| MINDS is not
about you, the reader. The story arc MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS ended with the
afore-mentioned final volume of which it was composed. Yes, Cirin is still
there, for awhile anyway. The first approximately 60 pages, she and Cerebus
have what is essentially a repetition of the screaming match between him
and Astoria in issue #105, only instead of in the dungeons of a small Tarimite
church, this one takes place on a large chunk of rock shooting through
space.
But, even though we will
get to hear some talk about her behind her back, MINDS is not about Cirin.
So, accordingly, Sim gets rid of her. No, no, don't be upset-slash-throw
a party (whichever you prefer). He simply sends her to Saturn for a while.
So Cerebus is left all alone
on his large chunk of rock.
Now the fun begins.
Did I mention MINDS is not
about Cirin, MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, or you? It concerns, in fact, a certain
puzzling grey-furred personality whom we have all come to know and love/hate.
And his Creator.
As you know, Sim has spent
something like 20 years on his title character, Cerebus. He has been "Prime
Minister, then he was a houseguest, than he was Prime Minister, then the
Pope, and then a house guest again."
Don't forget mercenary,
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, and... aww, skip it.
He has been offensive, cruel,
cunning, barbaric, sophisticated, loving, unlovable, scheming, noble, petty...
Etcetera.
He has been the focus of
attention, and he has been in the wings.
He has been a lot.
So what is he?
Well, it hurts to say it,
but he remains much the same in one tragic respect. He is destructive.
He has wrecked, or had a part in wrecking, the lives of a lot of people,
and he is well on the way to wrecking his own. Sim has tossed just about
every trick in the book at him, and he still continues unswervingly on
his path to a grim death "alone, unmourned, and unloved." He seems inviolate.
It has become painfully clear that nothing on earth is going to make him
change.
Well, he's not on Earth now,
is he?
Sim has taken the voice of
a lot of people in his books, including Cerebus himself, Oscar Wilde, Jaka,
and Victor and Viktor. Now, in MINDS, he takes his own in a lengthy discussion
with Cerebus: Creator to Creation.
You see, Cerebus has run
up against a brick wall. With all that has happened, he continues grimly
on the road to self-destruction. To draw a parallel, he has now encountered
that same fork in the road Neil Gaiman's Morpheus encountered. He must
either change...or die.
If a "needle in Cerebus'
eye," "Jaka's new boyfriend," and "abandoning Cerebus on Juno" don't make
him change, it's not likely anything else will.
MINDS concludes on a humorous
note, but there is still danger. Cerebus seems resolved to change his life,
but then again, he's no longer stranded on Juno, is he? Instead, he's falling
through space...to the rest of his story.
Well, this volume was released
in June of of 1996. We have until 2006 before the story ends. Ten years
in which Cerebus can either shape up or revert back to his old ways--change
or die.
Is that a cliff-hanger or
what? |
