Review: MAGIC #1 Shows Promise to Explore the Lore for Existing Fans of the Popular TCG
Magic #1 is officially out. Writer Jed McKay and artist Ig Guara are letting fans of Magic: The Gathering take a look at a fresh, new take on the lore of the popular trading card game. BOOM! Studios was kind enough to send me a copy to review, but I assure you the thoughts are my own. I will also do my best to not spoil anything in the review that follows of the first issue. You can purchase your own copy from local comic shops, comiXology (affiliate link), or wherever you like to purchase comics.
NEW SERIES. A new beginning for the pop culture phenomenon of Magic starts here from Jed MacKay (Marvel's Black Cat) and Ig Guara (Marvel's Ghost-Spider), perfect for new readers and long time fans. Across the vast Multiverse, those gifted with a 'spark' can tap into the raw power of Magic and travel across realms -they are Planeswalkers. When coordinated assassination attempts on Guildmasters Ral Zarek, Vraska and Kaya rock the city of Ravnica and leave Jace Belleren's life hanging in the balance, a fuse is lit that threatens not just these three Guilds, but the entire plane of Ravnica. Now these three must covertly infiltrate the wild plane of Zendikar and form a tenuous alliance to uncover why the targets of the assassins have all been Planeswalkers... which will lead them straight to one of the most enigmatic characters in Magic history!
This new series has some real promise to help fans of MTG come to learn about and better appreciate the lore. There’s a lot of lore surrounding the game that can require a lot of searching and reading to scratch the surface. The new comic series, Magic, offers a more streamlined approach for people to quickly learn some of the said lore. Granted, we’re only in the first issue, so it’s a little too early to tell if everything will be nice and easy to digest or not.
I really like Guara’s art. It feels related to MTG, and Arianna Consonni did a fantastic job with the colors. The art created by this team draws you into this fantasy world. It’s absolutely stunning.
McKay’s writing is good, too. I personally am not a big fan of the first three or four pages though. It’s all world building, but I feel like it’s the vaguest world building they could’ve thought up. I can appreciate world building, but I want it to feel like it’s important, and this doesn’t feel important. Once you get to the action though, things start getting put together and they start to get interesting. We get action, we get some intrigue, and we have hints of an old romance or friendship that soured.
Overall, Magic #1 is okay and shows a lot of promise. However, when the action and dialogue aren’t happening, it feels like it’s just spouting fun facts. I think MTG fans are going to really enjoy this new series though. What did you think of Magic #1?
