Comic Books
Medieval Blood Baths, Predatory Aliens and Hapless Knights lure in ‘Lake of Fire’
When a crusade meets an intergalactic invasion
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that we can’t have enough monster showdowns. A crossover clash that doesn’t pull the punches on full-scale destruction and offers inventive smackdowns involving next-level tech will always satisfy our inner child. Cue Lake of Fire.
Nathan Fairbairn and Matt Smith deliver on that premise in their criminally underrated graphic novel. Having knights combat a horde of blood-thirsty aliens may be a well-trodden sci-fi trope yet when the execution is this good, that hardly matters. The young, naive knight aspirants, the grizzled crusader haunted by his past, the plucky and courageous Joan-of-Arc style heretic and the implacable monk slash Inquisitor threatening damnation and hellfire are drawn with surprising emotional depth, for all that they are stereotypes. Despite there being no internal dialogues, letters or diary entries, the individual fears and motivations are fleshed out well enough to make us care about the characters. For a five-issue comic, that’s no mean feat.
Blending humour with action, Lake of Fire is both well plotted as well as well paced. Fairbairn and Smith choose to focus on the slippery slope of religious righteousness and the reality of genocide rather than making this a tale about just another alien invasion. Knights and villagers, Catholics and Albigensian heretics have to grapple with their fear and resentment of each other to launch a co-ordinated attack against ‘the monsters from hell’. The idea of what makes a knight noble in the face of such odds is social commentary worthy of Game of Thrones. But for those in it purely for the action, there’s enough gore, clashing swords and alien shrieks to fill the pages. Think Kingdom of Heaven meets Cowboys & Aliens.
A perfect blend of character study (though sadly not when it comes to the aliens themselves!) and action set-pieces, Lake of Fire is a fun genre mash-up that’s easy to follow and get invested in.
