Demon Knights #6
The Balance
Written by: Paul Cornell
Pencilled by: Diogenes Neves & Robson Rocha
Inked by: Oclair Albert, Diogenes Nevers, and Robson Rocha
Colored by: Marcelo Maiolo
Lettering by: Jared K. Fletcher
Published by: DC
Cover Price: $2.99
Note : This review is for the digital version of the comic available from DC Comics on Comixology
Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!
There really is no rhyme or reason for it, but there are some books I can review month after month and always find something new to say. Animal Man, I basically reviewed 4 of the first 5 issues, and on a whole, I was really proud of how each review stood out. When I picked Demon Knights to review this week, I really expected to have a lot more to say. I loved the issue, and it’s one of my favorite series. But everything I thought about saying, I pretty much have already said in earlier reviews. So I hope this review doesn’t disappoint:
Summary (contains spoilers): This issue starts the siege of the village of Little Spring in full force. Last issue, Vandal Savage betrayed our team of heroes to rejoin the Questing Queen. Large lizard creatures lead the attack, while Savage rains arrows down on the villagers. Etrigan seems ready to make a run for it, wanting to carry the depleted Xanadu to safety, but she won’t let him.
Tired of waiting for the battle to come to her, Exoristos leaps over the village wall, and rushes the enemy on foot, taking down a pretty good chunk of them in the process. Amazons are bad ass!
Horsewoman is ordered by Xanadu to sneak out of the town and seek backup. Meanwhile, Xanadu considers sacrificing some of the villagers to recover her strength, but decides against it.
Exoristos is finally struck down, but Etrigan arrives just in time to save her. Just as Horsewoman reaches the next village to send help, Savage and his army breach the Little Spring walls. Our heroes rush forth to meet the Queen’s army declaring they are fighting “For Camelot!”
Review: While some of my other favorite Relaunch titles have had some ups and downs in terms of quality, Demon Knights continues to bring it’s A game every issue. Every issue surprises me.
I was expecting Vandal Savage to turn on the Queen, but he quickly proved me wrong on that one. But when a guy launches a barrage of arrows through villagers, it’s kind of hard to recover your hero credibility from there…no matter how much those pesky villagers might deserve it…
Even though there is always a lot of action throughout Demon Knights, I love the little character moments we get to see in each issue. Al Jabr’s outward confidence masking his doubts:
Xanadu’s struggle with wanting to be able to help her allies, but not being willing to pay the price to do so:
Horsewoman’s quest to try to bring in reinforcements, and her…unique rope:
Not to mention Exoristos’ guilt over sending a child to her death, and how that drives Exoristos into battle, Plus, we got plenty of intrigue from the Questing Queen and Mordru. This book has such a large cast, but still takes the time to remind us that each character has a major part to play in everything that’s going on. There have been quite a few team books in Relaunch with less characters where I don’t feel the characters get as much attention and care as Cornell gives them here.
That is what makes Demon Knights such a great comic, Cornell makes you feel the characters’ struggles, and Diogenes Neves draws them in such great detail. Even with the fantasy setting of dragons, lizard beasts, and witches, everything seems to real to the reader. That’s is one hell of a trick to pull off!
I can’t say enough good things about Demon Knights. Even since Crossgen has been gone, I have really wanted someone to bring back the epic quest book, and Cornell and Neves have been putting on a Master’s Class here. While writing this review, it occurred to me that basically this whole series has taken place around this one little town. The siege of Little Spring has pretty much been the entire focus of the comic, but it never feels slow moving to me. There is just always so much going on in each panel. It’s rare lately I can get this much satisfaction from one comic, but Demon Knights is definitely one of the best comics I’ve ever read.
Final Score: 9.0 While this issue doesn’t seem as important to the DC Universe as issue 4 was (SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION>), it is still an excellent comic.
