Cooking dragons from the inside is not a recommended method.
What They Say:
The siege that will reverberate through history to the present-day DCU begins as the Demon Etrigan and his unlikely lover, Madame Xanadu, face the Horde! What five (mostly) noble souls would be crazy enough to join them? The cover gives but a hint, and the point could well be moot by the time this issue’s done. For the Horde is armed with the magic of Mordru – including some decidedly different dragons!
The Review:
After the opening issue of Demon Knights, Paul Cornell had me pretty hooked. So much so he had me going back to older DC Comics works with the Madame Xanadu series to get a taste of that character through that lens to enjoy it all the more. While things have seemingly changed some between what Xanadu went through there and here, it’s still a neat thing to take some of that into account here as the crap hits the fan for her and the group that’s sprung up around her as the Horde begins to make its way through the village of Little Spring to its larger goal. While the Questing Queen has her larger plan moving along, things have come to a bit of a problem here as her forces, an array of dragons she’s sent to deal with the place, aren’t exactly achieving their goal of burning down the place.
What’s so very amusing about this opening fight as the scaly critters flail about is how others react to it. While you have the expected reactions of our new Amazon, Ex, simply getting into the fun of the fight and Shining Knight getting weapon in hand, it’s the others that make it work. Vandal Savage only made a minor appearance overall before but he’s fantastic here as he’s just so gleeful to see the creatures he’s not seen in centuries, and the potential for a great roast. Etrigan as well goes for the gusto here, opting to clamber right inside of one in order to push back against the assault and flaming out hugely there, which spews blood and guts everywhere. While it’s disgusting in its own way, the glee you have in the faces of Ex and Vandal just makes it work so well because that’s the kind of mindset they have. It’s a humorous yet disturbing moment, but it’s the kind that makes it clearer who they are.
The issue is kind of chaotic all around though, as the fighting goes on over a couple of phases beyond that opening salvo. The arrival of someone called Horsewoman on the scene offers up some potential but it’s not a truly realized scene, but just another addition to the growing cast. There’s some good time spent between the Questing Queen and Mordru about the past and what it is they’re capable of that’s fun to see unfold as well. But I also like how they handled the conversation about whether to abandon the village or not. With Vandal talking about the various kinds of Goths out there and what they’re like, it’s another great little nod to his lengthy past and the kind of skewed way he views it, and how he knows he’s left out of a lot of history that he’s been instrumental in. These kinds of short bits populate the book heavily and makes for a really good read, the kind where you get more out of it each time you read it.
Digital Notes:
This Comixology edition of Demon Knights contains the main cover as seen with the print edition with no variants or other extras included.
In Summary:
Demon Knights hits up what’s essentially the next few minutes from the previous issue by giving us a good dose of action, bloodshed and hilarity. It’s a very fast moving issue with what it does since it just keeps going and going, with the Questing Queen pages being the only part the slows things down for just basic dialogue, but it’s not a fast read which is a plus. There’s a lot going on with each page, a good mix of characters that we’re discovering and the little quirks to them that makes them stand out. Some work better than others here, shifting the focus to them compared to the first being about Xanadu for example, as Vandal Savage really comes across well here while Etrigan gets to have some fun too. It’ll be going big for at least another issue it seems and hopefully we’ll see the formation of the team in a more formal way soon with a clearer mission. But right now, Demon Knights is just a whole heck of a lot of fun.
Grade: B+
