Review: Joe The Barbarian #1
The first issue of Grant Morrison's newest original title, Joe the Barbarian, hit the stands for the bargain basement price of $1. As a Morrison fanboy and a sucker for a story about an outcast with a destiny, I snatched it right up.
What did I think? I liked it, I plan to keep reading it, it might be about shamanism and it notably refuses to hold the reader's hand.
Hit the button for more detailed thoughts!
The basic ambience of Joe the Barbarian is that of many a classic teen/nerd entertainment: Joe is a kid who isn't very popular, gets picked on a lot, has a chip on his shoulder and isn't able to let his guard down even to those who are kind to him. He's a depressed loner, one of my favorite forms of larval hero and an archetype with which all too many people in the queer communities are familiar from their own experience of youth.
Over the course of the first issue we learn that he and his mother may or may not have a kind of strained relationship (or maybe they're just very dry with their chiding) and Joe's father is dead. All of this is stuff we have to observe, though. This is a comic that is resolute in its refusal of all narration. We experience and observe, as readers, and we are allowed to hear Joe's inner monologue at times, but the book never lets fly with the third-person-omniscient expository text. This doesn't feel like a title that will have very many big text boxes that read, simply, Meanwhile... and I appreciate that. As a reader of speculative and fantastical fiction I would much rather be thrown into the world and left to engage with the work by figuring it out for myself. It shows a degree of respect for the reader's intelligence and requires greater authorial skill: the writer has to show us exactly enough and they have to know exactly where to draw that line.
That's arguably also this issue's greatest weakness, as issue #1 does not detail everything and let us know exactly what we're getting into. From the information we're given, it's possible that this is a story about someone native to the "real" world falling or being drawn into a realm of fantasy and fable. It's also possible that it's someone discovering their fated origins in that alternate reality. It's even possible that this is a story about schizophrenia. Heck, it's Grant Morrison; it could be all three. Not knowing exactly what kind of story it's going to be - other than that the title/perspective character may have some issues interacting with consensual reality - may make this one hard for some people to get into. The plethora of comics available these days means that people have, in my experience, developed very specific tastes in terms of what they like to read and Joe the Barbarian may be difficult to define as belonging to one subgenre or another for the time being.
As a total gourmand, though, I'm sold. Throw in that the story is seemingly one dealing with big archetypes overall and I'm even more enthused. Joe himself comments on the fact that every school in every town ultimately has the same cast of characters and Joe's visit/vision/trip/nightmare includes characters that will be familiar to anyone who's owned a toy in the last thirty years in much the same way that at least some members of the cast of Fables are recognizable to anyone who was ever told a bedtime story. Grant Morrison, as I've discussed before, has spent his entire comics career and personal spiritual life, from what I can tell of his writings, trying to approach, reframe and reapproach questions of what archetypes are most influential in our lives and in society, which present problems and which can be used to make us better than we are now. So, in the absence of further data, I think that's why I'm going to be sure to keep reading: if Grant Morrison is going to tell a story about the loser-loner who becomes a hero by better coming to know the guiding spirits of most all our childhoods, I want to be there to watch. Joe the Barbarian might, based on what I've read so far, be the most modern of shamanic initiations, and Morrison is the only writer currently working I'd wager can make that work.
Klarion
Posted to Review on 11 February 2010
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: Grant Morrison, Joe the Barbarian
I can't believe I bought this the week it came out and STILL have not read it. I did, however, read a Morrison interview about this comic. Apparently, Joe is diabetic and needs to get through his house to his medicine before he dies. Wow! Talk about urgency. I won't say anymore, other than I too am a big Morrison fanboy and since #2 came out yesterday I'll probably read them back to back very soon. Can't wait!