Phew, how do you make a four issue miniseries feel like twenty? Hire Marguerite Bennett, the hack who also co-wrote A-Force, to script it!
I read Neil Gaiman’s 1602 about ten years ago but I remember it being ok. The concept was putting Marvel characters into Elizabethan roles, similar to the ones they have in the present day. Angela is cast here as a hunter of “witchbreed” (mutants); I haven’t been reading her solo series so I’m not sure, but is that what she does these days - hunt mutants? That’s pretty shitty if it is.
Anyway, Enchantress hexes Angela’s girlfriend who’s gonna die if blah blah blah. It was super hard for me to pay attention to the crap plot when Bennett’s in love with being as precious with the language as possible, cramming in “thous”, “thees” and “hasts” into every sentence. God it was awful! What’s mostly happening during the terrible dialogue is Angela fighting witchbreeds - just tedious, tension-free action to wade through to get to the next one.
There are some side-stories co-written by Kieron Gillen that were slightly better but didn’t really have much to do with the plot. Marguerite Sauvage and Frazer Irving contribute art too which helped make them more palatable.
Stephanie Hans’ art is definitely the only major positive about this book. Her painted art was really stunning throughout, the Guardians of the Galaxy redesigns were clever and those Renaissance-inspired covers were great. She’s an enormously talented illustrator. Her art almost kept the headache I got from reading Bennett’s words at bay (the ibuprofen made up the difference).
Maybe if you love - REALLY love - fantasy, you’ll get something out of this one otherwise I wouldn’t recommend Angela Witch Hunter to anyone. Just another shite title to toss onto the growing pile of Secret Wars tie-in garbage!
Warzones: 1602 Witch Hunter Angela
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