King Mob is the alias of one of the characters in the Invisibles series by Grant Morrison. He is the leader of a cell of counter-culture terrorists known as the Invisibles, a worldwide group of anarchists, focused on freeing the people of this reality from the evil and despotic machinations of beings from an extra-dimensional realm known as the Outer Church. King Mob's cell - Ragged Robin, Lord Fanny, Boy and the newly co-opted Jack Frost - follow KM on a number of missions designed to tip the status quo of the Outer Church's control on this reality, including astrally projecting back in time to co-opt the Marquis de Sade, and attacking a huge research facility in Dulce, New Mexico.
King Mob himself is at once an anarchist, an assassin, a rock musician, a Tantric adept, a magician and a novelist.
What we know of King Mob is that his introduction to the Invisibles was through the former Invisible Edith Manning, who was part of an Invisibles cell in the 1930s. From here he began training, becoming an adept at meditation, astral projection, and various methods of both physical and psychic combat. Since Invisibles cells are modeled on the five elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Spirit), King Mob at first represents Air (the leader of the cell, a position held previously by John A'Dreams and afterwards by Ragged Robin), and then later Earth.
There is apocryphal evidence within the Invisibles series that King Mob's alter ego is one Gideon Stargrave, either a little known horror novelist or a trans-dimensional super-spy. In the context of the story, they could both be fictitious creations of King Mob, an effort to subvert emotional and psychic attack by an agent of the Outer Church, Sir Miles.
Gideon Starorzewski, the Novelist
There is comparitively little information about this alter-ego. Starorzewski, a struggling writer, writes horror fiction under the pen-name Kirk Morrison. In an effort to check his back-story, Sir Miles has his supposed address searched. The investigators find all the evidence of a perfectly real person living a perfectly real life.
Later we see Starorzewski/Stargrave of 2012, and there is a reference to his latest novel and it's plot. However this could also be a fantasy.
Gideon Stargrave, the Trans-dimensional Super Spy
This version of Gideon Stargrave is only referred to in story-like snatchets, as if the reader were dipping into a Gideon Stargrave comic, mid-story.
In this alter-ego, Stargrave is a Super-spy, acting against a huge hive-like enemy in seemingly random terrorist acts. Interestingly, he shares many attributes with the character Jerry Cornelius, a creation of the 1960's author Michael Moorcock.
Both are androgenous bisexual figures, both indulge in seemingly random acts of terror, with a penchent for violence. Both are well - dressed, gun toting, drug taking, fast car driving arsonists, rock stars, nuclear physicists and assassins. In this way Stargrave is analogous to the character of King Mob himself, and we see in this the talent of Grant Morrison for layering stories and realities within stories and realities. Are Gideon Stargrave and King Mob one and the same, is Gideon Stargrave the fantasy of King Mob, or even of Gideon Stargrave the Novelist, who could be all seen to either be individual characters in their own right or extensions of each other.
The characters could also be facets of a larger super-consciousness in the same way as Jerry Cornelius has been discussed as one representative among all of Moorcock's heroes as facets of a larger archetypal hero-figure. King Mob and Gideon Stragrave the Super-Spy could be facets of the Novelist, or both Stargraves could be facets of King Mob. One other possibility that should be considered is that all three characters are smaller facets Grant Morrison himself. Certainly King Mob looks very similar to the author.
Morrison has spoken at length about the nature of the Invisibles, referring to the series' magical properties. The Invisibles has come to represent a hyper-sigil - a sigil of self-propagating sigils. The series has been regarded by many as a magical nexus of intent, reflected in it's hyper-textual properties. Perhaps King Mob was therefore written to be a representation of Morrison's ideal Morrison.
Whatever the nature of King Mob, thematically he represents the anarchist core of the featured Invisibles cell, and the series itself. As vociferously as he espouses the revolution and an end to the encroaching chaos of the Outer church he cannot himself bring about this revolution, as a representative of pure chaos, and must therefore rely on others - his fellow invisibles - to achieve his goals. This purpose of character is hinted at subtly when it is brought to KM's attention that he may be both cause and cure of the tyranny they fight.
References:
http://www.invisibilia.co.uk
http://www.barbelith.com
http://www.disinfo.net
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