Zenith

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Cliffjumper
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Zenith

Post by Cliffjumper »

Anyone read this? I found scans on a whim last night, and read it all in one sitting (can upload if people are interested, mod permission permitting, as it seems to be another victim of copyright limbo)... Not entirely sure what to make of it yet.
SPOILER! (select to read)
The first phase is a lot like the first book of Miracleman in a Morrison style, isn't it? The Siadwell stuff was a good jolt, though.

The second is a little weaker IMO, a little bit too Morrison-by-numbers, though there's one real shock in there.

The third phase I found really disorientating, TBH... I get that part of the idea was to show all the other heroes as generic extras, but in some frames I found it very hard to keep track of who was who, who was where and so on - not just Steel Claw references and nerd stuff like that, but which Lliogir was which and where too. Really could have done with being in colour IMO.

The fourth phase was initially absolutely fascinating, but I found the ending to be very poor. What was the point in that when Morrison only followed it with a single joke strip?
Cliffjumper
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Post by Cliffjumper »

YOUSE'RE ALL FOOKIN IGNORUNT FOOKERS.
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Dead Man Wade
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Post by Dead Man Wade »

Ignorant lout and proud of it. :)

If posting Miracleman was okay, I can't imagine why this wouldn't be. Besides, you've piqued my interest.
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AndyTurnbull
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Post by AndyTurnbull »

Absolutely loved Zenith.

Great artwork by Steve Yeowell and a great script from Morrison. I agree it kind of fizzled out with Phase IV as it did need a follow up other than zzZenith.com in Prog 2000. Especially given the ending where St John was showing the signs of being Lloigor.

Great spotting characters from various comics in Phase III.

Shame that the ongoing spat between Morrison and 2000ad regarding the contract of Zenith is stopping it being collected.

Andy
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yeh, it is a big shame - it'd be better known if it was avaliable in TPB for sure, with Morrison's current status (NB: 'current' may mean 'when I last paid attention about five years ago').

Am currently uploading to Megaupload so anyone here can read it (having decided most of the mods would be interested anyway) so I'm going to be overcautious with spoiler tags: -
SPOILER! (select to read)
My problem with Phase IV is that if something can't run forever, I'd prefer it had an ending. Not sure what I'd have made of Phase IV as an ending, but it would have been one. I could've understood the twist if there was a Phase V planned to go somewhere, but it looks like Morrison was getting more work from elsewhere even before he fell out with IPC. Plus the twist kinda leaves me bummed just because there's basically no foreshadowing at all to suggest it isn't 'our' universe - at least none I noticed.

On second read, the whole thing really hangs together nicely... Phase III actually works being a bit disorientating, if a Crisis on Infinite Earths thing did happen, it probably would be very confusing for everyone involved.
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AndyTurnbull
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Post by AndyTurnbull »

Yeah the twist ending if nothing is coming after is a bit cheap and ends it on a bit of a flat note.

zzZenith.com was light and breezy and worked well in context within 2000ad Prog 2000 but as a capper for the saga it doesn't work at all.

It's a shame we never got anymore but then part of me is grateful that it wasn't allowed to drag on and become a shadow of it's greatness like so many 2000ad series - Rogue Trooper (on two separate occasions), Sinister Dexter, ABC Warriors (although that has started to turn around but by god there was some bollocks in there), Nemesis. Why Pat Mills couldn't have left it alone after Book 9 is beyond me. The series had a natural ending at that point and didn't need the stop/start resurrections it suffered for the next ten years.

Aside from getting Kevin O'Neill back to do the last part, which I enjoyed it just felt hollow.

Andy
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Not read most of those, though I shall keep an eye out.

Agree about zzzzenith.com - it's funny and a decent 'here's what they're up to now' story, but as almost certainly the last thing it doesn't work, especially after such an unsatisfying conclusion.

Grant Morrison's Zenith - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6RQ0HTI0 ~260mb, WinRAR'd CBR files. Keep meaning to split all these up and make it just a CBR file a Phase, rather than an issue, but I'm very lazy...
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AndyTurnbull
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Post by AndyTurnbull »

The Nemesis stuff is available in three big volumes and is worth picking up. V3 is the weakest but still has some great art from John Hicklenton.

Andy
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der2
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Post by der2 »

Apologies for the zombie thread, but I just read through this story tonight and it's a cracker. The art is great, though when we get into Phase III it does start to lose me owing to how busy the panels get, but the continuity is pretty tight. Elements introduced in the first Phase aren't forgotten for the last one. Acid Archie reminds me of Tires(the techno lovin cycle courier, whats his name?) from Spaced. I very much appreciated Phas IV in colour.

And Zenith is a true shit, one thing I am very glad to see carried through from start to finish.

Best thing about zzzenith.com was showing us what Archie was up to. Now I'm going to have to dig out some Robot Archie to keep it rolling.
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Cliffjumper
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I love the whole Zenith/Vertex thing from Phase III ("Are you going to take his name off the monument now?"). I actually tracked down a Black Archer comic as a result of his showing and it was toss, so I've vowed to leave The Amazing Three untainted by what they were actually like and just enjoy the Zenith versions.
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der2
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Post by der2 »

Poor old Vertex, I'm glad he got the shaft overall, he didn't seem to mind too much regardless hehe and he saved the universe, what a nice chap.

I am sorely tempted to check out the heroes we meet in this story, same as I was with the Marvel Earth X heroes that come in the later sequels, but there's always that danger that they could be awful. Phase III was awesome and grandiose, I found it hard to follow the action at times, but it all came to a neat close and it was easy enough to follow the main points.
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AndyTurnbull
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Post by AndyTurnbull »

I need to reread Zenith again as it's been a while.

Have the scans all on my iPad so no excuse not to.

There were mutterings towards the end of last year that Rebellion might have good news on the Zenith front, but sadly nowt else has been said since then.

Bah!

Out of all the mega-crossover style events I don't think anyone has done anything to match Phase III.

Andy
Cliffjumper
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I think what Phase III does best is a semi-realistic take on the crossover - no-one really knows what's happening a lot of the time and many of the heroes are miles out of their depth and easy fodder for the Lliogr. The bit where the survivors rendezvous on some backwater planet and realise a) they've left at least two heroes behind out of sheer disorganisation and b) have no idea if they've won or not is perfect. And it makes so many of the guest heroes three-dimensional in next to no panel time - the Mamba, Spring-Heeled Jock, Oakman, the Blue Wizard, even Thunderbolt Jaxxon's pathetic little death scene.

For anyone who's not seen it, the ever-excellent International Hero has a scorecard - http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/scorcard.htm - complete with links to each identified hero's own page.
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