When the fantasy becomes real.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Gene Ha
Color Assistance: Rose McClain
What They Say:
When she was just a girl, Abbie discovered a portal to a fantasy world and for the last couple of years has been having great adventures there: defeating horrible monsters, power-mad scientists, and evil nobles. She was a celebrated action hero! But when she turned twenty-one it all came apart and she decided to return home. Her sister, Mae, has had no idea what happened to Abbie all this time. Her tales are too hard to believe; that is, until the monsters and other terrible creatures start to cross over to our world . . .
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Gene Ha’s been around for a long time and has done an array of amazing projects, and like intro writer Bill Sienkiewicz mentions here in a really glowing and accurate presentation of the man, Ha captured a lot of attention right out of the gate for his debut Green Lantern work. I remember picking that book up and just being floored by what he did that. I sadly lost track of him as an artist over the years, my own time away from comics, and hadn’t reconnected with anything in the last couple of years of his. So coming into this book with memories of works from a couple of decades ago really shows just how much his style has grown and become even more personalized.
Frankly, you can read the first extended-length issue here and see it as a storyboard for a Pixar style movie or a live-action movie. And then get frustrated because you know it’ll take some time before it could actually happen.
With the property working as a portal story done in reverse, we’re initially introduced to young Mae whose older sister Abbie was continually disappearing and causing trouble for their parents with. Abbie always just brushed it off but you could easily see the “I’m heroing” excuses in it as she tried to cover as best as an early teenager could do. While we don’t see it, Abbie had discovered a portal into another fantasy world where she went on a lot of adventures, conquered and united lands, and ended up as queen along the way. She did all over this over the course of nine years while never seemingly coming back to the real world where her family was. For Mae, she grew up taking care of her father, especially as he got sick in recent years, and worked the family store while doing the college thing as well. The younger sister took on the hard work and never heard from Abbie.
All of that changes as Abbie returns, completely in semi-swashbuckling gear, and is just excited to have tastes of the real world again – even if the saturated and salty foods really aren’t appealing any longer. Before that, we get a good look at Mae as an eleven year old child struggling with what her sister was doing and then as a college student with friends and an attempt at finding a little fun out there in between all the heavier things in her life. This space to breathe with the extended-length issue works well because Mae comes across as accessible and interesting before Abbie returns and throws it all into a whirlwind. And she does just that in a big way because she’s causing trouble and getting into scuffles that feels like a natural part of the world she just spent most of her formative years in. Years in which she did the usual dream journey’s and so forth. So it’s understandable that the more mundane world would frustrate her and that as she tries to share her stories nobody really believes her.
While we get a few tastes of that other world that’s bleeding into her, which lets Abbie really showcase her imperious side (I can see her becoming the evil queen along the way), the book works to keep things mostly grounded. I like those small tastes because they’re teases that offer up a lot of potential amid some really great designs. Gene Ha’s storytelling is spot on here and there’s no diminishing that with this as his first full ongoing creative work as a writer. But it’s his storytelling as an artist that will be elevating that here because he’s taking those concepts and bringing them to life in the right way. The visuals and colors, the roundness of characters and the style of hair and all the details in the background really is engaging because there’s so much to take in, earning the book both a second and third read to soak it up – and a lot of shaking it at other people telling them that they have to read it. Ha’s someone who waited a long time to tell a tale of his own creation like this and it looks to be worth the wait.
In Summary:
The past couple of years have seen a lot of creator owned books launch and some very strong works that have captured a lot of attention. Gene Ha’s Mae is a book that damn well better join that list of elite titles that fans get excited over. I can see in six months of issues that this will be something that will generate some pretty intense interest if folks are willing to try something new. Ha’s been one of those solidly strong working artists for decades and deserves and has earned fans taking a chance on something original from him, to take all that he poured into the world of comics and bringing something new to life. This is a strong debut across the board and has me excited to add to my already crowded and demanding pull list as a top-tier title.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 18th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99