Magdalena #2
Reviewed by Otomo
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Nelson Blake II
When the original Magdalena mini-series came out several years ago, it was one of my favorite concepts in comics. A holy warrior going out and beating evil in the face is such an appealing concept for me, and it's very rare to find these days someone who works for the church being portrayed positively. Subsequent issues and mini-series went by, the whole story of a descendant of Mary Magdalene and Jesus entered into the concept, but they really didn't capture the awe I had of that first arc, and the first appearances in The Darkness. I know that whole Davinci Code concept I mentioned was eluded to even in those books, but it wasn't in the forefront as much.
I was quite happy to find a couple of months ago that Magdalena was going to be helmed by one of my favorite writers, Ron Marz. Marz has been very busy in the Top Cow universe with nearly the entire line being written by him. So it seemed like a good fit.
Patience as Magdalena wasn't ever as interesting as a character to me as much as the first two Magdalenas were. The defiant powerful person who's rebelling against the evil Catholic Church is something that makes me cringe to think about as a general concept. I'm sick of seeing stories like that put out in any sort of medium. Like I mentioned, I liked the concept of the holy warrior, and I feel like that became lost. With the end of this issue, I think the series might regain the magic story wise which captivated me in the first place.
So far, the first two issues have been a lot of exposition, but not necessarily in a bad way. At some points I feel it might be too decompressed, but it's the type of book that's going to be really hard to judge before the end of the storyline. It feels like it's written for the graphic novel.
They're re-introducing Patience at the point she's at in her life now, where she's shied away from the responsibilities of her bloodline and is being brought back to the church by a man who seems like a good guy. Satan has a son out there who's about to wreak havoc on the world, and there's no one there to fight it but the Magdalena.
The book is actually a very fast read, which is surprising given the amount of scenes of dialogue and explanation. I found myself getting through the book rather quickly, especially the first half. So it's paced extremely well from that respect. I'm going to have to wait to see where the storyline really leads before commenting much more on the story.
I'm also not sure about the art. While I see that Nelson Blake II can draw absolutely stunningly and with a very clean style, the original Magdalena books had so much detail to the art, both in the figures and in the background, which it feels like there's a little bit lacking. If this was the first Magdalena I might not notice it, but I can't help but judge it against the previous Magdalena mini-series.
I feel like there's a bit of a consistency issue as well. Some of the art is top notch, jaw dropping, while other panels really don't strike me as great. In the second half of the book it felt like the art really picked up in terms of quality. I can't tell if it's due to the coloring or the pencils, but something certainly changed for the better.
There are also a lot of panels in the book that have no background. It's either a pink, or blue or black backdrop for most of the book. When there is background, it looks great, but most of the panels are simply a couple of figures, which can make it seem a little less interesting of a book at points. I don't know if this is a time constraint issue in the drawing to get out on time, but I hope there starts to be more background in the future.
That said, Blake draws some pretty gorgeous figures at points. The demon is especially cool looking at the beginning of the book, and I hope we get to see more from his imagination. I especially like the full page spread on page 5.
Magdalena is a hard book to judge at the current stage of the book. It's a pretty decompressed storyline so it's very clear this was written for the graphic novel, but it effects the pacing in the individual issues like this. I enjoy the concept and where it's going, but I'm not sold on the book yet. Art wise, there are consistency issues and a lack of a background, which combined with the heavy exposition, makes it difficult to get excited about this book. Still, I'm interested enough to check out where this is going.
7.5/10
A Review by Otomo
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