Graphic Novel Review: 'Madi: Once Upon A Time In The Future' by Duncan Jones, Alex de Campi & Various Artists

'Madi: Once Upon A Time In The Future', from the minds of Duncan Jones, Alex de Campi and a whole host of awesome comics artists that includes; Dylan Teague, Glenn Fabry, Duncan Fegredo, LRNZ, Eduardo Ocaña, André Araújo, Simon Bisley, Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Tonci Zonjic,  Pia Guerra, James Stokoe,  RM Guéra, Chris Weston, Rufus Dayglo, Annie Wu, David Lopez, and Christian Ward, plus colourists Matt Wilson, Nayoung Kim, Chris O’Halloran, Adam Brown, Jacob Phillips, Raúl Arnaiz, Giulia Brusco, Sergey Nazarov, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Lettering by Alex, is a cyberpunk road trip set in the near-future.

Madi Preston, is a cybernetically augmented mercenary, part of J-Squad, a merc special ops unit that freelances their unique ability to be remote controlled by specialists while in the field. But when their latest mission ends with the death of one their crew, Madi decides she’s had enough. But in order to pay back the debt she still owes, she takes an off-the-books job, and when the piece of tech she’s supposed to steal turns out to be a child, and she suddenly blacks out... she finds herself on the run from everyone she’s ever known.

I'm a big fan of Duncan Jones' movies, with this being the third and final story set in the same 'Cinematic Universe' as his 'Moon' and 'Mute' movies (the 'Mooniverse'), the graphic novel takes the familiar elements and themes from those movies, especially from 'Mute' I feel, and adds a dash of 'Blade Runner (2049)', 'Ghost in The Shell' and CD Projekt Red's recent 'Cyberpunk 2077' video game, blending everything together and reworking it into a brand new story, that was a joy to read!

Originally a screenplay, 'Madi' is a 260 page graphic novel, that was funded through a Kickstarter campaign (with exclusive hardcover art by Yuko Shimizu and softcover art by Duncan Fegredo & Jacob Phillips), and is published through Z2 Comics.

The pacing of the story definitely felt like it could have been movie instead of a graphic novel. The story kept me engaged all the way through, with its action packed intro, and all the way through to its exciting conclusion. Even when the story slows the pacing down, there's still more than enough to keep you interested in wanting to find out what happens in the end. The excellent group of characters, especially the main three of Madi, Ted and Dean as they embark on the road trip trying to outrun their pursuers, really helps draw you into the story and root for them.

As good as the story is, the main talking point of 'Madi' is the artwork, with a venerable who's who of the comic industry working on the pages throughout the graphic novel. But with the amount of artists involved, you might think that the clash of differing art styles when transitioning from scene to scene would be jarring and take you out of the story. Not so for me. It looked like the story was carefully divided up in a way to minimise this. And it works really well, with the change in artist helping with the shift in tone of what is happening to the story on the page.

I really enjoyed 'Madi: Once Upon A Time In The Future'. It's lively and energetic, with a hard as nails BAMF female lead kicking ass from start to finish. A graphic novel that is a spectacular feast for the eyes in a beast of a book!

Available from Z2 Comics, Forbidden Planet, Waterstones, and all good comic and book stores.