Taleweaver

(WildStorm, 2001-2002)
™ and ©2001 DC Comics

The tale woven here is both about and by a young slave named Axel (with assists from writer Leonard Banaag and artist Philip Tan). Toiling under a fat slave–master along with a bunch of other captives, most of whom Axel seems to disdain, he dreams of freedom and destiny. Fortunately for him, a vaguely Celtic Samurai army masses on the first page of the comic, specifically to find one special lad destined for greatness. Around the campfire that evening, Axel’s buddy Ronan and sister Cecil bicker about the best way to tell a story in what seems like a clever bit of psychology designed to draw Axel out of his aloof, taciturn state. He brews a fable of a young man (well, bird), called to defend his adoptive hedgehog community and their liberator, a bird of prey seeking the avian known as “Alex.” Axel’s tale is interrupted by its own conclusion, when the Samurai-ish army attacks and the young man is tapped for greatness, just like the story he’d been relating. Joseph Campbell would be proud.

— Brendan McGinley

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