MKFantastico
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Tarot #54 (spoilers)
Hi again everyone, apologies for my extended absence - time's been short and life's been busy, but I just had to get back here after reading #54 to say thanks to Jim and Holly and all involved for suck a rocking issue. I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I adore Raven Hex - perhaps even a smidgen more than Tarot, even, though being so different obviously I see them very differently, so it's hard to compare - so this issue was just a delight.
Fantastic art, foremost - not just the lovely Raven and her vividly spiky bustier, and the many and varied women she encountered on her whirlwind tour of tales, but the whole presentation of the issue: the discoloured, frayed edges of the pages, the vibrantly coloured foreground figures set against sketched backgrounds, the style and placement of the text, so much like a child's storybook. I really enjoy comics that go the extra mile in presenting themselves, changing or even discarding the usual layout formula in favour of something more suited to their own particular story; this was a great example.
(Speaking of Raven's bustier, though, the more I think about it the more I'd like to see more of it. Not just for the obvious reason  but because it seems really fitting for her to wear. It's enormously revealing - since she's never hidden who she is, ever since her episode in the Labyrinth revolving around her insecurity about her body back in the 'Diaries' issue - and it's beautiful in its own right, but at the same time it has the look of a barrier, a spiked wrought iron fence. Appropriate for someone like Raven, who's never quick to lower her defences to strangers, and who often proves 'spiky' to say the least to anyone who's careless about approaching her.)
I've always enjoyed seeing fairy tales skewered by a bit of subversive reinterpretation (I have among others the Twisted Fairy Tales action figure of Red Riding Hood, in spiked thighboots and opera gloves, holding a bloody knife having cut the wolf open herself, and it's a favourite), so Raven's rampage through the traditional tales was full of glee for me. Let's face it, well-loved as they are, the fairy tale classics come from an even more stifling age than our own, and their moralising in terms of female roles is pretty dispiriting when you look at it in the cold light of day.
But re-reading the issue a couple of times I came to think of it much more in terms of Raven than the tales she meddles with - I'm thinking of it now as a follow-up to #49, 'The Dark Path', and this the first real outing for the 'new' Raven Hex, following her rededication of herself to her chosen path. She's a woman of great contrast (like her inviting-intimidating bustier, heh), amoral in some ways - I found it intriguing that she offered her brand of wisdom equally to the 'wicked' characters as to the beleaguered damsels in distress - but her whole trip this issue seems born out of generosity more than anything else. On a surface level she acts because the repression of women in the stories irritates her - but she's not a player in the stories, and their fate doesn't influence hers; what she's angry about isn't herself, but the wasted potential of their lives. She seems like a kind of crusader, really, out to make the world a better place, by her own interpretation of 'better'. Again, the opinions she offers the villainesses is interesting - she doesn't try to solve the conflicts between one character and another, only to free each individual from the restrictions they're letting themselves be put under. What happens next between, for instance, the Sea Witch and Triton isn't her business, just so long as they're being honest with themselves.
And I'm rambling again - Tarot does that to me, there always seems to be so much beneath the surface. To be brief (for once) congrats and thanks for yet another issue - two issues, in fact, I'm still getting both covers (I loooove the solo Raven one, with the parchment colour coming through her bustier and hair) - full of thought-provoking ideas, charming storytelling, and gorgeous women 
--- Chris Cook
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2/2/2009, 3:11 pm
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HollyG
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Re: Tarot #54 (spoilers)
Just wait Chris... Raven's moving toward a dark place....
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2/3/2009, 12:02 am
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MKFantastico
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Re: Tarot #54 (spoilers)
Really? Interesting. She seems more balanced now than she was in her early days - more in sync with herself, not so drawn to external factors that she hopes will satisfy her internal needs - but as you say, she hasn't become less dark, exactly; the potential to be truly dangerous is still in her. I wondered after the 'Dark Path' issue about her way of 'cleaning up her mistakes' - whether she genuinely recognised why she'd made mistakes to begin with, or if she was just detaching herself from her past without quite acknowledging it. This issue seemed to present her as more at peace with herself (after her own fashion) - but then, you have her helping out the wicked witch and so on, so there's nothing in her philosophy that shies away from the dark. And of course she wasn't dealing with 'mere mortals' exactly - she knew the stories, had a connection to them (even though she wanted to change them), so it's not like her benevolence - as she sees it - was being extended freely to strangers.
I'll be waiting with bated breath for the next Raven issue
--- Chris Cook
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2/3/2009, 5:34 am
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HollyG
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Re: Tarot #54 (spoilers)
it's woven into The next story arc...
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2/3/2009, 7:42 pm
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MatrixRunner57
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Re: Tarot #54 (spoilers)
I am anxious to see Raven Hex's dark side. Right now, I don't see how it can be done so I want to see how you utterly surprise me with something I never would have thought of!
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2/7/2009, 4:00 pm
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Broadfan212
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Re: Tarot #54 (spoilers)
I agree with MKF, about the issue. For me, it was more or less what I expected from a Raven inspired fairy tale book. Excellent work on the coloring, Holly, as usual. Raven's bustier was interesting.
I have to say, I agree that Raven is an interesting character of contrasts. Unlike Tarot, who I see as a mostly reactive character, that is going after bad guys after they've done something. Raven is a very proactive character. And she's very contradictory. She genuinely wants to help witchkind, and even to a certain extent mankind. She wants witchkind to rule mankind because witchkind, in her view, is superior to mankind and would run things much better. She just thinks that her way of remaking the world is so good that the ends to an extent justify the means. Personally, I like her more towards the villain side of things.
And while I like her dark costumes, I actually like her better naked. Maybe it's because my first, and to this day favorite issues are 17, 18, and the Mists of Darkness. And the strength that Raven, Tarot and their Mother (who is my absolute favorite character, and I think criminally underused in the book) exuded in spite of Azure trying to humiliate them, was wonderful. And Raven has always been strong no matter what her circumstances are. To me it just reinforces her control of any situation she's in, like when she was recuperating and Jon had to take care of her. She was terribly injured, but still in control of herself and her situation. I think that's what the nudity with the storybook heroines here was about. It wasn't about being titillating, but about taking control of their situations and destinies.
By the way, I'm still waiting for more of Mother.
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2/8/2009, 11:16 pm
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ArtemisHi
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Re: Tarot #54 (spoilers)
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and had a whole review written. Which my compy just ate. Poo! So, that having been said....I really want to make (but not wear) Raven's wrought-iron-gate corset. I loved the throwback to Disney with the Cinderella character, and Red with a blaster was just priceless.
--- "When I'm good, I'm good- when I'm bad, I'm better."
-Mae West
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3/8/2009, 3:05 am
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