Everyone needs a trip through Oz.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Lorenzo Tammetta, Sara Pichelli
Colors: Frank Williams
Letterer: VC’s Joe Sabino
What They Say:
JOURNEY INTO OZ! Wanda swore to help anyone who walked through her door…but what happens when that person is a villain? When Nelson Gruber, A.K.A. Bookworm, comes through the Last Door seeking aid to kill wicked witches in a corner of Oklahoma that’s been transformed into the Emerald City, Wanda must choose between honoring her covenant and going against her own principles. Now the Scarlet Witch has attracted the attention of a dangerous new foe – introducing NICOLA ZOSIMOS, A.K.A. HEXFINDER! PLUS: A bonus page written by Jonathan Hickman – WHO ARE THE G.O.D.S.?
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. Sara Pichelli’s 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 Lorenzo Tammetta on to work with Pichelli and it largely works well but isn’t quite up to what we’ve seen before – but fits with the story at hand here. Frank Williams steps in on the coloring side as well so we get a few changes as even Joe Sabino on the lettering is new compared to previous issues.
The reveal at the end of the previous issue about Magneto showing up filled me with dread because I’m not wanting to get dragged into a lot of other things from this book. Thankfully, it’s just as complicated as I expected as it turns out that he’s actually a clone of Magneto that had died and was revived by Sinsister’s stuff and… it just kept going on and on. The crux of it is that this version of Magneto, who goes by Joeseph, is looking for a place to call home after being revived and trying to find his way in the world. He didn’t come through the door like others do for Wanda’s shop but it sets up things for the two of them to find a new path forward. It’s more a bookend to the issue as we see them talk about what he’s looking for and how the two of them can have a good relationship going forward but it also partially feels like she’s acquired another stray like a certain worker in the shop. Which is fine because a variation on Magneto isn’t a bad thing for Wanda to have to deal with.
The main story here involves a man named Nelson Gruber that has come through the door looking for help. With one less hand than he had recently, Nelson was able to utilize a power that allowed him to bring a book to life, hence bringing the public domain work of the Wizard of Oz into the world in Texola, Oklahoma. Essentially, things went bad for Nelson in it and he’s looking to Wanda for help, though he’s a demanding and terrible person as presented. Wanda, of course, will help but she’s setting things up so that he gets his comeuppance in the end. It’s not a great story overall and just felt weirdly complicated when it didn’t need to be and it never felt like any of it mattered. We’ve had the standalone tales already a couple of times but those worked better than this and part of it is that you don’t connect with Nelson at all and the witch within Oz doesn’t get much in the way of a helpful run either. It’s not terrible but the whole thing just left me feeling disinterested.
In Summary:
It also doesn’t help that the last few pages are given over to the upcoming GODS storyline and that has Jonathan Hickman writing it. It was a jarring disconnect from the rest of the book and with me having zero interest in this event or storyline, it’s just a lot of junk that wasn’t interesting in the slightest or seemingly connected to anything from within this book, at least on first read. It didn’t make me want to read further either. Overall, it’s a middling at best installment that offers up some interesting places for it to go with Wanda and the clone of her father – and how others will take to his being there. The book looks great when it deals with Oz and all of its designs and Wanda is her usual self so there’s plenty to like there, but this is a largely forgettable issue when it comes to the story itself.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 2nd, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
