Review – The Magdalena #4

Welcome to another rousing review of The Magdalena friends. Top Cow is back with #4 and Ron Marz at the helm. Nelson Blake, Sal Regla and Dave McCaig are the masters behind the art and this series is really starting to heat up.

I have to admit, thus far, despite the blood of Christ flowing in her veins and her training, Magdalena seems to be the weakest of the Artifact bearers. She seems to narrowly get by and only because her mentor Kristof is always close by her side. Patience seems to get into trouble regularly and while Kristof’s bullets can’t hurt the various demons and villains she fights, they do provide the distraction that gives an opening to win fights.

Overall in the story the two warriors of the church are hunting for a boy who The Vatican believes might be the anti-Christ. A cult has arisen around the boy calling itself Lucifer’s Children. In this issue the two have finally tracked the boy and his cult to Paris and are looking to put an end to this threat. Will they succeed? Read on to get a hint.

We open in the catacombs beneath Paris with two knights of the church called Garduna. They are an advance scouting party who is checking the location prior to Patience and Kristof’s arrival. They find a ritual room and unfortunately are a little late, as an elder demon is also there to greet them. Patience and Kristof eventually make their way to the same area where they find a boy. Kristof tries to tell the Magdalena that he is probably the one they are looking for and she should kill him. Instead she trusts the boy who leads them into a trap. The odds are overwhelming and quite the cliffhanger is left at the end of the issue. The rule of thumb I’m taking away from this situation is don’t trust little boys alone and unharmed in catacombs.

The quality of the story and the art is what you’d expect from The Magdalena. We don’t see anything drastically different. The demon is significantly stronger than the past few our dynamic duo has dispatched of and they struggle to contain it. The catacombs are dark and gloomy just like you’ve expect them to be. I like the way the story progressed as there could have been a few issues where no progress is made towards finding the cult. Marz is definitely keeping things moving along.

Given the events of Artifacts that are going on and shaking up the whole Top Cow Universe I’m a little curious how this cliffhanger will be written in. I’ve no doubt that Marz has already planned that out as he wouldn’t be the architect of so many great titles if he wasn’t capable. Overall, I like the pacing and the art is top notch. I really just hope Magdalena can discover some other power beyond a fancy spear and her unique lineage or else she isn’t going to last long as an artifact bearer.

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