Monday 4 June 2012

Mind Game V & VI

Cerebus #156-157 (March-April 1992)
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard
FOLLOWING CEREBUS:
(from the No More Games essay in Following Cerebus #8, May 2006)
...in Flight, Mind Game V and VI not only appear back-to-back, but the "game" takes on literal form [as a game of chess] and continues through to the end of the book, making this the longest Mind Game sequence in all of Cerebus.

The sequence begins quite strangely, as Cerebus, surrounded by Cirinist warriors, suddenly disappears from sight. It turns out he is ascending, first through whiteness, then up through the clouds and into the Seventh Sphere, where he is welcomed by Suenteus Po...

...Being the final Mind Games story, Cerebus finally gets some answers... Po provides Cerebus with information, but carefully chosen... Po recounts his own history - including correcting the account the Judge presented to Cerebus while on the moon - and the history of his son Alfred, who started Illusionism and declared that "All life was an illusion". Po himself was reincarnated and ended up in trouble with the Eastern Church because of his reformist views: he was brought up before (of all people) Suenteus Po III, Alfred's son! This was the trial that 'echoed' through to Astoria's trial before Pope Cerebus.

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