Advance Review: ‘The Magic Order 2’ #1 Is A Magical And Murderous Debut
by Olly MacNamee
Summary
The irrepressible Cordelia and her family return in a debut issue dripping with dark magic and even darker forebodings. A well paced issue that suggests a promising confrontational clash to come between two families with very different world views.
Overall
10/10Like any good sequel the first act of this second series of The Magic Order catches up the reader with Cordelia and her family, while also laying out the threat she and her cohorts will be tackling. And while there is a casual laid back tone to some parts of this opener, with Cordelia late for her niece’s birthday party after a one-night stand the other consenting adult will never remember, the two scenes proceeding this fun family gathering sets a much darker tone for this series.
We are introduced to the Korne family in Bucharest, a family that also wields magic and isn’t afraid to use it in the most despicable ways. A family that dwells in dangerous nostalgia and a dream of a better tomorrow. For them at least. And they’re not the only colourful new characters we meet in this well paced debut issue.
Mark Millar delivers a script that delivers on his trademark violent, as well as being an imaginative and entertaining issue, while artist Stuart Immonen dials up the artwork to evokes the various moods and atmospheres the reader witnesses across the book wonderfully. While the more horrific events are swathed in shadows, there is barely one to be seem at Rosie’s birthday bash. Of course, the brilliant colouring work of Sunny Gho also helps establish and differentiate the darkness from the light. Although there is far more darkness than there is light, foreshadowing the forthcoming conflict between the two families. Even this family get together doesn’t go off without incident. When you’re the head of an international magic order, you’re never off the clock, as Cordelia is discovering.
It’s such a well paced debut issue that’s sequenced to deliver an ominous foreboding that cannot be forgotten once introduced at the start of the issue. A comic book that delivers on both the horror and beauty – the latter being best realised in a one-page spread that looks a lot like it was inspired by the artist Arthur Rackham – while also expanding the Magic Order’s numbers too. This issue has all the right ingredients to suggest we’re in for a monumental, magical but murderous ride in this sequel as something wicked this way comes.
The Magic Order 2 #1 is out Wednesday 27th October from Image Comics
