Wrap It Up

[Funt Solo]

but that's for another thread.

Yeah but, no but, yeah but - I agree with you that Simon Davis' art lifted the Brutania Chronicles above the value of the actual stories. There were good parts (getting deeply inside the mental landscape of the characters) and bad parts (SHOUTY OFF-PAGE GOD-VOICES SHOUTING). I reviewed them all a bit a while ago. This be what I said:


Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles: Book One: A Simple Killing
(1874-1886) Script: Pat Mills, Art: Simon Davis, Letters: Ellie De Ville

Slaine returns with mutton chops and beard, looking a bit more middle-aged than in previous incarnations and therby providing a sense of time (in a tale that has sometimes seemed stuck in a cycle).  The drune lords and their skull sword troops are back as a threat, and Slaine finds himself on a quest to save Sinead (a recent aquaintance) from their evil clutches.

The art from Simon Davis is absolutely belting, and Mills does a good job of keeping the action moving (even if, a bit like the norse myths, his Slaine tales lack some continuity).  There are also hilarious moments, like when a nonchalantly peeing giant asks Slaine if he is stuck because he hasn't run away yet.  It's really difficult to choose an image to show, because the art throughout is just a joy, but here's Slaine panicking as Sinead is infected by evil magic that turns her into a twisted version of a mermaid:




Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book Two - Primordial
(1924-1936) Script: Pat Mills, Art: Simon Davis, Letters: Ellie De Ville

Slaine has rescued Sinead from the Drune lords, but her spirit is broken and she's been purposefully addicted to opium, which speaks to the wider theme of this Book as being one of spirituality and mental health. The Drunes serve as reverse psychologists: rather than trying to cure people they seek to enhance mental illness and have their victims serve them as reliant puppets. It's pretty deep and delves far back into the saga: all the way to the death of Slaine's mother, and how that has shaped him.

I could see a frustration here if it's read as an action thriller: not that there isn't any action - it's knee deep in gore - but ultimately Slaine ends up pretty much where he started after a lot of running around. There's two key things I love here: one is the stupendous painted art by Simon Davis and the other is that it's thought-provoking. An entire episode is pretty much given over to Slaine trying to deal with Sinead's depression. (It could have been a bit more progressive if Slaine had been rescued by Sinead, but you can't have everything.)




Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book Three - Psychopomp
(1979-1988) Script: Pat Mills, Art: Simon Davis, Letters: Ellie De Ville

We all celebrated when Nemesis and Torquemada fought their way across several pages of beautiful Kevin O'Neill illuminations back in the day. And here we have beautiful painted art by Simon Davis with amazing colour palettes.

But: the end of the previous book had a 2-episode confrontation which now continues with a further 4 episodes of the same confrontation. That's 36 pages of one fight - and most of it consists of Gododin blathering on and winding up Slaine as he gets beaten well beyond a pulp. What: is he trying to bore him to death? Beautiful art is one thing: but you can't polish a turd.

Thankfully, we do eventually get to see some other locations - and the Macha flashbacks are quite interesting - but overall this type of story where the bad guy just shouts at the hero for pages and pages and pages, even psychically when they're not actually in the same place (and often seemingly as an excuse to witness the author's extensive research) is boring. Beautiful to look at, but boring to read.




Slaine: The Brutania Chronicles, Book Four - Archon
(2050-2060) S: Pat Mills, A: Simon Davis, L: Ellie De Ville

Beautiful art from Simon Davis and, of course, some very interesting ideas from Pat Mills, but the saga suffers under the weight of the diatribe. On the one hand, it is interesting to wonder about one's family history - and, the idea that a villain would attack Slaine's ego rather than just attack him physically is a cunning plot device. But, it's being stretched too thinly over too many pages.

The disembodied GOD SHOUTING dialogue is oppressive: not just for Slaine but also for the reader. And there's a sense of magic villainy that doesn't serve us but only the plot. The villains teleport to where Slaine and Sinead are accessing Macha's spirit, but there's no real sense of whether they're inside or outside, or where God/Archon is. It's just a scene that needed to play out - it could be happening on the moon, or inside a magic bubble dimension.

I feel like Sinead gets used as a vessel too much: she's a vessel for Macha, then a vessel for Danu. And all to serve Slaine. So, on the one hand, it's quite progressive (strong, warrior women who choose their own partners), but on the other hand there's too much focus on Slaine's needs. I probably wouldn't focus so much on that if it weren't that the narrative suggests that women do have power and should have power - but then it's all about their reflected value from Slaine's perspective.

It all improves immensely when God/Archon stops shouting, and Gododin (already defeated too many times) exits stage right. After that we're back to having a sense of place, and a plot that revolves around humans with human motives. Perhaps the best bit in the entire book is the people shouting their message from place to place. Also, I miss Ukko.