This review will have spoilers from Issue #2. If you haven’t read that yet, please wait to read this review. At the end of Issue #2 Zatanna and Faust realized their feelings for each other. She ran into his arms, they embraced, and Faust killed Zatanna. Yep, you read that right, Zatanna is dead. It was a terrible mistake, and he isn’t sure how to fix things. So,Enchantress and Davit seek out Dr. Occult’s help at the House of Secrets.
Dr. Occult rushes to the aid of Zatanna. Pia and Plop are nervously waiting when they arrive. Dr. Occult confronts Sebastion Faust about it all. While that’s happening Pia checks Zatanna further, she doesn’t feel like she’s actually dead. Pia uses her slime in an attempt to bring Zee back, and mild spoiler but I can’t explain much more in this comic without giving it away: Pia saves Zatanna with her powers.
Zatanna looks like a person, not a zombie which was my initial fear with Pia’s healing her. Pia’s powers haven’t fully been explained and if you remember in issue #1 she created Plop. Plop isn’t a bad guy by any means, but he is a slime creature. So, who knows how her healing powers work on humans? So far Zatanna is just suffering from some memory loss.
Later on Sebastion Faust wants to talk to Pia her saving Zatanna. He is worried that Pia’s powers aren’t totally in the realm of healing. Pia doesn’t fully understand her powers herself. Faust calls her a necromancer. She calls him a soul-sucker. And, then suddenly Pia realizes there are zombies crawling out of their graves. I should have mentioned they were having this discussion in a graveyard. Now that we have a better understanding of Pia and her powers, Faust is worried that she is in control of Zatanna. Pia assures him she would never take control over her, and that seems to make things better between the two for now.
Dr. Occult has been in control for quite some time. If you recall in issue #2 he took over for Rose. She’s been trapped for quite some time. At the time Rose was ok with taking a break and letting him stand in for a while. But, that’s no longer the case. Dr. Occult thinks that because Rose is a woman that she will not be able to separate her emotions in the event one of the students turns out to be the Malevolence. So, he’s basically been holding her hostage because he doesn’t think she’ll be able to kill a student if it comes down to it.
During a dinner meeting Madame Xanadu asks about Rose. Dr. Occult says that Rose has given him control for now and thinks he is best at handling matters with the malevolence. Madame Xanadu has a strange feeling about it all, so she works up a plan to break Rose free. And, she is successful. I don’t want to tell you how she does this because I feel it will divulge too much. But, I can tell you from here that we discover Dr. Occult has a devious plan for the students during their finals. He doesn’t even think they’ll survive, and truly believes he is doing what is best for everyone. Rose and Madame Xanadu take over to protect the school while the students take their finals.
A lot happens in this issue to tie all the loose ends together. I like to stick to spoiler free, and I hope the plot points I’ve discussed drive you to pick up this issue. The finals the kids go through were intense. The truth behind the Malevolence was unexpected. If you’ve been paying attention you know who is behind it.
Something I should definitely praise the writers on is even though there’s foreshadowing as to who is the source of the Malevolence is, the appearance of it is unexpected. The way things play out went in a direction I didn’t expect. During the middle of this issue I was worried I would predict the ending totally, but that didn’t happen. The creative character development, tying up loose ends, and leaving an open-ended story is why I’m giving Mystik U a high rating.
Rating: 8/10
