Advance Review: ‘The Magic Order 3’ #2 Offers Flashbacks, Prophecies And Troubling Revelations

The opening to The Magic Order 3 #2 throws us back to 1982 and the first meeting of Cordelia’s parents, the Moonstones, on one hedonistic night in New York. A meeting that throws up some rather portentous prophesies as espoused by the very confident and somewhat forward thinking individual, Salome. The mother of Cordelia et.al. and a woman we learn something more about, and her relationship with Cordelia’s father, over the ensuing pages. 

Which all brings us back to the present day and the foreboding lighthouse of last issue, all enmeshed in ethereal energies and ghoulish greens, courtesy of colourist Valentina Napolitano. A present that is fast catching up with Salome’s deathly prophecies of yesteryear, something she is more than ready to face. 

Meanwhile, Cordelia is on her own mission in Singapore, but you just know that these two parallel plots will eventually intersect. It’s just a question of how and when.

Mark Millar once more drops juicy tidbits for readers to pick up and ponder. We are given more questions than answers, but it all hints at a reckoning to come as certain revelations are half-told to peek our intrigue. Gigi Cavenago’s fluid, flowing art captures the handsome and the horrific, the beautiful and the beastly with an an economy of line that reminds me of the seemingly simple line work of  the likes of Alex Toth and, more contemporarily, Otto Schmidt.

The pacing and structuring of the issue, with its inclusion of three all-important flashbacks, keeps the reader alert as each new scene offers more to the mystery and builds intrigue. The final page revelation only raises the interest of the reader as we are left with some answers, but a lot more unanswered. 

The Magic Order 3 #2 is out Wednesday 31st August from Image Comics