Customer Reviews

Church & State, Vol. 2 (Cerebus, Vol. 4)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This ambitious series must have started as a drunken dare. Dave Sim, sometime in writing his black and white comic book about a mercenary aardvark, decided to make it a 300 issue epic, complete with his aardvark becoming pope and meeting God. This book (the second of the Church and State arc) is generally considered Sim's best work, before he suffered the Woody Allen syndrome of abandoning the plot and satire-driven formula that drove his success for plodding, self-involved storylines. This book pokes fun at everyone, including the Rolling Stones, Groucho Marx, Elric, the entire Catholic church, and yet somehow manages to have an interesting interaction with God.

The only caveat I would warn readers with is this: reading this book is going to make you want to buy the rest of this series, and that's going to get expensive.

In my opinion the two volumes that comprise Church and State are the best of Cerebus. No longer Prime Minister and no longer caring about anything Cerebus is nominated to pontiff and decides everyone should give them gold. His object lessons with the young and old will give you a heartattack they are so funny. The underlying statements on religion, politics, and humanity is thought provoking and intense.

***This review contains spoilers***

I've only recently gotten into Cerebus, and I can't get them fast enough. I thoroughly enjoyed volume 1. High Society was interesting in the development of the story and character, though I didn't really connect with it the way a lot of people did. Then I got to Church and State and was blown away. I finished part 2 in one marathon session, reading years worth of material in just hours.

It's not often I've read a comic that made me sit back and say "Wow." It's also not often to read a comic where the main character rapes someone and you STILL like him, even though he isn't supposed to be likable. Many people seemed to be turned off by the decidedly darker tone the story takes, but I found it fascinating. Cerebus was truly evolving.

The biggest change was that Cerebus was no longer some asexual celibate. The storylines were even more mature than before, with Cerebus emerging as a lustful, sexual being, capable of emotions more complex than just annoyance and anger. His relationships with all the various women in the story were all well designed and almost tragic in that everything Cerebus gets involved with always ends in the worst possible way. He blows his relationship with Michelle by listening to the wrong person. He's married to Sophia and doesn't love her, yet he is afraid to leave her. When he finally realizes his true love is Jaka, he can't have her. It's quite sad, actually.

The artwork is better than ever. Cerebus is no longer just a gray blob, but now has some muscular definition, making him seem even more real. And the backgrounds are just stunning, many of which are shown with no dialogue at all.

And then there's the ending. What a punch to the gut. The Judge's last words to Cerebus cut like a chainsaw, and the final scene of Cerebus returning to the destroyed city, walking the empty streets is just haunting. I haven't been able to get it out of my head. And while the overall story of Church and State may not be as overtly funny as what came before it, it's still funny in it's own way. Some people are turned off by Cerebus's harsh behavior, but I thought it was great. After being manipulated for so long with disastrous results in High Society and Church & State 1, he unleashes his rage like a hurricane once he becomes the pope. I thought it was just perfect.

Whilst the first part offered great art and a coherent , poignant narrative, this second part, whilst it has the great art of gerhard, it's convoluted, heavyly symbolic and cerebral. Really, the first volume would have sufficed.I give this "phone Book" three stars only for Gerhard's art.

Yeah, sure, the Roach is annoying in this one, but the rest of the book makes up for it. Astoria is developed as such a sympathetic character that we almost might think Dave himself was a "Kevillist," although, unless his political ideas mutated along with his religious ideas during the writing of Cerebus, this is probably not the case. Trippy dream sequences! First appearance of Cirin! She looks a bit...odd, doesn't she? And concluding with the Judge's relatively innocuous tale of the male void and the female light (as opposed to the later "female void/male light" scenario). I'm going to have to buy some Flaming Carrot comics. Spin!

This massive book, over 600 pages, collects issues 81-111 of the original comic series. If you're new to the Cerebus saga, I suggest that you begin at the beginning. The twenty-five year, three thousand page total builds as it goes, and these later chapters make more sense if you know the history and context of each character. Or, you could just jump in and let the complex machinations of plot and personality wash over you.

This black and white comic works at many levels. Visual realism comes and goes, lettering conveys more feeling than whole pages of artwork in some other comics, and page layouts challenge the reader who's only seen the row-of-blocks kind before. Copious nods to popular culture include Lord Julius (a Groucho Marx lookalike), a parody of Mick Jagger, references to mainstream comics, and a startling, surreal cameo by the Flaming Carrot. Many of the original monthly magazines included backup features by other artists, and FC was one of those. Unfortunately, the backup features and brief rants that introduced each issue never made it into this compendium, so the new reader must simply accept that episode as another mystery. Of course, the real attraction comes from Cerebus himself, the scrappy aardvark who somehow finds himself supreme leader of a theocratic nation-state. Intrigue in the pope's court alternates with dream-like sequences, fast action takes turns with dream-like philosophical interludes, and broad humor lightens many moments that could otherwise have dragged.

Cerebus also holds a distinctive place in the indy comics movement. Dave Sim was certainly not the first to step outside the oligopoly of the comics world in the late 1970s or early 1980s. He was (and remains) one of the most successful small publishers, however, and an inspiration to many that followed. That bit of history just adds to the enjoyment, though. If you want something different from the spandexed superheroes, give this a shot. You might find yourself a fan, too.

- wiredweird

Some parts of this story are very hard to follow. There is a long dream sequence in the middle and it isn't clear exactly when it ends, so for a good part of the story you don't know if it's really happening or Cerebus is dreaming it. The rape scene is horrible. After that one I put it down for a few days. Sim throws some super abstract stuff in there and doesn't explain it ever. Who knows if he ever will. There are flaws apleanty. Mick and Kieth are funny for about a page and a half, then it's like come on, get on with it. Elrod shows up out of nowhere in a bug suit for no apparent reason. WTF? Anyway, after it was all over, I thought about it and decided it was pretty good in the end. The ending was awesome. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series. I recommend this one. I just hope that after this Sim starting getting more concrete and explicit. I like a clear story.

Cerebus has to return to the city to participate in the trial of Astoria. Here, he meets the Judge, a Watcher type, and ends up looking back at some bad parts of his element.

When he returns from his lunar sojourn, things have fallen apart again.

Dave Sim and Gerhard's massive "Church and State" epic, itself an extension of the earlier "High Society" book, finally comes to an end in this volume. Cerebus has, in the course of the story, gone from down and out to Pope, to the gutters again, and then once again back to the Papacy. Unfortunately, I must say, I found that the conclusion to the story did not live up to its earlier parts.

Principally, I think, the issue is that Sim's storytelling takes a heavy turn for the confusing in the course of this volume. Long sections of it drag rather noticeably as Sim devotes considerable space to mundane activities or gags. Other parts, such as Cerebus' trial of Astoria, ar ejust confusingly depicted, the significance never explained or illuminated in sufficient detail. And then there is the character of the Moon Roach, Sim's device for parodying whatever was going on in superhero comics at the time, who takes on the extremely annoying incarnation of the 'Sacred Wars' Roach; this is, at present, a one-joke character, albeit with the one joke being swapped out every so often, and he just grates here.

All that said, there remains a great deal to like here. Sim is a witty, intelligent writer, and, by this point, also a very strong artist (as is Gerhard, reliably providing the backgrounds). Characters like Lord Julius (who we don't see nearly enough of here) and Cerebus himself retain their enjoyable characteristics, and Astoria, a regular figure in the comic since "High Society", finally gets some real exploration here (including the infamous rape by Cerebus after she taunts him). And the chase, when Sim eventually cuts to it, is excellent. Cerebus finds himself face to face with a Watcher-esque character, who reveals to him the history of the solar system and Earth, in particular, including in it his knowledge of the ultimate fate of life in our area of the world (the future isn't great), and his judgement of Cerebus himself. Cerebus learns of his ultimate, miserable fate, and is reminded of what he has done to deserve it. In some respects, you know, at the story's end, everything that you need to know about the series.

Others have commented on how , with this volume, Cerebus is no longer funny. And they're right. In this book, there is much less humor than in previous ones. How I'm differing from these others is that I don't see that as a problem. There are several sequences in this book which I truly admired. I liked how the rape scene was portrayed (Dialogue against pitch black panles), and also how it was handled: as a horrifically bad and immoral act. I also loved the Trial scene, though I'm sure others were disoriented by it. These two scenes, as well as the various conversations between Astoria and Cerebus in the jail cell made me much more sympathetic to Astoria, who before this mostly came off as a self-centered, self-righteous, passive-aggressive, manipulative and dispassionate person. It is here where we begin to understand her driving force, and in the trial scene we understand that Cerebus could be in her position. This book seems to capture the utter bottom of Cerebus's hero cycle (yes, I'm a Cambell nerd), and I thought Dave Sim explored this in an interesting wayt. Now, to see if Cerebus will rise to continue his journey, or fall once again.
As for wqhy I'm subtracting a star, two words: The Cockroach. The Secret Sacred Wars Roach is the most annoying alter ego yet, and it sweeps in two previously blameless characters (the McGrew Brothers). Sometimes I was tempted to skip his dialogue balloons completely. I also didn't understand the guy with the carrot for a head. Obviously, he's a guest star from another comic, but I have no idea which one. Since he is not explained, I was only puzzled by him.