At the beginning of this volume, Cerebus arrives in the city-state of Iest, as a representative of the city-state of Palnu, headed by Lord Julius (based on Groucho Marx). It becomes a pawn on the chessboard of political and financial Iest, manipulated by both Lord and Julius Astoria, the former wife of Lord Julius. Realizing his counter status, he decided to play the game and to regain control and independence by participating in the elections of prime minister of the city. He will be elected and implement their own projects.
This volume deserves the name of the graphic novel that Dave Sim described the rather long news. The ambition of the author about this comic student in a category where it has few neighbors. No other author has built a long and drawn out as one piece. Like JK Rowling (Harry Potter, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Dave Sim was careful to develop the history and economy of the world in which his characters evolve, and this preliminary work in the richness of spring details that permeates the script.
But beyond these dimensions, high society reading is a rare treat. The main plot (the social and political rise of Cerebus) is involved from start to finish. Suspenseful moments (think political campaign and balloting) are at the height of Eagle Kaiji Kawaguchi (Eagle, Volume 1 :). The psychology of the characters is made from intelligent and thorough manner: we are very far from a dynamic good against evil, every individual has his own motivations. And to complete the qualities of this work, Dave Sim is an author who handles several types of comedy really funny way. Finally, as an illustrator he has made tremendous progress since the first volume both in terms of morphological accuracy, in terms of relevance of the decorations and layout.
We often advise beginners to start with this volume constitutes a complete story and a good image of the ambition of the author, rather than the first. To try to determine the level and ambition of this volume, we can compare to a Watchmen in terms of the rigor and depth of the script, and From Hell for a thematic intelligence.
