So happy I got this!
I love the dark part of DC my favourite book Swamp thing so I got it because it’s the Dark family team book. I like Constantine and Deadman I’ve not read a lot with them in but what I read I liked and they are some of my favourite DC characters so I wanted to see them in a book together and also I like Jeff Lemire I’ve only read one issue of his Animal-man but I liked it so I wanted to read more of his stuff.
Plot
Steve Trevor meets with Constantine and asks him to go on a mission in return for letting him visit the Black room which contains all the hidden Magical artefacts Constantine accepts the mission and begins to gather a team together. Constantine in the future is captured by Lord Faust’s men and is about to be killed when his team appear and take him out they then journey into the Faust’s temple.
Review
I like a good magical story I haven’t read a lot of DC’s magical stories a lot of Marvel’s but not many by DC so I wanted to try it out. I’m not familiar with some of these characters I know about Constantine and Deadman but Black Orchid, Andrew Bennett and Zatanna I’m not familiar with so I was interested to see them in a book and see if I started to like them.
What’s interesting is the way this issue is structured we start of in the present and then go to the past normally this doesn’t work out and can become confusing and boring but in this it provides the information necessary to understand how the team came together and how Constantine was persuaded into taking this mission on. It’s interesting to see and I like the deals Constantine makes with people to get his team together. I also liked the appearance of Steve Trevor as it did ground the series in the DC universe as Constantine is from the Vertigo universe I also liked the introduction of the Black Room since it’s the only thing that would persuade Constantine into doing this. The Black Room contains all of the Magical artefacts that A.R.G.U.S has collected and Steve Trevor offers Constantine 10 minutes in the Black room to take whatever he wants. I hope to see more of this in future issues as it’s an interesting concept.
I also liked the bit between Constantine and Zatanna because the rest of the team won’t follow Constantine he instead persuades Zatanna to get them to help by saying he’ll get something from the Black room for her which is very important to her. I liked this because it shows how crafty Constantine is and what he can do to persuade people since it’s fairly in keeping with the character.
I also liked the villain in this issue I don’t know much about him but he’s interesting and fits in well with the Magic theme of this book.
This issue also offers an explanation as to the powers of the characters I found this useful because I’m a new reader and also I want to know more about the character but what made this good is how it’s not just expository text it feels like Constantine is saying it with him saying that everyone plays the part in a band.
I loved the fight scenes in this issue we see all of the characters use their powers properly and everything looks really fluid which is how it should look.
I also loved the characterization of Constantine he’s really cocky and crafty which is how he should be everything he does and say is perfectly in his character. I also loved the Banta between him and Deadman it was funny to read and was a nice touch to the issue.
The ending I loved I mean you want a magical story you have to go all out and stick (spoiler) the books of Magic in it! I love the ending and couldn’t wait to read the next! (I got issue 9-11 and will have a review up for 10 tomorrow!) I loved the ending and was a great choice by Jeff Lemire.
I love the art by Mikel Janin it’s different from most artists but so precise and I love how he uses shadowing and light. Black Orchid looks really good with the transformation effects and the page layouts are really clever and dynamic.
Verdict
I love this book so much the art the story it’s so good and I’ve only just started this could well become one of my favourite New 52 stories and books.
5 stars.