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The Madness #1-6
The Madness
Legendary writer J. Michael Straczynski teams with superstar artist ACO for a tale of bloody vengeance.
In THE MADNESS, Sarah Ross has been using her power as a thief, stealing from the rich and...well, keeping it. Until the day she stole from the wrong person, a highly placed official who pressures the government to assassinate her. The plot, aided by so-called "good" superheroes sponsored by the government, misses her but wipes out her family. Driven mad by grief, and laser-focused on revenge for the murder of her family, Sarah and a hidden side of her personality - an imaginary friend who may be more real than she believes - goes after these superpowered operatives determined to take her revenge, at any cost.
Legendary writer J. Michael Straczynski teams with superstar artist ACO for a tale of bloody vengeance.
In THE MADNESS, Sarah Ross has been using her power as a thief, stealing from the rich and...well, keeping it. Until the day she stole from the wrong person, a highly placed official who pressures the government to assassinate her. The plot, aided by so-called "good" superheroes sponsored by the government, misses her but wipes out her family. Driven mad by grief, and laser-focused on revenge for the murder of her family, Sarah and a hidden side of her personality - an imaginary friend who may be more real than she believes - goes after these superpowered operatives determined to take her revenge, at any cost.
In THE MADNESS, Sarah Ross has been using her power as a thief, stealing from the rich and...well, keeping it. Until the day she stole from the wrong person, a highly placed official who pressures the government to assassinate her. The plot, aided by so-called "good" superheroes sponsored by the government, misses her but wipes out her family. Driven mad by grief, and laser-focused on revenge for the murder of her family, Sarah and a hidden side of her personality - an imaginary friend who may be more real than she believes - goes after these superpowered operatives determined to take her revenge, at any cost.
Legendary writer J. Michael Straczynski teams with superstar artist ACO for a tale of bloody vengeance.
In THE MADNESS, Sarah Ross has been using her power as a thief, stealing from the rich and...well, keeping it. Until the day she stole from the wrong person, a highly placed official who pressures the government to assassinate her. The plot, aided by so-called "good" superheroes sponsored by the government, misses her but wipes out her family. Driven mad by grief, and laser-focused on revenge for the murder of her family, Sarah and a hidden side of her personality - an imaginary friend who may be more real than she believes - goes after these superpowered operatives determined to take her revenge, at any cost.
164 pages, Paperback
First published March 26, 2024
6 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
J. Michael Straczynski
1,371 books1,278 followersJoseph Michael Straczynski is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its spinoff Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004) and Sense8 (2015–2018). He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.
Straczynski wrote the psychological drama film Changeling (2008) and was co-writer on the martial arts thriller Ninja Assassin (2009), was one of the key writers for (and had a cameo in) Marvel's Thor (2011), as well as the horror film Underworld: Awakening (2012), and the apocalyptic horror film World War Z (2013). From 2001 to 2007, Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four. He is the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, and he has written Superman, Wonder Woman, and Before Watchmen for DC Comics. Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand through Joe's Comics.
A prolific writer across a variety of media and former journalist, Straczynski is the author of the autobiography Becoming Superman (2019) for HarperVoyager, the novel Together We Will Go (2021) for Simon & Schuster, and Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (2021) for Benbella Books. In 2020 he was named Head of the Creative Council for the comics publishing company Artists, Writers and Artisans.
Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1984. He is credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with fans on the Internet and to allow viewer viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show. Two prominent areas where he had a presence were GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.
Straczynski wrote the psychological drama film Changeling (2008) and was co-writer on the martial arts thriller Ninja Assassin (2009), was one of the key writers for (and had a cameo in) Marvel's Thor (2011), as well as the horror film Underworld: Awakening (2012), and the apocalyptic horror film World War Z (2013). From 2001 to 2007, Straczynski wrote Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, followed by runs on Thor and Fantastic Four. He is the author of the Superman: Earth One trilogy of graphic novels, and he has written Superman, Wonder Woman, and Before Watchmen for DC Comics. Straczynski is the creator and writer of several original comic book series such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, Dream Police, and Ten Grand through Joe's Comics.
A prolific writer across a variety of media and former journalist, Straczynski is the author of the autobiography Becoming Superman (2019) for HarperVoyager, the novel Together We Will Go (2021) for Simon & Schuster, and Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer (2021) for Benbella Books. In 2020 he was named Head of the Creative Council for the comics publishing company Artists, Writers and Artisans.
Straczynski is a long-time participant in Usenet and other early computer networks, interacting with fans through various online forums (including GEnie, CompuServe, and America Online) since 1984. He is credited as being the first TV producer to directly engage with fans on the Internet and to allow viewer viewpoints to influence the look and feel of his show. Two prominent areas where he had a presence were GEnie and the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 27, 2024
A revenge story, and with superheroes! Captivating characters and mesmerizing art. Great!
Read
September 11, 2025Enjoyed this series very much. Superhero revenge to the max. Love the writing and the art. Thanks Kindle Unlimited.
January 19, 2024
I will probably always have some mixed feelings about his work on Babylon 5, but for the most part I've really enjoyed his comics work (yes, I'm aware of the controversy regarding his Action Comics run, haven't read it yet so won't comment).
This series has a very solid and well executed concept. What begins as a revenge tale ends up asking a good question.
When a conspiracy is involved where does the revenge stop? The person who committed the killing, the one who gave the order, or the weapon makers themselves.
Sarah is a super powered thief and a good one. She commits a gold theft that will enable her, her fiancée and his two children to retire for life. Except...
She stole from a Saudi Arabian royalty stand-ins and they demand that the U.S. president kill her for the offense. Politics, the threat of the stand-ins no longer being "friends" to the U.S. leads to the kill order being issued.
And the fiancée and the children are killed and written off as collateral damage.
Sarah arguably has a personality disorder and her barely surviving the attack leads her to first go after the supers who executed the kill order. At the same Sarah does wonder where and when the killing ends.
This series has a very solid and well executed concept. What begins as a revenge tale ends up asking a good question.
When a conspiracy is involved where does the revenge stop? The person who committed the killing, the one who gave the order, or the weapon makers themselves.
Sarah is a super powered thief and a good one. She commits a gold theft that will enable her, her fiancée and his two children to retire for life. Except...
She stole from a Saudi Arabian royalty stand-ins and they demand that the U.S. president kill her for the offense. Politics, the threat of the stand-ins no longer being "friends" to the U.S. leads to the kill order being issued.
And the fiancée and the children are killed and written off as collateral damage.
Sarah arguably has a personality disorder and her barely surviving the attack leads her to first go after the supers who executed the kill order. At the same Sarah does wonder where and when the killing ends.
June 11, 2024
In a world with no shortage of “what if superheroes could be evil or crazy” clones of clones of clones of better, yesteryear what-if one-offs, THE MADNESS is an extremely welcome and adroit execution of the grim, edgy, too-much, gone-rogue, gone-mad, what’s-even-the-point-of-powers para-genre.
Would read a whole world built out on our heroine. And the nods to the worlds we already have aren’t asinine or gratuitous or cheeky, they’re built with fundamental story DNA that only someone who genuinely loves the superhero genre could muster.
Cool art, I think zero unnecessarily sexualized or pervy treatments for the women, not the worst offender for the usual hyper-pacing issues that every contemporary comic suffers from, and consistent serviceable writing.
Loved it loved it loved it.
Would read a whole world built out on our heroine. And the nods to the worlds we already have aren’t asinine or gratuitous or cheeky, they’re built with fundamental story DNA that only someone who genuinely loves the superhero genre could muster.
Cool art, I think zero unnecessarily sexualized or pervy treatments for the women, not the worst offender for the usual hyper-pacing issues that every contemporary comic suffers from, and consistent serviceable writing.
Loved it loved it loved it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2024
I enjoy J Michael Straczynski's work and he is, imo, one of the best writers working in the genre today. The storyline of revenge for teh death if a loved one(s) which forms the core of this work is an old one but Straczynski gives it a wonderful new twist in his usual inimitable style. My only problem with this book is that, despite some excellent backstory and lead up the final dénouement feels overly 'rushed' as though there should have been another issue of 30 pages leading into it and that left me feeling slightly 'cheated'. Great story but slightly spoiled by that rushing.
January 1, 2025
Enjoyable but flawed
The writing is solid, and the art is good, but the composition is messy as all get out. Lots of closeups and weird "camera" angles that serve little real purpose. I think they are meant to feel like madness, but they feel sloppy to me. Good thing the book is still a fun read.
The writing is solid, and the art is good, but the composition is messy as all get out. Lots of closeups and weird "camera" angles that serve little real purpose. I think they are meant to feel like madness, but they feel sloppy to me. Good thing the book is still a fun read.
August 9, 2025
Was okay, Raven was cool but wasn’t super invested
August 4, 2024
Not bad, but there's not a lot to the story other than a super-powered quest for vengeance. The art is good and colorful.
April 11, 2024
Solid stuff. AWA continues to release quality books.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews