Markz discovers just how much more of an outsider he is.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tate Brombal, Jeff Lemire
Art: Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
What They Say:
With a borrowed face, shapeshifting Martian hero Barbalien explores the gay night scene and a buried part of himself. But his fractured identity takes another hit when he comes into conflict with his new friends, his fellow police officers, and the murderous lunatic who followed him to Earth. Origin story for Barbalien. Art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (New Mutants, X-Men)!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While Mark Markz character was pretty well defined in the main Black Hammer series, I don’t think anyone expected that his own miniseries exploring his past would focus so much on the events and ideas here as it does. Which is good, because this is a key defining point of the character and Brombal And Lemire are bringing it to life in all the harsh ways it has to. Markz has managed to exist above so much for so long but hasn’t really felt the weight of who he is himself, and coming to that in the 80s amid everything going on is pretty hard for him to figure out. So many conflicting emotions, so many people that he thought were good people suddenly acting in ways that belie that belief that he’s stunned into silence and uncertainty more than anything else.
Markz’ change of appearance and exploring of the underground club is definitely engaging to watch even if he is just stammering his way throughout it. There’s a lot of fun stuff in how those he interacts with tease him a bit but draw him in, mostly with Miguel getting closer to him and trying to help him out. He’s still struggling with the way his day had gone with Barbalien and the time with the cops so he’s all over the map as to be expected. I was amused that he called Markz Luke since he looks like a certain farm boy from space and it’s hard to not see that in the visual he chose to go and explore this part of who he is. The club material is pretty well done to show a shell-shocked version of him, especially with Knight Klub shows herself and just takes the whole event to another level while reminding where she came from over the years.
That the club is raided is no surprise and that we see later that the cops are intent on breaking up everything that they see coming from the “homosexual agenda” is part of it as well because they are “protecting their friends and family” from the disease. Markz is practically beside himself as he realizes what his department has been doing and there’s a lot of conflicts he’s facing internally here with it that are manifesting outwardly, such as when one of the guys from the night before throws a brick at the police station as they arrested his sick friend. It’s all presented really well with Markz trying to just de-escalate the situation but that’s not in the cards at all. And even less so as Boa Boaz has finally landed on Earth as well and has taken human form while hunting his prey.
In Summary:
Barbalien goes all-in on dealing with the AIDS epidemic and what it was like to be gay in the 80s in the big city. It helps to reinforce his outsider aspect that he felt even among his own people and that he’s even more on the outside here than he realized before. There’s an emptiness to Mark that’s a little unnerving as it seems like he still hasn’t understood at least some of what humanity is really like and it’s keeping him from really figuring out his place in everything here. But he’s starting to figure it out and it’s just as grim as things were for him on his home world. I really liked the exploration and complication of events with Miguel, the club itself, and the dashes of history mixed into it all that helps make it feel more fully realized. The big moment for this is like the arrival of Boa Boaz but there’s a lot to get into here overall to see brought to life this well.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: December 16th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
