Chosen

[cyberghostface]

This was a miniseries that Mark Millar did way back in 2004. It's recently been rereleased as the first volume of Millar's "American Jesus" trilogy.

Obviously this a truncated version of the full story--I've tried to fill in the gaps enough for you to understand, but there's still some subplots and exposition that I'm not going to write about for the sake of brevity if they don't factor into the scans at hand. For example, there's a subplot with Jodie's girlfriend and an extra subplot with the parents.

Disclaimer: This was three issues, so I've posted seven from each, making for a total of 21 pages.

Anyway, the first issue introduces us to Jodie Christianson. He's just a normal kid. One day, however, he gets hit by a truck...




However, Jodie wakes up in the hospital without a scratch on him.




At school, Jodie gets all the answers to his test right to the point that his teacher accuses him of cheating (as before he usually just got Ds). He tries to grill Jodie with further questions but Jodie answers them all. By the time his mother picks him up, Jodie's standing on top of a desk, surrounded by the other teachers who are all amazed at the answers he knows.













In #2, Jodie visits the local priest Father O'Higgins (who has lost his faith) and asks him...






Despite his advice, Jodie begins to perform different types of miracles for his friends--healing a friend with poor eyes, turning water into wine, etc.  None of the adults believe any of it and chalk it up to children telling stories.

The local bully, the son of the man who drove the truck in the beginning, tells Jodie to cure his father who is in a coma from the accident--or else. 











In the final issue, the rest of the town now believes that Jodie is the second coming of Christ, but the priest is still skeptical. He prays to God for a sign. And it does--his dog is hit by a car.

Comments

[proteus_lives]

I have this mini.

I always found it delightfully creepy.

Millar at his more digestable.

Aren't they making a movie?

[cyberghostface]

It's in talks but nothing official yet from what I've heard.

[jlroberson]

To me it's reminiscent of SAVIOUR--and indeed I think it's a revision of the concept. The best bit of that being the Antichrist--drawn as Jonathan Ross--and his monologue about how sad it is that Satan has to bribe people to be his friends; damn, what a shame that never finished.

I like Millar when he's being like this, as opposed to when he decides "Ah fuck it, let's set this on 'pander.'" Though I'm not as quick to criticize him or Eniis when they get excessive necessarily(it depends always HOW--the later parts of Kick-Ass and the current ULTIMATES being examples of pander-Millar--and with Ennis in particular a high threshold is warranted); just one look at any DREDD either of them did reminds you that "excessive" is relative, as that's the norm in the UK mainstream and has been for a long time. Spewaking of which, I just came across scans of his and Morrison's DREDD story about the judge who breaks out of Titan and assaults Earth; might post it. It's pretty good.

[auggie18]

Huh. That was Millary, all right, but in a kinda intriguing way. It was pretty awesome, with a good twist. I'd pick this up, if I found it in trade.

It's a little odd that a story in which a thirteen year old boy is raped repeatedly is one of Millar's less offensive ones.

[jlroberson]

But then, you're only told about it, rather than anything graphic. Which is restraint, after all. Millar plays better with a certain amount of that WITH the horrifying stuff--better balance, because the facts of the horrifying stuff are enough.

[turtlefu]

Wow, I think I'm even a little offended
...
and I'm not even Catholic anymore...

[freezer]

Huh. This actually makes perfect sense in retrospect. The signs were there that this wasn't quite right - starting with the fact that in every version of the story I know, the Antichrist appears and rises to power before Jesus reappears..

Of course Millar couldn't resist going Millar just a little with the "seven years of rape" thing, could he?

[philippos42]

Millar REALLY LIKES male on male rape. It's a trope with him.

Now, it seems to me that would put the boy off serving Satan's plan, but I guess this is all "doomed by blood" crap.

[shadowpsykie]

i think its more like, oh so you think your god? that you can fight ME? well my five dicks say otherwise.

[golden_orange]

To be fair, I get a pretty much 'bitterly resigned' vibe from him in those last panels; like he doesn't really want to go through with it or doesn't care that much, but is kind of trapped into it.

[starwolf_oakley]

Millar REALLY LIKES male on male rape. It's a trope with him.

Someone wiser than me once said "Even Mark Millar doesn't want to be Mark Millar. He'd rather be Devin Grayson, so he could write about male rape without being considered a wierdo."

[shadowpsykie]

the scene when he is reading the bible "Vader and the Storm Troopers!" of COURSE he was the Anti Christ

[halialkers]

I dunno, a sufficiently cynical reader might have expected him to *be* Christ but to have God be Evil........

[halialkers]

Of course one could wonder why the Devil is so unimaginative as to try raping to create his Anti-Christ. Shiro Ishii and Josef Menengle were much more innovative than that in what evils they could do, so presumably a physical embodiment of evil should have more and not less imagination on how to do it.....

[twigcollins]

Wow this is kind of reserved and thoughtful for Millar and has a slow sort of creepy...

*hits the end*

Yeah, good to know some things are incapable of change. Shine on, you talentless toolbox.

[banah]

Yuuup.

[neuhallidae]

Ahaha, this whole comment.

[halloweenjack]

+1 zillion.

[nezchan]

+1, would laugh again

[golden_orange]

Intriguing...

But he couldn't quite resist the 'seven years of rape' or the 'fuck my mother frigid' thing, could he?

I do wonder whether the American people still thought they were voting for the Messiah, though

[wizardru]

It should be noted that in this case, it's not just rape,but incestuous rape.

Still and all, a pretty nice twist.

[darkknightjrk]

Is it bad that at this point I was more weirded out and surprised about the five cocks part than the rape?

That being said, I am still kinda interested to see what happens next.

[nothingbutcake]

Haha, saw that twist from the beginning.

[nothingbutcake]

I mean, it's not much of a 'twist' if you know the story.

[kusonaga]

The thing is, you don't see the twist coming if you think it'll 'just' be an exploration of how people would perceive a new coming of Christ. It's why I didn't expect a twist.

[halialkers]

It actually wrongfooted me. I expected it to be God is Evil, not that he was the Antichrist. I was expecting that last bit to be "Sure, I'll take you to God" and then the Light comes and the being in it is very much Not Good.......

Instead he gets raped into being the Antichrist.

[kusonaga]

I always thought this comic was pretty good. The twist is splendid.

As for the 'raping thing'... it is Satan. I won't deny it has a Millary ring, but it does kind of sell you on the Devil bit. I didn't mind, at least, especially since it's just one panel and we don't even see it.

[halialkers]

Yeah, except that if Satan were to turn someone into an Anti-Christ, why would he use rape as the means to do it? That's more Ares's shtick if anything.....(after all, the Spartan agoge.....). Personally I believe Satan should be portrayed as Crapsaccharine, at least at first, until the Complete Monster is revealed.

Here? Pfftt........

[espanolbot]

Personally I figured that the twist would be something like that when the character began wanking to his female best friend getting changed in the house next door.

Though I am willing to accepting the idea of the Messiah masturbating, I doubt that they'd get away with it in a story like this. Especially when perving on his friends.

And his only female friend being labeled in the Mary Magdelene role was kind of harsh, I thought.

[halloweenjack]

You know, for a few minutes there, I thought that Millar was trying to go in a different direction for once. I mean, it wasn't that good, with a lot of blah-blah about miracles and science and whatnot, and a completely stereotypical Magic Negro and nothing that really said "Peoria" about the setting (seriously? Those rooftop water towers that people always draw in NYC scenes? Peoria doesn't have those), and then... THIS IS MY FACE WHILE SATAN IS FUCKING ME IN THE ASS WITH HIS FIVE COCKS. Why does he even bother?

[nezchan]

Does New York even have those water things any more?

[halloweenjack]

I never saw one when I lived there, but given that they're up on rooftops (and that I didn't spend time on the observation deck of the Empire State Building with a pair of binoculars, looking for them) it could have just been the angle. I have spent quite a bit more time in Peoria, though, and think that I would have noticed one.

[viridian5]

Some buildings in Manhattan still have water towers on top.

[sianmink]

You said it more elegantly than I did.

Why does he bother? Because he likes imagining he's fucking his readers in the ass. Also, 12 year old boys.

[sianmink]

OH MILLAR NO

This was actually decent until Millar was Millar and had to drop the 7 year long rape scene.

[halialkers]

.

[shadowpsykie]

ICON! is that from the Episode where Jean Luc has to pretend he's in love with Luxanna to get her back?

hsi acting was sooooo perfectly Kirk ish :)

[halialkers]

^Don't rightly know where that one's from. But yes, Patrick Stewart is awesome and win. :-).

[shadowpsykie]

you MUST see this now... it will make your day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V8UUuOLxzo

[une_croix]

One of his best works. I think it'd surprise a lot of the haterZ.

[shadowpsykie]

i wasn't really surprised. as people said, the clues were there (Vader and stormtroopers anyone?)

however, i think THIS is how the Omen should have been... the subtlty is alot more creey than "Evil child Syndrome"

[icon_uk]

Watch "The Omen II" then, it's a much better movie in most ways since Damian is the protagonist in his own right and can hold a conversation. It actually gives Damian a human dimension, and suggests that, since he's incarnate, there's a human element to him, which makes some of his choices hard for him.

The scene where he begs his adopted brother to stand by his side when he comes into his power and his reaction when his brother rejects him, is a very effective moment.

[protogarrett]

Wow, this is pretty damn good. =)

[cypherfdp]

Uh.

What.

[eamelion]

Didn't Millar take the whole rape commment out of the American Jesus collected edition?

[fifthie]

I so very, truly, sincerely wanted this to defy my expectations of it.

And then, it didn't.

[fifthie]

Oh hey look, the devil sent a black woman.

'Sup, comic written by comics writer Mark Millar?

[persoconchii]

it was goin so well... and then 5 cocks ruined everything [/sarcasm]