Mark Waid was one of my principal influences in writing serial adventure comics, and one of his greatest gifts is his mastery of exposition. You’ve got to recap the important facts but sound more exciting than encyclopedic, remaining fully aware that the reader’s patience is a very finite resource, especially if you start talking before things start moving.

This was a refresher (or if you came in late, some catch-up notes) on the violent origins of Rachel’s order, as well as a deliberate echo of our first flashback page. Though the narration is now first-person and not limited third-person, there’s a similar use of irony, especially in “the illuminating judgment of cremation.”

I love how John pulls us right in with a few iconic images, especially panel 2, which deserves to be rendered on stained glass in a monastery somewhere.

We would probably have preferred not to give any year-dates for events in Arkerra (even though Arkerra is not Earth and its history is clearly different). But Morganshire needed a little quick context, more than just a few more aerial illustrations could provide.

Hmm, “Morgan” as in Morgan le Fey and the end of Camelot, well i’m sure that’s just a coincidence