Magnus #1 is a comic written by Frederick J. Littles and Devin Arscott with art by Bruno Abdias and Rom Silva and colors by King Bola. A university student finds himself at the center of an intergalactic conflict involving superpowered beings. This a tale about people from other planets doing battle on earth with many moving parts behind the scenes. The key character in this story is Magnus Jakuta, a student that is unlucky with the ladies and whose whole world is turned upside down with the appearance of Stamos. Shante is Magnus’ close friend who goes to school with him. Stamos is a man from a different universe who seems to know more about Magnus than he himself does. At the end of the comic there are pages that give information about the various characters. The plot starts with a seemingly regular day getting interrupted and things take off from there. There is a lot of fighting and revelations that explain some of what’s going on. We’ll also meet some interesting and reasonably fleshed out antagonists. The violence gets very bloody and gruesome with a decent amount of collateral damage. The pace starts off steady but when the fighting starts it gets faster. Things are very intense as lives hang in the balance throughout this issue. The characters from the other universe speak with a more proper while the earthlings speak in a more hip way. There are not any wordy pages here. This is an exciting debut issue for a series that seems like it’ll go deeper than just “people with powers fighting” and involve some intrigue and alliances.

            The art here looks like a modern version of art common to The Bronze Age of Comic Books but with more polish. The color range here is vast and the backgrounds do a great job of setting the scene. The main location of this comic is an intersection in the middle of the city but we do have some scenes set in other parts of the universe starring different sets of characters. The expression level here is pretty high with the people here showing a variety of looks and showing them well. The main look here is anger but when other emotions are felt the characters tend to use the whole face to show it. Faces here seem alive and are full of the smaller details which help them emote and be unique. We do see some of the scenery repurposed as weapons but the only actual violent device is an axe. All the mystical and magical effects stand out on the page with their brightness and ethereal look. The action scenes flow well with the fights being hard-hitting and gory. There is quite a bit of blood and nasty injuries. The outfits are of the superhero variety with everything skin tight but more revealing on the women. There is also some clothing that I believe may be a reference to specific African cultures.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero stories starring an all-black cast involving people from another world in a world with African influences this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Blood and gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Did you think that we wouldn’t find you general?”

 

Physical Link: https://wiseacre.us/buy-comics/ols/products/magnus-issue-number-1-variant-print

Digital Link: https://wiseacre.us/buy-comics/ols/products/magnus—issue-1-standard

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akoma/magnus/description

Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/magnus-1-48-page-cosmic-saga-animated-teaser/x/26236710#/

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 32

Violent Pages: 10, for 31% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”