Intermezzo (The Ballad of Halo Jones Book 2 - Alan Moore)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	The Ballad of Halo Jones Book 2 - Alan Moore
Date:	06/10/07 (121 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More exciting than the first book, due to popular demand.

Disadvantages: Pressure from above interferes with Alan Moore's creative vision.

Alan Moore reveals in his introduction to the second Book of ‘The Ballad of Halo Jones’ that the general response of ‘2000AD’ readers to the first serialised story was lukewarm at best, and the sequel had none of the inevitability of anything Moore churns out today (to a consistently high standard, admittedly). Moore’s eighteen-year-old female protagonist inhabited a bleak and confusing fiftieth century world where a single shopping trip could lead to tragedy and even death, and her decision to escape the hopeless planet Earth as a crew member of the luxury liner Clara Pandy presented a hope for drastic changes from those who found the first story alienating or dull, and were awaiting Halo’s transformation into Judy Dredd: Space Warrior Whore or something similarly backwards-looking.

Fortunately we’re dealing with Alan Moore, a follower of Glycon the hairy snake god glove puppet; a writer who is renowned for sticking to his strong principles even when they fly headlong into the face of public opinion. He admits without shame in his introduction that he was happy to go along with IPC Magazine’s demands of more action and less futuristic newspeak, but only because these could be fit nicely into the story he and artist Ian Gibson had already outlined. Consequently, Book 2 of Halo Jones, despite being set almost entirely aboard an uneventful luxury liner on an intermediary journey, was received with greater warmth by comic readers, and Moore didn’t have to sell out to win them over. There’s always one annoying purist though, isn’t there? The irritating reader who thinks he or she (don’t laugh at the notion, Halo Jones supposedly attracted a fair few girls to ‘2000AD’) is on a more artistic plain than the common reader, and much preferred what the creators were doing before they were forced to make changes for the better. Unfortunately, I happen to be that person this time... as well as most other times to be honest.

Book 2 of ‘The Ballad’ is set out similarly to the first, reprinting the ten five-page comics, but this time accompanied by an extra ‘prologue’ issue at the start to bring new readers up to speed. It’s a good idea, and by introducing the events from a perspective that is even further detached from our own – namely a University or school lecture a further 1400 years after Halo that focuses on her as an ‘obscure historical figure’ – the narration through dialogue is conveniently permitted to explain certain aspects of Halo’s contemporary society and universe, straightforward explanations that were sadistically denied to readers of the first book. This first issue is fairly inconsequential, especially for fans already familiar with the preceding events, and it must stand out quite oddly when appearing a third of the way through the complete collected edition, and by spoiling some of the mystery it takes away what I found to be one of the most satisfying aspects of the first book’s reading experience. It’s also never a good thing when a writer has to expressly state the point of a character – in this case, the fact that Halo was a completely ordinary human being who just happened to find herself in these as-yet unexplained situations that “could have been anybody.” Now that the lowest common denominator has been catered for, the story can begin in earnest, and it is indeed an entirely non-confusing, enjoyable tale with some cracking action scenes.

As a ten-part story, Book 2 is handled similarly to the earlier parts of the first book, which would spend each five-page episode telling of a single event. Most of these parts are separated by a space of at least a month, stated in the opening panel, in an effort to advance the story through a whole year to conclude with Halo’s promised rendezvous with her friend Rodice, though some of the more eventful days receive two to three issues to flesh them out further. There’s a stronger sense of overarching and building plot lines across all of the segments which lends it well to repeated readings, with some of the larger galactic concerns expanding on the subtle hints dropped in the first book and promising some monumental things for Halo’s future. But that’s after she’s completed this first year’s tour of duty as a lowly stewardess on a ship for the rich and secretive, where nothing interesting can happen... right? An early terrorist threat from members of the Tarantulan Emancipation Army in part two is dealt with fairly swiftly by Halo’s violent robotic dog Toby, but this fairly arbitrary action scene (important though it is in explaining more details of the shady Tarantulan situation) is chiefly important for helping to set up the book’s most devastating and exciting fight sequence spanning two later issues, complete with a killer twist that readers like me will probably feel stupid for not having seen coming, despite a real lack of evidence towards that end.

Halo and her dog are the only characters to transfer to this second story in a major fashion, and most of the new faces are much better developed than those of the first, excluding its power trio of Halo, Rodice and aforementioned dog. Halo’s roommate Toy is amusing to observe as she indulges in excessive muscle toning over the course of the year, though a couple of her predictable criticisms of the male species represent the only real weak points of Moore’s dialogue. Male characters actually begin to overtake females in terms of number in contrast to the female dominance of the Hoop in Book 1, but it’s perhaps an intentional joke on Moore’s part that all of them, at least the humans, are portrayed as either irritating, odd or otherwise stupid. Halo forms a strong friendship with the ship’s Cetacean navigator Kititirik Tikrikitit, which even seems to border on romantic (a woman and a dolphin – even Alan Moore wouldn’t write that, surely?), and although the character’s speech is entirely unintelligible to readers, the concept behind his function is rather interesting, even if it seems like a direct rip-off of Frank Herbert’s Guild Navigators in ‘Dune.’

Special mention has to go to Halo’s other roommate, a tragic figure who goes unnamed in all of its appearances (though it suggests ‘the Glyph,’ which appears to have stuck according to a poster at the back of the book in which a sculptor is unable to remember its name past the initial ‘G’), and this character receives the bulk of an entire issue devoted to its rather sad life story, before involving itself in the main plot. An insecure victim of numerous total body remoulds (like a sex change, but more holistically severe), the Glyph travels through the universe without being seen and very rarely noticed, delivering the upsetting but also quite amusing explanation, “my personality had been completely erased. That’s why I’m so boring.” Moore points to the character’s popularity with readers as the main reason for the second book’s comparative success, and it does add a nice bit of sympathetic human charm to the otherwise nasty centre of the tale.

While I didn’t enjoy the odd clashing of action with tedium in Book 2 as much as the more focused non-events of its predecessor, it was nice to see an entirely different perspective on Moore and Gibson’s fiftieth century, and the new characters are all very entertaining. Oddly, despite Toy’s considerable strength, this story seems less progressively feminist than its premise would indicate, as Halo is reduced to a damsel in distress on two occasions, and is forced to wear a very tight and revealing uniform while on duty – though this is clearly a satirical point in itself. It’s a little strange to see the Hoop slang almost completely eradicate itself from her system so quickly, though it’s believable that this was indeed a mere local dialect of the slums that wouldn’t be found in the more privileged environments. It’s also very easy to empathise with Halo’s loneliness in the scene when she replays Toby’s memories and the reader is treated to a reprise of dialogue from the first book, when her friends were still close at hand, and before tragedy had stricken her household. The character is coming along nicely, and it will be interesting to see the next phase of her “ordinary” life in the third, final book.

Ian Gibson’s art is as strong as it was in the first book, as he is yet again called upon to design an entirely new, inhuman setting, this time involving multiple areas of a space-faring luxury liner, and his renditions of familiar areas such as Halo’s quarters and the main dining lounge and bar area are both believable and intelligently futuristic, reminding me of ‘Red Dwarf’ despite that series coming several years later. In fact, I realise that I imagined the general colour scheme of the ship in this black and white book to be in shades of red, despite a lack of evidence either way. Come to think of it, I envisioned Toby to be that colour in the first book too, before I reviewed its cover afterwards and was hit by a disappointing gunmetal grey. Perhaps my mind’s eye simply sees all fictional worlds through blood-stained spectacles.

Summary: Originally published in 2000AD 405 to 415 (1985), collected by Titan (1986).