“Mystic Arcana” was a collection of five one-shots that Marvel promoted as an attempt to do with its “mystic” universe what it had recently and extremely successfully done with its cosmic universe (in the Annihilation event). The results were….Not as successful.
This post is about all of them, because there’s not a ton of meat here. Actually, it’s only about four of them. The final one was just an encyclopedia of the various characters considered part of the extended Arcana universe.
First, Roy Thomas returns to write a story about Black Knight, but before you shrug and skip (as I almost did), know that it’s not Dane Whitman. This story is about the 6th Century Black Knight, Sir Percy. He avenges the death of King Arthur after the King is slain by Mordred. During the fight, Merlin shows Percy two possible futures. In one, Percy is slain by Mordred but the legend of the Black Knight can pass to future generations. In the second, the Knight’s legacy becomes evil. He chooses to allow Mordred to kill him.
So, hey, at least we get a dead Black Knight, right?
I didn’t read this book in real time, but curiously the Magik issue has a Roman II on the cover but it contains part one of the back-up story that runs through all the books. Hm. It doesn’t matter much, though, because the back-up story is kind of ponderous and pointless.
Anyway, Magik—during New Mutants #32—mistakenly teleports herself and Dani Moonstar into Ancient Egypt, where they take on an Egyptian sorceress named Ashake who, it turns out, is Storm’s granny.
Book three focused on the childhood of Scarlet Witch, where she meets a gypsy queen wearing the Serpent Crown and also Margali Szardos, as they take on Taboo who is trying to raise Ch’thon using the Book of the Darkhold.
Nico Minoru got the spotlight in the final book, and was looking pretty steampunk on the cover.
As for the back-up story, it’s all set up to start a storyline that’s never picked back up so…Not going to go into detail.