A last chance to fix everything – with a cost!
Creative Staff:
Story: Jen Van Meter
Art: Roberto De La Torre
Colors: David Baron
What They Say:
The living. The dead. The good. The wicked. And a husband and wife trapped in the middle, the only ones who might prevent them all from crashing together… An evil spirit, dead for decades, has usurped all the power of the enchanted scroll that Shan and Hwen Mirage needed to save their lives together. Now they have no scroll, no power, and an unstoppable enemy with the power of death at its fingertips. As this specter of doom leaps from body to body, leaving extinction in his wake, the Mirages know the only way to defeat him…win or lose, live or die…is by making the ultimate sacrifice.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The second miniseries for Doctor Mirage draws to a close and we get a pretty solid conclusion. This book has always been one that’s been a bit dialogue and exposition heavy, but this issue feels like it takes it a bit further than we’ve had before. Which isn’t bad as you definitely get a good read out of it. But I also came away just a bit disappointed as we get Hwen’s magical journey inside of the scroll and outside of one splash page for it there’s nothing to really see. My curiosity as to its representation isn’t sated yet! That said, getting a good chunk of the issue focusing on the tension of the wait worked better than I would have expected.
With Hwen in there looking to figure out what he needs to do in order to secure De Walt in there, the time outside works well as Shan waits patiently for the time they allotted for it in hopes that she can use her skills to pull him out at the agreed upon time. What we get here isn’t super tense until the end but it works well as Alex and Leo work with her to get things where they need to be and help in all the preparation and setup. Which isn’t easy since when things actually happen none of it is visible to them. Alex manages to connect a bit more with what’s going on here, being the outsider that’s in a difficult position because of what he’s been brought in for, but you can see him slowly becoming a member of the group as he asks the right questions and has mostly learned to listen when it’s best for him to do so. The event works well, though as I said before, I would have liked to have seen more of Hwen’s adventure in the scroll.
The back half of the books just as well as we get the meeting set to give De Walt what he wants all while trying to trick him back in the scroll. It’s standard fare in terms of what the actual plan is and the potential sacrifices in the mix as Hwen may have to stay in the scroll with him, but the sequence comes out as a good experience because of the cast of characters and how there’s a mild twist or two that works in their favor. It’s admittedly a situation where everyone (seemingly) comes away happen, sans Hwen being given physical form, so it’s a miniseries where there’s not big positive to what happens in terms of the core character story. But we get the addition of Alex, with a potential twist at the end here, and a greater expansion of the realm that Shan and Hwen exist in. And all of that is a good thing.
In Summary:
Jen Van Meter has made Doctor Mirage fun and the book works with just four issues by not drawing this out further than it needed to be. Roberto De La Torre and David Brown really nail things in this installment as it feels more colorful and varied in a lot of sequences and that’s breathing some new life into it compared to the more subdued installments we’ve had previously. As a miniseries finale it certainly brings everything to a close with a hint of what can come next so I definitely like it in that regard. I just wish I felt like a little more was accomplished than actually was since this isn’t a regular ongoing book and it’ll be some time before we get another advantage. There’s a good sense of hope and loss to what’s going on here and that’s to the series advantage, but the romantic in me wishes a little more had happened.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: March 23rd, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
