The Mystery Play is a psychological thriller the likes of which Hollywood should but never has produced. It's a story of the belief in trust and the trust in faith... and the subsequent dissolution of both. It's a story of one man's try for redemption and attempt to exit his world of insanity, and his inability to escape what is with him wherever he goes. It's a murder mystery which is solved, but at the same time it remains unsolved... or does it?
With the Mystery Play, Grant Morrison perplexes and boggles the mind as he has before with Arkham Asylum and has continued with the hectic Invisibles series. Grant begins by focusing the reader on the initial mystery, the death of an actor playing God in a stage version of the Mystery Play, but the mystery soon leads to the question who is the detective investigating the murder, because he's definitely not as he seems. There's a reporter in this small Scottish village trying to find her big break, only to have many forces (all her own) holding her back. She's the one who uncovers the truth, but in doing so, also hides it.
Does it sound like I'm being purposefully ambiguous. I am. The Mystery Play is a brilliant story that makes you think about everything. You are given everything to solve the mystery, but the mystery is which mystery to solve. Morrison's tale doesn't encourage repeat readings, it demands it. This is one tale that you can't let sit and rest until you're sure you understand it all.
Jon J. Muth's paintings hit you with photo-realism. Like a film, the Mystery Play has distinguished people representing the characters... each with personality and mannerisms all their own. The trick with photo-realism is that the camera doesn't lie, but a painting can smudge the truth or be outright deceiving. Muth knows how to handle angles, both stylewise and storywise, and combined with the intensity of Morrison's script, the Mystery Play becomes high point in illustrated-fiction.