In a future alternate-reality Earth-one existence in a swirling maelstrom of parallel worlds - a vicious totalitarian British Empire reigns supreme. But in Rome, the dying Pope sets into motion a dark plan to place the throne of Britannica under papal control - by any means necessary. And while such temporal machinations threaten the world's political and social stability, a monstrous force is building across the multiverse, and a countdown begins to almost certain dimensional apocalypse! Luther Arkwright has saved a universe before, but with an infinity of universes threatened with annihilation, all of Arkwright's preternatural talents are needed. If only Arkwright weren't dead...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, Ferociously Funny Sequel to "Adventures",
This review is from: Heart Of Empire: The Legacy Of Luther Arkwright (Paperback)
After devouring "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright," I wasn't sure it could get any better than that - but Talbot's follow-up has proven a worthy successor. You can visibly detect the advances in the artwork - bold, bright colors, smooth lines - a pleasure to look at. The story fills in a lot of gaps and answers a lot of the questions I had about the first one (which at times could be confusing, but nonetheless brilliant) and provides a lot of insight into the lives of the characters. I love the undertones of religious and political commentary, but meanwhile staying sexy, imaginative and engaging. Overall, a great read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Worthy Successor,
By Josh F (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Heart Of Empire: The Legacy Of Luther Arkwright (Paperback)
When Bryan Talbot was putting Heart of Empire onto paper he may have not realized that he was cementing his position as one of the comic greats. The reason I say this is that Talbot has created a sequel to The Adventures of Luther Arkwright that matches the original. This is a very hard feat to accomplish, often when a writer tries to create a sequel to a seminal work it pales in comparison, just look at Joseph Heller's Closing Time or Frank Miller's The Dark Night Strikes Again. However this does not happen with Heart of Empire. The main reason that this does not occur is that Heart of Empire is not a direct sequel of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. Heart of Empire instead acts as more of a spiritual sequel with Luther's daughter Victoria as the protagonist. By separating the two books Talbot allows himself to go in a separate direction both thematically and artistically. First off Heart of Empire is a lighter story with constant humor and a little less drama. The art reflects this, with vivid colors and a little less complex line work. All of this combines to make a very different book than The Adventures of Luther Arkwright but one just as fulfilling. So overall I cannot recommend this book enough for it is truly a worthy successor.
4 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Decadence without wit,
By
This review is from: Heart Of Empire: The Legacy Of Luther Arkwright (Paperback)
Filled with undercooked characters, luridly painted with bloody entrails and decorated with vomit, the second Arkwright saga displays numbing levels of gross without any of the literary force that makes "Adventures" still hypnotic more than twenty years later.
Rendered in vivid colours, this new tome by master Talbot is overtly concerned with tripes; the very guts of the Empire Luther Arkwright helped ascend. Thorough financial, political and personal corruption is the lot of the royal family and thence visited upon the reader. "Adventures" of course, was no stranger to the crass realities of being human: police batons textures with protester brains, filth and squallor in Whitechapel, honestly brutal representation of combat and war, scenes of sexual congress that were often quite beautiful. "Adventures" is, if anything, a celebration of the maddening, heart-breaking, bloody and sublime symphony of humanity. "Legacy" by contrast is shockingly childish; obsessed with filth, blood and guts like a mildly retarded infant going through their developmental phase, discovering their own bodily functions and reveling in every excretion. Though endearing in one's own lineage, the poo-poo of others is best served in context. The point was to assault the reader with just how corrupt the empire has become in the intervening years. But such an explication would be mere ruse. The book is very thinly storied for all its plot development and the characters, with one exception, sound and act like caricatures. Talbot has either forgotten or put aside any interest as to what once animated Rose Wylde and Queen Anne or, verily, what makes human beings tick. This is a very far cry from the muted insights of "Tale of One Bad Rat" or the fairly complex relationships in the previous Arkwright tale. Instead the reader gets a stock Vatican assassin who is a sexual predator, scheming weasels who are gay and racism depicted as if the author had never in his life heard such comments from other than stock villains in a Hollywood actioner. Indeed, most of the book reads like a jack-in-the-box: always in your face and never any cleverer than "boo!" The one exception is the Princess Royal, the only character possessed of any sort of self within her eerily thin, mesmerizing shell. Tall, small-breasted, haughtily beautiful and white-haired like her father, Victoria is the one redeeming value in this frozen dinner sequel to one of the greatest graphic novel banquets ever released. Following her glowing blue eyes from panel to panel is the only way to enjoy this Jack-the-Ripper-and-Judy show. Arkwright himself shows up late in the tale and is bland beyond belief, spouting supermarket-aisle nonsense as a mere prelude to have him dive into bloody action. So much for Eastern philosophy. "The Adventures of Luther Arkwright" belongs in every comic book lover's library, proudly sitting on a shelf with "Watchmen", "V for Vendetta", "Cages", "Signal to Noise", "Blood of Palomar", "Elektra Assassin", "Stray Toasters", "Metropol" and many other pioneers of the art form. Not so this book, which is of interest to completists only. Or adolescent minds confusing maturity and honesty with theatrical displays. The most telling artistic device in "Legacy" is how Talbot made the choice to punctuate his book with shots of Victoria vomiting in the reader's direction. A better trope could not be found.
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