[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Rachael Stott
Summary
Standing at the casket in the empty church, Bubba finds himself held at gun-point by Tabitha at the funeral for his father. He doesn’t recognize her though and begins to threaten her. Before the half-siblings have a chance to open fire and put holes in each other, Selena steps in on her mech/life support machine and shoots the guns out of their hands. Very quickly Bubba recognizes Selena as the woman who killed his father, then recognizes Tabitha.
Before this wonderful family reunion can occur though, Tabitha tells him to shut up as her and her mother begin to argue. It comes out that Selena killed Tabitha’s father though, after the hundredth time cheating on her she finally has enough and stabs him in the stomach. To protect herself and her daughter, she had those memories suppressed by the mech. The same mech that it turns out is the only thing keeping her alive because the cancer has spread. Tabitha looses it after hearing all of this and goes off and the old woman. Before Tabitha has a chance to put her mother down, the large pink, baby headed hunter does it for her with a large caliber round in the chest!
The shock triggers a who slew of memories for Tabitha and she turns to fight back to protect what’s left of her mother. Against all odds she has a cross-string fight for Revenge!
Before Selena kicks the buck though, she adjusts the mech to reset and save her life from the bullet wound. In doing so all of her memories come back. She tells Tabitha then that her mech isn’t life support, it’s a clone maker that puts memories into the new body, and the Selena has already been dead for a week!
Positives
The climactic showdown in this issue is awesome! In action movie style, Motherlands lets the personal tension between the protagonists build steadily over the series, only to then explode into gunfire and monstrosities! Not to mention a great and unexpected ending!
Negatives
Given that this whole arc has been about finding Bubba, he is discarded rather quickly and completely in this issue. We see him for only a few pages before the whole issue refocuses on Tabitha and Selena. While Motherlands may be about the relationship between the mother-daughter duo, it does seem odd that he is inconsequential in the end.
Verdict
Motherlands #5 is a fantastic issue. It shows a conclusion to the previous four issues, while opening the possibility for the antagonist and protagonist to work together in the future. We also get a great curveball by the end to keep us ready for the next issue!
