Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Demon Knights #1
DC Comics
Cornell, Neves & Albert
DC Comics reboot/re-launch/launch has created opportunities for some books to get off the ground that normally may have floundered among the noise of the regular weekly comic book load. Demon Knights may have been one of those such books. It will get a nice lift in terms of sales simply because of the positive buzz surrounding all of the new books coming out, but once purchased, the book must hold the reader's attention and do so immediately otherwise it will quickly fade. This book simply doesn't give me a reason to return to it and yet it started out so very strongly.
Set centuries ago we witness the very end of the Arthur days. These opening pages are outstanding as they clearly tie the ending of Camelot with main characters of this book: Etrigan and Madame Xanadu. Merlin plays a big part in the book's incarnation of Etrigan and Excalibur and Arthur involve Madame Xanadu as much as they possibility could. Once these pages establish these key events the book jumps four hundred years.
The remainder of the story puts out some villains that kill an infant to establish how evil they are as their hordes roll through and pillage towns. They hit a town, specifically a tavern where Etrigan and Xanadu and a few of their newly introduced friends are hanging out. There is very little plot in this book as it tries to spend its time introducing the characters.
The book isn't terrible as it makes sure to hold a new reader's hand through the universe and the new characters. However, there just isn't enough to get me to come back for more. Cornell has good dialogue and provides an entertaining enough read but he's got six to eight characters with small roles in the book and none of them seem all that different from each other in this issue and there needs to be a reason to want to read on to find out about them and I found none. Obviously some of these characters probably existed in some form or another in the previous DCU but to me, they are new, and if you want a new reader's perspective I just couldn't get into these characters.
The artwork is tremendous, particularly the Arthur scenes. The penciling has a grand feel to them and makes the universe feel so vast and daunting. The artwork presents a world where is seems like anything is possible. I was very pleased with the art in this book and that is a good reason to pick this issue up.
Perhaps if you know about characters like Sir Ystin, Vandal Savage or Exoristos you will love this issue and the situations they have been put in. Or maybe you have faith that in time the plot and story will kick in and the book will really get rolling. As an added bonus, Cornell has promised that future issues will have dragons in them. But as a first issue this comic just doesn't do enough to grab my interest. It feels too much like chapter one instead of a self-contained story in its own right.
2 out of 5 Geek Goggles
