Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

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Feuerstein
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Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

Post by Feuerstein »

Hasn't anyone here read it yet? I think it's out. I've been too busy to get to the store this weekend, but I'm DEFINITELY going next weekend.

In the meantime, can someone spoil it for me? It's sparked some discussion on Newsarama, and it sounds like it was an awesome issue. Not so much in its content as in its implictions! So... :wanda
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Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

Spoil us on the implications. It looks like nobody else has heard anything.
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Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

Post by Feuerstein »

Do me the gigantum favor of waiting till Saturday, when hopefully I will get to the store and read it for myself. ;)
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Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

Post by Feuerstein »

:shifty OK, so it's been over a month since I promised to review this. But I really haven't had a chance to buy comics that didn't come to Borders for whatever reason. T__T I finally got Scarlet Witch in a comics store in a PA mall. Had a good talk with the clerk too, who was bewildered because he didn't know anything about Green Lantern, and my friend and I kept asking him questions about him. Anyways.

I read Mystic Arcana: Magik in part, and skipped Black Knight. But Scarlet Witch is a great read on its own.

Basically, Wanda is a young gypsy girl living the good ol' rural life. She is drawn like Kitty/Little Red Riding Hood. The art in this issue is cute, not fantastic but definitely pretty to look at it. We are introduced to several powerful sorceresses, such as the well-known Margali Szardos, and also some I've never heard of such as Lilia the Gypsy Queen and Maria Russoff.

Lilia has the Serpent Crown, one of the four items Ian McNee continues to search for, effectively tying the two storylines together. The Serpent Crown is powerful, enhancing Lilia's skills and showing her visions, but there's a catch - the crown dictates how much Lilia sees and seems to control her actions at times also. These three sorceresses contact little Wanda because the Serpent Crown has revealed she will become an immensely powerful witch, and therefore Wanda must leave the Magic School Bus and study under fellow witches. Lilia also reveals that they want to induct her into a special, elite group of witches who, among other things, guard a magic book called the Book of Cagliostro. (The third magic book mentioned in the past few months. Hmm.)

Meanwhile, evil sorcerers are plotting to gain the four magic items, in particular the Serpent Crown since they know Lilia has it. They act very spooky and then crash the witches' party. However, when Margali tries to protect Wanda and ends up trapped in the metaphoric lion's den herself, Wanda casts her first hex, and then Chthon intervenes, claiming the Serpent Crown, and possessing everyone. He yammers a lot about Set, who I assume is the Egyptian god since Ian McNee's quest also deals with Egyptian magic, and about the seven hells, yadda yadda yadda. More interestingly, he calls Wanda his special charge, which we already knew, but it's still cool. Then Chthon says through Wanda, "All of you [who were fighting] will bear children of occult significance." We already know about Margali's children, Stefan and Jimaine/Amanda, but who are the children of Lilia, Maria, and the Keeper of the Darkhold (the sorcerer who masterminded the attack)? On the side, Maria's husband, who is a lycanthrope (magical instead of mutant like Wolfsbane, at least I assume), asks the Keeper of the Darkhold if he can be freed of his wolfish curse, and the Keeper says there is a steep price and tells him to meet him in one year. Maria and her husband ominously claim that their child will be the most powerful. Then, Margali advises Wanda to contact Agatha Harkness in America to learn magic, and they all go their separate ways, with Margali saying in regards to Wanda's power, "One who could bring magic and science together would have no limits."

Meanwhile, in present day, Ian McNee, favored by Morgan LeFay and charged with ollecting Oshtur's four items, enters the sea to find the Serpent's Crown. The feel of both these stories is very folk tale-esque. McNee has to trick a pair of underwater female fiends in order to capture the crown. He ends up playing on their arrogance and greed for power and pits them against each other, escaping himself with the Crown. To Be Continued.

All in all, I thought it was a really fun issue. Not momentous, but it gives us a good bit of history for Wanda and makes a lot of promises for a killer mystic storyline that is to come. Margali's role, rather more prominent than the other two witches probably because of seniority, seems to indicate more involvement of Amanda in the future, though that's not definite. I thought the whole thing was a very fun read, especially if you're into the whole fantasy and mysticism genre.

[Edited on 10-5-07 by Feuerstein]
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Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

Originally posted by Feuerstein
I thought the whole thing was a very fun read, especially if you're into the whole fantasy and mysticism genre.
I generally am, but not in the context of the X-Books. I think it might be that I just hate these particular characters. Margali? YAWN. Amanda? YUCK. Scarlet Witch? DIE. (Was neutral on her before House of M.) I don't like Nightcrawler much in the fantasy context either. Stick to "science" with my precious mutants, Marvel!
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Mystic Arcana: Scarlet Witch

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

I read it and was meh about it. I liked the backstory given to the Scarlet Witch, but the rest was a bit overloaded with old magical stuff. Not bad, but not great. Can't wait for the Nico one though!!
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