I bet she wouldn't be calling Batman a pathetic Norm...

(From Magellan. Click on image to see full-sized image. Well, full-sized current image, which updates every Thursday and Sunday...)

I've long had a problem with subscription services for web comics. To me, the incentive to read a comic comes from reading its archives. When you read through them, if the comic is interesting you'll return to the comic and continue reading it. It's the rare comic that can catch and keep your attention if you barely know what's going on.

The Modern Tales subscription system thus has a problem (in my eyes) with attracting business. In order to catch people and get them reading, you need to have archives available. However, MT (and by that extension Graphic Smash, Girlamatic, and the other MT children sites) does allow a percentage (I think it's either 10% or 20%) of the comics to be free, in the hopes that a taste of the archives will get people subscribing.

It didn't work with me and Magellan. I've read the free portion of the archives before, and I just was uninterested. I didn't care about this girl Kaycee and her fight with her friend about going to Magellan Academy and training to become a hero. I had no real incentive with what little story was available, and no desire to learn more. And this is unfortunate.

It's unfortunate because Magellan is a truly interesting comic. Recently, thanks to the comic being up for awards in the WCCA (Web Cartoonists Choice Awards), Magellan's archives became available for perusal. But even then I didn't bother reading the strip. It wasn't until I saw an ad with a nun kissing her crucifix (it was a superhero in disguise, though I didn't know it then) that I clicked the link and realized what it was... and that the archives were now free.

Magellan is one of a relative minority of web comics - it focuses on superheroes. This is a bit of a surprise in a way, considering how superhero comics dominate the dead paper comic market. When you think of Marvel and DC Comics you think of superheroes like Spiderman, Batman, Captain America, and Superman. You don't often think of the line of Alien and Predator (and Aliens vs. Predator and so forth down the line) comics from Dark Horse comics, or of Bone or A Distant Soil by Image (though I think Bone left Image, it's been years since I last read it). And perhaps this perceived domination of superheroes in the mainstream comics is why they're relatively rare for web comics.

What's more, Magellan focuses on a training facility to properly train and prepare young heroes for being heroes in the real world. This is a combination of factors, from detective work to combat techniques to field training. However, Magellan is the background setting for two characters linked in the past; Go!Anna, a graduate of Magellan who has turned her back on her fellow heroes out of love for an unlicensed vigilante, and the young woman she saved from a sociopath, Kaycee. While Go!Anna was unable to save Kaycee's sister, she did inspire the young woman to try and join Magellan and become a hero, despite having no actual powers herself.

This doesn't sit well with some of the other cadets. One of the more powerful, Charisma, bullies her and tries to pick fights, wanting to prove that Kaycee doesn't have what it takes to be a hero and that she should leave the academy and allow someone more suited (ie, with a power) to be there in her place.

Ironic, isn't it. One of the things that has long been mentioned in superhero comics is that it doesn't matter what a hero's skill or ability is. What matters is what's in his or her heart. Without that will to succeed, that urge to push on no matter what the odds, then they will fail. Kaycee is far more the hero than Charisma will ever be, despite the fact she's a "norm."

Another interesting thing is that the comic doesn't devolve into the tradition of so many dead paper comic books out there. It's not about fighting. I swear, how many superheroes think with their fists and spend half the comic (or more) fighting their foe? I half wonder if Dragonball Z (which I detest and won't watch) is in fact a caricature of traditional comic book heroes who far too often just fight their way through problems.

Whatever is to come, Magellan is a superb comic with an interesting back-story and fascinating characters. While it will soon stop being free for perusal, it's worth subscribing to Graphic Smash for a month to read the archives and catch up on the story.

Still, I can't help but wish that instead of the first chapter or two being free, that Stephen Crowley would free up the last couple of chapters instead, so people can read what's happening recently and get more interested in the characters. Perhaps then more people would be willing to subscribe to read what's a truly worthwhile web comic.

Addendum note - I just noticed this comment on the Magellan front page: Free scenes: Since the WCCA voting is now completed the Magellan archives will shortly revert to it's usual 10% free status - which will be the current and previous scene (12 or so pages). (In other words, Stephen is already doing what I suggested. Seeing as I don't believe in retconning comments that were wrong... well, I'll let my foot remain in my mouth. Whoopsie... *shiftyeyes*)

Robert A. Howard
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