Zenith

[Colin Zeal]

Excuse me if this has been done before, but I've just done a search on here and couldn't find a review thread on Britain's greatest superhero popstar.

Now I've only just finished reading every part of phase 1-4 for the first time, so I'm keen to talk about it. I had read phase IV when it first ran in 2000AD but I can't claim it made sense or stood out in anyway apart from "cool, that old geezer has just fallen on a statue and spiked himself on its arm." Having now read all of Zenith, it really is a top piece of work.

What I really like about it is that Zenith doesn't really change despite all that happens to him. He starts off as an shallow dickhead, and even though he kills Masterman, kills his father and stops London being destroyed in a nuclear explosion, when it comes round to saving multiple worlds and stopping the Lloigor from taking over he is still a shallow dickhead. Talk to Vertex? No chance. Give a shit about what anyone else thinks before he opens his mouth? Do me a favour.

I think that phase IV suffers a bit from Morrison not really being interested in writing it (think he says something to that affect in TPO) And also it seems a bit rushed. It could have done with a couple more episodes just to really make things a bit clearer for anyone who hadn't read 1-3. I also don't think the change to colour helped it, as ~Yeowell's art in black and white helped make the strip what it was.

But what do other people think? Importance (or not) of the interludes. Certainly the only one that really adds anything is the Peyne one. The Maximan one is ok, but the ones outside of the prog aren't much cop. The Mandala one in the annual is a pile of crap as far as I'm concerned.

[Colin YNWA]

What I really like about it is that Zenith doesn't really change despite all that happens to him. He starts off as an shallow dickhead, and even though he kills Masterman, kills his father and stops London being destroyed in a nuclear explosion, when it comes round to saving multiple worlds and stopping the Lloigor from taking over he is still a shallow dickhead.

Zenith is brillant start to end and whenever I do that kinda top three superhero stories ever thing its always there. Glad you enjoyed it, must have been a blast to read for the first time. I would differ on the above point. While on the surface Zenith remains the brash arrogant cock he is at the start I think as they stories go on this becomes more and more of a mask to help him cope with the horrors that he gets involved with. I agree that its not like he becomes a deep well rounded individual but he is affected by the stuff he sees.

While Morrison's writing is the star of the show, as it nearly always is, Steve Yeowell's art isn't far behind. I agree with your opinion about the change to colour reducing the quality of his work a little but its never less than brillant.

Zenith is a prototype for so much of the world expanding brillance that Morrison has done elsewhere and particularly at DC. It might not be as refined as his later writing but it has a freshness and energy that is never quite repeated in his later stuff like Final Crisis (which is itself brillant). Its like a great bands first ablum, later works might be technically better, have a greater scope, variety and edge but they will never recapture that initial raw energy, daring and unbound joy in whats being created.

Truely classic.

[Grant Goggans]

One thing I just love about the series is the way Zenith is insufferably rude to the entire cast, right to their face.  Except St. John, to whom he's polite and deferent, for some reason.  But he talks smack about him behind his back, and St. John, a telepath, must know that.  And Zenith knows that he knows, and is a jerk anyway.

[Colin YNWA]

Except St. John, to whom he's polite and deferent, for some reason. 

I always figured that Zenith actually genuinely respects St. John, a little out of fear of him, after the events of Phase 1. He slags him behind his back to maintain his image as to cool for school.

[TordelBack]

The thing that always strikes me about Zenith is not that he's shallow (he isn't) or that he's arrogant, it's that he behaves like an actual person would in his circumstances.  He's alternately keeping his head down and seeming to be a lot less than he is (after all, his parents were 'murdered' for being superbeings), and getting rich and laid off his 2nd generation celebrity status.  He does step up when the issues are clear and immediate, but he isn't a blind 'hero', particularly when being given instructions by self-appointed dickheads.  Note that his reluctance to get involved in the Phase III plan was subsequently borne out as the right thing to do

[Mike Gloady]

I really want Rebellion & Morrison to sort this out.  I'd like a complete Zenith on my shelf as a rare example of both a superhero comic that I love and a piece of Grant's work that is, for me at least, completely without peer. 

It's essential Twoth.  End of story.....

[The Monarch]

phase threes gonna be difficult to reprint even after the morrison thing is sorted after all don't dc comics own many of the characters seen in that phase?

[vzzbux]

It was a shame things happened the way they did with the internal politics between creator and publisher.
There seemed so much that still needed telling.








V

[I, Cosh]

Excuse me if this has been done before, but I've just done a search on here and couldn't find a review thread on Britain's greatest superhero popstar.

I wouldn't worry about it. There's not much 2000AD fans like to talk about more than how great Zenith is and how awful it is that it's out of print. In addition, the search facility on the site isn't up to much. It took me five minutes to find this thread even though I could remember posting on it: more Zenith chat.

I'm too lazy to repeat everything I thought again. I agree Phase 4's the weakest and the decision to change to colour is one of Tharg's mostquestionable. However, at least Grant did finish the story off. Imagine how frustrating it would be if it'd never come back. Agree about the interludes. The first two have a point in the story, the other two just seem to be there to fill a few pages.

Also, I didn't hate zzzzzenith.com.

Note that his reluctance to get involved in the Phase III plan was subsequently borne out as the right thing to do

True, but that's not why he did it, is it?

[TordelBack]

Note that his reluctance to get involved in the Phase III plan was subsequently borne out as the right thing to do

True, but that's not why he did it, is it?

In a way it is, though.  He's a sceptic, who acts on his own initiative.    He doesn't buy into being inducted into a mad scheme by a blind know-it-all from another dimension, he doesn't see why he should be risking his neck planting bombs to blow up parallel worlds, or sacrificing himself for a cause he's only been told exists.  Because of this, in the end he isn't a dupe of evil, unlike poor Vertex.  All the noble types who tramp around heroically destroying worlds at Maximan's bidding are filled with some misplaced sense of duty or superhero-community.  Who are these guys in tacky costumes to Robert McDowell?  Hippies, meddling kids, trannies and mad robots.  It's a cult for the self-important.

Zenith isn't a (practicing) costumed hero, or a soldier, or a spy.  Why should he blindly follow orders?  When he's presented with genuine and immediate problems to solve in Phases I and II he (reluctantly) does his bit - but this Crisis-like plan is outside his experience.  He'd be mad to take it at face value

[Colin Zeal]

Hmmm. The perils of posting whilst drunk. I don't even remember starting this thread. Must admit that the idea of Zenith being smarter than he lets on wasn't obvious to me but it does make sense now that it's been mentioned.

And thanks to Cosh for the link to the other thread.