Review — ‘Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories — Jace #1’ Delivers Great Moments For Comics And MTG Fans Alike

Welcome to the table,

What is a Planeswalker? Aside from a really rad title that conjures up visions of mystery and magic, when it relates to Magic: The Gathering, it is an entity who is considered one of the most powerful sentient forces in the multiverse. In the thematic narrative of the game, the Planeswalker represents the player. As the game grew, adapted new mechanics, and expanded its lore, it also became a card type within the game. It offered identity and lore within the confines of the narrative structure, much in the same way mythology and folklore provide us with identities like Hercules and Jack Frost.

One of the most iconic of these Planeswalkers is known as Jace Beleren, a mind mage who’s often been centered in the lore of MTG and a fan favorite to generations of players at this point. Dark Horse Comics has been doing a wonderful job translating the lore of MTG into sequential storytelling, so their introduction of a Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories — Jace title has been greatly anticipated. With issues in hand, it’s time we turn the page, prepare for counterspells, and get into it.

Capturing such a massive concept on the page is no small undertaking, but the team of writer Michael W. Conrad, artist Caitlin Yarsky, colorist Alex Guimarães, and letterer Clayton Cowles seems more than up for this task.

Jace is a well-known personality with a lot of layered lore around him, so a deep dive into the fractured and folded memory of this mind mage seems a tall order for any creative team. Yet, within the first handful of pages, the existential reality-jumping nature of the character already feels like it’s in the right hands.

Our story kicks off with Jace attempting to recall memories that have been “milled” from his brain. As someone who has been playing MTG since Alpha hit the well-worn picnic table outside the Boy Scouts meeting hall, seeing an actual Millstone* being represented in comics absolutely delighted me. I made an audible laugh from somewhere deep in my soul as the page turned because there is no reason aside from pure fanservice that image would have been included. I can tell you from someone who has been at the gaming table for as long as he has memory, it was appreciated.

If delving into Jace’s memories were not enough, those we truly see center on his time as an apprentice to one of the more vile intellects from MTG‘s multiverse: the Planeswalker Tezzeret. He is a notable entity within the lore of MTG, a powerful magic user in his own right and a henchman of most sentient life’s true foe — the horned one, elder dragon Nicol Bolas.

Tezzeret steals the Sunforger, then has Jace distract the guards while the two escape.

Now the Sunforger is a MTG artifact card. In game, you can pay 3 mana, then attach it to a creature card and the creature gets +4/+0 with the ability to tap one white and one red mana and search your library for a red or white instant with converted mana cost of 4 or less and cast that card without the mana cost, then shuffle your library. Now, I don’t know exactly how this is going to come into play in the narrative of this comic, but I do know that with a Mistveil Plains, you could essentially use its ability, pop your instant back to the bottom of your deck so you can fetch it again next turn, and then just keep cycling all sorts of heavy chaos on your opponents.

So, within the walls of Jace’s memory, he and Tezzeret head off into the Blind Eternities. MTGs space between realities, and they end up at the Island of Shiv on the planet of Dominaria, the homeworld of the Forever Serpent, Nicol Bolas. I mean, sure, there are chances they could be there to see something of Urza or Mishra or Kahrn or Xarl or a slew of others who, at one point or another were … around. I mean, there could be some really neat goblin Tezzeret is looking for. However, given the lore and logic at play, Nicol Bolas has got to be coming very soon.

I mean, he is in the middle of the three-page spread early on in the issue, after all.

Until next time, I’m not sure exactly where this Jace series is going, but I do know as a lifelong fan of Magic: The Gathering, the series is packed with iconic items, well-known entities, and more than enough mystery to keep me coming back for more.