Will the Sons stop the ritual and cancel the apocalypse? It’s Midnight Sons #5 written by Ethan Sacks, with art by Luigi Zagaria and Alberto Foche, colors by Antonio Fabela, and letters by Joe Sabino.
The issue begins years ago in New Orleans as Agatha Harkness pays a visit to The Laveaus. Agatha tries to bring Zoe’s mother a “housewarming gift” in the form of a magical statue to celebrate Zoe’s potential as a witch, but Zoe’s mother shoos her away.
Zoe’s mother doesn’t want her daughter anywhere near Agatha’s coven since her mother warned her about it. Based on this information, we can assume that Zoe’s grandmother is the Laveau from Agatha’s younger days in the coven.Scorned by Zoe’s mother, Agatha leaves, but not before telling her that Zoe will seek her out one day.
The comic then goes to the present day, where Zoe Laveau has just seen the horrifying scene of everyone except Agatha killed by Korrosion aka Corrina, who was pretending to be Valtorr. Agatha tries to console Zoe, saying “Now is not the time to give up.” but Korrosion attacks Agatha and gloats that time isn’t on their side because everyone who can help them has been killed.
Of course, this is only what Korrosion thinks has come to pass. As it turns out, The Midnight Suns are still alive and well in Valtorr’s Dimension. However, Kushala’s Spirit of Vengeance senses something is wrong, being pulled in two different directions due to two timelines unfolding at the same time.
As I mentioned in my last review, the death of a bunch of superheroes dying at once is usually resolved with some timey-wimey stuff. I initially thought it would involve time-travel, but Kushala proves me wrong with what happens next.
When Kushala senses her other self in the parallel timeline die, Magik suggests she uses her Spirit of Vengeance to travel to that parallel timeline in order to get help. Kushala does so, and awakens just in time to deal a blow to Korrosion as he prepares to finish off Agatha, Zoe, and Nico Minoru.
With Korrosion briefly on a time-out, Kushala tells Agatha and the others where she came from and how Zoe’s vision is the key to helping The Midnight Suns escape from Valtorr’s dimension. The warning comes just as Korrosion gains his second wind and smites Kushala’s body, sending her back to the reality she came from.
As Korrosion starts to gloat to herself, I can’t help but wonder why she didn’t try to finish off Agatha and the others again. While she is gloating and not paying attention to them, Agatha draws a magic circle in the ground and tells Zoe to use her ancestor’s mirror to send a vision of The Midnight Suns into the past, the same vision we saw back in issue 1.
At this point, I want to show my appreciation for Luigi Zargara’s art, Antonio Fabela’s colors, and Joe Sabino’s colors on the page where Zoe projects her vision of The Midnight Suns. The purple and black background seems to represent Agatha Harkness and Nico Minoru’s powers supporting Zoe as she closes her eyes to focus the power of The Black Mirror. It is also nice to see Zoe do something that she knows she can do, especially after being repeatedly told that she is destined to be a harbinger of the apocalypse.
The story then goes back three hours ago, in the initial timeline where The Midnight Suns are trapped in Valtorr’s Dimension. Just as Korrosion begins to invoke Zoe Laveau’s power, The Midnight Suns make their triumphant return back to earth!
I must say, it felt good to see Kushala ram Korrosion with her Spirit Rider motorcycle as Korrosion starts doing a villain monologue again. Korrosion talked a little too much for my taste and it proved to be her undoing.
In case you’re wondering how The Midnight Suns miraculously made it back to Earth, Magik provides a “simple” explanation. Kushala’s Spirit of Vengeance allowed her to travel between two alternate timelines. When she came back to the original timeline, Kushala could use the Spirit of Vengeance to open a rift between the two realities and take the rest of the Midnight Suns with her.
Does your head hurt, dear reader? Don’t worry, Wolverine feels the same way you do! He says, “This crap is giving me a headache that not even a healing factor can fix.” Gotta love the wit of writer Ethan Sacks.
While the rest of The Midnight Suns wail on Korrosion’s shadow monsters, Nico Minoru goes to Zoe Laveau and tells her she is getting an A in her class and to destroy The Black Mirror to close the portal between Valtorr’s dimension and Earth.
Soon, Wolverine manages to land a decisive blow to Korrosion, allowing Agatha Harkness to sneak up on her and stab her with a magic absorbing dagger just as Zoe Laveau destroys The Black Mirror with a magic axe.
It is here that I must be honest and say I found Agatha stabbing Corrina anticlimactic. It reminds me of the finale to the 00’s BBC fantasy show Merlin, which ended similarly. Why bring a dagger, even a magic absorbing one, to a magic fight? Unless you are Megan Gwynn, aka Pixie, I cannot condone this. I would rather see Agatha and Corrina fight each other to the death with magic energy blasts. At least Zoe Laveau gets to happily destroy her ancestor’s cursed mirror.
Anyway, one giant explosion of later and both Agatha Harkness and Korrosion are gone, with only Agatha’s purple cloak and Korrosion’s mask left behind. It is then that Sorcerer Supreme Clea appears asking what happened. She must’ve thought The Midnight Suns were still trapped in The Dark Dimension.
Soon, The Midnight Suns regroup at Agatha’s old castle The Haven, where Magik remarks that it would make a good team base. It is then that Wolverine asks if they are sure that they won, because not seeing a body after a blast that should’ve killed someone is a bad sign. The comic briefly cuts to Korrosion’s Realm, where Corrina is shown to be injured but alive and well as she sits in Valtorr’s throne. This is why you don’t bring a dagger to a magic fight.
Unaware of this, The Midnight Suns teleport back to Strange Academy to try and move forward. The issue ends with a young Agatha Harkness greeting them upon their return.
All in all, this mini series was mostly entertaining. Since I can’t play The Midnight Suns video game yet, reviewing this miniseries was the next best thing, even if I have reservations about how Zoe Laveau was written. Although this series had an open-ended ending, it presents some interesting potential moving forward.
Whether young Agatha Harkness is a de-aged Agatha we already know is yet to be seen, but I have a feeling she might end up being the next “big bad” magic villain. Her older self was willing to take on the power that Corrina stole, so it is possible that she might try to take over Strange Academy. Perhaps we will get answers in a new Strange Academy series or another magic series related to it.
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
