Customer Reviews

The Life And Times Of Martha Washington In The Twenty-First Century

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Launched in the early 90s and continuing sporadically for more than a decade, the adventures of Martha Washington are sometimes hysterically funny, sometimes scary and always entertaining.

Set in the near future, Martha is a poor black girl born into a maximum security housing project in an America where the President is re-elected forever and we are at war with forty different countries. As years pass the president is assassinated, America collapses into a second civil war and finally the world starts to rebuild. Martha becomes a soldier, a freedom fighter and an explorer.

The book is deliberately over the top but always played straight. Even when Martha is battling a 100' tall corporate mascot it is treated like a deadly threat. Sometimes the satire cuts too close to home and we see echoes of current politics in Martha's battles.

Frank Miller (Dark Knight Returns, 300) and David Gibbons (Watchmen) are two top creators and this is their masterpiece. It will make you laugh, it will make you shudder, and it will make you cry. In this book they give Martha Washington more personality and heroism than Wonder Woman has developed in 70 years.

I had the entire series as individual issues but I am very glad to have them in one package, along with pages and pages of sketches, designs and creators' notes. I still cannot believe I got it for under $30. This book would be worth it for twice the price.

Buy it!

Give Me Liberty is a classic graphic novel, arguably one of the finest ever produced. Though the dystopia depicted within the story is convincing, there is a wink in Miller's writing that allows an escape from the grimness. Martha Washington is an incredibly endearing character, so it's no surprise that Miller attempted to churn out a few more stories featuring her. Unfortunately, by the time he got around to using her again, he had descended into the depths of hackery that he's still plumbing to this very day. He's got some Randian nonsense in here, and then some anti-futurist stuff and blablabla. I don't mind anyone's views, so long as they can be presented in an entertaining way. This doesn't fit the bill. Gibbons' art falls off pretty steadily, as well. In one of the apology notes that Dave includes at the beginning of each storyline, he mentions that he began using a computer shortly after Give Me Liberty, and I suspect that is the problem. It doesn't help that Miller sticks him with a bunch of splash pages and panoramas to which his style of art is not particularly suited. I'm not sorry that I bought this book, especially at this price, but I'd be just as happy if it ended 400 pages earlier.

I owned these as individual books. Once I got this gem, I was able to enjoy them in one volume. It's not small, but can be read as a complete body of work as I think embodies the original intent of the writer and artists.

Many current characters seem to bear close resemblance to this character

Its dystopian scifi, its military scifi, it's beat you over the head satire. To tell you the truth it is kind of a mess, but I love it nonetheless.
Martha Washington is a poor girl with high I.Q. and high motivation whose only way out of squalor is the military. What follows is her adventures, misadventures, and general befuddlement by the ways of the military.
Dave Gibbons' art is beautiful in my eyes. It is full of detail, but not too much so. It serves the story perfectly.
As for the story, Frank Miller writes a good one, proving that it doesn't have to be Sin City in order for him to put his heart into it. In the forewords by both himself and Gibons, there is actual love professed for this character. She is a character that captured my heart as well.
Is it worth the price? Well, considering how hard it is to find all the chapters individually, yes it is. Plus, the sketches and notes from Gibbons show how much thought was put into this " personal epic".
There are problems. Miller is never subtle and even less so in this. But Martha demands your attention.
I hope you like it as well.

"Give Me Liberty" is still one of the best stories Frank Miller has ever been a part of, and that's not saying little. The rest of the material in this collection is unfortunately clearly below that standard, basicly little more than filler / fan service. Still worth buying.

Comics by way of the graphic novel have grown up in the last 30 years.Led by Art Spiegelmans publishing of his fathers holocaust experiences and his relationship with hisfather as he tells his story, Maus showed that comics can tell any type of story and do it well.The Hernandez have explored the cultural matrix of Mexican communities both in Mexico and the United States.Peter Bagge has satrirized American Life.Joe Sacco has done journalism through comics more effectivelythan most journalists anfd there are many others like Dan Clowes Chris Ware and Dauid Mazzucchelli who have explored the human condition in interesting and powerful ways.But what about the action adventure genre that is at the heart of comic books?There is good news here as well.Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons chronicled through a set of stories the life of an African American woman from her childhood in a Chicago slum to distinguished service as a warrior and most importantly as a champion of liberty as a member of a futuristic American army.Millers writing is oftwn wild and his political speculations take satire to an absurdity that can be hard to take at times but there is no denying the energy and his main theme that freedom is more important than security an that anytime a government says we need to reduce freedom to enhance security then both freedom and true security are at risk very much influenced by Ayn Rand but also by many of the founding fathers who believed the same thing. Dave Gibbons art is clear and well constructed giving depth to Millers writing because of its realism and he is a fine letterer as well. The color art especially after the Give Me Liberty section of the novel is magnificent. Martha Washington was originally published as three seperate smaller graphic novels and three one shotsbut it is shown to be a coherent whole one large novel in this collection.It is a first rate example of the action adventure genre particularily in comics and I RECOMMEND IT MOST HIGHLY

This is a great book, very heavy, great story, i have to admit that the ending was not really one of my favorites and somewhat disappointed, felt like they could have gone a little further and maybe had a better ending. But if you like a story enough that you debate the ending enough, you know you enjoyed it.

You want to root for Martha every step of the way, from her child hood to adult hood. You want her to go far, and its sad at the obstacles she has to face. But its through these obstacles, and humbleness that make her such a great character. I have to agree the story can be messy at times, and some of the later stories are a little bizarre. But i would recommend this to any comic fan or first time comic reader alike.

The question now, who can play her in a real live movie ! Get this book it will be a collectors item for sure

This is a compilation of nearly (?) all the Martha Washington comics. I knew nothing of the story except from reviews and decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. The reason I give it four stars is that it's not so much a unified work, as it is a collection of tales that loosely hold together around Martha Washington. She is a young soldier recruited into the PAX corps (the army...) and we see how society falls apart as she fights to hold it together. She is fiercely loyal to her duties as a soldier, leading her in sometimes strange directions that seem counter-intuitive to the reader's sensibilities, but which make sense as the stories reach their conclusions.

What is most fascinating to me is how we witness the slow and deliberate destruction of American (and loosely implied, world) society from within as Martha serves the PAX corps. She begins as a lowly private, rising through the ranks to the point where she finally becomes a Captain. She is assigned to various "special forces" type duties in which she saves the United States (or what's left of it), saves the President, fights the gay space Nazis (no, I'm not making that up), and finally saves the planet and in the process, essentially the entire universe (no, I'm not making that up either...). As I said earlier, it's not a unified story - after Martha is introduced we are presented with several story arcs that are only loosely connected. It ends rather abruptly, but then is wrapped up with a suitable coda that, like all good stories, leaves you wanting more.

Afterward there is a chapter which shows the comic-production process from the artist's point of view, giving us character sketches, rough pencil drawings and how they are transformed to ink, instructions to the colorists, alternate panels showing the editing process, etc. It's a really nice touch, and I appreciate that they are willing to let us "behind the scenes" so to speak.

So to sum it up, yeah - the story is ridiculous, but it's a comic book - what do you expect? In the end it's really interesting, and is a very trenchant commentary on modern societal patterns and behaviors. It was around $20 when I got it, and for that you get about 600 pages of entertainment - something that will take several hours to finish. You really can't go wrong.

this book was put together very well, and looks very nice on the book shelf. the pages are almost twice as big as the "give me liberty" dell tpb, and they look great. i waited awhile to buy this because of the price, but it is well worth it!

If your looking at this you should know the story. Over size book very well done. I like it alot. Nice binding great color and art. The whole story in one book. Do yourself a favor and buy it, you wont regret it.