Zenith: Phase Three

Great 3rd chapter in the battle against the Lloigor
This is the 3rd volume in the 4-volume series, and though Book 2 meandered somewhat, Book 3 really returns to the original storyline, chronicling the master plan of the Many-Angled Ones to conquer the known Multiverse. The story arc is fantastic, even though it has been 30 years since I read it as a wee kid in 2000AD, but it really highlights the mature story-lines that 2000AD was always capable of producing, even in a comic that was ostensibly marketed to young boys. In this volume, we see the titular character swept up once more into the age old battle against the Lloigor, traveling to parallel universes to witness firsthand the devastation awaiting the multiverse if the Lloigor were ever to take control. It’s a pretty dark storyline with plenty of brutality, but the story arc is very well thought out, and you can see glimpses of the The Watchmen in it.Like the previous two volumes, it is printed in hardback on high quality paper, and the art work is re-produced faithfully. This is probably the best of the three books so far, and highly recommended if you found yourself enjoying the previous volumes.

Amazing Early Morrison
Forget Crisis on Infinite Earths, Secret Wars and all crap about multiple worlds. This is the ultimate multiverse crossover.

Great
I really like this series a lot. It’s a unique and interesting twist on normal superhero books. It’s a good deal darker than a lot of other stuff without being edgy or gross or anything like that.I think the single biggest problem with this book and with the previous two is that some of the artwork is hard to read. I love Yeowell’s black and white artwork here, but every now and then (usually when someone’s using their powers or doing something world shattering) the color scheme (or lack thereof) obfuscates what’s going on. Still, I’m really loving this stuff and I’m kind of surprised that more people don’t talk about this since it’s by Grant Morrison. Definitely one of the most consistent things he has done.

This is Phase 3 of the Zenith saga and, as the blurb on the back says, this is a crisis on infinite earths, this is a secret war. The story concerns a multiverse- spanning crossover of heroes fighting the Lloigor’s plans. These heroes are a mix of Morrison’s own creations and those from British comics of yesteryear – Robot Archie, Steel Claw et al. Morrison obviously had no idea at this point that he would one day be writing this kind of massive crossover for DC or Marvel (is it a coincidence that the 2 heroes whose costumes most resemble that of DC’s the Flash are the ones that die the most undignified deaths?). This story is actually better than the mega epics he would later write- once again the discipline of conveying a story in 5 pages per issue brings out the best in Morrison’s plotting. Zenith himself is rather sidelined in the huge cast but still gets his moments to shine – something that Morrison uses for a nice bit of sleight of hand. Once again childishness and arrogance are the hallmarks of the villains (and most of the heroes). The cocky Black Flag and Cloud Nine members prove to be ineffective and out of their depth and it is the characters who are derided by the hipsters as uncool (such as Hotspur, Big Ben and Vertex) who make the most vital contributions to defeating the Lloigor. Peter St John is capable and cool under pressure once more (one has to wonder why a supposedly anti-establishment writer like Morrison keeps making a Tory Secretary of Defense the most effective and well-rounded character- had he already got an eye on the MBE). Steve Yeowell is the star of the show. His artwork reflects the apocalyptic tone of the story with blocks of black ink dominating panels but never obscuring detail. His storytelling is superb. In spite of the large cast one never loses track of who is who and what they are doing – the artists of stories like Avengers vs X Men or Our Worlds at War could learn a lot from him. This edition also contains the other Zenith story not drawn by Yeowell. McCarthy’s art suits the psychedelic style of the story but it is such an ephemeral tale (with no real link to the main narrative) that I had completely forgotten it existed until seeing it reprinted here even though the 1990 2000ad Annual in which it first appeared is on a bookshelf not five feet from where I’m typing. Still its good to have all the bits an pieces together in another handsome volume. Okay, only Phase Four to go for the full set

This book collects Phase 3 of the Zenith story in hardback.Zenith started as a relatively simple tale of a Gen-X superhero battling a powerful evil and saving the world but as Phase 1 finished and phase two ran it became apparent that this was merely the backdrop to a much bigger story.Finally the true scale of that story is revealed here as Zenith finds himself wrapped up in a multi-dimensional war to try to prevent the vile cruel Lovecraftian horrors that are the Lloigor from taking control of all of reality.The story is excellent, horrifying in places and a showcase of a host of old British comics characters from the past.This phase could have brought the series to a close and it’s ending is fairly climactic but there is (thankfully) more to come in the final phase.Overall a fantastic collection of one of my favourite ever series. This is one I’d urge all comics fans to read , a young Morrison really showed his potential here.