This really starts to hit its stride. It's shed its debt to Sandman from the first volume (which I was slightly surprised at). For the most part it's becoming less verbose too (although there are still fairly long passages of Morrisson's (pseudo?) automatic writing schtick). It's pretty scatter-shot, with different characters suddenly taking prominence, but there is a coherent arc.

Generally, there seems to be a certain attention to craft displayed here that Morrisson apparently decided was unnecessary at some point later in his career, and the whole thing - madcap, psychedelic, self-indulgent nonsense that it is - reads surprisingly well. ( )

I quite enjoyed this volume overall. The twisting of time in the tale of Lord Fanny was rather fascinating to me, and eventually began to make sense. It tied in beautifully with the tale of 'what turns someone evil' if you will. I found the attention paid to class issues rather interesting, as I've been reading rather extensively about the Mod movement and how it was essentially built out of class distinctions.

The Invisibles, as a whole, is proving to be a quite titillating read. I'd be interested in reading it through with the annotations from the early usenet groups, but at this point I feel that would be cheating a wee bit. I'd prefer to be surprised this time around, and in future rereads (which I feel may inevitably happen) see it with the fresh eyes of those who have obsessively read it.

I'd also be quite interested in seeing whether or not anyone has put together a reading list for the comics based upon all the books that [a:Grant Morrison|12732|Grant Morrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1311378308p2/12732.jpg] referenced in the letter columns and the intro portions of some issues. The Monster of Glamis reference alone makes me want to keep reading. :) ( )

This book takes you deep into the depravity of the people in power, which demonstrates the importance of the war the Invisibles are fighting.

The center of the story arc is the origin story of Lord Fanny, and I found her vision quest as a child to be quite fascinating. That being said, I'm uncomfortable how marginalized a character she is, and that her sexuality is portrayed in way that is almost freakish (forced into it, prostitution, heavy drugs).

This volume ends on a cliffhanger, and so I was compelled to pick up the next volume. ( )

Much like the previous volume, so much of this is inventive and compassionate and wonderful, and then Morrison just dumps a lot of obscenity on us, by which I mean ugliness and sadness and torture and death for no plot-related purpose. The heroes here are nuanced and interesting, the villains are evil cartoons, and the things they do are made just about as awful as they could be just to get a rise out of you, and it left me feeling unhappy and a little sick, and I don't need that--I'm a 36-year-old man with a beautiful little happy boy (who Grant Morrison would love to torture and kill were he only a fictional little boy; more, he'd love to write me as the slavering killer; it's just no good the things he does) and a difficult relationship with his mother and increasingly what I want from books is either nuanced psychology or rollicking adventures or sharp analysis or simple peace, and I have outgrown The Invisibles, goodbye. ( )

In this second volume of The Invisibles, we are treated to some stories from the larger world in which they live. There is the tale of a guard killed by King Mob in the very first issue, told now from his perspective and focusing on his life. There is also the tale of a deep cover Invisible working as a servant for the enemy and responsible for feeding the monstrous Moon Child.

We also get Lord Fanny's origin, proving even more how interesting a character she is. A new character, Jim Crow, is also introduced and we get to see how he's fighting the war in his own way.

This series continues to be absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to get into volume 3. ( )