Chosen

[cyberghostface]

I posted this way back in 2010 but with all the Millar stuff as of late I figured I'd give it another go.

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.

Warning: There's a rape mention near the end.

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

[tsunamiwombat]

Well, that was horrible in every possible way. Just like a Mark Millar story always is.

[remial]

I apologize to the mods in advance if this question is against the rules, but...
why the fuck does anyone let Mark Millar write comics?
it is pretty clear that he loathes the medium, and quite possibly the readers.

or is there maybe a petition we can sign so that someone straps him down and starts force-feeding him anti-whatever is wrong with him pills?

[cyberghostface]

it is pretty clear that he loathes the medium, and quite possibly the readers

...it is?

(shrug)

[philippos42]

He wrote a nice, well-meaning Superman story once. And if you only read the Thor scenes in the Ultimates, those are pretty good, I guess.

I wonder how much of it is someone who really despises the USA having to work in the USA. Does that make sense? He's really weird.

[dcbanacek]

"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman did a much better version of this back in 1990.

[tsunamiwombat]

Everyone who has ever done a version of this ever was much better than Mark Millars offensive for the sake of offensive garbage

[cyberghostface]

Not really sure how this would even apply as "offensive for the sake of offensive" aside from maybe the twist at the end.

[drtechnobabel]

I don't know about that... Left Behind is pretty bad.

[alschroeder3]

Well...in all honesty, I've read a lot worse than this. And not measuring up to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman--well, very few CAN. (LOOOVE "Good Omens".)

I'd love to have someone do an adaption of James Blish's BLACK EASTER and its sequel, "The Day After Judgement", in some ways the finest horror novel ever written--not for pulse-pounding fear, just intellectual horror, as well as Blish's research into "real" demonology.

[beyondthefringe]

It was all well and good until we got to the end with the Big Revelation... which should barely be a surprise to anyone who's read Millar.

I just take offense at the main character being raped by Satan's five cocks.
Everyone knows Satan has seven cocks. A much more Biblically appropriate number.

Though how exactly one gets raped by roosters, I don't want to know. :)

Satan's Five Cocks would be a perfect name for a death metal band, by the way.

AM I EDGY ENOUGH FOR YOU YET MR. MILLAR?

[reveen]

Okay, comic book artist, like, all of you, we need to fucking talk about how you draw children.

Also, why is the President just admitting to his staff his demon arse rape?

[informationgeek]

It's weird, since Peter Gross is capable of drawing kids having read The Unwritten now. Don't know what was going on here...

[silverhammerman]

Really not a big fan of the implication that enduring long term sexual abuse somehow turned the main character evil.

I really think that Mark Millar is his own worst enemy, because that utterly disgusting "punchline" ruins any otherwise decent comic about faith and all that. Millar's got the talent, the writing, the core ideas, always work really well, but his awful sensibilities and attempts to shock readers ruin them.

[cyberghostface]

Really not a big fan of the implication that enduring long term sexual abuse somehow turned the main character evil.

That's never occurred to me during the several times I've reread this story. I think it's more to do with him realizing that this is who he is, he's destined to become the Antichrist. There was a fairly similar bit in Carnivale.

Also Millar removed the line in later printings.

[silverhammerman]

Nice to know that even Millar can recognize when he's gone too far and work to rectify it. It's still an atrocious line with some deeply unfortunate implications, but if it wasn't Millar's intent that's at least something.

Out of curiosity, what did that line get replaced with? Not looking for an exact quote, just curious what the gist was.

[cyberghostface]

It just says that he laughed.

[thanekos]

" Oh, he laughed all right. Here, lemme fill up the white space with it- hahahahahaha.. "

[espanolbot]

Yeah, the Omen series (the codifier when it comes to Antichrist stories in a lot of ways) only has Damian Thorn going evil after discovering what he is, and having a nervous breakdown over realising that not only is he responsible for his parents' death, but is also ultimately doomed from the start as he knows he WILL lose.

This... is rather cheap.

[captainbellman]

I very much empathise with a character when they're introduced to me with a slack hanging jaw and expressionless doll-like eyes.

[cypherfdp]

You had me then you lost me in the most spectacularly shitty way possible.

[baihu]

Rather watch The Omega Code over this obvious bait-and-switch.

[silicondream]

Are we supposed to take from that last speech that Jodie's not on the opposite side from Jesus? Is this Jodie and Jesus vs. their fathers, or are they all cooperating, or what?

[michaelhealy]

I think he was wondering if the real Jesus knows that Jodie once thought that he was Jesus and would be fighting the Anti-Christ.

[gnarll]

Thats not what he is saying though. He is saying that for a little while he thought the two would be on opposite sides. Which is interesting.

Oh and the "Im a mutant" line was good:)

[silicondream]

I guess he could just be switching referents. "I wonder if [Jesus] knows that I thought [Satan and I] would be on opposite sides?"

Not very articulate for a supernaturally gifted politician, but better than Nicolae Carpathia I suppose.

[lyricalswagger]

Wait, if he's 33, he can't be president.

[silicondream]

Hence the constitutional amendment he mentions, maybe?

[lyricalswagger]

Oh, fair enough, I missed that the first time around.