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Nameless #2
Released by: Image Comics
Released on: March 4th, 2015.
Written by: Grant Morrison
Illustrated by: Chris Burnham
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Not caught up on this series? Check out our review of the first issue here, because going into this second issue blind might be a bit tough. Ready? Good. Right there on the first page of this new series from writer Grant Morrison and artist Chris Burnham we land on the moon, more specifically the Serenity Base. Our nameless hero is still working on trying to decipher a signal that he and the rest of the crew figure is coming from an asteroid. They land their ship and head into the base and there find a drone through which the mysterious Mr. Darius communicates with them.
As they make their way further inside it soon becomes clear why they want nameless' help - there's been a murder on the moon, inside the base actually, and at the crime scene are the words ZIROM TRIAM IPAM IPAMIS written on the wall in the blood of the victim. They've got a woman quarantined in another room where she continues to write cryptic messages in blood. Something is very wrong here. Very gory, and very wrong. It turns out this woman is Andrea Blackstone, the former host of a TV series called Kaos And Kosmos. The crew breaks to get cleaned up after their journey, after which nameless tells them that Blackstone is either having a psychotic break or is possessed. From here, Darius via drone, tells them about the asteroid, Xibalba, and how it ties into their true mission, which is not only diverting it so that it doesn't collide with the Earth but also to examine its surface which shows signs of extraterrestrial life. Nameless tells the crew that the signals coming from that asteroid are in the same language that Blackstone is writing in, and that it is Enochian, the language of angels. He also says that the message roughly translates to a warning about the destruction of all creation. Darius then reveals to nameless that he possesses a stone made from a splinter of a lost planet called Marduk which was destroyed when there was a war in Heaven.
He then proceeds to have various religious symbols painted onto the crew members' space suits and they all get to work, somehow forgetting about the mad woman still onboard the space station…
At one point in this issue a character describes things as 'the Goddamn Exorcist meets Apollo 13' and that sums things up fairly accurately. This series remains cryptic, confusing at times even, but we should have enough faith in Grant Morrison's storytelling abilities at this point in the man's career to have some faith. This is going in some very interesting, dark and twisted directions but again, like the first issue, there's still a definite sense of humor here that keeps the characters interesting and their dialogue fun to read. There's obviously quite a bit more to unfold here before the truth about the mission is made completely clear but enough happens in this second issue to keep us wanting more. Morrison's story is a strange one, but it's also pretty damn compelling.
Chris Burnham's artwork continues to impress. There are some incredibly impressive 'big panel' layouts here, the opening splash page serving as a great example and some later pages where the crew head towards the asteroid really helping to show us the scope of what the team are attempting to do. There's a lot of great detail here, from the stubble on nameless' face to the bits and bobs of blood and gore at the murder scene. It's all illustrated with a great sense of style that is further complimented by Nathan Fairbairn's coloring.