Pax Americana

Spoilers for Pax Americana

The cover to Pax Americana

Pax Americana is a one-shot comic published by DC Comics. It was written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely. According to Morrison, he intended Pax Americana to be a "homage and ... challenge to Watchmen". Since most of the coverage has been comparing Pax Americana to Watchmen, I will try to keep such comparisons to a minimum.

What is the plot? The president of the United States, the fictional President Halley, is assassinated the government-sponsored superhero Peacemaker. Naturally, his successor, Doctor Eden, wants to figure out why. Meanwhile, the Question is trying to solve the murder of Nora O'Rourke.

My main issue with the comic is the use of non-linear storytelling. The plot constantly jumps across time and space in a fashion that is very disorienting and makes the narrative confusing. This might be forgivable if the non-linear storytelling added something to the narrative (like Pulp Fiction). It doesn't. The comic could have easily been told linearly with the backstory being revealed to the audience as the Question discovers it. The non-linear aspect only seems to exist to prove how artsy Grant Morrison is and to hide how incomplete the story actually is.

Speaking of which, Pax Americana has no real conclusion. Had the plot been told chronologically, it would have stopped at the end of act two but before act three. The entire narrative seems to be building up to a confrontation between the Question and the main villain. Despite this, this never happens. I get story is trying to have an ambiguous ending like Watchmen. The thing is, Watchmen actually ended at a point that was a natural stopping point for the plot, thus making the ending satisfying despite its ambiguity.

Not helping is how key pieces of information seem to be missing. For example, a lot of focus is given on how President Halley had a plan to bring world peace. However, the comic never explains how this plan was supposed to work. In addition, I still am unsure why Peacemaker killed the president, despite the comic making a big deal about it. 

What Captain Atom / Adam is like in this story

On a related note, the characters are uninteresting. The majority of them are either mouthpieces for the writer to spew his philosophy (e.g. President Halley, Captain Atom / Adam, the Question and Nightshade) or straw men who get told they are wrong by the mouthpieces (e.g. Doctor Eden) or make the mouthpieces look cool in comparison (e.g. Blue Beetle). Nothing about their motivations, backstory, or origins are explored in much detail. Meanwhile, the one guy with an internal conflict has his conflict resolved by reading comic books. Yes. That really happens.

I want to preemptively respond to a criticism I’ll get if I don’t address it: namely, all of the superheroes are pre-existing characters and I should look up the characters I am not familiar with on the internet. The thing is, this is supposed to be a self-contained story. If the story doesn’t explain who these characters are or make them interesting enough that I would want to learn about them, that is a failing of the writing. 

In addition, many of these characters have been changed from how they are normally portrayed. Captain Atom, in particular, is virtually nothing like any other version of the character. As such, he is functionally a new character. Yet, Morrison never really introduces the character or elaborates on him. 

Not helping is how Morrison scrubbed away anything that made these characters interesting or unique. For example, the original version of Peacemaker was a peace-obsessed politician who became a superhero to resolve political disputes that couldn’t be solved diplomatically. That's an interesting concept for a character. Grant Morrison ignores that cool premise to turn him into a generic superhero. Having reread Pax Americana, I cannot tell you a single defining attribute that makes this version of Peacemaker different from any other superhero.

An example of the quality of dialogue

My final complaint is the dialogue. Everyone talks in a very stilted and unnatural fashion. There are such gems as "Here's a question for you. Your masters in the military-entertainment complex think they run the game. But who controls the board?", "After the towers fell, we sold the dream of children to fearful adults" and "Heroes and villains? Masks? Old-fashioned politics will turn this country around.” What’s weird is this isn’t usually a problem with Grant Morrison’s work (or at least isn’t bad enough for me to notice).

Overall, I was disappointed with Pax Americana. I have enjoyed Grant's work on Doom Patrol, 

Flex Mentallo and The Invisibles. However, he really dropped the ball here. Instead of focusing on the important aspects of the comic (i..e. the story and characters), the comic focuses on being artsy with its non-linear story and preaching.