Religious Horror That Fights Back with Marian Heretic Volume One

 Marian Heretic Volume One by Tini Howard; illustrated by Joe Jaro

Marian Heretic Volume One Cover

Author Tini Howard

Artist Jose "Joe" Jaro

Many thanks to BOOM! Studios and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Marian Heretic Volume One by Tini Howard with illustrations by Joe Jaro. I was intrigued by the combination of religious horror and rebellion, and the front cover, which features an image of the main character, Sister Marian with her magical monstrance, in action was also very appealing. The story follows Sister Marian, a mother superior of a group of other novitiates who are all witch hunters and work for the patriarchal Holy Father Church. As Sister Marion continues to do the work of these male leaders of the church that often involves hunting and executing women they find threatening, she begins to question her role in the violence against women, especially those with unique powers from the Goddess like her own. The Goddess is a figure that the Church doesn’t acknowledge and actually feels is a threat to their control of the women in their congregation. Beyond the cool battles Sister Marian has with the various witches who possess different powers, she experiences this inner turmoil where she wants to honor the Goddess who bestowed her own powers and avoid the threats of violence from the Holy Father Church. It’s a cool story that’s rooted in much of the patriarchy and discrimination against women that has long been a part of the Catholic Church for many years; however, Howard’s story and Jaro’s kinetic illustrations create a kind of timeless narrative that could be taking place in the past but also has a somewhat futuristic feel to it. I really liked the imagery and artwork, that features both some classic Catholic iconography and some action-oriented and horror-themed imagery of witches and witch-hunters inflicting damage.

The story is religious-horror themed, but it also features a lot of action, and in the later section, we learn more about how Sister Marion realized her powers and eventually came to work for the Holy Father Church. We also see her reaching out to some of the witches to learn more about their powers and their covens, and how they create a community of women who continue to honor the Goddess and reflect the power of women. There are a few elements of the story that I would have liked to see in this volume. For one, it was a little unclear about how the Holy Father Church came to power and why exactly they wanted to suppress the Goddess. I can understand the patriarchal element of it, but it seemed both a little too much like the Catholic Church and a little unlike it. It was the similarities that made the disparities somewhat confusing. I wish there was more of a storyline about how this church became so powerful or why they sought out to suppress witches. Furthermore, towards the end, we see Sister Marion with her Convent, a group of other women who while serving the Holy Father Church. They are equally devoted to Sister Marion and have some cool powers. I really wish we got to learn more about this group of women as they seemed like an interesting group. The coven of witches also had some really cool individuals within it, and I also wished that the volume was able to spend more time with these characters. They would have added more to the supernatural and horror elements of the story. Nevertheless, it’s rare to find a compelling religious horror story in comics. I hope that BOOM! Studios will produce more tales of Sister Marion Heretic, so we can continue to learn about how she fights the power and patriarchy.