“I came to learn the secret of life and death,”
Creative Staff:
Story: Magdalene Visaggio
Art: Nick Robles
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
Death was no obstacle for Doctor Mirage, who could speak to the departed. But what happens if she’s one of the deceased?
Her new ally, Grace, claims to be in the same dead boat, but can you really trust someone so young and inexperienced?
How did Doctor Mirage end up in this spot? Find out here!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Magdalene Visaggio picked up the pieces from the previous series in the first issue and put Shan on her continued quest to help her dead husband, who of course is talking to her regularly. I liked seeing how Shan handled the strangeness of the woman who just walked past her protection spells and started getting to know her whill telling her she’s actually dead. Nick Robles captured a graet look and feel for the book, especially with Bellaire’s colors, and the end result was a book that looked great and had the right rough around the edges feeling that I wanted base don the previous book. This series doesn’t feel like it fits in with everything else but stands apart and is proud of it.
With the two working together now to try and get Shan to see the world through Grace’s eyes, what we end up with is the start of that before going to a flashback that dominates the book. This puts us eight months prior and in Turkey where Shan has found someone who may have clues on how to bring Hwen back. It’s nice to see the two of them just living their life in this particular way as Hwen has accepted things and isn’t really looking for a fix all while giving in to Shan on it. The pair are looking for an Isis cult priestess, the last of her kind, as they may have what they need. It’s a nice bit of connected history in talking about how they used to be a powerful force 2,500 years ago but Christians and Muslims have spent a lot of time hunting them down over the years. Not that one expects it to happen in the here and now.
The elderly priestess, Sezen, lives with her grandson and is happy to share what she can at first as Shan presents herself right, though the being an American doesn’t help much. That a chamber of the cult has been hidden all these years is nice but it all falls apart quick since Sezen learns what it is that Shan really wants to do. You do feel for shan because it feels like nobody is listening to her but she’s often burying the lede with the story when she meets people she needs to work with. Shan’s drive is what’s really problematic though as even after being turned away she’s still insistent on coming back at night to get what she wants. You understand why she’s so driven but at the same time she’s doing it so poorly that you just want to shake her. You can imagine Hwen taking it even worse from the little bit that we get from him about it as it goes disastrously before shifting us back to the present day storyline at the end.
In Summary:
The opening installment of Dr. Mirage was a strong one for me in how it picked up where the previous series did, for all intents and purposes, and getting to see what Shan is struggling with worked well. That drive has made things hard for her as one would expect and that’s shown throughout this issue as she goes further than she should. Visaggio has the relationship between her and Hwen down beautifully and I’d love to see more of it in the smaller moments as we get here. Robles again delivers a great looking book and the project as a whole continues to have me curious as to where this’ll end up when all is said and done.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: September 25th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
