Mage: The Hero Discovered #1-15
Published by: Comico – 1984
Written, Penciled, and Colored by: Matt Wagner
Inked by: Sam Kieth [issues: 6-15]
----------------------------
Mage: The Hero Defined #1-15
Published by: Image – 1997
Written and Illustrated by: Matt Wagner
Colored by: Jeromy Cox
----------------------------
Originally planned as the first installment of a trilogy, Mage: The Hero Discovered—a fifteen-issue limited series begun in 1984 and originally published by the now defunct Comico—was Matt Wagner’s first foray into a long-form comics narrative and launched a career that has spanned decades and seen him helm numerous properties such as Mage, Grendel, and Sandman Mystery Theater. The sequel, another fifteen issue series, Mage: The Hero Defined, began publication by Image Comics in 1997—eleven years after the end of The Hero Discovered—but, almost twenty years later, the third and final installment, The Hero Denied, has still yet to see the light of day.*
While his writing and art have continually evolved and matured over the years, it remains constant that, in a Matt Wagner story, one comes to care about the characters, their relationships, the central conflict, and the plot’s ultimate outcome—the two Mage series are no different and are, in fact, the prototype for that quality. The Hero Discovered explores the role of the hero and the ordinary man—where the two overlap and become one and the same—the nobility of sacrifice, the pain of loss, and the courage to ensure that no loss is in vain. Where the first series focused on a reluctant hero and the sacrifices it took to spur him towards his destiny, the second Mage series focuses on the themes of control and leadership, power and faith, choice and fate. These themes are tied closely to the feelings of guilt and personal failings—emanating from the protagonist’s past—which motivate much of his future choices and his determination to always be in control in order to avoid making the same mistakes twice or allow others to come to harm through his actions or inaction.
Mage: The Hero Discovered, set in present day America, follows the exploits of reluctant hero Kevin Matchstick as he is guided by Mirth—a wizard of sorts—in his struggle against the evil and scheming “Umbra Sprite” whom is consumed with eliminating Mirth and locating another magical entity known as “The Fisher King.” Oddly, the importance of the Fisher King is never made clear; his identity and role remain a mystery throughout the series despite being frequently referred to as possessing some unidentified significance. Similarly, the ultimate denouement is somewhat anti-climactic as the final confrontation between good and evil is sidestepped, but the door is left open for its eventual sequel.
Mage: The Hero Defined revisits Kevin Matchstick several years after the events in The Hero Discovered as he wanders America, and eventually Canada, with his newly acquired sidekick “Joe Phat”—and various other heroes whom come and go—battling mystical creatures and monsters of legend. Mirth has disappeared and Matchstick has settled into his role as a leader of heroes. However, the denouement, again, skirts a final battle between the harbingers of good and the evil that has beset upon them their hardships. This would suggest that such a battle might be planned as the grand finale of the third installment, but, considering the twenty-year delay, we may never know.
Despite Matchstick’s reluctance to accept his role as hero in The Hero Discovered, there is a delightful lack of cynicism—almost innocence—throughout the story. There are no screams and grimaces of rage, there are no musclebound slugfests—in fact, most of the fights in the Mage series are almost comical in the ways they go awry—the women are confident and clothed, none of the characters carry an arsenal of weaponry, and the characters are bound together not only by necessity or a shared goal, but by friendship.
One of the most immediately obvious differences between The Hero Discovered and The Hero Defined is the art. A decade having lapsed between the two series by the time of The Hero Defined, Wagner’s art had improved in some ways—it is clearer, cleaner, less muddled—but has lost some of the lushness of his softer, more brush-driven lines and heavy blacks from the previous series. Wagner’s art lacks the minute detail and consistency of the most popular mainstream comic art and eschews the ubiquitous crosshatching that defined Marvel’s and DC’s house styles in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but it is simple and endearing, flawed but competent. Halfway through The Hero Discovered, the inking duties were taken over by Sam Kieth (best known as writer and artist of his own Image Comics series The Maxx), whereupon the art became cleaner and more precise, but retained its original lushness and appeal. At times—especially during The Hero Defined—the art takes on a sketch-like quality where detail and accuracy are limited to the minimum degree necessary to convey the narrative. This is a quality perfected by artists like Mike Mignola, but, despite similarities thereto, Wagner’s art lacks the precision and two-dimensional design sense that makes Mignola’s art so striking.
One of the most appealing aspects of the art in The Hero Discovered is the coloring. Wagner used a coloring process called “blue-lining” wherein the initial black and white ink-work is mechanically reproduced onto a heavy-stock watercolor-paper in light blue ink (hence the name). The colors are then painted over this blue reproduction by hand using a mixture of watercolor and airbrush. The black and white line art is finally overlaid onto the finished colored art, obscuring the blue lines. This preserves the crispness of black lines as well as imparts an appealing subtlety of color, shade, tone, and texture.
In The Hero Defined, however, the organic quality of watercolor and airbrush is traded for the sterility of computer coloring techniques. Wagner allows the nuances of computer coloring to do much of the heavy lifting that would previously have been at least partially rendered via ink-work—a common feature in comics since the widespread adoption of computer coloring processes. This helps to define the unique look of the series and—with the passage of time, the change in style, the evolution of the characters, and the new quest set before them—this new approach to coloring fits as another example of the evolution and rebirth of both the creator and his creation—something Frank Miller and Lynn Varley famously tried-and-failed-at in The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the first sequel to Miller’s groundbreaking The Dark Knight Returns.
Following the popularity of the sequel, Mage: The Hero Defined, the first series, Mage: The Hero Discovered, was reprinted in eight recolored square-bound volumes by Image in 1998. Replacing the hand-painted colors in favor of computer coloring stripped the art of The Hero Discovered of one of its best defining qualities and much of its soul. For this reason, the reprints should be avoided in favor of the original serialized first-printings published by Comico—which can still be found for relatively cheap online or at a local comic shop. An added bonus in the original issues—absent from the reprints—is a backup story featuring Wagner’s first creation “Grendel.”
Both Mage series are mostly suitable for a general audience. There is no nudity, the violence is kept palatable, and the profanity is incidental. There is, however, a rather overt and controversial drug reference in The Hero Defined which was even criticized in the series’ letter column. Seeking answers about their quest, Matchstick and two other heroes ingest a potion made by a witch—which they roll and smoke like a joint—followed by a shared hallucination. It is a clever contemporary modification to a well-established fantasy trope—the magic potion—but may raise objections among a certain segment of the population for seemingly encouraging drug use.
Recommendations:
Aside from his work on Mage, Wagner is probably best known for his series—and eponymous character—Grendel which also saw first light at Comico in the 1980s (Grendel’s later incarnations have been published by Dark Horse). Grendel has spawned numerous miniseries, reprints, an ongoing series (which ran for forty issues), and even a crossover with Batman. The Grendel series—written and occasionally drawn by Wagner—and the numerous Grendel Tales miniseries—which feature several different artists and writers—follow various individuals whom take up the mantel of “Grendel” following in the wake of the original—an antihero named Hunter Rose—some for good, others for evil. The Grendel Tales miniseries are a good place to jump into the Grendel mythos since they tend to be short, self-contained stories that rely sparingly on any prior knowledge of characters or events and have a broad scope of settings, characters, premises, and plots as well as a wide variety of writing and artistic styles.
Fans of The Hero Discovered may want to try a contemporary series, ZOT!, written and illustrated by Scott McCloud—begun in 1984 and published by Eclipse—which ran for 36 issues (only the first ten of which were published in color, while the remainder were printed in black-and-white). It shares the endearing sense of innocence of The Hero Discovered but increases the wholesomeness and optimism by several degrees, and has a strong emotional core. ZOT! is about a teenage girl named Jenny whom encounters a young superhero from a parallel universe, Zach a.k.a. Zot, with whom she goes on adventures—think Peter Pan for a modern sci-fi audience without the theme of perpetual childhood. It is entirely suitable for a general audience and might especially—though not exclusively—appeal to adolescents and girls, lacking nudity, profanity, and possessing the barest minimum of violence. The black-and-white issues have subsequently been collected into a single softcover graphic novel which is the cheapest and easiest way to acquire and read the series and comes highly recommended.
Fans of The Hero Defined might also find enjoyment in any of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy miniseries published by Dark Horse. The series’ eponymous protagonist—the half-human spawn of a demon—is a member of a group of paranormal investigators whom often finds himself fighting creatures of myth and legend—not unlike Matchstick in The Hero Defined. The art is clean and angular with a strong sense of visual composition. Though Hellboy’s tone is darker and more serious than The Hero Defined, it likewise shouldn’t possess much to be offended by.
Wagner also wrote and illustrated a four-issue miniseries for DC called The Demon featuring the character Etrigan—originally created by comics legend Jack Kirby—which is worth a look.
*Since the writing of this review, Image Comics has begun publication of Mage: The Hero Denied.
Brian Bigelow
November 27, 2016
