Wherein Tim needs to be slapped.
Creative Staff:
Story: Kat Howard
Art: Tom Fowler, Brian Churilla
Colors: Jordan Boyd
Letterer: Todd Klein
What They Say:
Tim and Rose go on a journey that takes them across time and space, to the land of Faerie. Tim has the strange sense that he’s been here before, but surely if he’d been to a place so magical and beautiful, he’d remember it, right?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Books of Magic continues to be the most enjoyable of the Sandman Universe books for me as it’s the most traditional in a way, or the most linear. I like what Kat Howard has done in getting us to know Tim at this point in time and building up events around him. I’ve also quite enjoyed Tom Fowler’s artwork – with assists this time around by Brian Churilla – as it’s reminiscent of all the ‘90s Vertigo stuff that I enjoyed of the same kind of works. It connects, feels right, feels like something and someplace that we’d see Tim in. The storyline has been drawn out a touch more than I cared for but it allowed for some good immersion into his world and situation before everything starts to go wider.
Events in this installment are definitely moving things forward while still keeping a toe in the present and real-world storyline. Seeing investigators come in to find out about Ellie through friends and teachers is putting an eye on Tim that will come back to bite him later, and on that will likely entangle rose as well because of the teacher side of things – and both of them being away at the moment. They’re currently “traipsing” through doors to try and get closer to where Ellie is but the forces opposing them are moving just as swiftly and quite a bit more powerfully. When Rose admits that what they’re pushing against is surprisingly powerful it really does set the tone as we know what she’s capable of going back to the original Books of Magic prestige series. She’s working with what she has in the real world here as best as she can and Tim’s making it harder, since her need for Yo-Yo can’t even be met as Hattie and his owl have disappeared together.
What we do get is Tim and Rose ending up in the realm of the faerie, which isn’t where Rose was planning to go. That said, she can use some good magic there to hopefully put them on the right path. What complicates this is Tim, however. His arrival puts him in pain because of his prior visit there which was taken from his memories as part of his Choosing, which obviously he didn’t remember and makes him angry. Everything from then on basically has him angry since it feels like they aren’t getting closer to finding Ellie. So much so that Rose finally smacks him with something to get him to just shut up for a bit. Hell, he even goes so far later on to start declining an invitation from Titania to see her, which is the worst thing he could have done. Particularly considering their past time together. Titania’s arrival in the storyline has the potential to really redirect things…
In Summary:
Books of Magic continues to be a solidly done series that really needs that “aha!” moment to take it to the next level. I’m enjoying spending time with Tim and understanding his role in everything but we’re needing to see some doing soon from him in order to cement things. He’s still being pulled along for the ride when he needs to be charting his course on his own. I do like that he and Rose are now finally off and doing something in looking for Ellie and we’ve got our first shots of who is setting up traps for him in different ways. Kat Howard is taking a good approach overall to this book but it just needs that little bit more to make it a commanding return to each issue rather than “oh, nice, a new installment” every month.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vertigo Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 24th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
