Magdalena #2
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Nelson Blake II
Cover: Ryan Sook
The Star of the Forthcoming Feature Film Gets Her Own Series!
Patience, the current Magdalena, and her mentor Kristof fight for their lives against a demonic horde. Even if she survives the encounter, Patience must decide if the Church is merely luring her back like a lamb to the slaughter…
Full Color, 32 pages, $3.99, ongoing series
Last month, when I reviewed the first issue, I liked it, but I felt it had quite a few similarities to a certain other plucky and attractive demon hunter and vampire slayer. Well this month I’m back and so is Patience with the second issue of her new ongoing series. How did I feel about it? Did I like it more or less than the first issue? We’ll see, shall we?
The story opens where we left off in the previous issue. A demon following the Devil in child form has attacked Patience and her handler Kristof (probably the best term I could come up with) while he was trying to talk her into rejoining the Catholic Church. This happens to be a bit of a problem, since Patience didn’t bring the Spear of Destiny with her, since she was merely having dinner. But she makes due with what she has, breaking a chair and fashioning a stake out of one of the legs. Drawing her own blood onto the stake, she stabs the demon in the heart, killing him. But before he dies, the demon gives a warning and drops into the waters below. Kristof convinced Patience to go back to the church, promising that things would be different.
I won’t go on much more because while that’s the first half of the issue (give or take), you should read the rest of the issue yourself to fully enjoy the script, penned by Ron Marz, and to see Nelson Blake II’s incredibly clean and lavish artwork.
As I mentioned just a minute ago, the story is shaping up really well, and the similarities I noticed in the last issue are melting away and Patience is coming into her own in my eyes. Her determination and sense of humor are quite enjoyable (favorite line: “I can make do with this, there’s a carpenter in the family.” STAB!) . And even though the action was limited to the first half of the book, with smaller character moments filling out the latter parts of the book, I wasn’t bored at all. It read quite quickly and I had fun reading it. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the arc now, even though I was a tad apprehensive last month.
And again, as I mentioned before, the art was spectacular. Blake’s art reminds me a bit of the great Stuart Immonen’s style with the colors that pop off the page and again I really appreciate that there isn’t any cheesecake whatsoever in the book. Even if she isn’t with The Church, Patience is still a Nun at heart, and she doesn’t dress like a trollop in her adventures. I really do appreciate it, and I think you will too.
With all that said, I think you should check it out. I really enjoyed it, and anyone who enjoys a good supernatural action book would really enjoy the book as well.
Final Verdict: 7.5 — Buy!
