Nameless Discussion Thread

[InformationGeek]

Grant Morrison folks. Let us discuss the new mind f**k comic that Nameless and give each of our thoughts what we just read.

The first issue out and I thought it was.... below average. I know Morrison writes some complicated books that require a lot of thought, but this was somehow far more mindbending and hard to comprehend than Arkham Asylum was! I can give it sort of a pass on the fact that a bunch of the story was a dream sequence, but dear god, it was bad. The dialogue was nonsensical, gibberish at points, and got laughable with how stupid the profanity got to be. The pacing was terrible and just gave you no time to digest anything in the story. The characters were stock and forgettable (not-Constantine was the lead apparently), having really nothing of interest or any sort of charm to them. The second half was a dull and dry exposition drop that just dragged on and on. Also, for a horror comic, this was shocking not all that scary. I mean, those angular fish people were strangely adorable with how they were drawn and how bright the color was on them.

Yes I know that this is Morrison and I'm sure he's going somewhere with this, but that's not how I analyze this book. I judge it on the now and not the later and right now, this was a hot mess of epic proportions. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book at this point. Maybe when a trade comes out and there a lot more material to digest, but I could never recommend the book currently.

Now, I gave this a 4 out of 10, but here's the thing. I didn't review this alone. Most of the entire site I worked for, including fans of Morrison, came together and we all did a group review. We broke it down by story, character, writing, art, and horror and you know what? I wasn't the only one unimpressed. All together, we gave it a nice 5.5 out of 10.

[Selykg]

I have not yet read it as mine is currently shipping so I won't see it for probably another week.

This is slightly disappointing to hear though. I've been looking forward to this one. I guess what I'll do is keep an eye on this thread and wait it out for the first story arc and read them all at once. If I don't like it after the first arc then I will cancel, but it sounds like maybe there's a lot more going on than could be contained in a single issue.

Not sure if linking to outside reviews is allowed here, if it isn't let me know and I'll happily yank the link. But this review seems to like the story so far: http://thelatestpull.com/2015/02/adv...ew-nameless-1/

[Sharkey]

On a cursory read it is pretty illegible, but once I took the time to read it again slowly whilst trawling the internet for answers on what all these name places and concepts were, it starts to pull itself together.

If it helps, Nameless (like Morrison) is Glaswegian, hence the constant swearing.

I like what I've read so far, much like Annihilator didn't expect an easy read anyway.

[vickvega]

It was pretty wierd but I didnt expect anything less. We'll see where this goes for a few issues.

[Nick Miller]

yeah, this was pretty damn good. The art was amazing, as expected.


clearly this guy has some dream powers

those reviews at your site were ok informationgeek, but they certainly Wanted things, and expected things, that GMO was not ready to reveal in the first issue! I like Nick's review the best, hehe.

definitely Lovecraftian, which gets a big "HELL YEAH, bring on the tentacles!" from me.

[El Sombrero]

I'm not sure if I have lost interest in Morrison's writing or if he has gotten worse in the last few years. I thought Vol 2 (the New 52 portion) of Batman Inc was a weak way to end his Batman saga, his Action Comics run started strong but became a mess, and I think with a couple of exceptions Multiversity has been a big disappointment. Morrison used to be my favorite comics writer but I feel like a lot of his stuff these days is recycling stuff he's already dealt with. He tends to reuse themes and symbols a lot and I feel like he's said pretty much all he has to say.

Aside from Morrison for a moment, I thought this book looked spectacular. Some of the pages were just amazing and Fairbairn in particular killed this. I don't really think Burnham is a great choice for horror as a lot of his characters look sort of cartoony and there is always a demented energy to his work. Cartoony silly energy worked for Batman Inc where part of the appeal was the retro element and the whole goofy concept itself, but here where the book is trying to be more straight unnerving and disturbing, it looked great but often felt like tonally the wrong choice. Some of the panel designs were interesting, I liked the pill-shaped panel borders and the odd ways some panels connected and were asymmetrical.

I didn't think the book was THAT hard to understand. Some of the dream sequences involve odd imagery or dialogue / terms but anyone familiar with Morrison knows that you kind of just take this stuff as it goes. You can either scour the Internet and do your own research to figure out what the symbols and terms refer to, or you just move on and let it serve as style to complement the overall plotline and characters. Ray Fawkes' Intersect is my new personal "I have no idea what this is" and I don't think this book was anywhere near that.

The storyline of this scummy looking dream adventurer being tasked to go into space and save the world from a cursed apocalyptic asteroid is pretty cool. The execution of everything left a little to be desired. I thought too much of the issue was spent on the odd dream sequences and nonsensical dream villains, and the main plot was revealed a little too late. The protagonist has potential but I would have liked a little more character exploration for him. I'm not sure if this is meant to be an ongoing or a miniseries, but if it's an ongoing, we really should have been introduced to more of a supporting cast too.

I'm not sure if I will continue with this. The art and overall storyline are really cool but the story execution wasn't that great and depending on how deep down the rabbit hole Morrison goes with the dream imagery, the series could become a pretty unenjoyable reading experience. I'd give it probably a 6/10.

[InformationGeek]

those reviews at your site were ok informationgeek, but they certainly Wanted things, and expected things, that GMO was not ready to reveal in the first issue! I like Nick's review the best, hehe.

Well frankly, the only thing I wanted was a first issue that I could enjoy, be interested in, or at least find readable.

[Ragdoll]

Let us discuss the new mind f**k comic that Nameless and give each of our thoughts what we just read.

The first issue out and I thought it was.... below average. I know Morrison writes some complicated books that require a lot of thought, but this was somehow far more mindbending and hard to comprehend than Arkham Asylum was! I can give it sort of a pass on the fact that a bunch of the story was a dream sequence, but dear god, it was bad.

It is definitely a mind bender. If you live in a 4:20 legal state, I think you should partake and give it a re-read. I guess I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn't smoke, it is a certain kind of mind f*** that most mainstream audiences won't enjoy. But I loved it, will re-read before issue 2 drops. Keep up the good weird work Morrison. I love your critically acclaimed series, but keep on ignoring the critics once in a while and writing weird stuff for minority fans like myself. The less accessible they get, the more I feel you are speaking from the heart. Thanks for writing to a fanbase than most in comics don't even acknowledge.

Also, InformationGeek, replace Morrison in my post with Hickman, and this applies to how I felt about your review of The Dying & The Dead #1. While all of your complaints were valid, I still enjoyed the comic for similar reasons to Nameless. They both are some of the best #1s I've seen this year. But I guess I would never tell the broader audience to read Nameless or TD&TD.

[quinnzel]

I was really looking forward to this title, but I was disappointed. Like the OP said, things were pretty confusing nearly the entire issue, and I'd probably understand a bit more if I went and re-read it like others have suggested, but I unfortunately don't think I care enough to do so. The issue and story just fell flat for me, which is a real shame because like I said, it was one I was really looking forward to because I'd heard so many great things.

I might give it one more issue to see if my opinion changes. On the plus side, the art was nice.

[g_money_christmas]

I liked it. As you are, I was confused but I love the art and the subject matter is interesting to me. I will give it a chance. Moreso of a chance than other comics coming out. Most new Image comics I pick up and I give them a few issues and see how I like them. Because this is Grant Morrison, the subject matter, and Eric Burnham's art, I will probably stick with it.

[Detox]

The dream stuff was a little hard to follow, but on the whole I really enjoyed the first issue. Grant is Grant, take him or leave him I guess. I think he will be taking us to a really cool place in this book and the art was great for me. I'm on board.

[HsssH]

I had similar thoughts when I read first issue of Annihilator. But then it quickly picked up the steam with second and third issue and in turn made first issue better since more of it felt "relevant". So yeah, I understand the complaints but at the same time I feel like everything is gonna start clicking in next issue.

[JBatmanFan05]

I always think Grant arcs/minis read better being read all at once in the tpb or getting all the issues and holding off reading them until you get the last one. Just my experience. Because he'll go down some weird or unanswered or frustrating path in one issue and you won't understand why until later. And later issues will have you going "aha!" and you'll appreciate the prior more and notice new things in them.

Reading all at once (except for Grant's super long runs) and re-reading are keys for me with Grant. Reading any interviews on the story you're reading always helps me immensely too.


I just read a Nameless review and this reviewer said this very true thing:
"I think most of Morrison’s work is kind of hard to follow, and yet I am so invested when I read them. Embracing the confusion is just something you sign up for when you read Morrison. You won’t be able to see every detail, but when you step back the big picture becomes clear. Themes and patterns stick in your subconscious and the book becomes a part of you in a way. This is the genius of Grant Morrison." "[Nameless (but can maybe insert any Morrison story)] is not passive reading, it requires time and investment."

http://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews...rant-morrison/

In summary, as this reviewer says: With Morrison, embrace the confusion you're likely to get (I wonder if it's fair to say he's more experimental or (more pejoratively) "out there" as he gets older), or just pass or wait.

[HellsRider]

This was pretty easy to understand once the second half provided the proper context. Morrison loses me a lot with his other works, but here its pretty clear what is happening with obviously room for the future issues to provide more context. The beginning makes sense to be a bit of a mind jerk once the why comes in to play in the second half. It feels like Inception meets Interstellar so I quite enjoyed this. I actually had no idea this was supposed to be a horror book (maybe I'm mistaken?) so the art kinda fails at that except for that one page where a parasite was on the veil lady which I thought was effective, but the fishmen were not scary at all though I still quite liked the art.

I look forward to seeing where it goes since I think mixing dreamscapes and space can be very fun.

[rac shade]

After all the hyperbole I wasn't impressed, didn't see much in the way of horror, seems like it'll end up being a possible fusion of Armageddon, Pandorum & Event Horizon. I'll give it another issue, anyone know how many issues this is supposed to be ?.