Things are difficult at the Kiros Supermax Prison. There’s one dead prisoner, Two floors are stilL on fire. The med bay is full. So it’s kind of a complicated situation, but that’s no reason why an official can’t swing by for an interview, right? Okay...so maybe NOW is not the time, but timing isn’t great for a whole lot of things in Black Cloak #10. Writer Kelly Thompson continues her fantasy crime procedural with artist and colorist Meredith McClaren. Once again, the mashup works quite well. Things continue to circulate as the pulse of the drama increases towards another high point.

His power dampening cuffs had clearly been broken. He wasn’t like...vaporized out of them or anything like that. Although...maybe he’s not exactly alive. (That would be a stretch.) So why isn’t the body there? What would they want with a dead body? Maybe there’s power in the body of a dead master magician. Mabe that’s a possibility. It's all a bit of a mystery and it's going to get more complicated as things progress. And the situation at the Supermax prison is only a minor concern next to everything else that's been going on.

Thompson has a knack for catching a series of scenes and putting them together in a way that moves forward the plot without getting hopelessly lost in background detail. This is particularly interesting as it is the case that it is at its heart a mystery. It's a police procedural. The fact that magic is involved in the fact that there are, strange magical features running about is only a minor detail in a much larger picture. And it all feels so very accessible on so many levels. Dialogue is crisp and witty as ever. And it really draws in the reader simply by virtue of its conversational reality. It all feels so earthbound, even though there are people walking around with wings and things like that.

McClaren’s  visuals once again feel like they're coming straight out of some other reality entirely. It's a reality that feels very much like the one that we're walking around in. However, there is very beautifully simplistic, clean lines sort of a feel about it. And there's a beautiful luminosity about it. Between the lines and the colors and the overall execution of action, McClaren clearly has a lot of density. And she has a very clear sense of drama and emotion as things moved from one moment to the next. She has a beautiful way of delivering silent moments as well. It all feels so very organic.

In retrospect is kind of weird to think that somebody had something like this before. Police procedurals in fantasy settings have been done before. But not quite like this. This has its own feel about it with so many fresh ideas that seem to hit the page at such interesting angles and so many different ways. It's just really a tremendous amount of fun from beginning to end.

Grade: A+