User:Jack Sebastian/The Trenchcoat Brigade

The Trenchcoat Brigade is a four issue comic books limited series created by writer John Ney Rieber, artist John Ridgway, and colorist Alex Sinclair. The series was published in 1999 as a part of DC Comics' Vertigo imprint subsidiary. It was subsequently reprinted in collected form as a trade paperback.

The title references an offhand joke used by John Constantine in the earlier Books of Magic to label the loose affiliation of mystics that included himself, the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Occult, and Mister E, all of whom wear a trenchcoat. Speaking in the discussion pages of Books of Magic, author Alex Irvine noted that Constantine was knowingly paraphrasing the title of Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous "The Charge of the Light Brigade," about a reckless military event). Constantine's nickname for the four occultists catches on, and culminates in this eponymous series

The Trenchcoat Brigade: Misery tells the story of how the four mystics' reunite to save the world from the predations of the Cancer god M'Nagalah. The characters' backgrounds, heretofore largely unknown, are explored, and plot elements of the prior series, The Books of Magic are presented as background.

Story
The series are arranged as a series of four chapters: "Misery", "Mercy Killer", "The Kindness of the Wolf" and "Eyes of the Blind".

Plot
(816 words)

Mister E, having finally walked back from the future, is looking in present-day New York for a Russian émigré with green eyes, who he intends to kill with a wooden stake. His personality has split into two parts: the aforementioned Mister E, and Erik, a person free of the former's religious zealotry, who can interact comfortably with women. The trigger for this personality change is when Erik dons the trenchcoat associated with his Mister E persona.

News of these "Green-Eyed Monster" attacks draws the attention of the John Constantine, Rose/Doctor Occult and the Phantom Stranger. When they track him down, they are mystified at his changed behavior, unsure if it is even him. Erik reveals that a bleak future is forthcoming wherein a green-eyed Russian stranger called Misery causes the end of life on the planet. By killing him, E intends on preventing the future catastrophe from occurring.

The four set off to find Misery in the future. Confronting him, Constantine reveals that "Misery" is non other than Pyotyr Konstantin, yet another magically inclined member of the Constantine family tree. Konstantin begs to be taken into his past to interrupt his own actions which create the bleak future. When they arrive in the Ukraine of 1648, Misery attacks them with shadow versions of the Brigade. Each is immobilized, forced to relive the worst nightmarish guilt of another of the Brigade. Misery slips away and seeks out his earlier self, a cossack who has begun an affair with Elliana, daughter of the King of the Leshy. Misery tries to trick his earlier self into not following through on his plan to kill the king of the Leshy and steal a magical artifact called the Eye of the World. The younger man beheads Misery. Misery isn't killed, however. Elsewhere, the Trenchcoat Brigade slowly recover from their trance-like experiences with each others' guilt, affected deeply.

When Elliana comes across the disembodied head of Misery and places his head back upon his shoulders, he tries to warn her of what is to come, she runs away in disbelief to her castle, only to discover that Misery had been telling the truth. She escapes with her life, taking the Book of Ending with her and vowing revenge. The book infects her with a strange growth which covers her right hand. This infection sprouts a pair of eyestalks and a mouth, which it uses to name itself M'Nagalah, and that it will teach the guilt- and grief-stricken woman how to read the book, which it calls instead the Book of Beginnings.

The four magi force Misery to show them who causes the end of the world, and correctly identify the loathsome, shifting entity as M'Nagalah, the god of Cancer who feeds off the guilt of humanity. Knowing that the Cancer god can only be summoned into this world through the flesh of the summoner, they walk forward in time, tracking down Elliana, who is preparing to summon the being. When they arrive, the pre-Misery version of the older Pyotyr - kept alive all these years by M'Nagalah to wallow in his guilt - has just agreed to expiate that guilt and the voices in his head by participating in the summoning.

As the summoning progresses, the Trenchcoat Brigade strike out at the summoned creature, but it is Misery who interrupts the summoning by severing both Elliana's fleshly connection to M'Nagalah, but his earlier self's head as well. Elliana realizes that she has been used, and burns the infection of the cancer god from her hand and dies, M'Nagalah, desperate for a host, possesses Mister E. The other mages debate whether to kill E, now that the summoned being is vulnerable. Rose/Doctor Occult stops them, reminding them that E knows more about guilt than anyone else, and is best prepared to fight and defeat the god, which feed off guilt. This proves to be true, and the blind mage recovers. He shrugs off his trenchcoat and, staking it to a tree asks to be called Erik.

Characters
Mister E:

John Constantine:

Doctor Occult/Rose:

The Phantom Stranger:

Publication history
The Trenchcoat Brigade first appeared together in Neil Gaiman's Books of Magic series, in which they attempted to guide twelve-year-old Tim Hunter through the past, present and future of Magic in the DC Universe in order to teach him all of Magic's abilities and consequences. Their differing styles and approaches to the theory and uses of magic pointed out some of the deep differences between these trenchcoated mages, differences which are explored further in this series The group would later re-unite in the five issue mini-series about Tim Hunter entitled The Names Of Magic.