Marjorie Finnegan Temporal Criminal #1

“People say to me: Marj, your sense of humor is just weird.”-Marjorie Finnegan

Garth Ennis--Writer

Goran Sudžuka--Artist

Miroslav Mrva--Colorist

AWA Upshot--Publisher

Marjorie Finnegan is a time traveling cop that tries to fix time. And...well...I feel like I’ve seen this movie before. 

This story is about a time traveling cop and I had really high hopes for it. But the story itself falls really flat with this one. Garth Ennis has a writing style that most people appreciate and you would think it would work very well with this story. But the writing is confusing and just weird. In typical Garth Ennis style, there is significant language but I don’t really care about that at all. The story itself just isn’t great. It feels like a bad episode of Doctor Who mixed with the worst episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow over on the CW. Both Doctor Who and DC Legends of Tomorrow know that their show is weird and embraces that. This Marjorie Finnegan story is trying too hard to be serious in a way. 

The best part of this issue is the art by Goran Sudžuka and the colors by Miroslav Mrva. The art is absolutely beautiful. The pencils are crisp and the people that are drawn are detailed without going overboard. The background has just enough detail to tell what is going on but isn’t overwhelming. The color palette that Miroslav Mrva chose for this story fits well. In the early part of the story being in Egypt Miroslav Mrva nails the tone of what we perceive as Egypt. Again, the same thing in the rest of the story. Even in a temporal space, the colors pop and it really helps you enjoy the book itself. It goes without saying that without the art work in this issue, it would be a terrible book. The art saves it. 

To recap, the story is lackluster but the art shines through brightly. If you like good artwork in comics, then I would say pick it up. If you are more of a story person, there are other books out this week that you can pick up. Overall, I would say skip this book. AWA Upshot has several really good titles out right now but this one is a dud. The name on the writer line is what is pushing this one forward, but the story just isn’t there. AWA was bound to put a book out eventually that just isn’t up to par. That’s okay every publisher does it.