Return to Labyrinth vol. 3

So after a ridiculously long waiting period (it’s been about a year and a half since the release of volume two), the third and penultimate volume of Jake Forbes’ manga-style sequel/spin-off of 1986 cult classic Henson film “Labyrinth” finally hit stores earlier this month, courtesy of Tokyopop. Personally, I’ve been a fan of the movie ever since the time when my age could be represented with a single digit. I love how creative and imaginative it is, and I especially love the fascinating story at its center: a young girl, obsessed with fantasy and fed up with reality, is forced to confront “dangers untold and hardships unnumbered” when her fantasies become real in a very scary way. Basically, after unwittingly sending her baby brother Toby to the kingdom of goblins that live in the Underground, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) must solve their dangerous and impossible labyrinth in order to retrieve the baby. She also must match wits and wills with the treacherous and powerful Goblin King (David Bowie). Said king constantly tries to foil her, both by throwing dangers and obstacles in her path and by tempting her with (what he believes to be) her heart’s desires. But Sarah’s resourcefulness and determination to save her brother, as well as the creatures she befriends along the way, help her to reach the center of the Labyrinth, where she finally remembers the magic words that defeat the Goblin King once and for all: you have no power over me. And so Sarah returns home with baby in tow, having grown up a bit from the petulant teenager who went into the Labyrinth and also made some really cool goblin friends along the way.

-->Return to Labyrinth takes place a good while after the events of the film and features an adolescent version of Toby, the baby Sarah rescued, as its main protagonist. Drawn once more into the Labyrinth, Toby finds himself caught up in a very different kind of adventure than what Sarah experienced all those years before. Now, do I love this series like I do the original material? Not hardly. But do I enjoy it? Actually, I really do. I like Jake Forbes’ imaginative creations, and it’s clear that he’s a fan of the film as well. The story of RtL has also improved immensely with each successive volume he’s written. And while Chris Lie’s artwork isn’t particularly to my taste and kind of takes some getting used to, it has kind of grown on me a little bit.

-->There are certain elements of RtL that work better for me than others. I sometimes feel, for example, that the characters’ voices (particularly, and most disappointingly, the voices of the characters from the original film) don’t come through as strongly as they might. On the other hand, Forbes and Lie have together captured perfectly the wonderful world of the Labyrinth itself, as well as the strange and unfathomable creatures that inhabit it. Particularly enjoyable are the two new goblin characters: Spittledrum, the pompous but loyal mayor of Goblin City, and Skub, the scrappy little underdog with a heart of gold. Yet in spite of its merits, this little series won’t have a whole lot of appeal to anyone who isn’t already a diehard fan of the film. Which actually kind of works out because I seriously doubt anyone who’s not a Labby freak like me will even bother with these books at all.

Anyways, getting down to brass tacks, the action of volume three picks up right where volume two left off, and I gotta say eighteen months is an awfully long time to wait for the resolution of a cliffhanger, especially when said resolution is kind of disappointing. Jareth and Sarah come face to face for the first time in all these years aaaaand… she doesn’t recognize him. Of course she doesn’t. I should have known, really, although we don’t find out exactly what’s going on with Sarah until a little later. Fortunately, things are a lot more exciting in the Underground than they are up Above, as Toby discovers the truth about the former king and prepares for his own coronation while contending with enemies from without and within. There’s a lot going on in this volume, but I suspect a lot of it is set up for the fourth and final installment. Which, if we follow the established pattern, should be released in about one hundred years. When it does come out, however, I will undoubtedly be purchasing it. Anybody looking to learn more about this series and its creator should check out Jake Forbes’ blog over at gobblin.net.

And now I have a really strong desire to go watch “Labyrinth” again. Fortunately for me I have it on my ipod, soooo that’s what I’ll be doing tonight. :)