The Magic Order Vol. 1 by Mark Millar and Olivier Coipel

The Moonstone family has helped the world safe from the darkness, the things that go bump in the night. For generations they have protected the world, but a distant cousin wants the power to command the order. Leonard is the godfather of this mob family who has three children: reckless escapologist Cordelia, driven yet not powerful Regan, and angry removed Gabriel. Mark Millar has even stated that the Magic Order can been seen as “the Sopranos meets Harry Potter, a magical fantasy-crime thing.”

A magical coup. Cousin, Madame Albany has hired an assassin to take out the inner circle of magicians, one by one. She is getting her revenge for being denied leadership and wants the Orichalcum, the most power book of dark spells in the family library. She will stop at nothing to turn every member of the family against Leonard. Albany goes so far at to unleash dangerous horrors and bring Gabriel into the conflict.

There have been many stories about secret societies or families whose role is the defend humanity against the evils of the spirit world. The characters and the set-up of the family set this one apart from the others. The artwork is solid and the twists are surprising. There’s shapeshifters and crazy octopus-looking time-sucking monsters… and a lot of dysfunctional family strife. A weird uncle who never leaves the magic castle. A son who has turned his back on magic because it took away his daughter, but the only way to possibly get her back… yes, uses magic.

The pages start to flip themselves after meeting these characters in the first several scenes. And then the plot twists and it’s downhill from there.

Recommended for those who are looking for something new in the genre.

This was published by Image and then bought by Netflix, so I’m sure it will get a lot of publicity. Before is a trailer for the series.