Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon (review)

Our ungainly hero Alfred Kropp is back in his foster home, lamenting that saving the world (as he did in The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, BCCB 2/06) doesn't seem to come with as many benefits as one might have hoped. Heir to an enormous fortune, he is unable to stop his greedy foster father from trying to adopt him; as he is running away, however, he is kidnapped and nearly killed by his old nemesis, the traitor Mike Arnold. Mike has stolen artifacts that have held the entire fallen-angel brigade at bay since the time of Solomon, and when he unleashes them, it's up to Alfred, with the help of a taciturn agent known only as Op Nine, to save the world, again. It soon becomes evident, however, that Op Nine is using Alfred in an unethical way; Alfred's blood has some power to temporarily discombobulate the demons, and Op Nine is stealing it bit by bit to make weapons. Ultimately, though, it is Alfred's shaky faith, combined with his noble Round Table bloodline, that proves just enough to make him a fit vessel through which God himself can send the demons back where they belong. Alfred's wisecracking naïveté, which worked so well in the first book, is less successful here; his deadpan humor lacks the dynamism it acquired from bouncing off the well-conceived secondary characters, Op Nine being a rather pale and uninteresting substitute for the memorable and beloved Bennacio. The plot is similarly less substantial; the action, though ample, has a flat, forced quality that depends entirely too much on supernatural explosions. Nevertheless, the cinematic, or rather videogame, quality to Alfred's exploits will appeal to visual learners who can fill in the pictures themselves—budding graphic novelists could have a lot of fun bringing this text to life—and readers committed to Alfred from the first book will be glad to walk with him as he slowly comes to terms with his mother's death.