Once And Future #2
Myths awaken in Once and Future #2, by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Dan Mora, colorist by Tamra Bonvillain, and letterer Ed Dukeshire. Gillen juxtaposes the wide-eyed wonder of seeing a bigger world with the terrors of the supernatural expertly in this issue, driving things forward at an excellent pace.
Gran takes Duncan to a tower in Glastonbury, following the trail of the ones trying to awaken King Arthur. At Arthur’s gravesite, the healing scabbard is placed on the corpse. Gran and Duncan make their way down and arrive just as Arthur’s skeleton stands up and begins the process of re-animating. Elaine offers her compatriots up as knights, and Arthur tests their blood, cutting them down when he realizes they are Anglo-Saxon and not genuinely British. Elaine is, though, and he accepts her before resurrecting the slain and making them into his knights. Elaine offers up a “Galahad” to Arthur and Gran, and Duncan make their escape to thwart Elaine’s plan… until Duncan kicks a stone loose from the ground accidentally and Arthur’s knights come after them.
Gran is easily one of the most entertaining characters created in a long time. She has a snarky pragmatism to her that makes every scene she’s in just pop. Duncan works so well as the audience surrogate because he’s been kept in the dark about her. And what she’s been doing all of his life, but he still has a bit of wonder at the whole thing, even if it is very frightening. They make a great team. Characterization has always been one of the most significant selling points for Gillen’s work. Sure, his plots and ideas are excellent, but it’s the characters that really sell the whole thing. Gran and Duncan are beautiful characters to base this story around. Each of them brings something interesting to the table, and Gillen plays them off each other expertly. Gran, besides being a supernatural warrior extraordinaire, raised Duncan and Gillen really captures the feeling of their relationship using the dialogue between them. He sets out their dynamic nicely, and it’s a joy to watch them play off each other.
He also knows when to let the intrigue build. He reveals Elaine had worked with Gran in the past, but not much else about their relationship. It’s a little hook to snare’s reader interest, and it works, and it’s not even the only one. When Arthur asks Elaine where Merlin is, she says she can’t find him, setting things up for a future reveal. Will Merlin be on Arthur’s side? It’s only a few lines of dialogue, but it’s a nice little bit of set-up, enough to get readers wondering what will come next. The whole sequence between Elaine and her compatriots and Arthur is a great little scene of building horror and dread. Seeing a villain slay a bunch of people is nothing new in comics, but there’s something about the tone here that is disturbing. Arthur slaughtering those who came to him for his help is also an excellent metaphor for the book’s central conceit. That the great, racially pure savior is just as dangerous to his followers as the ones, the followers hate. And will use the followers regardless of how little he actually thinks of them. Arthur kills them because they are Anglo-Saxon and not British as he defines it. They wanted Arthur to kill those who weren’t British as they described it. The irony is delicious and made doubly so because he resurrects them as mindless “knights” to do his bidding and destroy his enemies. The social commentary in this scene is so spot on. Done in such a way that it never announces what it’s doing and trying to say. It just says it, and if the reader doesn’t see it, that’s okay, it’s still a great scene. There’s a subtext that makes the whole thing work on a deeper level, and it’s a reward to readers who take the time to think about the entire thing.
Dan Mora continues to impress. His character acting makes the dialogue pop. Gillen may be putting the words in everyone’s mouth, but Mora is illustrating the faces saying the words, and he does so expertly. Without his expressive pencils, the dialogue wouldn’t land as well as he does, and readers might not have the same reactions to the events of the story as they do. His rendering of the corpse Arthur attacking Elaine’s flunkies really gives the scene its chilling edge and is a standout. His rendering of Arthur throughout the resurrection process is also a treat, as in each subsequent panel, more of him is regenerating.
Once And Future #2 builds on the triumphs of the first issue. Gillen has again created some great characters in Gran and Duncan. They’re both extraordinarily entertaining and help to give readers a pathway into the story. He fits in some excellent social commentary in a very subtle way, but never toots his own horn for being so smart because he included it. Arthurian myths have always been heroic, but Gillen is turning that idea on its head with this book. It’s a beautiful little subversion. He also throws out a few short story hooks for the future, further whetting reader interest in the story. Dan Mora is a tremendous artistic partner for him on this book. His character acting is top-notch, selling the story, and his design choices and composition take an intriguing story and make it that much better. It will be a treat to see where these two take this story.
