Commentary: Godchild volume four
It's been literally five years since I last did one of these. The long delay is for a few reasons. Feeling like the fandom wasn't a place that was relevant to what I loved about the series, a fellow fan harassing me in a manner that looks incredibly tame in this post-Gamer-Gate world, but was very upsetting at the time, and, honestly, an unwillingness to reach volume six. Volume six causes me such pain that I may just have to skip it and go to volume seven. But here we are, with volume four. I lost the ability to be concise with this one, and probably spend too much time recapping, but it is what it is.
Links to previous commentaries:
Cain Saga Volume One
Cain Saga Volume Two (part one)
Cain Saga Volume Two (part two)
Cain Saga Volume Three
Cain Saga Volume Four
Cain Saga Volume Five
Godchild Volume One
Godchild Volume Two
Godchild Volume Thre
As always, expect spoilers for the entire series. Also, too many ellipses.
Little Miss Muffet
We open with an eerie dream sequence in which the ghost of Suzette comes to Cain, confused and very concerned about her missing ring. We have one of my favorite underrated Cain moments, when he tells her, face nearly expressionless, “My darling cousin, Suzette. You do realize you’re dead?” It’s a very particular reaction to seeing the ghost of your first love, and it implies a lot about who Cain is and how he approaches life.
I’m a weirdo who really loves Suzette despite her minimal page time, but I think this story arc would have been even stronger if we had had more time to know Suzette and to really feel Cain’s love for her. I think killing off Suzette in the first story was a real mistake. Killing her would have had more effect if we had known her longer.
Don’t get me wrong, this is still a strong story arc. Michaela’s a great villain, and the Cain/Riff content is very satisfying. I just think it could have been even better.
Afterward, Cain tries to dismiss the encounter as just a dream, but since Suzette is referencing real events that Cain is unaware of, it’s pretty clearly really Suzette’s ghost. Despite trying to dismiss the vision, Cain is affected enough that he hurries to Suzette’s grave, canceling a social engagement with a man named Duke Carter. When Riff protests at Cain’s last minute absence, Cain gives one of the best lines in the series.
Cain: Tell him that my poison collection has affected my brain.
Riff’s expression in response to this order is so done. Somehow I think Cain tries to use similar excuses a lot when trying to get out of obligations.
At Suzette’s grave, Cain admits that this is the first time he’s come to visit her, because he’s never been able to accept the tragedy of her death. He thinks of how much he admired and loved her. This is a bit that would be even more powerful if the audience could mourn Suzette like Cain does.
Cain’s reminiscing is interrupted by a mysterious girl, her face obscured in the shadow of her parasol. Cain recognizes the scent surrounding her as the same scent he smelled when he awoke from his dream, but before his thoughts can progress any further, he and the girl are attacked by the graveyard guard dog. Cain is merely scratched, and the graveyard caretaker races to apologizes, explaining that the dog is on edge due to recent grave robbings. (Which I’m sure won’t become plot relevant at all.) In the confusion, the girl has vanished.
Our next scene has Cain meeting with Lady Ariadne, the daughter of Duke Carter, whom Cain stood up. If these two aren’t full on ex-lovers, then they’re still ex-something. The conversation is barbed on both sides, and ends with Ariadne slapping Cain with her fan and swearing to ruin his life. No offense to Ariadne, but Cain’s got expert life ruiners after him, and her attempts probably aren’t going to rate.
It turns out Oscar was watching the exchange and declares Cain a threat to men and women alike. Cain replies that this is the pot calling the kettle black. I’m only mentioning it because it amuses me, and I’m a big fan of Oscar and Cain interaction.
Whatever Ariadne was planning to do to Cain, it comes to naught. Disguised as a flower seller, Micheala gives her a flower with a poisonous spider inside it. The spider bite makes Ariadne hallucinate that Cain is in the carriage with her. The Cain hallucination becomes some kind of eldritch horror, and Ariadne throws herself out of the carriage trying to escape, which kills her. This sequence of events isn’t going to be obvious for a little while, but I’m summing it up now for clarity’s sake. All we know in the moment is that Ariadne hallucinates Cain after being given a flower, and winds up dead. (Death count: one)
(Continuity note: Ariadne says in her internal monologue that Cain is only seventeen, which is just impossible. He was seventeen when the series started, and earlier it’s explicitly mentioned that this is the anniversary of Suzette’s death. Cain has to be eighteen. It’s also pretty incredible that the entirety of the Cain Saga and the first three volumes of Godchild could happen over the course of one year, but that’s not such a clear problem.)
The fact that Ariadne was calling Cain’s name as she died leads to Cain being questioned by the police, but his alibi is solid. People assume that Ariadne killed herself over Cain’s rejection, and I can’t help but think how much the prideful Ariadne would hate that. Cain finds the suicide theory distasteful and unlikely. He doesn’t think that a woman as proud of her beauty as Ariadne would kill herself in such a gruesome way. Having swiped crime scene photos, he notices that there’s something that looks like an insect bite on Ariadne’s neck, as well as an artificial flower next to her. I’m not sure Victorian era photos would have been clear enough to see a little bite like that, but maybe.
Cain’s attention is diverted from the photos by another horrific scene. The dog that bit Cain earlier has been messily killed and nailed to Cain’s front door. We don’t see the whole corpse, but what’s shown is pretty awful, especially if you’re particularly sensitive to animal harm. (Death count: two, I’m counting it.) This leads Cain to remember and suspect the girl in the cemetery. I’ve said this before, but one of the things I like so much about Cain (and Yuki’s writing) is that he doesn’t spend a lot of time wondering who the culprit could possibly be. If he met a creepy mysterious stranger shortly before a whole bunch of messy death, then he suspects that stranger.
All this means that it’s time for Cain and Riff to go grave digging! I love Cain’s propensity for digging up graves. When they arrive at the graveyard, the girl/Michaela is waiting for them, Suzette’s ring prominently displayed on her finger. “What belongs to Suzette belongs to me,” she declares. Cain notes with shock that this mystery girl look exactly like Suzette did when she was young. Michaela happily admits to killing Ariadne and the dog, telling Cain she’ll do anything from him.
One of the many scary things about Michaela is how out of proportion she is. Ariadne wasn’t very nice, but she wasn’t any sort of actual threat. And the poor dog just scratched Cain.
The graveyard caretaker shows up, and while it’s clear the poor man is doomed, it’s actually Jezebel who shows up and kills him rather than Michaela. (Death count: three.)
Jezebel: You shouldn’t have killed the dog. Senseless killing is wrong, Michaela. Next time you need amusement, please do it with humans only.
Jezebel Disraeli, ladies and gentlemen. It turns out that Jezebel stitched the dog back together and reanimated it, and the effect is oddly cute.
After confidently asserting to Jezebel that Alexis likes her better, Michaela encourages Cain to unearth Suzette’s grave. Opening the coffin, Cain finds Suzette surrounded by candles and black feather and, importantly, missing her ring finger. Cain is horrified. Michaela reaches out to him, assuring him that unlike Suzette, she loves him. Cain shoves her violently away and call her an inhuman copy. Enraged, Michaela attacks Cain, only for Riff to dive in the way and take the spider bite instead. Jezebel reveals that the poison can’t be cured via traditional antidotes. Cain tries to threaten Jezebel and Michaela into giving him the antidote, but Cassian shows up and knocks Cain’s gun out of his hand. Cassian hurries the other two away, because he is the sensible one. Before exiting, Michaela tells Cain she’ll give him the antidote if he swears loyalty to her.
In his poisoned state, Riff is in the grip of fever dreams. He flashes back to the fire that killed his family, except this time Cain and Alexis are in the blaze. Riff doesn’t know what Alexis’s presence means (NOTHING GOOD), and he’s not in any state to figure it out.
Cain, meanwhile, is not dealing with Riff’s condition well. I really can’t do justice to Cain’s rage and fear in a write up, but he’s desperate here.
Cain: I won’t let you die! No matter how much Heaven may want you for itself…
Riff/Cain OTP!!!
So, Cain invites Michaela to meet him, and Michaela is supremely creepy in response.
Michaela: I’m going to make you mine… Cain. Even if I have to tear off your arms and legs, and I’m left with only your head!
Michaela, ladies and gentlemen!
Meanwhile, Riff has regained consciousness and has escaped his sick room to try to come to Cain’s rescue. Except he can barely walk, and quickly collapses, only to be found by none other than Jezebel. Jezebel chains him up, and things do not look good for our hero. Riff isn’t intimidated though. I can’t resist quoting the entire next bit.
Riff: Lord Cain has vowed to fight so that he can escape from his father’s curse and protect his loved ones. But in your cowardice, you’re not even able to do that much. All you do is project your jealousy and hatred onto Lord Cain.
Jezebel really doesn’t like having the truth spoken so bluntly, and he slashes at Riff with a scalpel. Then he demands Cassian get a certain drug, and it certainly appears that it’s all over for Riff.
While this is happening, Cain is meeting with Michaela. He briefly thinks he’s gotten the best of her with a clever plan using small amounts of air born poison to kill her spiders. Unfortunately, Michaela was withholding the real antidote, and she smashes it against the ground. Cain only has to be distraught for a few seconds, because Riff arrives like a knight in shining armor, whole and healthy. They very nearly have Michaela captured before Jezebel and Cassian arrive once more to retrieve her. Jezebel reveals that he saved Riff’s life, but he cryptically says that this was to make Cain and Riff suffer even more.
We skip to Cain and Riff in the aftermath. Cain tries to play the whole thing off as him being annoyed that Riff for neglecting his butler duties. (And hitting Riff with a pillow when Riff tries to apologize for the umpteenth time.) But he can’t maintain the facade for long, and the scene ends with Riff promising to accompany Cain to Hell and the two of them embracing. I love my OTP.
In Delilah headquarters, Michaela is complaining to Alexis about her lack of success, and Alexis promises her that she’ll bear Cain’s child. So, thanks, Alexis, for making this whole thing exponentially creepier. I knew I could count on you.
Jezebel in the meantime, gives the franken-dog a drug that allows it to peacefully pass away, and then gives Cassian a speech that belongs in a PETA commercial about how terrible humans are to animals and how he’s going to make sure humans get theirs. Despite my joking description, it’s a very emotional and effective scene, and it’s very informative as to Jezebel’s point of view.
Cassian notes that the drug Jezebel used wasn’t from the antidote shelf, and wonders what it was. Jezebel replies he’ll know soon enough. (I don’t want to know! I never want it to happen! I want to stay here, in happy denial land!)
One thing that has always confused me about this particular plot point. If I’m remembering the later volumes correctly, Jezebel gave Riff a drug that prevented the Tower from emerging. Okay, all well and good. But… what about the poison? (Or venom, I guess, but whatever.) Because Riff was definitely poisoned. Did that just… get better on its own? Anyway, that’s always confused me.
I really like this story, despite the ways I think it could have been stronger. If nothing else, it introduced Michaela, who is my beloved murder princess. Though it’s not really volume four Michaela I love. We’ll see the Michaela I love so much in volume seven, if I ever get there.
Bloody Maria
We open in a rather chaotic fashion, jumping from a Delilah ritual, to Crehador and Cain, to Jezebel’s childhood. The pieces of Jezebel’s childhood are already disturbing, although we won’t get the full horror until later. Essentially, Jezebel’s mother disguised him as a girl to hide him from Alexis, but in the end she wasn’t able to resist Alexis and went back to him. Jezebel racing to rescue his mother when he thinks she’s in danger is heartbreaking in its childlike courage. He used to be a sweet kid.
Cain and Crehador snark at each other. Cain knows that Crehador has knowledge of Delilah, and Cain wants the information. Crehador starts to refuse, but Riff presents him with a briefcase full of money and he changes his tune. Cain notes that, while Crehador hates the rich, he loves money, which has always struck me as one of Crehador’s more blatant hypocrisies. Cain reaffirms his intent to fight Delilah and his father, and Crehador notes that Cain has a new determination. Crehador mentions Delilah’s “Ritual of Regeneration,” and we cut to…
Jezebel undergoing the ritual. And it’s during the ritual we get our first instance of Viz censorship. Yeah, Viz altered this story a whole bunch. At first it’s minor, but eventually, it’s going to make the story nonsensical. In the original Japanese, Jezebel is pictured wearing a crown of thorns. The Viz release edited the thorns out.
Jezebel continues to think of his past, though the memories quickly become a surrealist nightmare. But soon the ritual is over, and Jezebel is Death of the Major Arcana. Jezebel hopes for some acknowledgment from Alexis, but of course, Alexis strategically withholds attention and affection. Instead High Priest Cassandra makes his unpleasant introduction. He gets to be gross and invade Jezebel’s personal space until, oops!, Cassian accidentally drops a bunch of candles, breaking the spell. Because expert knife throwers are known for their clumsiness. Unfortunately, Cassian’s quick thinking gets him jack, because Jezebel goes to his room to obsess over how much he hates Cain. Hang in there, Cassian!
Based on the information he got from Crehador, Cain is going undercover to investigate a woman named Madam Stanford. Cain and Riff manage to get in some flirtation before Cain leaves, because things like that are important.
Of course, not thirty seconds after Cain enter Madam Stanford’s house, he runs into Jezebel. Because Cain’s disguise amounts to wearing a wig, Jezebel instantly recognizes him. If he wanted to fool Jezebel, he should have dressed up like a woman again. But Jezebel doesn’t give him away, and settles bone crushing handshake, which pisses Cain off.
Alone with Madam Stanford, Cain learns that her son, Theodore, passed away, and she shows Cain her memorial jewelry made with Theodore’s hair. Mourning jewelry was hugely popular in the Victorian era. Cain milks his undercover role for all its worth and tells Madam Stanford that she reminds him of his own mother. This inspires Madam Stanford to embrace him, and Cain notes how kind and holy she seems. But he also goes on to think that if Jezebel is there, then something not good is going down. Especially strange is Theodore’s last painting, which Madam Stanford won’t let Cain see.
Later, Cain and Jezebel trade insults. Jezebel points out that a blond wig is pretty weak disguise. He’s not exactly wrong, but to be fair to Cain, Cain wasn’t expecting to run into anyone he knew. The blond wig was mainly to get Madam Stanford’s attention, since all her previous models have been blond. Cain shoots back that Jezebel has no room to criticize flamboyant personal styles. These two are great together, and as much as their conflict is life-or-death, and as uncomfortable as things are about to get, they’re such siblings here, even siblings who hate each other.
Cain threatens to tell Madam Stanford about who Jezebel really is, and Jezebel responds by pressing Cain against a wall and clasping his hand over Cain’s mouth. I can admit to you all that I find it incredibly erotic, and I once more lament that there isn’t more interest in these two together. Jezebel muses on theology, which Cain puts a stop to by putting a gun to Jezebel’s temple. Jezebel shoves Cain and walks away.
Cassian is there too, and alone with Jezebel the two of them discuss what to do about Cain. Jezebel wants Cassian to focus on Riff. Jezebel says a lot of stuff about unconditional love being a lie, but while Cassian doesn’t say anything, he’s not buying that Jezebel is as caviler as he sounds.
Cain continues his investigation, and finds a breaking clue when he finds another one of Madam Stanford’s hair pendants. This one has a different name, Alan, the name of a boy who went missing. Cain resolves to see the picture that Madam Stanford tried to hide. And he is where Viz’s censorship screws everything up. this is the painting in the original Japanese. But Viz was too afraid to publish an image of Madonna strangling the Christ child, so they edited the baby out. As such, the revealed painting is just an upset woman and Cain’s reaction makes no fucking sense. I was not the only one who read the English release and was massively confused. For fucks sake, Viz. You have a mature content warning on the cover already. Do you think that anyone who would be offended by blasphemy was still reading at this point?
Anyway, Madam Stanford finds him and she’s revealed to be a multiple murder, who took in young men to replace her son, found them wanting, and killed them. (Death count: not certain. I count eight pendants, so we’ll go with 13; adding those pendants, plus Alan and Theodore.) We get our final bit of censorship as one of the panels had an image of the Pietà that gets erased and turned blank except for the word balloon. Because we certainly can’t have any religious references in Godchild! (This is presumably reason Jezebel got his name changed from something thematically meaningful to a nonsense word, though it may just be that the translator was shit at transliterating.)
Okay, I’m good. I’m calm.
Anyway, Jezebel arrives to tell Cain riff isn’t coming, and Cain does indeed appear to be in serious trouble… until Riff races to the rescue in the nick of time, just like we knew he would. It turns out that when pinned down by a knife thrower, Riff’s strategy is to run full power towards his opponent (because of course Riff will fling himself headfirst towards a knife if it means returning to Cain), get hit, and blind said opponent with the blood spray from the wound. Because you will never be as hardcore as Riff Raffit. Also, Riff knows a surprising amount about knife throwing physics. Jezebel rants about how Cain and Riff make him sick. The reply? “You’re a sad person. You have no one in this world you value more than your own life.” I’m pretty sure it’s Riff saying this, but the way the word balloon is placed it could be either Cain or Riff, which works really well, because it’s something they both believe.
Madam Stanford interrupts to kill herself by eating paint. I’m sorry to say it comes across as more goofy than terrible. Dramatic paint eating is unlikely to catch on. (Death count: 14)
Cassian and Jezebel escape, and Cain swear he’s done submitting to Jezebel’s hatred.
Afterward, Cassandra takes a chance to both be a creep and to give us more Jezebel backstory. Basically, Jezebel was a sickly child, and Alexis killed and carved up his sisters to treat him. Jezebel knew nothing of this and grew up happily loving Alexis. Until everything went to hell. But we won’t learn about the whole tragic story until volume seven. (Continuity nod: Jezebel is holding Snark in one flashback.) In his lab, Jezebel rages at his mother’s betrayal while Cassian listens sadly.
At the Hargreaves manor, Cain and Riff discuss the buying of Madam Stanford’s property by a Delilah shell company. We get to end on this dialogue:
Cain: If we go to war with my father, you’ll see what Hell is really like.
Riff: The only Hell that I can envision is losing my master.
I don’t know how interesting I really find this story’s mystery (and the paint suicide is ridiculous), but this story has great Cain/Jezebel interaction, great Cain/Riff shipping material, and ramps up the Cassian/Jezebel, so I declare it a success.
I’ve learned to make no promises about volume five.
(Note: the Japanese scans were taken by [Bad username or site: ”saphira112” @ livejournal.com], in this post.)
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Links to previous commentaries:
Cain Saga Volume One
Cain Saga Volume Two (part one)
Cain Saga Volume Two (part two)
Cain Saga Volume Three
Cain Saga Volume Four
Cain Saga Volume Five
Godchild Volume One
Godchild Volume Two
Godchild Volume Thre
As always, expect spoilers for the entire series. Also, too many ellipses.
Little Miss Muffet
We open with an eerie dream sequence in which the ghost of Suzette comes to Cain, confused and very concerned about her missing ring. We have one of my favorite underrated Cain moments, when he tells her, face nearly expressionless, “My darling cousin, Suzette. You do realize you’re dead?” It’s a very particular reaction to seeing the ghost of your first love, and it implies a lot about who Cain is and how he approaches life.
I’m a weirdo who really loves Suzette despite her minimal page time, but I think this story arc would have been even stronger if we had had more time to know Suzette and to really feel Cain’s love for her. I think killing off Suzette in the first story was a real mistake. Killing her would have had more effect if we had known her longer.
Don’t get me wrong, this is still a strong story arc. Michaela’s a great villain, and the Cain/Riff content is very satisfying. I just think it could have been even better.
Afterward, Cain tries to dismiss the encounter as just a dream, but since Suzette is referencing real events that Cain is unaware of, it’s pretty clearly really Suzette’s ghost. Despite trying to dismiss the vision, Cain is affected enough that he hurries to Suzette’s grave, canceling a social engagement with a man named Duke Carter. When Riff protests at Cain’s last minute absence, Cain gives one of the best lines in the series.
Cain: Tell him that my poison collection has affected my brain.
Riff’s expression in response to this order is so done. Somehow I think Cain tries to use similar excuses a lot when trying to get out of obligations.
At Suzette’s grave, Cain admits that this is the first time he’s come to visit her, because he’s never been able to accept the tragedy of her death. He thinks of how much he admired and loved her. This is a bit that would be even more powerful if the audience could mourn Suzette like Cain does.
Cain’s reminiscing is interrupted by a mysterious girl, her face obscured in the shadow of her parasol. Cain recognizes the scent surrounding her as the same scent he smelled when he awoke from his dream, but before his thoughts can progress any further, he and the girl are attacked by the graveyard guard dog. Cain is merely scratched, and the graveyard caretaker races to apologizes, explaining that the dog is on edge due to recent grave robbings. (Which I’m sure won’t become plot relevant at all.) In the confusion, the girl has vanished.
Our next scene has Cain meeting with Lady Ariadne, the daughter of Duke Carter, whom Cain stood up. If these two aren’t full on ex-lovers, then they’re still ex-something. The conversation is barbed on both sides, and ends with Ariadne slapping Cain with her fan and swearing to ruin his life. No offense to Ariadne, but Cain’s got expert life ruiners after him, and her attempts probably aren’t going to rate.
It turns out Oscar was watching the exchange and declares Cain a threat to men and women alike. Cain replies that this is the pot calling the kettle black. I’m only mentioning it because it amuses me, and I’m a big fan of Oscar and Cain interaction.
Whatever Ariadne was planning to do to Cain, it comes to naught. Disguised as a flower seller, Micheala gives her a flower with a poisonous spider inside it. The spider bite makes Ariadne hallucinate that Cain is in the carriage with her. The Cain hallucination becomes some kind of eldritch horror, and Ariadne throws herself out of the carriage trying to escape, which kills her. This sequence of events isn’t going to be obvious for a little while, but I’m summing it up now for clarity’s sake. All we know in the moment is that Ariadne hallucinates Cain after being given a flower, and winds up dead. (Death count: one)
(Continuity note: Ariadne says in her internal monologue that Cain is only seventeen, which is just impossible. He was seventeen when the series started, and earlier it’s explicitly mentioned that this is the anniversary of Suzette’s death. Cain has to be eighteen. It’s also pretty incredible that the entirety of the Cain Saga and the first three volumes of Godchild could happen over the course of one year, but that’s not such a clear problem.)
The fact that Ariadne was calling Cain’s name as she died leads to Cain being questioned by the police, but his alibi is solid. People assume that Ariadne killed herself over Cain’s rejection, and I can’t help but think how much the prideful Ariadne would hate that. Cain finds the suicide theory distasteful and unlikely. He doesn’t think that a woman as proud of her beauty as Ariadne would kill herself in such a gruesome way. Having swiped crime scene photos, he notices that there’s something that looks like an insect bite on Ariadne’s neck, as well as an artificial flower next to her. I’m not sure Victorian era photos would have been clear enough to see a little bite like that, but maybe.
Cain’s attention is diverted from the photos by another horrific scene. The dog that bit Cain earlier has been messily killed and nailed to Cain’s front door. We don’t see the whole corpse, but what’s shown is pretty awful, especially if you’re particularly sensitive to animal harm. (Death count: two, I’m counting it.) This leads Cain to remember and suspect the girl in the cemetery. I’ve said this before, but one of the things I like so much about Cain (and Yuki’s writing) is that he doesn’t spend a lot of time wondering who the culprit could possibly be. If he met a creepy mysterious stranger shortly before a whole bunch of messy death, then he suspects that stranger.
All this means that it’s time for Cain and Riff to go grave digging! I love Cain’s propensity for digging up graves. When they arrive at the graveyard, the girl/Michaela is waiting for them, Suzette’s ring prominently displayed on her finger. “What belongs to Suzette belongs to me,” she declares. Cain notes with shock that this mystery girl look exactly like Suzette did when she was young. Michaela happily admits to killing Ariadne and the dog, telling Cain she’ll do anything from him.
One of the many scary things about Michaela is how out of proportion she is. Ariadne wasn’t very nice, but she wasn’t any sort of actual threat. And the poor dog just scratched Cain.
The graveyard caretaker shows up, and while it’s clear the poor man is doomed, it’s actually Jezebel who shows up and kills him rather than Michaela. (Death count: three.)
Jezebel: You shouldn’t have killed the dog. Senseless killing is wrong, Michaela. Next time you need amusement, please do it with humans only.
Jezebel Disraeli, ladies and gentlemen. It turns out that Jezebel stitched the dog back together and reanimated it, and the effect is oddly cute.
After confidently asserting to Jezebel that Alexis likes her better, Michaela encourages Cain to unearth Suzette’s grave. Opening the coffin, Cain finds Suzette surrounded by candles and black feather and, importantly, missing her ring finger. Cain is horrified. Michaela reaches out to him, assuring him that unlike Suzette, she loves him. Cain shoves her violently away and call her an inhuman copy. Enraged, Michaela attacks Cain, only for Riff to dive in the way and take the spider bite instead. Jezebel reveals that the poison can’t be cured via traditional antidotes. Cain tries to threaten Jezebel and Michaela into giving him the antidote, but Cassian shows up and knocks Cain’s gun out of his hand. Cassian hurries the other two away, because he is the sensible one. Before exiting, Michaela tells Cain she’ll give him the antidote if he swears loyalty to her.
In his poisoned state, Riff is in the grip of fever dreams. He flashes back to the fire that killed his family, except this time Cain and Alexis are in the blaze. Riff doesn’t know what Alexis’s presence means (NOTHING GOOD), and he’s not in any state to figure it out.
Cain, meanwhile, is not dealing with Riff’s condition well. I really can’t do justice to Cain’s rage and fear in a write up, but he’s desperate here.
Cain: I won’t let you die! No matter how much Heaven may want you for itself…
Riff/Cain OTP!!!
So, Cain invites Michaela to meet him, and Michaela is supremely creepy in response.
Michaela: I’m going to make you mine… Cain. Even if I have to tear off your arms and legs, and I’m left with only your head!
Michaela, ladies and gentlemen!
Meanwhile, Riff has regained consciousness and has escaped his sick room to try to come to Cain’s rescue. Except he can barely walk, and quickly collapses, only to be found by none other than Jezebel. Jezebel chains him up, and things do not look good for our hero. Riff isn’t intimidated though. I can’t resist quoting the entire next bit.
Riff: Lord Cain has vowed to fight so that he can escape from his father’s curse and protect his loved ones. But in your cowardice, you’re not even able to do that much. All you do is project your jealousy and hatred onto Lord Cain.
Jezebel really doesn’t like having the truth spoken so bluntly, and he slashes at Riff with a scalpel. Then he demands Cassian get a certain drug, and it certainly appears that it’s all over for Riff.
While this is happening, Cain is meeting with Michaela. He briefly thinks he’s gotten the best of her with a clever plan using small amounts of air born poison to kill her spiders. Unfortunately, Michaela was withholding the real antidote, and she smashes it against the ground. Cain only has to be distraught for a few seconds, because Riff arrives like a knight in shining armor, whole and healthy. They very nearly have Michaela captured before Jezebel and Cassian arrive once more to retrieve her. Jezebel reveals that he saved Riff’s life, but he cryptically says that this was to make Cain and Riff suffer even more.
We skip to Cain and Riff in the aftermath. Cain tries to play the whole thing off as him being annoyed that Riff for neglecting his butler duties. (And hitting Riff with a pillow when Riff tries to apologize for the umpteenth time.) But he can’t maintain the facade for long, and the scene ends with Riff promising to accompany Cain to Hell and the two of them embracing. I love my OTP.
In Delilah headquarters, Michaela is complaining to Alexis about her lack of success, and Alexis promises her that she’ll bear Cain’s child. So, thanks, Alexis, for making this whole thing exponentially creepier. I knew I could count on you.
Jezebel in the meantime, gives the franken-dog a drug that allows it to peacefully pass away, and then gives Cassian a speech that belongs in a PETA commercial about how terrible humans are to animals and how he’s going to make sure humans get theirs. Despite my joking description, it’s a very emotional and effective scene, and it’s very informative as to Jezebel’s point of view.
Cassian notes that the drug Jezebel used wasn’t from the antidote shelf, and wonders what it was. Jezebel replies he’ll know soon enough. (I don’t want to know! I never want it to happen! I want to stay here, in happy denial land!)
One thing that has always confused me about this particular plot point. If I’m remembering the later volumes correctly, Jezebel gave Riff a drug that prevented the Tower from emerging. Okay, all well and good. But… what about the poison? (Or venom, I guess, but whatever.) Because Riff was definitely poisoned. Did that just… get better on its own? Anyway, that’s always confused me.
I really like this story, despite the ways I think it could have been stronger. If nothing else, it introduced Michaela, who is my beloved murder princess. Though it’s not really volume four Michaela I love. We’ll see the Michaela I love so much in volume seven, if I ever get there.
Bloody Maria
We open in a rather chaotic fashion, jumping from a Delilah ritual, to Crehador and Cain, to Jezebel’s childhood. The pieces of Jezebel’s childhood are already disturbing, although we won’t get the full horror until later. Essentially, Jezebel’s mother disguised him as a girl to hide him from Alexis, but in the end she wasn’t able to resist Alexis and went back to him. Jezebel racing to rescue his mother when he thinks she’s in danger is heartbreaking in its childlike courage. He used to be a sweet kid.
Cain and Crehador snark at each other. Cain knows that Crehador has knowledge of Delilah, and Cain wants the information. Crehador starts to refuse, but Riff presents him with a briefcase full of money and he changes his tune. Cain notes that, while Crehador hates the rich, he loves money, which has always struck me as one of Crehador’s more blatant hypocrisies. Cain reaffirms his intent to fight Delilah and his father, and Crehador notes that Cain has a new determination. Crehador mentions Delilah’s “Ritual of Regeneration,” and we cut to…
Jezebel undergoing the ritual. And it’s during the ritual we get our first instance of Viz censorship. Yeah, Viz altered this story a whole bunch. At first it’s minor, but eventually, it’s going to make the story nonsensical. In the original Japanese, Jezebel is pictured wearing a crown of thorns. The Viz release edited the thorns out.
Jezebel continues to think of his past, though the memories quickly become a surrealist nightmare. But soon the ritual is over, and Jezebel is Death of the Major Arcana. Jezebel hopes for some acknowledgment from Alexis, but of course, Alexis strategically withholds attention and affection. Instead High Priest Cassandra makes his unpleasant introduction. He gets to be gross and invade Jezebel’s personal space until, oops!, Cassian accidentally drops a bunch of candles, breaking the spell. Because expert knife throwers are known for their clumsiness. Unfortunately, Cassian’s quick thinking gets him jack, because Jezebel goes to his room to obsess over how much he hates Cain. Hang in there, Cassian!
Based on the information he got from Crehador, Cain is going undercover to investigate a woman named Madam Stanford. Cain and Riff manage to get in some flirtation before Cain leaves, because things like that are important.
Of course, not thirty seconds after Cain enter Madam Stanford’s house, he runs into Jezebel. Because Cain’s disguise amounts to wearing a wig, Jezebel instantly recognizes him. If he wanted to fool Jezebel, he should have dressed up like a woman again. But Jezebel doesn’t give him away, and settles bone crushing handshake, which pisses Cain off.
Alone with Madam Stanford, Cain learns that her son, Theodore, passed away, and she shows Cain her memorial jewelry made with Theodore’s hair. Mourning jewelry was hugely popular in the Victorian era. Cain milks his undercover role for all its worth and tells Madam Stanford that she reminds him of his own mother. This inspires Madam Stanford to embrace him, and Cain notes how kind and holy she seems. But he also goes on to think that if Jezebel is there, then something not good is going down. Especially strange is Theodore’s last painting, which Madam Stanford won’t let Cain see.
Later, Cain and Jezebel trade insults. Jezebel points out that a blond wig is pretty weak disguise. He’s not exactly wrong, but to be fair to Cain, Cain wasn’t expecting to run into anyone he knew. The blond wig was mainly to get Madam Stanford’s attention, since all her previous models have been blond. Cain shoots back that Jezebel has no room to criticize flamboyant personal styles. These two are great together, and as much as their conflict is life-or-death, and as uncomfortable as things are about to get, they’re such siblings here, even siblings who hate each other.
Cain threatens to tell Madam Stanford about who Jezebel really is, and Jezebel responds by pressing Cain against a wall and clasping his hand over Cain’s mouth. I can admit to you all that I find it incredibly erotic, and I once more lament that there isn’t more interest in these two together. Jezebel muses on theology, which Cain puts a stop to by putting a gun to Jezebel’s temple. Jezebel shoves Cain and walks away.
Cassian is there too, and alone with Jezebel the two of them discuss what to do about Cain. Jezebel wants Cassian to focus on Riff. Jezebel says a lot of stuff about unconditional love being a lie, but while Cassian doesn’t say anything, he’s not buying that Jezebel is as caviler as he sounds.
Cain continues his investigation, and finds a breaking clue when he finds another one of Madam Stanford’s hair pendants. This one has a different name, Alan, the name of a boy who went missing. Cain resolves to see the picture that Madam Stanford tried to hide. And he is where Viz’s censorship screws everything up. this is the painting in the original Japanese. But Viz was too afraid to publish an image of Madonna strangling the Christ child, so they edited the baby out. As such, the revealed painting is just an upset woman and Cain’s reaction makes no fucking sense. I was not the only one who read the English release and was massively confused. For fucks sake, Viz. You have a mature content warning on the cover already. Do you think that anyone who would be offended by blasphemy was still reading at this point?
Anyway, Madam Stanford finds him and she’s revealed to be a multiple murder, who took in young men to replace her son, found them wanting, and killed them. (Death count: not certain. I count eight pendants, so we’ll go with 13; adding those pendants, plus Alan and Theodore.) We get our final bit of censorship as one of the panels had an image of the Pietà that gets erased and turned blank except for the word balloon. Because we certainly can’t have any religious references in Godchild! (This is presumably reason Jezebel got his name changed from something thematically meaningful to a nonsense word, though it may just be that the translator was shit at transliterating.)
Okay, I’m good. I’m calm.
Anyway, Jezebel arrives to tell Cain riff isn’t coming, and Cain does indeed appear to be in serious trouble… until Riff races to the rescue in the nick of time, just like we knew he would. It turns out that when pinned down by a knife thrower, Riff’s strategy is to run full power towards his opponent (because of course Riff will fling himself headfirst towards a knife if it means returning to Cain), get hit, and blind said opponent with the blood spray from the wound. Because you will never be as hardcore as Riff Raffit. Also, Riff knows a surprising amount about knife throwing physics. Jezebel rants about how Cain and Riff make him sick. The reply? “You’re a sad person. You have no one in this world you value more than your own life.” I’m pretty sure it’s Riff saying this, but the way the word balloon is placed it could be either Cain or Riff, which works really well, because it’s something they both believe.
Madam Stanford interrupts to kill herself by eating paint. I’m sorry to say it comes across as more goofy than terrible. Dramatic paint eating is unlikely to catch on. (Death count: 14)
Cassian and Jezebel escape, and Cain swear he’s done submitting to Jezebel’s hatred.
Afterward, Cassandra takes a chance to both be a creep and to give us more Jezebel backstory. Basically, Jezebel was a sickly child, and Alexis killed and carved up his sisters to treat him. Jezebel knew nothing of this and grew up happily loving Alexis. Until everything went to hell. But we won’t learn about the whole tragic story until volume seven. (Continuity nod: Jezebel is holding Snark in one flashback.) In his lab, Jezebel rages at his mother’s betrayal while Cassian listens sadly.
At the Hargreaves manor, Cain and Riff discuss the buying of Madam Stanford’s property by a Delilah shell company. We get to end on this dialogue:
Cain: If we go to war with my father, you’ll see what Hell is really like.
Riff: The only Hell that I can envision is losing my master.
I don’t know how interesting I really find this story’s mystery (and the paint suicide is ridiculous), but this story has great Cain/Jezebel interaction, great Cain/Riff shipping material, and ramps up the Cassian/Jezebel, so I declare it a success.
I’ve learned to make no promises about volume five.
(Note: the Japanese scans were taken by [Bad username or site: ”saphira112” @ livejournal.com], in this post.)
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