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“Kill the Minotaur” #5

By | October 20th, 2017
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Here it is, the penultimate issue of “Kill the Minotaur!” How will the drama be heightened to its peak? What shocking surprises will it leave dangling going into the finale? Why does it all feel so similar to what I read last month?

Cover by Lukas Ketner & Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Written by Chris Pasetto and Christian Cantamessa
Illustrated by Lukas Ketner
Colored by Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Lettered by Clem Robins

Death comes in many forms as freshly spilled blood coats the labyrinth and the streets of Athens. Each issue contains 30 pages of story!

Maybe, Game of Thrones has changed something in our media culture’s expectation around the penultimate episode. The popular series built seasons anchored by author George R.R. Martin’s shocking moments of brutality or subversion that left the state of things felt like a finale, but there’s still one entry left to show the fallout. Or “Kill the Minotaur” writers Chris Pasetto and Christian Cantamessa scripted an issue that reads as dramatically inert, as it reiterates the series clear thematics but fails to move them forward – as always accompanied by some excellent art work.

A general rule of thumb when it comes to comic storytelling is efficiency. How do writer and artist come together to maximize narrative impact in as little space as possible. There are cases that go against this thinking, such as Tom King’s use of repetitive dialog in “Batman.” Where the repetition is a byproduct, and illustrative, of the thematic point that Batman is stuck in a perpetuating cycle. “Kill the Minotaur” isn’t “Batman” and even I doubt King would dedicate two issues to showing Bruce on a character arc loop like the writers put Theseus on. In the previous issue Thesus did not want to do his duty as the title proclaims. He wanted out of the labyrinth. Only to eventually discover some heroic courage by issues end and luck into doing the damn thing.

In the aftermath and with a resurgent Minotaur Theseus again just wants out. Until that is, the issue nears its end and he heroically fashions another make shift spear and declares “I never liked any of those fucking songs anyway.” Artist Lukas Ketner draws him in full hero pose, slinging the makeshift weapon over his shoulder like he’s Dutch about to hunt the Predator. To the creative teams credit the image (and finale) is semi-ironic. Princess Ariadne makes a somewhat cringed expression. And in fashioning his weapon he has further destabilized the labyrinth. The makeshift spear is also a nice symbolic tie to the overall motif of corrupted phallocentric thinking that is slowly rotting the world away. That isn’t to create an equivalence between Theseus and the King of Crete, but it is a nice visual representation of how Theseus embodies a sort of blissfully privileged outgrowth of that system and unable to see how it’s slowly destroying him and the world around him. It isn’t like any of the above-mentioned work is poorly done. It’s just we literally go that same arc beat for beat from Theseus in the last issue – with an extra dash of classism. And it’s lacking the moment of clarity for why or where he finds him courage to stand and fight.

The arc of Theseus feels emblematic of the limits with how “Kill the Minotaur” uses reflexivity. The series constant consideration of the inevitable songs that will be made and the limits of those objects to give a full accounting of what happened is sound. It gives the series a humanist core wrapped in the horrific, sci-fi, sword and sandals, aesthetic. Pirithous was always trying to remind Theseus of that cost, and now that the Minotaur bellows his name it becomes something more horrifying than a monster. But, like Theseus, the comic has yet to move beyond the half step of recognizing the limits of the system that helped create Theseus. The book isn’t cynical or nihilist in this endevour, but it seems to confuse irony for sharp critique. This is just speaking in reference for the sake of the reference, not the connotative or cultural value of making the reference to say something more.

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It has yet to offer a path forward. This halfcocked mentality is what makes the issue read as filler. Well done filler but it’s all chorus at this point.

With how aware the writers seem to be about the myth I am curious to see if/how this plays into the classic tragic flaw of Theseus. The particulars change depending on the rendition, but Theseus character flaw can be generally described as a sort of ignorant haste. He leaves Ariadne on the beach … after promising to marry her and after she’s burned the bridge with her family. He forgets to sail into Athens with white sails to tell his Father and city of their victory, and causes his father to fling himself off a cliff in grief. How this rendition of the character gets to those points seems clear, but a potential critique eludes.

Theseus may lack introspection, thankfully Ariadne is there to be the adult. In an attempt to physically reprimand Theseus for his cowardice and inaction, she realizes that would be perpetuating the same cycle of violent abuse her father put upon her. Ketner draws Ariadne as an echo of her father from the first issue. The echo made more explicit by the recycling of prior imagery to match things up and represent the mental process Ariadne is going through. Jean-Francois Beaulieu colors these introspective panels in a wrathful red. If there’s someone this series has made certain deserves to come out ahead, it’s Ariadne. She has been shown to be physically and mentally competent in ways none of the other tributes where. She could redeem Crete, if she survives the experience.

For all the half measures as the marks time for the finale, Lukas Ketner and Jean-Francois Beaulieu come together to make breathtaking silent, intercut, three-page sequence that shows how connected everything is. If you read the comic physically, it’s going to look like a splash sequence. It isn’t. Ketner’s symmetrical pattern paneling makes everything look like it fits together, but it should all be read one page at a time. The sequence ties together Glaucus throwing a coin into the labyrinth portal, seemingly forsaking his loyalty to the debauched King. Aegeus and Athens mournfully looking out into the ocean. And Theseus and Timon’s fall deeper into the center of the labyrinth. Each panel cuts on and completes the action in the previous panel. Glaucus prepares to throw the coin and the next panel is Theseus and Timon’s fall. The sequence unites everything together in beautiful action. It’s a kind of montage of the dark night of the soul.

Final Verdict: 6.7 – If you’ve come this far, you’re sticking around. And repetitive it may have been, the creative teams attempted exploration of its thematics is successful if a bit pat. In another book without the art team, all would be lost.


Michael Mazzacane

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