Another Look at The Duelist #1-3

As a little breather between Kamigawa and Ravnica… something completely different!

Four years ago, when the world was still young, I reviewed the first few issues of The Duelist. (Here and here) I didn’t, and still don’t, actually own the first three though. The first issues goes for upwards of 100 euros on Magiccardmarket, if there are even listings for it, and that’s just more money than I’m willing to spend on these curiosa. So I had to rely on scans from other people. And while I’m still very glad those were provided to me, eh… turns out they weren’t complete!

In the decades that have passed since 2016 the amazing Cary of mtglore.com has uploaded complete scans of these early issues, allowing us to actually go through them in their entirety, which has revealed a number of interesting little tidbits! So, check out the full issues here, or follow me to below the jump break for the highlights!

The Duelist #1

Issue 1 doesn't have a whole lot new to tell us. I've already covered the History of Arabian Nights and Duel for Dominia last time. It was fun to read an interview with Richard Garfield in which he says he thinks Dominia will be developed a little bit more though. "There are certainly efforts in that direction." Sounds like he's coming around to that whole "storyline" idea!

 Oh, and what is this?

Back in 2016 the Magic wiki said that the Mezzlock’s Challenge (sic) comic was part of issues #3 and #4, and in my review I said part two must never have been printed, as my copy of issue 4 (which I do happen to own) didn’t feature it.

Well, turns out the wiki was wrong, but not that wrong. They simply listed the two parts of Mezlok in the wrong issues (and added a Z and C to the name)! The #3 comic does end on a “to be continued”, so thinking it would be concluded next issue it’s an easy mistake to make. Back then the comic rather baffled me, so let’s see if part one of Challenge illuminates a bit more.

The Duelist #2

First, a quick summary: Two figures appear just outside a large forest on the planet (sic) Mirrankkar. The first village they run into wants to have him as their champion in “the Contest”, but the local warden also wants that honor and challenges Mezlok for it, setting up the battle in part two. Oh, and there is an interlude where some minor chieftain who has become a large king in the employ of some evil dude refuses to sacrifice his child. This is not revisited in the next part.

So… no. This illuminates nothing. Clearly this was supposed to be a long running story, but presumably it was not very popular and thus cancelled. Which I can understand. There is no real hook to the story, the art is very static, and even the word balloons are arrayed in a way that’s annoying to read at times. The whole comic just feels very amateurish.

How not to do word balloon placement.

For completion's sake, some trivia:

• The eagle-tiger-man from Natural Selection (which I’m now convinced hails from Bablovia) is called Taishiar, and is a “recorder and far-seer”.
• Mezlok and Taishiar are a bit late to arrive for the Contest as they encountered a rival on “Obsidias”. Presumably another plane, just like Mirrankkar.
• Mezlok is the great-grandson of Minoch.

Mark Poole has done some absolutely gorgeous artwork over the years. His Exploration and Crop Rotation from Double Masters are stunning! This comic though... well, let's just say he's grown as an artist.

But Mezlok isn't the only attraction here, there is also a short story called The Dark (or "The Lure of The Dark" according to the index), featuring two planeswalkers, Brand and Mindrel. Brand wants to use “dark” magics to defend “the Outer Ring” from is enemies even though Mindrel warns him not to. When Mindrel goes to look for him later he’s dead and his plane destroyed by the magics. Not the best sales pitch for The Dark I’d say!

Like many stories from this time the concept of planeswalkers hasn't been fully worked out. On the one hand we are told “Time is a slippery concept to Planeswalkers”, suggesting we are dealing with immortal godlike beings, yet Mindrel has lost an ear in a magical experiment. 

There is not much to talk about beyond that. Just a quick little story, fun enough but too short for a real critique, that warns you against buying The Dark boosters. I'm presuming the writers, Kathy Ice, Beverly Marshall Saling, and Rick Saling Marshall, wanted all those sweet Ball Lightnings for themselves!

Finally from issue 2, I'll just present this without comment:

The Duelist #3

The one bit of interest we haven't already covered form this issue is the article "House Rules". From that name you wouldn’t think this is lore related, but the variant format discussed in this issue (essentially an early form of Planechase or Chaos Magic, where you fight in different locations with different effects on gameplay) comes with a whole plane made for it, Antausia. The “Dominian scholar Valdusian Tomer” (I think he does Commander stuff on MTGGoldfish these days) reveals it all to us. There was a big war between wizards there which has left all sorts of strange effects on the land. I’d make a huge list, but luckily someone has copied it all over to the Wiki already, saving me the hassle of typing it all up.

Since this isn’t really a story I can’t put it on the timeline, but presumably Antausia as it is described existed between 4000 and 4200 AR, what used to be thought of as “present day” before the start of the Weatherlight Saga. If we’re supposed to take this seriously, that is. I mean, this is just someone making up some flavor text for a gameplay variant. Does that really count as canonical information?

Well, I've been watching a lot of Broke Canon by DAVIS lately, a YouTube series that dives into the obscure facts of Doctor Who and I've been especially enjoying the unapologetic "everything is canon" stance it takes. It doesn't matter whether it's comics, radio plays or poetry books, everything counts! It's an approach that might fit Magic even better than Doctor Who. Because Who has a canonical core in the TV-series, which everyone has always accepted as the most important part of the lore. Magic doesn't really have that. At some points in time the novels were most important, at others online short stories or summary articles. There have even been times when access to sources was so difficult for most fans that something like Jeff Lee's site or the MTGSalvation Wiki seemed the most widely accepted versions of canon. Not even the cards themselves can claim ultimate primacy, according to "Barl, Lord Ith" or the Ur-Golems.

In light of such a variety of sources we do accept, it seems strange to throw out something like Antousia just because it was made up to fluff up a play variant. The same could be said for Kylem. The only difference between the two is that one was show to us through an actual Magic set, and the other through an article in The Duelist. But we can't go throwing out sources for that reason. Without considering articles we wouldn't have a storyline for Mirage or Innistrad!

For those familiar with Broke Canon, don't worry, I'm not going quite as far as DAVIS and saying that conflicting sources, or even two adaptations of the same story should be considered canonical. You can get away with that fairly easily in the time-traveling, alternate-reality-visiting setting of Doctor Who, but I simply enjoy making a (reasonably) coherent timeline too much to say that somehow both the Jedit Ojanen comic and the Jedit novel actually happened.

Although now that I think of it, Planar Chaos already gave us one alternate timeline Jedit Ojanen... maybe the comic just shows us another alternate timeline?

Issue 3 also covers a bunch of other collectible card games and, eh... man some of these look terrible.

So, that should finally complete the coverage of The Duelist on this blog! In two weeks time I'll make a quick return to Kamigawa to once again talk about its timeline placement, as the newly released art book for War of the Spark actually has something to say about that!