Varying Reasons Of Assorted Depths

You keep asking yourself, what the hell do these titles mean? They do sound great, though.

The title scrolls across the 1st three pages, which once again gives the opening of this chapter the feel of a movie. The only image on those first three pages, on nine panels, is Bishop Powers' cathedral. I can't remember seeing it before, it's quite a striking building and because Gerhard drew it, it looks better than it ever had if Dave did happen to show it in any other chapters.

Powers is inside discussing Weisshaupt's impending death. Being the marvelously compassionate churchman that he is Powers wishes Weisshaupt a hideously painful, but quick passing.

Cerebus is still siumped against the wall where he was when Jaka left. Boobah comes to tell him that Weisshaupt is near death, but wants to talk to Most Holy about the end of the world. Cerebus puts on his robes and takes the carriage Weisshaupt sent for him.

Weisshaupt is very near death. He's almost unrecognisable. He's no longer wearing the wig or the 18th century suit, but even taking that into consideration, he's changed. He has lost a huge amount of weight, his cheeks are sunken and his eyes slits. Interestingly enough he looked a lot like Professor Charles X Claremont.

He and Cerebus spar verbally and Weisshaupt accuses Astoria of pulling Cerebus' strings. Cerebus tells Weisshaupt he has not seen Astoria since he resigned as Prime Minister. For some reason Weisshaupt refuses to believe him. When Weisshaupt dies Cerebus will be the only extraordinary person left in Estarcion. Cerebus counters that with his belief that Weisshaupt is not extraordinary, he's a dying fool.

That's when Weisshaupt drops his first bombshell. Cerebus is not the only aardvark in Estarcion. There are two others. We probably knew there were other aardvarks. Cerebus couldn't be the only one, he had to come from somewhere, it's just that at this stage the reader knows next to nothing about his life before he rode into that dirt city and took on a job for two treasure hunters.

Cerebus demands Weisshaupt tell him where the other two are. At this stage Weisshaupt holds the cards, he is going to die very soon, what can Cerebus possibly do to him?

Weisshaupt reveals that he believes himself to be the great redeemer. Cerebus says that is just stupid, he's the Great Cerebus, the one whose coming has been foretold for centuries. This is when Weisshaupt questions the source of that information. Despite his current appearance Bran Mak Mufin is a primitive who wore a loin cloth and lived in a rabbit warren.

Cerebus asks Weisshaupt the answer to a question that has been bothering him ever since he first met the manipulator. The Roach told him not to stare at Weisshaupt's ankle. Cerebus wants to know what's wrong with his ankle. Even in his weakened state Weisshaupt has to smile. The Bug was under strict instructions not to stare at Weisshaupt's uncle, because, second bombshell, his uncle is Suenteus Po.

Cerebus demands to know where the other 2 aardvarks are. Weisshaupt still refuses. Cerebus backhands him and storms out. Weisshaupt lays on the floor, blood trickling from a cut on the side of his mouth, Cerebus' parting words of 'go to hell' echoing in his head and murmurs: 'I shall Great Cerebus...I shall.'

Despite how long the book had been running and how many people had died up to this point I felt this was the first truly significant death.

Mind Games II

Return to the Seventh Sphere. You can tell Cerebus is in the Seventh Sphere because there’s virtually no background, just a number of indistinct black and grey shapes. I wondered if Dave was going to take Cerebus to the Seventh Sphere every time he lost consciousness. Not that I really minded. When I first read them I didn’t much like the Mind Games stories, with a greater appreciation of how they fit into the whole story, and possibly also because I am now older and better read, I appreciate them far more these days.

In some ways they’re Dave being a bit lazy, he doesn’t have to worry about drawing backgrounds and other characters, just Cerebus in various poses, as he travels through a dreamscape, having a conversation with the mysterious, evasive and maddeningly vague mystic Suenteus Po.

What we do get in Mind Games II, as in Mind Games I, is a detailed description of the socio political landscape of Estarcion. There’s also a lot of foreshadowing as to where Cerebus life is heading.

Cerebus has questions about how the last time this happened to him he was knocked out in Togith and woke up weeks later in Beduin. This is one question Po either can’t, or refuses to, answer. He does however give Cerebus a wealth of information about the Cirinists, the two factions of Tarimites, one is far more liberal than the other, he also throws in some detail about a Cirinist offshoot called the Kevillists. Cerebus begins to talk about his own religious aspirations, although he himself doesn’t realise it at the time. We find out a little more about Cerebus’ past. During his studies with Magus Doran he ran the gauntlet of energy globes in Imesh twice. That struck me as an interesting concept, it’s rather like Han Solo’s boast of having completed the Kessel Spice Run in record time in Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s highly likely that neither George Lucas or Dave Sim could explain exactly what either of these phrases mean, but they do sound impressive. It appears that Cerebus had the makings of a more than competent Magus, but never completed his training, and in fact has done nothing of a magical nature for over 10 years. I wonder if Cerebus' magical training is what made him into such a cynic or whether he was always like that. It also made me wonder how old Cerebus is. He completed 3 years of magical training, but that was over 10 years ago, and somewhere along the line he became a hard bitten mercenary, ranged all over Estarcion, made and lost a few fortunes, and ended up a blademaster as well. It sounds like an eventful decade. In fact there’s more experience than most could fit into a mere 10 years. Po also gives Cerebus the history of the Pigts, which makes it even more curious that they worshiped an aardvark idol, for some reason Cerebus lies to Po about the size of the idol. Po’s reaction to probing about his current whereabouts gives Cerebus the idea that the Illusionist’s physical location is somewhere in Iest, possibly even The Regency.

As with the last time Cerebus and Po lost contact just when things were getting interesting. I wonder where Cerebus will wake up this time?

I gained new respect for Dave as an author and his ability to construct a long reaching, complex story with this chapter. I was almost sad that Cerebus had to leave the Seventh Sphere.