Mark Allen reviews Casanova: Acedia #6…
Casanova studies his benefactor and his benefactor returns the favor as a mysterious woman with connections to them both emerges from the shadows of sun-soaked Los Angeles.
What do well-endowed demons, interdimensional super-spies and metanarrative comics-within-comics have in common? Well, they’re all featured in Casanova: Acedia #6, which continues the story of the titular Casanova Quinn as he tries to uncover the secrets of his boss’s hidden past and his own forgotten identity. But the above is far from everything that’s packed into this series.
Casanova is a dense comic at the best of times and Acedia is no different, so if you’re thinking about jumping on here, you might want to reconsider heading back a few volumes and starting at issue #1 instead. This installment covers several supporting characters repelling a mystical assault by the aforementioned demons, an illuminati-esque meeting between some new villains and, of course, Casanova having sex with someone beautiful.
Though writer Matt Fraction’s scripting has become less reliant on verbose, tongue-in-cheek captions explicating the story, Acedia is still just as complicated and serpentine as ever. However, Fraction now allows his collaborators’ work to do more of the heavy lifting and uses his dialogue more as a recursive poetry, key phrases and ideas being repeated in different scenarios throughout the arc. Simply put, if dialogue is lyrics then they’re now working in perfect harmony with the music, which tended to be drowned out by verse after verse in earlier albums.
Colour is often the most striking aspect of Casanova’s art despite Gabriel Ba’s sensual, vivid linework, which tells you just how high standards are on the book. Cris Peter mostly works in shades of two or three main colours, and in this case she uses subdued reds and blues to great effect, bringing distinct moods to scenes and characters and washing panels in contrasting colours which both makes the layouts pop and serves to effectively distance characters from one another without a word having been spoken.
What’s most striking about this incarnation of Casanova is how different it is from previous volumes despite using all the same ingredients (albeit variations thereof), and how you have to sort of adjust to the speed and tone of each new issue. This might be a challenge to some but those looking for something fresh and exciting will welcome that challenge; it’s thrilling to watch established creators push themselves in new directions and experiment, even (especially) when you have no idea where they’re going with it. For now, just lay back and enjoy the melodies.
Rating: 9/10
Mark Allen
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Originally published July 23, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
