Once & Future vol. 2: Old English
If I’m being completely honest, when I selected “Once & Future” as one of the best titles of 2020, it was more for its first volume than its second. Both are funny, inspiringly violent stories enlivened by Kieron Gillen’s wit and Dan Mora’s attention to detail. However, only vol. 1 has a twist which turned my expectations against me. Vol. 2 has… a great visual gag involving the main characters from “Hot Fuzz.” Which, as they say, is not nothing.
What vol. 2 also has is a good indication of how the series is going to proceed from here. After the events of the previous volume, Duncan and his mother Bridgette are only on speaking terms insofar as her experience will help him on his monster-hunting endeavors. They wind up having to quickly get over their differences when an incursion from Arthur’s home in Otherworld winds up being the cover for the theft of an ancient text. Said text happens to be the means to summon another hero of English folklore, along with his nemesis, and its mother.
All this tells us is that “Once & Future” is going to take us through the *ahem* monstrous history of British folklore on a volume-by-volume basis. That’s not a bad thing, as this “Old English” makes clear in the very modern ways in which these threats are dispatched. Gillen and Mora are clearly having fun with that, even as the story’s real drama comes from the tortured family drama within. While it was clear from the first volume that Dungan and Bridgette will be able to work past their differences if the situation calls for it, the real question is what’s going on between Mary and her mother. Their respective allegiances make it clear that there’s some very bad blood between them that’s not going to be cleansed anytime soon. In fact, after what we’ve seen of Bridgette so far, it’s quite likely that Mary’s anger is entirely justified. While it’ll be fun to see what the monster-of-the-volume is for vol. 3, how the family drama is addressed is what I’ll really be looking forward to seeing then.