New Characters, New Horizons And New Threats: ‘The Magic Order 3’ #1 Advance Review

With The Magic Order 3 #1 the camera once again pulls back so we get to see more of this fascinating secret society on a larger, global scale with the introduction of the flamboyant and senior Magic Order member, Sammy Liu. A man who knows how to make an entrance, as he moors his sky-scrapping luxury yacht to the side of a majestic contemporary building somewhere in Hong Kong. A bombastic entrance for an equally bombastic character. 

Juxtaposing this scene of wealth and opulence is a more grim and claustrophobic scene in which we meet another new player and demon-hunter, the pony-tailed Sacha. That, and a reintroduction to Cordelia, Regan et. al. and we’re all caught up to date with the whiff of a new danger in the air too. It’s an issue that flits from various scenes and environments around the world with a large cast of characters to juggle, which Mark Millar does exceptionally well, through dialogue and through the art of new incoming artist, Gigi Cavenago. Although, Valentina Napolitano’s colours, helping delineate and define each environment we met across a quick-paced first issue, cannot be underestimated. The garish colour scheme of Regan’s strip club helps evoke the sexy and sleazy neon-glare of such places (so I am told, of course) devoid of natural sunlight, but a very different, colder and more green-hued colour scheme used later in the book evokes the colder, harsher environment depicted surrounding a lighthouse and the return of a character that will most definitley have a part to play in this latest chapter in the Magic Order’s supernatural story.

Millar certainly throws down a good few cards in this hand, with no discernible connections, as yet. New faces and new horizons are just part of the story, but something wicked is most definitley this way coming. We just don’t quite know what it is yet, and how it will entangle the various characters introduced, or re-introduced into this debut issue. But, we do know Sammy Liu has a part to play in it all, that’s for sure. Whether he will be a villain or a hero is yet to be seen. But, as an egotistic, wealthy playboy of the Eastern world, I’m hoping he’s a bad guy as he already grates on my nerves. Which, I do think is the point. A slimier Tony Stark, but with magic.

Millar is building big with each new volume of The Magic Order, and in a series where practically anything can happen, who know what will happen? That’s part of the fun in following this newest release unfold. What slights of hand will we see over this series, I wonder?

The Magic Order 3 #1 is out Wednesday 27th July from Image Comics