Review by C.J. Bunce
In Jordan Mechner’s new hardcover novel-formatted graphic novel Templar
Mechner pulls themes from a myriad of favorite films to tell the story of Martin and his lost love Isabelle as they briefly reunite during a manhunt for Martin and a ramshackle gathering of fellow Knights who pursue a legendary treasure trove (that ultimately includes the Lost Ark of the Covenant) they believe to be stored in the basement of the villainous Nogaret, which they hope to use to finance a defense against the papacy and the king. But they are up against a changing age similar to that of The Last Samurai, where the elite guard has served its purpose and now must go. Martin’s role is like that of William Wallace in Braveheart or Robin in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The Knights Templar are like the Spartans of Frank Miller’s 300, but without their last stand at Thermopylae. We get to know the smaller subset more closely, loosely based on an actual group of men who were thought to have escaped being burnt at the stake, these men wander about as a jovial sort despite their lot like the cast of A Knight’s Tale or Robin Hood’s Merry Men. Isabelle is a well-cast Marion, too, with elements of Blakeney’s wife in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Along the way we meet a kind old Templar Grand Master who, based on a historic figure, is imprisoned and tricked by the King’s men. His role is that of Thomas Aquinas in A Man for All Seasons–caught in the Catch 22 of the medieval world where you either confess and die a heretic or refuse to confess and die a heretic.
