One of the best series we have ever had the pleasure of reading ... well not just this the first volume of 4 issues but the bulk of the (at that time) ongoing series of 75 issues ... after that, you are advised not to continue because they are trying to show years later and when a teen grows up and what-not and sort of spoilt the "magic" (no pun intended) for us readersAnyhow ... if you recall when Harry Potter first came out in about 2000, when it became a hit, many are those who claimed that Harry was inspired by this or that story ... well for me, I thought Harry was inspired by this series because here we have a bookish, glass wearing kid who is going on to his teens and suddenly discovering that beyond this mundane world of ours lies one where magic is rampant ... and that he has the potential to be the greatest sorcerer of them all! See what I mean?
But we digress a little too much already ... so let's rein it in and stay focus!
This first issue ... we are given a glimpse of young Tim who is busy practising skateboarding only to encounter spooky looking men in trenchcoat trying to talk to him ... and if you are a teen out alone you know you better watch it in case these are paedophiles, know what we mean?
Talk about poor social skills!
SPOILER ALERT
The four who entered are the Stranger, Dr Occult, Mr E and John Constantine ... and after making their mysterious and eerie presences felt, they decided to corral Tim and talk to him directly explaining their purpose ... naturally being at that age, the first strand of thought was that predictable ... with power means no more bullying! Writer Neil just gets it so well!
And so for the rest of this book, Tim starts his journey with the Stranger ... or he who has no name as he believes name gives his opponent power over him ... and he rather not have a nickname ... apparently he has the ability to bring Tim into the distant past ... and so Tim's lesson and tour began ...
All the way to the beginning of our universe ... and when the Angels fought and fell from heaven (we kid you not) ... and then fast forward to a few practitioners of magic and some of their sad endings ...
The Stranger is trying to show Tim that power is not everything and as it is the past, he can show Tim the ends of powerful mages and they do not live a happily ever after life. If you put this in current society context, it can be seen as a moral lesson or even social commentary, I guess ... a bit simplistic obviously as there is too few pages ... and this is a comic which means there needs be room for graphics and not just words ... but still this is a great opening chapter
We end the book with Tim and Constantine going to take the next journey together and that is a trip through the current world ... and that continues in issue 2
The artwork for this is brilliant ... every single page is so good
Ratings: 9/10
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