of course, killer, as it's from the incomparable, Eisner-nominated Cameron Stewart, best known for his work on Catwoman, Transmetropolitan, Seven Soldiers: New York Guardian, and my personal favorite of all his work, the Vietnam War based "The Other Side." Stewart's realistic trippiness lends itself well to Morrison's script- an Egyptian moon looks almost exactly how I imagine it. It's a little weak in places- I feel like he either shouldn't be doing layouts himself, or he should practice a little bit more with visual story-telling. However, his facial expressions and his sense of movement are SPOT ON, and always excellent. You can almost tell exactly what a given character is feeling just on how they look.
All in all, I'd give this comic a seven- good reading, but there's better stuff on the same subject out there by the same author. The art is definetely worth taking a look at though, and it's a great example of something that if it just had a few more issues to develop, could have turned out really well.