Musicians - Zenith

Home > Listing Index > Musicians > Zenith (comic)

	Musicians - Zenith

Zenith is a fictional superhero, pop star and protagonist of the comics series of the same name, which appeared in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD between 1987 and 1992, with occasional appearances since. The series was created by writer Grant Morrison and artist Steve Yeowell, although many of the characters were designed by artist Brendan McCarthy.

It was notable as the first proper superhero series to appear in 2000 AD, and was strongly influenced by Alan Moore's superhero stories such as Miracleman , the Cthulhu Mythos developed by H.P. Lovecraft and his successors, and 1980s British popular culture.

Synopsis

Zenith, real name Robert MacDowell, was the son of two members of Cloud Nine, a super-team of the 1960s who had been created by the British military but rebelled and became hippies and psychedelic fashion icons. Zenith himself used his superhuman abilities not to fight evil but to promote his career as a pop singer. Shallow, spoilt, self-centred and cowardly, he was reluctantly dragged into the struggle against malevolent supernatural entities known as the Lloigor or "Many-Angled Ones".

The British superhuman project had been developed from technology stolen from the Nazis in World War Two, and the Nazis had developed it from knowledge given by the Lloigor. The Nazis were advised to create "Ubermenschen", but in fact the real purpose of the project was to create host bodies strong enough to house the Lloigor's spirits. The British superheroes came of age during the tumultuous 1960's, and promptly rebelled, like many teens of that time. Most of the former members of Cloud Nine disappeared. Zenith's parents were killed, others disappeared, and the few remaining, having apparently lost their powers, retreated into civilian life. One, Peter St. John, aka Mandala, became a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party. (Mandala is the one responsible for essentially dragging Zenith kicking and screaming into the world-saving business.)

In the first series Zenith reluctantly teams up with surviving members of Cloud Nine to defeat one of the Many-Angled Ones, although this proves fatal to a member of the team. The second series details the efforts of a media tycoon modeled on Richard Branson to use Zenith as breeding stock for a new group of superpowered slaves that he will use for world domination. The third series involved a multidimensional war utilizing comic-book characters from other British comics from the 50's, 60's and 70's. The fourth and final series brought the story full circle as the Lovecraftian horrors from the first series were revealed as originating much closer to home than previously realized.

Zenith has since returned twice to the pages of 2000 AD. Once in zzzenith.com, a one-off which featured in Prog 2001 which took place years after the end of the previous series, and in 1 Night 2 Remember produced for the 25th anniversary issue. Attempts to republish the original series in recent years have so far been prevented by a copyright dispute.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Zenith (comic) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Zenith (comic); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Musicians - Zenith

Synopsis

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay