“…because this is what happens when you mess with my family, dickweed…”
Keep reading for a review of The Magic Order 3, issue #5.
Minor spoilers below.
We still have three storylines on pause this issue: Sammy Liu’s questionable use of his powers, Leonard and Salome’s hunt for “The Puzzle” that killed her father, and what the heck is happening with Uncle Edgar.
And while we (possibly?) have a wrap up to the arc featuring Sacha and little Rosie, it sets us up for a completely different story about Regan.
Regarding Sacha’s story, I can’t say much due to spoilers, but I think Millar stuck the landing on that, it was definitely satisfying. It also pointed out something I’d forgotten: I’ve been distrustful of little Rosie for a while, because her parents were executed/exiled and she is terrifyingly powerful for her age. What I forgot was that she was brought back from the dead at the end of volume one, and being dead for a little while often changes people when they come back. And not always for the better.
What that leads us to ask is: how many of the rest of the Magic Order have been changed too? Cordelia brought back a lot of people from the dead with that forbidden spell at the end of volume 1, and we’ve spent the next two volumes being told there’s a pretty terrible price for doing that, not just because the spell was forbidden, but because using your magic to benefit yourself, instead of protecting others, has consequences.
How much of what’s been happening (Uncle Edgar shaking off the confusion spell, Sammy Liu using his powers for his personal empire, Sacha going off the freaking rails about Rosie, and now Regan’s, um, choices) has been the universe making sure Cordelia pays a hell of a price for using that spell? Does it even work that way?
As for Gigi Cavenago’s art, my favorite image was definitely of that huge Egyptian-like entity that appears when Regan casts a spell, both when it first appeared and the moment the spell was finished, that was all kinds of impressive.
We’ve got so many storylines that still need to be wrapped up, and while they’re all slowly coming together, and a few of them may come to a close next month, I think it’s going to be quite a few more chapters before we get to the end of this mega-arc, which is good because I’m just a little more invested in the story with each issue.
