Monday, May 6, 2013

Charismagic #1

Magic-based heroes have been around since the beginning of the Golden Age of comics, but there are surprisingly few successful magic-based characters.

Perhaps that's because magic operates with no rules, no boundaries - so it's easy for the story to feel like a bit of a cheat.

Charismagic (Vol. 2) goes all-in on the magic (and no boundaries) concept with a series that stars a professional magician (think David Copperfield) who discovers he has actual magical powers.

His name is Hank Medley, and in his first adventure he gathered magical allies, managed to stop an attack by a powerful enemy and rescued the Earth's population after it was banished to another reality.

This series starts with the world starting to return to normal - at least until a new invasion of demons begins, and it's time to get the magical band of heroes back together.

There's a bit of a learning curve here, as writer Vince Hernandez throws quite a few characters at the reader at once and we're not given a lot of information to sort them out.

But the stakes are certainly high and it looks bad for the good guys. The cliffhanger on the final page certainly amps up the threat.

The art is strong - Vincenzo Cucca and Mark Roslan give an interesting, dark and stylized look to this demonic tale.

This is the latest issue in Aspen's "10 for 10" series, so the comic only costs a dollar - a good investment to see if this is your kind of magic.

Grade: B

------------------

No comments: