Forum’s Favourite Thrill - Visible Man vs. Tyranny Rex Round 2 Heat 09

[Colin YNWA]

Well if Week 1 was a gentle phasing in of quality from Round 1 with some pretty ropey ties, Week 2 hits us right between the eyes with the other end of things. This is the week that if I’d been feeling a little fast and loose with the draw I could have opened with. There’s some mouth watering ties and some decisions that will make your eyes water. THIS is what Round 2 is all about…

We start as we mean to go on an early, underrated (personal opinion^TM) classic - sure it's about a man whose innards were exposed but it took a weak concept to some fantastic places. It's up against an early John Smith classic, which provided some very VERY confusing stuff, but also one of the great early Smith tales in ‘Deus ex machina’. Things ain’t going to get easier:

Visible Man - more info

Vs

Tyranny Rex - more info

Just reply in this thread naming your favourite thrill of these two series at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easily) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.

Match ends early on the morning of Thursday 27th January  and the winner gets a place in Round 3 (of 9!!!).

What on Earth is ALL of this?

For those that need ‘um and can be bothered to follow ‘um there’s some simple rules

Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!

[broodblik]

Abstaining since I do not like any of the two

[Huey2]

Tyranny Rex

[rogue69]

Visible Man

[abelardsnazz]

Tyranny Rex.

[Magnetica]

Visible Man


I always thought the Visible Man was a good example of 2000AD taking the name of something and using that as inspiration, but turning it into something completely different. In this case The Invisible Man becomes The Visible Man.

(I have actually no idea if that was the actual inspiration here, but I like to think it was).

[Blue Cactus]

Tyranny Rex

[AlexF]

Two amazing characters with all-time great names, both in search of actual stories to tell. John Smith tried at least three different genres with Tyranny Rex, somewhere between art-heists and existential horror and just plain comedy, but I don't know that any single version was a total success, depsite the stellar art. Visbile Man, too, was blessed with superb artists but never got as far as having any sort of plot beyond 'going on the run, then suddenly turning into an avenging angel'.
I'd be excited to see either character back in the Prog but perhaps with all-new creative teams.
Gonna go with Tyranny Rex as the slightly more satisfying read.

[norton canes]

I remember as a sensitive ten-year-old being quite distressed by the scene where Visible Man Frank gatecrashes a wedding and starts eating the cake. I feel Tyranny Rex deserves this for being more fleshed out but to be honest I don't remember much about it except it starts off with a Prince clone.

So for making an indelible impression: The Visible Man

[I, Cosh]

Visible Man is a one-joke strip but it's quite a good joke and the Henry Flint one-off was a fun reminder of it. Happy for it to come back again in another thirty years.

Tyranny Rex is a strip where I always feel like I'm too stupid to fully grasp what's going on. It has some of the deliberately distancing effect of early Indigo Prime but never quite manages to grow past that.

I'll always prefer a Thrill which makes me try and seems to be reaching for something over something from before I'd even heard of Tharg: Tyranny Rex.

[Southstreeter]

Visible Man. A perfect example of a daft OTT 70s thrill. Tyranny Rex was always too clever by half, I could never figure out what was going on. Shatterlight and poppycock indeed.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

really can't stand either. abstain.

[Link Prime]

Tyranny Rex by an inter-dimensional mile.

[paddykafka]

Visible Man

[Funt Solo]

Tyranny Rex had legs. Opaque legs.