Etrigan And Co, Establishing Status Quo
The Good: Where do I start? Etrigan, Madame Xanadu, Shining Knight, Vandal Savage, and more clashing in the Dark Ages. Yes. So cool.
Diogenes Neves artwork is just... PERFECT for this book. It captures the medieval 'swords and sorcery' tone amazingly well without being needlessly flashy or crazy. It's a weird kind of standard that just looks GORGEOUS.
Paul Cornell has a huge task before him. Because this takes place in a time rarely explored in the DCU, he has to do a lot more work building the world for the setting. He's already off to a great start at accomplishing this, showing us all sorts of little things that shape the setting.
Characters have awesome designs. I especially like Shining Knight.
There's just so much about this that isn't a standard DC comic. The way the characters start to meet up feel like a serious and well setup D&D game.
And yes, there ARE dragons.
The Bad: As awesome as that cover is, it bothers me that Etrigan is THE ONLY THING ON IT. This series is Demon KNIGHTS. PLURAL. It's not The Demon. So it's a little misleading.
ETRIGAN DOESN'T RHYME!?
World building is still happening. Because this is the first issue, there's no way that every detail could've been explored. I understand that, it just makes this issue fall a tiny iota flat.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
Honestly, this issue only falls short of a 5/5 because there's no way it could fully accomplish the task of setting the stage. But that's fine. Not every issue is going to be perfect all the time. What it is is FANTASTIC and supremely entertaining. If you have a hankering for some knights, wizards and dragons in ye olde days of yore, get this, because this is exactly that. In the DCU. And it's a great one at that.
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