Review by Frank Plowright
Eowulf Wegmund carries a family legacy, explaining her name. She’s the present day descendent of legendary monster slayer Beowulf, and just as the lineage continues, so do the monsters still exist, just hiding in places where most of humanity can’t perceive them. What Eowulf passes off to her friends as SFX from films her father works on are actual heads of monsters slain by her father. Eowulf has learned to fight, has a great sword named Roger and can access instant transportation between places, but has broken with family tradition through realising that just because monsters look like monsters doesn’t mean they are monsters. Her method is only to deal with the irredeemable.
You’ll notice, though, that Middle School is part of the title, and while Eowulf would rather spend all her time in exotic places, her mother insists she keeps up her schooling. It’s near the start of a new school year, and Eowulf finds she’s now seeing things slightly differently, and perhaps everyone picking on the outsider kid Amadeus is wrong.
The summary may indicate a slight whiff of preaching about Eowulf, but Mike Cavallaro manages to swerve that by sidestepping a situation to make Eowulf realise something about herself. It’s not an easy piece of characterisation to pull off, but it’s neatly achieved and prompts several of the big emotional moments going forward.
These are supplemented by plenty of action as Eowulf’s two worlds collide. Cavallaro has a tidy, simple and adaptable cartoon style that’s able to cope equally well with reality and unreality, and much is packed into the pages both artistically and in terms of story. As she’s the title character you’d expect Eowulf to be likeable from the start, but Cavallaro’s good with shades of grey, able to change the way readers think about people.
From a strong starting concept Cavallaro develops an engaging adventure with a tightly constructed plot. The introduction of what’s in effect a superhero team at first seems more than a little gratuitous, but Cavallaro also has that covered with a cute background also accounting for the alienation of Amadeus. However, Cavallaro can’t figure out a way to compress pages of explanations, although they lead to a credible surprise and that subsequently ties in well to later events.
The epilogue ending doesn’t make much sense without the realisation that Cavallaro’s tying in Eowulf and her world with his earlier series Nico Bravo, in which she had a strong supporting role. There’s no need to know of the connection to enjoy this finely crafted all-ages adventure, but Nico’s fans will enjoy the nod. Eowulf returns in The Creature Connection.
