Hey everyone!
We talked a bit about Breath of Shadows last week, so let’s take a look at the other book coming out with my name on it this week, Magic: The Gathering #25!
Issue 25 is notable, not only because it’s the last issue of the War of Fate arc - it’s also the last issue of the entire series! It’s also been the longest running Magic the Gathering comic series in history, making it an especially momentous occasion.
So, no pressure, right? Jed Mackay, writer of Moon Knight, Black Cat, and The Avengers wrote an epic, 20-issue story, all I needed to do was to live up to that, and bring the whole thing to an eye-popping conclusion!
Luckily, Jed left a lot of great threads to continue with - Isona Maive, the hidden planeswalker was finally free and in control of her destiny - what would she do with that freedom?
Isona’s driving ambition is to restore life to her home plane of Aykan at any cost - so it made sense to us that after being lied to and betrayed by both Liliana and Tezzeret, she’d set out to do it her way.
But, knowing the series was ending, we felt like we needed her to make a big, big move. And the biggest one we could think of had the initials N.B.
Over the decades, Nicol Bolas has been one of the biggest, baddest threats to the M:tG multiverse - his quest for godhood and willingness to destroy or manipulate anyone and anything made him a terrifying, calculating foe - one who is equal parts
Dr. Doom and Fin Fang Foom.
And I remember when he was just sitting around reading books.
Nicol was in a tricky spot, though - everyone in the multiverse thought he was dead at the end of the War of the Spark, but he was really imprisoned by his twin brother, the spirit dragon Ugin.
But that’s nothing a little fateweaving can’t handle, and the enigmatic Animatou was able to bring Isona and Nicol together, to what ends, only she knows.
What it all comes down to is one banger of a final fight, where the planeswalkers need to unite, or die. And we hope it’s an amazing send-off to the characters, and series as a whole.
Now, there’s a ton of people I need to thank for getting us here. First off, the aforementioned Jed Mackay, who was kind enough to bring me in, and trust me with the reins of the story he’d been building for 20 issues.
Next up is my awesome editors, Kathleen Wisneski and Kenzie Rzonca, who were as welcoming as could be - helping to elevate the story we wanted to tell, and keeping us on track with the fine folks at Wizards of the Coast.
Speaking of which, I also want to thank Paul Morrissey and Jay Annelli, who were a huge help making sure everything we did lived up to, and stayed true to the quality people expect from Magic. And also for not telling us to take a walk when we wanted to use Nicol ;)
We’ve also been blessed to work with so many talented artists, from our line artists
Ig Guara, French Carlomagno, Roberta Ingranata, Jacques Salomon, Giorgio Spaletta, and Alberto Locatelli, to colorists Arianna Consoni, Mattia Iacono, Francesco Segala, Gloria Martinelli, and Natalia Nesterenko. Not to mention our superstar letterer Ed Dukeshire.
We also had a raft of amazing covers, featuring the talents of Miguel Mercado, Fabiana Mascolo, Chris Shehan, Zu Orzo, Wolfskulljack, Rian Gonzales,
French Carlomagno, Stephanie Hans, Paris Alleyne, Breno Tamura, Santa Fung, Junggeon Yoon, Ig Guara and Fabi Marquez.
Keeping the books looking beautiful was our designer, Nancy Mojica, and keeping the whole shebang running smoothly was our supervising editor Bryce Carlson, and the rest of the fine folks at Boom!
I’d also like to thank author Seanan McGuire for her work on The Hidden Planeswalker miniseries, and the Nahiri one-shot - they fleshed out Isona, Nahiri, and Liliana so well that it made integrating them into the main narrative a pleasure.
That’s a lot of people, but hey, it takes a lot of people to make a great comic. And when everyone is contributing at the top of their game, like they are here, a great comic is what you’ll get.
I hope you pick up Magic the Gathering #25 tomorrow, alongside Breath of Shadows #3. And while you’re at it, you should definitely check out THE NASTY #1 by my friend John Lees - it’s a horror-tinged coming of age story that I just love to pieces.
Have a great week, and be back soon with more news!
- Rich