Countdown Review - Mary Marvel: The Seduction of the Innocent

Next on deck for the series of Countdown reviews is the Mary Marvel: The Seduction of the Innocent storyline. This is one of the few stories that read A LOT better in one sitting from start to the midway point of last issue. It still has its problems, but it looks like it has a lot of potential going into the home stretch. Hit the jump for the full summary and review.

Mary Marvel: The Seduction of the Innocent

Mary Marvel’s fall from grace begins after she literally fell from grace in The Trials of Shazam, where she lost her magical powers while flying. This caused her to fall to the ground below and ended with her in a coma for an undisclosed amount of time. Countdown picks up with Mary finally awake, still sans powers, and ready for discharge from the hospital.

Despite being awake again and out of the hospital, Mary is upset and hurt over the fact none of her friends or family bothered to visit her or come see her now that she was awake. Finding out Freddy Freeman had paid for all her hospital bills and left her a note telling her to not to try and find him set her further on her path to destruction.

Ignoring his note, Mary sets out to find Freddy. Her first stop is Madame Xanadu, who informs Mary she cannot locate Freddy. Over the course of their conversation, Xanadu warns Mary to stay away from Gotham City which, in true Countdown fashion, Mary ignores and immediately sets out for.

Her story later picks up on the streets of Gotham with Mary fleeing from a group of muggers. Mary feels inexplicably drawn towards the derelict Khandaq Embassy. Dashing inside, she appears to have been cornered until a mystery man kills the would-be assailants. It is here that we are introduced to the post-WWIII, and supposedly powerless, Black Adam, who is, apparently, fully powered again.

Over the course of several issues, we see Mary pleading with Adam to help her regain her powers or to share some of his own while explaining her situation and how her brother refuses to help her. Just as Adam looks like he will kill Mary, he calls down the thunder and gives Mary all of his power, resulting in a much more mature looking Mary in full black garb, similar in style to Adam’s costume.

Basking in her newfound powers in the skies above Gotham, Mary is drawn to an occult meeting atop one of the rooftops where several mothers summon a baby eating demon. As hilarious as that description sounds, it is actually one of the better scenes in Mary’s fall and the battle ends with Billy Batson summoning Mary to the Rock of Eternity after the defeat of the demon.

Once at the Rock of Eternity, Billy informs Mary that he summoned her to tell her that he is the Rock of Eternity and he has replaced the wizard Shazam. He further explains that Freddy is on his own quest and should he succeed, he will become the new Shazam.

Once Mary explains that she has taken on Adam’s powers, Billy verbally lashes out at Mary, chastising her for taking and using his powers, explaining that it was her destiny not to have powers anymore and that she should live a normal life from now on. Mary does not take kindly to this and proceeds to smash her way out of the Rock of Eternity and leaves Billy to pursue her own destiny by herself if he is unwilling to help her.

From here, Mary seeks out Zatanna to help her understand her new powers. Once the two meet up, they both witness the murders off the New Gods, the Deep Six. During the fallout of their murders, Mary discovers she possesses different magical powers than Black Adam had ever employed when she helps revert several humans that were transformed into monsters back into their true forms.

After the battle, Zatanna takes Mary to her home, Shadowcrest, where she begins to instruct her in basic magics. During her lessons, Mary becomes overcome with the need for more power, almost as if she is possessed or it is beyond her ability to control the desire. She takes one of Zee’s magical artifacts and begins to fight with her, accusing Zatanna of holding her back and treating her like a child.

During this time, it is revealed that Eclipso has been watching Mary’s journey to the dark side. However, Zatanna defeats the inexperienced Mary and banishes her from Shadowcrest forever, casting her out on her own again.

Eclipso continued to watch Mary as she eventually met up with Klarion the Witch Boy. After some trust issues, where the overly friendly Klarion attempted to steal all of Mary’s magic, Mary lashes out with her power before leaving the defeated Klarion.

Sensing that she was finally ready to meet her, Eclipso reveals herself to Mary. Despite her earlier encounter with Klarion, Mary quickly agrees to follow Eclipso, but not before turning several guards into stone statues, which Eclipso then proceeds to behead with the flick of her finger. While DC maintains Mary did not kill them, most fans are hard pressed to believe them.

The most recent issues pick up from here with Shadowpact taking an interest in the out of control Mary. Before confronting her, it is revealed Mary, with Eclipso’s encouragement, has committed many more atrocities, or ‘non-murders’ if you believe DC, such as turning loggers in the rain forest into the trees they would slash and burn. When Shadowpact attempts to stop Mary, they are easily dispatched and Mary teleports away with Eclipso, beyond any magical means of tracking, which, based on Countdown to Mystery, might suggest they are with Darkseid on Apokolips.

Kirk Says: Mary’s storyline suffers from several of what I like to call “Countdownisms”. This is basically where the Countdown plot makes a character do something just for the sake of the story with little rhyme or reason. Sometimes it works, but more often than not, it just comes off as forced or out of character. Things like going straight to Gotham despite being told otherwise or when Zatanna tells her not to touch any of the artifacts and she immediately grabs one are a couple examples that come to mind right away.

Having the Black Adam: The Dark Age mini-series spoiled when Mary’s story first began did not do wonders for my enjoyment of the storyline either, but now that Black Adam is out and one of the best books going despite what happened in Countdown, I find myself caring less about what happened and enjoying that section of the story more than I previously did.

One thing I can’t agree with though is the insistence on DC’s part that Mary did not kill anyone yet. She turned people to stone and watched as Eclipso flicked their heads off. She artificially aged death row inmates until they died. She’s done these and more and if DC tries to redeem Mary by the end of this, I think the story will suffer for it.

Verdict – Average, but has Potential. I have a new found appreciation for Mary’s story after re-reading it from start to this half way point. Where I criticized some scenes in the weekly format, here I find myself enjoying them more. The story is still far from the best going, but it did read a lot better this time around and now that Mary is finally with Eclipso, I expect this story to really take off and actually be one of the better parts of Countdown to Final Crisis.

Related Posts