The arc draws to a close before we segue off to an upcoming annual release.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Russel Dauterman
Colors: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
What They Say:
Just when the Scarlet Witch thinks she’s shielded Darcy Lewis from their new enemy’s vendetta, Scythia returns – covered in armor made from the same antimagic rock Wanda’s been studying. Can Wanda defend Darcy – and herself – against a warrior who’s immune to magic?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a lengthy history of reading the character going back to the early 1980s, it was enjoyable to get back into the character and her world with this new series. Especially since most of my experience for a long time has just been the film and TV side of it. The series continues to come from a solid creative team as Steve Orlando does a lot of what I like in running a book. Here, we don’t feel like we’re tethered to other recent events and need to catch up on things, instead just launching right into the premise here. Sara Pichelli’s been handling of the artwork and their projects over the years has been fantastic, making this a really solid fit with its mix of magic and obscure. This installment, however, brings Russell Dauterman in to handle it and I’ve long enjoyed his work a lot. So getting them on board to help out and move the storyline ahead a bit more is certainly welcome.
With this installment basically providing closure to Darcy’s storyline, she’s not all that central to the actual events taking place. And that’s fine because it’s all about Wanda and Scythia dealing with each other over her with Wanda as her knight/proxy. I’m actually preferring how this unfolds because we don’t get Darcy constantly put in danger with Wanda whipping up magic and other moments to try and protect her or rescue her from imminent death. Instead, we get the back and forth between Wanda and Scythia – after Wanda gets some minor recovery time with Darcy changing out her bandages – where Scythia has managed to get some armor similar to the rock that Wanda has. That makes her a tougher nut to crack in this fight since she can do some damage to Wanda, notably with the blad she’s formed out of it.
The back-and-forth aspect of the fight is good as they both give as good as they get and we see how Wanda has learned well over the years to engage in the physical fight as well – though Scythia makes a cheap shot about spellweaver hands. Wanda’s not just that and hasn’t been for some time and this allows her to get up close to her, making the fight even more personal. Which puts her in the position of trying to talk Scythia down and to realize that traditions can be changed and that this fight is pointless – especially when she shows what her magic is capable of. I do like that Wanda makes it clear that she could have ended this at any time but that she put herself at some risk in order to get through to her, which clearly makes an impression not just on Scythia but on Darcy as well. That makes their minor epilogue pretty decent as Darcy realizes that she’s free but is intent on putting in the hard work to not just say thanks to Wanda but to figure out the next step in her life.
In Summary:
There’s a lot to like here in that this culminates Darcy’s arc since the series started and we get it mostly wrapped up. I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone from the Bacchae not agreeing with things and making a stink later, but for now there’s a sense of closure to it and it’ll be good to see how Darcy moves forward from here while both investigating and working the shop – the latter of which is a big plus. Wanda and Scythia’s fight is solid even if it starts off absolutely goofy and the core piece of it about changing traditions is welcome to see being made so clearly. The post-story bit that sets up what’s next looks like it’s just the lead-in to the annual and it focuses on Magneto, so I’m not particularly enthused to cross into that realm at all and may just skip it. Wanda doing Wanda things without getting caught up in all that drama is my sweet spot.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: May 3rd, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
