Writers: Brian Haberlin and David Hine, Artist: Brian Haberlin, Colorist: Geirrod van Dyke, Letterer: Francis Takenaga
Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy for review.
Um, is it me or is it- at least in the first few pages of MARKED #5 looks like a bad animated cartoon or video game? I already have a pretty bad feeling about this issue, and it is not from the art that we start off seeing.
Anyway, back to where we left off- Liza is showing off her powers to the government. They interrogate her about the Marked group, but she tells them she is no longer apart of it. They let her know that she will be their top priority, taking care of her first and letting her be a part of Stargate. They also show her these strange metal balls, which to them are useless. But to Liza, she can feel the power coming off of them and that they just need someone like her to get them to work. I’m not sure what the heck these do, but I think we can all tell it won’t be good. Liza tells them in vague details how she is no longer part of the Marked, on how she created something new and hurt someone very badly.
The main guy behind Stargate, tells Liza that they are prepared for the risks and know that it’s all part of the process. They have her do an example of a newly created glyph on a soldier’s back, and it works. I can already tell this is a terrible idea going down hill on fire fast, and is about to crash head first into a wall.
The soldier ends up being able to levitate, but goes too high. He can’t breathe, then falls and dies on impact. The main guy tells Liza that the soldier knew the risks when he signed up, so it’s all good. He then proceeds to tell her that all of his men are special to him, but she is also special to him and a lot more so than his men. This time they have her test on a court martialed soldier, who are more expendable. She also transfers one of her glyphs to him, instead of creating something new.
Liza feels as if she lost a part of herself after the transfer and very much drained. They take her away to rest, but as we can see behind her, they have brought out a PUPPY TO TEST IT OUT ON!!!! Later, they tell her that the soldier had tested the glyph’s power on a watermelon and that it didn’t survive. We all know what this means. The monsters. In the end, they want her to get more Marked to work with them.
Now, we head back to our main character- Saskia. She now has 2 blank eyes, one white and one black, the group have figured out how to help her see in a way with these. They add something to one of the eyes, and the next day they will do the second eye. After this, Benis heads out to party and get laid. All the while thinking back on her sending Liza (her student, who is now working with the government) and how she had told her she did not want to see or hear from her ever again (but let her keep her glyphs). But, as Benis has found her hookup- the military sends out goons to bag and tag her (capture her).
Benis fights back with full force, but Liza shows up to help capture her. There seems to be no lost love here. With Liza and the military against Benis, they are able to neutralize her glamour she apparently had over her. Benis is a very old woman under this glamour, wow who would have seen that one coming? As in Stargate and Liza’s team up couldn’t have been worse, they killed off Benis’s hookup for the night. So, Liza is super evil now. This was a jam packed issue, and aside from the poor little puppy- I’m looking forward to seeing how much farther Liza is going to go.
