Mouse Guard: The Black Axe 1

It’s the twelfth century. A mouse who has spent the spring constructing a new military outpost is about to depart for the city, when he encounters an old lady mouse who arrives on the back of a crow. She’s come specifically to see him. They’re attacked by the Fishers (warrior-like weasels) but escape onto the back of a duck in a quest for an object known as the black axe.

Summarised that way, this comic combines all the things that I hate. Cute, anthropomorphosised animals. Oldie-worldie dialogue. A mock-medieval setting. A quest for a (presumably) fabulous object. Why then is it rather good?

Let’s start with the art. It’s gorgeous. It recalls traditional children’s book illustrations, classic European graphic novels, and woodcuts. Looking at comics these days, I’m constantly amazed by how derivative and ill-executed many are. The situation here is rather different. You get the impression that Petersen couldn’t draw a duff illustration if he tried. There’s something still and considered about it, even in the most dynamic scenes. There are no explosive sound effects, no dynamic speed lines. Exaggeration isn’t a device Petersen uses – everything’s very believable (and that’s neither praise nor criticism – just a description). It appears very detailed, but much of that detail is generated by the use of colour overlays. It’s not a unique style of art in the comics world – this is very much in the Barry Windsor-Smith/Charles Vess/Art Adams school, but it’s seldom so well executed.

The storyline’s more problematic, and it’s more a problem with conception rather than execution. Break it down to captions, to pacing, to dialogue and it’s pretty much faultless. The writing’s clear and literate, the characters believable and well-defined. It’s very well constructed, and you feel that the events are happening for a purpose, which is the antithesis of the “superhero fight of the month” trap that many writers fall into. It could be impossibly cute, but there’s a cruel edge to Petersen’s world, as seen when the weasels savagely attack and kill the crow. No, the problem is that it’s not terribly original. In particular, there are strong echoes of the Lord of the Rings movies throughout, with one scene seemingly a direct steal from/homage to the first film. No matter how well executed, you do get the impression that you’ve seen it all before.

Petersen’s an obviously capable writer and artist, but you feel that his skills have outgrown the initial mouse guard conception (this is the third book of the series). That reservation aside, this is still well worth investigating, and I’ll certainly be picking up subsequent issues to see how it’s progressing.