The U.S. government has gotten its hands on some pretty overwhelming power. It’s being presented to a small, top-secret organization by a moody goth-like teen girl. The man in charge of the operation is getting concerned about the girl’s psychological state as the writing team of David Hine, and Brian Haberlin continues to weave their contemporary fantasy story in the third issue of The Marked. As an artist, Haberlin’s anatomy still feels a bit stiff at times in an otherwise beautifully-rendered third issue of a series that is starting to show signs of substantial originality in another issue focussed primarily on a girl who is rapidly becoming the series’ most powerful villain. 

Liza has been called in to see the head of Project Stargate. As she has been totally forthcoming in aiding the project, he’s ready to tell her about a powerful instrument developed by the Nazis during World War II. Meanwhile, she’s still working on a project to strip a powerful, tattooed mage of her glyphs. She transfers them to army jocks with far more success than had been seen in the recent past. Nearly stripped of all her power, the captured mage has the chance to escape. 

Hine and Haberlin’s story is wise to focus on the transformation of Liza into something very, very dark. The world established by the two writers could have easily slogged along with an even balance between heroes and villains. In a gradual lead-up to confrontation throughout the initial arc, but giving Liza the center of the issue really allows the story to amp-up her menace and give her a more detailed path to villainy. The fact that there isn’t a whole lot of depth to this path is a relatively minor issue in an otherwise entertaining third issue. Liza’s psychology is a bit crudely constructed, but the power of her villainy comes across quite vividly.

Haberlin’s art is sharp. The aforementioned stiffness in anatomy IS a bit of a problem. Still, the overall posture of many of the characters feels natural enough to keep everything feeling more or less organic. Haberlin’s rendering of depth into the face of Liza does suggest that there’s a bit more going on in her mind that the script is allowing for. Much of the action is taking place in shadowy, closed-off little rooms. The fact that Haberlin can lock-in a sense of the fantastic in spite of this is quite an accomplishment. Haberlin’s relatively deft sense of layout directs the action to cascade somewhat gracefully across the page. 

With Liza emerging as a major villain in this issue, it’s going to be interesting to see where Hine and Haberlin take the series next. There is excellent potential for depth in Liza as she’s clearly got an incentive to act entirely on her own in ways that might not be as predictable as the standard super-villain. She’s still figuring things out as she has now found herself in a position of authority. Given the right narrative tweaking with a continued focus on Liza, The Marked could turn into something really provocative.

Grade: B