THE FILTH

Writer: Grant Morrison

Year: 2002

Publisher: Vertigo

Pages: 320 (issues 1-13)

Wow. The Filth is a 13 issue mini-series and a prime example of what I can only describe as “Morrison unleashed”. Loaded with metaphors and suberb art, this book will keep swimming around in the head for days after reading, even drowning out stuff read more recently and is most defiantly not for children. Indeed, such is the viciously extreme content of this book that one needs a rather strong constitution going in!

            Without giving too much away, the story revolves around a rather creepy man named Greg Feely, who lives alone with his cat in British suburbia. Feely is approached by a woman and unwillingly recruited into “The Hand” a secret police organisation whose job it is to eradicate everything that differs from the status: Q. You see, Feely is really Ned Slade, a former operative of the Hand and Feely is just an artificial personality he was injected with upon retirement.

            The Hand, (also known as “The Filth” due to what they have to put up with) is the real star of the book. A group that has jurisdiction over every other police force in the world, no conscience and hiding secrets of it’s own. It’s a bizarre world of dolphins with prosthetic limbs, chimpanzee assassins and oceans of milk, where operatives travel in flying dump trucks with huge jaws at their back. The world Morrison creates feels completely real and the book is simply overloaded with ideas.

            The early issues deal with seemingly unconnected cases, such as a killer who is using time as a weapon, aging people to death, but the main story, including the reason Slade is brought back, is that a hand agent called Spartacus Hughes has gone rogue and threatening to bring chaos to the world. However, Slade is having a personality crash and isn’t the super-agent he once was.

            The book darts forward and back between the main characters life as Slade and as Feely back in Britain, allowing the reader to question weather all this is real or in Feely’s head. “The Filth” contains strong violence and extreme sexual and pornographic overtones, especially at the mid-way section. The art by Gary Erskine and Chris Weston is excellent, suitably visualizing Morrison’s’ terrifying world.

            It is interesting to note that while this is Morrison’s first major creator-owned series since the end of “The Invisibles” it takes almost the polar opposite viewpoint, i.e. the Invisibles rebel against authority figures while Slade and the Hand are it’s ultimate representatives.

The bottom line.

The world of the Hand is what we paid to see and characterisation is relatively light, with the exception of Feely/Slade. This book will offend people so if you do end up getting it, just be careful who you introduce to it. The Filth can feel a little disturbing and uncomfortable, but that is probably the idea, although it’s a book that’s quite difficult to put down. The metaphorical nature of the book may not be very self evident so several readings may be necessary and the sexual content could be toned down, but this mind-f&%k is one of Morrison’s most daring works and can stand up to pretty much anything out there.

Next stop.

Hunt down a copy of “The invisibles: vol. 1: Say you want a revolution”