The Magic Order 2 #2

The Magic Order 2 #2

Image Comics 2021

Written by Mark Millar

Illustrated by Stuart Immonen

Coloured by Sunny Gho & David Curiel

Lettered by Clem Robins

THE MAGIC ORDER series takes the Moonstone family to England where Kevin Mitchell, the leader of the London chapter, is under attack by dark forces living in the world’s underbelly. The Magic Order made all the monsters disappear five hundred years ago, but now they’ve had enough—and they want to rule the world again.

Okay this is just utterly brilliant in so many ways. I am completely engaged by this story and while I am loath to give anything away I have to know if Francis is able to use his wand to create or bring him what he went away because of? Can their magic be used in that manner because I know when I was in the throes of my own addiction I would’ve used it for an endless supply, which by the way this is me connecting with Francis in another way as well. Also I love how we see the Order learn who is the real enemy here and not the monsters they think it is and this is something that just really takes on a whole new meaning. They are complacent, the Order, and it shows in how they are dealing with this latest threat and that is going to be a huge problem.

I’m loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented perfectly. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders in continuing to flesh out or establish personalities of the characters. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story and its twists, turns and revelations the more in awe I am of just how talented Millar is as a writer.

I am thoroughly impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also impressed with the way that we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored. Between Francis, the artefact plus Henrick and his crew the amount of depth, dimension and complexity that we see added to the story is immeasurable. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

The interiors here are really rather brilliantly rendered. Stuart’s work is just some of the best from him that I have ever seen. The linework is extraordinary and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the attention to detail we see is utterly mindbogglingly sensational. How we see backgrounds used to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works.

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This book is “practically perfect in every way,” to quote Mary Poppins. The writing is impeccable and the characterisation is sharp and intelligent while the interiors here simply mindbogglingly brilliant to see. There’s some great misdirection, unknown reasons and machinations, deceit and so much more that just keeps the reader on their toes and guessing what more could possibly happen.