Wherein Magnus really has a hard time grasping that she’s not really his wife from another life.

Creative Staff:
Story: Fred Van Lente
Art: Cory Smith

What They Say:
Welcome to THE UNCANNY VALLEY, an incredibly illegal Sex & Death club, where humans fight one another in a pit and whoever loses has their dead body parts taken by Tranmechs to add to their own robo-bodies. It’s gross so Magnus has to try really really really really REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hard not to lose.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a two month gap between issues, that can be problematic for a new series since some of the enthusiasm can dwindle. With Magnus, that doesn’t feel like the case since the first five issues have been a blast. But it felt a bit odd getting back into the book after the two months away and the narrative feels like it’s not moving as smoothly, mostly because the story takes a significant enough turn with who it’s spending time with as we see the transmechs and their particular lifestyle. But the book manages to work better upon a second reading as things start to connect again, which is definitely a plus since Van Lente and Smith have a few things going on in multiple areas to remember to work with.

The world that Magnus is in has a lot of different wheels in motion that he’s trying to understand, though a lot of it is going on behind the scenes where he can’t see it until it impacts him directly. At the moment, he’s doing the traveling with the woman who looks like his wife as they try to track down those that were kidnapped, which includes her husband. Magnus is a pretty good guy overall from what we’ve seen of him, but he’s doing his best to jog her memory as to what he knows of her from the virtual world that he had inhabited before being thrust into this real world. He does tell a pretty cute story about him and his wife, but he brings it down a bit by seeing if it jogs any memories within her. While some more firm connection is expected to come at some point since it’s too much of a coincidence, there’s an almost desperate sense coming from Magnus as he tries to get her to remember him in some way or form.

While we see a good bit of dialogue time and some action as he and Moira deal with the threats they face on their journey to find Leahm, we also see a bit of what’s going on with Leahm that leads into an expository piece about the Transmechs. Their capture of him and others has them using them for human parts, but the Transmechs have their own view on the world in that they’ll be the ones that will be closer to god in a way since they’re comprised of both man and machinery. They have a rather not surprising special relationship with Senator Clane as they’re used by Clane to keep the Goph population in check and to deal with other problems. But the Transmechs think they have the upper hand, something that Clane isn’t about to let them delude themselves over too long. The explanation of the Transmech mentality is decent here, though it’s a kind of glossed over aspect that doesn’t delve too deep. It adds another wrinkle to this world and a complication in general, but I’m not sure where they’re going to go with it yet.

In Summary:
Though the first five issues of Magnus flowed well for me, this issue felt a little more disjointed and forced in a way that I can’t quite pinpoint. I’m wary of the Transmechs, though their inclusion makes sense in the kind of larger culture that’s been presented. We get some decent progress with Magnus and Moira in their search for Leahm and we get a little bit about what’s going on with Clane’s rival senator that he’s tracking for his own purposes. There’s a lot of things going on in this book and it’s building its foundations well, but I’m also feeling the need for something pivotal or significant to really happen at this point to give us a taste of what’s really going on when it comes to Magnus. The book has some decent action to it, but it’s a segment that feels more like it’s there just to keep it in the book rather than as an important part of the storyline. Luckily, we only get a little H8R this time around.

Grade: B

Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 10th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99