DC Comics
Madame Xanadu #1
By Andy Frisk February 8, 2009 - 07:57
Publisher(s): DC Comics
Vertigo
Writer(s): Matt Wagner
Penciller(s): Amy Reeder Hadley
Inker(s): Amy Reeder Hadley
Colourist(s): Guy Major
Letterer(s): Jared K. Fletcher
Cover Artist(s): Amy Reeder Hadley
$2.99 US, 32pp, Color
I must admit before Vertigo’s new series in
which she stars; I knew next to nothing about Madam Xanadu. As it turns out, the fact that I knew nothing
detracted not one bit from enjoying the series thus far. In this incarnation, Xanadu is the picture
perfect image of an attractive, young sprite who is hundreds of years
old. Hadley’s rendering of her, and of
her supporting cast, which changes as we observe Xanadu in different eras, is
one of the books strongest points.
Hadley captures the different eras, from pre-historic England,
Genghis Khan’s court, Reign of Terror France, to Victorian England with an
uncannily stunning rendering that demonstrates the range of her historical
knowledge of architecture, dress and natural environment as well as her ability
to recreate it all with her pencils.
As we pick up Xanadu’s adventures in issue
#7, I thought that the series would finally deliver an issue where the wheels
started to come off, at lest thematically.
Xanadu finds herself back in London
for the first time in a millennium, during the dark and grimy days of the
Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens, gaslight (see where we’re going
here?)…and Jack the Ripper. After all
the hundreds of stories, like Alan Moore’s
From Hell, to anthologies
like Ripperology Magazine, what else and better yet, how is it possible, to
tell any story related to Jack the Ripper or about Jack the Ripper that is
fresh with any kind of interesting twists or theories? None.
Or so I thought. Matt Wagner
spins the first part of a tale that continues the ambiguously romantic
relationship between Xanadu and the Phantom Stranger (her one and only
recurring cast member, regardless of historical era) along with, Xanadu’s own
maturation and development (it appears it takes hundreds of years for her type
of folk to reach an emotional and rational maturity. Over boys no less! Or at lest that one boy
who keeps popping in and out of her life-see: Phantom Stranger). Wagner also throws in all the familiar Ripper
mythos, from the horrific nature of the disembowelments of his victims, to the
rampant fear, gossip and the social commentary on the evils of the exploited
Victorian under class that so often seem to be embedded in any tale taking
place during this time period. What we
also get though, is an old and worn out tale with new life breathed into it
containing its own twists, heroes, varyingly apathetic and energetic Ripper
pursuers and, most shockingly, a character who’s actions, while not aiding the
Ripper per se has an interesting role to play in the Ripper’s story.
I will be looking forward to the unfolding of
this new saga in Madame Xanadu’s series. Mostly because of the fact that the
start of a story line that I originally felt could spell the end of the
creative energy of the series is now shaping up to be, perhaps, the very
storyline that gets the title moved up in my reading stack each month.