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Slaine #5
Slaine: Demon Killer
C'est pour notre plus grand plaisir qu'Ukko le nain, le parasite royal, vient nous conter la suite des aventures de son maître, le grand roi Slaine Mac Roth.Dragons, monstres, batailles sanguinaires, traîtrises et humour sont les fers de lance de ce cinquième volume des aventures du plus sauvage d'entre tous les guerriers. Nous pensions qu'il était mort... Il n'en est rien ! Plus en forme que jamais, Slaine et Ukko nous emmènent au coeur des ténèbres dans une ahurissante chasse au démon.
96 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 1996
2 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Pat Mills
848 books230 followersPat Mills, born in 1949 and nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since.
His comics are notable for their violence and anti-authoritarianism. He is best known for creating 2000 AD and playing a major part in the development of Judge Dredd.
His comics are notable for their violence and anti-authoritarianism. He is best known for creating 2000 AD and playing a major part in the development of Judge Dredd.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 31, 2020
I had a fun time with this! I really enjoyed the introduction, as Pat Mills made some excellent points about the way we commonly present the Romans as a civilising force upon the native Celts, thus doing a disservice to their culture. The Boudicca/Slaine team up was cracking and I really enjoyed the way serious points about imperialism and the Roman Empire were made in a way that can also be applied to wider history as a whole. Once again, I also really like the focus given to the Mother Goddess and the messaging to value and respect the earth (given as it is alongside much arse kicking and carnage!).
Glenn Fabry's art style is not always to my personal taste, largely because it has a grotesque aspect to it, but I recognise that this is actually key to the story and suits the horror, demons and Slaine's warping very well. I really love the very brief appearance of Greg Staples and Nick Percival's style in the Jealousy of Niamh arc. It is utterly gorgeous and almost slightly dreamlike in some ways - it manages to capture that mythology/unreality aspect of Slaine in a different way to the more overt, gore-filled style of the others.
Finally the choose-your-own-adventure story at the very end was such a lot of fun and a really fab end to the collection! The black and white art by David Lloyd felt quite striking and I had a great time flipping back and forth (and dying, quite a lot...)
Glenn Fabry's art style is not always to my personal taste, largely because it has a grotesque aspect to it, but I recognise that this is actually key to the story and suits the horror, demons and Slaine's warping very well. I really love the very brief appearance of Greg Staples and Nick Percival's style in the Jealousy of Niamh arc. It is utterly gorgeous and almost slightly dreamlike in some ways - it manages to capture that mythology/unreality aspect of Slaine in a different way to the more overt, gore-filled style of the others.
Finally the choose-your-own-adventure story at the very end was such a lot of fun and a really fab end to the collection! The black and white art by David Lloyd felt quite striking and I had a great time flipping back and forth (and dying, quite a lot...)
September 16, 2020
This book begins with a few brief adventures featuring Sláine not enjoying himself as the High King of Ireland as he is now considered too 'precious' to fight, despite his attempts to start a few. It then moves to the main story where Sláine has reached the end of his reign as High King and is ready to be put to the death. But the Earth Goddess has other plans for him and sends hin forwards through time to fight by the side of the warrior-queen, Boudica, in her attempts to expel the Romans (here referred to as Caesarians) from Britain.
But the Caesarians has a demon from the El-worlds on their side: Elfric, whom Sláine has met and fought before in a previous book. Elfric deliberately enrages Boudica by violating sacred places and performing other awful acts, leading up to a major battle between the forces that will determine the future of Britain.
At the end, Sláine requests the Earth Goddess to send him back to Ireland. But he returns to one that has been changed during his time away and he now has to find a way to return to them. But that is a story for another book.
Compared to previous book, this one puts the violence and battles more front and centre. Instead of featuring more general images of battlefield fights, this book shows more individual combatants, often in the midst of having their heads severed or bodies bloodied. And the carnage is not limited to soldiers: acts against civilians and women worshippers are also shown in more violent detail.
And the violence is not one sided. Sláine (and Boudica) are depicted as showing no mercy to the Caesarians soldiers or civilians either. This is definitely not a battle between Good and Evil but rather between natives and invaders and both sides are not willing to back down in the battles that take place.
But the Caesarians has a demon from the El-worlds on their side: Elfric, whom Sláine has met and fought before in a previous book. Elfric deliberately enrages Boudica by violating sacred places and performing other awful acts, leading up to a major battle between the forces that will determine the future of Britain.
At the end, Sláine requests the Earth Goddess to send him back to Ireland. But he returns to one that has been changed during his time away and he now has to find a way to return to them. But that is a story for another book.
Compared to previous book, this one puts the violence and battles more front and centre. Instead of featuring more general images of battlefield fights, this book shows more individual combatants, often in the midst of having their heads severed or bodies bloodied. And the carnage is not limited to soldiers: acts against civilians and women worshippers are also shown in more violent detail.
And the violence is not one sided. Sláine (and Boudica) are depicted as showing no mercy to the Caesarians soldiers or civilians either. This is definitely not a battle between Good and Evil but rather between natives and invaders and both sides are not willing to back down in the battles that take place.
June 22, 2020
Slaine is a mighty warrior with a punk rock hairdo and a huge axe called Brainbiter. Slaine is chief of a Celtic tribe living in Ireland in pre-Roman times. Pat Mills' Celts are completely free of bourgeois middle-class suburban values for they like drinking, wenching and fighting. Actually, there are still a lot of modern Celts like that. These ancient fierce people do not fear death because they believe in reincarnation so for them it is not the end.
This collection is basically the story of Slaine and Boudica with a prelude and an epilogue. It opens with 'The High King' in which Slaine is grumpy because it is the feast of Samhain and he is not allowed to indulge in violence. He does his best to provoke a fight by insulting and thumping various subjects but they ignore him. A man is gorily sacrificed though and revives from death to tell our hero he will soon go on a mighty quest to help Queen Boudica fight the Romans. Slaine is happy at the prospect of some slaughter.
So the Earth Goddess has Slaine leap into a deep well and after a slog through some damp tunnels, he emerges in Roman Britain. The Romans, called Caesarians by the Celts, are aided by an evil green demon called Elfric. He tries to sacrifice Slaine to some dark Lovecraftian gods, beings from the stars.
That's the plot, which rolls along nicely. As for character, frankly, I found Slaine a bit hard to take. Unlike Conan, who does his share of killing, Slaine does not spare women and children. Roman collaborators are penned in a giant wicker man and burnt to death without even Edward Woodward to try and save them. I admit that Pat Mills challenges my bourgeois working class values with all this gore but that is probably his intention. Part of the raison d'être of fantasy is to portray different societies with different values and that is well done here. Indubitably folks in the old days were pretty bloodthirsty. The Celts did not write things down so the only records we have of them were written by their Roman enemies and are generally not flattering. The lack of real historical knowledge gives writers plenty of leeway to make things up.
Pat Mills might have portrayed worthier Celts even in a genre that demands action. There's a bit too much blood for my taste. Red ink, or paint, or computer program, abounds in the art which is excellent throughout. The work of Glenn Fabry is particularly brilliant but Greg Staples and Dermot Power serve up gorgeous pictures too, mostly in colour. Pat Mills, of course, is a founding editor of 2000A.D. comic and has been a mainstay of that worthy organ since the last century.
It is possible for a reviewer to recognize that something is good even when it does not quite suit his own taste. This here is not my cup of blood but sword and sorcery fans who are not as soft as me may well enjoy it.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
This collection is basically the story of Slaine and Boudica with a prelude and an epilogue. It opens with 'The High King' in which Slaine is grumpy because it is the feast of Samhain and he is not allowed to indulge in violence. He does his best to provoke a fight by insulting and thumping various subjects but they ignore him. A man is gorily sacrificed though and revives from death to tell our hero he will soon go on a mighty quest to help Queen Boudica fight the Romans. Slaine is happy at the prospect of some slaughter.
So the Earth Goddess has Slaine leap into a deep well and after a slog through some damp tunnels, he emerges in Roman Britain. The Romans, called Caesarians by the Celts, are aided by an evil green demon called Elfric. He tries to sacrifice Slaine to some dark Lovecraftian gods, beings from the stars.
That's the plot, which rolls along nicely. As for character, frankly, I found Slaine a bit hard to take. Unlike Conan, who does his share of killing, Slaine does not spare women and children. Roman collaborators are penned in a giant wicker man and burnt to death without even Edward Woodward to try and save them. I admit that Pat Mills challenges my bourgeois working class values with all this gore but that is probably his intention. Part of the raison d'être of fantasy is to portray different societies with different values and that is well done here. Indubitably folks in the old days were pretty bloodthirsty. The Celts did not write things down so the only records we have of them were written by their Roman enemies and are generally not flattering. The lack of real historical knowledge gives writers plenty of leeway to make things up.
Pat Mills might have portrayed worthier Celts even in a genre that demands action. There's a bit too much blood for my taste. Red ink, or paint, or computer program, abounds in the art which is excellent throughout. The work of Glenn Fabry is particularly brilliant but Greg Staples and Dermot Power serve up gorgeous pictures too, mostly in colour. Pat Mills, of course, is a founding editor of 2000A.D. comic and has been a mainstay of that worthy organ since the last century.
It is possible for a reviewer to recognize that something is good even when it does not quite suit his own taste. This here is not my cup of blood but sword and sorcery fans who are not as soft as me may well enjoy it.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
June 26, 2022
This series has gotten kind of awkward, it feels like Mills trying to find his footing after something as grand as Horned God. He manages to make a great story out of it, Elfric is one of his best villains. There's also Fabry's stellar painted art. Powers isn't so bad himself. But theres nothing that can really be done to make this series not feel like it's entered a redundant phase. I'm actually scared to keep going.
December 28, 2019
This is the first time traveling story for Slaine. Personally I prefer the old Celtic fantasy setting to the more historical encounters. In this story arc Slaine defends the British isles against he romans who are led by his nemesis Elfric.
April 19, 2015
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT.
BOOK ONE: Well, this starts off slow, I mean, who cares about that Jealous Niamh storyline? Did nothing for me.
Thia volume is told from the narrator-like P.O.V of Ukko, the inference here being that Slaine was killed, not by sinister hands but by custom, as in those days the ruler was put to death as soon as his reign was over.
The interesting bit starts with Slaine being called by the Earth Goddess into her realm to defeat Elfric of the Dev-els, the Caesarians. Slaine defeats Elfric. and is put to death upon the end of his reign. Danu, the earth Goddess makes another appearance and resurrects Slaine in the cauldron of rebirth. His new mission is to fight for her in a different age. This is where the story gets a little hairy. Coz its a different time, seems like the same plane, and even the foe is the same: the daemon Elfric. The way the story is told doesn't really do much in the way of making one suspend belief, at least not easily.
But moving on -- Elfric is going around desecrating the earth goddess and everything sacred. Crom-Cruach and the dark gods of Cythrawl appear as well.
Slaine teams up with Boudica, queen of Britain's witches, to drive the Caesarians back to sea. The condition is he has to become her consort for a year, then be ritually put to death. He gladly accepts coz he's already a dead man.
They sack Colchester. Elfric let's them coz he's trying to lure Slaine into the temple of the old gods of Cythrawl, where Slaine can't warp.
Slaine fights a diluvial, which is no match, but Elfric is, coz apparently Elfric can shoot a laser beam from his third eye?!?!
Hmmn, so much for suspension of belief.
BOOK TWO:
After his adventures with Queen Boudica, Danu gives Slaine leave to return to Eriu. He travels through the worm holes of time and ends up at Tara, only it's no longer his time. He arrived a couple of thousand years later, at a time when St. Patrick was preaching Christianity throughout Ireland,
Anyhow, Slaine though stricken down by Elfric and delivered to the dark gods of Cythrawl manages to somehow kill Elfric and escape.
As Slaine and co. are preparing to burn Caesarians and their collaborators in a wickerman, a ninth legion attacks Colchester. Slaine and co. dispatch the Romans quickly and prepare to match on Llandin, the final frontier. After taking Verulam, Slaine and Boudica erect The Bone Prison of Oeth. And with all the blood and ghastliness, the bone Prison reanimates Elfric. Elfric desecrates another sacred site and enrages Boudica to the point she marches her army into a defeat. Many Celts die in that battle and though Elfric is slain, yet again, the dark lords win.
Boudica and Slaine retreat and drink poison and are laid to rest. their tomb sealed. But the earth goddess doesn't send Slaine to the afterlife just yet. As a reward, she grants him return to Ireland. But in the time 1140 A.D.
In Ireland faced with the threat of a new dark god, Iahu, who thrives on human sacrifice. Slaine's mission is to find the Sword Of The Blood God. Slaine and Ukko encounter a tribe of dwarves, who crown him King Of Greenwood. To find the sword of the blood god, Slaine has to see Niamh, who has been reincarnated as a nun, Sister Marian. Marian knows the whereabouts of the sword but she won't tell him coz she's on the dark side. Slaine manages to read her subconscious and in there he finds Niamh who gives him a clue, a puzzle. Slaine finds out that the sword is being kept at the nunnery.
Marian however is confronted by Niamh and convinced to honour her past warrior self and leave the nunnery. The blood god doesn't like that. He captures her.
Slaine figures out the blood god's name and summons him. The blood god to spite Slaine sends Marian back to the nunnery to be tried as a witch. she is sentenced to death. Slaine rushes to save her, even though he has to take the sword of Iahu first.
At the stake, Marian invokes the goddess and the tree spirits to come to her aid. Iahu is summoned also. And what an epic battle ensues in which Slaine destroys the blood god with the 'arrow of truth.'
VERDICT: Slow start, but damn, it sure does climax well. Great writing, great pencilwork, awesome story.
BOOK ONE: Well, this starts off slow, I mean, who cares about that Jealous Niamh storyline? Did nothing for me.
Thia volume is told from the narrator-like P.O.V of Ukko, the inference here being that Slaine was killed, not by sinister hands but by custom, as in those days the ruler was put to death as soon as his reign was over.
The interesting bit starts with Slaine being called by the Earth Goddess into her realm to defeat Elfric of the Dev-els, the Caesarians. Slaine defeats Elfric. and is put to death upon the end of his reign. Danu, the earth Goddess makes another appearance and resurrects Slaine in the cauldron of rebirth. His new mission is to fight for her in a different age. This is where the story gets a little hairy. Coz its a different time, seems like the same plane, and even the foe is the same: the daemon Elfric. The way the story is told doesn't really do much in the way of making one suspend belief, at least not easily.
But moving on -- Elfric is going around desecrating the earth goddess and everything sacred. Crom-Cruach and the dark gods of Cythrawl appear as well.
Slaine teams up with Boudica, queen of Britain's witches, to drive the Caesarians back to sea. The condition is he has to become her consort for a year, then be ritually put to death. He gladly accepts coz he's already a dead man.
They sack Colchester. Elfric let's them coz he's trying to lure Slaine into the temple of the old gods of Cythrawl, where Slaine can't warp.
Slaine fights a diluvial, which is no match, but Elfric is, coz apparently Elfric can shoot a laser beam from his third eye?!?!
Hmmn, so much for suspension of belief.
BOOK TWO:
After his adventures with Queen Boudica, Danu gives Slaine leave to return to Eriu. He travels through the worm holes of time and ends up at Tara, only it's no longer his time. He arrived a couple of thousand years later, at a time when St. Patrick was preaching Christianity throughout Ireland,
Anyhow, Slaine though stricken down by Elfric and delivered to the dark gods of Cythrawl manages to somehow kill Elfric and escape.
As Slaine and co. are preparing to burn Caesarians and their collaborators in a wickerman, a ninth legion attacks Colchester. Slaine and co. dispatch the Romans quickly and prepare to match on Llandin, the final frontier. After taking Verulam, Slaine and Boudica erect The Bone Prison of Oeth. And with all the blood and ghastliness, the bone Prison reanimates Elfric. Elfric desecrates another sacred site and enrages Boudica to the point she marches her army into a defeat. Many Celts die in that battle and though Elfric is slain, yet again, the dark lords win.
Boudica and Slaine retreat and drink poison and are laid to rest. their tomb sealed. But the earth goddess doesn't send Slaine to the afterlife just yet. As a reward, she grants him return to Ireland. But in the time 1140 A.D.
In Ireland faced with the threat of a new dark god, Iahu, who thrives on human sacrifice. Slaine's mission is to find the Sword Of The Blood God. Slaine and Ukko encounter a tribe of dwarves, who crown him King Of Greenwood. To find the sword of the blood god, Slaine has to see Niamh, who has been reincarnated as a nun, Sister Marian. Marian knows the whereabouts of the sword but she won't tell him coz she's on the dark side. Slaine manages to read her subconscious and in there he finds Niamh who gives him a clue, a puzzle. Slaine finds out that the sword is being kept at the nunnery.
Marian however is confronted by Niamh and convinced to honour her past warrior self and leave the nunnery. The blood god doesn't like that. He captures her.
Slaine figures out the blood god's name and summons him. The blood god to spite Slaine sends Marian back to the nunnery to be tried as a witch. she is sentenced to death. Slaine rushes to save her, even though he has to take the sword of Iahu first.
At the stake, Marian invokes the goddess and the tree spirits to come to her aid. Iahu is summoned also. And what an epic battle ensues in which Slaine destroys the blood god with the 'arrow of truth.'
VERDICT: Slow start, but damn, it sure does climax well. Great writing, great pencilwork, awesome story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews