{"id":1626,"date":"2010-02-18T18:06:58","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T23:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=1626"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:11:52","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:11:52","slug":"madame-xanadu-exodus-noir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1626","title":{"rendered":"Madame Xanadu: Exodus Noir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madame Xanadu<\/a> Vol 2: Exodus Noir<\/a><\/em> (2010) Matt Wagner, Michael Wm. Kaluta<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Disenchanted<\/em> gave us Madame Xanadu’s past–how her powers were curtailed by Merlin. Exodus Noir gives us a different look into her past through two time lines, one in 1493 during the Spanish Inquisition, the second in the 1940s, as she looks into the horrible death of Catherine Shepard’s father.<\/p>\n

The Spanish Inquisition thread shows us a window into her life during a time of great civil terror, as the inquisition attempted to root out Conversos who are still secretly practicing Judaism. Although she is somewhat horrified by the actions of the church, she sees it as nothing to concern her personally.<\/p>\n

Pretty sure you can see how that can’t end well.<\/p>\n

The 1940s thread starts with a daughter attempting to investigate her father’s death–he was found burned up in his apartment, with no outward signs of foul play. Madame Xanadu discovers great evil, and attempts to find its source before there are more deaths.<\/p>\n

I quite liked both of these stories, even though both were quite horrifying: the Spanish Inquisition story in its look at man’s inhumanity to man, while the 1940s story deals with the horrors of the occult.<\/p>\n

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the 1493 thread is the more disturbing of the two.<\/p>\n

As far as the art, I really liked the 1940s thread, and the feel of the city at that time. Not that the 1493 thread wasn’t realistically drawn, it’s just that peasants aren’t that exciting, IMO.<\/p>\n

If you have not read Disenchanted<\/em>, you should still be able to read Exodus Noir<\/em> without difficulty. Although we do learn more about the character of Madame Xanadu over the course of the two books, the order in which these stories are read shouldn’t matter too significantly.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madame Xanadu Vol 2: Exodus Noir (2010) Matt Wagner, Michael Wm. Kaluta Disenchanted gave us Madame Xanadu’s past–how her powers were curtailed by Merlin. Exodus Noir gives us a different look into her past through two time lines, one in 1493 during the Spanish Inquisition, the second in the 1940s, as she looks into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,9,291],"tags":[282,522,898],"class_list":["post-1626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-graphic-novels","category-paper","tag-madame-xanadu","tag-vertigo-comics","tag-ww-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-qe","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2474,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2474","url_meta":{"origin":1626,"position":0},"title":"Madame Xanadu: Vol 4 Extra-Sensory","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Madame Xanadu Vol 4: Extra-Sensory (2011) Matt Wagner, Marley Zarcone, Laurenn McCubbin, Chrissie Zullo, Celia Calle, Marian Churchland I really like the layout for this volume. We see slices from several years in the 1960s in which Madame Xanadu took part. The first several stories only have Madame Xanadu in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Madame-Xanadu-Extra-Sensory.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1332,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1332","url_meta":{"origin":1626,"position":1},"title":"Madame Xanadu","author":"Michelle","date":"September 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Madame Xanadu Vol 1 Disenchanted (2009) Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Handley, Richard Friend First things first, I am not a regular comic reader. 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Stories are still told--stories told and histories remembered where we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/House-Mystery-Beauty-Decay.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2837,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2837","url_meta":{"origin":1626,"position":4},"title":"A Clean Sweep With All the Trimmings","author":"Michelle","date":"February 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A Clean Sweep With All the Trimmings (2011) James Alan Gardner Cleaners help clean things up. Sometimes that includes messes when wiseguys with green blood and black wires come in and shoot up Madame Rosa's place. Cute. But then I've always been a sucker for noir. 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