Madison Preston is an ex-military operative with a heck of a lot of debts to clear. Heavily augmented with various cybernetic gubbins in her body whilst in the service and then left out in the cold, Madi and the similarly augmented ex-soldiers in her squad turn to working for a private corporation to help keep their bodies in a fit state of repair. In doing so, they become indentured so said corps with contracts lasting years until their debts are clear. After one mission in particular doesn’t exactly end on a high note – mainly due to big corp greed – Madi decides to do an off-the-books job in order to clear her tab much sooner than the 3-to-5 years she has left on her contract. Of course, as in all good stories, the job doesn’t go according to plan and Madi ends up on the run from both her old and new employers along with the asset she was being paid to steal.
Madi: Once Upon a Time in the Future could’ve made a hell of a film. As it stands, it’s made a hell of a massively ambitious graphic novel.
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Written by Duncan Jones and Alex De Campi with artwork from (deep breath) Dylan Teague, Glenn Fabry, Adam Brown, Duncan Fegredo, Jacob Phillips, LRNZ, Ed Ocaña, Raúl Arnaiz, André Araújo, Chris O’Halloran, Simon Bisley, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Tonci Zonjic, Skylar Partridge, Marissa Louise, Pia Guerra, Matt Wilson, James Stokoe, RM Guéra, Giulia Brusco, Chris Weston, Sergey Nazarov, Rufus Dayglo, Sophie Dodgson, Annie Wu, David Lopez, Nayoung Kim and Christian Ward!
Madi is the third piece of a trilogy started in the movies Moon and Mute – though neither are needed to be seen to make sense of what’s going on here. Think ‘trilogy’ along the lines of Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto work – Moon, Mute, and Madi are set in the same universe but not connected, barring a nod here or there. Upon realising the budget and uphill struggle required to bring Madi to the silver screen, especially after the development hell that surrounded Mute (which also almost ended up as a graphic novel with Glenn Fabry on art duties), Jones turned to the world of comics to tell the story, connecting with De Campi, the army of artists (recommended to him via Twitter), and Kickstarter funding to make it a reality.
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Speaking of which, the artwork throughout is nothing less than striking, showing the extent of a multitude of private corporation’s grip on, and their visual effect across, a futuristic Earth in brilliant, and gorgeous in places, clarity. Though some artists match the story better than others, the switches in style can be a tad jarring at times. The story, also, could be deemed as a little clichéd but it’s certainly high adrenaline stuff with a couple of twists and lots of action. The 260 pages fly by – I ripped through it in two sittings.
If you liked Moon, maybe also Mute, then Madi is a good final piece to the Mooniverse trilogy. Also for anyone with a penchant for sci-fi tales in a cyberpunk wrapping or if you just want a visually impactful, action-filled romp. Madi is worth checking out.
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