Once And Future #15
Mary and Rose have a chat as Gran and Duncan make a discovery in Once And Future #15, by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Dan Mora, colorist Tamra Bonvillain, and letterer Ed Dukeshire. After the more action-oriented recent issues, this one slows down a bit, revealing more information about past events and setting up even more plot points.
Mary confronts Rose and gives her an ultimatum- listen to Mary's story, tell Mary about what Duncan and Gran are doing or die. All the while, someone is watching the whole thing and calls in back-up. Meanwhile, Duncan and Gran return to their old house. Duncan takes away Gran's weapons because of what happened the last time they were there, and they enter, going to the bathroom, where she tells Duncan to boil some water. Mary begins her story to Rose, telling her how much she loves her children and airing her grievances against her mother's grievances. At the house, Gran is able to figure out just what Mary did and summons Lancelot, who is looking for Mary. Mary relates the story of how she summoned Lancelot and what it cost her to Rose. Lancelot keeps asking in medieval French where Mary is, and when Duncan steps up to fight him, Gran tells him to back off. Rose refuses to tell Mary anything, and Mary respects that but still is about to kill her when armed troops storm the apartment. Mary escapes, and Rose gets another gun in her face, this time from a government agent, Sir Jason Hemplesworth, who wants to chat with her.
Gillen has mastered the art of doing info dump issues that don't feel that way, and this issue is a perfect example of that. He's able to fit a lot into it, using cuts between scenes to keep the reader's interest and make the whole thing more exciting. Each scene builds into the next one, revealing more and more as time goes on. It's a great way to give readers a lot of information, keep the pace high, and build anticipation for the next revelation.
This issue does a lot towards fleshing out things that Mary has done and the way she sees her mother. Her opinion of her mother that she's just as much of a monster as the creatures she's spent years killing is actually a pretty valid read of Gran- she's shown that she's capable of doing anything, especially if she believes it's the right thing. It's also something that Mary inherited from her, and, ironically, Mary doesn't see that about herself. The interplay between Mary and Rose is actually very entertaining, as both of them are rather unyielding. Gillen leads readers to think that Mary is going to kill Rose, which would have played into the tired women in refrigerators trope but sidesteps it expertly while still keeping Rose in danger and building up the subplot of just what the British government knows about what's going on.
Dan Mora doesn't get any huge action scenes to draw, but he indulges his character acting, which really helps this issue's more story driven narrative. He also gives Lancelot a different design than he's given other Arthurian characters in the book. Usually, their designs have been more medieval, but Lancelot looks almost futuristic while still having an old school flavor to him.
Once And Future #15 clues readers in some things they needed to know while also setting stuff up for later. Gillen accomplishes this without ever letting the book seem slow or boring, building anticipation and tension with the scene cuts. He doesn't give Mora any big action scenes but lets him show his character acting chops, making the issue work that much better. Once And Future #15 does a great job of cluing readers in and keeping things on the up and up.
