An Unkindness of Ravens #1 REVIEW9/24/2020 An Unkindess of Ravens #1 by Dan Panosian and drawn by Marianna Ignazzi, colored by Fabiana Mascolo came out this week, September 23rd. Its a story that follows high-school aged witches in a small eastern seaboard town, and promises to be a combination of everyone's favorite witch and high school dramas. Continue Reading to see what made this first issue so great! From the start of it's premier issue, I was head in for An Unkindess of Ravens. Dan Panosian connects it to a previous work he wrote and drew, called Abigail House. It involves the untold stories of the surviving witches during the Salem trial era, which spins off into this series, more or less.
For art, Ignazzi's intensely minimalistic line work is backed up by the simplistic yet pitch-perfect colors of Menyz, almost muted to Wilma’s day's experiences. They strike as reminiscent of the Golden Age's cartoon-like style of the era, with similarities of Archie universe comics. And on the subject of the world of Archie comics, this story is your basic high-school drama, following closely the patterns of Sabrina- the Teenage Witch, Archie and it's revamps, and somehow, Mean Girls. Upon her first day of high school in a small, quiet, east coast town, new student Wilma discovers she bares an uncanny resemblance to the school's recently missing student, Waverly. Hoping to slip unnoticed through her inaugural day, Wilma's impossible twindom instead causes her to be the subject of every student's shocked attention. Wilma is given the locker of the missing girl, Waverly, of all lockers. When she opens it, to her surprise, there is a bizarre glowing, purple message of welcome and invitation to a secret meeting after school. To even more Wilma's surprise, her sudden and self-proclaimed new best friend doesn't see the message at all. Wilma does make quick friends with the boy, Ansel, who can only be the school geek, another common high school movie trope. Immediately after, he becomes her narrator for the school going’s-on, and she’s introduced to the two reigning groups on campus. The first group proudly represents as daughters of the wealthiest and most admirable in the small community. They're dressed in what appears to be recent fashion, with traditionally beautiful makeup and hairstyle choices. The girls are friendly, but clearly imposing to Wilma's subdued nature. The second group of girls, who call themselves the Ravens, can be described as the kind who would probably beat you up in a dark alley for looking at them loo long in the hallway. With taboo piercings, punk haircuts, and grunge outfits, they are just as imposing and confident as the rich girls. Still, they show just as much interest in the mysterious Wilma's appearance as anyone else. Upon seeing one another across the hall, the two groups have a tense face-off before breaking off in their own directions for class. The introduction of the dueling cliques is immediately followed by a professor's lecture on how certain members of the animal kingdom will turn on their own kind, becoming cannibals. This setup of scenes offers grim but curiosity-piquing foreshadowing for the fate of what stands between the two cliques— Wilma herself. During lunchtime, Wilma sits with Ansel, who seems to have made his first friend with her arrival. Again, both the cliques come before them, one after the other, this time expressing interest in meeting with her after school. Notable from the Ravens, though, is their claim to credit for Wilma's mysterious locker message. Left to themselves again, Wilma tells Ansel of the two requested meetings, she'll go to the one with the scarier girls. After school, a cliche jock stands in Wilma's way, literally, as she heads to meet the group of Ravens. Surprisingly, the queen bee's of the school step in to rescue her, expressing apparent resignation at the battle of wills that is meeting her after school. They know Wilma chose to meet the “scary” group, and have made a display of humility in order to stay on the good side of their target. While on the surface this might look like a friendly move, these girls are definitely up to something more nefarious than it seems. Behind the school, Wilma meets with the Ravens, alone now. For what’s not the first time in the comic, the foursome of Ravens speak one after another, in a constant stream of thought, as if they planned it ahead, or share their thoughts with one another. When Wilma digs for more information, they look pleased. One of the members, presumably their leader, lifts the eye-patch she sports, revealing on the final page a magical, glowing, purple void beneath. She says "I see everything," and the issue ends. To be honest, this issue was going to hit home with me, almost no matter what. I'm a huge fan of fictional stories regarding the Salem Witch Trials, or anything dealing with the fallout of them. This series doesn't hide what it is--in the solicitation, it states the clique of Ravens are the descendants of the Salem witches who didn't die in the trials, so its fully a part of that realm. How the connection between Wilma and the missing Waverly will play out, who knows. My personal theories are loosely involving lost twins, memory wipes, or body-swaps, but we'll have to wait and see. As mentioned before, this comic is almost directly split between Sabrina: The Teenage Witch and Mean Girls, so its exciting to think about the possibilities going forward. The creative team has proven themselves more than capable with the subject matter, hitting the mark on the tropes of high school dramas, and tying it up with elements of a dark mystery. The simple art isn't plain, but well thought-out, and drawn minimally. With that being said, though, the art seems to be taking a turn with addition of magic to the story. Both the final page and the glowing message in Wilma's locker have proven that there is, and will be, more depth to the art than we're currently seeing, as long as magic is being used. This choice not only drives the importance of magic to the plot and to Wilma's world, but shows how different of a direction magic will take her and her life going forward. The art styles of Hunt and Menyz in combination with the Archie-era tropes of the story make for a stunning match. An Unkindess of Ravens is ongoing, as far as I can tell, with the next issue coming out on October 28th, so there's plenty of time to catch up. Make sure to check out the group of incentive and store exclusive variants, too, one of which is by one of my favorite modern cover artists, Jenny Frison.
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