Review by Frank Plowright
Over the years assorted writers have had vastly conflicting ideas about who the Scarlet Witch is, and therefore who her family and associates might be. Steve Orlando ran through several of them in The Last Door, and continues the pattern in Magnum Opus. The appearance of Magneto was foreshadowed last time, but he has to wait his turn as the opening story involves Wanda’s son and his husband, who’s now the emperor of a united Kree and Skrull empire.
While the Last Door supposedly leads people at the end of their tether to the Scarlet Witch, this selection of petitioners are more easily grouped as people who need a wrong righted. They don’t seem desperate, nor without resources, and so while a readable set of stories results, it rather subverts the original purpose.
Sara Pichelli’s art last time was a standout, rich and elegant, but until the last chapter of Magnum Opus she’s either working from the layouts of Lorenzo Tammetta or inking his pencils. Either way, for the majority of the book the art has dipped from occasionally spectacular and frequently great to something that services the needs of individual stories without providing anything memorable.
That doesn’t apply to Orlando. He presumably had some notice this was to be a limited rather than ongoing project, and over the penultimate chapter he just feeds in one great or strange situation after another. It’s a showcase for what the Scarlet Witch can be and a throwing away of stories in brief that we’ll never get to see in full. It’s a sparkling selection of snippets, but not the best on offer here. Wanda meeting Loki doesn’t start promisingly, but what makes the difference is that he can only speak the truth, and the insights into both characters resulting from that are thoughtful and, eventually, sad.
Orlando builds everything toward a Witch Hunter going from place to place killing witches, and apparently Wanda was her target all along. There’s greater finesse to the art from Pichelli alone, but having built up to something massive the final outing before Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver isn’t the expected spectacle. A strength has been single chapter stories rather than stretching out the one idea, and this needed something more as it tries to fit too much into limited pages. There’s also a big emotional issue to be dealt with, but neither surprise nor redemption have the necessary weight as Orlando hasn’t managed make us care enough.
The negative points mentioned are outweighed by the three good chapters ranking with the best of The Last Door, in writing terms at least. Magnum Opus is very readable overall, but doesn’t live up to the title.
