By: Brian Wood (writer), Ming Doyle (art), Jordie Bellaire (colors) and Clayton Cowles (letters)
The Story: Professional volleyball may be no place for a super-being, but the military is happy to have Mara.
Review (with minor SPOILERS): This issue doesn’t have much zap to it. After three issues chronicling the downfall of Mara Prince from “Super-Star Volleyball Icon” to “Horrible Cheater!”, this was the issue to show how the military really doesn’t care about fighting fair. It was a predictable place for the comic to go, but the execution is off and it results in a story that doesn’t ask any interesting questions or cause any passions to be aroused.
The first problem is that the military handler for Mara are played a little too close to stereotype. We learn pretty fast that this “Commander” isn’t a very nice guy. He perpetuates a story that Mara is dead (so the media moves on) and proceeds to tell her how if she complies with their desires, she’ll have a nice easy life, but if she gets out of line, it’ll be bad news for her brother. This guy just shows up and acts slimy, but he isn’t really established as an antagonist. Once we see how yucky he is, there’s really no choice for how the story will go: Mara must escape and show these silly humans that she is not to be trifled with! It’s just all too rote and predictable.
I’m just sick of these stories that feature antagonists who are high-level government or business functionaries. You know the type: 50-something, white guy in uniform/suit. Very smug. Wealthy and powerful. Thinks he is way smarter than he really is. Thinks he is total control. Is there to tell the protagonist how it is going to be–until it all goes pear shaped because he underestimated Mara Prince OR the zenomorphs escape containment OR Hans Gruber shoots him in his smug, bearded face. It isn’t that I disagree that such characters are loathsome, but they are so limited as fictional devices because once “that guy” appears, the story becomes very predictable: Nothing can happen until “that guy” gets shown that he’s not in control any more dammit!
So, instead of thrilling as Mara busts loose and starts smashing things…..it just seemed like a huge anticlimax that was inevitable the second the “Commander” appeared on the page. I’m still curious about what Wood will do from here on out. There are still things to salvage with this story, but it has been too predictable so far.
The art in this comic is interesting. Ming Doyle’s only failure is that she doesn’t draw a very dynamic figure. Most of the time, I quite like her art. She does a pretty good job with the extensive “talking heads” portion of this comic and I really like her overall look for Mara. Mara is attractive as hell, but doesn’t detour into that silly Big 2 Breast-Augmentation Superheroine look. True, Mara is a LOT hotter than someone you’d probably see on the street, but creatures such as Mara actually DO walk among us in real life (and thank goodness for THAT). The problem stems from the scenes that need a little more dynamism than Doyle can give them. If I were to offer a suggestion, I think less fine line detail would help these dynamic scenes a LOT. When Mara is smashing a heli-carrier, nobody cares about the intricate shading on her uniform……we just want to feel the force and the power and that is often lost as more detail is added.
Conclusion: “Unfulfilled promise” would be the unflattering pull-quote. The creators and the concept are there, but the execution is slightly lacking.
Grade: C+
– Dean Stell
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