A true master is a master no matter what medium he may practice his craft and, gone from the comics industry though he may be, writer Alan Moore proves he is still absolutely at the top of his game in his newest novel, Illuminations. Taking aim squarely at Moore's former career in comics in both thematic approach throughout many of the richly textured stories and later straight-on satire in the longest story of the bunch, “What We Can Know About Thunderman,” Moore ultimately delivers another sardonically cutting yet mesmerizingly gripping deconstruction of modern times well on par with any of his greatest works.
Illuminations features nine stories in total, most of them occupying a certain magical realism/horror territory readers of Moore's previous novels Voice of the Fire and Jerusalem might recognize straight away. Ultimately his most accessible novel to date, Illuminations initially seems to do away with Moore's usual subject matter, that being a geocentric exploration of the intransigent, ineffable magical energy that seems to bind people, places and timelines together, and instead indulges his audience with a Moore has never been a more influential figure in.
Alan Moore Makes Dreams Turn Into Nightmares
Alan Moore may be far removed from the commercial properties he’s most associated with, namely the blockbusters Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Batman: The Killing Joke. However, Illuminations quite astonishingly (or not) gives his most biting commentary on comics to date by presenting a likely accurate view inside the world of comic-dom in all its banal grandeur. Buttressed fittingly by Moore’s able and evocative prose, Illuminations methodically and unflinchingly dissects the ills of the age with deft precision, first with “Hypothetical Lizard” highlighting the preoccupation of sexual dominance at the heart of popular fantasy; “Location, Location, Location” featuring a glib parody in the vein of hedonistic fatalism through a middle age lawyer’s tryst with a Christ-like extradimensional monster on the eve of the Biblical rapture; and a coldly visceral jab at the psychic medium business in “Cold Reading” following one such knowingly lying psychic on one of his evening jaunts. One unifying theme that takes hold is the risk of failure inherent in showmanship, and the constant nearness of betrayal in the power dynamic between entertainer and audience, should the audience only look behind the curtain.
The highlight of the collection is also the longest, “What We Can Know About Thunderman,” and perhaps this story might be Moore’s finest display of deconstructionist philosophy. Vividly constructing a satirical vision of the comics industry narratively centered on composite caricatures of its real-life luminaries, Moore takes the reader through 60 years of comics’ at-times painful and genuinely heart-rending, yet still farcical history. Doing away with his famous Guy Fawkes smile, Moore instead opts for the more contemporary troll-face hangdog grin as he gleefully and near completely buries the industry he once loved, giving it proper deference while also executing its most damning criticism.
"Thunderman" follows fictional writers Worsley Porlock and Daniel Wheems along with a mad cornucopia of other POV characters, online forum recreations, interview transcripts and even a facsimile comic script. With a magician's flourish, Moore unveils the strange heart of an industry he often rails against as being creatively bankrupt and aimed at adults despite being originally meant for children from a bygone era besides. Even amidst his clearly hateful recitation of the litany of intellectual property thefts and harmful psychological neuroses endemic in the business itself, Moore often takes the time to show glimpses of reverence for the simple power of ed stories and the genuinely skilled craftsmen who labored in that market, often through the youthful remembrances of the increasingly unhinged Porlock. But, just as Porlock seems to progressively drift away from reality as he rises up the ladder of “American Comics” (a stand-in for DC), so too does the cultural image of the superhero, in this case Thunderman, seem to drift further and further away from relevance and into darkly-tinged, nostalgic absurdism. Superheroes as a concept becoming ever deranged, an intensifying grotesquerie of half-formed monsters that consume the lives and sanity of anyone involved.
Moore Reminds Readers He's A Wily Wordsmith
It is this cultural undercurrent of nostalgia that Moore seems to place a fair share of the blame upon in many of his stories, perhaps in no more plain a fashion than in the eponymous story “Illuminations.” This tale spins a Twilight Zone-style yarn about a middle-aged divorcee who takes a trip to an old resort he used to visit with his parents as a child, only to find that his memories don’t quite match the comfort he’d previously designated for them. It is in these tales of terror, however, that Moore manages to perform his real magic tricks. There’s a certain lavish wonderment in Moore’s prose through the telescope of his stories that manages to transform even the most tawdry and wretched circumstances his usually deadbeat protagonists find themselves in into a colorful and meaningful tapestry depicting the fables and foibles of human consciousness in all its ramshackle glory. Though bleak, for how could such a trip in “Illuminations” end happily, it is in Moore’s at times whimsical control of the written word that a certain honest fun jumps out from his jolting irreverence and horror, even set in relief against his sincere evocation of what he views as the serious problems at the heart of our culture.
Illuminations is assuredly not a celebration of superheroes, nor does it particularly discuss anything that can be said to have a positive impact on the world (unless you count the skill in presenting the argument that Moore himself here displays), but what it lacks in sentiment it more than makes up for in intellect. An indispensable and hilarious tome of Alan Moore's usual cerebral fare, Illuminations shines as a worthy exhibition of storytelling by one of the world’s finest writers.
