After 25 issues, David Mack comes in to give Bendis and Maleev a rest, before they continue their epic run.
Mack previously wrote an arc drawn by Quesada, and drew an arc wrote by Bendis. This time he both writes and draws, so it really feels like a “David Mack” comic, like Kabuki.
There’s not much plot in this arc. Echo comes back to NY to find Matt with a new girlfriend, she also visits Fisk in prison, then goes to see a native American Chief, who brings her through a vision quest. During this she meets Wolverine, and has a revelation.
What’s important here are the themes explored by Maya Lopez. She is a storyteller, but she has her own language. A language that she needs to find before she can be her own person. It’s all very meta, since this is also about comic story telling, and how Mack himself has a very unique style to tell his stories.
I’m not sure I buy Logan’s appearance in this story, it seems a bit too convenient. But he does have an important role in Maya’s growth.
I realize this is not a story for everybody and it’s very different from what Bendis is doing. But being a fan of Mack I enjoyed this story. It’s as close to his own sensibility as he can get in the Marvel universe, so I’m happy about that.
——————————————————
Here are my notes.
- Echo: Maya is a storyteller, but she needs to learn her own language first, to tell her stories. Like a comic book artist. She runs away and tries to find herself in art. Comes back and finds Matt with a new girlfriend. Goes to see Kingpin in prison. Goes to Rez, finds Chief, than goes on vision quest. Meets Wolverine during the fasting. Logan tells her of the story that her father told the Chief: the part of you that thrives, is the part that you feed the most. She learns from her own father’s words, and now she’s enacting plays as Maya Lopez. Very meta, about story telling.