Comics Rambling . . . Mara

Mara #1 – Not a volleyball drama

**Warning, minor spoilers from the first issue**

Considering how much I claim to be into comics and how many I have collected over the last 20-odd years, I have spent most of that largely ignoring the creative teams working on the books.  I have picked up on the odd artist and author.  Of course when a big name comes along like Joss Whedon writing Astonishing X-Men, or J.M Straczynski writing on Amazing Spider-Man I may pay attention, but only recently have I really started paying attention to those names on the cover.  That leads me to Mara.

I had definitely been in a rut with comics.  I have only been collecting super books, and beyond that almost exclusively Marvel books.  I felt invested in that universe, and so I focused my  limited resources there.  I was convinced by Caffeine Powered over at Omega-level.net to give Saga, an image book, a try.  I ended up loving it.  So now when frequenting my local comic shop I check out the image isle.  So when I saw Brian Wood, whose work I had recently become a fan of, I figured what the heck.  No one in the shop knew what it was about other than “that volleyball comic”.  So I took a chance on name alone.

So was it worth it….honestly I don’t know yet.  It definitely  isn’t a volleyball comic.  It is set in the future, where the world is a slight parody of our own.  The world is obsessed with entertainment in the form of war and sports.  Celebrity is tied entirely with athletics.  Athletes are every celebrity in our age all rolled into one package.  They burn bright for the short time they are able.  Among the top tier of this cadre is Mara Prince, a volleyball player.  Suddenly, during a televised game, ***Here comes the spoiler part*** Mara develops super powers.  As far as anyone knows, she is the only one.  How, why and where did they come from?

So you have my attention.  I loved Rising Stars, well the story got a little garbled and the release schedule severely hampered it, but the concept and initial setup was great.  Here we have a similar story, but a different environment.  Will she be welcomed or shunned?  Loved or

hated?  Be the hero or the villain?  The story is enough to keep my going.  The art isn’t my normal preference, but it is the style that seems to be gaining more ground, and it works better with non-super books in my opinion.  So will I keep buying it?  At least through the first story arch, yes I will.