Comics / Spotlight / Progressive Panels

Penny for Your Soul: The Temptation of Mary Magdalene

By Andy Frisk
February 15, 2011 - 18:28

Superheroes and their tales are allegories and metaphors for the human experience. Superman is the ultimate immigrant; Batman represents the dark and obsessive side of human nature, and Wonder Woman the idealized, independent, and powerful woman. This really isn’t news to anyone, and it’s nothing that I am stating with any sense of profundity or new found glory. It is important to keep this fact well in mind though, when considering the following: religious tales and the heroes of religious tales function in the same way. The tale of Jonah and The Whale represents that hiding from your calling or your responsibilities can lead to a pretty dark (emotionally or spiritually) imprisonment of ones’ own making. Jesus of Nazareth’s life, death, and resurrection story is perhaps The Bible’s greatest lesson and metaphor. It represents the need for all men and women to experience a rebirth at some point in their lives, be it emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Allowing the old self to pass away and become a new being in one’s mindset, for example, is a very powerful metaphor (and is one that has been told over and over again throughout history—see The Matrix). So when a work of sequential art (the realm of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) tackles the metaphors of death and rebirth, or redemption and temptation by utilizing the most well known and prevalent metaphorical figures of all time (Mary Magdalene, Jesus of Nazareth, Lucifer, etc.) it is really getting into some potentially interesting territory thematically. Tom Hutchinson’s Penny for Your Soul: The Temptation of Mary Magdalene excellently delves into this territory in a strangely reverent way that is totally irreverent of being religiously correct or literalistic, and I for one love it for that.

Penny for Your Soul is the tale of Danica, the daughter of Satan/Lucifer, Mary Magdalene (who goes by Maggie for short), and the hotel/casino that they jointly run in Las Vegas that offers its patrons a unique proposition. Patrons can sell their souls to the establishment and its proprietor for $10,000 that they can spend as they see fit in the hotel/casino. Danica has a plan for the “end of days,” as Lucifer refers to them, in which all the souls she’s collected will play a part (when the hotel/casino’s patrons die they are bound to remain at the hotel/casino’s service—as opposed to going to Heaven or Hell). As Hutchinson slowly unfolds the main story, he’s allowed the narrative to sprawl a little and touch on other stories and themes that relate to the overall thrust of the story. Penny for Your Soul: The Temptation of Mary Magdalene, as a one shot, is one of these sprawls. The story is pretty simple: Maggie is offered an interesting proposition of her own. Two young men who are willing to sign away their souls request her company as their date as a prerequisite. They offer to spend their entire $10,000 (each) on her. It’s an offer that a girl just can’t refuse. As the night progresses, one of the guys deigns to show Maggie a little respect, while one simply sees her as the rented babe of the evening, if you will. When Lucifer shows up, his entrance into Maggie’s life at this moment a result of her weakness for being pampered and idolized, with a proposition of his own, things get interesting to say the least…much like he tempted Jesus in the desert, Lucifer tempts Maggie. As the metaphoric representation of woman, from whore to beloved, Maggie has a few choices to make, including just how she wants herself to be represented as a woman writ small. Often it’s a choice a woman has to make, not of her own volition though.

Hutchinson uses one of the most historically maligned, or at least misrepresented, woman in the history of humankind to tackle some very familiar issues with regards to the role of woman in society, religion, and sexuality. Putting aside what one believes personally as far as religion, or even so far as the existence of Mary Magdalene as a person, saint, historical figure, or whatever, Penny for Your Soul: The Temptation of Mary Magdalene is not unique thematically per se, but is unique as a work of art that addresses the above mentioned themes by using a controversy generating figure like Mary Magdalene as its protagonist, and even more so because it does so in “comic book” form (or as we pseudo-scholars like to call them: works of sequential art). This is another work (Hack Slash/Mercy Sparx being another I’ve raved about) that is thematically in sync with one of the greatest, and strangely touching, films of all time: Dogma. Penny for Your Soul is shockingly irreverent and bold, but it is surprisingly touching and revealing at the same time.

This book is a representation of the power of sequential art to tell a satiric yet artful story. Artist Fico Ossio, who’s style is discernibly manga leaning, does a great job bringing some very well visually documented characters to unique life. His Lucifer is particularly interesting. His wings are a mixture of heavenly lightness and shimmer on the top half and flame on the bottom. Almost as if he has been forced to drag his wings through Milton’s fires of Hell that “give no light.” He also does a great job of creating an aged look to his panels that take place during the historically recognized time of Jesus of Nazareth’s life. The aged look, which is comprised of washed out colors and antique parchment-like folds and scars, separates the two eras presented in the tale in a way that is cinematic in nature, but create the effect visually on paper instead of celluloid or digital hard drive.

Characters like Superman, Batman, Jonah, and Mary Magdalene are some of the greatest storytelling vehicles ever created (or who have lived—to each his own). It’s really great to see that even some of the oldest ones like Mary still have something new to show and teach us in the hands of great writers and artists. What’s even better is that these characters continue to reach us on levels that we still so desperately need to be touched on.   

 

Rating: 10 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12