3. Mara #6 By Brian Wood And Ming Doyle (Image)
This is the sixth and long-awaited final comic in Brian Wood and Ming Doyle's Image mini-series, Mara. The series has been a strange but fascinating one as a teenage superstar volleyball player in the future discovers she has superpowers. Each issue has gone from weird to weirder as the initial focus of a sports comic turned into a superhero comic into a Kubrickian sci-fi story with unlimited potential. Readers who've been following the series will know the massive cliffhanger of the last issue was Mara turning the world's nukes onto humanity, but things don't go that predictably as Brian Wood steers the story into a more philosophical direction. The question - Who is Mara Prince? - is never fully answered though hints of a government experiment gone wrong stick out, and the comic ends on a tantalising note. Ming Doyle's art is ridiculously good. She's had an amazing year drawing Mara, which has the best artwork of her career, and her Guardians of the Galaxy one-shot Rocket Raccoon comic with Bendis was fantastic too. I love that she's the new artist on Quantum and Woody as well, so if you're a Ming Doyle fan - and why wouldn't you be? - there are a ton of great comics out there that she's working on, and Mara #6 is just the latest of the bunch. Mara is an original and interesting mini-series that is well worth a look for anyone wanting to read something a little out of the ordinary, with some comic book tropes like superpowers, but handled unexpectedly. Amazing art from Doyle and fantastic use of colours by Jordie Bellaire - either go back and get the single issues or wait for the trade paperback out next year, but definitely look this one up.