Lake of Fire #2 Review

Lake of Fire #2

Writer: Nathan Fairbairn
Artists: Matt Smith
Colorist:  Nathan Fairbairn
Inker: Matt Smith
Letterer: Nathan Fairbairn
Publisher: Image

Medieval knights murdering alien monstrosities; the frenetic pace of Lake of Fire continues in its second issue. This issue balances 13^th century medieval culture and alien action.

Our group of knights return to the city after their first encounter with the aliens and they are flabbergasted. This is the greatest thing about the book, it is firmly rooted in its setting. You commonly see in stories someone who knows what is going on and able to offer sage advice and guidance. Lake of Fire doesn’t give its characters that easy way out. None of the characters have any way to describe what they just fought or how to contextualize what is going on. It’s a pleasure to see that because as farfetched as the premise might be, having people react correctly makes the book feel more authentic. Given that this is 13^th century France, their response (or Brother’s Arnaud to be exact) is a religious one.

When Rome fell in 410 AD, Western Europe experiences a huge downturn and there is a massive power vacuum. Just like nature, society abhors a vacuum. The organization that fills that vacuum, as best they can, is Christianity or The Church. This continues until the Age of Enlightenment in the 17^th-19^th century and Europe gets a little more secular. Given all of that, it makes perfect sense that in Lake of Fire when all reason and logic go out the door, due to the terror of aliens invading, religion pops right up.

Brother Arnaud, our monk from the first issue, commences with religious reasoning for the aliens and blames Bernadette. Bernadette is the young girl from the first issue who is a heretic because her brand of Christianity is a little different from mainline France. Because Bernadette is a heretic, she must have used her connection with the devil to summon monsters who attacked the party on their sortie last issue. All the other players know that she was attacked just like everyone else, but because Brother Arnaud is part of the Church, he word is practically law. The only one who stops Bernadette from being beaten in the street is the knight Raymond Mondragon. However, even he cannot stop her from being burned at the stake later that night.

Raymond Mondragon words in this issue warn of the dangers of religious zealotry. His story is that of a career knight. He has been on the crusade trail for 11 years and he has seen the horror of it all. Remorsefully he states, “Twenty Thousand souls, man, woman, and child. Heretic and catholic alike, it didn’t matter. ‘Kill them all,’ they told us ‘God will know his own’”. Mondragon’s words serve as a reminder of the evil men will do in the name of God. As it relates to the story, even though Arnaud has no idea what the aliens are and what their purpose might be he comes to the conclusion that killing Bernadette will make things better.

While Bernadette is on the stake, the aliens attack and Matt Smith’s stunning artwork illustrates the horror and confusion perfectly. His art conveys the motion of the aliens and the sword strikes perfectly. And as usual his storytelling throughout the issue is superb. I won’t spoil what happens during the latter half of the book, but it is intense.

The Verdict:
Buy It! Historical fiction has rarely been done as well as Lake of Fire. Even with the far-flung idea of an alien invasion being the crux of the story, because of the rooting of the characters in an expertly contextualised setting I am enthralled by this story and cannot wait for the next issue.