M.O.M: Mother of Madness Review

Do you want to read a superhero origin story without bowing down to MARVEL's always the same white/straight male heroes and badly hidden imperialist propaganda? Lucky you, the Mother of Dragons is here to deliver just that with M.O.M: Mother of Madness.

GAME OF THRONES superstar EMILIA CLARKE's debut! The mayhem begins with Maya, under-the-weather scientist by day, over-the-top superhero by night, and badass single mom 24/7. DEADPOOL action and FLEABAG comedy collide when Maya activates her freakish superpowers to take on a secret sect of human traffickers. Bath time's at 7pm, bedtime's at 8pm, and crimefighting never sleeps when villains out of Maya's shadowy past come to collect. Mature readers only! Comedy and chaos await with co-writer MARGUERITE BENNETT (DC's BOMBSHELLS, ANIMOSITY) and the glamorous artist of HORDE, LEILA LEIZ!

General Impressions

There were two reasons why I wanted to read this story: the cover looks six degrees of awesome and the synopsis sounds mad enough to be amazing, and one reason why I hesitated: it's written by an actress (and books written by actors rarely leave a good lasting impression on me). Still, the two pros were strong so I decided to give it a chance.

This story starts with a letter from the author and right away I felt my fears pressing down on me because, in a story headed by women facing all kinds of discrimination, the author introduces herself by assuring men that she loves and believes that they are good people too and almost apologizing for calling herself a feminist.

That might have come from a good place, seeing as men suffer a lot under sexism (and that is addressed throughout the book) or from a self-protecting one seeing as graphic novels are still very much a male-dominated field both when it comes to creating and reading them and with M.O.M focusing on the way women are discriminated against, this is exactly the kind of story that white straight men will decide to boycott/badmouth simply because it calls out their bad behaviour or complicity but to me, it just felt like another woman saying they are not one of *those angry feminists*(*Correction: After opening Goodreads I'm absolutely sure that f*cking letter had to be written out of self-preservation and to avoid angering the straight white guys that think everything belongs to them and they can't possibly be wrong or guilty of anything. Well, if you are angering dudebros, you for sure are doing a good job, ladies). That letter served to reaffirm my biggest fear: that because Emilia is not a writer, no matter how good her points and intentions might be, they were going to be eclipsed by the novelty of this medium. I like Emilia Clarke but I will like her a lot less if this book turns out to be sh*t so as I started it, the only thought in my head was: please be good!

And...I got my wish.

There were so many things in this book that I loved from the art (the main character looks so much like the author that I'm sure this is being pitched right now) to how refreshing and original this was as an origin story: it truly felt like the anti-MARVEL in how real and non-sexualized everyone was, particularly the women from the way they were written to the way they were drawn but my favourite part about this story was definitely Maya and how rich as a character she was: from adopted daughter by less than perfect parents that she still loved, teenage criminal in an abusive relationship, single mom to a great kid, a scientist working in an unsafe environment, friend, sex worker, there was so much to her and don't even get me started on how great her superpowers were. For the most part, the sexist remarks were very much on the nose but the way her superpowers manifested was absolutely brilliant, I loved Maya's and Billy mother-son relationship and the way she pictured our near future from the clothes to the slang to the companies proved that the authors knew their way around world-building. Their relationship was one of the best parts of this story.

I also liked that despite this being written by a white, abled, straight woman, there was a lot of not only representation but several instances where Maya addresses her own privileges and is a witness to other people being discriminated against and the struggles they have to overcome every day that she is exempt from.

Something else I particularly liked was that this book addressed how the most insidious part of a harmful ideology is turning not only its victims against each other but making them their own and their neighbour's oppressors as you could see most clearly from the villain of this issue.

Conclusions

This story ended up being exactly what I expected from it and a surprise in all the best ways.

While my biggest fears were not unfounded: there was a certain clunkiness to the writing and plot and the problems this book dealt with didn't feature with much subtlety, that was eclipsed by the author's exploration not only of gender disparity but of the capitalistic, environmental, ableist and other ideologies and how they interconnect making this book not only a pleasant escapist read but a thought-out comment on our society and how it treats difference.

Add to that some great dialogues and lines, a female superhero wearing a nonsexualized suit and the fact that yes, this single mom is not only a great mom but a person fighting for good in every way she knows how and you get a great debut, that I hope is followed by many other issues, and that is certainly something I didn't think I would be saying at the end.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Diamond Books for this DRC.

Rating: 4/5