Death comes like an old friend. . . (cue groans).
So I picked up the first issue of Madame Xanadu months ago but wasn’t really sucked in. Since I’m on grad student budget, this means tradewaiting lots of books that don’t immediately thrill me but have potential.
I had to get it last week, though, because Death was on the cover along with Xanadu. Though I admit to snagging the Frank Quitely cover, the inside art was even more gorgeous. Dear Vertigo, please, please, please have Amy Reeder Hadley draw a Death miniseries. We’re overdue! We’ve been good! It’s almost Christmas!
Seriously though, Hadley’s art is just gorgeous and her Death is pitch-perfect, down to the smile and the sparkle in her eyes. It’s worth way more than the $2.99 this issue will cost you just for the art, but the story isn’t bad, either, with Xanadu taking a page from John Constantine’s book and gambling her life with Death on a tarot spread. And as a bonus, you get to witness the execution of Marie Antoinette. Sort of.
This is some of the best art on the stands, and I think after reading this that the problem I had with this book is, well, stilted period dialogue. Death shows up and like always, speaks sassy common sense in modern English, and breathes a whole bunch of fresh air into the story (yes, yes, I know).
There’s a reason that writers like Brian Wood put their period stories into modern language, and it’s not to read the griping emails from fans complaining that Vikings didn’t talk like that. When you’re trying to write in a dialect, even a historically-accurate one, that you don’t speak, you’re concentrating more on getting the words right than getting the point across. Writing in modern language is just as rational as writing English for characters who would be speaking Japanese, or German, or whatever.
Anyway, that said, I think I’ll be giving Xanadu another chance.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I’m really enjoying Madame Xanadu, and I’m glad the lovely Death’s appearance got you to try it again and hopefully you’ll stick around!
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 am
I felt the exact same way…issue one put me off, but this issue has me wanting to a take a look at the issues that have been released…issue one just came across as kind of cheesy…it was a bad slant on period dialogue, y’know overly dramatic.