Metropol: The Complete Series + Metropol A.D.

AUTHOR: McKeever, Ted

ARTIST: Ted McKeever (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Image Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1991-1992 (Metropol); 1993 (Metropol A.D.)

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2009

Publication History

In 2009, Shadowline, a privately owned imprint of Image Comics, published the entire Metropol series under the title Metropol: The Complete Series + Metropol A.D. The two titles were originally published as a series of comic book issues by Epic Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics. Founded in 1982, Epic provided Marvel an imprint that permitted the creators of the comics to maintain ownership of their work.

Metropol was published in a series of twelve issues from 1991 to 1992; Metropol A.D. was published in three issues in 1993. Metropol was first published as a single volume by London-based company Blue Eyed Dog in 1995. In 2000 and 2001, Sorhenn Grafiks published Metropol in French in two volumes, translated by Serge and Stéphane Philippo. They also published it in English as a single volume and an e-book in 2000.

Plot

Metropol, Transit (2008), and Eddy Current (2008) form a trilogy of graphic novels by Ted McKeever that address the corruption and decay of an industrialized society. The novel recounts an apocalyptic battle between angels and demons. A plague is devastating the population of a large industrial city. Once people die, they come back to life either as angels or as demons; however, the demons far outnumber the angels. Only a few individuals have the purity of heart to come back as angels, whose mission it is to defeat the demons.

Sarakiel, the leader of the angels, has arrived in the city and is looking for the other angels. Jasper Notochord, who will die of the plague and become the angel Enoch, is embroiled with two unpleasant police detectives, Martin and Verdi, who put him in jail and insist he admit to seeing something that he did not see.

Trinity, a waitress at the Redd Mecca restaurant, commits suicide by overdosing on pills. Sarakiel comes to her apartment believing she will be one of the angels, but because she has committed the unforgivable sin of suicide, she comes back as a demon with a strong hatred for Sarakiel. They engage in a vicious battle. Humphrey, a clerk in a video store, becomes involved with a street prostitute named Candy. Jack Wack, a Jack the Ripper-type character, kills Candy and her partner. Humphrey kills Jack Wack out of love for Candy and is then killed by a policeman.

Meanwhile, Jasper is resurrected with the knowledge that he is Enoch. Before his death, he had already communicated with this other self. He and Sarakiel soon meet and battle demons. Sarakiel explains the marks that the angels have on their foreheads and helps Enoch with his metamorphosis. Sarakiel and Enoch meet the newly resurrected Candy/Uriel, Humphrey/Gabriel, and Jack Wack. Once again, Sarakiel makes a mistake in believing that the other three are all angels. Enoch recognizes that Jack Wack is not an angel but a creature from hell. When the angels battle the demons, they undergo a metamorphosis that replaces their skin with metal, and each discovers his or her special knowledge.

The city has been walled in to confine the plague. As the population dies and returns to life, the number of demons increases. The angels go to a gun shop, arming themselves with high-tech weapons and an arsenal of nuclear devices. Meanwhile, Martin and Verdi are killed in a car wreck and resurrected as demons. They kill a policeman, who comes back to life as the angel Noah. Eddy Current has returned and joins Noah, while Jack Wack attempts to organize the city’s demons and the angels return to Enoch’s apartment. At the end of Metropol, Uriel tells Sarakiel that she is pregnant.

In the three-chapter sequel, Metropol A.D., McKeever continues his tale. Jack Wack has become the master of the demons. The angels have been hiding for a year in Enoch’s apartment building and are gathering reinforcements. Uriel has given birth to a son, Joshua. Noah and Eddy battle demons as they make their way to the safe house.

The angels make their final stand against Jack Wack and the demons, but much goes wrong, and Gabriel and Noah begin to fight. Noah’s anger causes him to break his bond with the other angels. He realizes that he has been defeated by his inability to control his rage and dies fighting the demons. Having decided that self-sacrifice is the answer, Gabriel abandons the others to blow up the city without saving the remaining humans.

Enoch, Sarakiel, Uriel, Joshua, Eddy, and the few humans that are left escape in a truck just before Gabriel sets off a nuclear explosion that destroys the city. Metropol A.D. concludes with the three remaining angels discussing their responsibility to watch for the return of the evil and safeguard humankind. They realize that while the future may be safe because of their vigilance, it will still be bleak.

Characters

•Jasper Notochord, a.k.a. Enoch, the protagonist, is an ordinary, average-looking man who becomes involved in an apocalyptic war between angels and demons. He lives alone in a small apartment and is bothered by dreams that he does not understand. He contracts the plague, dies, and becomes the angel Enoch.

•Sarakiel is the leader of the angels. In Eddy Current, she was Nun, a large woman who helped Eddy save the world. Both died in the quest. In Metropol, she has returned as a large, mannish-looking woman with large breasts.

•Trinityis awaitress at the Redd Mecca restaurant. She has the potential to become an angel, but she chooses to commit suicide. Upon her death, she transforms from an average-looking woman with dark hair into a monster with a human female body, a ram’s head, and a set of wings.

•Candy, a.k.a. Uriel, is a prostitute who is shot and killed by Jack Wack. After her death, she becomes Uriel, one of the strongest angels. She gives birth to Joshua.

•Humphrey, a.k.a. Gabriel, is a mild-mannered, well-intentioned man who is in love with a good-hearted prostitute named Candy. After his death, he transforms into the angel Gabriel.

•Jack Wack is from the demons’ side. He attempts to pose as an angel and infiltrate their group, but he does not carry an angel’s mark on his forehead. Enoch knows he is not an angel and sends him away.

•Noah, a former policeman, is the fifth angel. He first appears in the last chapter of Metropol.

•Eddy Current, the protagonist of McKeever’s second work, also called Eddy Current, joins the angels in the fight against the demons. He adds humor to the story with both his appearance and his comments.

•Joshua is Uriel’s son. He represents the continuation of life.

Artistic Style

Metropol and Metropol A.D. are drawn in black and white. The action is set in a grim industrialized city filled with corruption and danger, where there is no beauty, no joy, and little compassion. McKeever’s renditions of the city, its buildings, and its traffic are heavily inked, giving the impression of overcrowding, pollution, darkness, and decay. The panels are congested with inked-in areas and roughly sketched shapes that express the chaos and discord of the city.

McKeever’s characters are hastily drawn and sketchy, with a minimum of detail. They reflect the lack of beauty and joy in the city, as none of them are particularly attractive. The angels contrast sharply with traditional portrayals of angels. They do not earn halos and robes; instead, their skin drops from their bodies and is replaced with metal. However, the angels do retain human features, unlike the demons, which are portrayed as monstrous creatures with large eyes, big teeth, horns, and severely misshapen bodies. Jack Wack is always drawn with his hair over one side of his face.

McKeever uses both bubbles and rectangles for dialogue. There is also a considerable amount of commentary. In the first part of the work, the commentary recounts television news broadcasts about the plague and the appearance of demons in the city; in later chapters, it takes the form of biblical prophecy. This technique gives readers the sense of actually watching the story unfold and provides a close investigation of the visual narrative.

McKeever links Metropol to his other works with both written and visual references. Sneakers play an important role in the graphic novel and foretell the return of Eddy Current. Sarakiel insists that Enoch wear sneakers. In the sewers, Sarakiel holds up Eddy’s sneakers, the only item in her bag not washed away; she has kept them as a reminder of Eddy and as a way to draw him back. The chapter ends with a sequence in which Eddy breaks out of his grave and wants to know where his sneakers are. In another example, while in the gun shop, Enoch says the disposable bazookas remind him of plastic forks. Sarakiel is drawn from behind, with her hair hanging down her back in the form of a dog’s hind legs and tail; this portrayal cleverly references McKeever’s book about animal experimentation, Plastic Forks.

Themes

In Metropol and Metropol A.D., McKeever portrays the battle between good and evil on an apocalyptic scale. Overwhelmingly outnumbered angels engage in a violent battle against the demons. McKeever draws upon Christian tradition in his portrayal of the battle, and the names of the angels are either those of biblical angels (Sarakiel, Gabriel, and Uriel) or well-known biblical names (Enoch, Noah). Suicide is viewed as the unforgivable sin. Heaven and Hell exist. However, Metropol is not a modernized retelling of the Christian Apocalypse. Trinity states that Christ has nothing to do with the current situation. The fight is not a question of salvation; it is a war between good and evil, between angels and demons.

In the afterword, added in 2008, McKeever discusses the intent of Metropol: to find realistic answers to who people are and whether they possess free will. He states that a human body is twenty-one grams lighter in weight after death, and therefore he recognizes the existence of a soul.

Social criticism is another theme of Metropol.McKeever portrays the corruption, vice, and dishonesty of contemporary society. The city is filled with people who have little or no compassion for each other. They are rude, cruel, and uncaring. The police are obsessed with their power and use it to abuse others. Thieves, murderers, and prostitutes abound.

Metropol also addresses the concept of the hero. In contrast to the standard American comics hero, generally an indestructible superhero, McKeever’s heroes are vulnerable, and several of them die. Both Noah and Gabriel die, even though they are angels. Eddy Current died in the previous story, his self-titled volume, in which he saved the world, and he returns now to once again be a hero after his death.

Impact

Metropol is one of McKeever’s most important works. It is the third in a series of graphic novels that explore the existence of good and evil and critique modern industrialized society. Metropol has played a significant role in the expansion of the graphic novel genre and has contributed to the genre’s consideration as one of serious literary merit. In contrast to the superhero and crime comics that target a younger audience, Metropol illustrates that the medium of comics is suited to more abstract and philosophical considerations.

Metropol is an important addition to the corpus of creator-owned comics, which are becoming readily available to the reading public. In 2010, McKeever began publishing Meta 4, another experimental and innovative graphic novel. In addition to his success in producing graphic novels entirely on his own, McKeever has also collaborated with other writers and on major superhero comics, including issues of Superman, Batman,and Wonder Woman.

Further Reading

McKeever, Ted. Eddy Current (2008).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Meta 4: The Complete Series (2011).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Transit (2008).

Bibliography

Eisner, Will. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008.

McCloud, Scott. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and GraphicNovels. New York: Harper, 2006.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994.

Schwartz, Ben, ed. The Best American Comics Criticism. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2010.