Be the scroll, Hwen!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jen Van Meter
Art: Roberto De La Torre
Colors: David Baron
What They Say:
They thought the magic of an ancient scroll, the Secunda Vita, could restore Hwen Mirage’s physical form. But the spells in the scroll are deadly…and after spending decades trapped within its words, the malevolent and corrupted spirit of a long-dead sorcerer has been freed to wreak lethal havoc on Earth! To stop this dark force once and for all, Shan and Hwen Mirage must marshal an alliance of old friends and new enemies, of the living and the dead. If they should fail? The living will die…and the dead will be extinguished in this life and the next!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The second miniseries for Doctor Mirage has certainly been working a lot better for me than the first, and I liked the first miniseries. With Hwen involved here directly from the get go and not much in the way of being in another plane of existence, it’s been hopping right along. One of the big pluses is that Shan herself is in a far better place and that makes a huge difference since she’s working towards several goals here and has the strong support of her husband, even in ghost form. There’s still a slight sense of things being drawn out just a bit too much in some ways, but with the character dynamics that we get it’s not an area I find I can really complain about. Some of those areas are where the series really humanizes the characters.
Events at this stage are still pretty perilous, but it’s entered that research and planning stage as well. With the loss of so many ghosts and a different kind of fear in the mix, it’s good to see Hwen and Shan doing translation and research on the scroll even if it does reveal that materiality is going to cost decades of ghosts for one ghost to do so. That puts his return even further out of reach because neither of them will go that route and the kind of psychological damper is significant. To their credit, however, they also focus on what must be done to stop De Walt and that becomes their primary focus. It’s putting the Hwen problem to the side for the moment and fits in with their personalities. This leads to some decent time doing a little investigation into De Walt’s old home, which is now a tennis club, which in turn reveals a little bit with a ghost from his original sacrifice that still resides there. It’s really just context and color for the past but it helps to set the stage well and give it all a little more depth.
The fun part, to my surprise, is the action phase of the chapter. When the pair return back to the house it comes as March has come there under control of De Walt who is looking to get the scroll. The others were already there and we see Alex knocked out of his body and just freaked out by it a bit, though amusingly pleased in that he can actually see Hwen. This sequence works really well, particularly in the coloring department, as we see Hwen and De Walt going it and just how that ghost-warfare plays out after Shan does her thing to knock him out of March’s body. I kind of feel bad for March at this point, colossal screw-up that he is, because he’s turned into such a tool for so many that it’s just pushing him further off the cliff. All the events work towards a kind of pause in events with De Walt getting away and Hwen slipping into the scroll like De Walt did before in order to learn more. It’s a solid sendoff to the next installment that should be fairly surreal if the first series was an indication.
In Summary:
Doctor Mirage continues to surprise with its second series when it really shouldn’t. Part of it is that I just wasn’t sure what to expect after a kind of dour and depressing first series that focused mostly on Shan with a lot of unknowns at play. This series continues to work strongly with its characters, mixing in a little more subplot material, and bring it all together with some artwork that just clicks perfectly in creating the right kind of mood for it. The creative team here seem to be completely on the same page when it comes to bringing this vision to life and the project is very worthwhile – though I think it’ll read even better when you can burn through the whole thing in one sitting and just savor the experience. Good stuff all around and pretty much my favorite Valiant book these days.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: February 10th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
