Creative Staff:
Story: Jed MacKay
Art: Stefano Landini / Marcel Ferreira, Roberto Poggi
Colors: Jana Cartaglia
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
What They Say:
Who are the blasphemy cartel? The secrets of the Cartel are revealed, and it comes from the unlikeliest of sources! Will this be the help Clea needs to bring peace to her adopted realm? Or will this be too much for the Sorcerer Supreme to handle?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The release schedule for this series has been a bit chaotic since the start but it’s settled into a more predictable monthly release now and that’s definitely helped a lot, though that doesn’t mean I don’t fall behind myself once in awhile. It doesn’t hurt that it’s operating with a pretty simplistic storyline so far, making it easy to reconnect with. The opening issues did a solid job of introducing the core basics and making it clear who this version of Clea is and I really think Jed MacKay hit it out of the park in setting the tone and establishing the basics. MacKay is joined by artists Marcel Ferreira and Roberto Poggi while Jana Cartaglia handles the color design. With this issue breaking things up a bit, Stefano Landini handles most of the artwork with the regulars helping provide the framing material for it in the present.
With the reveal of Stephen as the Harvestman previously and the kind of shock that it was to Clea, both are back at the Sanctum now to the delight of almost everyone. Clea and Stephen can’t touch because of what they represent and that has her even more intent on dealing with what’s keeping him working for Death. So much of this seems to come back to the Blasphemy Cartel and what’s been going on there and that ties us into WAND, as we get Pandora Peters expanding her appearance here. She’s basically come to the Sanctum to clear things up and that allows for a flashback story. But it’s not one that’s just a filler piece or something like you might expect but rather showcases some of how events went down previously that has lead to this and Stephen’s own involvement in it as well.
This goes back to the time before the Secret Empire storyline as Pandora called in Stephen to help with a problem at the Bigbox facility where dead magicians and other magical types are kept since they tend to come alive again. One of her teams were working a plan to deal with what would happen if crypto-style computing was used for spell creation – not a new idea but done well here in a limited sense. It didn’t go well and went out of control, requiring Pandora and Stephen to work together after she had caused him a lot of problems just before that. It’s a light action piece but the main focus is to reveal that the team that got in trouble was actually a WAND team nicknamed the Blasphemy Cartel and they were basically doing a trial run for when SHIELD and WAND were no more and they could launch some big plans, which at its foundation has its leader removing his identity from all knowledge, which definitely frustrates Pandora but provides a lead to work with.
In Summary:
While this works to provide information through some fairly standard storytelling techniques, it gives us a little bit of time with Stephen as the Sorceror Supreme and that’s kind of fun. But it also keeps Clea to the edges of the issue where she’s just mad and plotting what she’s going to do next and nothing more than that. This is unfortunate since this is supposed to be her book and my worry about it being heavily focused on Stephen with his return is looking more and more likely. It’s a decent way to frame what happened before but it’s not exactly unexpected. With the delays the book has had I’m glad they were able to keep the story going without full-on filler and to delve more into what set all of this in motion. But it’s definitely a step-down overall from what we’ve largely been getting and left me a little wary of what’s to come.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: November 30th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99