HAPPY - Spoilers

In the land of giants, these underdogs shine.

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Mr Wallstreet
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HAPPY - Spoilers

Post by Mr Wallstreet »

Grant Morrison’s 4 issue mini with art by Darick Robertson was what many would call “classic” Morrison. It seems to read like something he wrote while consuming mild altering narcotics. It’s about a down on his luck ex-cop, turned hit man who has sunk as far as he can go professionally, personally and morally and just as he’s about to die gets “saved” by a Looney Tunes Cartoon looking unicorn thing named Happy. Happy spends 4 issues trying to convince the cop to save a young girl while he either ignores Happy or uses his power to make money and dodge hit-men.

It’s an okay story but not great. The problem is that the story wants to go in a few directions but winds up taking the middle road, which waters down what it might have been: A psychological mind-fuck or a gritty noir story. It seems like Grant (I call him Grant because we’re on a first name basis) wants to tell a story about hopelessness, despair, bitterness / hope renewed, redemption and peace; the latter embodied within Happy which is an extensions of a child’s innocence.

After the first reading, Happy left me scratching my head in confusion. I couldn’t tell what the motivation behind the story was: was it a noir story that included Happy as just a mind fuck or was it an attempt to convey something about the power of the innocence of children that can be found in even the most horrible of places in the world.

I think Grant wound up bringing all these conflicting story ideas together so he could get a little piece of everything. There’s nothing wrong with taking bits and pieces here and there but they just didn’t seem to connect so well.

Another problem this series faced was decompressed story telling. Happy spent 3 issues following the cop around trying to convince him to save some girl, when all he could have said was “it’s your daughter” and that would have got his ass moving to save her. It seemed like an excuse to keep the plot going so Grant could fit more into the story. I have no problem with extending the length of a story (if need be), but don’t use a lazy plot point to keep it going.

Or maybe I'm overanalying this. Maybe this was just Morisson after he got really fucked up.

This series a miss for me, however, I don’t regret buying it. It was something different.

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XIII
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Post by XIII »

This was not classic Morrison at all. It was Morrison trying to do Ennis and it sucked. A letdown.

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jedispyder
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Post by jedispyder »

Glad I passed, then. I may try it at some point.

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