Nikolai Dante: Sympathy for the Devil
Nikolai Dante: Sympathy for the Devil – Robbie Morrison, Simon Fraser and John Burns (Rebellion www.2000ADonline.com)
And so it ends… the fifteen year-long saga of Nikolai Dante reaches a climax with ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, the eleventh and last collected edition of his many adventures (both in and out of the bedroom). In that time we’ve seen him as a womanising thief, a swashbuckling ‘Hero of the Revolution’, an accident-prone fool, captain of a penal battalion, an ill-at-ease member of the aristocracy and the double-edged ‘Sword of the Tsar’. As the story opens here, Dante is the leader of a vanquished rebel army that previously succeeded in overthrowing Vladimir The Conqueror only to have their victory stolen at the last minute by a newly-resurrected Dmitri Romanov, head of the monstrous dynasty which spawned Dante himself (Dmitri having inadvertently sired Nikolai when he raped Katarina Dante, Pirate Queen of the Pacific, leading to no end of bad blood between all three). Now, Dmitri is preparing to seal his rule by marrying Jena Makarov, daughter of the imprisoned former Tsar and Dante’s true love. It’s not something that the Russian rogue is going to take lying down, and as the wedding bells begin to ring out, the scene is set for a final confrontation… Revealing that Dante wins the day is not exactly a spoiler, because you always knew that was going to be the case (although there are several examples of highly-satisfying hubris and fated symmetry along the way). What is interesting here is how writer Robbie ‘Shakara’ Morrison portrays the events after victory has been won – who lives, who dies, etc. But the big question that he asks is, given the character’s wild-hearted nature and roots, was Nikolai Dante ever cut out for the role of a king in the first place? All of which leads to a highly ambiguous ending that leaves matters open to interpretation. Before we get there, Morrison also offers a fantastic sequence in which Dante sits down to play Russian Roulette with the deposed Vladimir The Conqueror – powerful, epic stuff which inevitably numbs anything that follows in its wake. Nikolai Dante is the only 2000AD character to have ever toppled Judge Dredd in the popularity stakes, and I for one hope that Morrison has plans to bring him back at some point. In the meantime, we have eleven excellent collected editions to remember him by. So goodbye, Nikolai – it’s been a blast. Liam Ronan
