You know, if Paul Cornell’s idea of high comedy is revealing Madame Xanadu has a thing for demons from hell… I’m not sure I want to see his low comedy.
If the first issue—and the large cast Cornell introduces—is any indication, Demon Knights is going to be a medieval team book with DC’s heroes of that era. Cornell goes crazy, having a girl pretend to be a boy so she can be a knight.
That detail is revolutionary… it’s not like it’s been a standard since the 1600s.
The first five pages are set in Camelot and I remembered Camelot 3000 and got all hopeful. Immediately out of Camelot, it veers towards the worse.
Cornell really likes cheap shocks. Besides Xanadu’s deceiving Jason Blood to keep the Demon around for sex and violence, Cornell tortures and kills a baby.
It’s contrived, boring, and painfully trying to be sensational.
I really admire the ideas of Cornell, but his work here at the DC reboot has left me cold. Both this and Stormwatch have the same, half baked taste to them that shoots holes in DC’s declaration that they have been planning this reboot for a while. Neither of Cornell’s books display that. They seem dashed off ideas, not developed with any serious depth merely to create a new title. A shame, as English mythology has seemed to be a strong point of Cornell up till now. Some of the creators at the new DCU aren’t doing themselves any favors with their names on these books. After completing something like this, I would have used a fictitious name to hide my shame. But wait, is THAT why we have so many “new names” as creators of the DCU?