Nomen Omen #5 // Review
Old world magic is power in the modern world. Just like anything else in the modern world, it comes at a cost. Writer Marco B. Bucci and artist Jacopo Camagni explore aspects of this in the fifth issue of Nomen Omen. Light is shed on beings as old as time in an installment that reveals sacrifices made and compromises struck, in a chapter that is poetic both in dialogue and visuals. There is beauty to the story, but coherence falters a bit. In an issue in which the author is forced to deal with everything that he’s lost. The emotion is strong in a story with a plot just outside the realm of easy comprehension.
There’s deeply humbling fantastic beauty in Arcadia. The partially opens there in the Age of Myth. A dark being talks with his brother about the mortals. There is concern that humans will take Arcadia from the immortals. It’s shrugged-off, but this is the past. Years later, it’s a dozen days or so into September of 2001. A magical queen has lost her daughter in the wreckage of Lower Manhattan. She casts aside her crown. Years later, it is the present. Becky Kumar is still suffering from heart problems. (Hers still isn’t in her chest.) There’s another sacrifice that’s going to need to be made if Becky is to survive.
The poetry of Bucci’s script continues to impress. The concerns of non-mortal beings are laid-out on the page without much concern for mortal understanding. The age of myth gives way to a terrorist attack and a conversation before Becky’s heart trouble. It all slides through the issue with a dreamy intensity that feels more or less appropriate. Sometimes the drama feels absolutely exquisite even when the implications of what is going on aren’t entirely clear. As he states in this issue’s end text, Bucci is dealing with the pain of loss through the story. It’s a theme that echoes and resonates gracefully through the chapter, but the beauty of the poetry of it makes it a bit difficult to follow.
The visuals of Arcadia allow Camagni an opportunity to go all-out Charles Vess-y with the art. It’s fairly dazzling in places. The color fantasy of the Age of Myth contrasts heavily against iconic images of the World Trade Centers in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001. Camagni mixes fantasy with earthbound reality on an immense scale that also uses some very clever techniques to deliver the perspective of an immortal thrust into the fleeting world of humans. The significant accomplishment here lies in Camagni’s ability to show the power of an immortal in casual moments without compromising their overall humanity. Years may pass like minutes to them, but they can still hurt and feel loss. There’s a wistfulness to Camagni’s art that brings this across quite well.
With the background on the series fully established in the first three issues, Bucci and Camagni settle-in to something really unique with this issue. It can be really, really difficult to meld fantasy with the modern world in a way that captures a complex mix of emotions. Bucci and Camagni deliver the complexity to the page with an agile style in the fifth issue of Nomen Omen.
