THE MAGIC ORDER 4 #2: New Magic Order…Who Dis?

The fall of the Moonstone Magic Order continues as Madame Albany and her newly appointed Magic Order pursue wiping out the last of the Moonstone loyalists in spectacular and devastating fashion. Leaving nothing to chance even the disgraced and now magicless Reagan Moonstone is targeted. Millar as always isn’t afraid to make things violent and entertainingly gross with bodies snapping and breaking on page, decapitated heads on display and spidery horrors there to remind us this isn’t a comic for the faint of heart. All seems lost but of course it’s not…

Millar has focused exclusively on the new rise to power of the returned Madame Albany in the last issue of volume 3 and in the first issue of this series. The dangling plotline around Uncle Edgar ( who features in this issue, trapped still in Moonstone Castle) comes back into focus. Millar cleverly juggles reminders of many breadcrumbs he’s dropped throughout the series as well as locales we are familiar with like Moonstone Castle, as the new Magic Order takes up residence in Sammy Liu’s headquarters and plans their new reign. Back to Uncle Edgar though or rather his true identity: Wizard King Of Kolthar. Miller expands on this as we learn Cordelia and Francis are not actually dead but find themselves transported to the magical land of Kolthar, a place they not supposed to set foot, according to the treaty that keeps Edgar bound to Moonstone Castle. Again Millar brings back a previous story plotline and reminds us that a Moonstone sibling was traded when the treaty between the Order and Kolthur was signed. Can Cordelia and Francis survive, without magic, in this strange and hostile land sans Magic to find her Brother Perditus? Miller’s got a solid chunk of set up going on here as he lays out the immediate track ahead of setup but it’s very entertaining setup. He deftly plays with the puzzle pieces he’s laid out before us in previous parts of the series. It’s like watching someone build a puzzle where you have seen all the pieces but never the whole image and as he slots a new piece into place you recognize the importance of things he’s done in the story line before.

This comic and this series is graphic, but man is it also beautiful at the same time. Dike Ruan’s art is wonderfully scaled and a pleasure on the eye, even when something hell of gross is happening like a fully grown adult emerging explosively from the body of a child (yes that’s a spoiler, you’ve been warned). On top of that wonderful sense of scale is an ability to capture the dynamism of moments where motion needs to be carried across by the image and panels on page. Colorist Giovanna Niro colors this issue in beautiful purple, red, pink and bluish hues mixed with arterial reds and beautiful magic yellow golds as we are treated to a wonderful range of extremely atmospheric environments from magic castles, strip clubs and even alien worlds. Ruan’s characters stand out sharply against beautifully colored backgrounds while letterer Clem Robins makes sure Millar’s dialogue is a seemless part of the visual on page and there really is a feeling, for me, of an art team that’s really invested and lovingly bringing Millar’s story to life coming off every page.

Special mention of this issue’s cover which is a superb contrasted callback to the very first issue of volume 1, issue #1 by Olivier Coipel. It really coveys the difference between the Moonstone’s and their enemies purely through how Ruan positions the characters in the image. It’s a very clever and subtle piece of visual storytelling that’s worth mentioning.