REVIEW: Mara, #1

[CBR News]

Brian Wood and Ming Doyle come up with an inventive take on the world of celebrity and sports with "Mara" #1, but the last minute surprise swerve feels almost disappointing rather than intriguing.


Full review here.

[DaronK]

As a big fan of Wood's The Massive, I was little disappointed in this. It wasn't bad, but I felt the story got buried under all the social commentary. And like the reviewer here, I'm not sure how I feel about the "twist" at the end. I have some guesses were I think it might be going, and if those guesses are anywhere near accurate it makes me even less enthused about the last couple pages...

[the goddamn batman]

I haven't had a chance to pick this up yet, but why give it four stars if the twist at the end isn't good?

[DaronK]

I wondered about that as well (and it reminded me of the odd review of last week's Wonder Woman, which was a glowing review but only got 3 stars). I've been finding a disconnect between the stars given and the actual review in most of the CBR reviews I've read.

[the goddamn batman]

I feel like the reviews are paid, anyway. I'm not sure where they come from, or why, but they don't seem very genuine. it's not a section I pay a lot of attention to, though. I may be way off base.

but I see a review that says it didn't care for the entire pin on which an issue hangs, but gives it 4 stars...

[Timmy]

I had the same reaction to "Mara" as I did this weeks other #1 "Deathmatch," I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Both have warranted a purchase of issue 2 to make sure.

[snorflo]

I LOVE Ming Doyle's drawings on her web sites, but her comics have always been a disappointment, and "Mara" is unfortunately no exception.

Look at the panels that start with "Nice intro. New PR people?" - most characters look blank, like dolls, with hardly any expression, and they look past each other while talking.

And the volleyball match that follows looks nothing like volleyball. The net seems to be placed four feet too low, the characters look stiff and their moves look very un-volleyball-like. In the panel that starts with "Within six months", is the girl doing a bizarre twisted jumping bump with her arms pointed up? That's not a volleyball move - if you bump the ball, you should be standing on the floor with your entire body pointed toward the direction that the ball is coming from, and your arms never move very high. And what happens in the next panel, where it looks like the girl is just posing while the ball is levitating away from her? She doesn't look like she's hit the ball with either arm.

Ming Doyle can draw static people who look good, but she's terrible at drawing expressive, believably moving characters. I find it bizarre to see the volleyball scenes praised in the review. As an illustrator and comic art teacher who also plays volleyball, I thought they were terrible.

[NinjaMic]

I found this extremely boring honestly

[Jennifer de Guzman]

I feel like the reviews are paid, anyway. I'm not sure where they come from, or why, but they don't seem very genuine. it's not a section I pay a lot of attention to, though. I may be way off base.

You are way off base. Publishers do not pay for reviews at CBR, though they do often provide review copies. (In the case of Image, we provide advance PDFs to reviewers.) Greg McElhatton has been writing about comics and reviewing them since I started working in the industry, nearly twelve years ago. Why would you impugn the integrity of publishers, CBR, and Greg without any knowledge of what you're writing about? That's not OK.

[the goddamn batman]

for starters, I said I feel like they are. I didn't say there are. I also said I don't pay attention to the review section, so all I ever see is the reviews pushed into the 'news' column. they're generally 4-5 star reviews of big issues.

second, I have a real hard time with the whole "integrity" thing when talking about an industry built on the shameless mistreatment of its creators, which is still happening today. paying people to write nice reviews of comic books would hardly be a big offense when considering the history of the comic book industry.

[kaarenissen]

I will most certainly pick this one up. It's by Brian Wood and therefor it will be in my collection.

He's very productive at the moment doing Ultimate X-Men for Marvel, The Massive and Conan for Dark Horse and now Mara from Image. Well done.... no... very, very well done because they are all great.

[nosocialize100]

As a big fan of Wood's The Massive, I was little disappointed in this. It wasn't bad, but I felt the story got buried under all the social commentary. And like the reviewer here, I'm not sure how I feel about the "twist" at the end. I have some guesses were I think it might be going, and if those guesses are anywhere near accurate it makes me even less enthused about the last couple pages...

I agree with you and on top of that the twist at the end had very little explanation which was frustrating.

[DaronK]

I agree with you and on top of that the twist at the end had very little explanation which was frustrating.

Well I figure the explanation will come in issue #2. However, I was a bit confused about what was actually happening in the panels.

[MDV]

I've never read a mainstream book with so many grammar and spelling errors. Does Image not have an editor?

There's also the fact that worldwide nobody gives a crap about volleyball. It would be nice to know why it's suddenly a trillion dollar phenomenon other than "sports are popular now."

[Test of Strength]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who felt the same way. It's Brian Wood, so that was the main reason for me to get this instantly, but after reading through the first issue it didn't turn out as great as I would've hoped.

I'm in for the 2nd issue however.