Flex Mentallo (1996): The Magic Word

[jlroberson]

UPDATE: Podcast described below now live and can be listened to or downloaded here.
Last Sunday I had a wonderful time doing another podcast for the excellent Deconstructing Comics (the two previous I did are here and here). I guest there whenever I can. In this case I got the chance to talk with Troy Belford about my very favorite Grant Morrison(and Frank Quitely, and this was where I first fell in love with his work) comic, the one & only FLEX MENTALLO.

Along with THE FILTH(which came up a lot, and how one is the mirror of the other) I consider this the very best, and in this case most positive, thing Morrison has ever done. The talk went on for something like 2.5 hours. There is a chance it might be split into two episodes--Tim Young is still reviewing it. We covered a lot of philosophical ground, and spoke about acid, surrealism and a lot more.

This comic lends itself to that. Just speaking of it seems to reveal layers and layers, and is an example of everything that is best and unique about Morrison. My contention is that this is more a ritual than a comic, designed to heal the reader.

One point--and I don't want to go on about this too much because it's much better explicated in the podcast once it's live--is that we have a wrong idea of "escapism." The word "escape" implies a state previous of being imprisoned, trapped. What we CALL escapism--which I call "trappism"(different from the older use of the term)--is often actually just a way to make yourself further trapped in mind and body, sucked into a hermetic comics world(think the worst kind of comics fan, the classic "basement dude"--Superboy Prime as he ended up for instance; the kind of person who knows the names of the X-Men better than their own relatives, who buys all the merch, who writes angry comments about comics ALL THE TIME) which allows him to not only never deal with his own life or progress as a human being, but in fact, never truly grow up, and yet also to lose touch with the pure joy as a child that brought him there in the first place. The "darkening" of superhero comics, in some ways, seals this. And makes you comfortable with the walls of your cell.

True escapism allows you to actually escape, to grow, to heal. Morrison believes we create superheroes as a tool to help ourselves become more than ourselves, and should not use them instead as a means to hide. This is the reason that, if Superman does not stand for hope, he's of no use. Because that is what he is FOR. If superheroes only drag us down to the worst in ourselves, then they have no point. (note: I do NOT mean superheroes as synonymous with comics--I mean here specifically them and their function) There are other things more appropriate to that. That's not what superheroes are for. At the same time, "positive' or "joyful" do not equal "shallow," necessarily, either, a hard thing for us to apprehend, but true.(And some might blame Moore for this, but I don't. I blame Miller, to start with. Underneath, WATCHMEN is about the best rising from the worst; think of Laurie, and Manhattan coming to believe in miracles because of her)

This is the sequence I focus most on, to me a VERY important sequence. And also to me, exactly the reason every single comics reader should read FLEX at least once.

This is the end point of a long multileveled hallucination a depressed rock star, Wallace Sage, who when a lonely kid created Flex in his handmade comics at home(as first explained in DOOM PATROL when Flex first appeared, though the connection between that Wallace & this one is tenuous; I do think it's the same Flex--first created by Grant with Mike Dringenberg, Richard Case, and Kelley Jones, and also Steve Yeowell--each drew Flex in a different phase but I'm assuming Morrison designed him; obviously he comes from the most ubiquitous comics ad ever, and that's pertinent) and comics fan(Morrison claims this is his version of himself had he continued in music, though in fact, he looks like Quitely) who believes he's killed himself with pills, and is ranting all this to what he thinks is a suicide hotline. All his thoughts become characters. And all the characters are him. (look at Flex and the detective. Versions of the same face. A use of the way that comics characters, like ones drawn by Kirby or Swan, often all had the same features in the old days. The Hoaxer is the exception. That would be Morrison's "fiction suit" this time)

Forget cynicism, forget snickers, and just let this sink in. Here is the sequence, with a few comments. (scans are from the original, not the recolored new version)

The Big Bad reveals himself, and he's here to tell Flex that the world is shit and that this is realistic. I believe this sequence is the crux of what the book is trying to say, and to accomplish. Note too, as mentioned, that the detective's face is like Flex's face, just a different version of it. There's a reason. All are different levels of Wallace himself.


We darken our heroes to kill them, to avoid aspiring, to destroy our imaginations, to do what we THINK is "growing up." And damage ourselves, and kill ourselves, in the process. We decide poison is what we want.


The Hoaxer is our imagination, that which allows us to escape any trap. And he has words for Wallace. Not to destroy him.

To save him.


Sometimes a cigar is but a cigar. Sometimes a superhero is just a superhero. And sometimes you just need to get out of the house.



Look at the light he read comics by as a kid. Also the trigger for the return of something, more clear when you read the book. Realizing that there is something valuable to an adult about the pure present-tense joy that only kids can feel face to face. Something that is not destroyed when you become an adult, just buried.



Page left out for limits. There were never any batteries in the phone(and it was always just him talking anyway).



What was the magic word? If only he could remember.

What is the sound you make when you're in this moment, when you feel joy, when you don't think but just ARE? When you in fact are one with the best part of what it was like to be a kid, before you thought you had to forget it to be an adult, to be "serious"?

The word is simple.



The word is "Ha."

The sound of unselfconscious joy. The sound of...laughter.

Elaborated MUCH more in the podcast. I will of course post the link when live. Next time we talked about maybe doing Gerber's HOWARD THE DUCK. And that one is one I truly, truly love.

UPDATE: Tim Young tells me this: The DECONSTRUCTING COMICS episode examining Grant Morrison's FLEX MENTALLO with Troy Belford and myself will be up on Monday, Aug. 20 for your listening pleasure, and I hope you all enjoy it(link will be posted when it comes). It was a hell of a lot of fun. And it's a double-length episode, two hours--was 2.5 but only some unimportant stuff was removed to smooth it a bit. Still long. But FLEX deserved it.

This will NOT be your usual comics podcast, but DECONSTRUCTING COMICS never is.
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If you have a moment, why not have a look at my new(and old) comics & writing at:

Comments

[barnesarama]

I remember reading this as it came out, and I felt it's the vital capstone to Morrison's work at the time - Doom Patrol, JLA and the Invisibles, concentrating the ideas included in all three of those series down into it's most purified form.

And also one of the few times Morrison has been paired with a real quality artist who gets what he's trying to do over the length of a story. The consistence of communication makes such a difference.

[bewareofgeek]

I think you may be mistaken.

The crossword puzzle is designed to make you think the word is SHAZAM.

But if you look at the crossword puzzle when he fills it in, you can tell what it is:

SHAMAN

[jlroberson]

Interpretations may vary. But nothing happens till he says "Ha." When Billy said "Shazam," did he ever get to make another sound before the lightning hit(though here, it's actually coming from him, an expression of his joy)?

"Shaman" is only a trigger to make him remember. That's my take. Yours may be different. But "Shaman" is not as profound or as pertinent to the point, IMO.

[arbre_rieur]

Question for all: I'm interested in picking this up, but I've never read Morrison's DOOM PATROL. Would I still be able to fully enjoy it, or would I be missing important context?

[jcfiala]

Oh, this is totally enjoyable without Doom Patrol. Although Flex Mentallo showed up in DP first, this is totally divorced from that series.

The real key to being a man..

[big_daddy_d]

Is this.

[jlroberson]

Given the multileveled nature of FLEX it definitely adds a little, but that's more a rough draft IMO. You can read this without having EVER read DP.

But I also think EVERYONE should read Morrison's DP because I myself have always loved it. (And Richard Case's art really should be recognized more, and I don't say that just because like him I came from the Carolinas... ;))

Re: The real key to being a man..

[jlroberson]

Heh. Funny thing, one subject Troy & I delve into is the Death of Superman. And why you would even want to see him beaten to death anyway.

[bewareofgeek]

Well, he definitely says something in the last panel of pg 22.

But you may be right. I guess only Grant knows for sure.

[jlroberson]

I thought what you did for a long time, but then I took the lag into account. Like I said, it's valid, I just think it's "Ha." I really like that idea.

[indy2012]

I love Morrison. I'll have to pick this up. And Quitely is always on spot. It's like him and Morrison have the same mind.

In these few pages, there are so many themes that were explored in his Seven Soldiers, which I adore. The idea of escape was of course in Mr. Miracle, the power of a child's imagination/realism being confused with pessimism in Manhattan Guardian, the meta structure of a comic/superhero folklore being explored in Zatanna and Shining Knight, and so on.

[michael_ellis_day]

Sorry, I'm with bewareofgeek on this one, but I have to admit your interpretation never occurred to me before. I just think you might be missing the possible meanings of the word "shaman." One who enters an altered state of consciousness, often by ingesting mind-altering substances, to undertake a vision quest into a deeper reality beneath our daily lives in order to restore wellness and balance. What part of that is NOT pertinent to Flex Mentallo?

[jlroberson]

I just think it's less so, IMO. I like the idea of "Ha" far better. That's me.

By the way, just watched that Python ep for the first time. Good choice there. :)

[halloweenjack]

(think the worst kind of comics fan, the classic "basement dude"--Superboy Prime as he ended up for instance; the kind of person who knows the names of the X-Men better than their own relatives, who buys all the merch, who writes angry comments about comics ALL THE TIME)

The obverse of the total rejection of comics, a la the Man-In-the-Moon, and just as much of a cop-out WRT really dealing with yourself and your life on its own messy terms. I used to feel sorry for the totally obsessed fanboys when I was in college, but I also felt a little sorry for people my age who tried to assume a veneer of eighteen-going-on-thirty-eight sophistication and wouldn't have touched a comic book with a pair of long tongs behind leaded glass. Sometimes I think about some of them and wonder if they ever learned to stop caring so much about what other people thought of them.

[jlroberson]

Exactly. And both have trapped themselves. That's my whole point. It's not just the sad comics catatonics. There's MANY kinds of basements.

PS

[jlroberson]

I mean...fun is not shallow, at least not necessarily.

It's why we live.

[glprime]

I did (relatively) recently pierce that barrier where pessimism at a young age becomes boring/exhausting and decided to re-embrace the optimistic side of my "optimistic cynic" outlook.

I'd say that's why superheroes exist for me: the ideal to aspire to, the reason to hope, and struggle, and fight for something. And you do the good thing not because of reward or accolade, but because you decide that's what you want to do, to stand for, even if the world still spits on you. Jesus/Buddha/prophet-of-your-choosing didn't teach me that, Spider-Man did.

And yet, all I can think when getting to the end of this is, "Put down the drugs, Grant. Seriously. You're just fucking high."

[jlroberson]

We delve into that issue as well. Stay tuned.

[jlroberson]

I can see that. This has a lot of seeds of what he became later on. (and something Troy talks about in the program, Morrison's UFO experience--whether real or not, we decide it doesn't matter if it is--which happened just before this, and is further gone into in THE INVISIBLES, kind of CAUSED this and the shift in his work)

I would say also that his conception of Crazy Jane was something leading up to this. The idea of multilayered personalities as protection. Of a mind talking to itself, but physicalized. What do you think of that idea?

[jkcarrier]

I am generally not a fan of Frank Quitely's work, but this is quite nice -- I guess I just don't care for the direction his style has gone over the years (I think the simpler coloring helps too...All-Star Superman was so garish and grotesque, it made me feel kind of queasy just looking at it).

[jlroberson]

I'd actually agree. I preferred his work when he inked it and it had more detail. I like ALL-STAR, but he left too much up to Jamie Grant in some ways. Just the same, the contour, the grace all that--that's still there.

And WE3 by contrast is more the thing, IMO.

And I am not entirely taken with the recolor. For one thing--and Doherty's gotten a LOT of flak--almost every character that was non-white is made white. Another is that the color kind of drowns the images. For instance, the "Ha" panel, where every subtlety of expression is paramount, is overwhelmed. It looks very different and that affects how one absorbs it.

NOT speaking to anyone here, just something fun

[jlroberson]

Apropos of nothing, I just used this for something totally unrelated for my blog. Surely someone wants to make an icon of this. Here you are. Go to town. (art by the awesome Richard Case)

[michael_ellis_day]

Wait up, after pondering this for a while I suddenly realized, you're BOTH right!

"Shaman" is the "magic word" that allows Wally Sage to transcend his past existence. It describes the experience he's just been through. The narrative captions begin spelling it out as the "global activating code" right before Wally finds and completes the crossword puzzle.

And it's his laugh of recognition in that moment when he "gets it," when Wally realizes he's solved the puzzle, that signifies his moment of enlightenment. He's learned the lesson of putting aside his self-pity and is ready to make that step forward.

Both the knowledge he's gained on his journey AND the enlightenment to be able to recognize that knowledge are necessary. The magic word gives him a frame to understand his experiences…but if he didn't recognize it as such, he would just be staring at a random word in a puzzle, not knowing its relevance. He sees it, he knows what it means, he laughs, and that completes his transformation.

This.

[jlroberson]

Yes. It's kind of what I was getting at but you put it better and more solidly than I could.

PS

[jlroberson]

And I REALLY wish I could add that insight to the podcast as you put it, too late now. It adds a lot to what Troy and I said.