"A dark light is coming..."

#10,"DESTROYER Part I"--Madam Raven has a vision of utter destruction - with the Elder at its center - so terrible that it shatters her crystal ball. Telling the crew that "something has happened that requires my most serious attention", she declares the Circus closed and sends out four soul-ravens to see the Four-Who-Are-One. Meanwhile, in the city, young Joshua Childe - after a week of tormenting visions - begins a horrific transformation; and the omen with which the ravens return destroys the chains that hold closed the chest of the icons of the Four.

#11, "DESTROYER Part II"--In the realm of the Elder, the Four meet to discuss "matters most grave" - a breach of reality that has unsettled cosmic order itself - and debate their course of action. They make their decision ("There are times when we must be cruel in order to be kind," sighs Starbearer), and a mighty storm strikes the Circus. Downtown, Joshua Childe completes his metamorphosis, and comes forth as the Nightmare King, a towering, reality-warping power of chaos. (Incredible visuals here as the very city twists and distorts into weird shapes around him.)
At the Circus, the Elder make an awe-inspiring appearance to announce that they have thrown off their bonds and go forth to meet the challenge - while a bizarre, soul-killing horror spreads outward from the Nightmare King's presence...

#12, "DESTROYER Part III"--Once more Madam Raven sends forth her four fetch-ravens to visit the Elder, and finds them inspecting the havoc that the spreading chaos has wreaked on their celestial homes. The members of the Circus are trapped where they stand, the four avatars dying, severed from the Elder who were the Circus's life. The Four-Who-Are-One join battle with the endless waves of the Nightmare King's ghastly army and do impressive damage, but are overwhelmed by its sheer numbers and dragged into the presence of the army's commander. The Four defy the Nightmare King magnificently and for a moment force it to reveal the human being - Joshua Childe - at its core, but this revelation outrages the monstrosity and it swears their destruction.


Starbearer surveys the ruin of his garden;
King of Beasts takes counsel with a friend.


Note: WOW! I can't remember ever seeing a comics villain as scary as the Nightmare King. Holguin pulls out all the verbal stops to show that this is no mere stomp-and-bash monster but a cancerous blight, an anti-life-force of insanity and corruption, nihilism personified. Man! He/it really gives me the crawls!

#13, "DESTROYER Part IV"--The Nightmare King gloatingly presides over the motionless, crucified forms of the Four and tells the tale of how the Elder Themselves made his creation possible. Once, eons ago, the Four quarreled, and for a time disbanded, "carelessly abandoning their sacred oath". In that hour - the only span in earth's history when the Four were not One - "--was I born! Born of the void created by their absence, a small speck of selfish malignancy." Thus he's not only the product of the chaos that their unity holds at bay, but the result of their pettiest human flaws: irresponsibility, ill-temper, arrogance. In the most literal sense he is their fault.

--as the four avatars slip over the edge of death, the Nightmare King raves that its victory is complete, and chaos swarms pour into the now-defenseless Circus grounds. But Madam Raven desperately repeats the spell of binding with which she first created the Circus, and the Four-Who-Are-One return in full glory.


With a blast of world-purifying light (and a splendid line: "You disappoint me, Abomination...is that really the worst you can do?"), Celestial teleports the Nightmare into the Elders' own realm, where reality is reconfigured, justice is finally done, and Starbearer conducts Joshua Childe into the next world.

..A spectacular arc! Amazing!


#14, "Year of the Fox, Part I"--A change-of-pace adventure set in medieval Japan. Ukira, a young warrior, is en route to the ruler of his clan with a message containing vital military information. In a dream, he is surrounded by foxes, one of which dips its paw in the ashes of his campfire and marks his face. When he wakes, he is in the company of a strange travelling circus, and after watching its performance (a gorgeous tour-de-force by Medina and Conrad in designing appropriate Japanese costume for the Four!) the stunned Ukira finds himself alone in a valley that was not there before. There he faces a series of tests...

#14, "Year of the Fox, Part II"--Having mastered his emotions and passed the test of Starbearer's Garden, Ukira passes the challenge of the Demon's Realm and "the temptation of hate", and travels through the Kingdom of the Cat God, where he triumphs as well over his animal nature. In Celestial's palace, he chooses to return to the material world, only to find himself seemingly trapped in the strange circus...but he wisely recalls all he has learned from the fox spirits and the Four-Who-Are-One, saves his clan from destruction, and begins a legendary heroic career.

NOTE: This is of course the long-called-for Eric Carr tribute, beautifully mounted and unashamedly loving, especially on its last page. The use of Asian folklore, where foxes indeed have great power, is inspired, and the artwork is unbelievably lush and opulent, with wealth upon wealth of intricate, glowing detail. Man, this book just gets better and better!


#16, "World Without Heroes, Part I"--Disheartened street kid Alex, whose only consolation is a children's book of heroic tales, finds a ticket to the Circus, where he's given a card that says "make a wish". As the city around him reshapes into a Lord Dunsany fantasy of towers and gargoyled spires, he's challenged by the Demon...


--as you NEVER expected to see them!...


#17, "World Without Heroes, Part II"--Offered a range of choices, Alex's apathy and despair cause him to reject every one, until he realizes that loss of hope is the worst enemy of all...

(I really ought to finish this someday.---she said, in 2007.)

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