As we pick up Xanadu’s adventures in issue #7, I thought that the series would finally deliver an issue where the wheels started to come off, at lest thematically. Xanadu finds herself back in London for the first time in a millennium, during the dark and grimy days of the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens, gaslight (see where we’re going here?)…and Jack the Ripper. After all the hundreds of stories, like Alan Moore’s From Hell, to anthologies like Ripperology Magazine, what else and better yet, how is it possible, to tell any story related to Jack the Ripper or about Jack the Ripper that is fresh with any kind of interesting twists or theories? None. Or so I thought. Matt Wagner spins the first part of a tale that continues the ambiguously romantic relationship between Xanadu and the Phantom Stranger (her one and only recurring cast member, regardless of historical era) along with, Xanadu’s own maturation and development (it appears it takes hundreds of years for her type of folk to reach an emotional and rational maturity. Over boys no less! Or at lest that one boy who keeps popping in and out of her life-see: Phantom Stranger). Wagner also throws in all the familiar Ripper mythos, from the horrific nature of the disembowelments of his victims, to the rampant fear, gossip and the social commentary on the evils of the exploited Victorian under class that so often seem to be embedded in any tale taking place during this time period. What we also get though, is an old and worn out tale with new life breathed into it containing its own twists, heroes, varyingly apathetic and energetic Ripper pursuers and, most shockingly, a character who’s actions, while not aiding the Ripper per se has an interesting role to play in the Ripper’s story.