The X-Axis, 23 May 2004
Part 7 of 8: SEAGUY #1

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But enough of the B-team.  What's Grant Morrison up to?

Seaguy is his first work since going back to DC.  It's a three-issue mini for Vertigo, and I suppose from a certain viewpoint you could call it a superhero comic.  Mainly, though, it's just fantastically insane.

Seaguy used to be a superhero.  Okay, strictly speaking he's just a guy in a wetsuit, but surely that's enough.  His world used to have lots of superheroes.  But then they saved the world, decided that everything was now officially great, and called it a day.  Poor Seaguy needs to do something heroic in order to impress a thinly disguised version of Red Sonja, but how can you be heroic when the world's already fantastic?

Except it really isn't all that fantastic - it's full of suspicious new foodstuffs and baffling theme parks based around walking eyeballs (complete with red cord tailing behind them).  Everyone in the theme park seems miserable, the kids are in tears... but still, everything is officially great. 

However, Morrison isn't doing any political soapboxing here.  It's more a general knock on a society that not only has stopped trying, but seems oblivious to the idea that there might be anything to try.  And it's all done in the context of a deliriously mental, absolutely hilarious world.  It's not every comic that features a horse being brained by a hieroglyphic meteor, for god's sake.

Artist Cameron Stewart perfectly matches the tone of the script - this is a world that looks cartoonishly perfect in style, until you realise what's actually in it.  There's a cuddly innocence to the whole thing which works beautifully.  Looking at the book, you can almost understand why everyone seems to think they're living in Utopia.

This is a hilarious book - great fun, and smart to boot.  It's absolutely nuts, and that's a good thing.

Oh, and for some reason I can't get the Mickey Eye theme tune out of my head.  I'm not quite sure how it's possible to get that from a silent medium.  It disturbs me, but I like that.

Rating: A+

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Copyright 2004 Paul O'Brien.  This web site is a work of critical comment and review. All characters and publications referred to, and artwork reproduced, are ™ and © their respective owners.
 

SEAGUY #1
DC/Vertigo
July 2004
$2.95 US / $4.50 CAN

"Run, Xoo!  Run!"
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Cameron Stewart
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colourist: Peter Doherty
Editor:
Karen Berger

LINKS
DC Comics
Vertigo

Grant Morrison
Cameron Stewart