Mantra Mondays: Mantra #11

Mantra Mondays makes a return.  I am slowly getting back into a schedule.  We are getting into the area of Mantra that I enjoy the most.  It is like some of the things I had hoped would be in the stories are at long last being represented.  All it takes is having Lukasz/Eden lose the armor, cloak, and mask.  Amazing.

We discover the original Archimage dealings with the artifacts.  I say that as a way of hinting a future aspect that we will learn.  For now know that Archimage is as scuzzy as we seem to be learning.  I wonder how someone who we are seeing as a manipulative sorcerer ever garnered devotion of the men that fought in his war with brother Boneyard.  The guy marries three young women and trains them in magic and gives each one part of what we know as the Mantra costume.

Now those older women who were taken by Boneyard when hubby Archimage left them to fend for themselves are back and have usurped the control of the armor, cloak, and mask.  Ungrateful harpies are ready to attack the woman who tried to help them when last they met.

The image of Lukasz nude and the smoke swirling around him is gratuitous, yet does advance the story.  Eden has magic naturally, now that gift is free of the crutch Lukasz has used in the form of the costume.  He will have to learn his limitations, but the main character still can fight and thrive.  The whining is there.  So, I place the art and thoughts of Lukasz here to help tell that part of the tale.

On the home front we get some domestic issues for Lukasz as Eden's mom decides to watch the kids but not do the laundry.  Lukasz is not really good at running a washing machine.  These moments are softening Lukasz and he is warming to the children.  I am glad to see him beginning to care about them.

In the end a major thing happens.  Boneyard is freed from his dimension.  It really is hard for me to separate his evil from Archimage's callous use of the warriors under him.  They both are willing to sacrifice others to get their way.  This time Lukasz ends up helping out.  Things get really cool as the issues move forward.

BDS