547

The main body of the story (issues 1-12) start off beautifully, such a fun set-up - then it peters out and falters through about 40% to the end - - but the follow-up short (issues 12-15) has the job of playing clean up to the rushed finish, and those three issues are really good again.
Published at an awkward point in comics, and flogging a few dead horses w/ characters learning that gay people walk among us - which probably felt like progress at the time, and now feels awkward and heavy-handed.
I would have liked the dynamics of The Bred vs. The Born to be explored more deeply - mortals vs. faeries, in half a dozen interesting configurations, was a really fun backdrop. Constantine at the center of a long-standing siege was fun, too.
Somehow, Tim is written as the least interesting character in the book. Bizarre - b/c Tim Hunter in some pretty clear ways, was the most direct precursor to Harry Potter. The times were ripe to make him the Vertigo HP, and the ball was dropped. Maybe deadlines and other circumstances damaged the book. Whatever the case - I had fond memories of the series, was previously missing a few floppies, filled in my run and read it through. Glad I didn't follow my instinct to toss it out after issue 12. ( )

So far, this latest book in the 'Books of Magic' series is not to my liking - the plot starts pretty far (chronologically) from when we left off Tim Hunter in book 8 (The White School in 'The Names of Magic'). The magical world has become grim, dark and there is a war between the Faerie Queene and Constantine. Tim appears to be living a relatively normal human life, being a student, doing drugs, being with Molly, etc. But he has erased his memory in order not to be found; unfortunately, he will go back to magic again, at great cost. So far, the design of the drawings is dark, the lines are bold and the colours are mostly toned down. The overall impressions about this graphic novel are gloomy, quasi depressive, this is why I did not like it as much as the rest of the series. I have been expecting to read the rest of it but there isn't any so far. Let's wait and see. ( )