When I have the time and strength for an essay, it'll be about Bern and May's relationship. But this stuck out to me:
Although all characters e.g. Maytag, Bern have stength's and weaknesses, Crest, although seemingly awesome, has no real strengths.
He is nervous around women, cant use a sword, and is generally a coward.
Not to mention he's STILL a virgin.
Apart from a verbal punching bag, what use does crest have?
Seriously.
Putting to one side the (bizarre) idea that virginity is a character flaw and needs to be 'fixed', I'm going to have to call you on him being a coward.
The first time we meet Crest, he asks Maytag out despite knowing as a near-certainty she's out of his league and will turn him down. As small a thing as this is? Not cowardly. Then we find him cheating at poker in a gang of thugs he can't
not know will kill him if they catch him at it - not for personal gain, but to restore his mother's sight, and
that against the wishes of a powerful father figure. He tries to defend Maytag against said gang of thugs - and later, Voulger - despite not having any strategy or special skills. He doesn't cower, he literally stands up to them in the near-certainty that he's going to die for it. Stupid? Certainly, but very brave. And this in the
first two chapters. Since then, he's lost the limelight to Suspiria and other new characters but there's never really a point at which he gives into cowardice.
Does Crest have any magic powers? No. Is he especially good with a sword? No. Is he in any way remarkable? No. Does he recognise his limits? Absolutely. But in the context of the comic, these ARE his strengths: he's a straight man (no pun intended) to Flipside's more outlandish, preternaturally capable protagonists. He's there as a constant reminder of what the baseline for 'average' is in this world, he acts as a lens through which the audience can perceive the main characters, and he's the one who can maintain a sense of perspective and common sense re. the seriousness of what's going on.
In Book Zero, Regina served much the same purpose: she was a sorceress, yeah, but only just. Her dramatic function was to be
normal - someone who was trying her best despite her flaws and very rarely succeeding - because stories with extraordinary characters need ordinariness too. Her - and Crest's - conflicts and struggles were all the more powerful because they're played out on the same field as Maytag et al despite not being as competent or confident.
(And while I'm here, the awkward, borderline slowmo-train-wreck nature of Regina's relationship with Lucient represented some of the best writing in Book Zero and indeed in the comic to date. It worked, and I felt genuinely gutted for her, because it felt real. Throwing your heart and soul into the idea of a relationship with someone and then having it just barely
not suck enough for you to immediately back out? Very nicely done. Just saying.)
This is practically a pre-emptive criticism, or at least a piece of advice:
Crest does not need to be any more badass than he is now. The slow improvement in his swordfighting is nice, the fact he has potential is good, but the last thing we need is for him to ever reach Bernadette levels of competence. I said my piece on Maytag degrading as a character a long time ago, but as for Crest, he needs to be what he is right now: an awkward, slightly helpless everyman. He holds the cast together.