Writer: Greg Rucka

Artist: Nicola Scott

**There be Spoilers ahead** 

Let’s get this out of the way. Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott are geniuses and if you are not reading Black Magick, you are missing out on something rare and special. The plot-line is an easy fit for either premium cable or motion pictures and the artwork literally borders on the magical.

Dinner For Three

Only a title as fresh and exciting as Black Magick could open with a pages long sequence of an average weeknight dinner between two police detective partners and spouse and get away without any action or mention of magic. But these are the scenes that endear the reader to the characters, making you identify and care for them on a human level. Our favorite witch/detective Rowan is enjoying a meal with her partner Morgan and his very pregnant wife Anna. While having a girl heart to heart while touring the future infant’s nursery, Rowan does her best to alleviate Anna’s fears that something might happen to Morgan or the baby. It is a great example of what happens when the creator breathes real life into their work.

On The Witch Hunt

Witch Hunter Stephan has arrived in Portsmouth, seeking evidence if a supernatural conspiracy. He can sense that the magic is real and dangerous and goes on reconnaissance at the local Wiccan shop, seeking out groups to infiltrate and gain information from. He is also working with fellow hunters Laurent and Anne-Marie to solve the mystery of the devil seeds found inside the murdered rapist and killer Dunridge. It is a shadow plot-line for now but figures to be a major factor in the action down the road.

Girl Fight!! Alex vs…..Alex?

Issue #4 left off with Rowan’s fellow witch Alex facing off with a demonic clone of herself within a spectral alternate reality. This entire sequence is really where Nicola Scott’s work shines.  The color, the lines, the shadowing all work perfectly to convey the horror of the confrontation and the wounds that Alex endures. Once Rowan arrives on the scene, she finds Alex alone in a trance like state in the back yard, but when approached, Alex begins to display cuts and wounds from unseen blades which hearkened back for me the best of the Nightmare On Elm Street saga when Freddy would use his deadly glove on the slumbering which would then manifest itself in the waking world. Rowan is able to cross over to Alex’s location via her magical skills and put an end to the battle with a bullet to the Alex doppelganger.

The Council Of Horrors

The final two panels of the issue are truly terrifying as the woman in control of the Alex body double recovers from her head wound and rises to reveal an entire committee of the best creeps and ghouls that could have come from a Stephen King dinner party.

 

 

Black Magick is an excellent addition to the Image line of titles and while some have commented on the speed of building the plot, I find the pace perfect for my taste. Another excellent issue in an excellent series.

5 Pagan Groups out of 5