Tweet
Nameless #3
Released by: Image Comics
Released on: April 8th, 2015.
Written by: Grant Morrison
Illustrated by: Chris Burnham
Purchase From Amazon
Not caught up on this series? Check out our reviews of the first two issues here, because if you go into this series blind you're not going to have a clue what's going on. When the issue starts, Nameless and the rest of the crew are on board their spaceship and heading towards the asteroid. As they get closer they notice that the structures on the surface almost look like bunkers. As they get closer, and lose radio contact with mission control, Nameless re-touches everyone's protection - arcane religious symbols scrawled onto their helmets. Better safe than sorry, right? The crew bickers. Some see this mission as nothing more than getting the asteroid out of Earth's path, others as a chance to view the treasures of an ancient and long lost civilization.
Nameless utters some sinister sounding incantation and, as he expected, the 'gates' of the compound open. The drones go in first, followed by the ship, and everyone on board is amazed by the scale of the structure: it's huge. As they head inside they notice that there are what appear to be huge stairs that lead down and Nameless figures he knows what this place is: a massive jail built by an alien race to house monsters. That sounds nuts, but in the context of this story, it makes sense. The drones stop responding and we cut back to mission control and learn what's really happening there. It's not good. Not good at all. The crew on the ship realizes they're on their own at this point but the chemical cocktail pumped into the suits does its job by keeping everyone calm.
And then they get a surprise visit from the man in charge, Paul Darius. He tells Eva he loves her as a father would love his daughter and then tells them they need to retrieve the drone that kicked out. Merritt insists he be the one to leave the ship to do this and of course just as he leaves to do that, the drones start transmitting again, one of them from the bottom of those stairs. Hallucination then collides with what we assume is reality. Or does it?
Grant Morrison's writing in this issue hits new heights of insanity. The characters are developed enough at this point in the series that they're starting to have their own personalities, a good thing indeed as in the first two issues it was a little tough to tell some of them apart, and those personalities are starting to come into conflict with one another in interesting ways. What really keeps you reading here, however, is the same thing that keeps the characters in the book doing what they do - a thirst for knowledge! We WANT to know what's at the bottom of those stairs and what's really going on with Darius' mission in the first place. We have to assume he knows more than anyone else involved, but Nameless is no fool and his knowledge of the occult and of potential alien worlds might just give him the edge. At some point, these two are going to have to reconcile, or so it would seem, but for now… there's an incredibly fucked up cliffhanger of an ending to keep us on the edge of our seats until the next issue.
As to Chris Burnham's artwork, he's outdone himself with this issue. The first two issues looked great, this third one looks even better. Nathan Fairbairn's colors compliment the illustrations perfectly but man oh man, some of the panel layouts here are breathtaking. They really do a great job of showing the massive scope of the compound that our explorers wind up flying into and once it all hits the fan and whatever sickness it is that's going on here starts to make its presence known, the man lets his imagination fly in incredibly disturbing ways. That last page is the stuff that nightmares are made of.