Review: Invisible Kingdom #3

There is a panel (page 18) in the third issue of G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward“s INVISIBLE KINGDOM where the two main characters, Grix and Vess, face off for the very first time. It“s a moment that“s been three issues in the making and it is powerful in its simplicity and in its significance in the story line. Even more striking though is the fact that this isn“t a contentious face off. These aren“t two adversaries destined to destroy each other. Instead, they are natural allies. This is a meeting of the two people who might expose an unimaginable conspiracy of evil. And each of them is just a cog in the machinery of the two dominant, most hegemonic forces in their respective worlds and in the extraordinary universe that G. Willow Wilson is building.

World building. Reviewers (this one included) often use the term to describe the intricate process of constructing the “world”“ within which their characters live and breathe. It can be an elaborate process ”“ think Tolkien“s ring trilogy or Martin“s “Game of Thrones.”“ When world building becomes the building of worlds a“la Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica, the process of crafting lore for multiple worlds or a galaxy, or a universe can become daunting.

Lore craft can suffer in the sprawling layout of an ill-formed universe. But G. Willow Wilson has constructed a universe that feels like readers can navigate it. We might get lost in it, but that“s okay too, because INVISIBLE KINGDOM feels as real as anything that you might reach out and touch in our own world. It re-imagines our existence in ways that wobble between the familiar and the fantastic. INVISIBLE KINGDOM is well drawn ”“ figuratively, in the mind of G. Willow Wilson and literally on page after brilliant page drawn by Christian Ward.

Grix is a grizzled captain of a space freighter. She is INVISIBLE KINGDOM“s version of a space Fed-Ex or UPS delivery truck driver. Her crew includes a corporate liaison from the LUX corporation the largest most dominant corporate entity in the universe. Their dominance and control over people and planets are predicated on two familiar fundamentals ”“ people“s material desires and those same consumers feeling entitled to instant gratification. Or in the case of Grix and her ilk, immediate delivery of whatever goods have been purchased. Imagine a future where Google, Amazon, Facebook and Fed-Ex merge into one “Big Box”“ social media/consumer product platform. That“s the equivalent of what LUX is in the INVISIBLE KINGDOM universe.

When we first encounter Vess she is on the path towards Renunciation. As a “none”“ Vess will be forced to renounce and reject all the materiality that is destroying the worlds in the INVISIBLE KINGDOM universe. Early on in the series, readers get the sense that Vess is walking a path that might be unique to her and INVISIBLE KINGDOM #3 begins to plot her particular course.

Wilson“s array of writing skills is at work in the panels/scenes where Vess walks the path and encounters her fellow “nones”“ in the headquarters of the Renunciation. The narration and the dialogue in almost all of Vess“ scenes are epic in nature. This is where Wilson lays some of the philosophical foundations of the INVISIBLE KINGDOM. As a religion, the Renunciation seems like the antidote to all of the consumerist poison that LUX is peddling throughout the galaxy. But what if LUX and the Renunciation were actually in cahoots with each other? What if, indeed.

Like you might imagine, the currency that is most valuable in the worlds of IK is information. Grix and Vess both have it. It is at once what makes them so dangerous to the powers that be and so perfect as protagonists and allies of this outstanding story. For all of this exceptional world building, Wilson“s craftsmanship has left the actual INVISIBLE KINGDOM ”“ invisible to her readers. It seems unknowable. We are led, initially, to believe that it is some region of the afterlife or some point of anti-materialist nirvana that only the most devout “nones”“ will reach. But now that the Renunciation path has been exposed for what it is (and isn“t), all of the initial bets are off. For all we know right now, we (the readers) might be living in the INVISIBLE KINGDOM. 5/5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) G. Willow Wilson (A/CA)