Demon Knights Book 2: The Avalon Trap (#8-12, #0)

"You know somehow that's not what I expected" - Al Jabr

This is the second volume of Paul Cornell's run on The New 52 series, Demon Knights.  In the previous book the seven "knights" were thrown together by circumstance to defend a village from attack and prevent the attackers marching on to conquer the city of Alba Sarum.  Well, they defeated the attackers, unfortunately they ended up destroying the village in the process.  This book picks up in the immediate aftermath as the seven travel to Alba Sarum to receive thanks and possibly a reward.  The seven knights are: the transgender Shining Knight (Sir Ystin), Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon, Madame Xanadu, middle eastern scientist Al Jabr, the exiled Amazon Exoristos (Ex), Vandal Savage and the mysterious paraplegic, Horsewoman.  So far only Shining Knight's background has been elaborated on, while the others so far don't have much to discern one from another.  This volume will fill in the background of Madame Xanadu and her relationship with the body swapping Etrigan and Jason Blood.  It also features Avalon, the magical heart of Great Britain, which is something Cornell has explored a few times in his writing career and, like the values of tolerance, decency and fair play which Cornell seems to think are the defining characteristics of the Britsh, it's a complete fantasy.  The first arc of Captain Britain and MI-13 featured the Marvelverse Avalon and his sole contribution to the Eighth Doctor Expanded Universe novel series was also set in the pocket dimension of Avalon.  We've got Merlin, Morgaine, King Arthur and all that mystical folderol before us, so let us begin.

The story begins with the Seven on their way to the city of Alba Sarum.  Vandal Savage is telling them again how he purposely infiltrated their enemy to disrupt them and he didn't betray the others who are somewhat dubious still.  Jason is fast asleep.  Xanadu says after swapping with Etrigan for a long period he sleeps for ages.  The others wonder how the heck she got into this relationship and she responds "It's complicated and like so many things, it started in Camelot."

She recounts her first meeting with Jason while training in magic under Merlin.  Shining Knight says he was at Camelot and he doesn't remember them.  Vandal Savage muses that he raided Camelot several times over the centuries and it was often quite different each time. Shining Knight realise:

Shining Knight: "All my Gods!  There were many Camelots.. I could have gone home."

Exoristos says it wouldn't have been the same Camelot though.  They get back to the Xanadu/Jason/Etrigan triangle.  She and Jason became friends and started a tentative romance.  Then Camelot was attacked.  Xanadu was supposed to take the body of Arthur back to Avalon but she dived off the boat.  Jason was bonded to Etrigan by Merlin and each thought the other gone.

She made a life for herself as a fortune teller and general village doctor and so on.  She realised after several decades she wasn't aging.  She then made the mistake of staying in one place too long and the villagers decided to burn her as a witch.  But before they can set her alight, Jason appears.  When he realises who she is he summons Etrigan who kills everyone in the crowd then flies her away.

Etrigan, meet Xanadu.

She and Jason sleep together and realise immortality means they can be together forever.  But when he swaps with Etrigan, he attacks her saying he won't let Jason be happy.  Xanadu holds him off by saying he needs a powerful magician to help him break his link to Jason.  But perhaps she impresses her too much as he then starts wooing her with a dead sheep.

Xanadu: "I will work to help you.  But understand this... I love Jason... And you will never touch me!"

Unfortunately when Jason and Xanadu find a priest to marry them, Etrigan kills the priest and burns down the church.  Xanadu makes the difficult decision to accept Etrigan's romantic overtures, saying to him that sex with him would kill her, but she will be his love, "that was the sacrifice I made then and continue to make to this day."

Jason awakes and says it's time for Etrigan to appear and swaps places with him.  He has a slightly different take on his and Xanadu's relationship:

Etrigan: "Whenever someone tells you a true story, you should ask yourself, who is fooling who?"
Meanwhile in Alba Sarum, Merlin is in his lab and talking to person's unknown about how the city has been called the "new Camelot" and there are those who would destroy a city with that name.  Suddenly he is stabbed in the back by a hooded assassin and killed.

Backstab crits for 1000hp, Merlin is dead.

The next chapter begins with the two women who rule Alba Sarum assessing the Seven in a catch up for new readers which we can skip.  The Seven arrive finally in Alba Sarum but note that everyone seems to be in mourning.  Al Jabr and Vandal Savage get into a punch up over his maybe betrayal during the seige in the previous book.  Before they can escalate it too far, Princess Alba appears and invites them to the palace.  With them all done up in fancy finery, Etrigan observes:

Etrigan: "I've heard that the Princesses are betrothed having written the laws themselves to allow that.  But won't marry until their city is declared 'The New Camelot'"
Xanadu: "Power allows anything.  I hope common girls get the same."

The princesses then bring in Merlin's body, much to Sir Ystin's distress and Etrigan's anger.  Xanadu calms Etrigan and stops him ripping up the body.  The princesses say that his wounds have disappeared, he is still warm and smells of roses.  Xanadu says she has seen this before, have they heard of Avalon?

She says bringing Merlin's body to Avalon, they can reunite his body and soul or something. Anyway, they all make plans to go to Avalon.  Xanadu says she knows a way there from the ruins of her Camelot.  Etrigan says for the journey they'll need a ship, many barrels of mead and many, many magical weapons.

Etrigan knows how to pack.

The next day Ex and Sir Ystin discuss their mission.  Sir Ystin asks if Ex is just coming for the money.  Ex says that since the seige she has felt she has something to fight for and that it feels good.  Al Jabr meanwhile, is voicing his concerns to a Lord Gadfrey.

Al Jabr: "I'm hoping the fact the living can go to Avalon means it is not actually the afterlife.  I don't think God would appreciate me marching in."

He thanks Gadfrey for the new devices and goes to board the ship.  They set off on their joruney to the "savage wasteland" of Britain with Vandal Savage steering the ship.  Suddenly a huge sea serpent appears in front of them.  In hell, Etrigan, having swapped back with Jason, is talking to Lucifer and promises him Avalon.

Etrigan: "Sire.  It is my aim to give you Avalon, Merlin and the souls of all my comrades."

Back with the Seven, the giant sea serpent has pirates on its head steering it.  They try to hijack the Seven's boat, but Xanadu and Vandal Savage knock the beast out.  They pick up the pirates out of the water and says they can stay aboard if they steer the sea serpent in front of their boat to keep the other monsters of the sea at bay.

Sea serpent!

They arrive in Britain and in the first town they set foot in they hand over the pirates and show the seals of Alba Sarum to the town Reeve to show they have no ill intent.  They go to the local pub to discuss their next move.  They wonder if they should follow the coast, but a local called Gwyn Godwinson says they don't want to do that because of all the monsters.  However the land is not free of them either:

Gwyn: "Something bad had taken root in what had once been the best place of worldly honour... this darkness is comin' from Camelot."

The Seven set off with Etrigan to help them fight monsters.  And they are indeed attacked by a huge fanged beast, but Sir Ystin kills it by leaping from his flying horse Vangaurd and stabbing it through the head.  It transforms back into a normal wolf as it dies.

Shining Knight lives up to his name.

A day later they come to the marshes that are all that are left of the lakes that once surrounded this Camelot.  Al Jabr comments about all the monsters they have faced:

Al Jabr: "It's as though they've been transformed to be more like their essential natures."

They reach Camelot and it is in ruins bar a tower with a sickly green light shining out of the top of it.  Suddenly a zombie knight appears who Xanadu recognises as King Arthur, he doesn't attack he tries to communicate with them but can't speak properly. 

Zombie King Arthur

Suddenly, all of the Seven bar Xanadu change.  Etrigan becomes bigger and more imposing, Al Jabr develops a huge head to house his huge brain, the Horsewoman becomes a centaur, Sir Ystin becomes more masculine looking, Vandal Savage just becomes more handsome and although it's hard to make it out from the confused artwork layout, Ex becomes a twisted, squat being.  They have been tranformed into their "essential natures".

Xanadu: "I can feel this is dark magic.  Exoristos, how can you want this?!"

Sir Ystin: "She's hurting herself.  I'm proud of who I am... a true Shining Knight.  I think Ex wants you to see the opposite."

Etrigan uses his amped up power to deal with the creatures attacking them.  Arthur gestures that they should all follow him and he leads them to a fountain of pure energy.  Despite the protestations of the changed Six, he uses the fountain to change them back to normal.  Etrigan is pissed about losing his extra power and attacks Arthur who has now been returned to normal.  Arthur fends him off for now.

A rejuvanated Arthur.

Sir Ystin, Xanadu and Al Jabr all bow before him.  King Arthur tells them that the light that changed them would eventually have seen them degenerate into mindless beings.  He has used the last pure energy from Camelot to return them and himself to normal although it is only temporary while they are still there.

Xanadu asks why he is here and not in Avalon.  He said he felt the call to go home and found "a way that would only be used to leave, not return"  He realised something was seriously wrong with Camelot, it was centuries later and someone had erected the tower projecting the evil light.  The light tried to change him and when it could not, it started to show the years that "Avalon stores unseen".

The corruption of Camelot.

Xanadu says if they destroy the tower, they have a good chance of finding a way into Avalon.  Arthur agrees to help when they say it is for Merlin.  They attack the tower, a huge creature of earth rises up before them but they use water to defeat it.  Meanwhile an unseen voice commands their slaves to fetch Merlin's body which the others left in a cave.  And finally the voice is revealed to belong to a masked Morgaine Le Fey.

The Seven plus Arthur arrive inside the tower, which is bigger on the inside than the outside.  Xanadu says it's like "all of Camelot has been shoved in this smaller space."  They figure the evil light will be coming from Merlin's chambers and set off there.

Morgaine Le Fey

Morgaine watches their progress via crystal ball.  They come across the Round Table which has a pentagram in blood scrawled on it and corpses sat around it one of which Xanadu recognises as a "sister".  The Horsewoman says she is having trouble with the force that connects her to the horses.  Like she is being drained.

Exoristos: "By all the Gods!  It feels like death!"

The realise they have walked into a trap and more creatures attack. They fight back but one of the animals explodes into green poisonous dust which renders them all unconcious.  When they awake they have been magically manacled to the floor around an occult looking symbol.

A somewhat sticky situation.

Morgaine is now revealed to them and Xanadu asks what she wants with them.  Morgaine says she made the ruins of Camelot like the are now to lure Merlin back there, but it turns out having his dead body will be even more useful.  She had planned to take him over while alive, but now he is dead it will be even easier.

Now their energies will be drawn into Merlin's body to give him even more life before she takes up residence in him.  She promises to be be a "good person" when she has his body at her command.  Then she leaves saying soon everyone in the room will die.

Vandal Savage: "Unacceptable! I will not die so a woman with no face can gain different genitals!"

Etrigan has a plan though and he and Jason keep swapping back and forth until they overload the manacles.  Xanadu tells him to destroy the altar and this frees the rest of them. 

They find Morgaine and confront her, she makes a last ditch effort to take over Xanadu's body by turning into energy and firing herself at her.  Arthur however blocks her and takes Morgaine into himself.  He says that he needs to stop her taking him over fully.  He knights Sir Ystin again as "the once and future knight" then attacks the stream of evil energy which somehow makes it explode, killing him.

King Arthur's sacrifice.

The Seven and their horses escape the collapsed tower.  Xanadu looks for the entry to Avalon but it's no longer there.  Morgaine's desecration closed it.  Etrigan goes absolutely berserk.  He rants that they have made the mistake of thinking he has human feelings, but "I am demon born".  And he blasts them all with his fire, sending them all to hell.  And that ends the main part of the book on a cliffhanger.

The Zero issue begins with a young Etrigan being mocked for his poor rhyming.  Lucifer appears and laguidly dismisses his efforts.  He tells his major-domo to remove Etrigan's spine as punishment.  Etrigan throws a pity party:

Etrigan: "I have never been shown a moments kindness nor known a moments comfort".

That'll be the whole "being in Hell" thing dude, just sayin'.  Anyway he quits Lucifer's service and decides to foment revolution.

Etrigan starts to draw his plans together..

Meanwhile Jason Blood is in Camelot moaning about how strictly Merlin is treating him.  He kicks a table in a mirror of Etrigan's complaints he says "he underestimates me! Everyone does!".

Arthur tells Merlin to go easy on the kid then Jason accidentally blows up Merlin's lab in the background.  They go and take a look and an angry Jason grabs Arthur saying why won't Merlin's magic work for him?  Merlin zaps Jason into unconciousness.  Etrigan meanwhile starts his hostile takeover by challenging and killing the various faction leaders in Hell.

Stop being a little bitch Jason.

A still angry Jason Blood is in a jail cell for putting his hands on the king.  Nimue, the real name of Madame Xanadu, listens to his complaints about being made for a greater destiny than this.

Jason Blood: "There is something in my nature that needs balancing Nim.  You know I dream of doing... terrible things.  If I let my anger out."

Merlin goes to the oracle, Morgaine le Fey who says she is only helping because Nimue is her sister.  She predicts Jason will kill Nimue if not "granted some great quest to heal himself."  Merlin sighs, he now has to "do something awful".  In Hell Etrigan has managed to get several Hell legions on his side.

Bernard Chang's artwork really is good.

Lucifer watches with amusement wondering how he can crush Etrigan with the maximum humiliation.  Then Merlin appears and proposes a "bargain".  Lucifer appears to the forces ranged against him, says Etrigan failed to impress him once again, and he opens a portal to the mortal world which sucks Etrigan in and leaves his fighters leaderless and they back down.

We then get a rerun of events shown to us in book one in case we are goldfish and forgot.  Camelot is attacked, Jason is summoned to Merlin's lab and bounds to Etrigan, Camelot falls. 

2 become 1.

Etrigan, now back down at the very bottom of Hell's hierarchy swears to kill everyone Jason cares about if bought to the mortal world.  Jason says he'll commit suicide in that case and trap Etrigan in "this prison of flesh".  Etrigan changes his mind:

Etrigan: "It seems I have been rash.  Give me time, get to know me.  Perhaps we can make a deal".

The story ends with Jason walking away from the ruins of Camelot.  We are told that over the centuries Etrigan climbed back up Hell's hierarchy and as for Jason "perhaps he started to accept his situation.  Etrigan never did."  The end.

And all he really needed was a good therapist...

And once again I have to register several complaints about this volume, while the pacing has been improved other aspects still bother me.  The main one being that we have seven characters who all sound the same, the same jokey comments and snarky asides and I have to wonder why.  These are a team made up of people originating from different time periods, or in the case of Ex and Al Jabr, different cultures and yet nothing is made of this fact.  The other problem is that eleven issues in, the only characters we know a decent amount about are the ones previously established in DC lore, yes The New 52 was supposed to be a clean slate, but we've simply got a slight variation on a previous theme.  The more potentitally interesting new characters have been pushed to one side.  It's a waste.  The art is a mess as well, although I have only credited three artists, Diogenes Neves, Oclair Albert and Bernard Chang, many of the issues had up to five inkers and pencillers working on them which doesn't help with clarity.  It's notable that the Zero issue, which is entirely pencilled and inked by Bernard Chang is far, far superior to what was being put out by the main series. 

Also the zero issue had the great potential storywise, the origins of Etrigan?  Should have been gold.  But whereas Alan Moore portrayed The Demon as an essentially noble being who nonethless served hell while helping Swamp Thing for his own inscrutable reasons, and Garth Ennis gave us an Etrigan who had a wicked sense of humour and buckets of amoral cunning.  Cornell gives us an Etrigan who is a fucking idiot.  Well it's a new take I agree, but not an especially welcome one.  I simply cannot believe that Etrigan no matter how young and headstrong would have the desire or means to believe he had a chance to take down Lucifer.  And Jason Blood got bonded to Etrigan due to anger management issues?!  Fuck. Off. Etrigan linked to the mortal world has been responsible for more death than Jason alone ever would have. I have to wonder if Cornell was suffering editorial interference as he left the title after his resolution of the storyline in the next volume.  I know he has the chops for comic book writing but something went seriously awry on this series.  So check back in a couple of months for the resolution of the cliffhanger and how a new writer approached the material.

Demon Knights Book 1: Seven Against The Dark (#1-7)

"Your greatest tests are about to begin" - Merlin

Demon Knights was a New 52 launch title, written intially by Paul Cornell.  Mr.Cornell has carved out quite a name for himself in the last few years as a comicbook writer.  But he has had a long career including writing three of the best nuWho episodes ("Father's Day" and the "Human Nature/Family Of Blood" two parter) and a before that he also kicked the 90's Virgin New Adventures of Doctor Who series up the arse and wrote most of the best regarded books in that line.  But I think I'll always like hims best for his wonderfully shit stirring articles in various Doctor Who fanzines of the early 90's.  Anyway, I've been a fan for a good while of the man, so combining him with comics should be gold for me right?  We-ell,  I have to admit apart from the marvellous Knight and Squire miniseries (more on that at a later date), I've found that while politically I am drawn to what he writes, the end result is somewhat unsatisfying narratively speaking.  I was disappointed with his Captain Britain and MI-13 series, and while I think Demon Knights is better, it still feels thin and underwritten in places.  Still as an attempt at creating a superteam that exists in an entirely different century from most of the rest of the DCU it is somewhat successful, despite some underwhelming and confusing art.  So, let's have a closer look at volume one shall we?

Before we do, a quick note about how I'm going to refer to one of the characters.  Sir Ystin who you might remember from Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory that I covered in February is back as Shining Knight, but instead of being a woman who dressed as a man in male drag and when she found out she no longer needed too, decided to keep a female identity, as the series go on we discover that this Shining Knight is much more what in the modern parlance would be called transgendered.  So although Sir Ystin is referred to by other characters as "her", I feel it's only polite and fitting to respect Sir Ystin's gender identification and will be using "he" and "him" when referring to him.

Merlin casually ruins Jason Bloods life.

The story starts four centuries in the past, at the fall of Camelot.  An unknown character laments to loss of Arthur and holds Excalibur.  Some hooded women on a boat are taking Arthur's body to Avalon.  The unknown knight hurls Excalibur into the water and one of the women called "Xanadu" jumps off the boat after it.  Then we cut to Merlin with the non-rhyming demon Etrigan.  Jason of Norwich appears and Merlin bonds Etrigan to Jason's soul.  Now with a simple rhyme, Jason can summon Etrigan from hell to take his place for a while.

Then we jump forward four centuries to The Dark Ages which is when this comic is set.  A man hands over a baby to The Questing Queen whose forces have come through his village in the hope no one more will die.  Her companion Mordru uses the baby to read their immediate future but it explodes before it can tell them much.  Their goal is the city of Alba Sarum, but before they have to go through a mountain village called Little Spring.

Fortune telling possessed baby.

Jason O' Th' Blood and "Madame" Xanadu also arrive in Little Spring, just in time to see fellow immortal Vandal Savage break down the taveern door to get a drink.  They sit with him and he says he is jealous of them being their at the fall of Camelot.

Over in the corner sits Sir Ystin.  He says in his own language that he remembers none of them being there are Camelot.  Then in their common language introduces himself as Sir Ystin, "Shining Knight".  The others are dubious about the "Sir" part, then there is a commotion at the bar as Saracen Al Jabar is being refused service.  A very tall and muscular lady grabs the barman and introduces herself as Exoristos and starts to intimidate him.

Sir Ystin meets Xanadu, Jason and Vandal Savage

Outside, outriders of The Questing Queen attack a villager and get themselves shot full of arrows by the mysterious Horsewoman.  More outriders get to the tavern and start attacking those inside.  Jason says:

Jason Blood: "Concealed within the form of man, release the demon... Etrigan!"

Etrigan appears and takes his place and has a big snog with Xanadu who says she prefers him to Jason.  They join in the fight against the outriders.  Meanwhile Mordru says he has detected magic use in the area, The Questing Queen replies:

Queen: "We find the source of the problem and we throw dragons at it."

The pub now somewhat wrecked a horde of dragons appear.  Our "heroes" throw themselves into the fighting with gusto.  Al Jabar uses his scientific bomb thing to kill some and Xanadu uses up her prepared magic, but more appear to attack them, things look grim then Vandal Savage kills the dragons about to attack.  Etrigan blows off the head of the biggest dragon much to the annoyance of The Questing Queen.

Vandal saves Al Jabar and Xanadu

She says they have no chance but to "contain and destroy" the fighters in the village "nothing leaves".  The immediate danger passed, The Horsewoman rides in and says they should evactuate.  Exoristis and a young villager called Audofleda chat:

Audofleda: "You were amazing..."

Exoristos: "Thanks.  I'm Exoristos.  You can call me Ex"

Audofleda: "...but you dress like a tart."

Exoristos: "Again thanks.. Is that some kind of pastry?"

The headman of the village refuses to evacuate at first.  Vandal Savage reveals that in the past he was part of The Questing Queen's Horde and they will sweep through and take everything, even the young for their army.  The headman changes his mind and says they will evacuate.

Etrigan flies Xanadu away even though she wants to stay and help.  They run into some more sky dragons while more appear on the ground.  As they attack Theod the village priest asks how they can spit fire. "Magic probably" says Sir Ystin.  I don't believe in magic says the priest, Al Jabar agrees but also says he believes there is science they don't yet understand.  Shining Knight mounts his flying horse Vanguard and starts killing the sky dragons so Etrigan and Xanadu can try something.  The Questing Queen orders a full on giant fireball be launched at the village.

Etrigan tries to take Xanadu away from all this.

Xanadu sacrifices her life energy to cast a protection spell upon the village, massively aging herself in the process.  The fireball rebounds on the horde.  Etrigan flies Xanadu back down into the village with her and grabs the face of the priest and burns him saying they have temporarily saved the village but "at what cost?".  Vanguard gets caught in the fire, but Ex puts her out.  The Horsewoman is unable to get through the pass to Alba Sarum to get reinforcements and returns to the village, somehow able to get through the forcefield.

Xanadu says it will hold for another few hours so they can prepare.  The Horsewoman agrees to join forces with them.  The Queen and Mordru spy on the village, while Etrigan who grows weak in the human world returns to hell and Jason Blood comes back.  Weakly Xanadu says to him:

Xanadu: "My love.. I will.. always urge the demon to depart.  I will... always want you to return."

Ex says her double dealing "does no credit to our sex" to Sir Ystin who responds with "our?" and laughs.  They get back to work reinforcing walls and building a seige engine under the tutuledge of Al Jabar.  He goes to find the priest and finds the burn on him is killing him and he dies, his soul unjustly sent to hell.

Ex and Sir Ystin.

Vandal Savage surveys the fighting force of the village noting "barely an arm that can swing a sword."  He finds the whole prospect of death here hilarious.  Outside The Horsewoman tells Sir Ystin that Vanguard is strong and loves him.  A young female villager called Audofleda asks Ex if all women are a big as her where she comes from.  Ex says she was "raised tough".

Audofleda says she knows the shepard trails out of the village and could sneak out and get world to Alba Sarum of their plight.  "Go to it sister!" urges Ex.  She then asks Sir Ystin what brings him here.  He says a quest, a vision and hunger in him.  Then they here the sound of horrible torture, they look over the village wall and see Audofleda has been captured, tortured and decapitated, the man responsible holds her severed head up to show to the shocked onlookers.

In a rage Shining Knight starts to have a sort of fit.  Ex grabs him while Sir Ystin points widly at "him?!".  He starts having a vision of Merlin, who tells him he won't understand everything he is going to see now.  He shows Sir Ystin the Holy Grail.  Then takes Sir Ystin back to when they last met.  Ystin was injured on the battlefield and Merlin made him drink from the Holy Grail and made him immortal.

Sir Ystin and Merlin in a vision.

The Grail is the source of Sir Ystin's hunger and after the fall of Camelot he spent many years searching, in many battles, becoming more of a warrior than a knight.  He saved his horse Vanguard by using his blood and made her immortal as well.  Sometimes they would sleep underground for many years.  One day they slept under the tree that the world turns around and started having the vision he is having now, being outside of time and space.

The others try to wake Sir Ystin but the vision continues.  Marlin notes that Ystin's "heart is pure, but you are complex."  Merlin also says Ystin has the best chance of finding the grail.  Merlin hid it in a container of his own devising and threw it into a volcano confident he could find it again in a few decades, "old fool that I was."

Sir Ystin thanks Merlin for giving him the burden of finding the grail.  "For reminding me what puts weight in my steps."  Then he snaps out of his trance yelling "Demon Knights!".  Jason asks if that refers to them, but Ystin doesn't know.  Back on the walls of the village, The Horsewoman fills the killers of Audofleda with arrows then fires one at a celebrating Ex.

Don't piss off The Horsewoman.

An angry Horsewoman says Ex sent a child to do an adults mission and "you killed her." The arrow she shot her with wasn't meant to be fatal, just to prove a point.  Jason starts to help staunch the blood, but then Al Jabar punches him for Etrigan killing the priest.  Xanadu breaks up the fight saying they can't start fighting amongst themselves.

Inside a building Xanadu tends to Ex's wound and Ex apologises for judging her. Ex says women are weak in this world, to which Xanadu snaps:

Xanadu: "We face greater danger!  That's why the Horsewoman shot you.  Dung, I can see why you were exiled". 

 She leaves and Ex sighs that this world is a complicated "hell" for her.  Then Mordru's projected form appears to her and says would she like to be able to go back home?  We find out later that Ex is an Amazon exiled from Paradise Island.

The projection of The Questing Queen notes the prescence of Sir Ystin, then changes her appearence to that of Merlin and approaches Jason Blood.  She offers to lead him out of the village to safety but she just provokes him into changing into Etrigan.  "Merlin" turns back into the Queen and once again offers him and Xanadu safe passage.  But Etrigan says "I'll rip you and your army apart" and slashes her projection.

Mordru tells Ex he could change her identity and her crimes would be forgotten.  But Ex refuses saying she wants to go back as herself and walks away from him.  Mordru then tries to persuade Al Jabar, saying joining the Horde would allow him more scientific discoveries.  But Al Jabar turns him down.

Mordru fails to tempt Al Jabar.

A way aways a young boy discovers Vandal Savage sneaking out of the fence.  Accusing him of desertion he starts to raise the alarm, but Savage kills him.  Mordru offers the Horsewoman the ability to walk again ( this is the first time we discover she is disabled).  She responds by firing an arrow into the real Mordru and Questing Queen's camp.  Angrily the Queen says they'll attack at dawn.

That morning, the six heroes left brace themselves for the attack.  Meanwhile Vandal Savage has reconnected with his mates in the Horde and he snogs the Questing Queen saying he hopes to serves.  Then he says it's time to take the village out and the attack begins with large rhino-like things called "wallbreakers" charging the village.

Rhino Smash!

Ex leaps over the wall and before the wallbreaker can hit the fence, she smashes its head in with her huge mallet like weapon.  Vandal then sends in dragons.  Meanwhile Xanadu finds an elderly man lying defenceless on a bed, she says if she sacrifices him she can get her beauty and power back, but in the end can't bring herself to do it.

The Horsewoman calls out to all the horses in the area to come help, which they do, including Vangaurd.  Using the horses to protect her (not Vangaurd though who insists on riding with Sir Ystin), she makes a break for Alba Sarum.  Ex valiantly kills dragons left, right and centre.  She gets injured and a reluctant Etrigan goes and flies her out of harms way.  Xanadu has a plan, Etrigan needs to communicate a message to Jason Blood in hell.  He has to find the priest condemned there earlier by Etrigan and see him break from his hellish torture.

The Horsewoman and horses keep on their way to Alba Saurm.  The Horsewoman is knocked off her horse but luckily her saddle is magic and she can remount.  The Horde finally manage to make into the village proper and the four fighters charge them in response.

Badass.

A huge battle erupts in the village, destroying much of it as the Headman looks on in dismay.  Vandal and a group of men from the Horde loyal to him from his past service, go and plunder the Horde's baggage train. Meanwhile the Questing Queen and Mordru discover that The Horsewoman has made it past the dragons and will be at Alba Sarum within the hour.  Then they observe Vandal's men attacking the baggage train and see that the men attacking the village are breaking away and returning to protect their wages and supplies instead.

Etrigan turns back into Jason Blood briefly and has in his possession the item needed to power up and restore Xanadu - the tears from an innocent in hell.  Thus revitalised she starts laying into the attackers with her magic.  The Horsewoman arrives at Alba Sarum and tells them to immediately send their cavalry to help.

The Questing Queen makes it personal.

The Questing Queen arrives in the village and challenges Sir Ystin to a duel.  Savage reappears fighting on their side again, saying his plan was totally to disrupt the Horde and of course he didn't betray them.

Etrigan: "Ha! We'll never know how much of that is true.  Sometimes you humans can be brilliantly deceitful!"

Sir Ystin and The Queen fight, The Queen gets knocked down and hurls a poisoned dagger at Sir Ystin, temporarily paralysing him.  The Queen says the riches she was promised has turned out not to be Alba Sarum's but the Demon Knights who she will sacrifice to find the Grail.  But before she can kill Sir Ystin, the cavalry, lead by The Horsewoman arrive and the Horde, now out-numbered and out-gunned, scarper.  Another leader of the cavalry stands in the middle of the burning, wrecked village:

Cavalry Guy: "Be joyful, you have protected our nation and it's people.  Here today you have won a great victory."

And that concludes this first volume, I'll be looking at the second, next month.

The cavalry arrive, just in time.

So there we are.  I think my issues with the book so far are two-fold.  First of all the pacing.  My favourite authors like Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Dave Sim and Hiromu Arakawa are all experts in controlling the pace of their stories.  Speeding you and slowing you down using the number of panels and their arrangement to lead you through the story at a rate they specifically dictate.  This book pretty much runs at the same, four panels per page rate with rather too many splash pages to break things up (and yet the one place a splash page would have been welcome which is at the end, we don't get one).  This sucks all the drama out of the narrative and combined with a rushed and abrupt ending makes the whole experience feel somewhat flat (lest you think maybe he's been ill-served by the artists here, I have the exact same problem with his Captain Britain run as well).  The second issue I have is I didn't feel I got to know the characters hardly at all, by throwing the seven right into a prolonged battle situation there was no time to learn about them as individuals.  Throw in the fact they all basically speak with the same "voice", you have seven major characters it's hard to care about, even as fire-forged friends, they don't convince.  With the art not really filling in for the inadequecies of the writing, overall you have a book that is bland, turgid and almost totally free of the flights of fancy I'd expect from a writer who gave us characters like Saul The Sentient Church, The Hoothi, Bernice Summerfield and took us on a Dante like journey through The Doctor's psyche.  As a long-time fan of Paul Cornell, I wish this was much better.  I can't tell you how disappointed I am that it isn't.