Madame Xanadu volume 1: Disenchanted

By Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Hadley & Richard Friend (Vertigo)
ISBN13:  978-1-84856-288-2

Matt Wagner further blurs the boundaries between “straight” DC comics and the mature, independent Vertigo imprint – which actually drives continuity mavens raving bonkers – with this superbly fetching and compulsive yarn that manages the cunning legerdemain of telling a stand-alone tale for newcomers which also acts a clever piece of historical in-filling for readers steeped in the arcane lore of the magical aspects of DC universe.

Collecting the first ten issues of the lovely, thoughtful monthly comic, Disenchanted finally provides an origin for one of the most mysterious characters in the company’s pantheon, and makes her a crucial lynchpin in the development of a number of the company’s biggest stars.

Madame Xanadu debuted in Doorway to Nightmare, one of the last of DC’s 1970’s mystery stable (February 1978) and a rare deviation from the standard anthology format. She was a tarot reader who became peripherally involved in supernatural adventures of her clients, and was designed by Michael William Kaluta and Joe Orlando. The title ended after only five issues although four further tales appeared in The Unexpected, and one final solo adventure was released as DC’s second “Direct Sales only” title (in the early 1980s comics shops had become common enough that they could support titles that simply couldn’t find an audience on the sale-or-return newsstands).

After lurking in the musty and magical corners of the DCU for decades she finally got another shot at the limelight and to be honest it’s been worth the wait.

In the final days of Camelot the fairy Nimue, mistress of the Sacred Grove and sister to the Lady of the Lake and haughty Morgana, is disturbed by the growing chaos in the land. The puissant clairvoyant is unexpectedly visited by a stranger who urges her to act on her visions but she is proud and reluctant, and drives him away.

Meanwhile her lover Merlin is making dire preparations for inevitable battle and lets his loving mask slip. His dalliance with her is clearly only a pretence to obtain her secrets of immortality…

As Camelot falls and the land burns Merlin summons a demon from Hell to protect him and leaves it loose after the castle falls.  The stranger returns and urges Nimue to beware Merlin’s intentions, but although she is wary of the wizard she will not believe him capable of harming her.

She learns otherwise almost too late, binding Merlin in a magical snare, but the wizard’s revenge is terrible as with his last vestige of power he destroys her enchanted nature: with her potions she will still know magic but never again be magical…

Hundreds of years later she is seer for mighty Kublai Khan when the stranger appears again, guide to the expedition bringing Marco Polo to his heady destiny. Once again the stranger’s warnings are unwelcome but true and her perfect life and innocent friends suffer because she will not listen. She departs aware that the stranger believes he serves a purpose more important than innocent lives but when she confronts him he vanishes, as always, like a phantom…

In France she advises Marie Antoinette, both before and after she is dragged to the Bastille, and begs the ubiquitous stranger to save the tragic queen to no avail. When she finally returns to England she hunts Jack the Ripper, unable to fathom how the stranger can believe any cause more important than stopping this monster, and the story ends in 1930s New York in the fleeting moments before Supermen burst onto the world stage, finally discovering the strangers mission, and learning how her ancient antics shaped it…

Despite a huge coterie of magical guest-stars from Zatarra to Death of the Endless and the close tires to key moments of DC history, this is a delightful, glorious, romantic, scary stand-alone tragedy that any older fantasy fan and newcomer to comics could easily read… and really should.

© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.