by EPHK
Published by Image Comics.
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"-proudly presented in its original Martian form."
. . .
Review by William D. Tucker.
MAWRTH VALLIIS is a comic where the dialogue is in Martian but the sound effects are in the pop cultural lingua franca of Drip/MEEP/WHOOOOOOOSH/BRAAOOOOMMM/BLIP/CLICK/BLAM. It concerns a white-uniformed female fighter pilot engaging in dogfights in the skies of Mars who crash lands only to find herself in pursuit of a black-clad female enemy. I think that these are supposed to be members of rival Martian factions. A hint of Spy vs. Spy. Their conflict in the air and on the surface reveals sinister secrets about the nature of their conflict, and who they are beneath their flight suits.
MAWRTH VALLIIS is primarily a visual experience. It is my belief that creator EPHK had things that he wanted to draw, and so he did not bother to agonize about whether they 'made sense' in terms of various Storytelling 101 nostrums. He wanted to draw cool fighter jets with ultratech cockpits and futuristic heads-up displays. He wanted to include video game inventory schematics of gadgets and weapons. He needed an Edgar Rice Burroughs-style encounter with a huge monster that nowadays plays like a boss fight from a Monster Hunter game. There's a double page spread of a techno-maze presented from an isometric perspective like a computer role-playing game like Fallout or Fallout 2. He wanted to draw the rugged vistas of Mars with visual callbacks to Monument Valley. EPHK has a background in drawing science fantasy erotica and so our heroine has a g-string rated for g-forces.
MAWRTH VALLIIS is an exercise in the desire to draw cool-looking shit. Sure, there's a story-it even has a memorable ending-but what I enjoyed most was the sense of the author simply doing whatever they wanted however they wanted. It gave me a vibe similar to the Japanese OVAs (Original Video Animation) of yesteryear wherein underwaged/overworked animators ground out works of purest otaku-dom just to be in the anime game.
And all this between two covers. Everything you need is here in one compact volume. MAWRTH VALLIIS did not waste my time, nor is it wasting my space. I appreciated it, I really did. I still do.
