What I Bought 9/21/2018 - Part 2

Norm Breyfogle passed away today. Damn. I don't think DC ever released that second volume of his Batman work. The first one was really good, and interesting to watch his style evolve towards what we think of when we picture his artwork.

Of the three mini-series I did find issues for last week, this is the only one that was wrapping up. So I figured Mata Hari deserved its own review post.

Mata Hari #5, by Emma Beeby (writer), Airela Kristantina (artist), Pat Masioni (color artist), Sal Cipriano (letterer) - I don't know what caliber round they used for that large hole, but it seems excessive.

Margaretha finally explains why she began spying for the French. To get enough money to be set for life with her most recent love, and hopefully her daughter. Of course, Bouchardon argues she was already spying for the Germans, while she insists she merely used them to get herself back into Paris. She contends that Captain Ladoux sent her on a mission, then refused to receive any of the reports she sent. Bouchardon says there's no record of her employment and she was actually sending reports to the Germans. We know which one of those stories suits the French Army better, so she's shot and that's that. Oh, Ladoux was eventually put in jail for a couple of years for being an enemy agent, but was acquitted. Take from that what you will.

Margaretha's story certainly paints herself as a scapegoat, for pretty much the entirety of her life. Men wanted her, or wanted to use her, then blamed her for it, or punished her for "allowing" them to do so, or for trying to get some measure of restitution from it. All of which is extremely easy to believe, but which doesn't mean she wasn't spying for the Germans. But we don't see much evidence presented. Is that because there wasn't any, or because the story is primarily from Margaretha's perspective, and is therefore slanted?

There are times what she tells Bouchardon doesn't match what she writes in the memoir she was preparing in her cell. She tells him it was easy to get information from the Germans, but writes in her book that it was not easy. Maybe that's a matter of knowing her audience. The Captain will not feel sympathy for her, because he doesn't believe her, so why bother playing for it? So she adopts the approach of confidence, of talking about how easily she managed it. For the audience she hoped would one day read her side of things, she takes a different approach. Which one is true, if it's an either/or situation? I suspect it would be difficult, but that's my personality. For her, perhaps it was easy. Men were always so willing to brag to her when it meant nothing to her, what's the difference if she uses the information? Although maybe the difference is that it matters more now, because it's her last chance to get the family she hopes for.

Kristantina gets to run the full range of emotions for Margaretha in this issue, from happiness with her Russian soldier, to fear, resignation, anger, confusion. The whole series has one of her performances running through it. Her offering all she has to Shiva to destroy her betrayers. She ended up losing everything, I wonder if she got what she requested.

The panels where she's putting on that performance are frequently set against a lavender background, a sharp contrast to the muted browns and dull peach colors that mark so many of the building interiors in other panels. But one notable exception is the panel where she travels to the front to visit her Russian. When she arrives at the station, the panel's background is that same lavender color. So what's that mean? She was putting on another performance, that the French are correct and she's traveling to the front for information for the Germans? Or that this is a moment where she loses something once again? She decides to try working for the French to get the money to care for Vadime and Nonnie, (she says), and this puts her in the position to be used as a decoy by Ladoux to protect himself. To be betrayed, and to ultimately lose her last chance with the two people she wanted most in her life.