In reviewing Lucid #2 for another outlet,
I said that I did not want to follow up with the rest of the series.
I will not go so far as to say that Lucid #3 proved me wrong,
but I did not wholly regret reading the next issue. Lucid #3
has many of the same qualities as its two previous books, both the
positives and the negatives. At least you can say that the artist
and writer are consistent.
The third book of Lucid starts off with a
flashback. We are transported to Mortlake, outside of London, in
1576. There, a character that resembles our protagonist Agent
Matthew Dee, escorts Cecil in to meet an old man named Dee. Cecil is
entrusted with a book that has the power to conjure any demon. Then
we go to present day London where an old hack of an entertainment
magician gets more than he wishes for. After these two incidences,
Agent Dee is sent to London where the book has fallen out of
protective hands. Could this explain what happened to the magician?
Whose hands has the book fallen into? Are all these events related
to Agent Dee’s dealings in America?
There is a lot of intrigue in this particular
book. Matthew is revealed to have a secret entity named Ariah and
the fact that he is messing up on purpose. But why? Though there are
tons of questions, the book fails to give many answers. My only
problem with this is that this is a four part series. That means the
writer has only one more issue to answer all of the readers’
questions. McMillian, the writer, has also set up the rise of a
powerful villainous group that has finally been revealed once and
for all. Are we supposed to expect that they will be taken down in
just one book? Or does Archaia plan to publish more of this series?
If McMillian is working in the dark here, then I fear that the
conclusion to Lucid will be rushed and therefore
disappointing.
One of Lucid’s components, an element
thrown into every issue, is the introduction of a new female
character. At least this time when British mage Wren comes into
play, the woman from the last issue (Vivian) does not disappear.
Also, Agent Gygax (who I misidentified as German, but actually comes
from Switzerland) is mentioned, so she is not totally forgotten.
Come the big climactic battle at the end I
stopped reading the speech bubbles. They were too full of technical
babble trying to explain the magic spells that Agent Dee and Wren
were performing. Maybe in a novel I would care about how their
powers worked, but in the case of a short comic, I’d rather have
playful banter and visual storytelling. That being said, there was
more humor in this issue. McMillian seems to be coming into his own
as a writer. His character on True Blood was comic relief at
times and the sentences meant to invoke laughter are probably the
best in the issue.
The book ends with a preview of Days Missing:
Kestus which I already reviewed. If you haven’t read it, I would
go and find it. It was a fun read that did not require the reader to
have prior knowledge of the Days Missing mythos.
I’ve already voiced my qualms about the future of
Lucid. I’m sure there will be a massive battle, some
turncoats, and maybe even a death. However, all of this action will
not make up for the fact that information in the series was given
out too slowly. But, I have been won over before by entertaining
panels that distract me from the poor story, so there is hope. The
cover shows Agent Dee and (I assume) Agent Wren in fancy clothes and
masks. I’m thinking masquerade!
