Customer Reviews

Rex Mundi Volume 2: The River Underground (v. 2)

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

 

 

If you took a giant black cauldron, heated up some water to a hard boil, threw in Vincent Price, Rod Serling, and Dan Brown, and added a dash of Alfred Hitchcock, you might only be scratching the surface of Rex Mundi. Made up of two volumes, Rex Mundi created by Arvid Nelson, Eric Johnson, and Jeremy Cox, follows the story of Dr. Julien Sauniere and the theft of a mysterious scroll from his friend, Father Gerard Marin. I know this is going to sound like a big leap here, but the theft of the scroll is but the first in a series of events that sends Sauniere on a quest for...The Holy Grail.

No, I'm not kidding, and yes, any mention of The Holy Grail immediately conjures up images of British knights frolicking through the countryside on imaginary horses; but Rex Mundi is far more than it seems, and every issue presents a gut-wrenching twist and turn that leaves you speechless. If I could sum up Rex Mundi into three words, they would be: details, DETAILS, DEETTTAAIILLLSSS. Everything from the art, to the color, to the ink, to the story, to the dialogue, is there anything I left out? Rex Mundi is BEAUTIFUL, and each element of the books serve to compliment the others.

The artistic details that make up each characters facial features, or physical gestures and mannerisms, outwardly depict a sense of emotional depth -- and emotional depth there is! Rex Mundi features an over-the-top plot, but manages to build its plot on top of very realistic dialogue, and very realistic characters. Perhaps the ghoulish looking monks are not "realistic" but their close-minded and blind commitment to the fundamentalism of their faith is something far too familiar in this day and age. Rex Mundi ties anchors to your feet and sinks you deeply into its setting by giving the reader an eye of what's going on, as if you are a participant in the events that unfold. There are even fictional newspaper inserts that make way for even more visceral experience.

The artistic direction of EricJ is truly unique -- each page presents something you would be hard-pressed to have seen before, especially when it comes to Rex Mundi`s color-depth. It could not function as a black-and-white comic; the dark red blood, the deep blacks, and the pale whites -- each provides a necessary element to the environment and personality of the series.

Rex Mundi, though sometimes overreaching, serves as far more than a fictionalized historical comic. It also serves as an apt social commentary on religious fundamentalism, political controversy, sexism, and modern-day anti-Semitism. Though the volumes differ greatly in artistic style, each volume contains its own aesthetic appeal. I prefer the Image Comics volume (volume one) because I found the Dark Horse volume to be a little bit...cartoonish? Either way, Rex Mundi is a must-have comic, and it will keep you enthralled from start to finish. I reccommend purchasing each issue if you can find them; though the collected volumes are great, I preferred reading each issue in an episodic fashion.
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This entire series is great. I love the pacing and writing. The subject matter is intriguing and the characters are interesting and compelling.

The second volume of Rex Mundi draws Julien deeper and deeper into dangerous territory. The Inquisition is watching him closely, and it is a matter of time before they do something.

He discovers more clues as to what is going on, and realises that there is a political movement at the heart of it, that wants power and war.

Arvid Nelson, Rex Mundi: The River Underground (Dark Horse, 2005)

It took two years after my library acquired the first volume of this series for them to get the second. I've been waiting on tenterhooks (whatever tenterhooks may be-- they're not too comfortable, though) the whole time. They finally got, it, and I snapped it up. Two years disappeared immediately, and I was right back into the story as if no time had passed at all. Nelson reveals a good deal more of where he's going with this plot in The River Underground, and while there were certain times when I smelled a distinct odor of Dan Brown, I'm more than willing to give Nelson the benefit of the doubt; his characters are much more believable, and they don't grind the plot to a halt to discourse endlessly on subject we all know about anyway. (Nelson makes use of the daily-newspaper convention for relating the background stuff, as well as injecting a few amusing moments now and then. References to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton sit alongside references to Opus Dei and Napoleon. How cool is that?)

I'm waiting for volume 3 now. My library swears it won't take them two years to get this one. Back onto my tenterhooks, I guess. *** ½

Very good script and will not let you sleep- you will want to finish.