There’s always something going on at the Eternity Hotel and Casino. Truly—when is there ever a dull moment in that joint? Never, because writer Tom Hutchison just can’t stay away. We first set foot in the lavish Las Vegas attraction in the premiere issue of Big Dog Ink’s Penny for Your Soul, a book that turned out to be the finest independent release of 2010—at least in my opinion, anyway.
But the pages of Penny center on the adventures of Danica, the daughter of Damien, who is son of the Devil himself. But despite her dark genealogy, Danica herself isn’t all that bad. Sure, she offers all patrons of the Eternity the opportunity to sell their souls for 10 grand in cash. No one has turned it down yet. Is that really any surprise?
But Danica doesn’t run her gig alone. She has help, and who better to keep an eye on the books than Mary “Maggie” Magdalene herself. We all know her (if only from Dan Brown’s pop imagination) as the lover of Christ and possibly a forgotten (or more likely ignored) disciple. She’s been through a lot since the crucifixion, and this is the direction writer Hutchison takes in his new spin-off book, The Temptation of Mary Magdalene.
Is this book softer than Penny for Your Soul? Perhaps: Mary seems to be something of a fan favorite from Penny, and she has more than enough presence to carry a story documenting her life’s journey. It wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for her indomitable spirit. There’s a strikingly beautiful image in the comic that takes up nearly an entire page: Mary lovingly embraces the resurrected Christ before his ascent to heaven. This moving vision is something artist Fico Ossio should display out at the front of his portfolio; it radiates classical beauty.
Half of Mary Magdalene takes place in the present, while the other half is a series of flashbacks of the days when the young woman is still mortal and in love with Jesus, both the man and the symbol. This is when the book is at its strongest. It’s fascinating to see Mary not as a pawn of the dark side (which I believe she is—no matter how friendly Danica appears) but as an optimistic and vivacious young woman still wide-eyed and expectant of life.
Of course, it doesn’t turn out so. She’s branded as a prostitute and charlatan, leaving her jaded and embittered throughout the years. Translation: she grew up. But despite her ups and downs, she’s still Mary. She’s loved, she’s lost, she’s picked herself back up again, and she’s survived. Aside from being so integral to Penny for Your Soul, I’d say she’d be a knockout on Mad Men.
This comic book review original appeared on Broken Frontier.
