Swords of Cerebus Volume 6

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Summary: Dave Sim combines political satire with comic book parody
Review: Ever since issue #5 Dave Sim had been developing the idea, albeit gradually, that Cerebus the Aardvark was a key, but unwitting, figure in a number of wide-ranging conspiracies and as a nexus point for a number of disparate belief systems. This would be true despite the fact that Cerebus was, and remains, a self-centered, hot-tempered, loathsome little drunkard. Volume 6 of "Swords of Cerebus" presents issues #21-24 and find Sim is seriously starting to mix up the elements he has assembled in the first twenty issues of his celebrated independent comic book.

Issues #21 "Captain Cockroach" and #22 "The Death of Elrod" comprise a key story, which introduced President Weisshaupt into the plotline. However, the story is a parody of Captain America ("Captain Cockroach"), Bucky Barnes ("Bunky" a.k.a. "Elrod"), Deadman ("Deadalbino"), patriotism, xenophobia, revolution, literacy, the "can-do" presidency, aristocracy, and mass appeal (and you thought this was just a take off on "Conan the Barbarian" with a funny animal character as the hero). Be warned: you are going to have to read these comics at least twice to get a handled on the socio-political significance of all the verbal outpourings. But for those who consider "High Society" the high point of "Cerebus" (note, my hand is raised), these stories comprise the prologue.

Issue #23, "The Beguiling," is a parody of the Clint Eastwood film, "The Beguiled." The purpose of this was not to honor the film, a lesser Eastwood effort by everyone's reckoning, but to develop an appropriate mood for "Cerebus" as part of the concerted effort to end the funny animal phase of the comic book. We then have #23 "Swamp Sounds," which is the first part of a story concluded in #25 "This Woman, This Thing." The problem is that "Cerebus" #25 is not included in Volume 6 of the "Swords of Cerebus" and there never was a Volume 7. Issue #25 was supposed to be printed in Volume 6, but Sim's note to the printers got lost and the issue ended up being printed in a special supplement. This explains why Sim's notes on the "Charles X" trilogy appear in Volume 6 between issues #21 and #22, instead of after #22 and before #23. What you will find at the back of Volume 6 is "A Night on the Town," a story done by Sim and Gerhard for Marvel's "Epic" magazine.

Anyhow, the two-parter is a tongue-in-cheek treatment of Chris Claremont's "X-Men" series inspired by the Marvel writer's standard rhetorical question "Is there any reason this character can't be a woman?" Inspired by Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, Sim extended the principle to transform the Man-Thing into the Woman-Thing. In issue #25 Sim would throw the Sump Thing (his version of D.C.'s Swamp Thing) into the mix as well, because one comic book swamp monster deserves another. Trying to control these creatures is Charles X. Claremont. Unfortunately, most of this action takes place in the issue that is not included in this collection. That makes providing a penetrating critique rather difficult because you have to ignore the conclusion of the tale, so I will just stop now.