WTComics WeView Review – MAGNUS BETWEEN WORLDS TPB
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- Price: $19.99
- Rating: T+
- Pages: 144
- On Sale: March 21, 2018
- Writers: Kyle Higgins
- Artist: Jorge Fornés
- Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
From the publisher: Do humans dream of owning electric sheep? Artificial intelligences, rather than becoming our overlords, have settled into an uneasy symbiosis with humanity – they work for us as our colleagues and servants, earning vacation-time they spend in a boundless digital universe running on human-maintained server farms.
But not all A.I.s are cool with the deal. Enter Magnus – a human psychologist tasked with navigating both worlds in order to bring recalcitrant AIs back into productive society…
Our WTComics WeView – Isaac Asimov’s tales of artificial intelligence are plainly an influence of this noir-ish, vaguely cyberpunk story. Gone are the robot killing karate chops of past incarnations of Magnus Robot Fighter. This new Magnus instead wrestles with the moral implications of a newly developed sentience in a race of subservient robots. Magnus, being one of the few humans that can travel to the digital world without going mad is tasked to catch a murdering robot intelligence that has escaped into the cloud. Her own allegiances are tested as the case unfolds.
Kyle Higgins does an admirable job of crafting a tale that both draws you in to the complex sphere of robotic intrigue while explaining the rules of the world. Much like our protagonist I found myself questioning whose side I was on during the story. An atmospheric, ambiguous morality permeates the story, leaving an unsettling feeling in my gut that lasted well after I put the book down.
Although I enjoyed the writing the real star of the show is the art of Jorge Fornés. Simply put, this collection is gorgeous. The covers are guaranteed eye-grabbers while every page is worthy of framing. Panels seem perfectly placed on the page and each is pin-up worthy by themselves but they still manage to deliver on the story. That’s not to say the bonus pin-ups aren’t spectacular as well, they’re beautiful in their own right. This book is worth the price of admission for these pieces and the developmental art at the back of the book alone.
I have only one hesitation in recommending this book to all readers. While I found Between Two Worlds to be a quality comic it is extremely cynical, and that in turn may turn off some. Due to the nature of the story and the issues addressed therein, readers that dislike comics with that kind of edge should stay far away. Overall though, while I know I’ll miss the more physical action of Magnus’ past, I quite enjoyed my time with this book, .
Rating: Very Fine- (VF-) or 7.5/10
Review by Chris
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