5 crampons out of 5

Well, you made it.  After years of waiting, of scouring used shops for an acceptably priced single-issue, getting antsy-pantsed when the Doom Patrol volume featuring Flex was released, you made it.  Grant Morrison’s renown is apparently enough to now justify paying whatever it cost to have Flex Mentallo properly collected and released in a fancy trade.  It’s more lacking in extras than its deluxe packaging would lead you to believe, but it’s a handsome volume all the same and the perfect capsule of the extrapolated acid trips down eternity’s lane that Morrison excels at.

Can the book be explained?  Maybe.  On a high level, it’s an exploration of the power of imagination, and how that’s been harnessed / expressed through the comic book “ages” – golden age, silver age, dark age, and modern age – each issue of Mentallo maybe covering themes from each age.  Whether or not this is what the book is about I can’t say, as Morrison’s most imaginative writings – The Filth and Invisibles come to mind – have a unique way of presenting heavy concepts and dialogue with a blend of teaching and sharing, every line that seems like a preachy LSD moment is countered by an image or line that attempts to include the reader, making it clearer that it’s not about shaming you for not understanding, but rather that the understanding is all part of the ongoing growing process.  Or something.  It’s rare that I feel something deep from Morrison’s writing, but he appears endlessly fascinated with the interconnectedness of all things, and books like Flex Mentallo boil this down to a visually entertaining formula that rewards rereads.

Quitely’s art should, of course, be mentioned.  While Quitely and Morrison have been tied together on various projects, it has seemed rare that they get to complete something together.  All-Star Superman (which is the reverent, character-focused version of this story) was a treat at 12 issues, but the nature of that tale was one that required much open space in wide, wide panels.  Here, Quitely gets to pack the details in, and each page is exciting.  Frequently I would find myself flipping ahead in the book, excited to see what was ahead.  The good side to Grant’s insanity is that you could flip through the entire book as such and not have anything “spoiled,” because he just doesn’t write these types of things that way.  The enjoyment comes from actually sitting down and going through the motions of reading – it’s integral to the nature of the story – instead of rifling through it like a weekly Spiderman.

The extras are a ‘meh.’  Some sketches from Quitely.  Which could be awesome – sometimes preliminary work from the artist makes for great padding in a trade – but the only awesome thing is how close to the final product the sketches are.  What you see on the page is pretty close to whatever stage of sketches they dug up to include with the collection, so it’s impressive, but doesn’t affect your take on the genesis of the book.

So I gave this 5 rating things.  Why?  I can’t help but be fascinated by Morrison.  As mentioned, I’m hardly moved by what he writes about.  It leans a little too much on “the world is great let’s drop acid and do magic” to make me ponder anything, but I think he has this weird fanboy grasp of the counter-culture mentality that  makes reading his million versions of this story always entertainingly… well, genius.  It takes a certain something to have convinced the big boys at DC to let him tell this story again and again.  You could theorize that he has tapped into something and that’s what keeps us reading, but you also have your fair share of “I loved his JLA / X-men” readers that will continue to pick up the stuff because it’s “different.”  Heck, I’m not claiming to not be part of that class to a certain extent.  Having read his recent book (“Supergods”) it further underlines that Morrison does have a grasp on what he’s saying, and has the gift of making it – page by page, panel by panel – fun to read.  Flex Mentallo is heavy for its 4-issue run, but that’s part of its charm.  This is everything boiled down to as little space as possible.  If you didn’t care about Morrison before, this won’t convince you otherwise.  But if you dig him, this finally-collected group of issues will be a welcome addition to your library.