Armada continuity overview

I'd like to start this blog entry with an apology: I'm sorry that the continuity discussions of the Armada comics got pretty much impenetrable about halfway through.

In hindsight it is clear that trying to discuss the canonicity of each story individually wasn't the right approach. I did realized going in that the continuity of certain comics was tricky. That's why I started with Arabian Nights, thinking I could get the discussion about "The Story of the Battlemage Ravidel" out of the way first. However, over the course of writing these reviews and talking about them with Jeff Gomez, writer and line overseer of the Aramada comics, it's become clear to me that the rabbit hole goes much deeper than I had originally thought. We are actually dealing with several layers of ret-cons. Even worse, to see the full picture we need elements from each layer. I think the true madness of what was going on here really hit me when I realized that the novel "The Shattered Alliance" on the one hand invalidated parts of the latter two Ice Age comics, yet also put the Alliances comic back into continuity, even though Alliances was never actually published.

This article is my attempt to make sense of it all. I'll first show how the comics fit together when they were originally published, and then go over the three waves of ret-cons to show what was altered each time.

Magic the Gathering: Battlemage

For the past months we've been looking at the Armada comics, a look I've been enjoying tremendously. Like the Harper Prism books the quality of the individual stories has been variable, but the greater continuity here has made even the lesser lights in the series interesting to me. (Gee, the guy who writes endless streams of articles about how Magic's various stories hang together likes continuity? Who would've guessed!) Over the course of 15 series the Armada crew has revealed much of the extensive history of Dominaria and its planeswalkers and from the very first series released (Shadow Mage and Ice Age) they have been building toward a big climax in the form of the Planeswalkers War. Today we will finally see the culmination of all this effort with Magic the Gathering: Battlemage, the second computer game based on Magic to be released.

Let me get this out of the way first though: this resolution is a huge let down. It is not the story that was planned for the comics. It doesn't resolve the majority of the lingering questions. Heck, it doesn't even feature most of the characters that were set to appear in the War! Worst of all: there isn't an actual story to play through. There is a campaign mode, but the course of the story is essentially random. Who fights who and who wins is determined by your choice of character, how you play and whatever random lands the computer opponents decide to attack. So after all this build up the only thing about the war we can say for certain is "A bunch of planeswalkers fight".

Well, there is a little more that can be deduced, which I will explain below, but those who wished to see a true ending to the Armada saga will be sorely disappointed. If you are one of those people though, I would still advice you to keep reading, as I have a rather exciting announcement for you at the end of this article!

Wayfarer #1-5

Issue four has Gonzalo Mayo on "Ink Assist". On issue five he and Rick Bryant are both credited for "Inks". Each issue contains a painted section. Dennis Calero does these for the first four issues. Val Mayerik paints the final one.

SUMMARY

It’s a few months on from Shadowmage and things aren't going well for Jared. He's alone, tired and keeps getting into fights. To make matters worse, the people of Hamath aren't up on their recent events and think he’s a herald of Ravidel. They sick a D’Avenant Archer called Elan on him. They've underestimated Jared though. He defeats his hunter and is about to beat seven shades of doodoo out of the archer when Kristina of the Woods shows up. She takes Jared to her woods and after a little lecture on the color wheel he decides to become her apprentice, letting go of his anger.

Nightmare #1

SUMMARY

A Nighmare called Caliphear returns to her home after being summoned by a planeswalker. I guess. He's called a wizard, but explicitly summons her from another plane, so... Whatever the guy is, Caliphear discovers that her human slaves (yes, the horse has human slaves. Don’t ask. the horse can also talk by the way.) are almost all dead. She is told that the river feeding her swamp was cut of by an evil wizard called Coldraith. She teams up with a dude called Altair of Coloni, who promises to be her slave for 10 years if she kills Coldraith. It's not entirely clear to me why she wouldn't just destroy the person responsible for ruining her land anyway, but hey. They face the wizard, who casts Tranquility during the battle. This removes all spells from Altair, who as it turns out was actually a planeswalker that was somehow robbed of his powers by an enchantment. Altai and Caliphear make short work of Coldraith. Even though he is now much more powerful than the Nightmare, Altair says a promise is a promise, so he will still be her slave for the next decade.

Shadow Mage #1-4

Issue two has no inkers credit, issue three was inked by Rick Bryant and issue four by Bryant and Gonzalo Mayo

SUMMARY

Issue one starts with Adam Carthalion (wow, a Carthalion whose name doesn’t start with a J!) having gathered his army to fight the evil planeswalker Ravidel. For some reason he has brought his infant son Jared (Ah, all is right in the world again), but once battle is joined he tells his spellsquire Ezer to get him to safety. Unfortunately Ravidel casts Syphon Soul, which mortally wounds Adam. makes Ezer look old and withered and Jared… eh… loses his hair and has a crescent moon mark appear on his cheek... (Ezer actually says Jared is “a freak” now, but that seems a bit harsh judging by the art). When they get to House Scarlet in the city of Arathoxia, which Adam was the head of, they are send away by the vizier who claims not to recognize them. The two are forced to live in the slums of the city from now on.

Look at that freak baby!

Homelands #1

HOMELANDS #1

Please ignore the terrible cover, there's Rebecca Guay art on the inside!

SUMMARY 

On the world of Ulgrotha, a war is being fought between the Tolgath (“upstart planeswalkers starving for knowledge”) and the Ancients (“jealous wizards, quick and cruel to defend against any trespass into “their” mysteries”.) One of the Tolgath, Ravi, is overcome by the chaos and the fighting and rings the Apocalypse Chime, which destroys pretty much everything on the plane: creatures, artifacts, planeswalkers, even the mana lines of the plane itself. Only through one dimensional rift mana still enters Ulgrotha. Ravi survives, as she had locked herself into a special vault. Unfortunately for her, it doesn’t open from the inside…

Serra Angel #1

Serra Angel #1

 

I like how Douglas Shuler gets credit for creating Serra Angel.

SUMMARY

A guy called Aldon is kicked out of his castle by a guy called Dreygar. He takes refuges in a little shack, and uses an amulet to summon a Sengir Vampire, a Frozen Shade and a Bog Wraith, and a vail of earth from his homeland to summon a Serra Angel. The black creatures try to goad him into retaking his castle, but the Serra tries to get him to forget his old home and focus on peacefully building a new life instead. In the end Dreygar himself gets Aldon to fight him by employing a seductive Fallen Angel. Battle is joined and Aldon gets his castle back. His angel perishes in battle against the Fallen Angel though.