BLACK MAGICK #5 Review - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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BLACK MAGICK #5 Review

Gail Williams comes to the end of her awakening...


Issue #5 of Black Magick sees us join Rowan having dinner with Detective Dishy and his lucky wife. When she, Anna Chaffey, stands up it’s all obvious that she’s pregnant, then we get a view of the beautiful and lovingly prepared nursery...


Anyone else now waiting for the AntiChrist to arrive? Sorry, back to what’s on the page...

All is very lovely and good at the Chaffey’s, which is really just juxtaposition against the evil to be seen elsewhere.

Our German and French connection are closing their net, though I’m still not entirely sure whose side these guys are on. They seem to be men of God, but that’s no indication that they’re necessarily the good or the bad guys.

After dinner Rowan visits Alex and has to entreat the house to let her in. Rowan finds Alex slumped near the water, but in the spirit realm. Poor Alex is busy fighting her evil twin sister. Rowan dives into the fray - well dunks her head deeper than the depth of the bowl in order to interrupt the fight and shoot the shade in the head - gives a whole new meaning to the term magic bullet!

The interesting line here is
‘Six thousand years. None of me remembers encountering something like this.’
And whatever this is, is coming for Rowan.

The last two page spread shows a whiter than white (as in albino) woman in a chair, slumped over in a pool of her own blood from the bullet that’s clearly gone through her skull front to back. She struggles to sit up, the wound healing as she does. She sits up, steeples her fingers, faces the assemblage of demons, and announces that Rowan is ready.
“Now she just needs to be pushed.”

Issue #5 is the last in “The Awakening” story arc of Black Magick, and it delivers on every moment of promise from the previous four issues.

Greg Rucka has taken us on an incredible and fantastic journey with Rowan so far, he has hit every perfect note for pace, timing and plot. The realism of Nicola Scott’s drawings bring every character and pane to life, the attention to details is clear, precise and incredible. The use of the black and white tone through the comic works especially well. Each issue of Black Magick has judiciously used colour to highlight magical moments and this issue does that more than any other, and with greater effect. The shooting of the demon is the first nearly full colour pane we’ve seen (Rowan remains monochrome), and is actually part of one of my favourite two page spreads, the individual panes are shown in a way that it looks like broken shards of glass.

While the writing and story keeps you reading, it is clear that every page of this comic is well thought out. This isn’t a comic book just to read and cast aside, this needs to be thought about and read over and over again. Every time I look at a pane, there’s something more to see.

If I could find a fault I would, but I can’t, so it’s another five out of five.

Gail Williams lives in her own private dungeon populated with all the weird and the wonderful she can imagine. Some of it’s very weird, and the odd bits and pieces are a bit wonderful. Well okay, she lives in Swansea with her husband and daughter. And the world’s most demanding cat. To find out more about Gail, check out www.gailbwilliams.co.uk - Dare you!

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