How does one even start to explain what Paul Dini does? Is it the rich feeling of old 1950’s pulp fiction he brings to his stories? Maybe it’s the concise story telling that provides what so many new writers seem to miss; full arcs to their stories that deliver satisfaction throughout. He’s not rewriting the book with Madame Mirage. Instead, he’s delivering a story that seems as though it’s always been there. Like a song you hear for the first time that resonates so perfectly inside you, you can’t help but feel that you’ve been listening to it for years, Madame Mirage was the book I’ve been reading in my head since I was watching cartoons in my parents living room. Set in a stylized future, Madame Mirage is a fun revenge story about a shape changing, ever illusive femme fatale character set to bring down the organized crime world that hurt her. She has all the threat of a Batman, while giving the reader a magical quality to her powers that adds to her mystery, until Dini decides to let us look behind the curtain. As she takes down a cadre of henchmen and villains (including “Dude”, a great throwback to 90’s surfer lackeys with dialog you haven’t seen since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Bill and Ted) you get her back story and once you’re brought on board, you can’t wait for her to fulfill her mission of bloody redemption.
As if there needed to be more incentive than its cool premise and solid writing for you to pick this book up, it happens to be drawn by one of the most dynamic artists working today; Kenneth Rocafort. He’s been puttering around the Top Cow offices for a while now working on titles like Hunter/Killer and recently Jonathan Hickman’s Pilot Season offering, the Core. Each page is a dynamic flurry of events in a well defined hyper-reality with bright and saturated colors giving you all the eye candy you could want. Madame Mirage is highly entertaining and charming to the last page.
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