My Rating
Dance For Two Demons
The summer of 1981 was a record heatwave in the village. For normal New Yorkers it was just another distraction to take their minds off the crime and corruption they had to deal with everyday. To a heroin addict like Joseph, the radiating heat from the concrete sidewalks only made him crave his vice even more. Tonight he must find a score or death is certain. First off he needed money.
Hours later on Christie Street the junky will make either the best or worst decision of his life. The man stumbles into the unlocked door of a small shop called Madame Xanadu Advisor. The interior is dark but the cobbled décor from several generations and cultures seems enticing. Joseph begins to calculate in his head how much each item could be fenced for at the local pawn shops.
Before one item is pocketed the familiar form of Madame Xanadu appears from behind a set of crushed velvet curtains. Joseph reaches for a weapon but the woman’s gaze brings calmness to the constant cravings. It’s time for an addict to make one last decision.
The next day a young woman from Mitchell, South Dakota arrives at the shop seeking help from Madame Xanadu. Her aunt sought spiritual advice from a woman using the same name forty years earlier. The woman, Laura Grant, claimed her Aunt Esther practiced witchcraft and left her a book of spells. The original Madame Xanadu, probably the mother of the woman sitting across from Laura, advised her Aunt on the uses of spellcraft.
Will Madame Xanadu help the power hungry woman from South Dakota? Can a street junkie and a fledgling witch fall in love without some outside force pulling the strings? Who are the entities known as Ishtar and Tammuz?
Falling Down To Heaven
Four hundred years in the future the natural resources of Earth have been depleted. In an effort to sustain the human population a vast fleet of starships were built and the planet abandoned. The only hope for mankind is in the discovery of new worlds untouched by competing races. Only then can man thrive without fear of extinction.
The day came when a lush planet was charted. The fleet arrived and the pioneers descended to the surface, but they were not alone. An alien population already staked claim to this world and was their home for a thousand generations. This mattered little to our descendants. A bloody war was waged on the peaceful humanoids and the species was almost erased from history.
One man named Turner protested the invasion and refused to cause harm to the aliens. When the planet was stripped of its resources and the fleet left orbit, Turner was abandoned to rot in solitude. He would not be remembered in the years to come. But he would not be alone for long.
Will the alien couple Vte-Vorr and Atma accept a human into their dying homestead? Will Atma live to see the death of the human known as Turner? What turned humanity into a soulless warring host of savages?
Reviewer Notes
This is a special edition (one-shot issue) of Madame Xanadu. In this book we get two separate stories. The primary story focuses on Madame Xanadu,and is set in the year of the print date (1981). The other is a Science Fiction Space Opera set hundreds of years into the future.
Like issue five of Doorway to Nightmare, released three years earlier, Steven Englehart and J.M. Dematteis attempts to tackle many social issues in one wide swoop.
In the Madame Xanadu story arch we are given a snapshot of life in New York in 1981. It addresses drug addiction, sexual deviancy, and the crime levels of the early 1980s.
The science fiction story focuses solely on racism through the use of space aliens. In a post Jimmy Carter America, people were suffering from high oil prices, and the paranoia of global warming. I believe this story would hit home for any reader of the time. Unfortunately, J.M. Dematteis decided to use real world racial slurs to hammer home his message. I get what he was trying to do, but…why use a real racial slur? It just doesn’t make sense for future humans to use a slur coined during the 1960’s Vietnam war. I say bad form to this.
In general I really enjoyed the artwork and page layout by Marshall Rogers. The tarot card panels on page eight is a really cool idea. DC also includes a centerfold poster. Writer Bill Kunkel even provides a full description of tarot card readings and how Madame Xanadu organized her deck (see inside cover). I would recommend picking up a copy of this comic if you can find one.
Overall I’m giving this one-shot five out of five stars. It’s just weird enough to keep me interested and turning the pages. Madame Xanadu is a real gem in the DC Universe. We need more of her guidance.
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