I expected I'd find 3 of the 5 books out this week I was interested in, and one would be a first issue. This isn't the first issue I was expecting to find. Maybe the universe is really trying to impress upon me that Werewolf by Night is better off ignored.
This issue mostly establishes the tone Ennis and Burrows are going with, while offering a bit of characterization and backstory for Babs, which may or may not be anything like her true name. A motley collection of what I think are supposed to be medieval equivalent to annoying comic fans online accuse her of being Grizzlock the Barbarian, aka Grizzlock the Patricidal, who killed her father (obviously), the male and therefore much better, King Grizzlock. Babs denies it, and they're clearly morons mistaking her for a different sword-wielding woman warrior. But her talking sword mentions (amid copious profanity) she both dropped out of princess academy and that there's a kingdom somewhere she could return to as queen.
Beyond that, Babs drinks to excess with a friend, kills a couple of squirrels (which are called "tree-runts") because her chainmail bra needs a new lining, and ends up hiding in a tree from an angry bear that got shot in the butt with one of her crossbow bolts.
Also, a bunch of knights calling themselves "Ivory Knights of Unblemished Virtue" are on the march, and the group of morons (who might also be meant to mock incels) think they want to join. Will Ennis eventually have Babs make a lengthy and profane speech about what a bunch of {insert the filthiest terminology you can imagine} all of them are? Almost certainly! Will it be funny? We can hope so.
I feel like Burrows is trying to walk the line of having the characters look more or less normal for the setting, but still be able to do the sillier stuff the story requires. Like Babs swinging a goblin by his ankles at his buddies, or having the talking sword flip Babs off. When Babs' friend Izzy relates how all the loot she got from a dragon hoard had to go to reparations for a leprechaun parade she and her chariot plowed through, the contrast between the oblivious leprechauns still playing harps or mandolins or whatever, and their comrade being bloodily dismembered has a certain dark glee to it.
For the less macabre bits, a looser or more comically exaggerated approach might work. Guess that depends on if they really want it to play this, but it certainly doesn't feel like it's one of Ennis' "serious" works.
No comments:
Post a Comment