“Once upon a time our people ruled the earth, but the Magic Order took us down, and what a boring shit hole they paved the way for.”
…the next arc has started and I only found out about it this week? Bad nerd, no cookie!
Ahem. Keep reading for a review of The Magic Order, volume 2, issue #1.
Small spoilers below for this issue, and great big spoilers for the previous volume.
As soon as I got this issue I dropped everything and read it. Then I thought about it for a bit, grabbed my copy of Volume 1, and read that. (Hardly a hardship, that was a gorgeous and messed up book.) And then I read this issue again.
I don’t know that you have to read Volume 1 to enjoy this issue, but I hadn’t read the first volume in two years, and I was fuzzy on a couple of the character names. (Though one of the characters in this issue may not have been in Volume 1: anybody know who the guy in the big bed was?) For the best experience I recommend reading Volume 1 again. (Or for the first time: seriously, if you haven’t read it, you’ll love it. Brace yourself, it’s beautifully disturbing.)
So. When we last saw the Magic Order at the end of volume one, (six months ago according to our main characters) perpetual screw-up Cordelia had been unanimously voted in as the new head of the order. With that much responsibility on her shoulders, you can imagine how quickly she’s cleaned up her act. Kidding. I’m happy to say she’s just as much of a train wreck as she’s always been: her life may be a dumpster fire of alcohol and questionable sex partners, but it’s so fun to watch.
We also get to catch up with young Rosie, whose parents met a bad end in the last volume. The rest of the order is raising her, and she seems cheerful and happy and I don’t trust her one bit. Her Dad had to sacrifice himself to save her and her Mom is locked in a Dostoevsky novel, and that doesn’t bother her? No way, I’m calling it now, that little girl is going to want some revenge, I don’t care how much everybody was spoiling her at the birthday party.
We also get to meet several new faces in this issue. Now, in some series the villains are nuanced characters, they don’t consider themselves “The Bad Guys,” they just have different goals from The Good Guys.
Not here. The magicians of The Dark are just straight up evil assholes. They do horrible things because they’re all-powerful and if you can do anything you want why wouldn’t you make people slaughter each other, it’s fun!
As for the art, I was really bummed when I heard Olivier Coipel wouldn’t be returning this issue, I love his work in volume one. And then I heard Stuart Immonen was doing the art instead and I went “oh, never mind then, we’re totally fine.” I’ve been a fan of Immonen’s work ever since seeing it in the X-Men books around 2013, and everything in this issue looked amazing. Some of the images are fantastically decadent, like the secret castle inside the painting in the museum, and some are horrifically terrifying (gore warning for several pages, particularly one full-page panel, yipe!) and all of it is gorgeous, with a beautiful color palette by Sunny Gho.
Several characters have mentioned the forbidden spell that Cordelia cast six months ago (I’m assuming they mean the resurrection spell.) There’s a lot of talk about how they’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop ever since. I’m curious to see where that goes, because it sounds like The Bad Guys I mentioned are taking advantage of the situation, but it’s not clear yet how. I’m looking forward to finding out.
