By Cat Wyatt

This is the first issue in a new series by Vertigo; it appears it’s only going to be six issues long, so it’s not a huge investment for any of the fans. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty willing to give anything by Vertigo a try (but then again, they published Y: the Last Man, so of course I feel that way). Tabitha (AKA Tab) lives in a world where multiple parallel earths are interconnected to one another. Sounds like pure chaos, right? It pretty much is, and that chaos seems like it would be a bounty hunter’s dream come true. Which makes it pretty fortunate that Tab is a bounty hunter.

The series starts off with young Tabitha being pulled out of her classes; her mother is waiting in the office, but please don’t waste any time expecting to see some maternal affection from that woman. Within seeing two panels of this woman its crystal clear she’s too self-absorbed to care about anyone other than herself. Hell, she takes the news of her missing child as a chance to get a bump in her ratings (did I mention that she’s also a bounty hunter, and has a show based on all of her adventures?). It’s pretty sick. If Tabitha ends up having some issues later in life, I’m not going to be remotely surprised.

Flash forward thirty years (talk about a time jump) and our little Tab is all grown up (obviously), and she’s taken after her mother…sort of. She’s a bounty hunter, but not the type that’s all flashy (and feel free to take both interpretations of that statement) for the cameras. In fact, Tab doesn’t have a TV show. She also is stylistically the opposite of her mother. Where Sylph (the mother, AKA Scarlet Sylph) went for sleek and elegant (and perhaps a bit…immodest? Is that the best descriptor?) Tab is bulky and capable of causing great damage.

Frankly I have no doubt that Tab put the effort in to create those differences between her and her mother.  It would be awfully hard following in her mother’s footsteps, so it’s better to forge her own path. But she can’t do that when everybody keeps associating her with her mother - not that this has really stopped them…but I digress.

Looking at Tab’s suit I get the impression that while it can take a few hits for her, it’s probably an older model. Perhaps it’s something she’s had for ages (and she can’t afford to replace) or even bought it second hand. This makes me feel like maybe the bounty hunting business isn’t treating her too well, a fact that’s pretty much confirmed by a few of her remarks. Poor thing.

Anyway, back to the bounty hunt bit; the first mark we see Tab going after is a guy named Boradd Klansis Het, and I seriously hope you’re okay with seeing naked dudes, because you’re basically going to see all of Het here. I have no idea why he’s running around naked except for a belt (and his chest hair carpet, if you’d like to count that), so I’m not going to even try to theorize that one. It certainly makes for an odd chase, to say the least. Add the dimensional hopping and tracking and its borderline odd. Though I do love the way the speech bubbles appear to be getting cut off by the portals. That was a nice touch.

Where Tab isn’t doing too well on the bounty hunting area, another woman, Oona apparently is. Well, I say woman, but I’m not really sure that’s the right term? She’s got a woman’s head, but the rest of her body is what appears to be exposed muscle and tissue, and she’s gigantic. I’m not sure if she’s been modified, or if the alternate earth she is from has all of their humans looking like that. My vote is on the former, but I have no evidence for that theory. Regardless, it’s pretty clear that Oona is Tab’s rival for this series, which adds another level of pressure for Tab, and kind of explains the rest of her actions for this issue.

This was a pretty interesting start for a new series. While I didn’t love it, I actually think it has a lot of potential. I’m hoping once it gets past the shakiness of a new series it’ll end up being really good. Though they do only have five more issues with which to tell their story, so I guess we’ll see.

The art style for this series was interesting. Sometimes it had a rougher quality to it; such as when we’re looking at Tab’s suit. While there’s no obvious wear and tear, it’s pretty clear that it’s an older and well-worn suit. Meanwhile everything about Oona looks new (well, what isn’t that weird muscle/flesh thing).

Score: 3/5

Motherlands #1
Vertigo Comics