King Mob is a fictional character, a revolutionary created by

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...

for ''

The Invisibles ''The Invisibles'' is a comic book series published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication. The series loose ...

''.

Character development

The character's name is directly inspired by the

Situationist The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

group

King Mob King Mob was an England, English radical group based in London during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Influences on the group included the Situationist International and the New York City group Black Mask (anarchists), Black Mask / UAW/MF. It ...

, as well as Morrison themself (as a part of a

sigil A sigil () is a type of symbol used in magic. The term usually refers to a pictorial signature of a spirit (such as an angel, demon, or deity). In modern usage, especially in the context of chaos magic, a sigil refers to a symbolic represen ...

to improve their life). He is also Gideon Stargrave, one of Morrison's early creations. King Mob is generally considered to be a fictional surrogate of Morrison in the ''Invisibles'' comics. Some elements of his personality, especially his Gideon persona, are inspired by

J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist and short-story writer, satirist and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of fiction that explore the relations between human psychology, technology, s ...

's '' The Day of Forever'' and by

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has wo ...

Jerry Cornelius Jerry Cornelius is a fictional character created by English author Michael Moorcock. The character is an urban adventurer and an incarnation of the author's Eternal Champion concept. Cornelius is a hipster of ambiguous and occasionally polymorphou ...

Fictional character biography

King Mob is a former horror writer named Gideon Starorzewski whose pen name was "Kirk Morrison". He is the leader of the cell of Invisibles at the beginning of the series, and adopted the name from an earlier Invisible active in the 1930s. He has a love-hate relationship with his "counter culture terrorist" persona, and is sometimes troubled by his capacity for violence. He recruits a young Liverpudlian "

Jack Frost Jack Frost is a personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. He is a variant of Old Man Winter who is held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, a ...

" to the cell so they can go back in time and recruit the

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...

as well. Captured while saving Lord Fanny, King Mob is tortured by Sir Miles Delacourt, during which he has a vision or hallucination of an alien spaceship in Australia. King Mob psychically forces Delacourt to free him. While sneaking into the Dulce installation, King Mob finds out that the "Lost Ones" are using "living information" from a parallel universe to sow chaos and discord in King Mob's own. After his friend and lover

Ragged Robin ''Silene flos-cuculi'' (syn. ''Lychnis flos-cuculi''), the ragged-robin, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Eurasia and Siberia and has been introduced to North America. Description ''Silene flos-c ...

leaves his time for the future, King Mob makes some steps towards abandoning violence as a tactic by dropping his gun in a pond on the property of Mason Lang, but he also later blows up Lang's house. After an extended sabbatical in Ladakh, King Mob returns once more to England, in time to intervene in Miles Delacourt's anointing of the Moonchild and to rescue Jack Frost from operatives of "Division X", during which King Mob is gravely wounded, although he is saved by the widow of a man he had killed. In 2012, King Mob runs Technoccult and plans to release an inhaler-game based on his life in the Invisibles. King Mob then kills the

King-of-All-Tears ''The Invisibles'' is a comic book created by Grant Morrison for the Vertigo Comics, Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. This article is a list of all characters in the series. The Invisibles The Invisibles are an organization of a freedom fighters at ...

as "The Archon" emerges from the time disturbance created when Ragged Robin departed for the future. Robin herself then emerges, and she and King Mob are reunited.

Powers and abilities

King Mob is a practiced

chaos magic Chaos magic, also spelled chaos magick, is a modern tradition of magic. Emerging in England in the 1970s as part of the wider neo-pagan and esoteric subculture, it drew heavily from the occult beliefs of artist Austin Osman Spare, expressed ...

ian,

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

combatant,

gunfighter Gunfighters, also called gunslingers () or in the late 19th and early 20th century gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in shootouts. Today, the term "gunslin ...

martial artist Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the pres ...

and time traveler.

Notes

References

* {{refend Author surrogates Characters created by Grant Morrison Comics characters introduced in 1994 DC Comics characters who use magic DC Comics male superheroes DC Comics martial artists DC Comics psychics Fictional anarchists Fictional characters with alter egos Fictional gunfighters in comics Fictional members of secret societies Fictional Pencak Silat practitioners Time travelers Vertigo Comics characters