2: The Fading of the Light

The overwhelming thought after finishing off this sequel to America is just how complicated everything is. America really is as good as its reputation, and there are significant layers of complexity in how Mega-City One and its society is viewed and portrayed. But there is a clear direction and motivation to how the story progresses, and how the characters behave.

The Fading of the Light asks a whole lot of uncomfortable questions that can't be answered, taking the final revelation of America - that Bennett Beeny had his brain transferred to America's body - as its starting point to question almost everything about America the story, America the character, Beeny himself and the society around him.

Nothing in this story is simple or clear - and a lot of it is uncomfortable. Beeny taking over America's body is problematic at the very least, but to then impregnate that body and give birth to Ami, their daughter, is an absolute minefield of troubling ideas. Complications are piled on top of this as America's body begins to fail Beeny - even from beyond death she pushes him away. Beeny's final decision to enrol Ami in the Academy of Law needs a 10,000-word essay just by itself. It is so difficult to classify anything that happens in this story as "right" or "wrong", which I imagine was exactly John Wagner's intent.

Ami is really the central issue here. Her very creation is troubling, and highlights Beeny's inherent selfishness. This is evident not only in her birth, but then in her being left without a family as his stolen body fails - something he must have thought would be a possibility. Wagner is an absolute twisted genius in having a fairly unsettling character like Victor Portnoy actually make good points as he calls out Beeny's treatment of America. But then you can't help but admire Beeny's final point that as a Judge, Ami can have a profound affect on the system that bombs and violence can't.

Interestingly, Wagner takes a very different tack with Dredd here. In America, Dredd is the terrifying enforcer of the state. This story provides a more traditional portrayal of Dredd, balancing out his negative and positive qualities. His removal of the Judge that failed to stop Beeny's rape - a truly shocking scene - highlight's Dredd's code of honour with the Law. Wagner's drive to complicate every aspect of this story even extends to Dredd and the Judges, re-introducing the tension of their place in Mega-City One after their dark totalitarian portrayal in America.

Overall, I came away thinking of The Fading of the Light as less of a sequel to America then as an extended epilogue. The story takes what we learned in America and then probes the messy and complicated fallout of the actions taken there. It's hard to end this story liking Beeny or agreeing with everything he's done, just as it's hard to like Total War although they are fighting an oppressive regime. It's a testament to the writing skills of John Wagner, and Colin MacNeil's depiction of the characters, that Beeny's final end - euthanised with his final friend, a robot butler - is as moving as it is.

It's hard to know after these two intense stories whether Beeny deserves our affection, pity, hatred or ambivalence. Or all of them at once.