Writer / Penciller / Colour Artist: Matt Emmons / Letterer: Andriy Lukin / Design: Diana Bermudez / Editor: James B. Emmett / TP / Collects: Crusader #1-#4 / Mad Cave
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Review by: Paul Dunne
14th November 2024 (Released: 28th February 2024)
The Pitch: A nameless Templar Knight from the Third Crusade finds himself magically transported to a mysterious world filled with sorcery and monsters. In order to survive, the ferocious Crusader must reevaluate his penchant for violent righteousness and make peace with both himself and this ruthless world. But will peace be enough to stop the deathless, power-hungry ghoul known only as The Pilgrim?
I don't know much about the Crusades, except for the odd movie I've seen or article I've read. Of all the conflicts white Christianity threw itself into, it is without a doubt the most morally questionable. Perhaps the reason that very little Crusade fiction seems to exist - although I'm happy to be corrected on that point - is just that. There are no heroes on what would nominally be 'our side'. Remember, this is a fifty-year-old white guy writing this, so I’m tarring myself with this brush too. It begs the question of how you solve the moral epiphany that must come to all lead characters in what must be anti-hero contexts. For Emmons, the answer is to move the theatre of conflict to another dimension, whilst keeping the player the same.
Emmons doesn't shy away from the violence at the core of this Crusade. There are panels of the streets of Jerusalem literally awash with blood. As it turns out, this is a key factor, as our nameless knight discovers fellow Crusaders opening a portal to a distant world, with blood serving as the river between them. The Knight is transported to this place, known as the Beastlands, where he dispatches some Goblins who plan to feast on him, discovering in the process a small Goblin-esque creature that offers to be his guide, and that he can no longer remove his helmet or armour.
Probably not the way he expected the day to go, to be fair. As he travels the land, attempting to find more humans and perhaps a way home, he incurs the wrath of nameless, god-like beings who resurrect a creature known as 'Pilgrim', who being an unkillable assassin, is charged with bringing the Knight before these Gods. As a whole, despite falling into the realm of high fantasy, Crusader is very slight, coming in at four fast-paced issues. With that, you get a brevity of character where they have to be defined only by their actions.
Emmons writes well and fast, keeping the pace moving, befitting the relatively short page count of the book. His art style revels in the grotesque nature of the events, both in our plane and in the Beastlands. Faces warped, teeth sharpened. There’s a little in common with artist Mark Badger, who would often bring his unique style to superhero comics for DC. There’s even a touch of Star Wars with the odd little gobin Grimbel. Lukin populates this space with interesting voices, using his lettering tools well. Diana Bermudez puts together a nicely designed book to hold these weird styles together. Crusader is an interesting curio from Mad Cave, a book about a man who goes searching for purity in unjust wars and is shaken when he can’t find it, realising that his enemy – his true enemy – might just be the concept of conflict itself.
Crusader is available at your local comic book shop now.
