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Post by rberman on Apr 18, 2019 15:16:02 GMT -5
The Black Dragon #4, August 1985
 The Story: The demonified Dunreith and Ellianne attack a pagan wedding, maiming the priestess Gwyneth Treherne with their crystalline contamination.  Brian Griffon has a fairy sword of silver and crystal. He gets it blessed by contact with a dying infant, whose spirit is unstained by sin.  Eamonn the fairy king makes a magic circle on the ground. When Brian uses his blessed sword on the demonic Dunreith within that circle, Dunreith is temporarily freed from his curse and transformed into a strange figure of light. But the cursed black crystal still lurks just beneath his skin, and if he leaves the circle, he will transform back into demon form again. He asks Brian to kill him; just then Morgan Lefay, fairy queen, arrives with a “Stay thy blade!”  My Two Cents: Definitely not the direction I expected this series to go. Dunreith has gone from protagonist to victim, and Brian Griffon is in the hero role now. Where will it go next?  Last issue, Edmund deValere spoke of a love for Dunreith greater than his love for women. Comrades in arms sometimes speak that way, but the more Edmund talks, the more romantic/sexual his interest sounds. This adds another layer to his villainous willing to sacrifice Dunreith. But being a Claremont character, he’s also full of self-recrimination and doubt. 
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Post by rberman on Apr 19, 2019 5:59:22 GMT -5
The Black Dragon #5, September 1985
 The Story: Morgan Le Fay reveals herself as Dunreith’s mother; she took mortal form for a while and lived with his father. This explains Dunreith’s unnatural youth and his connection to the “Black Dragon” which is the spirit of the land. In the midst of her pages of exposition, who should arrive but Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine? The English queen and Fairy queen make common cause against deValere, who seeks to unleash demonic forces inimical to both Christianity and paganism.  The heroes attack deValere’s formidable castle, with tiny faeries assisting Robin Hood’s sneak attack on the battlements. Dunreith, returned to his demonic form but still in his right mind, battles with bewitched Ellianne in the sky above and appears to be getting the worst of it. deValere summons the Black Dragon, which is now under his control due to the corruption in Dunreith’s soul.  My Two Cents: The penultimate issue of a series is often a good time to introduce some wise old soul who puts everything together for the characters and readers in a long expository speech, and that’s exactly what we get here from Morgan. The battle scenes in this issue have a Hal Foster feel, no doubt abetted by the medieval setting. 
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Post by rberman on Apr 20, 2019 7:34:07 GMT -5
The Black Dragon #6, October 1985
 The Story: Edmund deValere, mad with bloodlust, cuts through his own troops with his black soul-drinking blade to get to Robin Hood and Brian Griffon. When his half-sister Anne tries to calm him, he cuts through her too. As she dies, she informs the demonified Ellianne of her real parentage: Anne is her mother, and a faerie lord was her true father, not Edmund.  Brian’s fairy sword is the only weapon which can stand up to deValere. But his swordsmanship is not up to the task. Just as deValere is about to strike the fatal blow, Anne frees Ellianne from her crystalline demon form, transforming her into a figure of light who aids Brian. A moment later, with the death of Anne, Ellianne reverts to crystal form, but like Dunreith she is again in control of her mind.  Ellianne asks Eleanor and Morgan to slay her so that her power can pass to Dunreith. This somehow transforms Dunreith back into a man, and he wins his duel with deValere.  Morgan uses her magic to save Ellianne and Dunreith the only way she can: reverting them to innocent infancy so that the two fairy/human hybrids can have another chance to grow up to adulthood and continue the Dunreith legacy, connecting man and Sidhe. My Two Cents: Happy ending! The parallels to the story of Illyana Rasputin will be obvious to anyone who has read Claremont’s The New Mutants. That story also ended with Illyana turning demon and then being turned back into an innocent child, albeit not an infant. 
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Post by rberman on May 10, 2019 13:39:28 GMT -5
Epic Illustrated #18 "Business Hours Nine to Five" (June 1983)
The Story: Joanna Marlowe returns home at the end of the day to her Tudor mansion beside an abandoned graveyard. Imps prowl her house and continuously fail to grab or leap upon her. She seems oblivious.  Her phone rings; it's a customer who wants to talk shop, but she tells him to call back in the morning. She spends nine large panels undressing and taking a bath. After donning her nightie, she sits in her boudoir to prepare for bed, when she's accosted by a scary monster. "I told you to come tomorrow," she says. He slinks away. The end.  My Two Cents: OK, it's basically a long joke with a silly punch line. It also involves no hacking or slashing, but it does have Bolton, Claremont, a plucky heroine, and monsters. There are all sorts of little occult jokes. Her street number is 1313, and her phone number is "Berkley triple-six," which is not a valid old timey-number. Joanna's business is "Synne Limited, Inquiries and Restorations." OK, but why does she have her business plaque outside her home? I guess she works from home.  Mainly this is an excuse for John Bolton to delivery some gorgeous gothic art as well as the gratuitous nudity which occupies the middle third of this eight page tale. When composing the cover art, he surely must have been aware of Berni Wrightson's iconic cover shot of Swamp Thing in House of Secrets #92. I don't know that Bolton does it better than Wrightson, but he certainly does it well. Do you think Sigourney Weaver was his photo reference? 
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