Magic: The Gathering: Path of Vengeance #2

Today I found myself in Fall River MA and stopped in at Stillpoint Comics, Cards, & Games.

I picked up this MTG comic along with a few booster packs.

Title: Magic: The Gathering: Path of Vengeance
Issue: 2
Date: January, 2012
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Matt Forbeck
Artist: Martin Coccolo, Chris Evenhuis
Colorist: J. Edwin Stevens, Baileigh Bolten, Noris Sola
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Editor: Carlos Guzman
Cover: Ryan Pancoast

You know the drill. Bought it for the promo card (A lovely version of Voidmage Husher).

This is issue #2, but it may as well have been issue #1. The story was easy enough to figure out.

Planeswalker and thief Dack Fayden is being hunted down by the Rakdos Guild, while he himself is on the hunt for evil planeswalker Sifa Gent. The trail has led Dack back home to Ravnica, where his network of safehouses has apparently been compromised by, well, pretty much everyone.

Dack's old rival, Maytov, is injured in the mayhem that follows, and Dack spends a few pages musing on how he and Maytov first met while in the present, Dack has decided to get Maytov to a healer. Once there, Sifa's evil plan is figured out and it's up to Dack to not only get his revenge, but also possibly to save all of Ravnica.

This story moved the plot along without all that much actually happening. It spent a great deal of time telling, rather than showing, and the whole issue felt like a big infodump to set up the climactic battle. I do continue to like Dack as a character. He is thoughtful and fun. I also thought the flashback sequence had some good moments.

On a side note, couldn't they have come up with a more interesting name for the Mcguffin that starts this whole mess than the "Ancient Fang"?

Rating: 5/10

Magic: The Gathering: Theros #4

Last of my three recent purchases at Newbury Comics in Hyannis.

Title: Magic: The Gathering: Theros
Issue: 4
Date: January, 2014
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Jason Ciaramella
Artist: Chris Evenhuis
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Editor: Carlos Guzman
Cover: Anthony Francisco


So, the cover has gone pretty much full-on Infinity Gauntlet. Oh, and the promo card is Acquire. Which I totally bought this comic for.

This is the beginning of a new story arc. Dack Fayden is having nightmares. Unfortunately, as it turns out, these days in Theros, nightmares lead to sleepwalking, followed by sleepspellcasting, including sleepfireballing and other sleepmayhem.

Dack manages to stop a mage in the midst of most of the above, and she repays his kindness by conveniently infodumping.

And that is pretty much it. The new story has been set up, if perhaps a bit heavyhandedly. I did like the artwork on the people and scenery of Theros in this issue. The city setting provided a nice opportunity to showcase that.

Rating: 5.5/10

Magic: The Gathering: Theros #3

Back to Newbury Comics in Hyannis tonight with the Kiddo. Picked up two more MTG comics for me (for the promo cards!), and a comic for the Kiddo. Here is the first of those reviews.

Title: Magic: The Gathering: Theros
Issue: 3
Date: December, 2013
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Jason Ciaramella
Artist: Martin Coccolo, Chris Evenhuis
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Editor: Carlos Guzman
Cover: Volkan Baga

This wrapped up the storyline, which came as a surprise to me, since I bought the fourth issue at the same time as I bought this one. I'm not sure how many issues this is scheduled to run.

Promo card was Wash Out. Yes, I bought this for the promo card. But you knew that.

So, Dack Fayden has assembled the two pieces of his mysterious artifact and it's, well actually it bears a rather striking resemblance to the Infinity Gauntlet. A Gauntlet of Might or Gauntlet of Power, maybe? The Gauntlet of Power makes more sense since it seems to boost Dack's blue magic.

We start things off in the midst of last issue's kraken-unleashing, and there is some degree of mayhem until Dack goes all Infinity Gauntlet on the Kraken's posterior region. There is a gorgeous two-page spread of the kraken battle, but the rest of the action was rather stale with the Kraken mostly just looming there without really doing all that much.

Then we get some annoyingly vague backstory on Captain Vog and all of a sudden we are epiloguing. That felt way too quick.

Which is how I will keep this review.

Rating: 5/10

Magic: The Gathering: Theros #2

Bought this one tonight at Newbury Comics at the Independence Mall in Kingston MA. And yes, bought it for the promo card (which was a nice version of Gaze of Granite).

Title: Magic: The Gathering: Theros
Issue: 2
Date: November, 2013
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Jason Ciaramella
Artist: Martin Coccolo
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Editor: Carlos Guzman
Cover: Dan Scott

This goes a long way toward fixing the problems of the first issue. In fact, it is perfectly possible to start the series here. As it turns out, there was nothing in issue #1 that couldn't be summarized.

I love the fact that planeswalker Dack Fayden turns out to be prone to seasickness. Please let them remember this in future continuity!

After spending a voyage leaning over the lee rail, Fayden arrives at a mysterious island which houses part of an artifact that he is seeking. He slings spells at a gorgon and some sort of sorceress and manages to make his escape with the goods.

The villains then proceed to the unleashing-the-kraken portion of our adventure.

This was fun and well-paced, with some good character development sprinkled in.

Rating: 7/10

Magic: The Gathering: Theros #1

Before I get to the review, here are a couple pics of the box I decorated for my son today to hold his fledgeling comic book collection:

When I bought the latest two comics for my son, I also picked up two comics for me. This is the first of those.


Title: Magic: The Gathering: Theros
Issue: 1
Date: October 2013
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Jason Ciaramella
Artist: Martin Coccolo
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Robbie Robbins
Editor: Carlos Guzman
Cover: Eric Deschamps

Once again, only bought this for the promo card, (which was an absolutely awesome version of High Tide, using the regular cover art from the comic).

So, Dirk Fayden (thief and planeswalker extraordinaire) has returned to Ravnica for a comic book based on the Magic: the Gathering set Return To Ravnica Theros. Okay, actually, Dirk does get to Theros eventually, but we start with him returning to Ravnica after having just prevented a new Guild War from breaking out.

His new mission: To steal a gem that could cause a new Guild War to break out.

Really? Does anything ever happen on Ravnica besides Guild War near-misses?

Anyway, Dirk's brilliant plan is to sneak past the angels guarding Sunhome, the Boros Legion headquarters. When that doesn't work, he tries brawling with the angels. With predictable results.

He does manage to grab a bit of a consolation prize while beating a hasty retreat, and it turns out to be a magical artifact in its own right. This is what leads him to Theros, where he gets into a street brawl, meets a hero-worshiping kid (or perhaps just a sneaky one), and attempts to hire a ship.

For all that goes on here, it really didn't feel like all that much happened. Theros is presented beautifully in terms of the visuals, but we get almost no sense of its culture. It's a fantasy world where an adventurer walking down the street gets into a brawl. Pretty generic.

In generally, this issue was visually impressive, but didn't deliver much in terms of story.

That promotional version High Tide was quite lovely, though.

Rating: 4.5/10