By Al Kratina
March 15, 2007 - 17:49
The Helmet of Fate: Black Alice #1
Black Alice is one of my favorite DC characters, likely because I would probably try to date her if I were still in high school. Well, maybe. I dig the whole Type O Negative groupie look, but she'd have to limit her poetry to the odd Milton-inspired rhyming couplet or Bauhaus lyric, as opposed to several Emily The Strange notebooks full of lengthy free verse and Marilyn Manson quotes. And while tattoos are acceptable, even encouraged, those of ankhs and black roses are deal breakers. But when Black Alice is written by Gail Simone, she’s appealing enough that I might excuse the odd tattered copy of The Vampire Lestat kicking around in a
Nightmare Before Christmas purse.
As an artist, Duncan Rouleau is well suited to the material. He's got a light touch, which fits the book's hip feel. Also, it really helps
avoid the main pratfall of most goth-related writing, which is a tendency towards melodrama and oppressive melancholy, like a 17-year-old crying and staring at his shoelaces while mumbling Baudelaire. All in all, the book is fun, snappy, and, while it suffers from the same sense of feeling generally unnecessary that plagues the rest of the
Helmet of Fate one-shots, it's definitely the one with the most spirit so far, though that spirit may have read entirely too much Anne Rice for my liking.
Rating: 7 on 10