1165 ( )

Great use of an old standard character in new ways. Matt Wagner's stories, as always, shine with sharp details and interesting plots. This is a book that slipped under the radar for me, and now I'll have to track down the first collection as well. ( )

I have a lot of time for Matt Wagner -- I especially enjoyed his later Grendel books. However in spite of his best efforts -- including a cameo from the original gas-mask wearing Wesley Dodds in this volume, Madame Xanadu just doesn't seem a very interesting character. In the 1940s, Madame Xanadu gets a slightly supernatural brief from a customer and she ploddingly solves the case with the help of her magical tricks. At almost no time is she really in danger. There are flashbacks to the Spanish Inquisition in 1493, which time is relevant to both Xanadu and her case (but without much more crossover than that). She seems to identify the problem and solution early; her biggest problem is convincing her client's associates that there is a problem. Madame Xanadu has lived for thousands of years but doesn't seem to have gained great insights in that time. It's all a bit pedestrian. ( )

The magical adventures of Nimue, aka Madame Xanadu. This time, she is reminded of her own encounters with the Spanish Inquisition when men in the 1920s start dying of a curse that began generations ago. On the one hand, this is also the story of Nimue being a grand ol lesbian, which I appreciate. On the other hand, the art is terrible and the dialog and underlying plot as hackneyed as ever. ( )

I really enjoyed the first collection of Matt Wagner's Madame Xanadu. This one didn't do it for me though. The story follows Madame Xanadu as she does some old-fashioned detective work in 1940, following a series of mysterious deaths and reliving memories of her life in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition.

I thought the plot dragged on, with occasional highlights, such as cameos from Dian Belmont and Wesley Dodds. The storyline following her time in Spain was fairly predictable - no big revelations when Nimue's nature causes problems with the Inquisition! The dialogue is also pretty bad - particularly the scene with the showgirl and Richard Miller.

Most of all, I didn't like the artwork. It felt very messy and busy, particularly compared to Amy Reeder Hadley's gorgeous work in the previous volume. Some of the characters' expressions were hilarious given the context of the scenes. For example, when Nimue's lover has been taken by the Inquisition and a neighbor confronts her with this news, her expression reads as... sleepy.



This mysterious killer releasing his demon dog to kill a man... cross-eyed? Detecting a bad smell?



And good old Tomas de Torquemada... Indiana Jones-style face melt? Look at those teeth, they're horrifying!



With a subpar story, dialogue, and artwork, I'd say this one is skipable. I'm hoping the next collection is better than this one. I like the Madame Xanadu character, but it felt like she didn't have to make much effort here to solve the mystery and defeat the villain... because who doesn't have mummified shards from the brain of a kraken lying around? Seriously. I feel that Wesley Dodd's and Dian Belmont's perspectives would've been much more intriguing than what we get here. ( )