Disney Villains: Maleficent #3 // Review
They’ve got the wrong name on the cover. Seriously. While it IS the case that Disney Villains: Maleficent is going to sell comics, she’s not exactly the central focus of the third issue of the series. The name “Diablo” might sound nice, but the black raven in question wasn’t exactly the head of a franchise that’s made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, so it’s understandable. Still: he’s cool. And he’s the central character in a breezy and engrossing one-shot that is cleverly brought to the page by talented writer/artist Soo Lee. It’s a fun and distinctive look at a relatively marginal character in the realm of Disney.
Maleficent’s raven familiar is hanging out with her in her castle. The prince has challenged her, but she’s perfectly confident that she’s got everything under control. Still--one never can be too safe, so she sends Diablo out to do a quick bit of reconnaissance. He flies over the Forbidden Kingdom, looking for anything that might be a threat to the queen. In the process, it runs into a little threat all its own: a ground-dwelling predator that provides a certain amount of challenge to its own authority...
Lee works out a compelling little challenge for Diablo that plays out like something that might show up in a David Attenborough documentary. It’s a simple nature-based conflict that plays out entirely without dialogue or narration of any kind. (Well...actually, Diablo does caw on a few different occasions, but there aren’t any actual words in the issue that aren’t spoken by the title character at the beginning and end of the issue.) It’s a very pure and simple approach to a very graphic conflict between creatures. Rarely is this sort of thing attempted. Rarely does it come across as well as Lee is managing in Maleficent #3.
Lee follows the realism in her script with a non-anthropomorphized approach to the conflict between raven and lynx. There’s a breathtaking impression of movement and motion in a very simple conflict. Diablo and his antagonist manage an impressive range of different aggressive postures that lend the conflict its own kind of emotional resonance. That Lee can do this without resorting to really any substantial anthropomorphization is quite an accomplishment. Diablo comes across as quite a charismatic main character simply by virtue of the way Lee frames the action. Brilliant stuff.
Due to its sheer simplicity and engaging sense of action, Maleficent #3 might be one of the single most memorable comics to come out so far this year. Lee isn’t trying to do anything too complicated. She’s just telling a simple story of a simple conflict that isn’t at all unlike a million others that play out in nature every single day on the planet. It’s fun to see her bring it onto the comics page without substantial embellishment. Any other artist/writer would be tempted to add something in the way of additional story. The purity of Lee’s vision is captivating.
