Broken Frontier

Harper finally has the information needed to finish her crusade for good. But what happens to Mirage then?

Writer Paul Dini has an unarguable flair for writing women who run at the edge of legality and Madame Mirage is no exception. With this issue he puts the pedal down and picks up speed, moving to the climax of this first story arc. But when he speeds up, what gets left in the dust?

After breaking into Abraham Coyle’s office, Mirage barely escapes with her life. The computer files she has stolen, however, tell her the location of her father’s prison as well as the locations of the remainder of her enemies. The end is in sight… all she has to do is break into a secret, maximum security detention center. Easy for Madame Mirage… right? Trouble is Harper just may be underestimating her enemies.

After issue #4’s somewhat disappointing, slow-paced fight-fest this issue makes up for things by moving at warp speed. As entertaining as this is it also poses a problem as now things seem to be moving too quickly in an obvious attempt to set up for the big climax to the story arc. There are also some other problems as Dini starts making some changes to Mirage’s nature. Suddenly, there are hints that she may be more than just a computer program holding the memories of Angela Temple. Unfortunately, Dini really has not set up the comic-book science behind such a possibility and readers are left a bit bewildered at trying to guess how such a thing is possible – or if this is perhaps more of Harper’s unstable personality instead. In addition to all that, it is a comic book cliché that this reviewer had hoped would be avoided.

The art provided by Kenneth Rocafort has settled into form with this series. The "scratchy" inks and extra lines, however, really seem to detract from the action instead of enhance it. There is also something to the bright colors by Imaginary Friends Studios that detracts a bit from some of the more noir trappings.

While Madame Mirage has been entertaining series with some good, innovative ideas, the pacing has proven to be a bit uneven. Also, Dini appears to be rapidly allowing some of his innovative ideas to fall victim to comic book traditions, which is something of a shame. With one more issue to go in this story arc there is still time enough to craft something truly magical of Madame Mirage.