Demon Knights #22 - A Review

Little happens in this, the penultimate issue of Demon Knights.  What little does happen only occurs to set up the big battle to come in the next issue.  There's very little action, apart from one sequence during the end and an attempted mugging of our heroes that barely lasts one page and stretches the definition of the term "action sequence".  At least the scenes of Vandal Savage dealing with his giant captors are amusing but a far cry from the wit of Paul Cornell. 


The art this month is vastly improved by the absence of inker Wayne Facher.  Chard Hardin inks his own pencils for the entirety of this issue and the difference is obvious and welcome.  Hopefully Hardin will have a new monthly gig waiting for him when this title comes to an close. 


I must tip my hat to writer Robert Venditti in one respect.  Though this series is coming to a close, he still writes each issue in a way that would be accessible to any new readers picking this book up for the first time.  Would that I could still recommend this series to new readers!  Truly, this title was one of the best books of The New 52.  It will be missed. 

Demon Knights #21 - A Review

Whatever else may be said of Demon Knights after it ends its' run in two months time, no one will deny that the series aimed high.  Though I fear Robert Venditti's scripts lack the wit of Paul Cornell's (the humor in this issue being limited to a few dry remarks between Vandal Savage and Jason Blood) I cannot accuse Venditti of cowardice in shying away from the more controversial aspects of the series.  The romance between the transgender Sir Ystin and exiled Amazon Exoristos could easily have been abandoned in the 30-year gap between story-lines and Venditti deserves credit for continuing to explore this character thread.


The artwork is more problematic, with inker Wayne Faucher proving the dangers a second inker can do to a book in ruining it's uniformity.  This first scan above depicts the artwork as pencilled by Chad Hardin with Hardin providing his own inks.  This work looks more stylized but it is a style that I think fits the story, seeming somewhat ethereal in how lightly it is shaded.  The scan below shows Faucher's work, which ruins much of the stylization of Hardin's pencils, placing everything within a standard outline.


I will miss Demon Knights once it is gone.  This book was one of the hidden treasures of The New 52.  That being said, I suspect that when I think of this series in the future and reread it I may find myself skipping over these issues towards the end. 

Demon Knights #20 - A Review

It was perhaps inevitable that Demon Knights should come to focus upon Sir Ystin's quest for The Holy Grail.  I had just hoped it would be further down the line and that the series would continue to focus more upon the DC Universe in specific rather than retreading such a well-worn storyline.  Even having the clue for to the Grail's location be hidden in the library of the Amazons (who are portrayed as the crazed, man-hating ice-queens of Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman) proves an insufficient twist to make this tired storyline seem new. 


As ever, the unique cast of characters created by Paul Cornell are the book's greatest strength but Robert Venditti lacks the confidence to go over-the-top as Cornell did.  His Vandal Savage seems much more the calculating conqueror we're used to in the modern DCU rather than the crazed cousin of Conan The Barbarian we saw under Cornell's pen.  Once depicted taking bites out of dragons roasted alive by fireballs, Vandal's savagery is limited toward flirting with the Amazons and requesting a copy of the Kama Sutra from their librarian.  The humor of much of the other characters is similarly muted.  Indeed, there is much that may be said to be muted under Venditti's pen.


The same complaint could be made of the series' new art team.  Chad Hardin is a competent enough penciler, whose designs for the characters are distinct, but he's no Bernard Chang.  Hardin's figures seem far too stiff and posed.  There is little life to any of his fight scenes.  Of more concern is inker Wayne Facher, whose work is uneven throughout.  Many figures have a thick outline around them yet they receive almost no definition to their interiors.  One wonders if Facher just did enough work to make sure the characters were distinctive from the background and then called it a day.

Demon Knights #20 is a good point for new readers to jump on to this series but I hesitate to recommended it.  The book isn't bad but it's nowhere near as good as it once was and I'm not sure I can justify continuing to buy a half-assed version of what was one of my top five favorite books.  I'll give it some time to change my mind but this book is officially on notice.