Comics Review: "THE MAGIC ORDER 5 #" - You're Just Caroline from the Block

THE MAGIC ORDER 5 #2 (OF 6)

DARK HORSE COMICS/Netflix

STORY: Mark Millar

ART: Matteo Buffagni

COLORS: Giovanna Niro

LETTERS: Clem Robins

EDITOR: Daniel Chabon

EDITORIAL: Sarah Unwin

COVER: Matteo Buffagni with Giovanna Niro

VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Matteo Buffagni

32pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (October 2024)

Rating: 18+

The Magic Order created by Mark Millar at Netflix

“The Death of Cordelia Moonstone”

The Magic Order 5 is a six-issue miniseries from writer Mark Millar and artist Matteo Buffagni.  This is the fifth installment of The Magic Order series, which began with the 2018-19 miniseries written by Millar and drawn by Olivier Coipel.  The Magic Order is a band of sorcerers, magicians, and wizards – with a focus on the Moonstone family and its leader, Cordelia Moonstone – that live ordinary lives by day, but protect humanity from darkness and monsters of impossible sizes by night.  Colorist Giovanna Niro and letterer Clem Robins complete the series creative team.

The Magic Order 5 finds Cordelia preparing for the end, her punishment for using black magic.  However, a new case has dropped itself in front of her, but it all may be a front for some really bad people trying to collect the price on Cordelia's head.

The Magic Order 5 #2 opens in Lincoln Park Hospital, Chicago.  Cordelia is under the care of a psychiatrist who insists that her name is not Cordelia Moonstone, but is instead “Caroline Stone.”  Also, She isn't the leader of monster fighting wizards; she is really a hotel receptionist.

Cordelia Moonstone was raised to believe that her family was all that stood between the world we know and the other world of eternal darkness.  Has it all been in her imagination?  Is she really simply just a woman with serious mental health problems?  Are the only monsters the ones that exist in her head?  Clyde Bailey, a former really bad hombre, may be the only one who can answer those questions.

THE LOWDOWN:  This is the second time that I have been on any kind of list that provides PDF copies of titles published by Dark Horse Comics.  The latest received is The Magic Order 5 #2.

Mark Millar is probably the only “mainstream” comic book writer who delivers outstanding pop comics every time, and I don't mean starts off great and... peters out.  I mean A-rated entertainment every time.  The Magic Order 5 has certainly started out as consistently outstanding pop comics.  As Millar executes twists and turns in the narrative, we have no choice but to batten down the hatches as we vainly try to figure out where this franchise ends, why it ends, and how it ends.

The art team of Matteo Buffagni and colorist Giovanna Niro deliver stellar work early in this series.  The compositions have a fine art quality that when merged with the plot creates a disquieting sense of doom.  This makes The Magic Order 5 seem like a well-appointed funeral.  Finally, Clem Robins's lettering is the gentle chamber music by which to read this deathwatch.

The Magic Order 5 is plotting something mind-bending; that I know, dear readers.  Don't miss it.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Mark Millar and of The Magic Order will want to read The Magic Order 5.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://www.mrmarkmillar.com/

https://twitter.com/mrmarkmillar

https://twitter.com/netflix

https://twitter.com/themagicorder

http://www.millarworld.tv/

https://www.darkhorse.com/

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

------------------------

Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like these, BOOKS PAGE, GRAPHIC NOVELS, or MANGA PAGE and BUY something(s).