|
|
|
|
|
Mantra, Vol. 1
Gender | | |
For 1500 years each time he dies, an archmage puts his soul in another body. When the mage is captured and he's killed, he ends up in a woman's body. And without the mage, he stuck as a woman.
|
| |
|
|
|
From: Caitlin B
, 661 months, post #1 |
This series started very strong. Not only did Lukasz had to put up
with ending up a Woman, he/she had to learn to social interactions
and how to be a parent. The only major problem with the series is
that it was cut off by Marvel at what I would guess is only about
the halfway point of Lukasz's coming to terms with 'her' new
situation.
|
|
From: Gavin
, 661 months, post #2 |
Definitely adolescent stuff.
|
|
From: anonymous
, 661 months, post #3 |
MANTRA to date has not only been the comic making the best use of
the sex-change theme, it was also one of the best super hero comics
created in the last decade -- period.
For those who don't know, MANTRA concerns a male knight, Lukasz,
who lived 1500 years by possessing the shell of one warrior after
another, before becoming trapped in the body of a beautiful woman
of immense magic talent, Eden Blake. Lukasz hates the situation and
works determinedly to escape his fate -- actually succeeding for a
short while -- but falls in love with Eden Blake when she comes
back from the spirit world to reclaim her body. Finally Lukasz must
re-possess the dying Eden in order to save his own life and that of
her children, whom he has also come to love. This is the crisis of
the serious and thereafter Lukasz seeks to reconcile himself to
Eden's shape, in a sense pledging himself to complete the life
which Eden was cheated of. Doing so, Lukasz becomes a model
grownup, which is a rare species among comic characters), taking
responsibility for the family which the real Eden had left behind,
and which his strange misadventure has inadvertently injured and
bereaved. Pretty poweful plotting for a comic book.
Image's one-shot BABEWATCH was a dumb joke by comparison with
MANTRA, which ran for 24 great issues and it's popularity caused
Lukasz to be featured in many special issues and crossovers
throughout the Malibu line. In Mantra, creator Mike Barr managed to
top his earlier TG creation, Sir Tristan, who appeared in CAMELOT
3000, circa 1984.
For whatever reason, Malibu was put up for sale and Marvel bought
it. The company could have been a big success for Marvel, but
Malibu was immediately subjected to a blizzard of half-baked ideas,
the worst of which was the ejection of Lukasz from his own comic,
along with the TG idea. But while it lasted, MANTRA combined
traditional comic book villain-busting with wry humor, pathos, and
some of the best psychological development
seen in the comic genre.
A second TG character appearing in MANTRA also gained immediate
popularity in 1995. Lukasz's arch enemy Thanasi possessed the body
of a knockout witch and named herself/herself "Necromantra."
Necromantra went on to star in a 4-part miniseries of her own while
Lukasz's life was developing along new lines. Lukasz/Eden gave up
her office job to became a bombshell spy-girl ngaging in
international intrigue, "The Girl From Aladdin."
The original MANTRA series really seemed to be thriving when the
Marvel meat axe fell. Mantra had her revenge less than a year
later, though, when Marvel declared financial bankruptcy (which
goes along nicely with its creative bankruptcy).
Fortunately, dead comic universes tend to revive after a period of
dormancy and Malibu's was absolutely top-flight, in large part due
to Mantra. We can only hope that we have not seen the last of
either the Ultraverse nor the best heroine in it or in any other
universe.
|
|
From: Suzanne de Nimes
, 293 months, post #4 |
Often good, but editors shied away from head-on treatment of
transgendered themes.
From Gerard Jones' (another Ultraverse writer) THE COMIC BOOK
HEROES (1997 with Will Jacobs): "...but the editors decided it was
'making people nervous' and pushed for naked female flesh with no
psychological kinks. The editors started writing their own comics,
just like Marvel editors...."
|
|
From: Norberto P. Niebres Jr.
, 254 months, post #5 |
It would be ironic if Mantra (The Eden Black/Lukanz Version) and a
few other Malibu Ultraverse titles come back as
part of Image Comics central. Malibu was originally part of Image
Comics.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Add a New Message to This Thread
Posting Guidelines
Primary
- ANY POST(s) MAY BE REMOVED at the discretion of moderators
for violation of this website's guidelines/rules or any law
applicable to this website.
- All discussions must be transformation related OR of interest to
the transformation community.
- Please try to keep posts appropriate for younger teenage eyes to
view (Things you'd be comfortable sharing with a 13 year-old).
- Do not 'attack' other posters. You may attack an individual's
comments but not the individual.
- Be polite, courteous, and respectful. Please keep the conversations
civil.
- While use of an online alias is ok. Do NOT pretend to be another
(or registered) user.
Intellectual Property
- Do not post direct links to complete copyrighted works. Links
provided by (or approved by) the copyright holder may
be exempt.
- Links to content hosted on websites that have a clear, and easy to
find, process for dealing with infringement(s); and a known
reputation for following through with said process, may
be allowed.
- Please read this site's views on copyrighted content on the FAQ
page.
- Do not plagiarize. Credit your sources.
Helpful
- For posts and material that are not safe for viewing in a workplace
or with younger eyes, please mark the thread or post as either, "MATURE CONTENT", "ADULT CONTENT",
or "NSFW".
- Please post clear SPOILER warnings if you intend to give away
details that would spoil the story for those who have not yet seen
the material, preferably by using the spoiler
tags (don't forget to close the spoiler text with the end tag),
like so: <spoiler>Text to be "hidden"
</spoiler>
-- For additional help, please see: HOW TO: Use Spoiler tags
message thread.
- When starting a New Message Thread, please include details about
your topic of discussion or request in the Subject
field to help draw in readers who are interested and avoid wasting
the time of those who are not. Also helpful in searching for the
topic/thread later.
- If you post a link, please provide some detail as to what it is.
Identify the material if possible.
- Please post in English, or include an English translation, when
possible.
- If seeking material / information, include the results of your own
efforts so that others can offer better help (and avoid wasting
time and effort on redundant searches).
- When starting a new thread to request material or information,
please begin the subject with "REQ:"
or "REQUEST".
Etiquette
- Do not post messages in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
- Do not attack a user for improper spelling and/or grammar. Not all
of our community uses English as their native language.
- Please do not stray (far) from the topic of the original post.
- If a poster provides their contact information for any reason, do
NOT clutter the Message Board by asking them to contact you. They
gave out their contact information for a reason.
- No begging. Ask nicely.
- Do not feed the trolls and spammers. Please ignore them.
- Do not keep asking for clips after others have already posted
information on where to obtain the material.
- Please have some patience. Not everyone visits the board daily.
Your post may not be seen (by someone with the correct information
or idea) for several days or weeks.
- No bumping. Bumping will be treated as intentional spamming.
Advertising
- Do not post advertisements.
- One exception is for products or services that relate to entries on
this site. And even then, only post an announcement once. You
should add links or content to the appropriate database entries. Do
not repeat this information to the message board. Doing so will be
considered spamming.
Miscellaneous
- This list is neither all-inclusive or all-exclusive in nature, and
is meant to guide everyone on appropriate content for and conduct
on this Message Board.
- The purpose of this Message Board is to share information about
transformation-related content, news, ideas, etc. Also acceptable,
are conversations that are of interest to the transformation
community.
- Moderation of posts for reasons not listed above are at the
discretion of the Trusted Users who moderate this website, for the
purpose of keeping things within the "spirit" of the owner's wishes
and the website's purpose.
- If you disagree with a moderation decision, please make an argument
as to why it should be reinstated. Use the posting guidelines to justify your point.
Do not attack the moderator.
[Edit this Page] | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|