Nameless (#4)

• Writer: Grant Morrison
• Artist: Chris Burnham
• Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn
• Published by: Image
• Pages: 20, Publish Date: June 10, 2015
• Notes: Monthly series

Synopsis: 

“The world descends into chaos and the astronauts stranded in the Tunnels of Xibalba must endure unspeakable tortures when their captors finally reveal themselves. As all human hopes, fears, doubts, and dreams are subjected to the cruel and merciless scrutiny of an inhuman, sadistic intelligence, is reality collapsing? Or sanity?”

Personal Thoughts (minor spoilers):

So, tell me about your dreams. What is human?

And we get that throughout this issue. Our heroes remain captive to sort of dreamscape inside Xibalba, and experimented on by their otherworldly captors. Nameless and crew are picked apart, psychologically dissected. Meanwhile, the real world if drifting more into the nightmare. What does all this mean? Only Grant Morrison knows, and I hope he will eventually reveal in some less cryptic detail.

Part of what runs through my head, is how I seem to care more about this group as a unit and not individuals. They seem focused and optimistic when together on the way to Xibalba. Before this issue, we got little character development on each, but look forward to what comes of their mission. There is little from before, that gives me reason to care whether any of them end of dead or alive. I just want to know is they will somehow succeed or fail from this. We did not expect the journey as smooth, yet I also didn’t expect them picked apart from the inside out.

We still know very little on our protagonist, Mr. Nameless. Sofia seems more important as well, who places a lot of faith in her father (who seems way past help, or perhaps a victim himself). Yet, here fears of falling, the unknown, and failure are all present. For some reason, Tarot cards seem to represent the breakdown of our fallen ones, with more questionable and somewhat disturbing imagery. We are constantly reminded of a loss of control, and reduced to subjects; perhaps for an experiment as one such shows a mouse being injected. I wonder how much humans become the mice.. This is more terrifying than the gory visuals and hellish imagery that comes back.

Yet, I am no longer biting my metaphorical nails. I wonder, when does the suffering stop? Why all the suffering? What does this all mean, and what is the bigger picture for the moldy froth (perhaps the true form of the sinister forces, and this is all just telepathy)? That is where the Nameless story is going for me, from horror to mystery.

Meanwhile, we get some crazy imagery of the brewing Hell on Earth. An earlier report in the issue mentions the asteroid will “narrowly miss the Earth.” The Earth is spared for something worse, for the telepathic reach of Xiabalba may extend to all its inhabitants. A full page shows the worst of humanity coming out, before the mark of Xibalba. Yes, this is horror, but the question that repeats is “why.” There expects a reason and sense to all this, i keep thinking. That’s where the suspense of Nameless comes forth.

The art of Chris Burnham continues to shine, with some fantastic layouts that add style to the Nameless series. The coloring of Nathan Fairbairn also kicks ass.

So, I continue to look forward to the next issue. What is Human? I hope we find out.

– Orion T