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THE SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE CORINTHIAN #1
Recommended (8/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Darko Macan
Artist: Daniel Zezelj
Colors: Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh & Jamison
Letters: John Costanza
Editor: Shelly Bond
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Once again, the folks at DC's Vertigo imprint head down into the mine originally excavated by Neil Gaiman when he wrote his landmark Sandman series. Some feel that the imprint needs to move on, but I find it hard to add my voice to those others when quality stories like this one continue to arise. Macan is developing a fascinating story, and the only real flaw is its heavy dependence on the reader's familiarity with the title character.
Just after the Great War, a darkly eccentric young woman named Coco (her chosen name for a day) fancies herself one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse given human form... Pestilence, to be precise. That would make her companion -- Charles Constantine, who fought in the British army -- War. The pair is being followed through Venice by an odd man in a white suit. He seems to know things he shouldn't. He seems to speak through his eyes. And he seems quite dangerous.
We know him as the nightmare named the Corinthian.
I have no idea where Macan is going with this story, and I love it. Likening the murderous Corinthian to Death, the most feared of the Horsemen, is a clever idea, and learning how he fits into the lives of his "colleagues" should prove entertaining and chilling. Macan captures the predatory quality of the title character wonderfully.
Zezelj's art reinforces the sombre mood of the story quite well. I'm impressed with how easily he's handled a variety of different settings in his art for Vertigo. He's taken us to lush jungles in Congo Bill, the arid American desert in El Diablo and now the refined and impressive cityscape of Venice. His thick lines are suited to the more mature, dark tone of those stories as well. My only real problem with his stuff here is that he doesn't really convey the empty nature of the Corinthian's eyes as well as he could.
This comic book sports one of the best Dave McKean covers I've seen in some time. He recreates a theatrical poster design for the cover, and it reminds me a great deal of the remarkable look that Richard Bruning and Gavin Wilson came up with for Sandman Mystery Theatre. Their covers elicited the impression of movie-serial posters. It was a treat to see a new spin on that idea here.
Obviously, the biggest problem with this book is that it's almost completely inaccessible to anyone who hasn't read Gaiman's Sandman. Knowing what the Corinthian is and what he is capable of is an important key to experiencing the looming mood of danger that is such an integral part of this new story.
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