Blackbird is published by Image Comics. It is written by Sam Humphries with art by Jen Bartel.
I have been waiting for this series for months. Now that I’ve finally got to read the first issue and I know I’ll be able to read it monthly I’m even more excited. It helps too that autumn is an incredibly appropriate time for this comic to debut, particularly it being October.
I knew the book would be mystical and magical, but I wasn’t expecting the creepy aspect. Its a good kind of creepy, who doesn’t love dark magic and beautiful but also super deadly monsters?
Blackbird is the story of Nina Rodriguez, well, I guess it may also be about her sister, Marisa, but she really didn’t get much screen time, however, she was part of a major plot twist, so who knows for sure. At this point, I can say its mainly about Nina, though. When she was 13, Nina had a vision that there would be an Earthquake, but no one believed her.
Of course, as she predicted, it happened and it was a bad one. So bad that Supernatural forces either leaked from it or perhaps were the cause to begin with. Either way, everyone was made to forget, except Nina managed to remember. She became obsessed with magic and the occult, searching and searching for paragons or any sign of magic but to no avail. Until now, 10 years later.
Maybe it was because she was the only one who remembered, maybe it was the untimely and tragic death of her mother, maybe it was combination of both but either way, Nina didn’t grow up into a fine magic-wielding paragon, she barely grew up into an adult.
Being the sole person to remember such an amazing event would take quite a toll on you. Everyone thinking your crazy but still you hold on because you know, you just know that it was real. I feel like Sam Humphries does a fantastic job with Nina’s internal narration and expressing the struggle she’s going through. It’s hard enough trying to figure life out, let alone when there’s a whole other world you’re trying to figure out and prove exists.
Maybe Sam Humphries is actually a paragon and went through this whole ordeal because, man, I feel like he really hits the nail on the head with how difficult this would all be to handle mentally and emotionally.
Meanwhile, as expected, Jen Bartel’s art is absolutely stunning. I mean, that monster design could go either way. With a different artist, I’m sure it could be made to look absolutely terrifying, but with Jen Bartel’s art, it retains a beauty to it that if I saw it in real life I’d be torn between running for my life but also wanting to touch it.
But don’t get me wrong, she does show that she can make some pretty chill-inducing art in this as well. Bartel also has great character expressions. There is never a doubt about how Nina or Marisa is feeling so its easy to match Humphries words to the proper emotion and tone.
The one complaint I have, and its probably something intentional, is sometimes I don’t like Nina. Sure, she’s not your average heroine and I by no means want her to be perfect, but she also doesn’t need to be so self-centered. I mean, ok she witnessed magic no one else believed but there’s no reason she has to be such a dead weight to Marisa and treat her like she’s this unbearable, nagging bitch of a sister. Like, damn. I guess that’s mostly just me projecting though since I have my own past traumas and also a sister I love dearly and I get easily frustrated by “woe-is-me” types. Still, I like the complexity of her character and I’m looking forward to her development both emotionally and (hopefully) magically.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
