Nomen Omen #6 // Review
Powerful forces are at work on a rooftop in Manhattan, which has become victim to strange energies. Wielding the smartphone that is her wand, the witch Becky is ready to tangle with something very, very powerful. She's going to need all the help that she can get in the sixth issue of Nomen Omen. Writer Marco B. Bucci continues his journey into contemporary magic in another issue beautifully rendered by Jacopo Camagni. Who mixes black and white with many ghostly shades of green as a heroine faces a dark adversary in a poetic confrontation that isn't entirely comprehensible but manages to be totally engrossing nonetheless.
Becky took a leap of faith. Off a roof. She wanted to wake-up. And now she's totally awake. Just...hovering there wrapped up in magical energies that are channeled through her smartphone. She's angry. Understandably. She's there for a showdown with someone who has something of hers. The dark entity has her heart. He has it in a glass jar. Maybe she wants it back. Maybe she wants revenge. Maybe she just wants to know what the hell is going on. One thing is for certain: she's in control of a power she hadn't been entirely aware of when she tossed herself of a rooftop in Manhattan at the end of last issue.
Bucci's tale isn't easy to follow. The heart of it is clearly there, but it's wrapped up in such elegantly poetic surrealism that the overall thrust of the action gets lost. Not that it isn't fun. There's an aurora over Manhattan. Powerful magics emanate from Becky's phone while mystical spirits swirl around. There's a dark fairy of some sort in charge of a whole IT department of internet trolls (and gremlins) who are in charge of everything from fake news to UFOs to corrupt specialists and global warming. Clearly, big things are in play here. The reader is only glimpsing the clash of great magical power from the edges of the page. It's fascinating stuff, but it's difficult to sink into as specific plot details feel like a distant wallpaper.
Camagni's art grabs hold of Bucci's fantasy from the dreamy root of it all. The central conflict occurring throughout the issue on a rooftop in Manhattan is black and white structure and detail bathed in beautiful green that delivers a dark feeling of unhealthy magics engaging each other. The story generates some emotional connection through Camagni's vivid rendering of passion in Becky's faces and everyone in the world around her. As difficult as it is to connect up with the specifics of Bucci's story, it would be that much more difficult to contact it on an emotional level if Camagni didn't deliver such power and emotion through the faces of the characters. (And Camagni's rendering of a smartphone to channel magical energies just looks totally badass.)
The visual, conceptual, and linguistic poetry that Bucci plays with here is compelling enough that it doesn't have to be totally understood. There are deeper walks with the story through a companion Instagram account that details Becky's dreams and a book that has been published in Europe detailing some of the story not directly covered in the series. It's a lot to dive into. Bucci and Camagni make a deeper dive into Becky's world, seem very appealing in another engagingly enigmatic dream of an issue.
Grade: B
