Written by Jon Price
Illustrated by Rebekah IsaacsWhere were you when magic came back? After being sealed away for thousands of years by a group of powerful men and women, humankind’s innate ability to use magic is accidentally released– leaving everyone on the planet able to perform magic! In suburban Massachusetts, Ben and Darius find themselves thrust into the middle of a changing, turbulent new world, and intricately linked to what’s happening. Joined by a small group of new friends, these powerful young men must unravel the secret history of magic, while governments across the globe desperately fight to return things to the way they were before. Don’t miss the first exciting installment of this epic adventure, featuring the stunning art of Rebekah Isaacs (Brian Wood’s DV8)!
The first issue of a brand new mini from Caliber featuring Rebekah Isaacs art is out! The hunt for this issue was hard for some, but for those of us lucky enough to get to their shops early today, how’d the issue fare? Find out after the jump.
Where were you when the magic came back? It’s a bold question to ask and one that sets an obvious tone for a brand new comic book. However, when that comic comes with the fantastic artwork of Rebekah Isaacs, I’m willing to give the comic book a go no matter what the content. It just so happens that this one comes with a great premise as well.
In this book, magic exists but only for a select few. As far as I can tell, the basic concept here is that magic in this world equates to super powers in any other comic book you might read this week. The only problem is that someone has successfully (and quite possibly accidentally) destroyed the barrier that keeps everyone from accessing magic, and now it’s running wild. Needless to say, that doesn’t exactly mean good news for anyone, and the entire plot comes to a head at the end when it reveals “just how high up this goes” and who of our briefly introduced cast is going to get the rough end of the stick for this story.
I can’t say that I’m familiar with the writing of Jon Price, but his style is rather fitting with other popular writers these days, such as Nick Spencer. In fact, if the book had said Nick Spencer wrote it, I wouldn’t have thought two cents differently about it. What I mean by this is that Jon Price effectively manages to sneak in commentary on homosexuality in Star Wars into an otherwise rather serious comic book. What this does is work to disarm the reader for the story that begins with a scene almost straight out of Kill Bill (except in a mental institution). Price then uses our main male character to act as the valiant goof ball in order to push the plot forward. In a roundabout manner of speaking, it’s a very familiar style and it leads for quite an entertaining read through. The story is rather straightforward, the scripting here is humorous, and the book looks to be heading in a good direction.
Of course, the main attraction for myself was the art of Rebekah Isaacs. Expectations were high due to the beyond phenomenal work in DV8, but while the setting isn’t quite as grand as a barren planet Isaacs still manages to fill the pages up with beautiful artwork and character design. Her mall riot sequence is excellent, and just like other talented artists like Becky Cloonan, Isaacs manages to effectively tell us just as much in the scenes with no dialogue as she does in the ones that do. Isaacs has a definitive style and mastery of the page that makes the book eye-grabbing, and with a mini-series on an indie label alone that’s an amazingly good thing to have. I’m quite confident that if I handed someone a copy of the book and told them to flip through, it would sell them on the art alone. While DV8 might be over, I’m more than happy to still have a comic to collect with Isaacs name on it.
Is Magus worth the buy? Very much so. The story is off to a good and steady start, and it looks like it’ll be quite evenly paced between the five issues of it’s run for a mystery/thriller magic story with comic relief and femme fatales. With Isaacs on art duties, I’m not quite sure what more you could want. If you’re willing to sub out your normal superhero quota for the week, I couldn’t recommend Magus for the position more.
Final Verdict: 8.9 – Buy
