Elric: The Dreaming City #2 ~ Elric Needs a Vacation, But Alas Cursed Swords And Dragons [Spoilery Comic Book Review]

The titular Elric really needs a long vacation after Elric: The Dreaming City #2. Mostly due to a bad case of dragons. Oh, and Stormbringer, of course.

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 is the 2nd and final issue of this comic book series based on the novelette of the same name by Michael Moorcock. Moorcock, however, is not the writer of this comic book. Julien Blondel is the writer, with Julian Telo as the artist. Frank Brunner is the artist for the main cover, with Jean Bastide, Stevan Subic, and Julian Telo responsible for variant covers B and C, and the FOC cover respectively. Oh, and finally, Titan Comics is the publisher of this sword and sorcery comic book series.

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 went on sale on September 8, 2021. You can purchase physical copies from your local comic book shop for that sweet paper feel. If you’re fine with the digital version though, you can download it directly from Titan Comics.

Warning: spoilers for Elric: The Dreaming City #2 below. If you want to read this dark fantasy story for yourself, stop here, and come back once the screaming and bleeding are over. Oh, and of course, once you’ve escaped the fire-breathing dragons.

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 ~ Plot Summary

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 picks up where we left off on the last issue, where we last saw Elric lifting the curse off of his people’s old ruined city. Elric and his party take the time to bury their dead, including the pair Elric’s sword Stormbringer slayed to take their souls. The scene then cuts to some time later, when Elric is meeting with some human kings for the planned invasion of Elric’s former home: Melniboné. Their goal? To raze Melniboné to the ground.

It seems what Elric found revealed that the people of Melniboné are actually corrupted versions of the original people of, say it with me: R’lin K’ren A’a. Apparently, the dark god Arioch corrupted Elric’s people long ago, and slayed the other gods of his people’s pantheon in the process so that they had no one else to turn to. This, in combination, with Melniboné’s recent razing of human cities and taste for conquest made Elric decide that his people no long deserved to be saved. Thus, he plans to help the humans raze the city and its people to the ground while their fleets are away. The only one he wants to save is his ex-wife Cymoril, who he believes to still be good.

Thus, Elric leads the human fleet into the labyrinth protecting Melniboné. He guides them through the depths, and into the port. Unfortunately, it’s not like they could’ve hidden a whole fleet, and thus there’s an army waiting for them. There are a lot more human ships and soldiers than there are Melnibonéan soldiers though, and for once, they’re better trained and equipped. The humans overwhelm the army with Elric’s help, and they breach the walls. As they free the slaves and raze the city, Elric heads off on his own to find Cymoril.

Good news: he finds her. Bad news: she’s decided to go full-on dark empress in his absence. The empty streets should’ve clued Elric in earlier, but well, he’s blinded by love for Cymoril. And worse news: she despises him for leaving her, and now wants to kill him. Her first method is Yyrkoon, who is armed with a sister-sword of Stormbringer. Fortunately, Elric and Stormbringer take them both down. Unfortunately, Cymoril tries to take said sister-sword for herself. She finds out the hard way that the swords are loyal even after death. Said sister-sword impales her, and she dies in Elric’s arms. Much to Elric’s grief, of course.

Unfortunately, Elric doesn’t have time to mourn. As it turns out, Melniboné has awakened all of their dragons, and they want vengeance. They start incinerating the human soldiers even as Elric is madly trying to get them to flee. They manage to escape through the labyrinth, but trouble awaits them at the entrance. The Melnibonéan war fleet has returned, and they have cannons. Elric tries to save everyone, but the wind spirit he summoned can’t take more than 1 ship. Thus, with a heavy heart, Elric chooses to save the ship he’s on. He even has to abandon his oldest friend among the humans.

Once his ship is safely away, Elric chooses to set sail alone in a longboat. He angrily tosses Stormbringer overboard out of a mad grief, forgetting that she can fly on her own. She chooses to remain underwater though, apparently to respect his desire for isolation. She still keeps a close watch on him as he sails on alone, deep in slumber. Thus ends Elric: The Dreaming City #2, and this particular comic series as a whole.

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 ~ The Good

I would say that Elric himself might be one of the best parts of Elric: The Dreaming City #2, if not the best. Elric is basically a reformed Dark Lord trying his best to be a decent guy. The problem is that he has a cursed sword that likes to kill people and devour their souls. Yes, Stormbringer does seem to love him in a somewhat twisted way in this iteration, but she does cause a lot of problems for him regardless. It’s this dynamic that actually makes a pretty good Action Duo, with shades of Red Oni, Blue Oni. With Elric as the Blue Oni, and Stormbringer as the Red Oni, of course.

The art for Elric: The Dreaming City #2 is also another great thing about the comic. Especially the dragons. Julian Telo really knocked the ball out of the park with his depiction of them. Because seriously, they draw some seriously cool dragons. Sure, their legless nature might mean that they’re more wyverns than dragons, but that doesn’t seriously detract from their appearance. Black scaly skin, massive leathery wings, red crystal growths on their backs, and fire breath that sears the whole area? Pure 100% unadulterated dragon, baby. Just the way I like them.

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 ~ The Bad

I feel like, at this point, Elric really needs a break. After all the trauma that’d happened to him, including Cymoril’s death, he really needs to find some uninhabited island somewhere to take a nice, long vacation. He’s probably not going to get that, but it’d be nice if he did. You know, just as a break both for him and the audience. Because man, reading Elric: The Dreaming City #2 can be emotionally draining.

I would also like to point out that fans of the original books by Michael Moorcock may not like Elric: The Dreaming City as a whole. I have never read the original books, but based on what I’ve read on them, the comic book deviates a bit from the original books. The overall plot and series of events are mostly the same. It’s just the how and why that tends to differ. For instance, having one of Stormbringer’s sister-swords slay Cymoril instead of Stormbringer herself, although that bit is a bit ambiguous. If you’re an absolute fanatic about canonical accuracy, this might not be the comic book for you. Personally speaking though, I like the comic book. Summaries of the original seem to depict Elric as a bit of a designated hero at times. The comic book has him be more of a decent guy.

Conclusion

Elric: The Dreaming City #2 marks the conclusion of the comic book series as a whole. It’s not the end of Elric’s and Stormbringer’s quest though. I presume that more of Michael Moorcock’s books will get their own comic book versions by Julien Blondel later. Here’s hoping we hear back from Titan Comics about this sword and sorcery comic book series.

Source: Titan Comics