A war to end enslavement.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kyle Higgins
Art: Jorge Fornes
Colors: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
What They Say:
Magnus is closing in on her prey, the killer A.I. Frederick – but her trip to the outskirts of the A.I. world turns up a disturbing discovery that brings back dark memories of her own. Now Magnus must wrestle with her own past and manage to capture the killer – but Frederick still has a few surprises left up his sleeves…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Magnus series has really hit a sweet spot for me early on and I continue to think that as a whole it’s rating higher than I do individually. Kyle Higgins continues to put in some really good things here in exploring this familiar story through a new angle and has made Magnus pretty damn engaging with just a couple of issues so far of this new interpretation. It also doesn’t hurt that Jorge Fornes is putting in some great work here, especially with the cloud world, as we get a range of character types and situations as well as the digital elements, such as how Julie is done up in this issue. That’s got to be a challenge to put together right and make it feel like it’s something that would work, all of which serves to give this a great cinematic look.
The real world doesn’t get a ton of attention here but there’s a real boil to what’s going on as opposed to the slow simmer we’ve had. With the robot in holding and being worked over since they have to repair and rebuild in order to communicate and understand what’s going on, the tension in the streets is rising to a significant level here. Enough so that by the end of the issue it’s no surprise that they’re storming the building and things are going to go bad for those inside. A quick push like this with fear fueling it resonates even more considering events in the real world and how quickly it can all boil over. That doesn’t help Magnus much though as the cloud world has her following the latest lead out into the wilderness where she’s come across the wife of Frederick with Julie.
This area is intriguing since it’s outside of the city and therefore not part of permanent storage, which means she’s basically fragmenting and fairly quickly. The kids are lost already and the only way to save her to get a lead on Frederick is to get her back to the city. That has her telling Julie a story of her own childhood and how she came to here, adding a little more nuance to that event for the reader and a mild expansion, though no clear reason why. It’s not enough to save Julie but it does place her in front of Frederick where he reveals a new emotion as well as the fact that his plan is already in motion. The idea of freeing the robot class is not a new one in the slightest but Higgins and Fornes are doing it up really well in this format and has me excited to see if it’ll go the distance with it or not.
There’s also a Doctor Spektor backup but I continue to find the backups largely unreadable.
In Summary:
Magnus has been the strongest of the books that are part of this run of the Gold Key characters and each issue has really delighted me. It’s the kind of book where I wish there were a couple of dozens issues already that I had just discovered so I could binge it as the wait each month is slightly frustrating. Higgins is working a familiar tale with a strong hand that’s made even more engaging thanks to the rich and detailed work that Fornes is bringing to the artwork. It’s a great looking and distinctive book without going in such a radical direction that it overpowers everything else. The fourth issue gives us more of Magnus’ past while setting the fuse for what’s to come in the real world and the cloud world. Definitely a great hidden gem worth checking out.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 20th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
