“This is the worst thing any of you have ever faced.”
Keep reading for a review of The Magic Order volume 2, issue #5.
Big spoilers below.
The art this issue was gorgeous, as always. Stuart Immonen’s lines are always crisp and dynamic, and David Curiel’s colors are vibrant and detailed, together even the simplest panel is something you want to linger over: there’s a closeup of Victor in his helmet, and I’m mesmerized by the shadows on his face and the light glinting off metal, and that’s just one small part of the page. Also, that cover is a thing of beauty, man alive.
As the second-to-last issue, the dialog was having to do a lot of heavy lifting to set us up for the finale. I’m not sure if things would have been less wordy if there’d been more issues to spread the information out a little, but there was a lot of exposition this time around.
Francis’ dad talks at length about his wife (the former head of the Magic Order) on the night that she had to prove her skills to the rest of the order (something that Cordelia’s scheduled to do before the end of next issue: it’s been set up pretty deliberately so I can’t imagine we won’t get to see it.) Anyone who’s read a comic book before will know this information is going to be Really Important in the finale, but I’m not sure if it’s getting us ready for Cordelia’s test, or for Francis’ fate.
As for Francis, I feel like we haven’t seen the last of him, despite what happened to him this issue. There was too much build up of his character to have that be the end of it.
I was glad to see the advisors who were talking to Francis’ dad give each other a little side eye at one point. He still seems to think it’s perfectly normal to sell your estate and live in a nursing home in order to pay off your junkie son’s debts, and none of the Magic Order even raised an eyebrow about it, so at least the normies are smart enough (or human enough?) to say “….you know we’re kicking you out once the papers are signed? And you’re….okaaaay with this?”
Meanwhile, I’m not sure, but I think that page we had last issue of Kevin taking a shower and getting dressed, that may have been explained this issue. It’s possible that it was out of character for him, or maybe we should have been focusing on him so that we….no, nevermind, I still don’t understand why that was important. But after what just happened it’s probably not important anymore.
The rest of the issue is a lot of explanations broken up with quick moments of intense violence. There’s a lot of telling instead of showing (I would’ve liked to see the Lagenum in action instead of being told what it does, it sounds intensely cool) and a lot of people making comments or asking questions that sometimes seemed a little wordy.
It’s nice of Cordelia to explain to us that Rosie could’ve fooled anybody with her magic and that she left on her own and Cordelia will now use a spell to find her, but it was one of those moments that wouldn’t have needed so much explanation if we’d had more time to set it up. And since it was so deliberately explained, we now know it’s going to be Really Important next issue. (The preview image for next month’s cover was an unfortunate spoiler too.)
Victor also gets his moment to explain himself and his vendetta, which boils down to “you made us all behave instead of letting us kill people so now we’re taking over.” He says the Magic Order took away their birthright, but they all seem to still have magic abilities, so I’m not sure why he was poor and working in a factory.
He does finally mention the spell that Cordelia cast in the previous arc (resurrecting the Magic Order using a forbidden book) and why it allowed Victor’s people to make their move: the spell was cursed, so the curse is the dark order is making their move. Yes, I was expecting something more complicated too, but it does seem to fit the available pieces. Maybe the Magic Order kept Victor’s people in line by squashing their ambitions, and the curse lifted that limitation?
There’s still a chance that Victor was just guessing about the curse, and Cordelia’s got something completely different to worry about.
Probably my favorite part of the issue was the double-page spread of all the different monsters Victor plans to unleash, and they all made me wish we could get an issue devoted to each. (“Easter Island Man-Hunters,” that was my favorite!)
Only one issue left, here’s hoping we find out: Francis’ fate, whether or not he mind-controlled his Dad, how the Magic Order gets out of this mess (and whether or not they deserve to), the fallout of the resurrection spell, what the heck Cordelia’s going to do for her big performance, and what Rosie’s got planned (and whether or not she’s as innocent as she looks MY GUESS IS NOT.)
