CORT: Children of the Round Table #5 – Tom Taylor, Writer; Daniele Di Nicuolo, Artist; Rain Beredo, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Our young heroes are on the way to their epic quest now, having gathered in Avalon to train under the mysterious Gwen and the suspiciously young Merlin. But there was a huge bomb dropped last issue – the villain who has kidnapped Connor’s grandmother and is the one seeking control of the swords for himself is actually the President of the United States, a silver-tongued charmer with an army of evil at his back. That adds a big sense of urgency to the rest of the series, and one of the fun parts of this issue is the way the training doesn’t just focus on building the kids’ skills, but on enhancing the teamwork between the swords. This is especially tricky when it comes to Arthur and Lancelot, who started as brothers and ended as bitter enemies. By the end of this segment, we’re starting to see the characters come into their own not just as heroes, but a team.
But there’s still one more test to go, and it’s the best visual of the series. Led by the Green Knight, one of the most intriguing figures from Arthurian legend, the kids enter a massive shifting hedge maze, forced to work as a team to find their way to the secret at the center. And that’s where they find a massive statue – of them, as heroes in the future. What’s interesting about this is that it shows off what might be major spoilers about their destiny that they now have to live with. Some characters get hints about their future love connections. One finds out about a potential tragedy that might befall them in the future. And one is highly conspicuous by their absence. That sets the emotional stakes especially high as they get ready for a big confrontation – one that reveals another shocking secret about one character’s parentage as we get ready for the finale of the first big arc.
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