Review: Magic: The Gathering: The Spell Thief #1

As someone vaguely familiar with the Planeswalker lore and the potential for a Magic: The Gathering story this issue was a little disappointing. There are a few MTG cards out there with more intriguing flavor text than what you’ll read in this issue. A noticeable chunk of the narration is simply explaining what you can see for yourself. I understand not everything can have Joss Whedon‘s dialogue, but the characters in this book felt very one-dimensional and communication was largely monosyllabic. When a large, savage looking beast gets the jump on Dack and says “Don’t force me to damage you” it’s hard to keep a straight face. Where the writing may not have been that impressive the pencils were a lot of fun. More than just the drawings themselves, the fine detail added in by pencil shading added a subtle realism to the faces and the monsters. The colorist may not have appreciated having a large chunk of their work already done by the pencils, but visually speaking, this book was enjoyable.

So is this worth picking up? Personally, $5 seems like a steep price to pay for what you get, even though it comes sealed with a card. If you loved the first Dack adventure you’ll probably want to see what he’s up to now, but the card appears to be a generic Arrest spell, so if you play the game, chances are you have a few in your deck. The card does come with exclusive art though, and the spell is relevant to the story, which was a nice touch. I’ve noticed a trend in recent years of comic writers writing for the trade. I plan to continue reading this four issue miniseries to see if it improves when I have the full context of the rest of the story. I’m not holding my breath for witty dialogue but perhaps the story will speed up. Either way I’m looking forward to more of this series’ art.