Quick Run-Down: Asa Stone is a magician with a silly ability to fix flying carpets in a magical world. He’s got a heroic older brother and a nemesis in Commander Gore. Gore kills Asa’s brother and the young magician absconds with a powerful spell orb to Times Square. While I don’t like the cartoonish names, I do like the fantasy elements that the creative team incorporates into this story. We have the young, unskilled adept who holds the mystical ability to wield the powerful magic. Along comes a pickpocket to play the role of thief for the questing party. Throw in the humor of having an enchanted frog for a sidekick that grants invisibility by licking his skin, and a pretty entertaining tale comes together.

With the missing piece of Orb gone, Crystal City begins to unravel. Asa travels to find the Talis-man, the one person capable of getting the boy back home.

Where the comic starts strong, the end events come off as stilted and downright confusing. I don’t know if the Doctor is the same person that Asa visits or if the event at the end of the story signals the arrival of another spell caster. The art becomes rather difficult to comprehend with the shadows and lack of definition.

This book has all the makings of a great story, but the collapse at the conclusion leaves me bewildered. Sometimes I think that Silvestri may be getting too caught up in making something fast for the sake of selling its movie rights than he is in writing a story that entertains and succeeds as a comic book.

Score: 2/5

Writer: Marc Silvestri Artist: Sumeyye Kesgin & Mirka Andolfo Publisher: Image/Top Cow Price: $3.50 Release Date: 7/9/14 Format: Ongoing, Print/Digital