The dangers increase as things are getting closer to blowing up.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kyle Higgins
Art: Jorge Fornes
Colors: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Magnus confronts her own personal demons as she visits a shady acquaintance – someone who knows her from back when she was better known as Magnus: Robot Hunter! – as the past and present collide while she’s searching for a lead to track down her prey: a deadly, homicidal AI who’s still on the loose! Will she be able to shake the specter of the past and capture the rogue AI before someone else is hurt?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Magnus has managed to be one of my favorites of the Sovereign’s relaunch titles as Kyle Higgins is presenting an interesting story that reminds me of the old Asimov Robot novels. With really strong artwork and some great layouts from Jorge Fornes, especially the elevator sequence two-page spread here, it’s easy to tell which world is which and to be wholly invested in both with what they offer. I want to know more of both worlds and could easily see a lot of neat explorations and one-off stories that could be told to show how it all came to be and how that’s influencing the larger stories going on here with Magnus.
The two main tracks in the investigation bleed into each other here but they both offer neat aspects. The cops in the real world are still figuring out what’s going on and relying on what Magnus is finding out in the Cloud in order to do it, which includes tracking down the body of one of those rare people that can spend a significant amount of time in the other world. The way the two sides interact is neat with the old school TV screens and what they’re coping with and I like that we get some classic police work here in going after the bad guys while trying to deal with the bombs and threat that Frederick represents. It’s not given a huge amount of time but it humanizes that side of it and the urgency comes through well thanks to Fornes’ artwork.
The more intriguing part for me is Magnus and the Cloud itself. A lot of this comes from Larry some twenty years prior where we see his first interactions with Frederick, the ties to his owner at the time, and the first encounter with a young Kerri Magnus that was trapped in the Cloud. Her unique nature is something that I hope gets explored more but his saving her back then shows why they have a bond, why she understands him, and how she’s able to use that in order to get what she’s after. There’s some great dialogue and back and forth here that all leads toward her going into a really difficult area of the Cloud to track Frederick. The story has some strong tense moments during a lot of this and it’s just really engaging to watch play out as you can feel it all ramping up in a big way.
There’s also a Doctor Spektor backup but I continue to find the backups largely unreadable.
In Summary:
Magnus has another strong issue here as the storyline moves forward and I’m already excited to re-read this opening arc in full in one sitting to see all the ties that bind it better. This issue works the two tracks well that converge but also split off at the end with the objectives firming up a bit more. Higgins keeps things moving with more background drawn into it while Forenes makes both worlds engaging, leaving you wanting more of each to explore. I’m definitely digging this run and am hoping it has a good number of issues ahead of it with this team if it keeps leaning more into the Asimov style territory.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: August 16th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
