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‘Nameless’ #3: we have lift off

‘Nameless’ #3: we have lift off

Cover

Nameless #3
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Chris Burnham
Colors by Nathan Fairbairn
Published by Image Comics

Grant Morrison’s cosmic horror miniseries has had a bit of a rocky start. The first two issues left a bit to be desired as they were slow parts building up to a something between Lovecraft and Event Horizon and fortunately it’s finally paying off.

The story so far follows the titular Nameless, a smarmy British mage for hire as he’s recruited by eccentric businessman, Paul Darius for a private enterprise. Said enterprise is to stop a massive meteor from colliding with Earth which appears to be a left over relic of a war between beings far beyond the comprehension of man. Of course this mission doesn’t go easy. It turns out Darius himself has long been driven mad by the force behind the meteor known as Xibalba and manipulating his crew behind a hover drone. It’s difficult to get into this issue without spoilers. The skim description is that the hapless crew unlocks the doors to Xibalba and fall prey to the terror from beyond the stars. The real relief in this book is that it starts living up to its creative team’s clout. Despite nearly the entire cast being a row of stock characters, Morrison delivers some excellent build up to when all Hell breaks loose. With three more issues left and one beautifully twisted cliffhanger, this book finally clicks.

Let it be said that while Nameless has been a slow start up, Chris Burnham has been carrying much of this book and then some. He works wonders with panel layouts. His cramped corridors of the moon base are as excellent as they were in issue #2 and now he gets to spread his wings. He continues to show off the impressive scale of vast emptiness that very few artists are ever able to capture. He can sell gore and body horror like no other. He rends flesh from bone and pops eyeballs in the vacuum of space. The final page is where Burnham pulls out all the stops and demands the reader to see what new levels of depravity he will ascend to.

Image

This project from the twisted minds of Morrison and Burnham has so far left one cold. It’s not been what one would expect from the creative team of Batman Incorporated but now with a free license to get away with anything under a “Mature” rating. This is the issue where everything finally connects, where the reader gets a chance to gaze into the void of madness and see what nightmares these two are going to sear into their brain. If Nameless #3 is the sampling size of what’s to come, definitely go for the full serving as Nameless is finally hitting its mark.

[wpchatai]