King Arthur

Once and Future #10

/ / Comics

Once and Future #10 comic reviewLast issue’s death of Bewoulf doesn’t take long to come back and haunt Duncan and his Bridgette as the epic poem’s villain shows up in the retirement community of Duncan’s grandmother.

Once and Future #10 brings back the bit of the fun from earlier issues as Bridgette is able to stand strong while telling a freaked-out young man, this time one of the nurses at the nursing home (rather than her grandson), to stay calm. The tension runs high here with Bridgette looking for any edge to stay alive while Grendel haunts the halls. Contrasting that, we see just how far Duncan has come in a dozen issues as he hijacks a taxi and gunpoint to try and reach his grandmother.

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Cursed – Nimue / Cursed

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Locke & Key – Trapper/Keeper
  • wiki: link
  • wiki: link

Cursed - Nimue / Cursed television review

Based on Frank Miller‘s re-imagining of the King Arthur legend through the eyes of the girl who would become the Lady in the Lake, the first two episodes of Cursed introduce us to the outcast witch Nimue (Katherine Langford) who is scorned by her village for believing she was cursed as a child (a sequence shown in flashbacks in the second episode of the series). The maurading of Christian zealots known as the Red Paladins, out to destroy the Fey (all magical and non-Christian souls), leads to the destruction of Nimue’s village, the death of her mother (Catherine Walker), and a destiny entrusted to her to see a sword delivered to Merlin (Gustaf Skarsgård). I’ve seen both better and worse versions of the King Arthur legend, but, despite the slow moving first episode (and her inexplicable sudden control of a sword), I do like Langford in the role of the series’ lead.

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Once and Future #3

/ / Comics

Once and Future #3 comic reviewZombie Arthur has arisen and it’s now up to Duncan, his grandmother, and his recent blind date (you remember? the one that ended disastrously in the comic’s first issue?), to save the world. No pressure.

Kieron Gillen cleverly brings back Rose into the story as fate has provided her as exactly what Duncan and Bridgette need in their quest to prevent Zombie Arthur from pulling the sword from the stone and becoming King of England. Turns out the pair don’t need to do that large of a sales job as someone has done that groundwork for them. And a pair of heroes becomes a trio.

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Once and Future #1

/ / Comics

Once and Future #1 comic reviewI’m a little behind in taking a look at writer Kieron Gillen’s new Arthurian comic, Once and Future. Opening with the discovery of an artifact, an ancient scabbard that once belonged to you-know-who, the issue shifts to man’s awkward first date which is mercifully interrupted by his grandmother leaving her nursing home which in turn leads Duncan McGuire down a fantastical rabbit hole.

Once and Future #1 features a great mix of humor and tension, as well as a nice twist about the idea of King Arthur’s return (and how it might not exactly be a good thing). Duncan works as a stand-in for the reader, discovering that world of Arthur, questing beasts, magical swords and scabbards, his grandmother’s secret cache full of all manner of weapons, and zombie kings are all quite real. All things considered, he takes things pretty well.

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The Librarians – And the Sword in the Stone

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Librarian – And the Sword in the Stone
  • IMDb: link

The Librarians - And the Sword in the Stone

After successfully recovering the crown of King Arthur, the show’s second episode, and second-half of its opening story, offers a twist where the Library is breached by a traitor in the new team’s midst leaving Flynn (Noah Wyle) cut off physically from both Library itself and his closest compatriots (Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin who, from what little we see of them here, aren’t likely to show up much over the course of the series). If retreiving both the crown and a stolen Excalibur from the Serpent Brotherhood wasn’t enough, the new team also must deal with Flynn’s mortal wound which can’t be healed.

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