The Magic Order secretly battles threats to humanity and keeps the peace - until now. A renegade group of magicians led by the evil Madame Albany is challenging the current Order, headed up by the patriarch of the Moonstone family, for power, and removing anyone in their way via the mysterious and deadly assassin, The Venetian. But do the Moonstones have a trick up their sleeve to prevail against this seemingly unstoppable onslaught…?
This is Mark Millar’s best comic since the first Jupiter’s Legacy, which isn’t to say that either are that good but are surprisingly less terrible than Millar’s usual standard! And like Jupiter’s Legacy, this is a story of an extraordinary, albeit dysfunctional, family. Cordelia Moonstone is a carbon copy of Chloe Sampson and the flashback to the family battling Lovecraftian monsters was just like the flashbacks in Legacy.
On the subject of derivative, Moonstone Castle and Uncle Edgar are basically The Dreaming and Lucien the Librarian from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and The Venetian strongly reminded me of Guy Davis’ The Marquis.
The story is very simplistic: hero magicians vs villain magicians, ditto Madame Albany’s motivations and appearance - she’s the baddie so she wears a gimp mask and doesn’t have pupils! Still, the ways the magicians are assassinated by the Venetian were really imaginative and compelling - definitely the best part of the book. And, while it is simplistic, I wouldn’t say the story was that dull or predictable, beyond the obvious question of whether good will triumph over evil.
That ending though: oof, what a cop-out! And the reveal of the Venetian and their motivations will only be palatable to those who thought Anakin’s reasoning for turning to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith was satisfying!
Olivier Coipel’s art was outstanding. He really sells the unusual deaths of the magicians perfectly, showing the reader some truly remarkable things (I’m thinking in particular of the death at the end of the first issue). The Venetian is a strikingly menacing figure too, and the book’s visuals as a whole benefit enormously from multi-award-winning colourist Dave Stewart’s usual incredible work.
The Magic Order has its flaws though not as many as you might expect from latter-day Mark Millar. It’s a great-looking comic that holds the attention and even occasionally entertains - not too shabby!
This is Mark Millar’s best comic since the first Jupiter’s Legacy, which isn’t to say that either are that good but are surprisingly less terrible than Millar’s usual standard! And like Jupiter’s Legacy, this is a story of an extraordinary, albeit dysfunctional, family. Cordelia Moonstone is a carbon copy of Chloe Sampson and the flashback to the family battling Lovecraftian monsters was just like the flashbacks in Legacy.
On the subject of derivative, Moonstone Castle and Uncle Edgar are basically The Dreaming and Lucien the Librarian from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and The Venetian strongly reminded me of Guy Davis’ The Marquis.
The story is very simplistic: hero magicians vs villain magicians, ditto Madame Albany’s motivations and appearance - she’s the baddie so she wears a gimp mask and doesn’t have pupils! Still, the ways the magicians are assassinated by the Venetian were really imaginative and compelling - definitely the best part of the book. And, while it is simplistic, I wouldn’t say the story was that dull or predictable, beyond the obvious question of whether good will triumph over evil.
That ending though: oof, what a cop-out! And the reveal of the Venetian and their motivations will only be palatable to those who thought Anakin’s reasoning for turning to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith was satisfying!
Olivier Coipel’s art was outstanding. He really sells the unusual deaths of the magicians perfectly, showing the reader some truly remarkable things (I’m thinking in particular of the death at the end of the first issue). The Venetian is a strikingly menacing figure too, and the book’s visuals as a whole benefit enormously from multi-award-winning colourist Dave Stewart’s usual incredible work.
The Magic Order has its flaws though not as many as you might expect from latter-day Mark Millar. It’s a great-looking comic that holds the attention and even occasionally entertains - not too shabby!
No comments:
Post a Comment