The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2416: M.O.M.: Mother of Madness, July 2021

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on the importance of being vaccinated, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

 Late by a day. A less than auspicious beginning to Year 8, I agree.

Whatever.

M.O.M.: Mother of Madness is one of the coolest, smartest, beautifulest (?) comics I've read in fucking ages. The brainchild of Emilia "Khaleesi" Clarke, ably assisted by Marguerite Bennett and Leila Leiz.

Given that this book deals very explicitly with the male gaze, I feel slightly bad mentioning off the top how gorgeous this book is. Like, seriously a beautiful comic. I'm a fan of J.H. Williams III, and the way that he fuses different styles of art in his panels and layouts. Ms. Leiz has a similar approach, though very much her own style. From Connor-esque cuteness to Ashley Wood levels of scratchiness, the books visual aesthetic matches perfectly the narrative that it complements.

This is a story about a woman who, through absolutely no fault of her own, gains superpowers that are triggered (word used purposefully) by the aspects of her self for which she has been criticized. When fearful, she gains super hearing. When sad and crying, she gains super healing. There's a lot of fourth wall breaking in the story, and this is a comic that is utterly, utterly self aware. "You sat through 22 Marvel movies. You can give me 5 pages" says our focal character as she is giving us some pretty heavy back story. Through this self-awareness, we can see the vital and driven message that the creators are directing us toward. It's not subtle. The pages are peppered, uncomfortably, with off-hand remarks from male-identifying people in the story. Horrible remarks. Despicable things to say, and to do. I felt that one of the most depressing things about this comic is that it's set about 25 years in the future, and toxic masculinity seems to be alive and well.

But M.O.M. isn't going to stand for it.

Oh, and for more woman-y goodness, as far as I can tell the entire book, from editorial on down, was done by female-identifying people. It shows. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but when you've got a comic like this, or Womanthology, it shows. There's a different, wonderful quality to the creation.

I'm late to this game, as the series came out last year. There's two more issues, I'm going to get them this week. Honestly, if you enjoyed Bitch Planet, this comic is the next one to read.

Onward.