Order in the Court
Writer: James Tynion IV
Pencillers: Alvaro Martínez Bueno and Miguel Mendonça
Inkers: Raul Fernandez and Mendonça
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Cover: Martínez Bueno, Fernandez and Anderson
Variant Cover: Clayton Crain
Editor: Andrew Marino
Group Editor: Marie Javins
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: March 13, 2018
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
Oh boy, it’s time to delve into the horrifying underbelly of the DC Universe’s humanity and explore the always-evil practice of magick! What unseen terrors and unknowable boogums await us within these pages? Tarry not, and see my review of Justice League Dark #7, forthwith!
Explain It!
The Lords of Order have touched down in that magical land under the protection of Bobo, Myrra, and it looks like they mainly want to break his balls. Some exposition by a recently-freed Khalid Nassour tells us that his Granduncle Kent Nelson was having some disagreements with the Helm of Nabu about how to proceed, magic-wise, after the events of Metal. Yep, we’re still talking about Metal here, folks, and while that is the impetus that brought this colorful group together, can we just…move past it? Please? Like, there were parts that were good, parts that didn’t work…the story got us over a hump, so to speak, but it’s not among the most memorable events. Like, people love Hitman, but not everyone remembers that he came out of the 1993 event Bloodlines.And when you remind them of the fact? They don’t care.
Anyway, Nabu eventually assumed control of Kent and stuffed Khalid into an urn, and purposely let the Otherkind loose to chomp up all the wayward magic while he assembled the Lords of Order: four other spooky folks wearing the other parts of Nabu’s armor: gauntlets, boots, etc. It’s a pretty good concept, though they all have the same essential ability to fuck shit up royally. For instance: when Etrigan steps up and gets loud with the Lords, they separate the demon from Jason Blood, condemning the former to Hell and the latter to a rapid aging and, we can assume, death. The Lords have assembled to wipe out those magic dimensions to which the Otherkind cannot travel, like Myrra, for instance. Hearing this, Blue Devil tells Bobo to use his sword to teleport them the heck outta there, which is a feature he didn’t even know the weapon had.
Back in the Earthly realm, Wonder Woman and Zatanna continue to be led around the nose like a couple of chumps, trying to corral existing magic-wielders and to find the Lord of Chaos, the wizard Mordru. The two of them visit Circe—this would be the first time since the events of “The Witching Hour,” and they do reference it. Presumably, Circe still has the power of Hecate, but she makes no public mention of it, and provides the ruby or whatever is needed to visit Mordru. Before they can jam, however, there’s an earthquake—proceeding per Zatara’s plan, muses Circe—just as Bobo n’ the gang appear on some castle parapet, safe and sound. But elsewhere, the Lords of Chaos are destroying Myrra!
I love a lot of the things happening in this book. I like the look and the concept of these new Lords of Order. I like that Madame Xanadu is one of them. I like how Bobo is being characterized, I love all the eerie magic trappings abound, and Man-Bat has become a terrific character that could probably hold his own in a mini-series…maybe. But this story is moving glacially. This whole issue takes place during a ten-minute conversation-fight between the Lords of Order and the JLD. And even with pages as gorgeous and fantastical as these, that is just ripping off the single issue reader.
Bits and Pieces:
The Lords of Order’s Secret Origin is interesting and all, but we probably shouldn’t have sacrificed story momentum to hear it. Or maybe we should; I don’t know exactly what rites and sacrifices that are necessary to defeat the Otherkind.
6.5/10
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