Aspen Comics 2017
Written by J.T. Krul
Illustrated by Giuseppe Cafaro
Coloured by Wes Hartman
Lettered by Zen
Magic is flourishing in the world...However, not all welcome it with open arms...Many live in fear of what they do not understand...Yet, some see opportunity, and have chosen to exploit it for their own personal gain…
After the the merging of Universes it’s time for us to discover the world of Soulfire all over again and J.T. really does something unexpected with this! I loved this issue because of where the story took us. So yeah we open with a group of seeming petulant kids sitting on top of the Golden Gate Bridge who are chases off so they fly away. This is the reality of the re-emergence of magic and it’s effect on society and the writing here depicts how they feel and it’s pretty different from what I was expecting.
When we get into the story is when we really get to see the new direction this series is taking. I think that this is something that needs to be explored this way and i’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought what if… That the characters are so different from when we last saw them and yet so much the same it’s a wonderfully demonstrated dichotomy. Seeing Malakai in this way is going to be interesting because it’s something most of us have wanted. J.T. tapped into something immediately with this idea that has great appeal.
Cafaro does some nice work here and some that well leaves me wanting. His city scapes are astounding, Malakai looking more feminine than masculine well I keep seeing him and thinking he’s a female character and that’s throwing me off. Then of course the moment we see Onyx and her outfit and wings it’s like magic. I’m hoping that we start to see a little more consistency because the talent is here for sure.
Ah Grace and what she learns this issue is where it’s gets a little more interesting. I like that Pili knows about the timeline’s change though not the specifics. Just that her abilities to see the past and future have changed and that existence itself is fluid. That for me was a great thing and that means that while things can return to some semblance of what of would be normalcy that doesn’t mean they will. It’s completing the picture of what’s going on with this new series and where it stands right now.
I’m excited for this and for Fathom and while they aren’t sharing the same moment in time that doesn’t matter. There’s hope and a freshness that we haven’t seen in these characters in a while that is enticing and exciting.