Middle-aged Maggie
By Marc Perton
More nostalgia. Back in the day, “Love & Rockets” was the only comic book series I read religiously. Jaime Hernandez’s series of stories about LA punks Maggie, Hopey and their pals were the graphical equivalent of “Repo Man”—stories that blurred the line between the quotidian exploits of the characters and weird sci fi subplots (in early issues of L&R, Maggie was a rocket-ship mechanic with a crush on a pilot). Later issues dropped the sci fi to focus more on the characters, which was probably the right direction for Hernandez to take, though I did miss those elements once they vanished. Now, Maggie’s back, in The New York Times Magazine, of all places (well, she never really went away, since new stories have continued to appear periodically over the past 20 years—but this is a pretty high-profile appearance). And she’s middle-aged, overweight, divorced and managing an apartment building for a living. From the looks of things, life has somehow passed her by, though she is, hopefully, about to learn some universal truths from her old friend, the legendary wrestling champ Rena Titañon. Or not. I don’t think Xaime brought her back in such a prominent venue just to pack her off with some sort of trite new-age awakening. Still, I’d like to think that Maggie can make out OK in the end. Even if she doesn’t end up with rocket pilot Rand Race, she deserves more out of life than a dead-end job and an empty home. Here’s hoping Xaime has some kind of answer for her!
More nostalgia. Back in the day, “Love & Rockets” was the only comic book series I read religiously. Jaime Hernandez’s series of stories about LA punks Maggie, Hopey and their pals were the graphical equivalent of “Repo Man”—stories that blurred the line between the quotidian exploits of the characters and weird sci fi subplots (in early issues of L&R, Maggie was a rocket-ship mechanic with a crush on a pilot). Later issues dropped the sci fi to focus more on the characters, which was probably the right direction for Hernandez to take, though I did miss those elements once they vanished. Now, Maggie’s back, in The New York Times Magazine, of all places (well, she never really went away, since new stories have continued to appear periodically over the past 20 years—but this is a pretty high-profile appearance). And she’s middle-aged, overweight, divorced and managing an apartment building for a living. From the looks of things, life has somehow passed her by, though she is, hopefully, about to learn some universal truths from her old friend, the legendary wrestling champ Rena Titañon. Or not. I don’t think Xaime brought her back in such a prominent venue just to pack her off with some sort of trite new-age awakening. Still, I’d like to think that Maggie can make out OK in the end. Even if she doesn’t end up with rocket pilot Rand Race, she deserves more out of life than a dead-end job and an empty home. Here’s hoping Xaime has some kind of answer for her!
