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| Louis VII: Hahaha, the interest of France! | Henry: Isn’t that right, darling? Eleanor: Don’t you take credit for that too! Henry: Hahaha! One by one, the last supporters of the House of Blois have surrendered their castles and paid me their tribute... |
Conclusion to the six-part graphic novel biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, my favourite medieval character. Volume 5 deals with the first years of Eleanor‘s second marriage to the future King Henry II of England. Volume 6 deals with the last half century of her life, telescoping five decades into 55 pages. The art and characterisation remain gorgeous, but I felt that the writers were a little less in control of their material than in previous volumes. Volume five has a weird subplot between Henry and one of Eleanor’s former lovers, and also gratuitously kills off Eleanor’s sister, when in fact she lived until the 1190s. There is also some nasty ableism around Henry’s younger brother, who is deformed and stutters, and therefore is evil. Volum 6 simply has too much material to cover in too short a space, though I did like the characterisation of Henry and Eleanor’s children, and the structure of telling the story through flashback from Eleanor’s old age in Fontvrault. Overall it’s been a solid series, and I will in particular look out for more work by Simona Mogavino. You can get volume 5 here and volume 6 here.
This was my top unread non-English language comic. At present the only other comics in that pile are the last two parts of Marc Legendre’s Amoras.
