Books Of Magick #1 Review

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Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: Have you seen the stars tonight?: Part One

Written by: Si Spencer
From a story by: Neil Gaiman & Si Spencer
Illustrated by: Dean Ormston
Colored and Separated by: Fiona Stephenson
Lettered by: Todd Klein
Cover Art by: Frank Quitely
Consultation by: Neil Gaiman
Assistant Editor: Mariah Huehner
Editor: Shelly Bond
Publisher: Vertigo > DC Comics

The bespectacled, tousle-haired, magical boy Timothy Hunter has had a mind numbing cornucopia of amazing adventures since being created by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton in 1993. (He also predates Harry Potter by a number of years!) First in a four-part prestige Books of Magic series, then followed soon after by an ongoing BoM series that lasted for seventy-five issues plus annuals. Then there was the Names of Magic mini-series that showed Tim finally off at proper schooling for his magical arts, which was followed by an ongoing series Hunter: The Age of Magic.

Neil Gaiman was not heavily involved in any of those series save the original mini, which of course he was the writer/co-creator. Under writers like John Ney Rieber, Peter Gross, and Dylan Horrocks Tim Hunter built up one of the deepest and, at times, exceptionally muddy histories of any character ever published. Neil Gaiman returns (not as writer but a consultant) to this new series Books of Magick: Life During Wartime with a solution that does not ruin all previous continuity of the character, but makes it possible for new readers to join in the fray.

The magical world is in the midst of an enormous war, a war that clearly hinges on Tim Hunter becoming involved. We are shown the horrors of a castle under siege in which John Constantine (Hellblazer) is the leader. Zatanna (who is shown as a sweet blonde) makes an appearance, as well as two sets of magical villains. Tim is safely tucked away on a world that does not have any form of magic whatsoever. Hell, the world doesn’t have dreams or any real belief structure for that matter. Tim is a typical twenty-something hanging with his friends and experimenting with some controlled substances. There are allusions to the original series and characters, but this issue is totally open to new readers. It is a new highly-accessible direction and really the “ultimatization” of Tim Hunter.

Si Spencer puts together a thoroughly enjoyable opening chapter. It’s fairly clear that we’re in an alternate world, with non-DCU versions of Constantine, and Zatanna. There is minimal character development, we’re really only introduced to our cast this issue. Instead, Spencer focuses on building up the war torn realities that the series will encompass, as well as introducing the opposing factions. There is quite a bit of unexplained happenings, but all appears to be building towards the war mentioned in the title. The dialogue is well written and the story flows quite nicely. All told it’s a fantastic debut for Spencer in the world of comics—Spencer comes to DC from the world of the BBC and the smash hit Eastenders.

The artwork by Dean Ormston is utterly brilliant. I can’t imagine an artist that could capture the varied magical locales, myriad creatures, and the mundane bits of the magic-less reality we visit all with such perfection. This series promises to be a grand spectacle of magic and Ormston is clearly the man with the necessary skill to portray it.

Books of Magick: Life During Wartime takes one of Vertigo’s premier characters and instills him with brand new life, and a surprising new direction. Si Spencer appears poised to tell a “magical” story and Dean Ormston is the man to bring the book to life with his own magic!