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The Monarchy #1; issues 1-4
The Monarchy: Bullets Over Babylon
Former StormWatch weatherman Jackson King and his bride Christine Trelane watched as their superhuman StormWatch teammates were murdered viciously, and their precious SkyWatch station lost. Since then they have bided their time, living under the watchful eye of their former allies in The Authority, waiting for the right moment to return to the spotlight with an organisation of their own: the Monarchy. Now they are are aware of a menace that cannot simply be beaten back into the shadows. The husband and wife. The trans-dimensional priest. The mad professor. The resurrected killer. The performance artist. In order to save the world, the Monarchy must break every rule...
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2001
25 people want to read
About the author
Doselle Young
29 books6 followersA contributing author to the science fiction/super hero anthology THE DARKER MASK, his story "Housework" introduces readers to the city of Misery, Missouri and the character of Birdie McIntyre--both of which he intends to return to shortly. He has also written short stories for DC/Vertigo and penned tales for Superman, Wonder Woman and the critically acclaimed super hero series The Authority. A native of The City of Angels, he lives near the ocean with his wife, science fiction/fantasy author Janine Ellen Young, and their cat Anais.
THE MONARCHY:BULLETS OF BABYLON collects the first half of his twelve issue comics series The Monarchy, published by DC Comics/Wildstorm.
Listen to the author speak during an interview regarding THE DARKER MASK available here:
http://www.adventuresinscifipublishin...
THE MONARCHY:BULLETS OF BABYLON collects the first half of his twelve issue comics series The Monarchy, published by DC Comics/Wildstorm.
Listen to the author speak during an interview regarding THE DARKER MASK available here:
http://www.adventuresinscifipublishin...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 11, 2020
I've had some conversations with Doselle, and am privy to some of what went on behind the scenes with this book. I won't talk about any of that.
The trick to understanding The Monarchy is to think of it as a big extended metaphor, which will only really make sense to people who grew up on superhero comics and have taken their imagery and symbolism deep into their hearts, or can at least understand how someone might.
The Monarchy is about how our lives are made of meaning, and meanings are basically stories. If those stories are healthy and life-affirming and empowering, if they come from the heart and mind of a healthy person with healthy intent, then the meanings contained therein will be too. But if the stories are not coming from a healthy place, or constructed with an intent to create or nuture meaning, it might be an effective story, it might be illuminating or enjoyable even, but it won't be 'good' for you, in a certain sense.
How many people grew up on the simple ethos of cowboy films and westerns? Yes, those stories had embedded in them subtexts of racism, sexism, colonialism, and glorification of violence. But that's not all they were, and that's not all they did for the generations of people who absorbed those stories and the meanings in them. You could say similar things about people who grew up consuming Superman, Batman, Captain America. Yeah, you could say lots of things about the subtexts of those characters, and lots of people have. But you also have to think about what patterns these stories, at their best, lay down in the hearts and minds of the people who consume them? Is (say) the Christopher Reeve superman a good ideal for children? Of course it is. Only a foold couldn't see the goodness emanating off that man when he did his thing. But is Henry Cavill's Superman? ....Is Brightburn?
With that in mind, what if we reached a point where the dark underbelly of all these superhero comics was all there was left? what if it had been boiled down into cheap voilence, crude emotions, self-consciously simplistic and even nihilistic situations, rationalisations, and motivations? What if the unhealthy side of these stories took over, like a great illness? And (here is the imaginative leap) what if some of the superheroes who LIVED in one of those sick story universes could see that this was happening? What would they do about it?
That's what The Monarchy is about, and, truncated as it was, still fascinating to read and think about. This trade is a good start and the nice thing about a misunderstood and often derided title is, it's not hard to track the rest of it down. A lovely little oddity, and well worth the time invested.
Track down your medicine.
The trick to understanding The Monarchy is to think of it as a big extended metaphor, which will only really make sense to people who grew up on superhero comics and have taken their imagery and symbolism deep into their hearts, or can at least understand how someone might.
The Monarchy is about how our lives are made of meaning, and meanings are basically stories. If those stories are healthy and life-affirming and empowering, if they come from the heart and mind of a healthy person with healthy intent, then the meanings contained therein will be too. But if the stories are not coming from a healthy place, or constructed with an intent to create or nuture meaning, it might be an effective story, it might be illuminating or enjoyable even, but it won't be 'good' for you, in a certain sense.
How many people grew up on the simple ethos of cowboy films and westerns? Yes, those stories had embedded in them subtexts of racism, sexism, colonialism, and glorification of violence. But that's not all they were, and that's not all they did for the generations of people who absorbed those stories and the meanings in them. You could say similar things about people who grew up consuming Superman, Batman, Captain America. Yeah, you could say lots of things about the subtexts of those characters, and lots of people have. But you also have to think about what patterns these stories, at their best, lay down in the hearts and minds of the people who consume them? Is (say) the Christopher Reeve superman a good ideal for children? Of course it is. Only a foold couldn't see the goodness emanating off that man when he did his thing. But is Henry Cavill's Superman? ....Is Brightburn?
With that in mind, what if we reached a point where the dark underbelly of all these superhero comics was all there was left? what if it had been boiled down into cheap voilence, crude emotions, self-consciously simplistic and even nihilistic situations, rationalisations, and motivations? What if the unhealthy side of these stories took over, like a great illness? And (here is the imaginative leap) what if some of the superheroes who LIVED in one of those sick story universes could see that this was happening? What would they do about it?
That's what The Monarchy is about, and, truncated as it was, still fascinating to read and think about. This trade is a good start and the nice thing about a misunderstood and often derided title is, it's not hard to track the rest of it down. A lovely little oddity, and well worth the time invested.
Track down your medicine.
May 10, 2018
I really hated this book when I first read it, and found it stunningly disappointed. But this was in comparison to The Authority and the Ultimates I was reading.
This book in many ways, was a counter-narrative to the work of Ellis/Millar/Morrison/Ennis. Reading it now--it's very disjointed, but had a lot of clever ideas. The notion that the advent of Post-Humans, many of them embraced mythic thought as a coping mechanism, and the remain unaware of any hidden damage this can cause. Any myth can be broken down into mythemes; relational structures, that question human origin and purpose. A series of primal existentional questions. Which leads to superheroes being more rooted in existential subtext than it often appears. Which is kind of post-modern and depressing.
As such, the Monarchy is made up of unique individuals who don't follow the patterns/archetypes. They are literally alone across the multiverse.
So in many ways, The Monarchy kind of kept the Authority on watch. Both teams stemmed from the closing of Stormwatch. Different MOs however. The Monarchy realized that the anti-bodies (post humans) were too busy fighting each other, than causing real change--and them going into parallel worlds, was making reality sick.
The Wildstorm Universe has a special place for me and this is one of its unsung gems. It's about trying to not go too far done the path that many of the Wildstorm Books/Nu-Marvel were suggesting and to bring a little light back.
This book in many ways, was a counter-narrative to the work of Ellis/Millar/Morrison/Ennis. Reading it now--it's very disjointed, but had a lot of clever ideas. The notion that the advent of Post-Humans, many of them embraced mythic thought as a coping mechanism, and the remain unaware of any hidden damage this can cause. Any myth can be broken down into mythemes; relational structures, that question human origin and purpose. A series of primal existentional questions. Which leads to superheroes being more rooted in existential subtext than it often appears. Which is kind of post-modern and depressing.
As such, the Monarchy is made up of unique individuals who don't follow the patterns/archetypes. They are literally alone across the multiverse.
So in many ways, The Monarchy kind of kept the Authority on watch. Both teams stemmed from the closing of Stormwatch. Different MOs however. The Monarchy realized that the anti-bodies (post humans) were too busy fighting each other, than causing real change--and them going into parallel worlds, was making reality sick.
The Wildstorm Universe has a special place for me and this is one of its unsung gems. It's about trying to not go too far done the path that many of the Wildstorm Books/Nu-Marvel were suggesting and to bring a little light back.
August 7, 2022
Forse il "derivato" più interessante dal ciclo di Stormwatch e The Authority di Warren Ellis. Doselle era giovane e sfrontato e scriveva storie piacevolmente sghembe, criptiche, con tantissima carne al fuoco. Capisco che potessero piacere solo a pochissimi lettori come me. Peccato. Coraggiosissimo.
November 30, 2025
A good side story for Authority fans
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June 9, 2015I must be too stupid to get this book, because it seems to me like it's a warmed over Authority clone with pretentiousness and a self-righteous disregard for anything approximating a plot. Instead, we're treated to random characters doing random things that supposedly come together at the end to form some stronger message, but to me just feel like plot threads left to die on a sidewalk like earthworms after rain. At least the art is decent. Maybe I don't know enough about Jackson King or the other characters to draw a bead on it. Or maybe it's just an example of Wildstorm at its worst.
May 16, 2013
I really enjoyed Doselle Young's Authority tie in. The series was quite ambitious and crossed ground that other writers haven't. The art was very inconsistent, parts of it were amazingly beautiful, then others were pathetic. It was rather disappointing when the series got prematurely canned. Hell, it wasn't perfect and was probably very hard to follow for someone who hadn't read either Stormwatch or The Authority, but i loved the weirdness of it all.
October 12, 2015
Absolutely no idea what happened in this graphic novel. Lots of cool visuals, some deep quantum theory talk, and idea that something REALLY BIG is happening and that King is doing something about it. Usually graphic novels have a smaller arc that gets completed but this just seemed to leave the reader completely hanging with no idea of what was going to happen next but also little reason to care.
December 20, 2012
To be honest I really couldn't follow this and had no idea what the hell was going on!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews