When The Magicians arrived on SyFy back in 2015, it rocketed to the top of SyFy's ratings and became one of the channel's all-time hits, as well as a critical success. But as any fan of book-to-TV adaptations knows, the move from page to screen is never smooth and by the time Season 4 rolled around, the show only bore a passing resemblance to the novels by Lev Grossman. When the Season 4 finale killed leading man Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) in a shocking move, it was too much for many fans -- but The Magicians comics from BOOM! Studios may be a balm for these weary souls.
For the majority of The Magicians fandom, Quentin's death was a change too far, as if someone had killed off Jon Snow on Game of Thrones and then not brought him back. The circumstances surrounding this character's death were also questionable, from his position as a queer, mentally ill lead to the fact that his death was kept secret from the cast. Worse, SyFy's changing landscape, which already ended The Expanse and has put Van Helsing on notice, has declared this is the end of The Magicians too. Season 5, which premiered in January, has now been confirmed to be the last.
But this isn't the end of Lev Grossman's story. Quentin and his friends now live on in The Magicians comics, which also pull directly from the original trilogy of novels. However, the comics are heading in a vastly different direction from the TV series.
A New Class Rises
When The Magicians arrived on SyFy, it was part of an overhaul by the network to refocus on more substantial science fiction adaptations after years of lighter fare like Face/Off and Eureka. Based on the popular book trilogy of the same name, The Magicians took fans into the halls of Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, where Quentin and Alice Quinn (Olivia Taylor Dudley) studied magic.
The TV series was written by John McNamara and Sera Gamble, not Grossman. It's not unusual for a show to work off of someone else's material, and it wasn't always a bad thing. In particular, characters never seen outside Quentin's POV on the page were allowed a fully-realized perspective, giving an extra dimension to the story as a whole. But four seasons pulled from a single trilogy is a bit like like butter scraped over too much bread. Part of the weakness of The Magicians in the later seasons is there wasn't quite enough story to fill the episodes.
The comics series comes from a team that includes the original writer. Grossman has re-teamed with the same artists who brought fans the highly-praised The Magicians: Alice’s Story graphic novel back in July of 2019. The series features his writing, along with fantasy comic book writer Lilah Sturges (Jack of Fables) and illustrator Pius Bak. These three take Grossman's world and carry it forward to a new set of students. If one must think of The Magicians as "Harry Potter For Adults," then think of this as Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy: The Next Generation.
Set years after Quentin Coldwater graduated from Brakebills, this brand new class of would-be magic wielders is the first to include hedge magicians. It's a first step towards treating those once considered "dangerous practitioners of unsanctioned magic" as equals in the eyes of magical society. Of course, things aren't that easy and it's not long before the two factions have formed competing cliques. These changes to the show's established world mean fans of The Magicians will discover a world that's both familiar and yet rapidly changing, but this also gives the story a more immediate urgency.
Plus, the comics give The Magicians a chance to bring in a whole new cast of characters. As much as fans love Quentin, he's insufferable at the best of times and on the TV show, grating enough that the series began reducing his role in the story. By the time Season 4 rolled around, he wasn't even the central character anymore; his role was sometimes reduced to as little as a connection for the focal characters. The new comics introduce more sympathetic students like Emily Marks, a hedge witch with a rough past, from whom an institution like Brakebills will be life-changing. It even goes so far as to bring in characters like Keshawn Warren -- the first Hedge Magic professor employed by Brakebills -- which provides another dimension beyond the struggles of the student body.
As The Magicians Season 5 draws to a close, fans will be looking for new conduits for their magic fixes. These new characters and stories at Brakebills might just be the spell they're looking for.
The Magicians comics are available through the BOOM! Studios online store.
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