From Aspen Comics, Vince Hernandez, Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez, and Josh Reed.

This issue opens up with our big bad, Samsun, on a collision course with something else.  That something else is revealed, my jaw dropped because it was not strong enough to contain my joy of this awesome scene, and there it hung until the book was over.

Recently there has been much debate over the role of female characters in comics.  Sudana and Hank have one of the best conversations between a man and a woman that I have read in comics in a long time.  Information, character growth, exposition, flirtation, emotions, and even more are all conveyed expertly in these scenes.  Sudana is not a sidekick, not a love interest, she is an equal person in this story.  Her abilities are not secondary to Hank, merely different.  She is not the slut, nor the seductress, nor the innocent and naive, she is an incredible woman.  A role model and a character that should be pushed to the forefront of examples to obtain new fans of this thing called comics we all love so much.

Also, and I swear I’m not a crazy cat person, but Sparkles may have become my favorite animal character in all of comics.  There is a story arc and growth for even the smallest characters and I love every bit of it.  What happened in this issue put a huge smile on my face, which was tough to do with the jaw dropping from earlier.

The worst part of all is that this is the next to final issue.  The players are in place, the battle is set and the normal rules of comic books don’t apply.

In a few short issues, and a marathon reading session, I have grown to love these characters.  This is not smoke and mirrors.  This is what we all want comic books to be.  One magical tale in which we get wrapped up in these fantastic lives to such an intensity that we live through the characters.  Charismagic will leave you confused, astounded, scared and exhausted in much the same way that Hank and Sudana have been feeling.

Single issues, hardcover or paperback collections, there is no reason for any reader (not just of comics but of any book) to not add Charismagic to their shelves.

My only complaint in any of this is that the series will be ending and I cant bear the thought of not seeing these characters again.