Did this motherfucker draw that chainmail or is that photo rendered to match the drawing? Who cares, really. Fucking gorgeous.
I mentioned the Third Crusade might have a hint of a theme of Daddy Issues running through it which I'd like to explore a bit before finding out that the knight definitely isn't Venus's father (but wouldn't that be fucking great?). Venus's mother (has her name been mentioned? It's possible it's been stated three times every issue but I'm as perceptive as a bat in a rave) fled from her husband to Sydney, Australia, taking their three children along, when Venus was six years old. She had caught him kissing another woman and possibly some other problems that have not been mentioned in the sparse "Researcher's Flashback" which Venus has had since her mother dropped in. At first, Venus fears the knight. He's a mysterious masculine figure who punishes those who have been bad. Seems like exactly the kind of 20th Century image kids like Venus from "traditional" families would have had of fathers, especially if you only remembered your father in the brief snippets of memory that from in a child not yet seven. These would have been accentuated by an angry wife who no doubt shit on Venus's father every chance she could get. The belief that Venus's mom would do that is based on her character so far and not on my own childhood memories of what my mother said about my father who left when I was two. I don't remember her shitting on him all that much until later years when he basically disappeared from our lives and stopped paying child support. Anyway, the early knight equals early memories of her father: an intimidating and scary presence best avoided and fled from.
As Venus gets older (meaning the Second Crusade), the knight becomes the man Venus pursues. I'm talking about society's idea of Daddy Issues and not saying, "Hey, world! I think Daddy Issues are massively real and we should boil all women's motives down to wanting to fuck a father figure." Not that Venus knows she wants to fuck the knight yet (that comes in the Third Crusade!) but she is "pursuing" him in her research as she tries to find out who he is and what he's up to. In her second encounter with him (her first major, face-to-face one), she sees him as a heroic knight trying to save lives and punish criminals. He's mysterious, masculine, massive, and, apparently, morally just. Venus is intrigued. She now finds alluring that which she feared as a child. She also eventually discovers that the knight really is a Daddy, taking care of a blind girl in their home in the sewers. So not only is the knight a representation of her father but a better version, one that looks after his child (even if he does keep her in a cage in a sewer).
By the Third Crusade, Venus's friend Sara points out that Venus wants to fuck him. And in a sense, Venus has entered into an intimate relationship with this man. She has taken care of him, undressed him, kissed him (his hand only but still!). But she still doesn't know him. He's a cypher and a fantasy, (mal)formed by her experiences of men like her father and Anton and Addas, placed on a pedestal because, being unknown behind plate and helmet, she can project her wants and needs onto this medieval lump of clay. But then it begins to fall apart as she learns who this man might actually be: a homicidal killer of San Francisco's gay population. Daddy? Daddy? Is that you?!
Anyway, he's probably not actually her father. How stupidly ridiculous would that be?! I'm going to guess her shocked expression at the end of the last issue was because of maggots crawling out of his nose.
Lyric time!
As Venus gets older (meaning the Second Crusade), the knight becomes the man Venus pursues. I'm talking about society's idea of Daddy Issues and not saying, "Hey, world! I think Daddy Issues are massively real and we should boil all women's motives down to wanting to fuck a father figure." Not that Venus knows she wants to fuck the knight yet (that comes in the Third Crusade!) but she is "pursuing" him in her research as she tries to find out who he is and what he's up to. In her second encounter with him (her first major, face-to-face one), she sees him as a heroic knight trying to save lives and punish criminals. He's mysterious, masculine, massive, and, apparently, morally just. Venus is intrigued. She now finds alluring that which she feared as a child. She also eventually discovers that the knight really is a Daddy, taking care of a blind girl in their home in the sewers. So not only is the knight a representation of her father but a better version, one that looks after his child (even if he does keep her in a cage in a sewer).
By the Third Crusade, Venus's friend Sara points out that Venus wants to fuck him. And in a sense, Venus has entered into an intimate relationship with this man. She has taken care of him, undressed him, kissed him (his hand only but still!). But she still doesn't know him. He's a cypher and a fantasy, (mal)formed by her experiences of men like her father and Anton and Addas, placed on a pedestal because, being unknown behind plate and helmet, she can project her wants and needs onto this medieval lump of clay. But then it begins to fall apart as she learns who this man might actually be: a homicidal killer of San Francisco's gay population. Daddy? Daddy? Is that you?!
Anyway, he's probably not actually her father. How stupidly ridiculous would that be?! I'm going to guess her shocked expression at the end of the last issue was because of maggots crawling out of his nose.
Lyric time!
That must be Venus's gay brother. I can tell by the tucked-in muscle shirt.
Anybody who's gone to college feels this quote pretty deeply, I suppose. I also felt this when I Ghost Worlded myself out of my hometown in a bus (VW Volkswagen, not a mysterious bus waited on by a confused old man and a lost pair of pants) at twenty-five. Anatole makes it sound more dramatic than it probably is but also possibly spot-on? It's hard to say from my point of view as my point of view is linear and I've always been part of it. But from my grandparents' point of view, whom I saw almost daily my entire life? And now they saw me once, maybe twice a year? That's a kind of death, no? I don't think Anatole is saying you have to blow shit up so irreversibly that you can't help but be a new person. Although maybe?
Here's another quote by Anatole France from his Wikipedia page that seems pertinent to our country full of stupid, scared conservatives: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread."
Based on the brief bit of dialogue that always appears after the lyric on the first page (in this case: "What...happened to you...?"), Venus was reacting to maggots.
Okay, not maggots. He's just horribly burned. Probably like that cop whose badge he had on him that died in the collapse of the burning warehouse! One thing Venus realizes is that she should have seen his burns all down his chest previously but she did not. His skin was smooth and taut and nipply before. The knight explains why that is and how Daddy Issues tend to work.
Here's another quote by Anatole France from his Wikipedia page that seems pertinent to our country full of stupid, scared conservatives: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread."
Based on the brief bit of dialogue that always appears after the lyric on the first page (in this case: "What...happened to you...?"), Venus was reacting to maggots.
Okay, not maggots. He's just horribly burned. Probably like that cop whose badge he had on him that died in the collapse of the burning warehouse! One thing Venus realizes is that she should have seen his burns all down his chest previously but she did not. His skin was smooth and taut and nipply before. The knight explains why that is and how Daddy Issues tend to work.
Seems a little mansplainy to me.
Oh yeah! The Anatole quote works for the knight as well as Venus! Because the quote, I mean lyric, was topped by Venus's family photo, I just thought it was referencing her move from Sydney to San Francisco. But the knight was a cop who died in a fire to become the fucked-up crazy-ass vigilante he is today! Just to be clear: that's definitely a step up. But then anything is a step up from being a cop.
The knight almost tricks Venus into seeing him as fuckable but she stands firm on keeping him chained up (for restraint purposes and not fuck purposes) and taking his weapons. She'll release him once more gay guys get murdered tonight!
Seems to me there's a huge bunch-of-dead-gay-guys flaw in that plan.
Meanwhile, Anton Marx has lost his chance at a television show and has been unceremoniously booted from Hollywood. He's on his way home as Venus goes in search of him (for some reason. Oh! Daddy Issues, probably). She checks out his weirdo (no judgment) hangout, the coffee shop Slice of Heaven, and meets one of his friends, Lyssa, the woman who writes erotic fiction. And to prove that maybe I was on the right track with the underlying Daddy Issues theme, Lyssa asks Venus what she's looking for in a man.
The knight almost tricks Venus into seeing him as fuckable but she stands firm on keeping him chained up (for restraint purposes and not fuck purposes) and taking his weapons. She'll release him once more gay guys get murdered tonight!
Seems to me there's a huge bunch-of-dead-gay-guys flaw in that plan.
Meanwhile, Anton Marx has lost his chance at a television show and has been unceremoniously booted from Hollywood. He's on his way home as Venus goes in search of him (for some reason. Oh! Daddy Issues, probably). She checks out his weirdo (no judgment) hangout, the coffee shop Slice of Heaven, and meets one of his friends, Lyssa, the woman who writes erotic fiction. And to prove that maybe I was on the right track with the underlying Daddy Issues theme, Lyssa asks Venus what she's looking for in a man.
These are the two types of men she's looking for: one entirely made up in her head or one that is real but never there for her.
Venus, having taken on the mantle of the knight by taking his helmet and sword (although not consciously, mind you), decides to do a good deed: save the Incest Twins' show. Addas had mentioned getting it shut down now that they've moved up to legitimate theaters and she wants to warn them. So she goes to meet them in the Geary Theater as it's closing. Sitting in front of the stage waiting for them to come down from the dressing room, she has one of her family research flashbacks.
Interesting phrasing: "after he left her mother."
It's really just semantics. Yes, Venus's mother "left" her husband and took the kids. But her father had basically "left" the family by engaging in extramarital affairs. This is where I'd say that tomato thing that doesn't really work when not spoken so I'll leave it for you to say softly to yourself instead.
Braden and Blair, the incest twins, meet with Venus who gives them the warning. She also mentions they're supposed to leave by the back of the theater through the alley. And since the narrative has been pretty clear what happens to men who enter back alleys in this town, and that Venus has allowed for one more gay murder in this town, everybody knows what's about to happen except Venus, Blair, and Braden.
Braden and Blair, the incest twins, meet with Venus who gives them the warning. She also mentions they're supposed to leave by the back of the theater through the alley. And since the narrative has been pretty clear what happens to men who enter back alleys in this town, and that Venus has allowed for one more gay murder in this town, everybody knows what's about to happen except Venus, Blair, and Braden.
This guy's the knight?! He's barely even trying!
Normally that caption would be underneath a scan of only the first panel. But then Jones had to go and do the other sexy damsel-in-distress panels with the cleavage shot and the sneaky underwear peak and I got all weak in my penis knees and couldn't help but scan them. But more importantly, the page ends with the panel of Venus looking dead into the knight's helmet as her need to play hero suddenly goes from unconscious to fully medieval.
The Hate Crime Knight (now that I've seen him, he isn't really worthy of that name. The Hate Crime part, sure! But Knight? No way) explains to Blair and Braden why he's doing it and, I suspect, most readers yawned even more lengthily than I did. Yeah, yeah. He's a self-loathing homosexual. Understood that since the Golden Gate Park incident. But he does point out that he's killing gay people so he's not tempted to fuck gay people because they'll all still be gay but also dead and he's a homosexual and not a necrophile. But before he can murder the Incest Twins, Venus is all, "Soit qui mal y pense, motherfucker!"
Venus attacks the man while wearing the knight's armor but she loses the fight. She stabs the man in the leg but then he stabs her in the calf. She falls and he's about to finish her when an earthquake hits and a building collapses on the Hate Crime Knight. It's an acceptable God in the Machine moment because as everybody who doesn't live in San Francisco knows, earthquakes are hitting it right and left all the time, with buildings falling over and fires breaking out and sections falling out of bridges. They've learned all that stuff from watching the television they lost in one of the weekly tornadoes or hurricanes the rest of the country suffers from.
The earthquake might mean something more than just a casual deus ex machina but do I have the patience to suss it out? Maybe my brain will work on it and I'll mention what it means while I'm doing Deadman reviews next month. But I do know one reason why Seagle had the city save the day itself: Venus was wearing armor way too big for her and has no experience with a sword so it wouldn't have been proper for her to defeat this man. Also Seagle probably doesn't want her to have murder on her conscious. Also, the main point of the encounter was that Venus had the courage to do what was right. She stood up to protect The City and the people who make The City what it is. And The City responded in kind by squashing the Hate Crime Knight with a ton of bricks.
Venus flees immediately leaving Braden and Blair to exclaim, "Who was that masked sexpot?!" And it's left me with a women in armor fetish. Gonna explore that one a little later! Thank you Incognito Mode!
Venus's mother flees San Francisco because of the earthquake and Venus tells her not to give up on her gay son Dmitri the way she gave up on Venus's father. The father stuff was well done by Seagle across these five issues in that he was mostly invisible, as shown in one of the first family photo introductions where he's been torn off the family picture. He sets up this idea that the father was a terrible father but in reality it just seems he was a terrible husband who was separated from his daughter against her will. He does eventually leave the picture entirely in that Venus has the memory of the last time she saw him. No judgment on her father, though, as his story is barely told and who knows his situation and how hard it was for him to see her when she was taken half a world away. There's one more family research flashback that shows Venus crying and praying while watching her mother put the final touches on pushing her father away. Venus's mother looks stern and unyielding; Venus's father, sad and broken.
But what about Godfrey and Cela, you might be wondering? According to Syd, crushed to death by the earthquake. So sad!
The Crusades #17 Rating: A+. This story arc wrapped up well and the amount of shit I'm realizing Seagle put into this just makes me feel stupid as hell. I never feel like I've missed shit when reading superhero comic books because, for the most part, they're superficial fantasy fun with right there on their sleeve ideas about morality and ethical behavior in a black and white four-color world. But this Vertigo shit sometimes does more than tits and swearing. And they expect me, a person who loves tits and swearing, to understand the deeper meanings and themes?! What do they think I am?! A person with a degree in literature and three credits short of an American History minor?! I mean, yeah, I am that but I'm a stupid one of those! Stop being so full of the smart stuff, comic books! Man, I can't wait to read some Deadman!
The Hate Crime Knight (now that I've seen him, he isn't really worthy of that name. The Hate Crime part, sure! But Knight? No way) explains to Blair and Braden why he's doing it and, I suspect, most readers yawned even more lengthily than I did. Yeah, yeah. He's a self-loathing homosexual. Understood that since the Golden Gate Park incident. But he does point out that he's killing gay people so he's not tempted to fuck gay people because they'll all still be gay but also dead and he's a homosexual and not a necrophile. But before he can murder the Incest Twins, Venus is all, "Soit qui mal y pense, motherfucker!"
Venus attacks the man while wearing the knight's armor but she loses the fight. She stabs the man in the leg but then he stabs her in the calf. She falls and he's about to finish her when an earthquake hits and a building collapses on the Hate Crime Knight. It's an acceptable God in the Machine moment because as everybody who doesn't live in San Francisco knows, earthquakes are hitting it right and left all the time, with buildings falling over and fires breaking out and sections falling out of bridges. They've learned all that stuff from watching the television they lost in one of the weekly tornadoes or hurricanes the rest of the country suffers from.
The earthquake might mean something more than just a casual deus ex machina but do I have the patience to suss it out? Maybe my brain will work on it and I'll mention what it means while I'm doing Deadman reviews next month. But I do know one reason why Seagle had the city save the day itself: Venus was wearing armor way too big for her and has no experience with a sword so it wouldn't have been proper for her to defeat this man. Also Seagle probably doesn't want her to have murder on her conscious. Also, the main point of the encounter was that Venus had the courage to do what was right. She stood up to protect The City and the people who make The City what it is. And The City responded in kind by squashing the Hate Crime Knight with a ton of bricks.
Venus flees immediately leaving Braden and Blair to exclaim, "Who was that masked sexpot?!" And it's left me with a women in armor fetish. Gonna explore that one a little later! Thank you Incognito Mode!
Venus's mother flees San Francisco because of the earthquake and Venus tells her not to give up on her gay son Dmitri the way she gave up on Venus's father. The father stuff was well done by Seagle across these five issues in that he was mostly invisible, as shown in one of the first family photo introductions where he's been torn off the family picture. He sets up this idea that the father was a terrible father but in reality it just seems he was a terrible husband who was separated from his daughter against her will. He does eventually leave the picture entirely in that Venus has the memory of the last time she saw him. No judgment on her father, though, as his story is barely told and who knows his situation and how hard it was for him to see her when she was taken half a world away. There's one more family research flashback that shows Venus crying and praying while watching her mother put the final touches on pushing her father away. Venus's mother looks stern and unyielding; Venus's father, sad and broken.
But what about Godfrey and Cela, you might be wondering? According to Syd, crushed to death by the earthquake. So sad!
The Crusades #17 Rating: A+. This story arc wrapped up well and the amount of shit I'm realizing Seagle put into this just makes me feel stupid as hell. I never feel like I've missed shit when reading superhero comic books because, for the most part, they're superficial fantasy fun with right there on their sleeve ideas about morality and ethical behavior in a black and white four-color world. But this Vertigo shit sometimes does more than tits and swearing. And they expect me, a person who loves tits and swearing, to understand the deeper meanings and themes?! What do they think I am?! A person with a degree in literature and three credits short of an American History minor?! I mean, yeah, I am that but I'm a stupid one of those! Stop being so full of the smart stuff, comic books! Man, I can't wait to read some Deadman!
re: the cover-- aron wiesenfeld abandoned comix in favor of painting sad children lost in the woods. it's a goddamn travesty, is what it is. you should check out the batman b&w short story he did. or that deathblow short story where he fights a french "barbarian" / mental patient for no reason...
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