WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: Hero-Fluid (MANTRA V. 1)

I suspect the casual comics fan may know the name Mike W. Barr without knowing why.  His major claim to fame is creating Batman and The Outsiders, a team book that appeared after the cancellation of Bats' team-up book The Brave and The Bold.  He's also known for another reason which we'll get to when we discuss the series in depth.

There are two things I took away after reading the first few issues of Mantra, Barr's main contribution to the Ultraverse:

1) You could easily drop this into the title into the mainstream Marvel Universe right now with only minor changes in continuity.

2) Damn, is this book...thirsty.  And I mean, really f'in thirsty!

Lukacz is a soldier in a magickal struggle for 15,000 years, being shunted from body to body.  When his boss the Archimage is captured by his evil brother Boneyard and his present body is killed in battle, Lukacz is shunted into the body of single divorced mother of two Eden Blake...but with a purpose.  It seems Eden has potential to become a great sorceress, and the Archimage has arranged for Lukacz to gain control of a suit of...armor (?), a mask and the Sword of Fangs to help them reach their full mystical potential.  You see, releasing Archimage from Boneyard's clutches has to involve the use of sorcery, and it's vital for Lukacz to be a sorceress quick....no matter how much he wants out of his present body.

Let's get this out of the way right now--this book's attitude to the sexes has not aged well.  Our heroine is constantly switching between whining about how weak and frail this body is while lusting after it, as well as any other woman who crosses their path.  The men in this book with rare exceptions are there to ogle Eden.  Frequently Lukacz uses Eden's sexuality to manipulate the men around her.  Boneyard is just obsessed with marrying Mantra solely so she can pop out a number of babies through fucking.  Mantra is constantly snapping at her enemies that she's a man.  And there isn't a henchman in this entire run who doesn't ask their boss if they can rape her.  While you would think having a transgendered hero would be remarkable in that time frame, the overall sexual attitudes expressed detracts from it.

....which is a shame, because when Barr learns to relax a bit, the book has its moments.  The first two issues are both dense and fairly serious, setting up the premise and the cast...but the third issue shows us Barr's fondness for punnily-named villains with the very...hippiesque Kismet Deadly ("Kismet Once...Kismet Twice...Kismet Deadly"), and that loosens him up leading to one of my favorite issues of the first volume, #5's "Mantra: The Animated Series," which features a demon possessing, and using tactics resembling, a cartoon character to engage our hero.  Barr's work still dives into dark territory, but now he's not afraid to indulge in a little humor here and there.  The book definitely seems to improve in both pace and tone from there and while it never quite reaches the heights of Firearm and Hardcase, it's still entertaining.  Granted, the weird sexual stuff gets even stranger and more uncomfortable the further the series gets.  Finding out that Boneyard's three wives were originally Archimage's three wives is strange enough, but the development that Lukasz becomes besotted with Eden once her spirit starts showing up in his mind is....something.

The wheels do start to fall off of Barr's writing once the book hits the one year mark with 'The Archimage Quest,' which also intersects with the 'Countdown to Ultraforce' storyline, and it's weird because the two prior crossover incidents (with Prime and The Strangers, respectively) are clumsily handled but results in pretty good characterization moments.  The Quest has to...well, not stop necessarily, but slow considerably just so Barr can do Gerard Jones a favor and introduce Topaz (It's to his credit that he ties said introduction into Mantra's lore in a way that only does not seem awkward), and after it's done Barr's not sure what to do.  There's a storyline involving someone taking Eden's identity while Mantra is doing her business in another dimension that is so sketchily introduced that I assumed that someone was a different character who had shape-changing abilities instead of the actual someone, who doesn't initially.  There's this quest to make a new body for Lukasz--so he can be with Eden physically, natch that doesn't end well....but does end in a wonderful little moment at the end of issue #20, where Mantra finally accepts that they are both a man in a woman's body and a woman in what should have been the series finale.

....unfortunately, there's still four more issues to go, including one (#21, "Little Miss Mantras") that I'm positive was written to be published during the series' first year, an encounter with Loki that helps speed the newly purchased company into the Black September crossover, and two stories that feel like fill-ins.  It's a weird, disappointing end given the really satisfying end that Barr reached for Volume 1.

Sadly, the Rotating Artist Curse that seems to befall all Ultraverse titles affects this title...which is doubly annoying considering the original penciler is Terry Dodson.  Dodson is one of these artists (along with Adam Hughes, his wife Terry and Amanda Conner) whose work transcend 'cheesecake' by infusing it with personality and swagger--and considering this is a title featuring a woman clad in a metal swimsuit wielding a sword, he was the perfect choice.  There is such an amazing synchronicity between the character and the artist, and there are moments in this phase of the series that outmatch anything else I've seen so far.  But Dodson only pencils ten issues, and the others fifteen issues (counting the Giant-Size Mantra special) contain three issues pencilled by Robb Phipps, Mike Heike and James Armstrong, two by Dave Roberts, and the rest by four individual pencilers.  I've said this before, but it applies here as well--the visual discontinuity is the biggest detriment to the series as a whole.

Mantra is very good overall.  It's not one of the best titles I've encountered so far...but it has its entertaining moments.  Maybe if Dodson was able to do more issues, I might look upon this more favorable.  I do think that of the titles I've perused so far, this one can be integrated into the Marvel Universe seamlessly with only a little bit of tweaking to the narrative and the unfortunate sexual attitudes.  Lord knows she would fit in extremely well in the more sexually and racial diverse universe that company has been working towards.

But the at-this-point Marvel owned Ultraverse wasn't done with Eden Blake or Mantra...there was a Mantra Volume Two, and I'll be looking at that--as well as the two part Mantra: Spear of Destiny miniseries next time!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra? 

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