The best teams are those that are forced to work together and those that have many, many secrets.
Creative Team:
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Diogenes Neves
What They Say:
Set in the Dark Ages of the DC Universe, a barbarian horde is massing to crush civilization. It’s fallen to Madame Xanadu and Jason Blood, the man with a monster inside him, to stand in their way–though the demon Etrigan has no interest in protecting anyone or anything other than himself! It’ll take more than their own power to stop an army fueled by bloodlust and dark sorcery, and some very surprising heroes–and villains–will have no choice but to join the fray!
The Review:
With so many series taking place in the present day of the DC Universe New 52 launch, and a book that takes place in the far future, I was glad that at least a bit of the past was being explored. And not just any past, but a past where some of the more intriguing characters can work together in order to deal with a very challenging world in a different way. Demon Knights brings us a cast of characters that’s familiar and new in so many ways, touching upon key cornerstones of history and presenting it in a new light, one that has ripple effects down the time lines as it unfolds. It brings us characters that have a hard time, no matter how many times they try, to hold their own series for any serious length. By putting them together, we get something that’s hugely engaging to read and full of little quirks that makes you want oh so much more.
While elements of this goes back several thousand years here, and in one case by many millions of years, Demon Knights takes us to the Dark Ages for its tale here, coming after the fall of Camelot and showing us how the world works when it comes to those on quests or dealing with magic. Like any good adventure of this sort, it all really begins at an inn after we get some of the minor character back story about how Etrigan the demon was bonded to Jason Blood, Xanadu’s connection to them and the whole aspect of Merlin and the Holy Grail. A lot really is covered in those first pages, but it’s also something where the more you know of the characters in terms of general history and some non-comics history, the more fun it is. Having these disparate characters and others come across a small inn that’s part of a narrow path that leads to the powerful city of Alba Sarum sets up a great deal of things.
The cast doesn’t get a ton of exposition and background across the seven issues in this collection as it’s focused on action, but tales are told through the action. The combination of the traveling “pair” of Etrigan and Jason Blood with Madame Xanadu makes for a great deal of fun as she carries an intense love with both, but one of them (or both of them?) is a sham in order to deal with a larger quest. Their quiet time at the inn is interrupted by the arrival of an exiled Amazon named Exoristos who is trying to find her way in the world. Also in the inn is a foreign inventor type named Al Jabr, who faces some issues with his origins in terms of getting service. The place truly gathers the unusual when it also brings in Sir Ystin, an effeminate young man who is called the Shining Knight that’s on a seemingly ageless quest. And last but not least, things take a hilarious turn when Vandal Savage arrives and comes across as a lovable oaf of a warrior as he’s now spending his ageless years doing that just for something different. But the town also has another unusual type in the mix in a Lady Horsewoman, a woman who doesn’t leave her horse at all for reasons that are lightly touched upon towards the latter half.
While having these characters together would be enough of an impetus to move things forward, what really starts to bring things in a direction is the reveal that there’s a very, very large army about to march through there on its way to conquer Alba Sarum. The Questing Queen and her horde are going to take it for resources and more and they have to pass through the village without letting the village sound the alarm. That becomes the focus as when they attack, using magic, mechanical creatures and dragons, it just turns into a huge, hot mess. One made more so when the Queen, through her power source of her lover and partner Mordru, discover what kind of group of people have gathered there and are now suddenly aligned against her for many reasons. It’s not that the “Demon Knights” as they come to be known are working together or aligned the same way, but they’re caught up in it and events conspire to place them on the same side. The Questing Queen would almost find it comical if not for the fact that they have an immense amount of power and history and can’t even be swayed by promises and other offers as they’re noble in their own way.
This opening volume has a lot of ground to cover as it works with a lot of characters, many that people won’t really know all that well. Most of them in fact. But with it taking place in the past, that allows for a lot of material to work with as they’re not quite so defined here and people can change over the centuries into who they are in the present. Their stories are told here through the action that happens, as they push back against the Horde, make sacrifices and otherwise work to ensure their own survival. Some of it is just a bit of background and almost flippant material, such as the relationship Xanadu has with both Etrigan and Jason. Others are more detailed as we get an extensive amount of time with Sir Ystin. Exoristos doesn’t get flashbacks but her problematic past is brought up and given some due while others like the Lady Horsewoman are given a cursory look through how they exist rather than their past. Even Vandal gets some good time as there’s a moment when the group learns that he used to be a part of the Horde before he left after getting bored with it.
Doing all of this while the battles play out isn’t always an easy way to do things. The fight between the two sides is covered across the whole of the seven issues in this volume, though it has its downtime as well so it’s not a constant push of action. That helps to soften it and give us a chance to see how the locals react and cope with things but also to see how the various characters personalities play against each other when there’s no fighting going on. The fighting itself has some brutal moments with commoners killed quite often, some of them brutally and even a beheading of a younger woman. It’s not overly bloody or gross, a little clean in some ways, but it sticks to the time period where death can come suddenly and without notice. There is the goal of saving people, but also realizing that not everyone can be saved.
In Summary:
I had picked up the first few issues of this originally and loved it since it had so many characters that I like, especially as I had just finished reading the Madame Xanadu series and loved her all the more. I was a huge fan of Etrigan with his series back in the early 90’s and have grown to love Vandal Savage over the years and adore this tweak to him that makes beautiful sense. The new characters have a lot of potential and the story is just a whole lot of fun, though it feels like we’re in a situation where it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire with what may happen in the next volume. What I do know is that as a book dealing with an extended fight between two forces, it covers a lot of material here both in characters, setting and back story for several of them to make it an excellent start that leaves me wanting more of it. This time period has a lot to offer and this cast is ideal to explore it with.
Grade: B+