There’s no question in my mind that Dark Horse is doing the right thing by remastering and reissuing their back catalog of Masamune Shirow titles: Orion, Dominion, Ghost in the Shell. There’s also no question in my mind that Shirow’s books are a wildly uneven lot, and that’s why Dark Horse’s recent reissue of Shirow’s Black Magic is only of value to those who want every single one of his titles in a row on their shelf.
Magic is probably the earliest of Shirow’s works to be released in English, and its primordiality shows in every respect—artwork, storytelling, conceptualization, humor, the whole tamale. If nothing else it’s interesting because it shows how even in his earliest stages as a creator, Shirow suffered from the same limitations that also inhibited his later and more polished works. He spun out nigh-incomprehensible plots that seemed to be used more for atmosphere than actual storytelling; he created characters who were little more than mouthpieces of one variety or another; and he never met a whacked-out theory he didn’t like.
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