If you’ve been frustrated with the Universes Beyond era of Magic: The Gathering, boy are you in luck. Magic: The Gathering Untold Stories – Jace #1 doesn’t have a single Spider-Man, Ninja Turtle, Airbender, or even—thankfully, Rick from the Walking Dead. Instead, it focuses on characters you care about, planes you want to see, artifacts you’ve lost to at Friday Night Magic, and tells an exciting story from Jace’s complicated and dubious past.
I’m going to do my best to toe the line in this review and talk to people who would smoke me at the Commander table as well as people who have never heard of it before. Wish me luck.
Magic: The Gathering is a unique property because while there are books that supplemented the greater narrative that Wizards of the Coast first started cooking up in 1993, really it was the cards that told the story. Critical scenes were depicted on these cards, occasionally with flavor text if the card’s rules were short enough to allow the space for it.
It’s been a visual story since day one, and I’m so, so happy to have something Magic: The Gathering that focuses entirely on its own lore, specifically the lore of Jace, one of the more popular Planeswalkers (someone who can travel between different realities) in the whole game.
Jace is a young mind-mage who can use telepathy, clairvoyance, and cast lifelike illusions. As a kid on his home world of Vryn, he gets into a fight with his first mentor, Alhammarett. Alhammarett is a sketchy dude (well, a sphinx, really), who manipulated and used Jace, ultimately leading to a conflict between the two mind-mages. As a result of the battle, Jace lost most of his memories and accidentally planeswalked to Ravnica, where most of this story takes place.
His partner Vraska is there with him in the present as he revisits his past through visions, including one of the more important characters in his life, the artificer Tezzeret, a mage whose body has been largely replaced with living metal. Running a criminal outfit, the two pilfer the different guilds of Ravnica for powerful artifacts that will be familiar to longtime players of the game.
After a botched heist of the Sunforger hammer from the Boros Guild, the two are forced to fight their way out from a tough situation. Before long, they’re onto their next heist, on a storied plane from MTG’s past.
I didn’t even mean to get so nerdy when I was writing summary, it just happened because I’m smiling from ear to ear. It was so refreshing having something from Magic: The Gathering that was strictly about Magic: The Gathering. Every other page you’re seeing something familiar from Nicol Bolas to the Millstone, and you’re seeing these things in motion like they’re alive. Is this a fan service book? Yes, it is, but I’m a fan and I’m being serviced, so what the hell am I going to complain about?
Well, now that you mention it… the art. It’s good; it’s consistent, it’s bouncy, and it accurately portrays a version of something that already exists. That said, it doesn’t convey depth very well, the coloring is a little flat, and while it shows things that already exist, it’s not an especially exciting interpretation. There’s not a lot of sauce here, which I normally wouldn’t complain about, but there are just so many examples of how you can make these people, places, and items look so much more stylish. Look at Jace Beleren from Lorwyn back in 2007. That Jace is drippy as hell.
I had a good time with Magic: The Gathering: Untold Stories – Jace #1. I thought it was a refreshing emphasis on the people, places, and things that make Magic: The Gathering so special. When I saw the Sunforger hammer in my head I was doing lapsed player math – “wait, that’s +4/+0, right?”. It was made for fans, but maybe fans like me—someone who hasn’t been to an FNM or prerelease in a while, but still loves the world of MTG. The art is more than serviceable, but not nearly as special as the world it’s portraying. That said, I look forward to seeing what happens next issue.
