Now that we own ever little detail about this site, are we allowed to make it more humorous? i.e. is my funny picture of my cat cuddling with my copy of the Filth appropriate for this review?
I’d say yes and no. As you see when you go through this review, it’s almost subtly appropriate based on the inner content of the book. Allow me, once more, to inform you of yet another book created by the intense brain that belongs to one Grant Morrison. And believe me, if you’re a fan of his insane and intense writing style, this book is right up your dark and twisted alley.
The Filth is an intense read coupled with Morrison’s love of the existential. Simply put – this book is definitely not for everyone. I highly enjoyed it, but after reading it I had to stop and pause and really think about the events that transpired throughout the tale. This is definitely one of the high-concept books that Morrison is most known for, and seeing as it’s down to a simple 13 issues, there is a lot jamp packed into the story before it ends. If you’re not already used to his style when it’s spread out over 50 issues (New X-Men or his Batman run), then turn away now because this book will only leave you frightened and alone, shaking naked in the tub curled in a fetal position. Yeah. It’s that out there.
The Filth centers around Greg Feely… or is it Ned Slade? That’s what you get to decide. See, our main character is someone who had been part of a secret organization known as the Hand, and he had dropped out due to disliking what had gone on in the organization, leaving himself to reside in a parapersona known as Greg Feely who lives at home, plays with Photoshop, masturbates to weird porn, and spends all of his time with his favorite cat, Tony (see how the first picture was relevant now?). When Greg is visited one day by a member of the Hand named Miami, she informs him that he is really Ned Slade, an absolutely bad ass sex God of a man who doesn’t take any crap from anyone and certainly isn’t a balding middle aged man who lives alone with his cat. Greg resists but is ultimately assimilated back into the life of the Hand. The Hand, as I mentioned before, is a secret organization that essentially acts as the clean up crew of the world. They are recognized as above all law enforcement and are split into different sections, all with different purposes but the same goal – to take care of all the insanity that fills up this world. Greg/Ned is forced to go along with the daily lives of the Hand and go up against super men who can switch bodies, insane porn creators and evil sperm, microorganisms, and evil age fluxtuating procedures. It’s pretty insane.
All things considered, this is easily one of Grant Morrison’s more impressive works. The thing about it is is that you really have to want to get it. You can’t just read it and assume that along the line you’ll pick up the details. It doesn’t work like that. The Filth requires fully active reading, and it’s pretty awesome. There’s a lot to pick apart in this one just like all his work, and you can be sure to see plenty of commentary on the “human condition” by Morrison (I mean, the book is called the Filth… that’s a clue right off the bat) as well as a take on comic books in general, but that’s not entirely the main focus. The focus this time is very story centric, and it’s a very clever one at that. The thing I love about the Filth the most is that if you blink, you’ll miss something. It’s that intense and intertwined within it’s story. If that type of book is not for you then you’re reading the wrong review here, but I can’t express enough how awesome it all turns out by the end. There are very few books that leave me stunned when I finish reading at the shear scope of it all as I watch things play out, but this is one of those. I promise I’m not just saying this because of my official Morrison fanboy status, either – this really is an amazing piece of work. This is right up there in the top ten for me. I honestly feel like I need to read it again now, knowing the ending, to see how much more I can pick up on, because once you learn the truth about GregNed, it changes the entire light of the story.
Of course the story features the ever abundant amount of weirdness and intense existentialism we’ve experience from Morrison in the past. In the scene above you can see characters breaking the fourth wall into a brand new dimension, and this only really pays off later in the book. In fact, in all it’s 13 issues, most of the pay off is centered around the final 2-3 issues as things begin to come full circle. Think of it like Planetary – each issue is centered around a different strange thing, but then you begin to see patterns and next thing you know, it’s all actually connected and the book becomes so much more. Of course, this is where a lot of readers get lost. As in the above example, the comic jumping plot is a bit hard to grasp in it’s importance. I had to do a double take on the whole thing after I finished the story because I had to make sure I fully got it, and even as I write this review I can easily say that I don’t get the Filth in it’s entirety. There is a lot to it. There aren’t many books on my shelf more oddly complex than this one it’s short amount of time. It’s in this that the Filth is clearly a huge hit but risks being a big disappointment. Not to talk down to any of our readers, but … it’s just ridiculously high concept. All of his other stories have clear beginning and end points, it’s just the line in the middle that gets blurry. This line is so blurry it might fade out of existence! I mean, I love the book, but as I said before, I really do need to do another read to fully grasp the entire concept. Just one read doesn’t do me any good. It’s kind of like Watchmen in a way, where the more you read it the more you see. The big difference is that, unlike Watchmen, you only half “get it” when you finish it (unless you have a perfect memory).
I never hide my abundant fanboy-ness when it comes to Morrison, and I won’t lie to you now. I absolutely love the way he writes his stories and I think this book is a perfect example of it. It’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s insane, and best of all, it’s all available in one big graphic novel. I think that the Filth is an intense piece of work that takes time to understand, but that doesn’t stop me from geeking out over it. As I stated earlier, there aren’t a lot of books that really leave me stunned when all is said and done at the way things play out. This book made me pause and think as I tried to pull all the threads together, and you can bet I did my best to remember the small insignificant details. There were plenty of times I had to flip back to earlier pages to corroborate what I was reading, though, and if that type of book is something you’re into, then I’d recommend hunting this bad boy down and grabbing it. This isn’t as forward as his superhero books like X-Men and Batman, or even Seven Soldiers Of Victory. This is Morrison for people who like the Invisibles, or Kid Eternity. All of his stories usually require double takes, but this one especially will require either one really slow read or several reads to see the whole thing. I personally don’t think that’s a bad thing. Comics should need to be read more than once, otherwise what are we paying for? This book delivers in ways that not a lot of books do, and it’s with that that I say you should grab it. I realize this book is definitely NOT everyone’s bag, and it’s certainly a disgusting book at that (absolutely insane pornographic content at times), but hey, it’s Morrison. You get what you pay for.
Also, this book proves once and for all: Dolphins are dicks! Seriously.
See this guy? Total jerk.
