The Marked #9 // Review
Magic isn’t easy. Things get confusing and complicated all the time as a couple of young magicians learn in The Marked #9. Writer/artist Brian Haberlin takes a leprechaun for a spin with a few magicians in pursuit of a journey that will take them to another dimension and back in time for a birthday party. The issue is weird when it needs to be weird and dramatic when it needs to be dramatic, but the perfect framing for the story is as elusive as ever in another issue that doesn’t quite live up to its potential but still manages to be a lot of fun.
Time is appallingly linear to any intelligence. The problem with intelligence is that time ISN’T linear. And so a casual brush with the fantastic can be perilously confusing. No one knows that better than those who spend a great deal of time in the extraordinary. Even magicians have a hard time with those beings who see things differently. A young, inexperienced magic practitioner gets pulled into another world by a leprechaun, and The Marked must track her down. First, however, they’re going to have to find the thing and get it to cough-up their friend. It isn’t going to be easy.
Haberlin’s script is pretty heavy on the backstory, which is fine when it’s interesting. The world-building in the world of The Marked can be fun in places, but it generally tends to bog down the story. Haberlin tends to focus on background without allowing himself much room to consider the overall pacing of the story. A tale that starts with a girl chasing a leprechaun turns a few different directions without building-up enough of a sense of direction to allow the payoff to feel all that satisfying in the end. That being said, it IS a fun journey with some interesting people. Haberlin’s characters are enjoyable. It’s too bad there wasn’t a smoother series of events guiding them.
The art is beautifully detailed in places. Individual characters’ wardrobes are rendered with a deeply meticulous eye for texture and pattern that makes for a very detailed world. As has been a problem with Haberlin’s work in the past on this and Sonata, the physicality of the action can feel stiff. Everyone sees to be carrying themselves like they’re in a video game. They can seem like weak animations. Not that there isn’t some powerful drama in the pages of The Marked #9. Some of it feels incredibly dynamic. The magic can feel radiantly powerful as well. When everything comes together, it’s some pretty powerful stuff, but without a more evenly-executed art throughout the issue, the story feels a bit patchwork.
The issue lands pretty heavily atop a single leprechaun. He seems like a cool guy, and Haberlin does a pretty good job of making the concept of that particular mythical creature seem fresh and interesting. If he’d spent a little bit more time on the creature in question in the course of the story, it might have been a bit more satisfying.
