Madi: Once Upon a Time in the Future

The title character is part of an elite squad working for a corporate entity in the near future where these kinds of organizations call the shots.  It’s the job of Madi and her team to take down potential threats to it using cyberwarfare and actual warfare.  After a recent job winds up leaving them paid, but one of their team dead, Madi strikes off on her own to do one off the books.  It’ll cover her corporate debt, leave her a free woman, and all she has to do is steal something from someone who isn’t really any better than her current employers.  The thing is that what Madi is asked to steal turns out to not be what she expected, and soon has her on the run trying to make the best of a bad situation.

“Madi” comes to us from co-writers Alex De Campi and Duncan Jones, a veteran comic book writer and a movie director doing his first graphic novel.  It’s illustrated by a host of great talents, including Glenn Fabry, Duncan Fegredo, Simon Bisley, Chris Weston, Pia Guerra, James Stokoe, with Dylan Teague giving the reader a great first impression into this futuristic world.  There are a lot of clashing styles here, but De Campi and Jones manage things well by having each artist illustrate a specific scene with the transitions between artists marking changes in time and space.  All of the artists deliver, making this a great-looking graphic novel if nothing else.

The story is also pretty solid, if wholly predictable at first.  De Campi and Jones waste no time establishing their world through a well-choreographed bit of action storytelling.  We then follow Madi on her solo job and while that plays out as you’d expect, there’s still enough color to the main cast and their surroundings to hold your interest.  My main issue is with the final act as the big obvious secret Madi is trying to keep comes out and there’s a lot of confusing ping-ponging between who’s being controlled by the bad guy.  It’s not enough to ruin the experience, just to leave you feeling that it was perfectly good but could’ve been better.