Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/29/comics-legend-grant-morrison-on-the-invisibles-for-tv-wonder-woman-robert-anton-wilson-and-magick.html
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With all due respect to The Invisibles, this might not be the best time to get a new TV show based on the premise that our whole society is secretly being manipulated by vast conspiracies involving demons and artificially engineered disease pandemics and whatnot. Qanon doesn’t need the encouragement.
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“Comic legend” who?
That would apply to Grant Morrison’s whole canon, but I don’t think it does apply; it’s not the sort of “conspiracy” that activates QAnon imbeciles. People like Morrison and RAW are trying to break down the fourth wall of your reality, and free you from being comfortable; Turmp types seek to convince themselves that anything that makes them uncomfortable is a lie.
My reservation about an Invisibles TV show is that I’m not sure it’ll be any good. It feels like it’s at odds with the fundamental passivity of the TV experience. But who knows? I’m sure I’ll watch it either way.
I’d never even heard of this Brave New World show, though, and that sounds good.
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It’s been a while since I read the comics but I distinctly remember plot points including
- The AIDS virus was intentionally engineered in a secret government laboratory
- Demonic agents are waging a secret war against all that is good in society, and are kept in check only by a similarly secret band of anonymous freedom-fighters
- The New World Order is calling the shots for public figures and is running secret death camps on American soil
- At least one character openly theorizes that much of popular culture like TV and movies is filled with secret coded messages explicitly intended to reach people like them who happen to be woke enough to see beyond the veil that keeps the regular sheeple in check
So while I don’t believe it was Grant Morrison’s intent to legitimize garbage conspiracy theorists like Qanon I have to say this is EXACTLY the kind of storytelling that could add fuel to the fire right now.
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Yes, and Illuminatus! posits that public schools are brainwashing camps. I’m saying that the vehicle is not of interest to a QAnon audience. It’s not like QAnon arose because a bunch of previously cool people suddenly discovered the concept of believing in bullshit.
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I’m not worried this kind of show is going to turn otherwise cool, rational people into Qanon cultists. I’m worried that a show that makes heroes out of the people Qanon followers imagine themselves to be is likely to be a validating influence for those who are already susceptible to such ideas.
The stories we tell matter, even when they are intended as harmless entertainment. For example, the use of torture as a plot device in 24 reportedly influenced real-life interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, even though those people should have been trained to know better. Conversely, the popularity of shows like Will & Grace helped many Americans change their opinions on same-sex relationships.
What I’d like to see right now is a flip-the-script adaptation of The Invisibles in which it is the conspiracy nuts who turn out to be the real villains, bringing pain and destruction everywhere they go through their pursuit of baseless delusions while ignoring legitimate problems.
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King Mob’s team did kill a lot of people…
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Right? Like what if the big twist at the end of Season 1 is… “You know all those demons and Illuminati and extra-dimensional villains you guys killed? Well, it turns out that you’ve been experiencing an ongoing psychotic episode and those were just regular public servants going about their jobs trying to keep the government running and teaching our children and curing diseases.”
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