Written & Drawn By: Gene Ha
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Color Assistance By: Rose McClain – Lettered By: Zander Cannon
Mae #1 begins a new era for writer and artist Gen Ha. He’s been an accomplished artist for over two decades, but aside from one previous writing experience in a Marvel Knights Double Shot (#4), Ha hasn’t dabbled much when it comes to the written word.
With Mae #1 all that changes. Mae is a portal story, one in which a character discovers a hidden portal of some kind and is transported from their seemingly normal world to one of fantastic origin. Think Narnia or Harry Potter as examples. Mae might be the title of the book, but initially, it is actually her sister Abbie that discovers one such entryway, and that is where this story begins.
As writer and artist, Gene Ha writes to his artistic strengths for most of the book. Frequent closeups allow his wonderful expression work to shine through, and the color palette put together by Ha and Rose McClain is filled with warm reds and purples, giving the events an almost otherworldly vibe.
The characters are few so far, but they all have potential. None of them grab you like Abbie however, who upon first meeting is exactly the sort of charismatic presence you want in a protagonist. I’m interested to see how Mae gets worked in as the headliner. Right now she isn’t quite there yet, but to be fair it’s no easy task to establish someone as the straight-edged character, especially when they’re surrounded by two characters who have such bolder personalities.
That includes Mae’s friend Dahlia, who I hope sticks around for the long haul. Her sense of humor and delightful demeanor, in general, are welcome, and that Tardis reference doesn’t hurt either. While Mae isn’t exactly a fully developed personality yet, you still empathize with her situation. After all, Abbie has been gone for a long time, and how would you react if she just popped up with a weird Shriners hat on her head and twin axes at her side, spouting about another world and cuddly teddy bear cats.
While the story and premise show promise, there is a bit of clunkiness in the one real combat scene of the first issue. The proportions of the characters are stylized overall, but in that sequence, the proportions just look off. The axes are small to begin with, but they don’t seem like they’re the right size in comparison to Abbie’s stature. The fight isn’t helped by the fact that the enemy she’s engaged with just looks rather generic, especially compared to a glimpse of one other enemy earlier in the book. Not a huge deterrent, but hopefully something that isn’t the case for the whole series.
Overall I enjoyed Mae #1, enough so as to continue following the story in issue #2. The book has all sorts of potential, and hopefully, things hit their true stride in the next book.
Rating: 3 out of 5
