VERY FINE/NEAR MINT Written by Matt Wagner
Art and cover by Amy Reeder Hadley & Richard Friend
Madame Xanadu returns to Europe as mystic advisor to Marie Antoinette, and as political tensions begin to boil, the Phantom Stranger makes his return. This time he seeks to kick-start the revolution and ensure that Paris’s streets run red - a blood sacrifice that will keep certain demonic forces at bay. Interfering in this cruelty, Madame Xanadu discovers that the price of saving others may be her own immortality.
MATURE READERS
Date Available: 10/29/2008
BONUS REVIEW by GARY OWENS
Madame Xanadu likes the high life, going from Camelot to Khan’s court and now, in this issue, to King Louis XIV, and the time before the French Revolution. This series has a fantastic combination of a superb writer (Matt Wagner) and artist (Amy Reeder Hadley). Each issue it seems we are introduced to a new cast of characters, and the setup that makes us want to care about them; this issue is no different. I’ve enjoyed the character, and the artwork; Amy has a talent for drawing women, and this comic has loads of them. Matt, however, appears to be struggling with the character, trying to give her an overall purpose. And the century changing every issue makes it jumpy, in part. But he does a great job, at least, in keeping us wondering how an immortal person survives. That’s keeps me reading.
