Labyrinth: Coronation is a prequel to Labyrinth that was published by Archaia Entertainment from 2018 to 2019. A twelve-issue comic book series, it tells the origin story of Jareth the Goblin King.
It's Venice in the year 1797, and Countess Maria Tyton, wife of British nobleman Lord Albert Tyton, experiences a mother's worst nightmare when her husband allows their infant son to be abducted by goblins. Desperate to get him back, she makes a deal with the Owl King, the sinister ruler of the goblins: if she can make it to the Owl King's castle in the center of the Labyrinth within thirteen hours, she can have her son back. Otherwise, he becomes one of the goblins forever.
Sounds familiar, right? Well, yes and no. Maria is a very different heroine than Sarah, she has a completely different trio of companions, and this story has a completely different outcome.
Labyrinth: Coronation contains the following tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Jareth keeps getting Beetleglum's name wrong, just like he did with Hoggle in the movie and Spittledrum in Return to Labyrinth.
- Action Mom: Maria.
- Actually, I Am Him: Cible the worm turns out to to be the feared rebel leader Bunderghast the Invicible.
- The Alcoholic: Three of the rebel goblins can't seem to go even a few seconds before asking if anyone has ale.
- Ambiguous Gender: The Tangle.
- And You Were There: Maestro Jilani, the art teacher at the ball Maria and Albert are attending at the beginning of the story, has a counterpart in the Labyrinth in the form of a goblin artisan in charge of building the Owl King's tomb.
- Archnemesis Dad: The Owl King to Skubbin.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Lord Albert Tyton.
- Bad Future: Beetleglum shows Maria a vision of the terrible future that awaits her and her son if they return to the real world. Maria chooses to stay in the Labyrinth in order to avoid this.
- Big Bad: The Owl King.
- The Blank: The other dancers in the Dream Ballet the Owl King puts Maria into.
- Cassandra Truth: Maria tells the citizens of Venice about her son being taken by goblins. Naturally they don't believe her.
- Changeling Tale: Just like in the movie, we have another human baby taken away by goblins.
- City of Canals: Venice and the Labyrinth itself.
- Cool Airship: The Owl King's soldiers get around in giant, eighteenth-century warships that are hoisted through the air by fairies.
- Creepy Cemetery: The Owl King creates one in the Labyrinth out of Albert's memories, complete with lightning, Ominous Fog, and goblin zombies.
- Disney Villain Death: Septimus becomes a victim of this.
- Distaff Counterpart: Cible the worm is a female version of the Worm from the movie.
- The Dragon: Septimus to the Owl King.
- Dream Ballet: Maria is put into one of these by the Owl King, just like Jareth put Sarah into one in the movie.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Labyrinth under the Owl King's rule seems to draw a lot of influences from eighteenth-century Venice. Justified since Maria's from Venice and it's her imagination that is shaping much of the Labyrinth.
- Fiery Redhead: Maria.
- Foreshadowing: During the masquerade ball Maria and Albert are attending at the beginning of the story, Maria is supposed to be painting a picture of a rose bush but deliberately paints a picture of a mermaid instead since she likes mermaids better. She ends encountering a rose bush and a mermaid in the Labyrinth in the forms of the Tangle and a phony mermaid.
- Framing Device: The series is presented as Jareth and Beetleglum telling Maria's story to Toby.
- Funny Animal: The Owl King is an anthropomorphic owl.
- The Grand Hunt: A group of goblins dressed in nineteenth-century foxhunting outfits hunt the Tangle for sport.
- History Repeats: Sarah isn't the first young woman who's had to go through the Labyrinth to rescue a baby boy from the King of the Goblins. And Toby isn't the first human baby Beetleglum's had to babysit.
- I Choose to Stay: Maria chooses to remain in the Labyrinth with Jareth after beating the Owl King.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Swamp-Gob tries to feed Maria to her children.
- It's All About Me: Albert cares more about maintaining his wealth and prestige than he does about his wife and son.
- La Résistance: Many of the Owl King's subjects have grown dissatisfied with his oppressive, orderly reign and intend to revolt and overthrow him. All they need is a leader, and Cible's just the worm for the job.
- Living Drawing: One of the Labyrinth's king's most trusted servants is a mobile mosaic that serves as their spy. The mosaic depicts a large, red face that glides over stone surfaces but can also break apart into its shards to teleport. For most of the story, it stalks Skubbin, but under command of Jareth is put to use for (slightly) more reasonable tasks.
- Living Figurehead: Just outside the entrance to the Labyrinth are living, talking figureheads of ships that try to warn Maria to turn back (just like the "false alarms" Sara meets in the movie).
- Lower-Deck Episode: The Framing Device takes place during the events of the movie as Sarah attempts to rescue Toby.
- MacGuffin: Maria's chalk, which proves to be very useful in the Labyrinth.
- Mama Bear: Maria will stop at nothing to get her son back.
- Masquerade Ball: Maria and Albert attend one in Venice at the beginning of the story. We later see a glimpse of the one Jareth puts Sarah into during the Framing Device.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Sir Skubbin the goblin knight wants to be an infamous bandit but is too nice to actually be one.
- No Immortal Inertia: Once his plan to extend his life by draining baby Jareth's life fails, the Owl King shrinks and then ceases to exist in a puff of smoke.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: The undead goblins in the cemetery are never referred to as "zombies".
- Ominous Owl: The Owl King.
- Parental Abandonment: Albert willingly gives his infant son over to the Owl King.
- Pink Heroine: Cible the worm is pink, female, and one of the story's heroes.
- Plant Person: The Tangle, the walking, talking rose bush.
- Predecessor Villain: The Owl King to Jareth.
- Really 700 Years Old: Jareth was a baby in 1797, so he's at least 189 by the events of the movie. Beetlelglum was around during those events as well, and only looks a little older during the movie's events, which makes him even older. And Maria's still around by this time too.
- Reverse Psychology: The Condolier always takes his passengers the opposite of where they want to go. So in order to finally get to the castle, Tangle tells the Condolier to take them anywhere but the castle. And he ends up taking them to the castle.
- Stern Teacher: Albert's father, Sir Alexander Tyton, was this to him growing up. The Owl King creates a giant mechanical version of Sir Alexander to serve as another obstacle for Maria.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Jareth looks a lot like his father Albert.
- Would Harm a Child: Septimus has no qualms about harming Maria's son to make him stop crying, and the Owl King plans to kill him in order to extend his own life.
