Review:Â Books of Magic #15
Editor’s Note: This Review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Â Kat Howard
Artist: Tom Fowler, Craig Taillefer
Colors:Â Jordan Boyd
Letters: Todd Klein
Reviewer:Â Tony Farina
Summary
Books of Magic #15 finds Tim Hunter having survived his run in with Constantine and back in school. He is actually being a bit of a jerk. One could argue that hanging out with John and escaping with your live could do that to a person. Still, he is really acting like a tool. Ellie, Fatima and Tyler are all scared of him and they create a bit of an anti-magic team. Really, it is an anti-Tim team.
Rose reminds Tim not to use magic and to be responsible and as luck would have it, he runs into a dream version of himself who tells him that being responsible with magic is for suckers. He tricks him into using his magic to save a baby, which seems like a worthwhile cause but, since he is the one who but the baby in danger in the first place is less cool. Dream Tim and the Three Fates make a deal and plan on double crossing each other. Good times.
Positives
Books of Magic #15 is back in the hands of Kat Fowler alone. Honestly, that makes everything better. Her slow burn story telling is back on display. The tension is real. The stakes seem high and the characters are three dimensional. Howard makes Tim seem like an actual teenager who has mood swings, acts like a jerk, has irrational emotions and then does something kind. We are always worried about him because we have all been there or we know someone who is there now. The magic part of Books of Magic, under the expert hand of Kat Fowler, is always secondary background noise, because for a teenager, it would be.
Jordan Boyd’s colors pop off the pages in this issue. Boyd takes us from the real world to the dream world and spends time with the fates. Each news location has it’s own color palate that makes it distinctive. If there were no words explaining what was happening, the readers would know. In that same vein, Taillefer and Fowler do a lot of showing instead of telling. Books of Magic always has something happening in the back or side of a panel that pushes the story forward. Don’t rush through this book or you will miss something.
Negatives
As I mentioned earlier, Tim is a bit of a jerk in this issue. That can wear on a reader a bit. It can be hard to keep rooting for a character who is constantly a D-bag. I get it, being a teenager who is a wizard is hard, but do you need to be such a tool all the time? I we get what Howard is doing here it can see it being a huge turn off.
Verdict
Overall, Books of Magic #15 is a solid book in the series. It is not the best, and it is not the worst, (that was last month). I trust Kat and I think you should too. This is clearly the start of something big. Pick this up and get reading.
