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Comics Catch-Up 067: Sword of Azrael (2022)
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This is War Rocket Ajax, but this month we're reviewing Apocrypals: The Comic, and it's quite a ride.
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Transcript
Introduction to Zencastr and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
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00:01:03
Speaker
Let's catch up. My name is Chris Simms. With me as always, know that men call him liar, know that men call him deceiver, know that men call him betrayer. It's Matt Wilson.
Comic Recommendation Discussion
00:01:14
Speaker
And this is Comics Catch Up, the show where we catch up on comics that we might have missed.
00:01:20
Speaker
or maybe read a little bit of and then didn't finish. This one, Matt, I completely missed it. Same. And it was recommended to us by our Discord server, by people on our Discord server, and they got it right on this one, let me tell you. Sometimes i I feel nervous about doing Comics Ketchup.
00:01:48
Speaker
Because sometimes someone will recommend us something like Excalibur or Jared Stevens, The Man Called Fate. And I feel like if we don't like that thing, then that person is gonna be like, oh man, I wanted to share something that I liked with the boys and they didn't like it. And now I feel bad. Or I feel bad because because they like something and and we end up being really negative about it. This one,
00:02:18
Speaker
Y'all got it right. Good job. Y'all got this one right. Mission accomplished.
Sword of Azrael Series Introduction
00:02:24
Speaker
This is the 2022 Sword of Azrael series. It's written by Dan Waters, whose name I have seen pop up on some DC books of late. And my reaction typically to that is, oh, I don't know who that is.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I have no idea who this dude is. But now I'm like, Oh, this guy's pretty good. Yeah. Now it's like, Oh, I need to ah keep an eye on, on this guy. So this is, it's Dan Waters with art by Nicola. I have no idea how to say it. I believe it is a,
00:03:12
Speaker
check name, cis-mes-ee-ha is how I would guess it's pronounced, but I know that's almost certainly wrong. It's it's got the little it's got the little tiny u's, little tiny flat u's above three different letters, and I do not know what those do. I am sorry to Nicola Chismesije?
00:03:38
Speaker
Also, a potential pronunciation. But I'm sure Benito would know and will let us know ah how how it is pronounced. ah But nonetheless, that is the artist on the book.
Character Exploration: Jean-Paul Vallée
00:03:52
Speaker
The ah colors are by Marissa Louise, someone we've met before. Yeah, Marissa's great.
00:04:01
Speaker
And Hassan, ah our former Comics Alliance colleague, is the letterer on the book. There's some kick-ass lettering in this book, too. There's some really good lettering stuff in here. I want to talk about that when we get to it. But this is a six-issue miniseries, focusing on where Jean-Paul Vallée finds himself these days.
00:04:28
Speaker
and ah going on a surprising adventure involving the Knights Templar and biblically accurate angels. And and spoiler warning, the fourth world. And the fourth world and Satan, actual Satan. Buddy, if you can tie Azrael into the fourth world and and it works,
00:04:58
Speaker
and make sense, you've you've got me. You've got me. The basis of this is that Asriel has been tied into the fourth world the whole time. Yes, and we did not know that.
Continuity in DC Comics
00:05:12
Speaker
Unless I came up in the Denny O'Neill, Asriel run that went 100 issues, because let's be real, no one read that.
00:05:23
Speaker
So here's here's the basic story. I feel like The plot we can get through pretty quickly, there's just a lot of additional detail that is worth digging into a little further as we go. Jean-Paul Vallée, aka Azrael, but he's he's denying the Azrael of himself. Well, Matt, I think you're starting a little too late.
00:05:56
Speaker
Okay. Because this is this is a weird thing about, um, how hyper time exists now. Is that this is a Jean Paul Valley. Like nightfall fully happened. Oh, yes, absolutely. Yes. And It's mentioned in the book. Yeah, I mean, there there is a like recreation of a specific panel from Night Quest to Crusade happening in there prior to the events of Batman number 500. I'm bringing this up, not just because I'm me. I'm bringing this up because this is a very continuity concerned series.
00:06:40
Speaker
Like this is adding a lot to the continuity of Jean-Paul Vallee and Azrael. And it's weird for me to have, and after 30 plus years of kind of knowing exactly what happened in whatever version of DC Comics continuity I'm reading,
00:07:06
Speaker
to for them to just be like, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's hyper time. It all happened. It all happened. Yeah, it all happened. Yeah. Nightfall happened to, I guess, whatever version of Batman is Do 52 Batman.
Character Resets in New 52
00:07:24
Speaker
Batman who never wore a yellow oval. But the thing is, even Do 52 Batman didn't get the hard reset everybody else did. That's true.
00:07:37
Speaker
Like everybody else got a super hard hit the button. These are slate, totally wiped clean characters reset with the new 52, except Batman. Batman was the one who like got to keep some stuff. Yeah, Batman Inc continued. Correct. It got new numbering, but it definitely just continued.
00:08:06
Speaker
Which, such is the fate of books that sell well. Right, and and such is the fate of superheroes who are so popular you can't change them. Like, Superman is also popular, but so somehow, someway, he was completely and totally rebooted from scratch, and Batman wasn't. Like, Batman was The only one. Don't get me started on New 52, Superman, and how he's not even Superman anymore. Correct. and he's I mean, he's kind of Superman, he's but not really. he's He's a third guy now, and Lois Lane's just different. anyway Anyway, it's a little weird to me to see a book that starts off and Jean-Paul Valli is like, y'all remember Nightfall from 1994?
00:09:03
Speaker
That happened to me. Hi, you're probably wondering how I got here. Let me tell you about Bane. Right. So he, after the events of Nightfall and after he came to regret many of the things he did, not only participating in Nightfall, but then, uh, the story where he, uh, was manipulated into beating up a bunch of Arkham Asylum inmates. There's like a lot of like heavy Azrael continuity in this book. This is also like the third version of Azrael in the past 10 years, which is the first version of Azrael. Right. So he has like a lane may or may not exist right now. I mean, it all exists time.
Jean-Paul's Monastic Life and Conflict
00:10:00
Speaker
He has
00:10:02
Speaker
exiled himself, so to speak, to a monastery on an island in the Aegean Sea. You know what I was you know what i was thinking when I read that? Because i wasn't I wasn't fully on board with this series just yet, because that's like page one. But you know what I was thinking? Hit me. Mamma Mia, here we go again. Yeah, that's right. Thank you. Who is Azrael's real dad? that I mean, that is a question.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yes, it is. ah So, John Paul Valley has become a monk at this monastery, and the way that he keeps Azrael in check, the way that he keep keeps the avenging angel in check, is by reminding himself of various ways that saints were martyred. Yes.
00:11:01
Speaker
which Which is great. ah One of his fellow monks, Brother Umberto, asks him ah why he does that, and he says it's the only keep thing that keeps the thing inside him soothed because he is a sadist.
00:11:22
Speaker
So but that's that's going to be important throughout the series, this notion of him reminding himself of how saints were martyred to soothe the sadist inside of him. So he sees a commotion outside the monastery. There's a woman who um is being accosted by ah this boat, not the captain, like the son of the captain of a boat ah that that brought her here.
00:11:55
Speaker
because she hasn't paid the fee for her trip. And so Asriel's jump off alley steps in and in the process Asriel is unleashed and he hits the guy and immediately does everything he can to stop himself. And then the guy like spashes him right in the face and just beats the hell out of him.
00:12:22
Speaker
And so the dad has to be like, I'm so sorry. I can't believe he did that. Uh, we'll wave the, the travel fee. Yeah. Cause the, cause the, the sun is like, this guy attacked me and the dad's like this monk. Yeah. Yeah. Which by the way, this is, this is also as real continuity. If you you are not the kind of person who knows a lot about Azrael and the Order of Saint Dumas as I do. The reason Azrael could fight really well and could do stuff like making flaming swords and ah gauntlets that shoot out well fire and ninja stars is that he was conditioned, psychologically conditioned with this programming called The System. the system yes And that is that that is what the Order of Saint Dumas programmed into him
00:13:20
Speaker
and kind of brainwashed him to forget about it ah so that he would be so that he could function as their personal assassin. Or I guess not personal, but the official assassin of the Order of Saint Dumas, which is an offshoot of the Knights Templar, not a sanctioned ah branch of the Catholic Church that everyone else thought died out in the 13th century. right That's all important.
00:13:50
Speaker
absolutely is it is important here so this young woman has traveled from Paris to seek out the avenging angel which as soon as Jean Paul Valley hears this he's like oh fuck I can't let her know who I really am um she says that her name is Brielle Arnier and She's looking for this avenging angel pretty soon. She realizes that he is Azrael and She's like I've been looking all over you for you and he He realizes that people are coming to find her soon So he gets out his sword the his flaming Azrael sword and Hands it over to her
00:14:48
Speaker
And it's like, all right, I'm going to go deal with this. And it turns out that the person that's looking for this young woman
Encounter with Vengeance and Brielle
00:14:57
Speaker
is vengeance, Bane's daughter. Bane's daughter, who is essentially Bane's Damien, because she is also like a weird, I do not know the details of her origin, perhaps surprisingly, but she's like also a lab clone.
00:15:16
Speaker
made by someone I think also made by the ah the League of Assassins, but I might not have that right. But unlike Damien, she's an adult. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a mistake to give his flaming sword over to ah this young woman who's come to find him, Brielle.
00:15:38
Speaker
Because it turns out she has also been conditioned, not by the Order of Saint Dumas, because the Order of Saint Dumas is gone. Everybody, every member of the Order of Saint Dumas is dead. But the remaining Knights Templar have also conditioned her with the system like Azrael. And so she believes that she is the angel Sariel. Yes. and her conditioning takes over at the end of the first issue and she kills every monk in that place. Yes. By the way, the Angel Sariel, not to be confused with Zariel from the Justice League or Zariel from Dungeons and Dragons, although they are all the same person and in
00:16:26
Speaker
it It turns out that Vengeance is not here to do harm to Zarya, Sariel, but instead to retrieve her for her destiny with the Knights Templar.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah. Vengeance is extremely funny in this, because she's like, oh, hey, you're Azrael. You beat the shit out of Bane. That's fine.
00:16:58
Speaker
yeah Look, it in Night Quest the Crusade, you really kicked the shit out of Bane. But I am not here about that. ah That's honestly, he was a dick back then. Right.
00:17:11
Speaker
so Asriel the the the the avenging angel takes over for a while and vengeance and her crew of other people They have to get out like Vengeance says there's little chance of retrieving arnie a sedate tonight And so Asriel goes back to being Jean Paul by remembering so how some some saints died. Yeah. And we talked about the lettering, but the way that this happens is, I think, particularly cool because it'll be like, there will be like, as rail caption boxes that are a specific kind of caption box. I believe they're the dreaded ah red text on a black background, which always looks terrible. But it actually
00:18:03
Speaker
It's white text on a back black ground with a red border. With a red border, yeah. It actually is very legible, um like shockingly so. That's something that i I always hate. Yeah. But literally the physical placement of the caption boxes, you'll have the Jean-Paul Vallée caption boxes um like moving on top of and covering up the Azrael boxes in a way that's like really cool. It's... Man, I love it when lettering is done well. And Choson fucking crushed it. Man, it's so good. So Azrael goes back in to find Riel and sees that she's killed all of the monks and finally gets her to stop by putting his hands directly on the blade of his own sword. And
00:18:59
Speaker
ah Eventually, they're just two weapons who
Internal Struggles with Azrael
00:19:06
Speaker
have been conditioned to kill who are now crying, realizing what they've done. So Jean-Paul takes Brielle to the mainland, to Athens, and they kind of hide out for a little bit, and Jean-Paul is like, I guess i get I'm going to figure out what I want to do.
00:19:26
Speaker
And so he prays, and we see the manifestation of Israel as a biblically accurate angel with all the eyes and wings. Which actually, actually is... I mean, look, a lot of people use the term biblically accurate angel to just you know refer to something with a lot of eyes. There's a lot of different depictions of angels. We actually get many of them in this book. yeah The angel Azrael specifically is described as having a ton of wings and a ton of eyes, and every time an eye blinks, someone dies. More on that on the Apocryphal's podcast, if you're curious. But like this actually is a biblically accurate Azrael. It actually is.
00:20:16
Speaker
And this manifestation, I guess you would call it, within Azrael's mind, ah happens shows up many times throughout the book. But ah there's a bit where the angel Azrael allows Jean-Paul Valli to look into his conditioning for a moment.
00:20:46
Speaker
And when he gets in there, it's more than he can handle. It's just like this wash of violet images in these like bright hot pink neon greens. And the lettering on that page is so cool because it's got the the the text boxes with the lettering in them, but then The lettering is also a design element throughout the page, showing how these thoughts are like bursting through to the point where Jean-Paul can't handle them. This is also, I feel, like the first little bit of reference to the fourth world of it all, because there's like design elements on that page that look like Omega Beams.
00:21:41
Speaker
There's so much I love about this. like The idea of someone kind of like going into their mind palace and talking to their alter ego is not a a rare one in comics. like That's something that I think we we've you know we've all seen that a bunch of times. We rarely see that someones that the like mental representation of the alter ego looks completely different than the person does in real life. And the, the idea that like, Oh, this is what Azrael really looks like. Right is great. I love that. And it also like really kind of retroactively makes that costume make a lot more sense.
00:22:27
Speaker
thought like is history yeah Yeah, it does resemble the costume, the the design of the angel. Asriel's weird streamer cape. Now the end of the second issue is maybe my least favorite thing in the whole story because Jean-Paul Vallée prays and goes into this like, almost like fugue state,
Discovery of Angel Maker Box
00:22:53
Speaker
where he can't see anything that's going on around him, which enables another Knights Templar representative, the poor fellow, who's a cool character design, ah at least. Who is, from a one shot that ah came before this that we didn't read, but that now I yeah want to read.
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, that character shows up and just finds Brielle and says, Hey, you should come with me. And Brielle does. And so they leave John Paul Valley just kind of sitting there, which read to me is kind of an anti climax.
00:23:31
Speaker
i I yes, but I do kind of like it because they're this is actually set up with a scene with vengeance ah where ah Vengeance and some of her boys are like spy they've they found John Paul and they're like spying on him and You know, they're looking for the binoculars and they go. Oh, he's praying He's and and she's like, yeah. Yeah, that's how he that's how he accesses the system and So he's probably gonna be in Sensei for a while. And it it is set up and explained. I didn't hate it. i I kind of liked it. If we did not know that this was issue two of a six issue series, maybe, yeah. Yeah. ah So issue three, Brielle is taken to the temple of the
00:24:22
Speaker
Knights Templar in France and told that she's going to be given armor that she can't take off. Like she's shown designs of this armor that looks like the penitent one ah from Blasphemous. Definitely has some real Blasphemous vibes. Yeah. And is told like, Oh, once once we put this armor on you, you can't take it off. Also, Azrael killed all these guys. He's horrible. You shouldn't listen to him.
00:24:50
Speaker
As, or Jean-Paul Valley, meanwhile, wakes up in Catalonia, like, totally removed from where he remembers having been. And... Hey man, are you... were you living these fucking skyfall-ass location captions? They're great, yeah. They're, like, diegetic. They're, like, on the sides of buildings. Yeah, I love them. Yeah. Um, so he sees the mountain that birthed the system. He recognizes a mountain from his visions that he was having. Yes. Yes. So this all started here in Catalonia. So he goes into the mountain and ah is met with Saint Dumas himself.
00:25:37
Speaker
that's Like spirit the spirit of Saint Dumas, yeah who ah tells him some of the history of the Templars. Also in this town, someone has been cap capturing young men who have disappeared and he sees these like vials full of their body parts. Yeah, everyone in the town is like, oh yeah, it's just dangerous even if you grow up here.
00:26:01
Speaker
You know, it's it's a volcano. People have a real hard time with that. And ah then it turns out, like, no, they have been captured and out and their hearts have been their hearts have been, I guess, auto-transplanted. It's not just their hearts. it's It's many different parts of their body.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah. What we discover is that inside of this mountain is the Satan. Yes. So we discover a couple things. A, we discover the Satan. B, Saint Dumas tells us ah through a fucking Bayeux tapestry-ass panel of Orion fighting Calabak. Yeah.
00:26:47
Speaker
that during the 12th century, ah Orion and Calaback were fighting and boom-tubed Earth, dropped a mother box and left. Yes.
Confrontation with Satan
00:26:57
Speaker
So, the thing that made the system possible, the thing that is the source of the system is... I get it.
00:27:09
Speaker
yeah no is a mother box, which will continue to show up throughout the rest of this series. Which which actually, Matt, actually, ah my theory is that it's an apocalyptic mother box because the system is essentially like mind control, which is anti-life. That's a good theory, I think. It all fucking works. But see, one of the things I like about this book
00:27:41
Speaker
is I don't think the term mother box is used one time. No, no, because Dumas doesn't know what a mother box is. And Azrael doesn't know what a mother box is. so Batman would if Batman was in it, but he's not here. Yeah. I mean, you know, presumably if this as real if this version of Nightfall happened after the events of New 52 Justice League, I mean, you know, someone ought to tell him, but it's fine. Hyper time, baby.
00:28:09
Speaker
But it's up to you to kind of figure out like, look, if you're a new reader and you're this is your first comic, you're in trouble. But, you know, this ain't for you. This is for me. Yeah. But specifically for me, if you have some familiarity with a mother box with with the fourth world with this stuff, you can see what you can tell what one of those things is on site, even if the the design is slightly different from how it's appeared in the past, right? Like yeah you see that thing and you go, that thing's a fucking mother box. yeah And so I believe only referred to as the angel maker. Yeah. Which is a, I mean, an equally Kirby ass name for it, but like one that makes sense given it's, it's context here. And another point is it's referred to as alien technology, which is the closest you get.
00:29:06
Speaker
to connecting it to apocalypse. But it makes perfect sense, yeah, that this thing would be powered by anti-life. And so it is in fact something that comes from the gods, just not the old gods who died. That's right. So Satan lives in this mountain, but Satan is dying.
00:29:37
Speaker
Perpetually. And so the only way that he can stay alive... I mean, Matt, you you have not explained who Satan is. Okay, go ahead. Okay, so Satan is not the devil. Satan is not the devil, no. This is a more biblical idea of, quote unquote, Satan. Yeah, this is the Satan.
00:30:01
Speaker
in the way that Jean-Paul Vallee is the Azrael, because this is the first attempt at making an Azrael. This is the prototype Azrael that ah Saint Dumas made with his first experiment with the Mother Box. ah and And his his partner,
00:30:22
Speaker
companion, friend, say brother Ebner is who became the Satan. Yes. And so he named him the Satan after the ah the adversary in the Bible. So the angel that the the the version of Satan that appears in the book of Job. Right.
Saint Dumas and Angel Maker Box
00:30:46
Speaker
Not Lucifer, but the adversary. Yes, God's instrument of suffering. Correct. And this character design,
00:30:59
Speaker
we've We've already brought up Blasphemous, ah which it reminds me of, but this is ah the most bloodborne looking ass dude. He's got a giant wheel that he uses as a weapon, which is some From Software shit if I've ever seen it. It rules. Yeah, no, like, like I mean, this this would be a ah a Catherine wheel.
00:31:29
Speaker
ah specifically named for St. Catherine as it is the method of her death. all Right. That is where the fireworks that are called Catherine wheels get their names. um But yeah, like, it's it's, it's some full. It's some full blasphemous the video game. ah Presumably, I mean, i I have not played enough, but I trust you when you say it's a bloodborne ass stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:56
Speaker
at minimum from software like from software loves a weapon that is a wheel let me tell you yeah he also has like this helmet that he's wearing he's like the judge death but for Aztec yes it looks like Aztec's helmet but evil, yeah. Yeah. He's also 12 feet tall. And ah you can see like, he's jacked, but you can see like ribs ah sticking out through his chest because he has to keep transplanting a new heart into himself. And he's got this spiky armor, but the spiky armor has the Kirby designs on it. ah And when he shows up, he comes out of the shadows and he says, be not afraid, which owns.
00:32:44
Speaker
um Yeah, so the 12 feet tall of it all and the sort of like Deformed grotesque body is a big part of the from software feel of it. Yeah, but the the reason he yeah, the reason he's had to keep replacing his heart is because He is perpetually dying so he has had to like put the bodies of these young men that he's been kidnapping and killing into a machine that then feeds into a chair that keeps him alive. Yeah. that that's that' Very clearly, it's it's not functionally similar, but it's very clearly meant to evoke Metron's Mobius chair. Yeah. Because it has that basic shape, but also
00:33:36
Speaker
like if the Mobius chair was a medieval torture device. Very cool, very cool designs. Yeah. um b i i just This guy is great, they satan ah the the prototype Azrael who St. Dumas didn't quite get it right. Issue 4 opens with a flashback to St. Dumas, then Brother Dumas, with two of his colleagues in the Knights Templar, Brother Garnier and Brother Levine. And ah they tell him about the Angel Maker Box.
00:34:17
Speaker
ah that they found. And Brother Dumas, like, ah he says that what they're saying is divine, devout nonsense. They're talking about the the box bringing about revelation. Yeah.
Moral Conflict and Emergence of Azrael
00:34:38
Speaker
And so he kills them both and takes the box. Yeah, because the like the the kind of trick with with Dumas has always been that like,
00:34:48
Speaker
He was a crusader, but he was like very much like in it for the money. Imagine that. The Order of Saint Dumas had all the trappings of Catholicism, essentially, but was just a like ah criminal organization. Yeah. So then we go to Israel, who has been chained up by the Satan.
00:35:10
Speaker
ah who is praying before he's gonna kill Asriel. And so Asriel asks if he can pray to get right with God before he's killed. He goes, hey man, can I pray on it?
00:35:23
Speaker
And he he tricks the Satan into letting him release himself from his bonds. And he like punches the Satan in the face. And the Satan says, thou wouldst use the sacrament of prayer for deception as a means for escape here under God's eye. And he points to a cross on the wall.
00:35:48
Speaker
um And then he takes his giant Catherine wheel. I mean, there's more of a fight than this. Like first he just like beats the shit out of Azrael for a little bit yeah and calls him a liar and deceiver. Well, specifically he beats the shit out of Jean Paul Valley because having learned that ah he was the product of a mother box and Saint Dumas like weird experiment as Azrael ain't coming out.
00:36:16
Speaker
Asriel took his ball in my home. Asriel goes into hiding for a little bit in this part. Yeah, and so there's a bit where Jean-Paul's like, yeah, I do not... Jean-Paul Valley does not have combat training. Jean-Paul Valley is just a guy. So he's like running away from him and he ends up running deeper into the volcano. And then the comic briefly turns into Dragon Ball.
00:36:39
Speaker
With a a lot of punches, like a splash page, or not a splash page, but like most of a page is taken up with the Satan throwing many, many punches. Yeah, if if I ever write a script and I'm like, hey, do that Dragon Ball shit, this is exactly what I'm talking about. There's one of these in X-Men 92 in the brute store.
00:37:01
Speaker
Finally, he just smashes John Paul Valley with his Catherine wheel and leaves him. didn' Didn't have the iframes for that one. Did not. Did not do the dodge roll at the correct time. And ah there's a splash page of John Paul Valley just like crushed. And it's real good. But he he manages to pick himself up. Do you want me to pull that into Photoshop real quick and and and put a big red you died on it?
00:37:27
Speaker
you da breath ah Yeah, he had to go back and retrieve his blood echoes on that spot. But he he goes into the room with the chair that the Satan uses to revive himself, and the Satan is crawling toward that, bleeding out, because he's overexerted himself.
00:37:50
Speaker
he's never had to do this much in a long time. Yeah, because this dude is 700 years old. Right. And so basically he just like bleeds out on the floor, like, well, jump off alley like drags him back. It's like, ah like the Satan is, is crawling to the ropes in a submission hold in the sharpshooter. And he's about to reach the ropes. And so Jean Paul Valley drags it back to the middle of the ring. Yeah. So he'll tap out. And there's like a really, there's like really cool narration where like Jean Paul Valley both explains it like, Oh, you know, your body is huge, but you've just been here for 800 years, like ambushing and kidnapping like dudes from the town. So we're fighting in an active volcano. It's too much for you. And then he's like,
00:38:45
Speaker
If I don't stop you, you're going to sit on that throne. It'll charge you back up and you'll, you know, the fight will begin again and I can't beat you. But Asriel won't come out. And so John Paul Valley has to make the decision to drag him away from the chair and then watch him.
Confession and Past Connections
00:39:05
Speaker
ah What is it? ah It was Jean-Paul who watched him clasp in vain towards the machines that could save his life. It was Jean-Paul who waited as he suffocated under his own weight until his stolen heart stopped. So it's it's him having to deal with that for like the first time of being like, oh no, this isn't something I'm doing because of my conditioning. I am making the choice to kill this man. Or or at least to let him die, yeah. Well, I mean, he pulls him away from the thing.
00:39:36
Speaker
That's true, i ah but I mean, he's not a man, he's a full-on monster, but nonetheless. Wow, the last wow, wow, wow, interesting, wow, interesting. Learning a lot about you tonight. ah you think you've got You've got more sympathy than me for the Satan? I do have sympathy for the Satan. Anyway, he cries about it and then calls the one monk who didn't die at the monastery. And that monk reveals himself to be not who he thought he was. He he calls himself Father Valley. this is This was kind of my least favorite part of the of the series, but i I do kind of love it. But of everything that happens in the series, I think the Father Valley stuff is the weakest. I can't decide
00:40:34
Speaker
whether I really, really like, and I think I do, the part where Jean-Paul Vallee calls him and he's like, yeah, you know, it was like, I i killed this guy, Brother Carl. Like, you know, and I feel messed up about it because I don't actually feel guilty. Like, I feel like I had to do it and and it's fine. And oh Brother Carl's like,
00:41:04
Speaker
Yeah, um that's because you suck and everything's your fault, actually. Uh-huh, yeah. Yeah. So issue five starts with Brielle becoming equipped with her armor. And so we see it like being like nailed and sawed and soldered onto her body. Yeah. They doctor doom the mask onto her face. Yes. Uh, so it's fused red hot to her face. And then for her gauntlets, they, they crucify them onto her. They like yeah nail the the gauntlets into place. Like she is being crucified, which is like, I mean, it's pretty cool. know the The visual of her like bleeding through this armor that has been forcibly
00:41:57
Speaker
attached to her body is cool as fuck, honestly. And also, again, very blasphemous. Very, the video game blasphemous, yes. Yes. Sorry for me, the heart map. Yes. So, uh, Jean Paul Valley goes back to the monastery, uh, in the GNC to i'll find out what's going on with this guy.
00:42:21
Speaker
And this is what this is one my favorite thing is the whole book. This is what makes the the Brother Carl stuff work for me. John Paul Valley comes to the door. He says, who are you really, Brother Carl? And instead of answering, Brother Carl says, Proverbs 2030. Because just before that, he had said Proverbs 2030, which is, blows that wound, cleans away evil,
00:42:48
Speaker
strokes may clean the innermost parts because he's been self-flagellating inside the monastery." um Eventually, he does explain that Jean-Paul Vallee's dad gave him the name Father Vallee.
00:43:06
Speaker
Yeah, because Jean-Paul was always meant to become the next Azrael after his father. His father was the previous Azrael. But he didn't want... Jean-Paul's dad did not want that. So he just found some other kid and was like, why don't you make this guy Azrael instead? Yeah. Which, ah you know, Father Bali got a right to be mad at that, I think.
Final Battle and Embrace of Azrael
00:43:33
Speaker
So essentially his argument is
00:43:37
Speaker
that the system is good. And that Jean Paul has ruined it. Like he is not a good vessel for the system. Yeah. And so now he's going to kill him and they have a bloodborne boss fights where ah Father Valley is is attacking him with a whip.
00:43:58
Speaker
in this throughout this monastery. That is absolutely a boss fight from blood board. His own scourge that he has been using to self flagellate then becomes like a 30 foot long bullwhip that he uses. so So like, Father Valley like beats the hell out of Jean Paul Valley for a while. And ah eventually like gets him to the point where he just has to like unleash. And he says, damn it, damn them, damn you. And in that panel where he says, damn you, Father Valley just falls to the ground in an explosion of blood. Finally, Asriel sort of re-emerges in that moment after being- The panel, I think he's like,
00:44:49
Speaker
punching him and knocking him back. It looks like he's fucking hadokening him. It looks like a Kamehameha. Yeah. Uh, so, so Asriel finally comes back and there's this great two page sequence where Father Valley says, are you Asriel? And first you see John Paul Valley and he says yes.
00:45:14
Speaker
and he's just kind of standing there bleeding but then the next page is him like fully decked out as real covered in eyes with the golden red wings and it looks cool as fuck yeah he's like a merged Jean-Paul Vallée human body and floating mass of wings and eyes, Asrail, in one person. And he goes, I always was, which is dope. Yeah. Yeah. And this convinces Brother Carl or Carl Vallée to ah join up with Jean-Paul slash Asrail on
00:45:58
Speaker
his side. He becomes convinced that he is the proper vessel for the system. Yeah. Because what we find out is that what happened was the Knights Templar have discovered the the Mother Box, ah the the Angel Maker Box, and are, ah the like, when they activated it, that's what made Brielle wake up and believe that she was the Angel Sariel. And so they're like, yeah, there's a ton of sleeper agents, basically, for the Order of St. Dumas. You know, you weren't the only potential Asriel, neither was this guy and neither was Brielle. So when they activate that box, it's just going to turn a bunch of people into into Asraels, basically. Finally, in the sixth and last issue, Asriel and
00:46:57
Speaker
Brother Valley, Father Valley, go to the new Temple of Solomon in France and find Sariel and battle her. She has the Mother Box. And so there are multiple places where it was like, like the Mother Box is shown. And again, it's never stated that it's a Mother Box, but it's like got these design elements.
00:47:26
Speaker
that are very fourth world-like, like the Omega Beam looking stuff on the page and stuff like that, and I i love that kind of subtlety ah about that. So essentially what happens is that Brother Carl slash Father Valley pairs off with vengeance and fights with her for a while, and Asriel and Sariel face off against each other. While the Mother Box keeps pinging,
00:47:54
Speaker
Which is incredibly cool. And also Sariel's like, I got your sword. What are you going to do? You don't have a sword. I have your sword. And Asriel pulls out a new sword. And he says, ah you seek angelhood, a state of perfection. I have abandoned perfection, Sariel. And that allows me to forge anew.
00:48:15
Speaker
pretty good That's when he's got his like, cool-ass new sword. So they fight for a while. They're interrupted at one point by vengeance being knocked through a wall, which is really funny. Yes. Uh, we also see if the, the wings and eyes, Asriel is kind of like the true version of what the real Asriel looks like. We also see the real Sariel, which, uh, is a, like,
00:48:46
Speaker
Evangelion-looking, four-armed Bayonetta boss yeah that has the the Eagle, Lion, Bull, and Human heads? Yes. And is is dope as shit, but like but like a robot, it looks great. It looks so cool.
Themes of Mercy and Forgiveness
00:49:07
Speaker
Bayonetta boss is is exactly the way I would describe it, yeah. It's very much in that vein. The way that Azrael ends up defeating Sariel is by allowing himself to be cut by her sword, but in the process, she destroys the mother box.
00:49:33
Speaker
like there's like She slashes him down the chest and he allows that to happen, and but but then on the downswing, she hits the mother box too. and like It explodes and knocks her back into the wall. Father Valley explains what's going on here. And he says, don't you see what you have just witnessed? An angel who has changed his will. Behold your miracle. Because never before has an Israel allowed their enemy to strike them.
00:50:05
Speaker
Yes. And that gets vengeance so hard that she drops to the ground and puts her and clasps her hands and says, I killed 23 people and I'm sorry. She, she goes, Asriel, I've killed 23 people in the last two years. Not all of them deserved it. Most did what you said. Is there truly like, can I still find my way to it? yeah I, the idea, like,
00:50:33
Speaker
The idea that we get all of the cool, like, Enochian angels and biblical vengeance and flaming swords and wings and eyes, but like, the revolution or the resolution of this plot is something that is kind of like... I mean, this is a weird way to phrase it, but it's fundamentally Christian in that it is a a person sacrificing yeah in order to protect others, and then offering forgiveness to try and break this cycle of violence. Like, fundamentally, as in, in essence, and Christian as in Christ-like, it's a really smart way to resolve it. Well, and and in the very end, Asriel, who's been called the Angel of Vengeance throughout the the the book up to this point,
00:51:31
Speaker
is now the angel of mercy, right? Yeah. So, like, it's it's stated on the page that this character who has been motivated by bad, the unchristian motivations... ah Yeah, revenge. Revenge, yeah. Avenging angel is what I meant. but because vi it's hard it's Because vengeance is Bane's daughter.
00:51:59
Speaker
but he's the avenging angel but now he's the angel of mercy like john paul valley or or asriel asriel and john paul valley are combined into one being instead of these two separate beings who are kind of at odds with each other and they're working toward one shared goal of bringing mercy and repentance Instead of just just revenge. Yeah, which I think is Really beautiful. It should be noted that like the panel where vengeance the person is asking Essentially asking as a jump off alley for forgiveness He is drawn with a look on his face where he's like what the fuck Like he is not he is also surprised at that
00:52:52
Speaker
but Yeah, like that's that's not why he was doing any what any of what he was doing right right to get her to suddenly like Have the scales fall off of her eyes, but that's what happens. Yeah, which again like I mean Yes, that's exactly what it is. The scales fall from her eyes. ah It's like It is a It is honestly the smartest way to resolve a story about a character who has such biblical imagery to turn him into a Christ figure in a very different way than we usually see that applied in comics, but like also a very literal and obvious way where it's like, yes, that is exactly what is happening.
00:53:46
Speaker
Like yeah it's, I don't, it's good, man. It's really like, it is all of the, all the Bayonetta stuff is cool, right? alllthough All the, all the, the Blasphemous and Bloodborne stuff is super cool. But I do like that it does all that stuff and then also does the thematic religious stuff yeah in a very, in a very cool way. It's a, it's a well done story.
00:54:15
Speaker
I think this bit is worth highlighting. During Azrael's fight with Sariel, at one point, as he's kind of losing, he starts talking about how the talking telling himself how these various saints were martyred, right?
00:54:44
Speaker
St. Dymphna beheaded by her father. St. Lawrence grilled over hot coals. And Sariel's like, that's right. Those stories are good because they're painful. There's pain in them. And he says, I used to repeat these stories of saints to soothe my rage. I thought I did so because I am a sadist, but that is not why. From the pain came sainthood, it is true. But for the light to shine through, the pain had to end.
00:55:15
Speaker
And that thematic piece of the story comes full circle. And that's what he says right before he allows her to strike him with her sword. Yeah, man. And that is so good. Listen, this is one of the few times where a smart comic is as good as a dumb comic. The highest praise I think we can give. Well, i like, here's the thing.
Series Reflection and Critique
00:55:42
Speaker
Who would have thought A six issue as real miniseries would be a smart comic. Who could possibly have, who who possibly could have guessed? yeah Not you, maybe Denny O'Neill. Maybe Denny O'Neill would have seen that one coming, but that's about it. I had no prior knowledge of Dan Waters at all.
00:56:15
Speaker
And like some of the some of the other Dan and Waters comics I've tried to read, I've been, let's say, lukewarm on. like the destro The new Destro book, I thought was, okay. I didn't feel compelled to like totally stick with it. right But this has got me seeing him in a whole new light as ah as a writer. Yeah, man.
00:56:46
Speaker
Cause this is, this shit is good. It's extremely good and extremely smart and, uh, beautifully drawn, incredibly letter, beautifully colored, has some like really incredible character designs. Like everything that can be good about comics is good about this. All right, Chris, now that we've said all that, it's time to rank it. It's, it's really good. I think there are a couple of things in it. I don't want to say they're clunky.
00:57:17
Speaker
but they're not as elegantly done as maybe they could have been? I think the like the weakest part of this to me is that the like the fight scenes can get a little muddled. It's sometimes hard to tell what is going on. I think that's balanced out by the like excellent character designs and excellent like visuals of the book. um But I think like it it's a little bit the action can be a little bit confused sometimes. But other than that, like I kind of like all of it. I think the end of issue two is a little weird. it's It's not that I don't understand what's going on, but it feels weird ah to just
00:58:16
Speaker
have the hero be self-incapacitated and the villain just walks in and takes the woman he was trying to protect away. Yeah, I get that. I i didn't hate it. I get why you did not like it. it's It's not that I didn't like it. It's just it's not as elegantly pulled off as it could have been. Similarly, some of the stuff with Brother Carl, like after Jean-Paul Vallee kills the Satan. ah The fact that he just calls Brother Karl on the phone, that's how it brings Brother Karl back into the story. like Again, maybe slightly inelegant.
00:58:59
Speaker
i mean he he does say like you know that he had to track him down and call a bunch of people. yeah if We don't see that. what he wants to do yeah but What he wants to do is confess. He wants to give a confession. And Brother Carl is the only person he can think of to do that, to take it. And even Brother Carl is like, well, I can't give you absolution. I'm a monk. um But anyway, aside from those little bits of inelegance, I think it is what's i think what's great about this book is that it
00:59:33
Speaker
really balances all the smart stuff we talked about, all the clever resolutions and all the clear knowledge of biblical lore that you would have to know to make some of this stuff work the way it does in both the writing and the art, right? But on but besides that, it's also got a giant monster called the Satan that uses a Catherine wheel as a weapon and ah a priest final boss that uses a giant whip and armor being put on somebody forcefully with nails and
01:00:21
Speaker
soldering and and welding to the point where they're bleeding through the armor. And it's just like that cool shit. It's weird to me it's weird for me to know that there is someone out there who literally knows exactly as much about both Azrael, the comic book character, and the Hey Geographies of Saints that I do. it His name is Dan Hodder.
01:00:49
Speaker
very weird for me to experience that. We were texting about this earlier, and I referred to this as Apocryphal's The Comic Book, because it kind of is. It's not far off the mark, yeah. It's kind of, you know, boy, if you like one, you'll probably like the other for sure. You want to see some Bible-style crying blood? Here you go. I think this is one that I would speak of in very similar terms to the way I would talk about, you know, like a Jed McKay book, an Al Ewing book. Like, like I think it it is as good as those. I will tell you what my eye was immediately drawn to on the list as I think a good starting point for comparison. Okay. At number 160, we have the 2021 Beta Ray Bill story.
01:01:49
Speaker
ah miniseries by Daniel Warren Johnson. I think this is as good as that. I have that at 159. All right, we will have to resolve that at some point. ah Because I have it at 160. Okay. Yeah, I don't think it's that good. I do think it's it it's in the like, the first thing I do whenever I open a full list is I go to number 500, which is Bialia my Bialia from Justice League International. It's better than that.
01:02:18
Speaker
Let me see if that's what my number 500 is. Yes. How, how is that? How is that? like That's confusing. I don't know, Matt. I wish I did. What do you have at number 160? Or what, what do you have at number 158? At number 158 is GI Joe Seeds of Empire. GI Joe number 100? Uh, yes. What I have at number 159 is X-Men red numbers one through 10.
01:02:48
Speaker
I have that at 160. So those are transposed. Yeah. I think X-Men Red, number one through 10, we put at 159. Okay. Above the beta rate bill. but I have made the adjustment. Because that whips. have The thing that I would, the thing that I will not say this is better than is X-Men Red, numbers one through 10. Yeah, for sure. Let's see at number 250, we have JLA World War III, buddy, it ain't that good.
01:03:17
Speaker
Okay. But it a it it ain't shameful to be worse than World War III. That is a comic that makes me cry every time. Alright. Uh, at number 265 is Hellboy the Wild Hunt? I mean, I think it's probably about that good. I think it's about that good, yeah. Uh, I don't know if it's better than Wolverine's Marriage and Uncanny, X-Men, 172-173. I don't think it's as good as Death of Doctor Strange, that comic.
01:03:45
Speaker
really kicked ass. it did du It did. It did. It did. It did. Uh, but I don't think it's, I don't think it's as good as Parker, the outfit. It is. It's certainly on par with scroll girl beats up the Marvel universe. Okay. Is it better or worse than JLA hit man, which we have a two 72. That one also kind of makes me cry. It's better. It's better than the lady in the lion, which is the lie superman issue.
01:04:14
Speaker
I think it goes with the new number 274. Under Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe. Yes. That comic has a flip chart. Alright. Okay. Sword of Azrael 2022 is the new number 274, which I think is a pretty good showing for that comic. It's certainly the best comic named Sword of Azrael. That is not...
01:04:43
Speaker
ah the strongest possible competition. I mean, there's only two. Yeah. ah But the other one's not bad. The winner among the two is the 2022 sort of Azrael miniseries, which, again, shocked me with how good it was. Really got me. Like, go out of your way to read this comic. Yeah, it's it's extremely good.
Episode Conclusion and Listener Interaction
01:05:17
Speaker
Our our discord again, really nailed it on this one. It was like, you guys will love this and they were right. All right, we'll be back in March with another comic sketch up. I think we've got a couple of possibilities for what we could do in March. So ah we'll we'll let you know what it's going to be when we get there.
01:05:39
Speaker
If you would like to suggest a Comics Ketchup candidate, you can email us at warrocketpodcast.gmail dot.com. You can join our Discord, which you have to be invited to be a member of, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we will get you one, and you can go over there and be a member, and suggest Ketchup candidates. You can suggest Ketchup candidates in a message on Patreon,
01:06:06
Speaker
ah go to patreon dot.com slash warrockinhx to become a member there are unpaid and paid uh subscriptions on patreon but why don't you become a paid member uh when we reach 420 paid members on patreon we will take an edible and uh and do some bo bonus content and you want to hear that don't you of course you do Our website is warrockandajax.com. It is every episode of the show we've ever done. warrockatwiki.com is the fan repository of lots of information about this show, War Rock and Ajax. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to mattdwilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb dot.com. That is my website. It's got two things you can read on it and then a bunch of links to other things that I do around the web.
01:06:59
Speaker
Also, if you liked this episode in particular, go listen to Apocryphal's. Yeah, it's a very good podcast where Chris and Benito ah read the Bible and talk about it, ah both canonical and non-canonical parts of the Bible. I almost wish we hadn't done this episode of Comic Sketchup so that we could do this book for Apocryphal's.
01:07:26
Speaker
Oh, i I see. You'd rather talk about it with Benito than me. Gotcha. Yeah, I would. I said almost. ah I almost forgot to mention our Blue Sky. We're on Blue Sky at warrocketajax.com as well. And you can suggest comics catch up candidates there as well. I post a lot of pictures from manga that I read on Blue Sky. That's kind of the only thing that I use Blue Sky for. ah But they're good panels for manga. They are good panel if you want to find out about ah Dude, it's the fuck with Ken Chiro and what happens to them? They're on there. What happens to me on Blue Sky is I hear Kendrick Lamar address Drake by name on the Super Bowl and I tweet and I post, damn, he did it. And somehow that post explodes and people are like re retweeting it and stuff.
01:08:26
Speaker
And then people responding to that like, where's the context for this? What does this mean? Who did what? And it's like, um man, I wasn't posting that for you. What are the fuck off? i did lot He Damn he did it. Damn he did it. That fucking shitty smile.
01:08:49
Speaker
What an incredible, what an incredible hater. I love it. I love us to see it. king of the haters. i i It was never even in the running. ah Bye, everybody. Bye, everybody. Good catching up.