GWAR IN THE DUOVERSE OF ABSURDITY REVIEW part 2 of 2
I need to get this out of the way. I am in no way on the payroll of Gwar, Z2 comics, nor did I receive anything from them for free. I purchased the comic book, album, and that hateful thing above with my own hard earned dough because I'm a hapless slave to our lords and masters, Gwar, the Scumdogs of the Universe. That out of the way, on to chapter 4 of the comic (referred to henceforth as "Duo")!
Chapter 4 is called "Rise Again", and is named for one of the best songs on the album. Describing a bronze Civil War statue coming to life along with the fallen soldiers buried around him, this song is about the "Lost Cause" obsession many Southern states in the US have. Remember when people were deciding they didn't need statues celebrating slaveowners and rebels in their town squares and racists freaked out? I do, and so do Gwar. "Time has opened more wounds than it heals", Blothar sings, having lived in Virginia, under the shadow of all this bloodshed and heroic daydreaming.
"I mean, we have a mass grave of soldiers from the battle at Cold Harbor, where 4000 people died in an hour. When you have something like this in your history, how stupid can you be when you have people who are bringing that language back?" Mike Bishop says, expounding on his thinking in writing the song. In the comic book, this is happening in the Mirror verse. Here, the List Cause is lumped in with other laughable beliefs, such as the Qanon madness and the Bearenstain Bears Mandela effect thing.
Maybe I'm easily entertained, but there wasn't anything like this I'm the first two comics, and I love it. One of my favorite bits here is when Pustulus asks the secretary (is she supposed to be Slymenstra?) "Ha! You really think a bunch of redneck renegades could overthrow the government?" I would hasten to point out that her statement of "we can't remove them, we dare not erase history" and the rest of the interaction are being framed as something to laugh at, as it's all happening in the mirror verse, where everything absurd and stupid doesn't just exist, it thrives.
Chapter 5 is called "Motherfucking Liar", and I'll give you one guess as to who it's most likely about. Blothar calling for a purging and a gutting of the modern age in the face of the miasma of lies and confusion that have beset the world is an excellent dimension to his character. In the comic, the Motherfucking Liar is likely the Mad Monk, the lingering software from Techno's hard drive that lurks in the internet, and has made Gwar's magic mirror into a portal to his mirror verse in an effort to kill Gwar (as Techno was obsessed with).
Sawborg shows up here and, after briefly brawling with his erstwhile foes, is cleared by Balsac, who called him into action to assist with their mirror situation. Worse, the armies of earth are matching on their Antarctic fortress, brainwashed by the country music of Rhinestone Maximus.
Sawborg uploads himself to the internet and meets the Mad Monk, who monologues like he's Skulhedface, and then sends Sawborg to the mirror verse. Due to a misunderstanding, he gets transferred in a tiny platypus body, which, coupled with all his aggressiveb dialogue, is hilarious.
Chapter 6 is called "Rat Catcher", and doesn't actually connect in any meaningful way with the song on the album. The song itself is referred to by Mike Bishop as a "sellout song" due to its catchy hooks, which is funny because it's one of Gwar's many, many songs about murdering children. It has an awesome music video featuring animation by a luchador, and in fact here's the link. It's fantastic!
https://youtu.be/NFr_tG6uVRQ
Back in the comic book, Blothar and Pustulus run to the All Houses Matter House (heh) where President Sleazy works. They assume that, like the Sleazy from the Prime Universe, he will assist them. This is also the point where the rest of Alt.Gwar show up!
Cheesecake the Debauche! So fat and gluttonous he can no longer even stand!
Brainsac the Jaws of Sesquipedalia! So intelligent his body has withered and hisb tremendous brain is crackling with telekinetic power!
Jizcat Da Pussy! The embodiment of finesse and grace!
And fucking Brosnapper, as hip and charismatic as Bonesnapper is stupid and useless!
After making short work if the confederate zombies, they report to President Martini, who sends them off to find Blothar and Pustulus. Our heroes confront him, and being Sleazy, even if he's on the shorter side, he tries to recruit them. Sadly, he has no crack for them, only money, since, and this is good, the Drug War was a success in there mirror verse!
The secretary reveals herself as some kind of alien warrior as the President's female bodyguards run in, and after killing everyone, break his magic mirror, sending Blothar, Sawborg, and Pustulus back to the Prime Universe.
Chapter 8 is titled "Unto the Breach", and just check out this splash page.
The song appropriately describes a siege, and borrows lines from Shakespearean Henry V. It's slow, doom-laden, and a standout on the album.
In Duo, Gwar are entrenched in battle against rednecks, the US army, and everyone else who hates them. They're trying to get to Rhinestone Maximus, as his music is brainwashing everyone into killing them, and to make matters worse, Blofart is assaulting the fortress of Gwar like a kaiju.
Blothar runs off to battle him as Rhinestone kicks Pustulus and Bonesnapper's asses. Beefcake implores Blothar to help him save Pusty, but hey, that's where Blothar keeps his porn. Blothar releases mutant penguins and fudge demons, while the slaves dump piss on the invaders. It's stupid shit, but in the best way possible.
Things get worse as Rhinestone fires a suicide bomber at Gwar, and then knocks a fighter jet out of the air with his music, slamming it into the fortress. And then Blothar does this:
Maybe I'm not as well-versed in Gwar lore, but this feels like a moment from an old Thor comic book, where Thor would constantly reveal new powers from his hammer to defeat an increasingly bizarre rouges gallery. That being the case, Blothar used the Mystical Eye of Speculino, the most random plot device I've ever seen, to absorb the tremendous power of Blofart into himself, practically killing himself in the process.
Meanwhile, Beefcake gets a bomb dropped on him, and takes it like three Hulk he is.
With Blofart defeated and the rest of Gwar converging on Rhinestone, the Mad Monk opens a portal from the mirror verse to the prime verse, sending Alt.Gwar in for the kill!
I've shown a few pages and discussed the plot at length, but if you want to see Gwar and their epic battle with Alt.Gwar, you're going to have to buy the book. All I can say is Sleazy and his massive crack rock come in n clutch.
The final chapter is called "The Beast Will Eat Itself", and involves that Mad Monk leaving the cyberverse to possess the empty body of Sawborg Destructo, who is still trapped in his diminutive platypus form. The song reflects this chapter, describing the lies nurtured in the internet taking root in reality metaphorically, or in the case of the comic, a digital foe taking on flesh. The beast consumes itself because, like a wildfire, after it has corrupted everything else, it will have no choice but to destroy itself.
The stolen body of Sawborg is mutated into a blasphemous monstrosity, and as Gwar looks on in dismay, the Secretary emerges from the mirror astride Alt.Gor-Gor!
If you don't know, Gor-Gor is Gwar's beloved pet T-Rex, who Oderus fed crack when he was in his egg. Apparently they had to kill him, then turn him into a cyborg, and kill him again, but I think that's all state show stuff I was too young to experience. Check this out, you won't freaking regret it: https://youtu.be/30TQ-zSfwgs
Don't say I never gave you nothing.
I truly hope this new Gor-Gor makes an appearance in their new stage show. Anyway, Blothar unleashes the insane Berserker rage of Blofart he absorbed, and the two of them, with assistance from Gwar's bat helicopter, defeat the Mad Monk, revelling in all the destruction that remains.
Later on, Will Fence, the hapless human who originally found Techno's hard drive, finds a tiny fragment from the Mad Monk, and resolves to use it to revolutionize medicine, creating the ultimate vaccine, and possibly setting up another story, although I doubt the vaccine thing will still be topical by the time they put another album/comic out.
All that being said, "Gwar in the Duoverse of Absurdity" is a must buy if you like Gwar and their lore. I feel like, unlike Marilyn Manson and other "edgy" musical groups, they are DND playing nerds at heart, and this comic book shows that in the best way. It leverages their creativity and creative elements to create a bit of crude, action-packed satire that honestly makes me long for more Gwar comics like this. The fact that it's written by Mike Derks, the human slave of Balsac, and Matt McGuire (with help from The Granger Bros) just adds to its sincerity. If Orgasmageddon or Enormogantic Fail were the only Gwar graphic novels, I would be happy with them because hey, Gwar made them, and I think that's kind of neat, but the fact that they continue to improve in their comic output really makes me appreciate them more. This book seriously kicks ass! Buy it from them at gwar.net or z2 comics https://z2comics.com/products/gwar?variant=39962948468876.
There are a few songs that aren't directly referenced in the comic, that deserve to be addressed directly. The first is "The Cutter", which features vocals from Lizzie Hale from Halestorm. I thought this was about another Destructo, but maybe it's about the Secretary. More likely it's just what the lyrics describe a thrash metal song about a girl who gets tired of taking the abuse she suffers out on herself and goes after the evil fucks that are torturing her.
The next is "Venom of the Platypus" which is referenced in Duo in the form of Raspy. It lampoons the concept of digital assistants like Siri or Cortana, with Blothar crying:
Summoned from the darkness
The time has come to start this!"
This song is about how we order these digital fucks around, but don't realize that the whole time they are training us to be dependent on them while they gather data on us and control us. They are the true gods of this world. We have created our own slavemasters. Just look at this killer chorus!
Then there's "Berserk Mode", which could easily be a song off an Amon Amarth album. I'm not sure if Oderus ever got an anthem like this, maybe King Queen, but this one is clearly Blothar's, with his
Shape-shifting, shadow-walker
Clearly describing him, as well as the allusions to Norse mythology, particularly the reference to the Jotun creation of Mist-Calf, a kind of homunculus the giants created you defeat the great god, Thor. I really, really like the character of Blothar, being a Norse pagan myself, and Blothar being from one of the Nine realms that isn't Asgard or Midgard is so awesome to me. He's a mystical monster, who blunders and fucks around until he gets his shit together and murders his foes like a real Viking berserker.
That just leaves the final three tracks in "The New Dark Ages", which are titled the "Death Whistle Suite". The first, "Temple Ascent" features an Aztec death whistle. Possibly used during human sacrifices atop their great pyramids to help guide their souls to the underworld (the wind god was connected with the god of the underworld, possibly representing life/death), the whistle has an unsettling, hellish should, and is mixed in with glitchy guitar sounds and a throbbing, relentless drumbeat.
The next part is called "Starving Gods", and is not an instrumental like the other two in the Death Whistle Suite. It is a song about how mankind has forgotten the gods they used to sacrifice to, and had replaced them with new gods of industry and technology, re "Venom of the Platypus". It's a heavy, excellent song, and Mike Bishop says this about it: "We came up with this song that has kind of a soca feel. It’s kind of a booty-shaker. I just wanted something where people can dance...so the idea is that there’s a human sacrifice going on and then people are just dancing."
The last part, "Deus Ex Monstrum", is gruesome. I've read a few reviews where people seem upset that they listened to a song that's over ten minutes long that has no lyrics or progression, but honestly this is how Gwar chose to end a stellar, unique album that is ambitious in its efforts to say something. Not all music expresses an idea or tells a story, sometimes music serves to elicit an emotion or leave your with a feeling. This song, with it's fucked up guitar riffs that sound like the intro to the sing, "New Dark Ages" if they were coming in on a damaged radio frequency, the low volume whispers, snuffling beast, and the gates opening, all serve to remind you that even though you reveled and headbanged with Gwar over how the world is actually on the highway to hell and reality itself is under attack, The New Dark Ages are real. That person screaming in the distance is actually you, you just haven't realized it yet. I might be biased because I listen to a lot of music while I'm writing and I love ambient stuff like Prodigy, but I think people just haven't approached it with the right mindset.
