Demon Knights #20 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Chad Hardin (pencils), Wayne Faucher (inks), David Curiel (colors)

The Story: Another day, another sacred quest for the relic to end all relics.

The Review: If you’re a fan of this series—and let’s face it, if you’re even reading this review, you must be a real fan of the series—you’ve already heard the news about its cancellation in three months.  Considering that in March, it ranked at #160 on Comichron, the fall of the axe isn’t too surprising, but it does signal the end of all sword-and-sorcery titles out of DC, making it an even less diverse market than it started out as after the relaunch.

When these things happen, I always wonder how much the creators knew before we did.  Venditti probably didn’t agree to sign onto a doomed title, so when exactly did the higher-ups spring the news on him?  If I had to take a wild guess, it was probably just before he finished writing the first arc.  As eventful as the battle against Cain was, it did feel a little straightforward and truncated, a sign that maybe Venditti was forced to accelerate his plot faster than he planned.

Demon Knights #19 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: It’s a pretty bad economy when even the devil fears losing his job.*

The Review: I don’t think I’m unique in liking creators who can surprise me, particularly if they can do it without resorting to cheap tricks or totally groundless gimmicks.  If you expose yourself enough to any medium of fiction, you eventually catch on to most of its patterns, formulas, clichés, and tropes, rendering many stories too predictable to enjoy.  A writer who manages to spring some genuinely unexpected moments through all that deserves some credit.

Venditti manages to surprise you in precisely this manner several times in this issue, starting with one that quite impressed me from the opening: Vandal Savage revealing that his recent animosity towards Jason Blood is due to Etrigan nearly cutting Savage’s immortal life short in the title’s last arc.  “I’m immortal, but the demon dragged me into the afterlife anyway,” he states coldly.  The moment he says it, it’s like a switch flips on in your head: of course—makes total sense.  Yet you probably didn’t think of it until Venditti wrote it.

Demon Knights #17 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: And now, in a new episode of Dungeon Break…

The Review: Anytime a new writer takes over on a title, you have to give them a little breathing room to find their voice and settle into the world their predecessors set before them.  Obviously, it’d be ideal if they could hit the ground running the moment they start, but that’s a rare delight and we should expect it as such.  For everyone else, it often does take a couple issues before the story and characters start gelling with them.

Venditti got off to a promising start in his debut issue last month by, at the very least, not botching the core personalities of the cast entirely.  Anyone who reads comics regularly knows how often that kind of thing actually happens.  Venditti clearly realizes that even with a span of years separating Paul Cornell’s Knights from his own, he still has an obligation to conform to the characters Cornell established.  Here, in just his second issue, Venditti gets even more attuned to the cast; that, or you’re getting more attuned with the subtle changes he’s made.

Demon Knights #16 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: It’d be nice if these reunions could happen anyplace besides a dungeon cell.

The Review: I’m always a little wary after a writer I admire leaves his title for some unknown to take his place—unknown to me, of course.  I’ve only heard vaguely respectable rumors about Venditti from my subconscious internet browsing, but I still had my doubts as to his ability to step in Paul Cornell’s shoes.  That’s still a step up from where Peter Milligan stood when he took over Stormwatch from Cornell, however; I didn’t even give Milligan a chance to prove himself.

As you read this issue, it soon becomes clear that Venditti definitely brings his own taste to the title, but he tries very hard to remain true to the blend of playfulness and ambition Cornell brought.  The specter of fate surrounding our group remains the same, as does the tense camaraderie of the characters.  Most importantly, perhaps, Venditti does not go out of his way to shake up the status quo or change the cast’s core personalities.

Demon Knights #15 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Isn’t it the worst feeling, waking up one day and realizing you’re young?

The Review: So we’ve come to the end of Cornell’s run on this title, and many more’s the pity, since it feels very much like he’s only scratched the surface of what he wanted to do with this particular set of characters.  It wasn’t even that long ago that they were first referred to by their collective identity as the Demon Knights, and here it seems they’re ready to never be identified as such ever again.

Of course, we know there’s no real danger of a permanent split, what with Robert Vendetti taking over for the indefinite future starting next month.  More than that, the strings of fate are wrapped tightly around the Knights, and despite their resistance, they’ll have no choice but to respond when the next crisis calls.  Horsewoman calls them fools for even attempting to thwart what’s been determined:

“To be offered hope—a destiny—and deny it immediately.  If you are still stupid enough to think you should be apart—then it is indeed the doom of humans—that they forget.”

Demon Knights #14 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Actually, Hell’s starting to look like a pretty peaceful place, comparatively.

The Review: Last month I felt a distinctly Secret Six sort of vibe from our cast of characters, which can only be a good thing, in my view.  Aside from the obvious connections (the presence of a Savage, romantic ambiguity, etc.), the Demon Knights share the same resignation to a loser’s fate as the Six, although both continue striving (fruitlessly, you might say) for better things to come.

Consider Jason reuniting with Xan.  Though overjoyed at finding each other and the prospect of ridding themselves of Etrigan forever, their happiness barely lasts a couple panels before bitter experience sets in.  Jason immediately recognizes that nothing so good can come that easily for them.  Xan agrees, but neatly describes the cautious optimism (the “desperate hope,” Jason calls it) the Knights all have: moving forward might at least give them “more options,” even if none of them are any good.

Demon Knights #13 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Bernard Chang (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Hey, it may be Hell, but at least it’s custom-tailored to your tastes.

The Review: You may have heard by now that Cornell will leave this title in only a few more issues, which is heartbreaking, but apparently par for the course for him, given his records on Captain Britain and MI: 13 and Action Comics.  (I must say, this gives me chills about the future of Saucer Country already).  And even though successor Robert Venditti has gotten approval from Cornell himself, I still worry if he can bring what Cornell brought to this series.

Certainly a Cornell title doesn’t read like any other title out there.  He may not be as audaciously ambitious like Grant Morrison, but he really brings his own flavor of ideas to whatever he writes.  He never tells a story in a straightforward way, but always from an oddball angle completely unique to him.  Consider Demon Knights; the more you read it, the more you perceive the sullen tone it has that prevents it from being a pure sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

Demon Knights #12 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Diógenes Neves (pencils), Oclair Albert & Dan Green (inks), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Even in the medieval ages, sororities aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

The Review: One year later, has Demon Knights given us the epic comic-book fantasy we’ve been craving?  (By “we,” I do mean of course those of us who ever cared for such a thing.)  The answer is no, and frankly, I don’t think Cornell ever intended to give us the usual Tolkien-type fantasy.  What he’s going for is a strange mixture between parody (if the surplus of dinosaurs didn’t bring that home to you) and human drama, and it’s still not clear how it’ll work long-term.

Lately, the title has been steering away from the slapstick and gags which characterized the early issues.  This makes sense, considering all the Knights have been through: a terribly costly siege, near-death experiences, mystic manifestations of self-loathing.  But you can’t help missing the humor of more innocent days, kept alive only by Savage’s occasional but always hilarious quips: “I will not die so a woman with no face can gain different genitalia!”

Demon Knights #11 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Diógenes Neves & Robson Rocha (pencils), Oclair Albert (inks), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: I’m guessing no one came up with sibling counseling in the days of Camelot.

The Review: Call it the devil, anima instinct, or whatever you will, but at some point we all have to face up to the fact that we all have a little bit of not-so-greatness inside of us.  And while I don’t think that’s something anyone should ever be proud of, I hardly think there’s any shame in acknowledging it.  Like it or not, that part of us is a reflection of who we truly are—but it doesn’t represent us entirely.

For that reason, I appreciate the general candidness of the Knights as they recover from the dark magic which infected them last issue.  The typical, right-motivated superhero would no doubt have a downward spiral over this kind of thing; you can easily imagine Superman fretting for weeks afterward if he had a similar experience which turned him into a Doomsday hybrid.  But you’ll notice with this team, the least overtly virtuous and heroic express disappointment over the loss of their monstrous forms (e.g. Savage, Horsewoman, Etrigan), while the others prefer not to confront the meaning of their transformation at all.

Demon Knights #10 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Diógenes Neves (pencils), Oclair Albert & Julio Ferreira (inks), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Shining Knight shows off her personal method of putting down a rabid canine.

The Review: Just recently it occurred to me that with this series, Cornell isn’t just telling a standalone tale that happens to adapt some familiar characters.  He’s basically giving you a whole slice of the DCU you’ve never tasted before, a period we know very little about except through anecdotes from immortals or time-traveling observations.  Cornell has an opportunity not only to create a world in his own vision, but to impact the entire present-day DCU as well.

For now, that might mean establishing mundane bits of history (i.e. the varying names given to the people of Cornwall), but as this issue progresses, you can see where Cornell can revise DC’s very legendarium, its mythological fabric, if you will.  Admittedly, I’m using some very inflated language here; it’s not as if any other title in the new 52 references Arthurian legend or medieval details with any regularity (the closest it ever came was when I, Vampire #7 mentioned some “great mystical warriors” who sealed Cain way).

Demon Knights #9 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Diógenes Neves & Robson Rocha (pencils), Oclair Albert & Julio Ferreira (inks), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: I left my love in Avalon…something, something…And so I’ll travel on to Avalon.

The Review: Now that our “heroes” have proven capable of amazing feats as a team, the next step is seeing if they can go any bigger and if they keep themselves together long enough to do it.  As it stands, they came together by necessity, and arguably only necessity keeps them together.  Yet there seems more at work in their union; considering how drastically different each one’s motives and background are, there must be some great destiny at the end of their collective road.

And does it get any greater than Camelot?  There’s no way to tell even if the Knights succeed in recovering Merlin’s soul, whether that means the kingdom of Alba Sarum will really be considered the newest incarnation of the fabled city  As a concept, Camelot doesn’t seem to be something which someone can create or even earn.  It’s a bit like performance; you rarely know what you did to resonate with the audience, and when you do, it doesn’t work.

Demon Knights #8 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves (penciller), Bernard Chang (guest artist), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Except for the demon choking you part, that’s a pretty romantic story, Xanadu.

The Review: Most of the great superhero teams come together by necessity; some disaster strikes, and there’s no one to face it except the heroes who happen to be nearby.  Whether they handle the problem competently or with much mishap, once the whole thing’s over and the dust clears, they have to figure out where they go from there as a group?  Can these (semi) randomly assembled characters find enough common ground to stick with each other beyond a crisis?

The Demon Knights may not be the best of buddies, to grossly understate things, but they did just go through hell together—some of them literally—and as the old maxim goes, you can’t experience such perils with others and not form some kind of bond, however tenuous.  This is the first chance we get to see how they interact without impending doom hanging over them, and how they behave at rest might surprise you.  For example, Horsewoman is of surprisingly good humor, thought that might be her multiple head injuries talking.  Overall, suspicion has been replaced with curiosity and perhaps resignation that they must endure each other for a while.

The focus of this curiosity quite naturally lands on Xanadu, who clearly has the juiciest story to tell, what with her two-timing both her human and demonic lovers.  The explanation requires a bit of telling and takes up practically the whole issue, and while it’s all very interesting, you don’t come away feeling like you’ve learned more about the inscrutable witch than before—and not just because of Etrigan’s highly outlandish side of the story (“I now pronounce you demon and wife!”).  The madam’s motives have never been clear, and though seemingly well-intentioned, she also has an ends-means streak that often undermines her trustworthiness.

Demon Knights #7 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves & Robson Rocha (pencillers), Oclair Albert & Julio Ferreira (inkers), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Someone turn on the Braveheart soundtrack—it’s time to get hyped for war!

The Review: This title has so successfully gotten us caught up in its fantasy, humor, and tension that only sporadically do we remember that it’s essentially a war story, which means it entails a higher degree of moral spottiness than other kinds of tales.  Sure, casualties pop up in pretty much every bout of superheroics, but in a war, the mortality rate is not only impossible to overlook, it also speaks to the tragic pointlessness to it all.

Cornell has no intention of letting us forget that’s the kind of story we’re dealing with here.  The moment he had a young lass brutally beheaded in #3, you had to know he wasn’t just fooling around with dinosaurs in this series.  No matter how much action goes down—and in this issue, the action is nonstop—we never lose sight of the fact that ultimately, this arc determines not only the fate of the protagonists, but of a village of innocents who stand to lose absolutely everything.

So even though the Knights manage to come out the other end of the issue (barely) alive, with the Horde in full retreat, it is at best a hollow victory.  The price of this result is so bloodily high that you have to ask yourself if it wouldn’t have been more cost-beneficial to surrender early on.  The self-righteous can argue all they want that even in death, at least the villager kept their freedom, but for most of us, freedom comes a poor second to staying alive.

Worse still, the retreat of the Horde does not meant the defeat of the Horde.  The Questing Queen expresses amazement at the Knights’ feat only insofar as “They actually held us.”  Not that they sent the foundations of her army tumbling down, or struck a mortal blow to either her or Mordru’s life—only that they literally managed to keep the enemy from taking one last step to complete and utter triumph, and merely temporarily, at that.

Demon Knights #6 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves & Robson Rocha (artists), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: It’s the ultimate showdown, featuring Amazon versus Triceratops!  Heck yeah.

The Review: Nothing quite like a battle against impossible odds to see what your characters are made of, huh?  These types of crises tend to accomplish two things: on the practical side, you get to see the limits of your heroes’ abilities, and often, on the deeper side, you also see the strength of their values tested.  Consequently, by the time the story’s over, you often have a very different set of characters than what you started out with, even if none of them perish.

But don’t expect the Demon Knights to have even that optimistic ending.  With the kind of dire peril they’re up against and a couple of them already halfway to death’s door, the chances of victory look pretty slim.  I suppose, though, in true fantasy fashion, that makes the glory of their fall all the greater.  Already you’ve seen some amazing action out of the Knights, and here they take it even further, using every trick and power at their disposal to hold off the Horde for just a moment longer.

Even more notable is how crucial a role the women play in making this possible.  I’m not just talking about Exoristos’ solo face-off with a dinosaur battalion, or Horsewoman attempting to charge past a flight of mechanical dragons, or even Xanadu’s quiet attempts to keep the team together.  Think about the person responsible for bringing this conflict in the first place: the Questing Queen.  And who’s her bitter rival?  Not Etrigan nor Al Jabr, but the female (probably) Shining Knight.  Whether Cornell intended it or not, he’s established a pretty lady-centric title here, all the more remarkable considering there are some big-name men in the mix, too.

It’s also the women who bear the tough decisions, as both Horsewoman and Xanadu have to grapple with making the necessary sacrifices to increase the village’s chances of survival.  What they end up choosing to do shows, I think, the kind of person we’ll be following from now on.  We tend to view Xanadu as a very means-ends type of actor, yet here she proves to be of sterner morals than we typically give her credit for, even when the rationale for the evil choice is actually on her side for once.  Horsewoman using the lives of her loyal animals as bait, on the other hand, is much more surprising, particularly since they’re essentially her means of living.

Demon Knights #5 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves (artist), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: I know this isn’t Deal or No Deal, but…y’all should take that deal!

The Review: One of the few life lessons I’ve learned is that getting a group together is easy; getting them to stick together is not.  Even when you all start off with a common purpose, you’re bound to have friction on how to accomplish it, and that’s before you get to the conflict of personalities that inevitably arises.  For the supremely diverse Demon Knights, their risk of falling into petty or vicious squabbling is bound to be greater than the normal group of people.

Even now, at this dire hour when they may all perish by an invading horde, they can’t seem to stop themselves from squabbling.  The infighting among the women has especially gotten out of hand, as both Horsewoman and Xanadu take issue with Exoristos’ impulsive confidence.  Even Al Jabr, quietest and most rational of the gang, can’t stop himself from throwing a punch at one of his “comrades,” as Ex naively puts it.  Jason Blood can’t even keep from fighting himself.

For all that, this issue shows there is some quality common to them all that gives sense to them as a team.  What that quality is, however, is harder to pin down.  Still, it can’t be a coincidence that each one of them rejects the overtures of the Questing Queen and Mordru, though the two antagonists tempt them with their deepest desires.  Each of these offers reveal crucial clues as to the cast’s backgrounds.  We learn that Ex’s departure from Paradise Island came under some sketchy circumstances; Horsewoman’s attachment to her ride is as magical as it is personal; and Al Jabr has a spiritual side equal to his devotion to science.

Demon Knights #4 – Review

By: Paul Cornel (writer), Michael Choi & Diógenes Neves (pencillers), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Call me a Philistine, but are we really going through all this trouble for a cup?

The Review: If you ever read Cornell’s terrific run on Action Comics (or even his current work on Stormwatch), you know he’s capable not only of writing strong, likable characters, but far-reaching ideas and plots as well.  Whether we’re talking a godlike entity with the power to bring happiness throughout existence, or a man born at the start of the universe aging backwards so he can kill it in the end, Cornell has written some of the more interesting concepts in sci-fi.

So it was only a matter of time before he would bring that same kind of conceptual imagination to this fantasy tale he weaves for us now.  And he could have a no more potent focus for his creative powers than the most glorified and least understood motif of the sword-and-sorcery genre: the Holy Grail.

Cornell has Merlin himself explain the inexplicable nature of the Grail, in rapid-fire exclamations that has shades of Grant Morrison or Jonathan Hickman: “It is the cup our Lord drank from—that later drank his blood.  It is a way around the absolute.  To the numinous.  It is a record of everything.”  And just like a Morrison or Hickman monologue, it sounds quite impressive and important, but you can’t say you really understand anything further when it’s done.

Somewhat easier to take is the idea of Camelot as a recurring legend, the creation and destruction of which is a cycle that repeats itself through intermittent points in history.  This title opened on the end of one such iteration of Camelot, and this issue shows us the one from which Shining Knight hails, home to “Artus the Bear King” and “Myrddin, Thing of the Dung!”  We also get hints there may have been an even earlier version of Camelot (“All is lost.  Again.”), and there will be others in the future, as Merlin promises he will “[b]uild Camelot again.”

Demon Knights #3 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves (penciller), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: The Horde is coming, the Horde is coming!

The Review: Works of fantasy have lent a kind of glamour to the period in which they take place.  Whether you’re talking Arthurian legend, Tolkien, or even World of Warcraft, their tales of knights and mages, stallions and dragons, chivalry and destiny have painted a gloss of excitement to what was actually one of the grimmest, least heartwarming times of our world’s history.  So in that sense, the fantasy genre truly lives up to its name.

For the first couple issues, this series seemed set to buy into this trend of scrubbing up the Middle Ages, only it went for the humorous route than epic.  After all, when you have a cliffhanger of flame-breathing, armored dinosaurs raging into a bar, you can’t expect this title to take itself that seriously.  Even here, where events show we’ve clearly entered a dark point in the plot, Cornell can’t resist getting in a few laughs here and there.

Savage is downright jokey about the whole matter, in a hopeless, let’s-make-merry-while-we-go-down kind of way.  Too long-lived and bearing too barbaric an origin to give a hoot about his choice of words, it’s no wonder he gets all the best lines.  In response to Horsewoman’s query about their next move against the Horde, he responds, “…all in all, I suspect the plan is: leave an exquisite corpse.  But I say—let’s at least give them a contest!”

Demon Knights #2 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves (penciller), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: You know, the T-bones of T-Rexes make s’good eatin’.

The Review: Anyone who’s watched almost any episode of Seinfield  knows that when you have a group of characters that vibrant and diverse, you can be entertained watching them do pretty much nothing.  And that is pretty much what Seinfield fans did, episode after episode, for years.  While the show’s lack of sentimentality made it a bit harder for the characters to capture hearts, nevertheless, a lot of people became attached to the sheer force of their personalities.

Demon Knights has just about the most entertaining and engaging cast of all the new DC titles, with the added bonus of being set against a particularly fertile ground for imaginative storytelling.  If you have a comic whose opening includes a two-page splash of fire-breathing dinosaurs in armor, and Vandal Savage exclaiming with a manic gleam, “Excellent!  I haven’t eaten one of these in centuries!”—well, something’s going right for you, that’s for sure.

Demon Knights #1 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Diógenes Neves (penciller), Oclair Albert (inker), Marcelo Maiolo (colorist)

The Story: Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re playing WoW—this is a comic you’re reading.

The Review: It just occurred to me that I’ve spent quite a bit of time on this site discussing any number of fictional genres: sci-fi, pulp, noir, romance, thriller, and on and on.  One we haven’t really covered is fantasy, by which I mean your classic, dungeons-and-dragons, wizards and knights stuff.  Of all the titles between the Big Two, only Thor sort of counts as the kind of fantasy we’re talking about, and the genre doesn’t fare much better among the indies.

Enter Cornell’s Demon Knights, which can’t possibly fit the bill better unless it established the genre itself.  It even starts from the very paragon of fantasy stories, Camelot, but rather than poach off that already overdone mythos, this issue uses it as a jumping-off point, a way to understand how the glory of King Arthur’s reign gave way to the present grimness our heroes exist in now.  And since some of them have their origins in Camelot, it’s a fitting start indeed.

Two of them should look pretty familiar: supernatural superstars Jason Blood (alter-ego: Etrigan the Demon) and Madame Xanadu, who, at this juncture of their immortal lives, come about as fresh-faced as it’s possible for them to be.  Jason retains his resignation as a cursed host of the demon, but the young Xanadu has none of her farseeing airiness.  In its place, Cornell gives her a lively candor (“I say again, my love—my arse.”) and promiscuity.  Fun as it is to read her blunt style of repartee, it’s even more fun to see her cheat on Jason with his demonic alter-ego.