Monday, December 06, 2010

Menacing silhouettes, the jangle of little bells

Knight and Squire #2 (of 6), by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton

I mentioned previously reading the introductory first issue of this title. In this episode we see England's Batman and Robin analogues in their hometown of Great Worden. This time round they have an actual mystery to investigate – someone has been stealing ancient items of occult power. And it turns out to be – MORRIS DANCERS. The sinister Morris Major has perverted the ancient art of Morris and turned the local Morris dancers into something akin to a hey-nonny-nonny version of the BNP; he hopes to use the occult items to magically turn back the clock and make England once more a land of dull uniformity.

This quirky title is rather entertaining, reminding me a bit of many things, including the classic Warrior story Big Ben ("the man with no time for crime"). But the fun is all in the details and story's look and feel. The story itself is maybe a bit weak - Knight and Squire manage to thwart the villainous Morris dancers by calling in the cops to arrest them all. Maybe Mr Cornell needs to work a bit harder on the plotting.

image source

An inuit panda production

2 comments:

Andrew Farrell said...

In fairness they thwart them by bringing in a lady, and then the cops can take care of them after that. I suspect the whole miniseries will serve as a a meditation on "what would an English Batman be like?" - he would end up down the pub with some villains, and he would call the cops to take care of morris dancers.

ian said...

well, yes, but it's not as though all characters in British drama hang out in pubs with villains and call in the cops when something needs sorting out. but yes.