Comics legend Garth Ennis teams with acclaimed artist Goran Suduka on Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal – a fun take on time travel adventure. All Marj wants to do is race up and down the time-lanes, stealing every shiny-gleamy-pretty-sparkly she can lay her hands on. But her larcenous trail from the Big Bang to the Ninety-fifth Reich has drawn the beady eye of the Temporal PD, whose number one Deputy Marshall is now hard on our heroine’s tail– and taking things extremely personally. Worse still, Marj’s worthless creep of an ex and his even scummier partner have seen an angle of their own in all this, and now intend to use her time-tech to change history for their own benefit. Marj’s only ally? A guy called Tim. And he’s just a head.
Since AWA/Upshot’s inception, they have managed to assemble a highly impressive roster of talent across their titles. Marjorie Finnegan is no exception. Garth Ennis has long been established as one of the top writers in comics with hits like Preacher, The Boys and his various runs on The Punisher being regarded as all-time classics. Goran Suduka has also achieved success on various series including Y The Last Man and Daredevil. Both are a natural fit and the chemistry shines through in the end result.
Ennis has always alternated between over-the-top/tongue-in-cheek comedy and serious storytelling (you just have to look at his various Punisher series that have ranged from over-the-top comedic violence to serious war comics). This series very much falls into the latter category, and we get as a result an Ennis’ take on time travel capers like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. It is a common trope in time travel stories to have concern about protecting the space/time continuum by avoiding doing anything that can radically alter the future which inevitably ends up going wrong. It’s therefore refreshing to get a character like Marj who has no interest in preserving the past, and only wants to cause trouble whilst making things better for herself. This leads to plenty of great moments including bringing modern military weapons to historical locations like ancient Egypt and the Viking era.
As mentioned earlier, Sudzuka’s art is a perfect fit for Ennis’ style of storytelling. He does a tremendous job of flitting between the zanier aspects of the series to the more violent moments whilst getting the different historical periods down to a tee. It gives the series a feel comparable somewhat to the original Tomb Raider games which works strongly in its favour.
Fans of Garth Ennis will find plenty to enjoy in this new series. Additionally, any sci-fi fans looking for a zanier take on time travel should definitely it a look.
Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal is out 10 March from AWA/Upshot (9781953165299, p/b, £12.99)
Or support your local bookstore.
Want regular updates and weekly reviews on the latest in graphic novels and manga? Follow us on Twitter @turnaroundcomix.
