Magik 3

First off, *ahem*
OVER 800 POSTS. YAY!!!!!
Okay. Now Magik 3:

This may have spoilers...

http://www.geocities.com/rsaille/magikthreek.jpg

Hey, Joey...where's your rooster?...I can't decide if I like this Kurt or not. He's kinda spooky.

Sort of like the story... I can't decide.

First, the good:
Magik seems to be a much stronger character that *gak* Daytripper. Thank God. She goes horn to horn with Mephisto and all the other netherworld baddies with authoritah. Kurt is quite protective of her and finally does something other than run around in his little black vest and look cute. And the traitor! I was impressed. The story seems to be heating up for the conclusion. We finally see the big, bad eater of the splintered realms and he's sort of impressive.(see "the bad")

The bad:
I liked the photoshopy stuff in the first one. Now it's getting ridiculous, what the hell is some of this crap supposed to be...green dwarves? Ghostbusters and Hellraiser and Giger rejects? Call Ripley, the Bitch is back... I suppose it gives a certian nightmarish quality...as in, when will this book be over! Let me wake up! *pant, pant...deep breath*
Okay.
If I were Kurt, this little vacation to hell would reaallly make me wonder about the priest thing. He knows all this exists, is he sure about heaven? I dunno. I thought last issue was a bone...one of Magik's lackeys was taunting him about studying to be a priest when he looked at home in hell and he said something to the effect that he was thinking the same thing. There were no such hints in this issue, except he said "I am an X-Man" instead of I *was.* I hope the end of the next issue will not only restructure hell, I hope it makes Kurt think about what he's doing. Maybe the last issue of Magik will give Kurt enough doubts that they can then be dealt with in the core books or his mini. That's my hope. I think the seeds are sewn, let's hope they grow.
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~Award-winning designer of Norway's lovely crinkly edges.~

Ooooh, my. I did go on a bit, didn't I? Sorry.
And I just noticed Kurt's got one of my doggie's hairs on his little washboard abs. Oops. Stay off the scanner, hairbag! No, bad girl..you can't send *that* scan to that nice boy dog...That's it, I'm revoking your Web privilages! Sit! Heel!....
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~Award-winning designer of Norway's lovely crinkly edges.~

Yeah, and those are some serious Schwartzenegger pects, too. But about this hell thing: I've always thought it was funny that comics, when they want to play with mythological material (cf. Vertigo) love to use hell, but never so much as touch heaven. And I think there's a reason for that. Hell is rarely portrayed as an absolutely evil place, especially in Marvel. It's more or less neutral, just like earth. Which I think is theologically consistent; when people read "Paradise Lost", they frequently remark that Satan is the most 'human' character in the whole poem. He has motivations that we can identify with. So, there's no absolute evil, just fallibility and error.

That said, however, it irks me that Marvel uses the concept of hell, but refuses to commit itself to any serious statements about it. There's no interesting metaphysics like in "The Sandman". It's just another venue for Marvel-style action plots. It could be anywhere.

What I think should trouble Kurt is that the denizens of hell don't seem to be rebelling against anyone. They're just there, having a perfectly pleasant time (except for the sinister force of destruction threatening them currently). Hell has no *moral* dimension; it just exists. But maybe that only appears to be the case when you're *in* hell. I dunno.

Sheesh, this was long. I'll go now http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif

-Rex