At least in commercial terms, 411 is the strangest thing Marvel have put out in ages.  It's a three-issue anthology miniseries featuring stories about peace.

With perhaps a slight degree of optimism, the back cover describes the series like this: "On April 11, 2003 grief turns to hope and resolve when Marvel and its international creative community pay tribute to the world's least-heralded heroes: peacemakers.  The 411 anthology tells true and fictional stories of people choosing to fight aggression with information and nonviolent resistance."  The book then proceeds to get off to a riproaring start with "Understanding the Culture of Nonviolence", a two page article by Arun Gandhi about the necessity of embracing pacifism on a cultural level.

The general reaction to this series (notwithstanding Marvel's claims to be answering criticism) has been bafflement.  Who's it for, exactly?  It's certainly not a money grabbing exercise - in the current American climate, most media outlets are running a mile from this sort of thing.  Of course, it wasn't originally commissioned with a view to tying in with the Iraq war.  But it does appear to be something Marvel are producing for no real reason other than that the current administration think pacifism is a good thing and would like to promote it.

All very laudable, but does it make for good stories?  The difficulty that creators face is that everyone claims to be in favour of peace, and broadly speaking everyone is.  Nobody who's mentally stable wants to bomb Iraq simply because they enjoy wars; it's a question of assessing the specific situation (rightly or wrongly) as warranting a deviation from the general principle.  Stories which simply contend that peace is, on balance, a good thing are likely to be telling the audience something that they already know.

Marville has not done wonders for Bill Jemas' reputation as a writer, so it's worth remembering that his contribution to Moment of Silence was actually quite good.  "Blow Up", co-written with Chuck Austen, isn't bad either.  It's about the Arab/Israeli conflict, and its main failing is that it really comes down to being a general plea for everyone to stop shooting one another.  Nonetheless, it's solidly structured, and has some excellent art from Phil Winslade.  And the central point that both sides are equally to blame for maintaining a circle of violence (the lead character goes out of his way to blame other Israelis for the death of his daughter at the hands of a Palestinian terrorist) probably does count as a controversial viewpoint in America, which gives the story a little more point.

Mark Millar and Frank Quitely give the audience a briefing on the history of Northern Ireland, and a nice little anecdote about (presumably) Millar's grandfather in the 1920s.  Millar is less concerned about portraying each side as evenly to blame.  And a strong case can be made that in the Northern Irish context, they weren't - the problems there weren't just to do with social violence but a general abuse of power by the protestant majority.  Nonetheless, his story comes down to the same cycle of violence point.  If people were a little more imaginative in the way they took revenge on one another, then at least they wouldn't be able to justify continually killing one another.  Plus, it is a funny anecdote, even if Millar gives it a bitter aftertaste by acknowledging that it didn't really change anything.  They have Orange parades in Glasgow too - dreadful things, and not just because they screw up the traffic.  This is a really nice little story, and a pleasant change of pace for both Millar and Quitely.

Finally, David Rees and Tony Salmons' "Seeds" is about an Afghan soldier turning his back on the armed forces to join landmine clearance operations.  It's more about breaking with social pressure.  There's a hectoring father representing the forces of history, a young child representing purity and the future, and a gardening metaphor about regrowth in order to allude to the old "swords and ploughshares" proverb.  Dialogue such as "I'm sorry, dad, but the defense of my home has started to feel too much like its destruction" appears.  It's very well intentioned, and quite well presented, but not desperately subtle - and it's unlikely many people's opinions are going to be greatly challenged by the proposition that Afghanistan would be a better place if they stopped shooting one another and cleared more landmines.

To be honest, this is better than I expected - perhaps because in the current climate a comic about pacifism doesn't come across as stating the obvious, and its preachier tendencies can be more easily excused.  The art's good throughout, and it's got a Millar/Quitely story which is worth your time in reading.

Rating: B

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