Mage Volume 1: The Hero Discovered (Mage (Image))

Rating:
Summary: My favorite comic book series ever, but...
Review: First serialized in the mid-80s, Matt Wagner's Mage: The Hero Discovered remains my favorite comic book series of all time. However, I feel this edition does not do it justice. One of the most distinctive aspects of the original Mage series was the hand-painted color by Wagner. Here, the original painted colors have been replaced by digital colors by Jeromy Cox. Cox is a talented colorist, but without Wagner's colors the art in this series loses a lot of its personality. If you want to see what Wagner's coloring can look like, turn to the Mage II "Interlude" at the back of the book. This may be unavoidable since the original negatives could be lost, but in my opinion, it's worth seeking out older editions with the original colors like the Starblaze/Donning editions.

Rating:
Summary: Simpler is better
Review: It's been a long time since I read "Mage" and I bought this out of nostalgia. And yes, it gave me college flashbacks. Re-reading it, though, reminded me of its stunning strengths. That wouldn't be dialog - Wagner's dialog is occasionally stilted and awkward. But the simplicity of the art design reflects the simplicity of the story - both have hidden depths, and both are much richer than they might seem at first glance.

Every retelling of this story says something about the world that produces it. Wagner's world hasn't really aged. I look around and I see us as still alienated, still pathless, still worried about whether or not we should have as much conviction in pursuit of the right as our opposition has in the pursuit of what's evil.

It ain't perfect, but the characters have a modern individuality and archetypal resonance all at the same time, and that's tough to do. The characters and the world, they're really the jewels of "Mage", and well worth the investment in this beautiful conveniently collected volume. I'm glad I invested in it. I'm very much enjoying it all over again.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Mr. Wagner's epic tale of the Hero. An Archetype hero soul is reborn into an average man who cannot find anything to believe in. To tell to much is to spoil it. Suffice it to say I have read mine until they are dog eared.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Mr. Wagner's epic tale of the Hero. An Archetype hero soul is reborn into an average man who cannot find anything to believe in. To tell to much is to spoil it. Suffice it to say I have read mine until they are dog eared.

Rating:
Summary: Far Shallower than I Expected
Review: The fight scenes were well choreographed, but there was very little depth to any other aspect of the book. The artwork by the last few issues presented was pretty good, but it was very weak to start with, and the characters are not developed at all.

In truth, I was highly disapointed with this book. I bought it because on the back Kevin Smith calls it one of the three best comics stories ever, and considering he owns a comic shop, has written comics himself, and overall seems pretty intelligent, I figured this book must be pretty darn good. Now I find myself really questioning Smith's judgement. Given time, I could probably come up with fifty collections better than this, and taken to a comic shop I could probably find ten or twenty monthly comics on the shelf better than any issue in this book. Today's books are far more sophisticated -- Mage, to me, read like it was written for a seven year old.

I'm sounding pretty harsh, and I don't mean to say Mage was bad, but I gotta say it's highly over rated, and wasn't very good. People talk about what a personal story it is, but by the end I couldn't tell you what the main character's job was, who any of his friends were, what his hobbies or any of his interests were, what he liked to do to pass the time, if he had a girlfriend or had ever had a girlfriend, where he was from, any single thing that had happened to him before the start of the first issue in fact, how he was raised, what he beleived, what he didn't believe, or why he believed or didn't believe those things. Kevin (the main character) is supposed to be a reluctant hero, but why? What makes him so reluctant? It's never articulated -- nor does his reluctance ever have any meaninfull affect on the story. And none of the other characters are fleshed out any better. None of the characters are fleshed out at all. They are all just stick figures. Thumb nail sketches. Card board cutouts I personally couldn't empathize with any more than I can empathize with the key board I'm typing on right now. And the villains? My word I did not find them intersting or menacing at all. Their motivations were exceedingly weak, thier actions and interactions very simple, and (much like the hero's) their skills surprisingly undefined. Again, much like the story felt like it was written for seven year olds, the characters felt like they were written for seven year olds.

If I'd read Mage when if first came out, I might have considered it alright, but not really good even for the time. Compared to stuff that comes out now, it's highly dated, and vastly overshadowed in every respect; writing, characterization, art, and coloring. To Mr. Smith I say the following are better: Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Saga of the Swampthing, Batman Year One, Batman the Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil Born Again, Jeff Smith's Bone, Superman Secret Identity, Ronin, Midnight Nation, Joss Whedon's Fray, the first couple Ultimate Spiderman collections, the Mark Verhieden Aliens collections (vol 1 and 2,) the Ultimates vol 1 and 2, The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank, Jon Sable by Mike Grell, JLA Virtue and Vice, Justice League a New Begining, Danger Girl the Ulitmate collection . . . I better stop. I said above I could probably pick 50 collections better, but now I imagine it's closer to a 100. I have many collections I only thought were decent that I would have to rank higher than Mage. And there's still more good ones I hadn't mentioned before, like both volumes of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Green Arrow the Longbow Hunters, Geof John's Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinate Earths, Smith's own Green Arrow Quiver, Supreme Power, most Brian Bendis work . . . Whoops I started again. Anyway, I have no idea what Smith was thinking when he called this one of the three best collections ever.

In short, I have a lot of friends who don't like comics, every once in a while I'll give them a good story to try to convince them to give comics a chance. I would never give them Mage. It lacks depth, tension, thrills, characters that feel real, a world that feels real, a tight plot, or powers that are ever really defined (which also plays into that tension thing -- it's hard to worry a character is overmatched when you have no idea what he's capable of doing.)