“Boy, you been a naughty girl and you let your knickers down.”
Before we get into talking about the book, maybe we should talk about the book’s audience. With this latest issue, the conclusion of the second story arc, you can check around the net for reactions and find everything from “it may be the defining book of the decade” to “I don’t get it” to “Casanova is over-rated at best.” While I lean closer to the first option myself, I can thoroughly understand others reactions to Casanova. Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon are not creating characters or stories that will connect with a large audience. To speculate that Casanova could be “defining comic of this decade” is reaching a bit. Casanova may be important to a portion of the readers and creators but it lacks a universality to it. Maybe Fraction and his artists will end up proving me wrong. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman didn’t become DC’s megahit SANDMAN until it hit it’s third major arc. It was good and special before that but “Season of Mists” was the point where Gaiman proved himself to a much larger audience. Could Casanova achieve a Sandman-like cult following?
And now back to the actual book (and be warned, there are probably spoilers ahead)…
The question posed early in the latest arc of Casanova was “when is Casanova?” And the answer ended up being right under all of our collective noses; he’s now and he’s in every issue. We just missed it as he hid in plain site disguised and living as his sister Zephyr. If Casanova has been about anything, one of its strongest currents has been examining the identity issues of its lead character. From the first issue, where he was pulled into an alternate reality to replace the version of himself there, he’s been leading two, three or more different lives. He’s been the good boy, the bad boy, the double agent, the best friend and even the murderer. He’s the son who ran away from home and the prodigal son all at the same time; he ran away to his own home. Of course he has issues. But those issues appeared to be under control by the end of the first arc, as he sat with friends and watched the sun set over the the ocean. With the second arc, Casanova disappeared while Zephyr took center stage. She’s been out of control, dangerous and on a killing spree while we thought Cass hasn’t been seen.
The first seven issues of Casanova built his world but once that was completed, the next seven issues have been constantly tearing it down and contradicting everything, even events that happened in just the previous issues. Issue #13 featured the supporting cast recovering from an attack by Zephyr and each remembering a good time or helpful word from Cass. After bloodshed and destruction caused by his sister, they found some refuge and peace in memories of Casanova, not realizing his own hand tore through and killed some of them. What was built up last issue is torn down this issue as friends seek revenge against Casanova.
Where the first arc ended on a note of hope, this one ends on a feeling of loneliness. Casanova found someone to be with during the course of this story and, in the end, he’s rejected for being himself and no who he was thought to have been. He’s betrayed friends and lovers who considered him one of the good ones and the father who he was finally connecting with discovered that his true son is no longer alive. In just one issue, Fraction has put his lead character through the wringer, tearing down everything that’s been built over the course of the book. Fraction must be taking the writer’s credo “kill your darlings” to heart.
I look forward to the return of this series because now that we’ve answered “when is Casanova” we can get to the more important question of “who is Casanova?” Rogue criminal from an alternate reality? Secret agent and one of the good guys? Is he his father’s son or sister’s brother? With the reveal of his identity in this story, I’m reminded of an issue from the first arc where Cass taking the role of a star photographer had to wrap himself in bandages to look like his boss/enemy Xeno Newman. While it was never overtly referenced, the questions of identity stuck there head up there and you had to wonder just exactly how much separated the good guy from the bad. That same question now hangs over this last arc as Zephyr reveled in being a bad guy and rebelling against her father. Not much of that was a act but it mirrored the true, original spirit of Casanova that we saw in issue #1.
Casanova #14 is one of those issues that, if you’ve been reading the story all along, makes you happy for the present but fear the future. How much more can Fraction put this character through?
Casanova #14
“Hallo Spaceboy”
Written by: Matt Fraction
Drawn by: Fabio Moon
Letttered by: Sean Konot
May 19, 2008
1
Keep working, great job, I love it!