Rex Mundi Volume 5: The Valley at the End of the World (v. 5)
After opening this volume with a nifty Dracula-inspired flashback, Nelson and Ferreyra’s marriage of alternate history and dark fantasy resumes the European war of 1933 with the Duke of Lorraine’s northern French boxed in by the Prussians. The duke gambles that the southern army he knows has just defeated the Muslim Spanish can double back to turn the tide for France. Simultaneously, Julien Saunière discovers what the Holy Grail is and closes in on it. Rex Mundi is a more expansive and, because it begins by revamping history and taking the supernatural for granted, probable variation on the themes of The Da Vinci Code. --Ray Olson