 Noteworthy Items:
by DAVID BIRD
Of all the stories this one seems richest in its historical,
literary, and mythical allusions, but it’s important
to remember that, while Morrison wraps this story up in Arthurian,
and specifically Welsh, garb, he is spinning his own story
and not retelling another’s. While its fun to link his
story to his sources, but it’s important to not force
things.
pp 01-05: We start off strong. A great battle. The fall
of Camelot. A moment of excitement and fantasy. King Arthur
and the last seven knights of the Broken Table against the
Sheeda – in this case riding giant parasitic worms,
firing hand held laser cannons, and aided by green giants.
Besides the lasers, there are a lot comments hinting to the
origin of the Sheeda (“with weapons against which no
defense had yet been invented,” being an obvious one).
So we start at the end, with the last and greatest Knights
of the Broken Table falling before the Sheeda. “Broken” isn’t
explained. Does it reflect these immediate circumstances
or was that always its name? There is Arthur and seven knights – another
team of seven – though, like the team in the desert,
there is one missing. Who are they? Besides Arthur we have:
Lancelot: The greatest knight. If it weren’t
for his traitorous adultery (i.e., sleeping with his queen),
he’d be perfect.
Galahad: The Perfect Knight, he is the son of
Lancelot. Outside this story he is considered perfect because,
of the three knights who sought the Holy Grail (Bors, Percival,
and himself) his piety meant he would be the one who found
it. He then was allowed to go directly enter heaven. No dying
required.
Bors: Also one of the great knights, he was a close
companion to Lancelot and was allowed to actually see the
Grail.
Peredur: The Welsh name for Percival, the third
of the three Grail Knights. I haven’t seen anything
outside of this tale saying he was blinded on seeing the
Grail.
Caradoc: A Welsh king and supporter of Uther, Arthur’s
father. He didn’t originally support the son’s
claim, but he became an ally and a knight of the Round
Table.
Gawain: The greatest knight of the Round Table, he
was also the most important outside of the Arthurian stories.
He is the hero of Gawain and the
Green Knight, an
important medieval work, and is found in important Welsh
texts, such as the Culhwch and Olwen and Mabinogion.
. In the Welsh texts he is called Gwalchmei.
Justin: (aka, Sir Not-Appearing-At-This-Part-Of-The-Battle.)
Arguably he’s the last to join the Table, since he
was created in 1941 for DC’s Adventure Comics. That
makes this Sir Justin a legacy hero – but a legacy
hero with a twist. This is the proto-Shining Knight. He
predates the hero in whose footsteps he is following.
pp 06-17: The
Sheeda Queen is gloating over her forces’ victory.
I don’t know why I haven’t seen any one draw
this parallel, but she looks just like the Borg Queen.
Another group that consumes whole civilizations.
Justin, the missing knight, and his winged horse, Vanguard,
have made it into the Castle Revolving, only to find themselves
in the Catacombs of Oethaneth,
a land of the dead. They are after “The inexhaustible
cauldron. The Undry.” (That is, the un-dry, as in inexhaustible.
A little repetition to make the point.) They want it because
they believe it is capable of restoring the kingdom. Here
Morrison is drawing on Grail lore, which attributed great
healing and restorative powers to the Cup of Christ. This
legend is of medieval and not Biblical in origin. In fact,
many believe the cauldron in the aforementioned Preiddeu
Annwfn may be the actual origin of the Grail story.
Either way, Justin is determined to have it. There are just
a few things in his way.
First, zombies knights. He is quickly attacked by the now
dead Arthur and some dead Knights of the Broken Table. If
they have already been killed, that suggests this happened
some time after the battle. Where was Justin then? Justin
and Vanguard are able to make short work of the dead with
the aid of a lantern of true light, which they seem to find
in the Castle. Looking into Celtic myth and lanterns I could
only find references to Jack O’ Lantern. Other sources
on Seven Soldiers seem to think it’s a reference
to DC’s Green Lantern (the true light is green). Personally,
I think it's odd that they would find it in the Castle at
all, as everyone who sees it flees or is somehow incapacitated.
Except the good guys, the attackers. It might as well be
labelled “To defeat our warriors, use this.” Though
that would be unnecessary, as they find it readily and know
what it’s for.
Second, once they find the cauldron, its occupied by Olwen,
a bikini clad maiden with butterfly wings, and someone Justin
immediately recognizes as a friend. Olwen, in Welsh legend,
is the daughter of a giant, Ysbaddaden,
and is a star of the Arthurian tale Culhwch
and Olwen. Olwen is not what she seems. A prisoner
there forty three days, she has been changed. She is later
revealed to be a changling, which implies that it wasn’t
her in the first place, but we don’t know the nature
of the change.
There has been some speculation about Justin and Olwen.
A young knight with a nearly naked girl in his arms. The
word ‘suggestive’ was coined for just these images.
When we learn that Justin is also a girl an altogether different
spin is placed on the image. But I think this is all missing
an important point. Justina became a knight to be with her
chaste mentor, Sir Galahad, whom she loves. Being pure of
heart herself, its unlikely she was biding her time with
someone other than the man she loves.
Third, there is the Sheeda Queen herself, Gloriana Tenebrae.
She comes wearing Caliburn, which only the pure of heart
can draw. This means she herself cannot draw it, but that
doesn’t lessen the pride she takes in having it. This
introduces us to two of the treasures, the cauldron and the
sword. She calls it “The treasure of Findias;” one
of four Irish treasures. An undry cauldron was another.
Justin grabs the sword, being pure of heart, but she isn’t
impressed. She bites down on an apple and describes herself
as the fairest of all, invoking the witch/step-mother of
Snow White. Vanguard blinds her with the lantern’s
light and Justin moves in with the sword. The Queen falls
and seems to our hero to be melting. Invoking another witch!
Justin then forgets his purpose and throws the cauldron into
the green waters of the moat which had surrounded it. The
Queen is horrified. Justin has just thrown it into time itself,
where it may be lost forever. He then returns to rescuing
Olwen, who reveals her true – or new – form by
stabbing him. At this point Vanguard remembers the cauldron
and its restorative powers and they both plunge into the
waters after it. We see them falling from the back of the
Castle, which looks like a giant skeletal fish or crustacean.
It’s as though the Sheeda were parasites, living on
the corpse of something ancient and dead. Hmmm…
pp 18-22: L.A. K/Nights. They fall into the busy streets
of Los Angeles. Vanguard can’t orient himself in time
and they hit the ground hard. No one on the ground is hurt,
but the police soon arrive. From his language they guess
Justin is European, but they have no idea what’s being
said. He’s some kid in a “heavy metal” get
up, with a sword. The Sheeda blood on it is blue, so they
decide it isn’t blood at all. They cuff and put him
in the back of a squad car. The police are more concerned
with the seemingly dead Vanguard. Some sicko has attached
wings to a horse and dropped it from a great height.
A few points. A child sees the Castle and is quickly hushed
by his parents. In fairy tales children are more likely to
see reality than adults. When Justin is being cuffed, he
is obviously a male. It’s an inconsistency that will
dog this story. Finally, the Castle appears in areas that
are in between realities and yet it appears over L.A. Does
that imply something about the city? Maybe the origin of
the word glamour provides a clue.
All in all, I really enjoyed this issue. Like a lot of people
it was my introduction to Simone Bianchi. His attempts to
hide the star’s gender would really be the only criticism
of his work. Instead of striking an androgynous medium, Justin-Justina’s
look was always fluid. A problem apparent from the beginning.
But it’s a great way to start the series. Epic. Dark.
The enemy are no longer little fairies, but something altogether
more menacing. Sensual and ugly. And Bianchi deserves a lot
of credit for that.
|
Home
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
