Age Of Bronze Volume 1: A Thousand Ships [Paperback]

As a person who still collects comic books and teaches Classical Greek & Roman Mythology I can appreciate the problems that Shanower has to deal with in telling this timeless tale. In the past I have taught a giant unit on the Trojan War in which students had to read the stories about the Judgment of Paris and the Abduction of Helen from Edith Hamilton's "Mythology," the Euripides play "Iphigenia at Aulis," Homer's "Iliad," the Fall of Troy from Virgil's "Aeneid" and then continued with the story of Agamemnon in the "Orestia" by Aeschylus. Greek mythology is, as Shanower notes, hopelessly convoluted and contradictory, which means making all the stories fit together impossible. Shanower solves this Gordian knot by establishing ages for his characters with an eye towards how old they will be at the end of the Trojan War. Yes, this still presents problems (Helen, with her eight-year old daughter, seems much older than Paris, Achilles seems too young to be outraged in the next volume by the scheme by which Agamemnon dupes Iphigenia into coming to Aulis, and Neoptolemus will be 10 when he comes to Troy to take part in the slaughter at the end), but in each and every instance I understand exactly what contradiction Shanower is trying to resolve in the wealth of classical mythology from which he draws his tale. I find Paris to be too much the hot-headed brat, but since Shanower has decided that Helen submits to the abduction because she believes it to be her fate rather than out of love the characterization does not work against the story at this point (Paris is always the most problematic character in the story, in the same way that dealing with Judas forces authors to make hard choices in telling the story of Jesus).

The most significant difference in Shanower's version is that the supernatural elements are downplayed in order to emaphsize the human element. There are dreams and visions, "But no gods i nthe flesh" (Shanower proves he has fully done his research when he points out that Dares of Phrygia had Paris dream the judgment in his "History of the Destruction of Troy"). What matters here is not so much the abduction of Helen, but the fact that Troy controls the Hellespont and commerce by ships between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Still, prophecies and portents prove themselves accurate time and time again.

I also want to note Shanower's accuracy in showing the city and throne room of Mycenae, which I visited this spring. Helen's dress and idols bespeak the Minoan civilization more than the Mycenaean to my eye, but that is not too much of a stretch. The artwork is certainly competent enough and since it works in service to the story there is nothing to complain about on that score (although I thought the decision to do the recap of the sack of Troy by Herakles in a more cartoonish style counterproductive). What I especially appreciate is the way that Shanower provides lots of details in the vast majority of his panels. Consequently, I would not be especially interested in see this volume in color because the artwork is clearly more effective in black & white.

I look forward to the next volumes in the series, especially when Shanower has to deal with the monumental gap that exists between the arrival of the Acheans on the shores of Troy (the story that the first man ashore would die is fairly well known) and the refusal of Agamemnon to give up Chryseis to her father that begins Homer's "Iliad." I will be interested to see if Shanower glosses over that nine-year period or meets the challenge of finding some sense of drama and characterization to what happened during the period. All things considered, this is a fine beginning which should impress those who know the original stories as well as those who were seduced by the recent television mini-series abomination "Helen of Troy."