Written By: Pat Shand
Illustrated By: Manuel Preitano
Cover Artists: Terry Moore, Elisa Romboli, Rosí Kámpe
Lettered By: Jim Campbell
Published By: Black Mask Studios
In an alternative timeline there exists a similar New York. Much like our own, with the only exception being that it has its own schools of magic. Grand buildings that give the best education in not only the common subjects of math, literature and science – but it’s students are children of prophecies. Each tasked with their own unique destiny – many of which are either to vanquish evil or save entire realms.
Logan is one such student, however she unexpectedly fulfilled her prophecy at the age of 13. Now she is coming to the end of her Graduate programme, with no direction or career in sight. When she learns about her ex girlfriend achieving her happily ever after, it reawakens some old wounds. One that the new hot girl in town might be able to solve. Thing is, not everyone has achieved their prophecies yet!
This story went in a different direction than what I was expecting from the first few pages. At the beginning of the first issue, we are introduced to the young lovebirds Logan and Bailey, who are students at a magical high school. We get a quick glimpse into their relationship and the reason they both attend Destiny University. Their relationship status changed drastically over the next few years, until we met Logan again seven years later. We are mostly following her life, as she is dealing with heartache, confusion over her future and some mild sexual frustration. Her Knight in shining armor seems to appear in the form of Lilith, who saves her from what could have been a complete write off of a day.
So in these first two issues we delve into the complex life of Logan, her ex Bailey, a former hook up named Gia who comes back into her life and new bad girl on the block Lilith. Unfortunately for Logan, it seems her old flame Gia won’t be coming BFFs with Lilith anytime soon, as they have been prophesied to vanquish one another. This final year of school has just gotten a whole lot more complicated, as Logan deals not only with adjusting to ‘normal life’ by searching for a career – but now her inner circle is about to split asunder. She can’t seem to catch a break!
Although we haven’t had any crazy magic yet, there is one familiar wizard kid amongst the students named Joe. His character is remarkably similar to Harry Potter – but just more of a snob! It’s quite entertaining to be fair. Aside from Logan’s storyline, we also get a quick understanding of some of the other characters including Gia, her seer Anthony, and even a cliff hanger from none other than the Dean – Ms David’s. Which has me anxiously waiting to see what happens next in Issue 3.
‘Destiny, NY‘ is brought to life by author Pat Shand (Snap Flash Hustle) and artist Manuel Preitano (DC Comics’ The Oracle Code) with an incredible limited-edition cover by Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise). Pat Shand has an incredible list of work thus far, not only stemming from comics, but also novels, film making, short stories and theatre. Manuel Preitano is not only the co-creator and illustrator for Destiny NY, but is also the artist for DC Comics The Oracle Code. The artwork in this series has been flawless thus far, the first story page had its own style where it was clear they were being filmed through a lens. We also saw our main characters as young students and then 7 years later. They had obviously changed over time, and it was depicted very well. It’s very clear cut illustrations, nothing over shadowed or difficult to make out. Plenty of light and just a joy to read.
Destiny, NY #1 & #2 are available now from all good comic book shops. Well worth checking out this one, as #3 is out on the 26th May so not much longer to wait.
Overall: 9/10
