Mantra Monday: Mantra #3

Since I am getting back into the swing of Mantra Mondays I decided to fill in the missing issue from this series look at the Mantra comic.  I picked this issue up this summer and just wanted to be a bit complete as we go forward.  So prepare to backtrack as we return to the early days of Lukasz becoming a woman.  He is the whiner of old and very mean to Eden's kids.

So Issue #2 had Lukasz taking little Evie and Gus to the movies.  The collector Strauss had sent these weird Repo Men after the Mask that Lukasz had stolen and now wears as Mantra.  So that is where the action picks up.  Mantra in her first real public battle.  She is now that smooth as Lukasz is still trying to be "the man" as he fights.  When he embraces Eden's natural magical abilities he Becomes powerful.  Soon the Repo Men are burning carcasses and Mantra is heading to talk with Strauss, leaving the kids behind.

Much of the book fills in some of my missing impression of Lukasz.  he uses Eden's womanly curves when it suits him and advances his quest to uncover the traitor in an attempt to get his maleness back.  This leads him to find two of Archimage's warriors that also survived.  They are in a blind black man and a dog.  The problem is that now a predetermined message and test has been awakened to put Lukasz through his paces as a magical woman.  Kismet is born and causes trouble for the warrior.

Who is Kismet?  Well, Archimage had this magic set up to create a being to test Lukasz.  Kismet formed after Eden and the kids walked past this Hippie type store, so she formed as a flower child with a wicked magical ability.  Kismet decides she wants to live, it was kind of cool so she wants Eden's body.  In the end she kills Hamath and Yaron, the warriors that had survived the betrayal of Archimage.  Seeing death, Mantra convinces Kismet to rethink the entire being alive thing.

One important thing this issue is the interaction with the kids.  Lukasz is really hateful towards Evie.  Gus takes it as just more of his growing resentment of his mother, but Evie is a smart little girl.  She is seeing the person behind the eyes and realizing that it is not Eden.  The way the kids act is very convincing and I want to stress that fact.  It is one of those parts that the creators are seen as really trying to do right by there characters.


So another Mantra Monday is in the books, and we fill in the missing issue.  If all goes well, we will get back to where we left off by adding the crossover issue with the Strangers.


BDS