English History

Warren Ellis has written an account of the battle of Crecy, which has great black and white art from Raulo Caceres and is called Crecy.

The narrator is one of the nameless archers who make up the English army, and by the end of this graphic novel you will know a lot about archery. The battle itself is famous for really beginning the decline of the knight as a weapon of war.

12,000 English faced 86,000 French knights and mercenaries. By the end of the battle somewhere between 40 and 400 English soldiers had been killed, while the French lost 30,000 troops. This figure included eleven princes, 1,200 knights, King Philip's brother Charles, and King John of Bohemia.

The English longbow had triumphed and would pave the way for other missile weapons which still dominate battlefields today.

The story itself is well told and only takes up around 44 pages, and the narrator is an interesting fellow who is almost outside time as he looks to the future, and the past.

If you wanted to be critical you could say that it is an English writer looking back to a time when England actually mattered in the world, but I wont. Overall a great read.

Justice like lightning

I'm never quite sure what Warren Ellis thinks about superhero comics, but when he writes one it is always something special. At the moment he is writing Thunderbolts for Marvel and it is mind blowing. After the Civil War event the Thunderbolts are now a team of villains hired by the American government to do their dirty work. Made up of the likes of Venom, Bullseye, Penance, Moonstone and led by Norman Osborne, anyone who knows Marvel history will know that this is not the most mentally balanced group running around.

Ellis though is turning in amazing scripts that highlight the obvious unbalanced nature of this group. The group is also supported by a massive advertising campaign led by the government to gain support for the group, though Bullseye's membership is a secret as he is a convicted mass murderer. Venom and Bullseye have used their Thunderbolts membership as a blank cheque to create as much mayhem as possible. Venom ate the arm of Silver Spider, and Bullseye stabbed Jack Flagg in the spine making him a quadriplegic. And then there's Penance, once known as Speedball, who kicked off the whole civil War thing with his attempt to capture Nitro which led to the deaths of thousands.

So fertile ground for the warped intelligence of Ellis, and matched by beautiful artwork by Mike Deodato Jr. This series is a great read, as it explores the dark side of superheroes.