The Final Ascension

The first chapter of the 6th book of Church & State II is a short one. There are no words spoken in the actual panels. The story is told by the drawings and text placed somewhere on the page to explain what is going on in the panels.

Cerebus is rising, while still clutching his golden orb. Everyone else is watching. When I say everyone, I mean everyone.

From the far away Cirinist Abbess by means of a mechanical device, to Astoria in the cathedral, still awaiting sentence. From the dead Bran Mak Mufin in the hotel and the people frozen in the courtyard at Cerebus command, to Blakely wandering the streets of Iest. From Bear in a forest somewhere outside the city, to Jaka in a tavern located in the lower city.

Cerebus is clinging to the bottom of the Black Tower as it rises upwards at tremendous speed.

It was an interesting way of presenting an issue, something I'd never seen before. It's bloody hard to read, though. Dave couldn't just put the text at the one angle in the one place every page he couldn't just make the panels all the one size. Noooo! He had to stick it everywhere, all angles, slant it, make the panels irregular. To read it you're forced to turn the book over and over again, you forget what page you're up to and at times it makes you dizzy. Dave had to be an independent, back then no major publisher would have even considered doing what he did in The Final Ascension.

Henrot-Gutch

Dave continued the profile series with a 3 page one on Cerebus' insufferable ogress of a mother in law; Henrot Gutch. She's taking tea with Blakely. It's possible that he is courting her in order to curry favour with the Prime Minister.

Partway through their conversation Henrot sees a child stealing fruit from a pear tree in the garden, she throws a brick at the urchin presumable injuring the thief, she then goes back to her tea with Blakely wondering why Sophia never brought her play mates home to meet mother when the female warrior was a child.

Typical portrayal of Henrot and the joke had worn thin on me. She's the mother in law from hell, I get it. I wonder if Dave had issues with his own mother in law.

All Lined Up

Cerebus is once again the Prime Minister of Iest, only this time he is not his own man...errr...aardvark. He's Weisshaupt's puppet, I guess you could argue he was Astoria's puppet the first time, but he had far more control of his own destiny then.

Relations between Cerebus and his mother in law have deteriorated to the point where they cannot even get through a meal without a shouting match and a food fight. This is much to Sophia's distress. The warrior woman worried about her mother dying alone and unloved (a common theme in the book) and wants to set her up with Blakely. Cerebus loathes Henrot and wouldn't even wish her on someone he dislikes as much as Blakely. Cerebus undisguised view of his mother in law as a vicious, old, fat, ugly woman upsets Sophia to the extent that she refuses to talk or have anything much to do with him, even in bed.

Cerebus is rescued from having to try and mend bridges with Sophia by being summoned to attend the pope. Pope Harmony IV to be exact. Harmony's II & III having been killed off by their successors. Once again the mysterious Lion of Serrea is mentioned, because apparently one of his representatives has to be present.

The Pope himself does not seem to be in his right mind for most of his meeting with Cerebus. Babbling incoherently about Weisshaupt and Cerebus' destiny as a priest. He also has knowledge of Lord Julius, Cirin, The Abbess, Astoria, Wenda and even Perce. Everything that is being said is dutifully written down by the Lion of Serrea's representative and the key moment is when Harmony IV says it is Cirin not Weisshaupt who will prevail. A bearded man carrying a crossbow appears and is informed by the scribe that Harmony is a Cirinist. As such he must die. The crossbowman takes aim and fires, Harmony dies with Cerebus standing beside his throne.

The large picture of Cerebus wide eyes with the sound THUNK and blood splattered across the HU & N is brilliant work and tells the reader the story without having to show what really happened.

The second last page sees, for me, the welcome return of the Elf. She greets Cerebus when he returns and breathlessly asks incessant questions about what the Pope is right. An angry and stunned Cerebus walks past her without answering and enters his bedroom. Sophia inquires as to whether Cerebus wants to make up and he angrily replies No.

To welcome readers back to Iest and The Regency Dave decorated the border of every page with a regency style wallpaper design. You don't pick up on this until a second read, but it puts the reader back in the setting immediately and is a very effective technique. This was yet another reason why Cerebus had to be an independent publication, back in the 80's it simply wouldn't have survived as a mass market publication.

The Ambassador Suite

A somewhat peeved Astoria escorts Cerebus back to The Regency, scolding him about a future Prime Minister behaving like a common thug in a lower city tavern. It would appear that Cerebus’ plan to work off some frustration and cause havoc at the Rams Lords Tavern was successful.

Back at The Ambassador Suite (Cerebus’ suite) in The Regency they find a well dressed, older gentleman by the name of Blakely, I don’t think he had a first name, if he did we never heard it. Blakely’s presence was expected. He’s a kingmaker that Astoria has invited to assist with Cerebus’ bid for Prime Minister. He must wield quite some influence, because he’s able to tell Astoria to ‘be good girl and run along’ and get her to do it! Admittedly she’s livid at being spoken to in such a way, and treated so condescendingly, but she does it all the same. This astounds Cerebus and gives him respect for Blakely.

Blakely tells Cerebus that he has no real interest in becoming Prime Minister himself, but can, and will decide who does become Prime Minister. As he’s weighing up the aardvark, and deciding whether he is worth throwing his support behind, Lord Julius enters wearing a bathrobe and a shower cap, asking for directions to the bathroom. This throws Blakely, against Cerebus’ advice he attempts to work out what this means. Cerebus has already told Blakely not to try and work out the reasons behind Lord Julius’ actions because they usually don’t make sense. To confuse the issue, and Blakely, further Baskin enters, and the two men go through a charade of creating a fake letter.

Once Blakely doesn’t know up from down Lord Julius calls a cab and departs before anyone arrives. The cabby appears, he’s the same cabby that Cerebus met on his first night in Iest and the same one that he got to take Elrod out of town. There are a number of possible reasons for this: coincidence, unlikely, that’s not how Dave works, very little in Cerebus’ life is coincidence. The cabby is a generic figure to represent the common man? Again not likely, he’s too well drawn to be a generic. Only one cabby works in Iest or the upper city? Possible, but Iest seems like a bigger city than that, it is after all a city state. He is somehow important to the story? That fits Dave’s way of operating and is the most likely explanation.

While Blakely and Cerebus are trying to explain to the cabby that Lord Julius has left, the McGrew brothers burst in through the window. They have escaped from prison and are going to take their frustrations out on the ‘varmint’. With arrival of the imbecilic siblings the cabby starts to mutter and rips off his clothing unmasking mild mannered, common man, cabby Blake Jocksley and replacing him with ‘the merely magnificent Moon Roach!’ This is the explanation for the regular appearance of the cabby and the completion of the Moon Knight parody. The only thing that had been missing from the Moon Roach’s parallels to his Marvel opposite was the personality of the regular guy cab driver Jake Locksley. This had now been rectified with the appearance of cabby Blake. The unveiled Moon Roach fights and defeats the McGrew brothers, diving out the window when hotel security arrives. The appearance of the Moon Roach or as Blakely describes him: ‘Astoria’s boyfriend’, shows Blakely that it was the Moon Roach who dropped a giant crescent moon on the Head Inquisitor, not Cerebus.

Before the two can get back to business Elrod arrives to offer his condolences, having recently won the election and replaced Cerebus as the ranking diplomatic representative. Cerebus takes advantage of the situation to rough the albino up before sending him on his way. This also impresses Blakely. But he’s not sure he can back someone who people think ‘wee wee’s in the sink’, added to that the fact that no one, not even Astoria, has any idea who 'you know who' is or if they will strike again.

Cue the Elf. She zooms in and not only appears to Cerebus, but also to Blakely. She explains that she’s ‘you know who’, but she did that when she was mad at Cerebus and she’s not any more, so it’s okay. She’s overjoyed by the prospect of Cerebus becoming Prime Minister, because Iest hasn’t had an aardvark Prime Minister since….since….well since before they had Prime Ministers! Cerebus makes her realise who she’s talking to and she quite promptly vanishes with her customary ‘poit’. Once he recovers from seeing the legendary Regency Elf Blakely says that he can’t in all conscience back someone who talks to figments of the imagination. Cerebus denies all knowledge of The Elf, Blakely insists that she was there and realises that he’s out a very long limb with no support so has to back Cerebus as Prime Minister.

After the two rather pedestrian Petuniacon issues this one was a welcome change of pace. I also liked seeing so many figures from the recent past. In some ways it was rather reminiscent of Three Days Before with the reappearance of people from Cerebus’ past. Besides any issue that features The Elf is a winner in my book.