M.O.M.: Mother of Madness is a new comic book from the minds of Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Marguerite Bennett and Leila Leiz.
Emilia Clarke is making her comic book debut with M.O.M.: Mother of Madness, a three-issue graphic novel about a scientist and single mom named Maya who gets superpowers and uses them to take on a group of human traffickers.
Clarke explained where the idea came from to Entertainment Weekly: “About three years ago, I was in a car with a bunch of friends and was like, ‘Hey, guys, wouldn’t it be really funny if…’ And then I woke up the next day and was like, ‘That would be funny. That would be f—ing cool. Why not?’”
We’re always calling mothers superheroes, and I’m like, what if they were? What if they legitimately were superheroes? Maya has had a very hard life, and she finds herself in a place where everything that makes her unique, she hates and is ashamed about. It’s only in the discovery of her powers that she finds her true acceptance of who she is.
Written alongside Marguerite Bennett with art by Leila Leiz, M.O.M.: Mother of Madness will have a Deadpool-esque blend of tongue-in-cheek humor with a modern feminist sensibility. The creative team is all female, and Clarke traces the impetus to do something like this to her interest in comics as a kid. “My brother was a comic nerd [growing up], and I wasn’t allowed in the shops!” she said. “I wasn’t allowed to go in with him, because I was the loser little sister. And the moments that I was allowed in, there weren’t a lot of women on the covers, and there weren’t a lot of women in the shops. So I didn’t feel safe to explore it at that age.”
Cut to me at Comic-Con, and I’m there going, ‘I’m still not seeing a lot of women. I’m still not seeing women that aren’t in Lycra reflected back at me. Are there any women out there that are superpowered, but aren’t in a skintight costume? Not that I can see.’ That’s what led me to the ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if…’ conversation…I think back to my younger self and I think, if I was allowed in that comic book store, and I got to see a version that I felt like I could relate to on some level, I would have been absolutely in. It’s a very personal experience that everyone has with comics. These are characters that people are passionate about, and care about deeply, and relate to. I wanted to throw a new character into the mix, and see if people related to her in a way that was impactful to them.
Included in the press release for the comic were a selection of preview images, including one of the covers for the first issue…
…as well as several full pages:
The first issue of M.O.M.: Mother of Madness will be available on Wednesday, July 21.
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