Can this mini-series continue to be engaging, or is it doomed to have a lackluster second outing?  Read on to find out.

The official description from Image:

As superstar athlete Mara Prince’s superpower manifestation is caught on live TV, her life rapidly starts to spiral out of control. The media descends like vultures. Her handlers go into spin mode. The footage is seen around the world, and this young woman, who only hours ago was the darling of pop culture, is now being slammed and ridiculed for being a fraud and a liar. But the more she tries to fight back, the only thing she’s doing is escalating the problem. A sci-fi take on real world superheroes by the powerhouse team of BRIAN WOOD, MING DOYLE and JORDIE BELLAIRE!

The most compelling thing about this narrative is its reliance on the star athlete archetype.  Whether you’ve met one or not chances are you’ve cheered their successes while admonishing their failures . The creative team banks on that as they take the audience through these emotional highs and lows without breaking a literary sweat.

The script by Brian Wood explores an all too familiar experience, as a now questioned athlete faces a world that sees her more as a cheater rather than a champion.  For most of us we’ve only ever experienced this from the audience perspective, but thankfully the written word never fails to instill the weight of each proverbial moment.  The most amazing thing is that you can almost feel the judgement surrounding Mara Prince, and instead of joining in you can’t help put feel for her in this hour of need.

Ming Doyle delivers some lavishly rendered panels as each character and facial expression is more than up to the requirements set forth by the author in this futuristic romp.  Despite that there were times where expressions seemed to be a tad bit out of place.  As a whole though the work on display yields a truly enthralling visual style that will keep readers engaged from beginning to end.

Mara #2 is an excellent release, that handily earns a recommendation.

4/5