Written by Emilia Clarke, Marguerite Bennett
Art by Leila Leiz
Published by Image Comics
Sigh. I’m a bit frustrated by this book.
The concept of Mother of Madness is a good one.
It’s the story of Maya, a 29-year-old woman and single mother who has a secret in New York 2049. She has body-morphing superpowers that emerge based on her emotions and the hormones related to them.
She gains enhanced healing factor when sad, super-strength and speed when angry, super-hearing when anxious, invisibility when frightened, stretch powers when happy, or can a supersonic laugh. And then whose powers combine, Captain Planet-style, she assumes some kind of god mode.
Great concept with obvious feminist commentary built in, right?
Not just critiques of how women’s bodies, and intellectual and emotional reactions, are policed to accommodate and uphold toxic masculinity and abusive patriarchy.
It’s also how those things are connected to our current world of late-stage capitalism and climate collapse, too. All the terrible things in our world are connected to and feed off each other. These days, it’s easy to imagine a demi-dystopian future America further warped by Trumpism and all those things as well.
All of this is going on in Mother of Madness, and that’s before I even get into the story in this first issue, such as it is.
What happens when Maya stops hiding her powers and uses them to fight back when presented with a horrible crime she can’t abide? When it’s a Falling Down scenario
If only the execution were as strong as the concept. For me, there’s a lot of good here that gets swallowed up in the desire to tell all the mainstream (i.e. white) feminist talking points.
(I mean, remember how Scarlet Witch got to just walk away after holding an entire town in a magic prison at the end of WandaVision – a very good TV series exploring grief and family bonds – while Monica Rambeau’s own issues go unexamined? And don’t get me started on how it’s another thing with motherhood at the center, which invites its own problematic concerns.)
There’s a difference between being self-aware, and lampshading everything. It’s about artfulness, and for me that’s where Emilia Clarke’s first foray into comic book writing, alongside industry pro Marguerite Bennett, doesn’t work as well.
Parts of this feel like Clarke had a list of things she wanted to mention, and that list got jammed into every corner of this issue to say either you’re on the program or get out. (Which, their prerogative!) Mother of Madness is here as a progressive feminist comic book and wants to tell you that every moment it gets. I wish it showed it more than told it.
This is the kind of story that will have a disabled Black woman as the white protagonist’s best friend who pumps up her ego, while also having that character make a quip about white feminism while handing out a literal ally cookie and gold star. Plus the precocious child and the declaring-it-loudly nice guy best friend and all.
Her boss is named Donald, even.
At times this book is like Twitter come to life.
And that’s not to say the book is bad. It’s got a ton going for it, especially Leila Leiz’s art. My stars, it’s excellent and evocative and grounded yet comic booky. She’s also a hell of a pin-up artist who clearly loves female bodies as art, and she’s a perfect match for this book that seeks to empower every bit of Maya’s AFAB body with all its hormones and secretions redirected as powers.
A lot of the talking points and the lead character expositions to the fourth wall could have come out through just watching the story unfold. Or seeing the events happen and letting the reader piece things together for a bit before Maya herself rolls out everything.
But hey, those are my tastes on this, and I don’t need everything to run according to them.
Overall this is worth picking up, and I think it’s got a lot of runway to take off and be something quite special.
