Black Magick: Awakening II

by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott
collects Black Magick #6-11
volume one | two

Rucka and Scott follow up a phenomenal first volume with this equally fantastic second installment, perfect for heading into fall and the Halloween season. In the opening chapters we spend less time with the police investigation, and more of Rowan’s childhood and the burden of her magical lineage, as well as table setting for our other magical groups, namely witch hunters and demons. The tension slowly builds as Rowan and Alex get closer to unraveling the true villains behind the murders as well as Alex’s attackers, paralleling the impending birth of Rowan’s partner Morgan and his wife’s first child. Things get complicated between Rowan and Morgan with new developments in the investigation, and anyone picking up on other tension will see more of that addressed too. While the pacing was a little more up and down, the story continues to be dark, unique and superbly entertaining. (There were a few more horror elements introduced but nothing this wuss couldn’t handle.) Also, as a new black cat owner, I got a real kick out of finally seeing Rowan’s familiar get his moment, and it didn’t disappoint. (Jodi Wynne does a fantastic job with the cat’s lettering.) I love how Black Magick seems to be aware that sisterhood is at its core – sisterhood that has sustained Rowan and Alex not just for all their lives, but their past lives too.

Scott is at the top of her game with her meticulous black and white realism style. While a lot of art is done digitally the way Scott paints by hand really shows her talent and care. Using color to denote magic is really taken up a notch, and it’s a testament to both Scott and Chiara Arena’s talented partnership that you don’t miss the color when it isn’t there, and the scenes with color are just as special but in a different way. (I didn’t realize until reading an interview with the creators that Scott came up with the idea that witches can see the full color spectrum, and when they use magic, we see what they can see. Very cool.) That being said, there are some full page spreads that are just tremendous to behold. Even though there are also a few nude and sexual scenes, it’s never gratuitous and always for the sake of the story. It’s interesting how Rowan’s sexuality and her magic are intertwined here, not in an exotic/othering kind of way, but more subconsciously, and perhaps also in that her magic (and particular heritage) limits her freedom.

I read this second volume in the hardcover version, which compiles both the first and volume, called The First Book of Shadows, and it was absolutely worth it to better appreciate the artwork. There’s also some great bonus material including pages from Scott’s artwork, an interview with the creators, a guide to Portsmouth, and variant covers. Most especially I liked the “autopsy of a scene,” seeing how all the components of a single page – dialogue, sketching, painting and digital colors – all come together.

I now join the many fans anxiously awaiting the next installment – but whatever the next chapter holds it will certainly be worth the wait.

Fence 3

by C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, & Joana LaFuente
collects Fence #9-12
volume one | two | three | four

Okay, I’m seeing a lot of five star reviews on Goodreads and…I clearly liked this volume far less than everyone else. Hear me out, folks.

Fence’s third volume concludes the fencing tournament, determining the three coveted spots on the school’s fencing team who will then set their sights on the championship. The outcome of the tournament also decides if Nicholas can keep his scholarship and spot in the school – everything depends on whether or not he can defeat not only the upperclass students, but also his rival/roommate/definite love interest, fencing prodigy Seiji.

All of these big moments in volume three, which the first two volumes have been building up towards, should be highly emotional and have a satisfying payoff for the reader. However, my biggest complaint for the last two volumes was that Fence focuses so much on fencing and only fencing that the relationships and character development suffered. This was especially poor in volume two that only focused on fencing matches over a twenty four hour period.

Granted, this volume does have a few moments that brings the attention back to its characters. The fencers’ families visit to watch the final day of the tournament, and while it’s nice to see them and their relationships with their kids (or see who doesn’t show up), it’s missing the emotional punch for most of the high schoolers we’ve barely spent any time with. (And some, like Aiden’s much younger stepmom, seemed a little too on the nose.) There’s also one nice scene with a few students that actually takes place outside the fencing hall (I won’t reveal due to spoilers), but similar to the family aspect, it feels like too little too late. These kinds of moments needed to happen sooner in order for this volume to really land emotionally – who gets cut, who tries to sacrifice their spot for another student, and so on. Senior student Kally fights for his memories on the team outside of fencing – and we see some of those in Polaroid snapshots – it would have been nice if Pacat had let us in more (showing and not telling, like she did here), to both feel the sadness that the original team might be broken up, while still cheering for Nicholas to win.

Nicholas also takes a dramatic emotional turn that is not only surprising, but feels out of character. SPOILERS REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH. Nicholas understandably feels empathetic that, like him, Seiji doesn’t have any family come to visit, and perhaps he calls Seiji his friend in order to feel less alone. But it still seems strange after two volumes of obsessively hating Seiji, his rival and roommate, that Nicholas suddenly comes around. For the core relationship in the book, this needed far more progression and care to make sense. That being said, Nicholas is still extremely one-note about winning the championship and defeating his half brother Jesse, the highest ranked high school fencer. Of course, this is a sports story, but characters should still have more dimensions to them than that.

This brings us to the queerness of the book, and aside from Aidan’s match against his ex and Kally’s two moms, there’s very little in the book, which is extremely disappointing. Seiji and Nicholas have a fight in a supply closet, drawing some wonderful side eye from Aidan, but in a later panel the two clearly have no idea queer relationships exist – somewhere between amusing and outrageous. A book can only hint at queerness for so long until it becomes all about tension and not about relationship – and that’s not only not fair, it does a disservice to queerness in comics itself. It’s also a shame that Bobbie, Nicholas’ friend who presents feminine, is basically sidelined in the whole book to simply be Nicholas’ support, aside from one short scene featuring his cute abuela – still not about Bobbie, though. Speaking of which, my gripe last volume that the two female coaches, Sally and Lewis, are nothing more than talking heads continued this volume. At this point they are simply conduits for the boys’ success and not really their own characters.

Finally, Johanna the Mad’s art takes a dip this volume, and several panels were a little less cared for and seemed rather rushed. I wonder if this book was rushed to print due to the massive demand for more Fence, which is of course a great problem to have, but it was sad to see some of the art quality sacrificed for it.

Due to its popularity Fence has become an ongoing series rather than a limited one. I wonder at what point this change happened, because Fence seemed rather happy to take its time in fence matches rather than focus on character. I don’t think I’m going to stick around for it after this volume.

Die: Fantasy Heartbreaker

by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, Clayton Cowles
collects Die #1-5
volume reviews one | two

Fans of fantasy and Dungeons & Dragons will eat up Die,a compelling, innovating story with its own companion role playing game.

When a group of six teens begin a fantasy RPG (role playing game), they’re sucked into the fantasy world Jumanji style. The teens return two years later, but one of them is missing. After another massive time jump, the group reunites…twenty five years later. They’ve been called by Sol, the sixth teen who spent the last two and a half decades in the game. He’s now the Game-master, and the five adults reluctantly return to the fantasy land Die to fetch their friend.

Gillen’s writing highlights the best things about roleplaying games: the escape into another world (here, it’s literal); choosing a character that fits or clashes with your own identity; and the thrill of one’s choices playing out in real time. He mixes well known fantasy genre characters (such as elves and trolls) with RPG classes (such as rogues and clerics) to create an original RPG world. For example, Isabelle is a fun take on the cleric – instead, she’s an atheist who barters with gods for favors.

This is Stephanie Hans’ first ongoing series, but her art feels like veteran work: there is nothing hesitant about her bold, broad strokes of largely red and black that confidently sets a strong tone for Die’s violent and unpredictable world. She handles wordless action scenes beautifully, and the characters’ costume designs were realistic and not too overdone.

Gillen chooses an unexpected theme for the epic fantasy genre: a midlife crisis story. The five adults are forced to confront their past selves, each other, and Sol, now distorted by the game. Unfortunately, Gillen spends so much time world building, he sacrifices character and relationship building, and the story suffers for it.

Gillen can easily handle a large cast of characters (WicDiv, Young Avengers) but in Die we’re introduced to all six, who have an adventure we don’t see, and then come back in 25 years, only in the space of a few pages. It’s a lot to unpack without pages of exposition – who they were, who they are now, and how the character they’re playing represents a union or tension between those two. (For example, Chuck is still perfectly happy as the foolish tank; Angela is in a custody battle for her children; Dominic chose a female character, but it’s unclear if there will be any queer themes in the book.) Plus, elements of the world are reminiscent of their lives as teens: an elven queen is modeled after Dominic’s middle school crush, enemies are  bullies, and Isabelle’s cult uses her diaries as religious texts.

These were all important moments, but too short beats in between battles and lots of world building jargon. The story misses an anchor of the group’s relationships with each other, aside from siblings Ash and Angela.

Clayton Cowles, one of Gillen’s longtime creative partners, kills it with the lettering. Ash’s costume is reflected in her lettering, and the combination changes when she uses her powers. Cowles also composes different lettering and text boxes for the letter of a dying man, fables, flashbacks, and Isabelle’s gods – it adds a more visceral layer to the fantasy experience and seamlessly bridges Gillen’s writing with Hans’ art.

My last minor concern was the RPG dice themselves. In the first issue, each player describes their character and receives one ‘die’ instead of a full set that players usually use in RPGs. A roll of the dice determines whether your plan succeeds, fails or somewhere in between; often the kind of roll dictates which dice used. So it’s significant that each player only gets one die. The choices seem to reflect their characters (straightforward tank Chuck gets the basic D6, while dungeon master Sol gets the D20) not to mention – the name of the book is Die!

So it’s a mystery how the dice themselves work in-game, when the characters seem to just act regardless of their die. Maybe it’s symbolic of the escape one experiences during an RPG, but it’s still a lot of intentional setup for no payoff…unless it’s simply introducing a mechanic for the Die RPG, currently in open beta. However, it would be disappointing if the die conceit is pure marketing for the RPG, as though the story is a companion piece, rather than the other way around. 

The ending was confusing, like a cliffhanger tacked on for its own sake, but I’m intrigued by this visceral and grown up fantasy world, not to mention the unique idea of adults returning to teenage personas. Looking forward to the next chapter.

Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter

by Kelly Thompson, Mattia De Iulis, Felipe Andrade, and Stephanie Paitreau
Collects Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter MDO Digital Comic #1-3
volume one | two

Purple Daughter is a magical combo of two writing pitfalls in superhero books: no one stays dead, and marriage is only interesting when the relationship is threatened.

Jessica spirals into depression and drinking (she makes up for not taking a single shot last volume), when she and Luke find their daughter Dani has turned purple. But after a seemingly final death from Bendis, a controversial, unique and intensely disturbing villain has become an exhausting rehash – god forbid Jessica has a rogue other than the Purple Man! Jessica finally leaves the bar, and also leaves Luke and Dani, to investigate the Purple Problem. It’s fun to see her paired with the newly minted Black King, Emma Frost, and Jessica clearly shines with another badass female character. And I haven’t enjoyed Emma this much in ages.

But truthfully, Jessica’s team up really should have been with Luke.

Back in the last issue of volume one, Luke accidentally buys purple balloons for Dani’s birthday, which triggers Jessica. Luke recognizes that he doesn’t fully understand Jessica’s trauma, and he tells her to be vulnerable with him – so why doesn’t Luke (and Thompson) make good on that promise?

This is, perhaps, the most vulnerable state their relationship could ever be in: Luke and Jessica can’t help but question if their marriage is a lie, if Jessica is still being controlled, if Dani is truly Luke’s daughter…it’s heavy shit. And yet, Jessica doesn’t let Luke investigate with her as she returns to her traumatic past. Luke doesn’t bribe Iron Fist to babysit Dani, and then insist that he not let Jessica do this alone.

Plus, there’s a major plot development at the end that would almost guarantee some significant trust issues and insecurity on both ends, but everything is wrapped up with a nice bow, and somehow the relationship doesn’t change much. Aside from both agreeing about Emma Frost’s boobs, I guess.

Thompson is great at writing heroines (Jessica, Kate Bishop, Elsa Bloodstone), but her villains are often convoluted and far fetched. Kate Bishop’s first villains were a hate cult that used stickers for mind control; in West Coast Avengers, M.O.D.O.K. builds himself a hot bod and zaps women into giant animals. The theme continues in Purple Daughter, with a convoluted, confusing and predictable villain; a hugely surprising, self-violating choice by Jessica that doesn’t seem to leave any emotional scars; and an infuriating escape that still robs Jessica of her peace. (How Jessica doesn’t just move into a therapist’s office is beyond me – though I was actually hoping we’d at least see her visit the support group again.)

The biggest highlight of the book is Mattia De Iulis’ gorgeous art. Everything is clean and sharp, and he uses a combination of blurring and color to show depth and movement. His texturing and shadowing work is also incredible, particularly Jessica’s leather pants and lovely hair detail too. Some of the fighting scenes just crackle on the page and De Iulis’ strong facial expressions really bring characters to life. Even though an artist switch during one issue fit the narrative, Andrade’s style was a bit too rough and unfinished for my liking. Perhaps that’s what the story was going for, but I would have preferred De Iulis use his style more creatively to get the same point across.

There’s no confirmation online, but I believe the series is on hiatus but there’s more Jessica Jones to come (mostly based on this post on De Iulis’ Instagram, which shows some new art). I’m still on board for future issues, Thompson remains one of my favorite writers and De Iulis is fast becoming a favorite artist too…I just hope Purple villains have been put to rest, permanently.