Cerebus 2, entitled “Captive in Boreala”, is probably the weakest of the bunch of the first half-dozen issues. Cerebus is shanghaied into a military expedition, then falls down a hillside when ensorcelled soulless warriors attack. He crashes into a dark hall where he finds the Eye of Terim, another gem that’s ensorcelled (my new favorite word!). The Eye is part of the 5 spheres of the gods (reflected by the 5 circles in the medallion that Cerebus wears?), and is guarded by the demon Khem. Cerebus’s greed wins out over fear of a demon attacking him, which is fine, since apparently an aardvark’s soul is hard to find and cannot be stolen by Khem.
This issue has some funny stuff, like when he has to fight Klog, the mercenary warrior, in the Duel of Long Knives, to prove himself. He’s tied to the guy by a short piece of cloth, which doesn’t quite work, although it does allow for the earth-pig snout punch! There’s another funny bit as to Cerebus’s moral code, as well.
We learn some more about Cerebus as well, as he is revealed to be multilingual, and his soul is hard to find. And in world building, we get a number of curses related to Clovis, like By Clovis’ Beard and so forth.
The artwork is still rough, but Sim gives us a 2 page spread, as well as using continuous backgrounds on a number of pages, so while representational art is still rough, the language of comics is utilized well in Cerebus 2.
Overall, though, this is a weak issue, and also doesn’t do much for the series as a whole later on, as far as I know.
