Cerebus #13: Another thing coming

This issue starts out with Cerebus, having escaped from Beduin, being captured by some rural farmers and taken for judgement by their priest. Deciding that he is a creation of the evil sorcerer Necross the Mad, the priest orders one of the farmers to take Cerebus to Necross’ castle to turn “his magic against him.” The priest tells one of his followers, Despuess, that because Cerebus is “grey and furry” and the mold on their crops is “grey and furry” and because Necross caused their crops to turn “grey and furry”, Cerebus must be a creature of Necross. With logic like that, what could possibly go wrong?

Was there really any doubt? Once inside Necross’ castle thing do go rather badly for Despuess — the only thing left of him are smoldering bits on the floor. While the priest flees to find reinforcements, Cerebus has a nice little chat with Necross, who it turns out is rather mad. Though he does deny causing the farmers’ problems. Seems he is too busy trying to figure out how to destroy the universe. He also shows Cerebus Thrunk, his greatest creation. Thrunk is a 16-foot-tall stone statue that looks an awful lot like another guy made of stone that we all know….

The priest returns with more farmers and quickly kills Necross with an arrow to the chest. “An arrow?! He always used incantations before!” Necross mutters as he’s dying. “What a time to start operating on a physical plane!” A little tribute to Wizards, perhaps? As the farmers begin to storm the Castle, Thrunk comes to life, inhabited by the spirit of Necross. Much stomping of farmers occurs until only the priest remains. The priest brandishes a sacred amulet only to have it brushed aside by Thrunk. In a nice twist to Cerebus’ usual endings, the golden amulet literally lands right on top of Cerebus. And then, you guessed it, the priest gets stomped. As Cerebus walks off into the distance, Thrunk realizes that he is standing on the only reinforced floor in the tower and is trapped.

This is, I think, the most thoroughly humorous issue so far. One of the things I really enjoyed was that the comedy is not just the parody of the Cockroach or Elrod. It comes from the interactions of the characters and their reactions to the situations they find themselves in. Don’t get me wrong, I have most definitely enjoyed Elrod and the Cockroach — both are brilliant characters — I’m just saying that I also appreciate this more…natural, character-driven comedy.

From Necross’ mad rantings, to the farmers’ quickly shifting alliances and their arguing over trivial matters while they’re getting stomped, to the illogical dictates of the priest, there are plenty of laughs throughout this issue. While people being crushed to death is not generally considered to be all that funny, the stomping of the farmers is definitely done for laughs and I think it works because we don’t actually see it. We only hear it from Cerebus’ point of view as he’s climbing out of the castle and contemplating the madness of everyone in Lower Felda.

One of my favorite bits is when, after being accused of “consorting with dark demons,” Cerebus is asked how he pleads and he answers, “Cerebus demands that you release him or he call upon his dark masters to turn you into a flock of pious pink toads…” One of Cerebus’ accusers turns to the other and says, “that’s not a half-bad defence.” Maybe more people accused of witchcraft should take that approach.

And in a nice little zing against the priest and the small-minded farmers, one of the crimes Cerebus is accused of is “not looking like one of us…”