Written by Paul Cornell
Illustrated by Diogenes NevesSet 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!
Paul Cornell has become one of the most admired writers at DC over the past few years. His Lex Luthor-centric run on Action Comics was one of the more interesting Super-family books to come out in some time, and his Knight and Squire and Batman and Robin arcs showed that he was as comfortable in Gotham City as he is in his native England. The first real blemish on his DC resume was last week’s unevenly reviewed Stormwatch. Would his other new team book suffer the same fate? Or would this be a stronger opening issue?
You know you want to find out, so click through and read on. Some mild spoilers are discussed.
It is in Cornell’s native England that Demon Knights #1 begins. We pick up the story a good 600 years before Knight and Squire with, you guessed it, knights. More specifically, our prologue begins at the fall of Camelot, where we see a new version of The Demon Etrigan’s origin — or, more specifically, how Etrigan became contained within Jason Blood. We also see a Camelot-era Madame Xanadu, diving in after Excalibur, trying to prevent something from happening — what that something is, we don’t know yet.
From here, we fast-forward to the Dark Ages, where the rest of the cast of characters are introduced: Shining Knight, Vandal Savage, Al Jabr, Exoristos, and Horsewoman, all of whom are either in The Victory in Rome pub, or who are on their way to the small village of Little Spring, where the pub is located. We also meet a horde of barbaric riders, doing the bidding of Mordru, who cross paths with Etrigan and co. at issue’s end.
In writing out those two paragraphs, I realized that not much happens in this issue — and what does happens is almost completely listed above. That appears to be one of the big problems people are having with the DCnU — either too much happens for a new reader to latch onto, or not enough happens to want people coming back for more. I don’t think this issue suffers too badly, though; each of the seven protagonists are teased intriguingly, and their interactions, albeit limited, are fun and clever. It is great to see Vandal Savage be the third wheel on a Blood/Xanadu date; the (seemingly) feminist warrior Exoristos coming to the defense of the (seemingly) womanizing Al Jabr is fun as well. Cornell has done a nice job building a lot of information into an easy to digest issue.
That is helped immensely by Diogenes Neves’s art. He hits a perfect blend between the bright, colorful magic and the bleak Dark Ages landscape. Many of the characters look filthy and tired, with bad teeth and questionable facial hair (insert British joke here), but Etrigan’s fire looks even more scary and impressive against the bland browns and grays of his surroundings. The playful tone of the dialogue is, rightly, not reflected in the artwork, which roots the story in a not-so-pleasant place. On top of that, Tony Daniel’s cover does a nice job of capturing the tone of the story while exaggerating it enough to try and bring in that Game of Thrones crowd. This book is a smart move on DC’s part, as fantasy is as popular now as it has ever been; expect the covers to continue to play up that aspect as time goes by.
Continued belowWhen reviewing these new series, it can be difficult to not look forward and speculate, or look back on the pasts of these characters and comment on them. However, to pretend that these are one-shots also do a disservice to the book. We leave off on a teaser for what should be a great big action sequence, but the most action we get in this issue are a few brief vignettes that serve more to drive the story than anything else. The characters right now are no more than a few relatively generic descriptors. While Xanadu and Etigan are familiar faces, we know nothing about Horsewoman (not even her name is revealed in the comic, let alone her status as the disabled character in the DCnU), and Al Jabr and Exoristos are similarly blank canvases. Even Shining Knight, a character from Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers, is only really teased here. Will this be the consistent team? Will people filter in and out? The first issue doesn’t tell us very much one way or another.
But since there is little use in guessing what will happen next, let’s simply ask the important questions: is the book good? Yes. Will I buy it next month? Yes. Should you buy this issue? Certainly.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
