Odd Transformations IV

This chapter begins exactly where the last shocking one left off. It's called Odd Transformations IV. They're kind of like Mind Games chapters, although dreamier.

After violating Astoria Cerebus fell asleep. He's in that dream now. It looks like he's dreaming of his old mercenary days, he's dressed that way and on the way somewhere, to do something, he just doesn't know what and he keeps thinking about chains. That's largely because a huge chain drops on him and tries to drown him.

Cerebus wakes up and he's still in Astoria's cell, passed out on top of her. A guard comes to check and Cerebus covers up by telling the guard that he's interrogating the prisoner, the lie is somewhat spoiled by the fact that Astoria's panties are on His Holiness head at the time. Cerebus snatches the undergarments from between his ears and waits for the man to leave, then he divorces the unconscious Astoria and promptly falls asleep again.

This time he's overseeing the construction of a giant statue of himself. There's echoes of the idol the Pigts built to him, Thrunk and also evidence of Cerebus whole God complex. Cerebus climbs to the top of the hotel where his wife has planted a garden and is cooking potatoes on a fire.

Cerebus' never names his wife in this dream. She looks like Astoria, but is wearing Sophia's chainmail bikini. Dressed once again in his mercenary gear Cerebus pushes Astoria/Sophia off the top of the hotel, which looks like The Regency from the outside. The final word is Boom, and Cerebus is standing in front of a giant cannon.

I've read other dream sequences, I've seen them in other comics and I've seen them on film, but with the possible exception of some of the fever dreams that George MacDonald Fraser gave Harry Flashman, no one does them better than Dave Sim.

Chariot Of The Queen, Chariot Of The Lovers

Sometimes I think Dave spent more time working on the titles than the actual story. This is one of those issues.

Michelle calls her 'boys' into dinner. I assumed it was workers on her property. The 'boys' are actually Michelle's 'Uncle' Artemis aka The Roach and the McGrew brothers. This is possibly why the sudden appearance of Cerebus in her basement didn't surprise Michelle.

The Roach and his two disciples behave rather like large, squabbling children and Michelle treats them that way.

Once they've eaten and left Michelle sits down with Cerebus and tells him that Weisshaupt gave her something for him. Apparently it was one of his dying wishes that if for some reason Cerebus lost the papacy he wanted him to regain it, it belonged to someone mundane. Even from the grave Weisshaupt is still managing to irritate the aardvark.

In the envelope that Michelle gives to Cerebus is a single sheet of paper, on the paper is a picture of a cannon with the word BOOM written next to it. Cerebus' eyes snap wide open, he now knows how to get his papacy back. The thought of Cerebus with something more lethal than a sword is a frightening one. Michelle looks out the window and to her surprise sees that it is snowing in the middle of Summer.