Morbus Gravis II

Druuna #2

by Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri (Artist), Julie Simmons Lynch (Editor)

The adventure continues as Druuna faces the sentient, immortal computer that controls The City and its mutant inhabitants.

Originally published by Dargaud Editeur, France; this edition as seen in Heavy Metal magazine 1988.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Erotica, Science Fiction, Bande Dessinée, Comic Book, Horror

62 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri is an Italian comic book writer and illustrator, noted for his works of highly detailed renderings of the human form, particularly erotic images of women. He is best known for his work on the Druuna erotic science fiction series.

Reviews

[Francisco M. Juárez]

Morbus Gravis II continúa en marcha ascendente la Saga de Druuna.

Excelentes revelaciones, escenas oníricas... violencia, monstruosidad y sensualidad.

Arte exquisito y sofocante.

Listo el primer capítulo en dos partes de la Saga de Druuna.

Las preguntas sobre La Ciudad sólo han aumentado.

Sigue Creatura.

[Leila Anani]

This instalment opens with a fantasy seduction scene with Druuna on a beach with a hunky lover Lewis who we soon learn is the head (god) in the previous volume, telepathically projecting a dream. He sends Druuna on a quest to destroy Delta. his rival, by destroying his tower power base. Druuna winds her way through an ever morphing landscape, encountering lots of sadistic rapists and mutants who want to have sex with her and then kill her before finally reaching her goal. But she begins to question who is the real villain - Delta... or Lewis?

I found this one a bit more misogynistic than the previous volume and felt rather uncomfortable at the glorification of rape and Druuna's attitude. Saying that the artwork is stunning - Drunna really is perfection in female form and the post-apocalyptic landscape of tentacles, wires, mutants and robots is terrifically realised.

[Ben]

Style over substance - but what style...!

Essentially Druuna is an erotic study of a 'perfect' woman. Oh, she'd get turned down by professional modelling outfits and by Playboy... But shows what they know. In a way she's an everywoman though very pretty. Her base body is supposed to be an ideal Native American woman but she could be almost any healthy dark haired woman with a nice body and tan. Lots of 'look alike' fan pictures on the artist's site.

The plot is simple, she's living in a corrupt nightmare city that turns out to be a failed generational starship, then is rescued by explorers from a sister ship that isn't as run-down. There's tons of partners and erotic situations...

But, the subject here is the style - the artist is one of those super super talented european artists and he was in search of ONE character and he found her. Thus his stories are pure obsession with Druuna story after Druuna story.


Now, this is more a site for people who read books and write them. If it was just a text story, we'd probably go 1 star. But this work is a true 'graphic' novel - the art is the story. This guy did this all with colored pencils...! And most of us would strive to express with our words as powerfully as the work is - not the story it is simple, but the imagery and feeling - mostly pretty disturbing but brilliant.

For those seeking a story, the next book "Creatura" is the best, IMO. But any of them are Druuna, Druuna, Druuna...to perfection.

[Carmine R.]

Tette al vento e culi granitici

Le donne sono tutte puttane e gli uomini degli scimmioni che impiegano poco tempo a calarsi le braghe e deflorare qualunque cosa respiri: turbinio di stupri a raffica e sodomizzate punitive per chi va contro il sistema (trash inarrestabile).
Come per il primo volume, soddisfacenti gli sviluppi finali e gestione complessiva del contesto che rasenta il pessimo.

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative]

Narrative: ***
The threat is too abstract and difficult to understand so the intended intensity was ineffective and inert. I didn't feel any emotion about anything. Some action scenes were interesting but totally forgettable- I couldn't describe any at this point.

Art: ***
All the elegantly engorged sensuality of Druuna's person gets tempered and tamed by the gross ->everything<- that's always taking up the rest of the space.

I'd go so far as to say that I don't enjoy looking at his work in general despite having reverence for his artistic ability and an advanced aesthetic attraction to his character.

[Jose Fernando Murayary Ibañez]

Excelente continuación, en dónde muestra un futuro nada halagador, un dibujo magnifico y oscuro, muy underground. La historia se mantiene interesante

[Rare Finds]

A technically brilliant piece of comic art. The visual artistry of Serpieri is unquestionable. Characters are gorgeously rendered, I can best describe the style as Moebius meets Juanjo Guarnido. As well drawn, coloured, rendered, and realized a comic as I have ever seen from the visual side.

The writing is rough. Maybe due to translation from
Italian to English, the dialogue is stilted and overbearing and just clunky. There’s also a ton of it. For a fairly simple story you’d think Bendis was in there doing his thing.

Now I don’t mind male power fantasy as a POV and as a time capsule of what was being published in Heavy Metal Magazine it’s a fascinating piece of work. This was undoubtedly transgressive and probably shocking at the time, particularly in America.

That said the story is wholly a vehicle for Druuna to essentially get naked and fucked in all holes as often as possible. People love to talk about the artistic value of erotic comic art and people will call Serpieri a genius etc. I’ve also seen it said the character of Druuna develops some agency later in the series. Now granted I’m just wrapping chapter two but I’ll bet the farm that “agency” she finds is going to be taking giant monster cocks because she wants to, not because she’s being raped every 10 pages. I guess what I’m saying is the fandom around this would get more credibility if they called a spade a spade and just admitted they like looking at cartoon buttholes and giant hermaphroditic alien cocks.

Four stars for the art and the shock value and for somehow getting this published in America in the decidedly censorship heavy 1980’s. I bet this freaked out its fair share of parents who found copies of Heavy Metal stashed under their kids mattress.

[Rick Ray]

Serpieri's Druuna series may seem to some as using a sci-fi veneer to cover up the fact that he just wants to draw nude women repeatedly, but to his credit the sci-fi stuff is actually not bad. The world of the Druuna series is a post-apocalyptic hellhole where grotesque mutant beings fight against a group of power-hungry, sadistic fascists. There are rampant allusions to simulation hypothesis, telepathy and psychic connections, all of which are fairly decently executed. While there is definitely an undercurrent of misogynistic stuff happening, like the glorification of rape and Druuna's own odd subservience to the perverse advances of cruel men, I do think there is enough remaining story still left to chew on to not feel like this was simply an exercise in overtly horny storytelling. Serpieri's ability to draw naked women aside, he does a fantastic job crafting the world around Druuna and the desolate landscapes, machinery, monsters, etc. all look remarkably designed.

[Ανδρέας Μιχαηλίδης]

OK, let's be honest. The three stars are 90% because of the gorgeous art, be it sexy or grotesque. Serpieri swings between the two extremes of beauty and atrocity effortlessly. You might not even read the comic, just stare at the art.

And, to keep being honest, there is not much point in reading it. Whatever novel ideas Serpieri had seem to have run out in the making of the first volume. The dialogs are nonsensical and borderline childish, perhaps on purpose, but no less annoying for that; the actual plot would barely make a 5-page comic and is stretched out to 12 times that; and any sense of underlying meaning is drowned out under various fetishes.

I mean I'm sure that was what the readers wanted and why Druuna is considered a timeless classic in its genre, but after the realizations of the first volume, it was a bit disappointing.

[Bruno Silva]

Na continuação de Druuna, sabemos que a sua missão , ao descobrir que está numa nave à deriva no espaço que foi controlada pelo computador Delta e que uma entidade chamada Lewis lhe pede para ir à torre eliminar Delta para que ele possa morrer é de loucos . Mas os desenhos de Serpieri são extraordinários e a história de louca e apocalíptica nesta cidade à deriva no espaço com um vírus que transforma os humanos em mutantes e cria a anarquia e delírio total de poder em alguns poucos tem um fascínio .

[İlteriş]

The second volume of Druuna...well...seems like the plot does not care much as well as the art but is it a problem? Personally, I didn't care about that. I just enjoyed the art and all the details in the drawings. Druuna satisfied my expectations for now. I feel like I will continue to admire the artwork quality but as for the plot-wise, I hope that Druuna won't go worse, more complicated or more abstract than currently is.

[Abrar Shahid]

The fucking helplessness and despair of the premise is so dreadful. I love the style and the artworks that create this techno bio horror of wires and tentacles. Juxtaposed with arousing visuals of druuna makes for a weird and uncomfortable experience. Like are we touching ourselves to hot people despite the panels surrounding being some diseased mutant? This volume also lacks any wholesome depiction of sex, most of it is entangled in violence/exploitation making it less accessible I guess?

[Alessandro]

Più o meno a livello del primo, anche se forse leggermente superiore. La storia riprende esattamente da dove era terminata, e svela altri particolari. Il disegno é ulteriormente migliorato, se possibile. Sicuramente da leggere, dopo il primo, per capire (meglio) certe cose.

[Jenika Ioffreda]

Second part of Morbius Gravis, the artwork is beautiful and the story continues with more gore, violence and sex (once again a good part of it being rapes). Not my cup of tea, but still I enjoyed it for the art.

[Jorgon]

What is the plot? Is there a plot? Could Druuna be the most insipidly moronic character in all comic history? Was the dialogue written by a 3-year old? All these are burning questions.

The art is pretty good, though, when the artist stops dwelling on Druuna's attributes, he produces some rather awesome phantasmagoric landscapes and convincing oozy gore. One only wishes he had hired a writer. Or had he? That would make things even worse.

[Ian McKinley]

Complex plot and great artwork - applies to the entire series

[Al Capwned]

Nope! The way sexual violence is handled in this one is too disturbing.

[Timo]

Ei tämä niin viehättävä ollut kuin ensimmäinen Druuna vaikka mukana oli edelleen upea nainen usein alastomana, brutaalia väkivaltaa sekä oksettavia mutantteja. Lähinnä tämä oli kauhua, mutta ei toiminut edes kauhuna. Ihan kiva, mutta ei täydellinen.

[O]

I need to know where to go from here, really. Where are the others?