I dunno, maybe some guys shouldn't write female leads when the female in question is supposed to be heroic? I'm not sure what else to think. I've enjoyed Wagner previously, and the women in his books when either sympathetic supporting characters or antiheroic leads never stood out to me as being an issue. But man he has issues here! This so-called superhero Madame Xanadu spends all of her time doing nothing right, righting no wrongs, never getting the message across successfully or in time, seei...

A beautifully drawn comic book dumbed down by a boring and unimaginative plot, ludicrous writing and superficial characters.

A refreshing change from the typical DC Comics superheroes' tales.Meet Madame Xanadu. An Elder Folk who loses her powers to Merlin and tries to change historical catastrophes throughout History yet keeps getting shafted.She uses subtle magic and force of personality to get the job done.This is graded on a curve since this comic took a risky gamble. OVERALL GRADE: B plus to A minus.

Madame Xanadu is a bit of a niche character, and I doubt I would have heard much of her if she hadn't been included in the new Justice League Dark. I was surprised to discover that she's been knocking around the DCU for more than 30 years. But none of that background is required for this, the first trade in her own (now canceled) series, because this is her centuries-spanning origin story.Originally known as Nimue, Xanadu started as a fairly powerful wood nymph-like creature, until she finds her...

An interesting and layered origin for an obscure character. World: The art is fine, it's strong and conveys strong emotions and the colors are muted and earthy a good choice for the book considering the origin of Madam Xanadu. The world building here is strong, meticulous and methodical. It's not fast it's not rushed it's a slow 10 issue build that at its core is based on character development and history. Strong stuff. Story: A grand tale that spans eras and given the 10 issue arc it was strong...

Good Vertigo fantasy. The troubled love life of an ancient fortune telling enchantress. It's interesting to see how blinded the character becomes to her own moral weakness, that this Seer who can predict the fortunes of others cannot see her own predicament. Amy Reeder Hadley's artwork is gorgeous throughout, despite Matt Wagner's writing seeming lazy or rushed at times. The Camelot and Marco Polo chapters got me curious enough to look up specific details. I did have some problems with certain a...

The art was good but it's basically the story of a woman whose obsessed with a Man whose too mysterious

From the Witchy Books Network review blog.Madame Xanadu is a character with a long history in the DC Universe who has been given a fresh start with this new series from the Vertigo imprint (home of Sandman and Fables). This first volume takes you on a wild journey throughout history, from her origin in Camelot when she was Nimue, sister of Morgan le Fay, to the palace of Kublai Khan from whence she took her name--Xanadu, to the French Revolution, the streets of Whitechapel during the terror of J...

I wanted to like this. I really did. I just couldn't. There was no overall arc to the book. It was just a collection of five team-ups, really. Those were okay, but Vertigo is known for having a cohesive story throughout their series. The lead characters are on a journey that has a beginning, middle and end. This was just a series of snippets in Madame Xanadu's life.I'll try volume 2, but if that doesn't do anything for me, I think I'm done with this series.

Well, that was far more impressive than I thought it would be. I bought this at my local comic store on a lark. I am glad I did. I had known of Matt Wagner from his Grendel series and I liked his work. That quality in terms of story and of the writing behind it is still manifest in this wonderful volume. I also really enjoyed Amy Reeder Hadley as the artist. It was truly art worthy of the prose and that makes for a fine addition to my Comic collection.Matt Wagner's writing and the prose of the d...

Madame Xanadu follows Nimue, a sorceress of the woods outside Camelot, as she outlives Arthur and watches human history develop. The chapters check in at various periods in our history, threaded together by the Phantom Stranger, a man not merely immortal, but so detached from time that he no longer even has emotion regarding the course of human events. We read and wonder if the fall of enough civilizations will do the same to her, or if her character can persist like her body.Penciler Amy Hadley...

The start of Madame Xanadu is a convoluted one, filled with the same premise we've seen in plenty of other stories of immortals. The first ten issues are collected here and have Madame at Camelot, the palace of the Khan, and in the midst of the French Revolution. Wagner seems like he's getting to know the character with each issue, which is a bad thing. There's far too much exposition and very little story. Instead of showing, Wagner tells us far too much. If I wasn't in love with the character,...

This review gets personal.I knew Madam Xanadu intimately, back in the days when she first appeared. Now that she’s made the big time, I feel like a suitor discarded after a brief fling, peddling what I know to the tabloids.I co-scripted, with Catherine Barrett Andrews, three Madam Xanadu stories for the original Doorway to Nightmare title back in 1978 and 1979.The series was conceived after D.C.’s last romance title, Young Love was cancelled. Each story was to contain a mix of 75% horror and 25%...

Astonishing artwork. Incredible writing. Mystical. Moving. Transporting.

I had high hopes with the description of this series; however, I found that by the end of volume 1 I intensely disliked the protagonist. Nimue/Xanadu supposedly wants to save those around her, but in doing so, she would doom humanity as a whole. I can understand some sense of hubris from a supposed immortal, but for one who can see/read the future and do magic, her inability to understand the "big picture" that the Phantom Stranger represents seems contrived, especially by the time of the New Yo...

Nimue tries in vain to prevent her sister from using Mordred to destroy Camelot. Then she tries in vain to help her friend in Kublai Khan's court (though she succeeds in making Marco Polo look like a hero). Then she tries in vain to help her friend Marie Antoinette. And then, she tries in vain to help her friends the whores stay safe from Jack the Ripper. Nimue, aka Madame Xanadu, just happens to be bff with every easily-recognizable historical figure ever. She is unfailingly morally perfect. Sh...

The more I think about this book, the less I like it. It has gorgeous art, an interesting premise, and that can't put it down quality. It's problems only surface once you have put it down. It 's billed as the story of an empowered woman. Madame Xanadu may be incredibly powerful, but in this story she is belittled not empowered. It is shown time and time again, that despite all of her powers and efforts she is helpless against destiny. That she is little more than a puppet, or an amusement, to th...

DNF after Chapter One. I'm just having a hard time convincing myself to read any more of this. It's just not grabbing me, despite the truly gorgeous artwork.

From capsule reviews I posted in a now-defunct e-mail account that I pasted into an e-mail to a friend dated February 1, 2010. (I referred to the series as "vol. 2" because of the July 1981 one-shot. I refer to Amy Reeder as "Reeder-Hadley" because it's how she was credited at the time.)Madame Xanadu vol. 2 #1I finally started reading this series after reading all of her appearance prior to becoming supporting cast for the Spectre. It's not only men who draw impossible costumes for women. Her s...

Madame Xanadu is one of DC’s more mysterious supernatural characters. I’ve seen her around, but not nearly as much as, say, The Spectre or Phantom Stranger (the latter plays a large role in this book). I barely knew anything about her before picking up her solo series, which marks the first time we see her origin. First impressions: Amy Reeder's art. The cover accurately promises what’s inside, i.e. elegant and expressive drawings that burst with color. I adore it. The five chapters (two issues