Aspen Comics 2019
Written by Blake Northcott
Illustrated by Giuseppe Cafaro
Coloured by Valentina Taddeo
Lettered by Zen
The story so far...
In the future, the world is dominated by technology, and an ancient power is on the verge of making a big comeback. The magic inherent in the universe has been dormant for centuries, but all that may change if a special spirit can bring about the next great age of magic!
Wow, you know what they say about saving the best for last well they surely did with this one here. So now I am dying to know what the ramifications of this are because I would love to see a series of mini-series that focus on this world, even if it is elseworlds style. Because in all honesty I fell in love with this ending to the limited run. Blake now has me wanting to see more of Grace and the life that she was living in this world because the Jazz Age and the way it’s brought to life wow.
It doesn’t surprise me that Grace would know exactly what is going on but seeing Benoist as he was well that’s slightly disappointing since we always see him as a good guy ya know. So the magician or so-called guy on stage, yeah I was hoping that would be have been Mal but we can’t have everything and it seems we’re just focusing on the women and leaving the men behind, not something I am a fan of but okay. I was also a little surprised Onyx wasn’t smoking hot like the rest she seemed rather toned down or dowdy if you will. Just my rambling observations.
I am such a huge fan of Blake’s and her ability to write such wonderfully vivid stories. The way the book is structured and how the pacing is utilised to create this ebb & flow is sensational and while it feels like everything is moving fast that’s because of the way Blake has managed to expertly make us feel as if this is real time happenings. I like that we are kept on our toes by what it is we’re seeing here. That Grace and even Mack knew how things were in the real world and have been waiting for an opportunity such as this well it really is a great natural way for this three issue run to end.
I have always been a fan of the artists who work on these Aspen books and Giuseppe is no exception. With Valentina’s colour work the two make quite a stunning pair to bring this to life. The linework that we see and how it’s varying weights are utilised in such a fashion that we such delicate moments that show this marvellous attention to detail is sensational. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off a stellar eye for storytelling. That we see backgrounds utilised as much as they are brings me immense joy as they expand the moments and bring a nice size and scope to the book. I appreciate that this is kept almost in an in house look but it is very distinctly his alone and that’s an impressive thing to see.
The more we see Aspen branching out in new avenues, tying their books more closely together and not being afraid to shake up their own status quo on occasion is something that makes happy. I think they are at a place where the same old doesn’t appeal to folks and that they want to bring us more complex storytelling with a wide scope of avenues being explored. This has been one hell of a limited run and I hope that we see more of this!