An old woman staring straight at you, with a bloodied staff in one hand and a sword in the other, among a mass of dead male bodies is one horrifically-delicious cover done by Justin Greenwood and Brad Simpson for issue one of ‘Crone’ from Dark Horse Comics. Before you start reading this comic book co-created by Dennis Culver and Greenwood you get the sense that this will be one satisfying tale.
In a place called Broken Keep that seems to have been once a devastating fortress a man with a skull for a helmet and bones for armor, heading a massive army looks afraid. He should be since his skull-headed army is being cut down by a woman with the moniker Bloody Bliss. This flashback shows a fiery redhead who’s at her best winning battles among insurmountable odds. However she’s not alone. Years later a much older, weather-beaten woman looks over a snowy ledge. Has Bloody Bliss turned into a tired old relic of folklore or is she on the ultimate quest? Then an old acquaintance brings with him dire news as he reenters Bliss’ life and has asked her to be a warrior once again. But is it fair to have Bliss fight yet another battle in her advanced years? So much time has passed and age doesn’t seem to accumulate wisdom when this person from the past seems to ask the impossible.
Culver and Greenwood’s miniseries takes the old trope of the tired old fighter by making the character a woman with no special powers. Bliss doesn’t use magic, she hasn’t got implements imbued by gods. She’s just a woman who knows how to fight. And the nonlinear narrative of this first issue is an opportunity to tell how Bliss became this woman with a mythic reputation. It’s a refreshing take on the choices we make and the integrity we need to have in order to stand by promises made decades before. This storyline arc also subverts the version of what a crone is supposed to represent. Bliss isn’t some old, wise woman with supernatural abilities. She doesn’t seem to be an archetype, instead her irritability appears to be due to the desire to be left alone. As a reader you want to find out how Bliss came to be on a mountain fighting bears with a tiny looking ax. Then there’s how she earned this reputation where people would risk their lives to ask for the help of the woman with the long white-haired braid. It’s only issue one and already ‘Crone’ is special.
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