An American mother tries every day to make her family happy. But what can she do when her daughter is kidnapped? Bad Mother published by Panini comics gives a very red answer…
Polar about a mother
In a peaceful suburb, April Walters is the mother of two. She manages all the daily life as shown at the beginning of Bad Mother. In a second, his life turns upside down when two men come to rob this supermarket. Fortunately, a policeman arrives but he shoots the criminal who wanted to negotiate. Shocked, she returns and discovers that her daughter Taylor has been hit. Without hesitation, she will avenge her daughter by going to Taylor's boyfriend's house. She will not be able to do anything because he is already dead as well as one of the two robbers. Worse, Taylor is no longer home when she returns home. We feel that the screenwriter Christa Faust is a novelist specializing in crime novels because she plays on surprise and constant tension. Like any good citizen, April goes to the police station where she finds the policeman of the supermarket. He asks her to wait 48 hours for the disappearance to become disturbing. He even seems skeptical because Taylor is a kid known to his services for a runaway. Worse, Chase's crime scene has been cleaned up and there are no more corpses. Faced with this wall, April has the choice between waiting or acting alone… However, Taylor has been kidnapped and even if she is promised a sordid fate, she remains strong, being convinced that her mother will save her. Indeed, the latter proves to be a skilful and modern investigator. She discovers the truth in her daughter's mobile phone through text messages and then by surfing Chase's Instagram. This boyfriend was dealing and robbing a local crime baroness. Using the internet, the mother turns a toy into a warning to the kidnappers. She dares everything, but doesn't this lack of fear risk costing her life?
A story of girls' action
From the first pages, Christa Faust shows the daily humiliation of a forty-year-old woman. In a shop, April no longer fits in her size and then, while shopping, she opts for the cheapest apple juice. A mother from the same school as her daughter tells her that organic is necessary for her children… especially since April's daughter is too fat. However, this stigmatization is clever because it is not a war of the sexes but women reminding him of social pressure. April gets no recognition from her relatives. Even as his mother emerges from a hostage situation, his youngest son does not want to go to the cinema with her. Her daughter has a bruise on her cheek made by her boyfriend. When the action starts, it is also women who take matters into their own hands. In front of her, there is a local crime boss who wants to recover her embezzled money by taking advantage of Taylor's body. More generally, in Bad Mother, only beautiful women are taken hostage or kidnapped. This accuracy on everyday life and this diversity of female personalities can be explained because Bad Mother is written by a screenwriter.
A dark and brilliant cartoonist
In addition to a breathless and modern script, Bad Mother benefits from the talent of Mike Deodato Jr. Freed from the constraints of a large publishing house like Marvel, it is even more impressive. While his faces are hyperrealistic he manages to offer a fluid reading by an original layout. It may seem like they are full pages but the reader actually follows different boxes around a main image. Indeed, the band separating the boxes is narrow and does not follow the cutting of the story. This division into several areas shows the passage of time, the confinement or more simply adjusts the composition of the page. All this brilliance is not in vain. The black colors blend into this dark narrative while the precise decorations anchor it in everyday realism. Finally, we can mention the edition with a very detailed file at the end of the volume. First, the two authors present their works. Christa is as frank in this afterword as she is bloody in her story. We then discover the backstage by the different stages of creation of two pages from the proposal of the artistic director to the realization by Deodato Jr. Finally, on eight pages, we can compare the short descriptions of Christa Faust and the realization by the Brazilian cartoonist. Bad Mother is an excellent thriller that never leaves you once you open it. Moreover, this five-episode one-volume story is a dark but brilliant tale of emancipation where a woman does not wait for help from men but acts alone to save her loved ones. Following it, take charge by going to buy this nugget. You can find on this link the other tips of the summer as well as Texas Blood a rural thriller.
