New Camelot

[arbre_rieur]

Four pages from DEMON KNIGHTS 9, in which the team gets a new quest...

The team is summoned before the Princesses Alba and Sarum, the couple who founded and rule the shining city-state of Alba Sarum.





The team's new quest, should they choose to accept it (which they do): Journey to the isle of Avalon to retrieve Merlin's soul.

Comments

[espanolbot]

Hee. ^^ Continues to be awesome, I see.

Kind of interested to see what Cornell's Avalan looks like here, considering he's already visited twice in his books related to the Marvel Universe.

[espanolbot]

* Avalon, ack.

[cf105]

I'm kind of hoping its very similar. I feel that some spots should almost carry a shared essence as an homage across the omniverse.

[eyz]

I really love this series - and that's all I had to say!~

[q99]

Yea, likewise ^^

It doesn't hurt that except for Savage, everyone's pretty much on their pre-reboot personalities, and in Savage's case it's just because he's *young(er)!*

This is the Jason Blood/Etrigan and Xanadu and Shining Knight I have attachment to, and the new characters all being awesome is a bonus.

[gerardotejada]

Really? I found all the DC characters Cornell use are out of character, he himself declares not knowing much of DC lore and this are obscure characters.

I dont think he has read the Demon of Kirby or the one by Ennis, much less the 90 series about the origin of Xanadu, and he seems to have read the Vertigo Visions take on the character between issues 3 and 4 when he kind of explains why Xanadu adopts a name that she will have only in a few more centuries.
And His Shining Knight doesnt resembles any DC character by that name, nor Exorsistos seems greek or raised by the amazons more than having a few Amazonian catch phrases.

Savage is the only one kind of resembles himself and still is very limited compared to the real Vandal Savage that has faced the JLA, this is like the prehistoric Vandal Savage mixed with a little of, I dont know, JAck Sparrow or something?

I love this comic, but doesnt give me any vibe of DCU, more than that I like It because Its characters are an invention of Cornell:
A Demon, a Witch and an Imortal that just happen to be called Etrigan, Xanadu and Savage.

An awsome comic may I say, but I wont recomend It to someone who wants to read Madame Xanadu or Etrigan, especially if he/she has read the series of that characters.


PD: Savage is not younger, he is an inmortal, think higlander or something like that.

[q99]

Immortal doesn't mean he's not still younger.

[gerardotejada]

Yes, It means he doesnt get old or die so the concept of young doesnt apply. He has the maturity of a century old man.

He is not "developing" he is already developed but his apearance doesnt change. Of course he has not reached the personality you see in modern DCU, but still is no Vandal Savage, even Morrison got him better in the first time of The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Every one that checked Vandal Savage entry on wikipedia knows better the character than Cornell.

As I say, what you see is an Original Character by Cornell who just happens to be called Vandal Savage.


For instance Vandal Savage is a man of high inteligence, one of the atributes of his first origin (the meteorite radiaton he was exposed) , besides Inmortality, that lead him to become the Leader of the Cro-Magnon and start his career of domination.

Once there was a speculation that he had lived under the name of Genghis Khan and Julius Cesar, but also he has said he was part of Cesar Assesination. He also was thought to be the original Cain in the Question Mini. Lex Luthor has the Theory Vandal Savage was the first Canibal, etc.

With my apologies to Cornell, he doesnt know a thing about the DC characters. A big minus for the fans of those characters, I seen they cant really enjoy Demon Knights, even I have to suspend my knowledge about them.

Thing is, Demon Knights is not a DCU comic, and thats It, is a neutral statement. It doesnt make It less good.

[q99]

-Yes, It means he doesnt get old or die so the concept of young doesnt apply. He has the maturity of a century old man.-

He can still change with time. Just because you're old doesn't mean you can't get older. Just because you're mature doesn't mean you can't continue to develop.

This is very much supposed to be Vandal at a very different stage in his life.

-
Thing is, Demon Knights is not a DCU comic, and thats It, is a neutral statement-

Agreed.

[gerardotejada]

Well, PreBoot Savage never was as trivial as Cornell´s Savage, both are equaly ruthless and disatached to human life, both fit the role of Genis Khan and I see Cornell´s Savage easely implied in the Julius Cesar Assesination.

Maybe the dumb act is all fake and Cornell would make Savage pull a big Xanatos's Gambit. Cause this is the man who posed as his own grandson and mande himself the fiance of the princess of a Nation so he could poison the King, make himself king and threat the other nations with a ray gun he previously had installed on a satelite when he was working as said Nation space program administrator. We are talking about a man so viciously inteligent and arrogant that has fight against the JSA and the JLA, and has once defeated the Titans single handed. Pretty Much the guy you have in Young Justice cartoon.

[q99]

I'll mention that for all the differences, it still feels to me more like an oldDC/Vertigo inspired books than the modern DCnU books.

[gerardotejada]

I think what you meant to say is "this comic is actually good". hahahaha.... *sob*

I think so too, but In my personal experience, promoting this comic to a friend as "Its like the old DCU!" I got an extremly negative reception after he read The Issues that I have. I still think maybe If I advertised the book like "look is like D&D!" I wouldnt had generated so much expectation [The thing was over Madame Xanadu but not any other character]

But belive me If I tell you Im dying to create a character in Skyrim made after Exorsistos. And I love the Team interactions, the dialog, the jokes, the fricking Drama between Etrigan/Xanadu/Blood is so awsome, Sir Ystin breaks my hearth and Vandal Savage put a smile on your face in every Issue. And the feeling Im roleplaying with Cornell as the Dugeon Master doesnt hurt either, so much win.

[q99]

The magic section of the DCU at least- that is, it feels like it's in the same universe as the Shadowpact.

Or the Secret Six, who went to a fantasy world in one later story and had several magic-based characters. It'd be extremely easy for me to picture the Six meet the Demon Knights.

[eyz]

There's no "characters" to be out of, "New 52"? DC rebooted 'em all... :/
*goes back to reading 7 Soldiers, JLA Incarnations, JLI and Shadowpact*

:(

*on a side note* I like this book anyway,

[q99]

I like a bit you didn't post when the Princesses were talking about the cast, and specifically 'Madame Xanadu, fortune teller.'

"When I was 12, she said I'd marry a prince!"

"Well, close on that count!"

"She was laughing!"

[cainofdreaming]

'course not! Everyone knows horses do not speak.

Neigh. In tones of low menace.

[biod]

Was there a Gilligan cut to the Pope having a fit?

[q99]

Lesse, I think this is around 1000 AD or such. Iirc Popes were more 'distant' in that time.

[shadowpsykie]

it took me a while to realize that the two princesses were engaged to EACHOTHER... bravo...

[kamino_neko]

Really? I figured that out in the first panel of the issue. >_>

(Seriously. 'Hum. Princesses whose names form the name of the city. ... Clearly not sisters (though I'm not entirely sure just what discounted this, it seemed clear to me)... They're a couple.' Then when Alba's talking about how Xanadu told her she was going to marry a prince, and Sarum replies 'close'...well, yeah, any doubt gone.)

[shadowpsykie]

i only had these panels to go on, have not read the book yet.

[q99]

Yea, it's spelled out there.

They're two princesses, bethrothed, who will marry and become Queens if their kingdom becomes the New Avalon.

[shadowpsykie]

again... i saw the "Princessess are Betrothed" but i didn't think "The Princessess are betrothed to EACH OTHER" it took me a moment... it wasn't until the scene when one is talking to Xanadu and looking at the other that it clicked....

[q99]

I mean, the spelling out is more clear in the full comic. It makes sense that it'd take a few moments just from these pages.

[kamino_neko]

Ah, well, that makes sense, then.

[thatnickguy]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how this series is doing, sales-wise? I remember everyone who was excited about it when it started that they were worried it'd be cancelled soon.

[kamino_neko]

IIRC, it's hovering around the danger zone, but isn't on the chopping block.

[arbre_rieur]

There are 12 other DC series selling worse, I believe.

[silverzeo]

Is that Comet the SUperhorse?

[jlroberson]

No, it's Ystin's flying horse from SEVEN SOLDIERS and, traditionally, from the previous Shining Knight. This is an actual horse, while Comet was a human under a curse.

[kamino_neko]

Close. Comet was a centaur, originally.

[kamino_neko]

That's Vanguard, Sir Ystin's horse. (Or, it could be Winged Victory, which was Sir Justin's horse's name. Either way, winged horse that Shining Knight rides.)

[shadur]

"I give you my word..."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Worth a try!"

He's so wonderfully unrepentant.

[gerardotejada]

I dont know much about the Shining Knight, Is this another Cornell original?

PD: Really, I think any one who had read Kirby, Ennis or Byrne knows this is not Etrigan, anyone that has read Wagner´s Madame Xanadu or The Spectre 90´s series can think this is Madame Xanadu (theres also the original 80´s series). Cornell lacks knowledge of the DCU (he is a Marvel fan). I doubt he has read American Gothic or Books of Magic.

I smile when people say that they like Demon Kinghts, Im confused as hell when they say this are the "characters they knew about".

[gerardotejada]

I mean the Horse Talking.