MARGUERITE VS THE OCCUPATION – Indie Review

In MARGUERITE VS THE OCCUPATION, available from Resistance Comics on November 2021 via Kickstarter, Marguerite makes her way through the woods to her home at the tail end of WWII. Unfortunately, the Nazis occupying its remains force Marguerite to sacrifice the past to save the future.

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The Details

• Written By: John Luzar
• Art By: Kasey Quevedo
• Colors By: Laurel Dundee
• Letters By: Toben Racicot
• Cover Art By: Kasey Quevedo
• Cover Price: $5 (digital edition via Kickstarter)
• Release Date: November 2021 (estimated)

Was It Good?

This was a weird one, and not in a good way.

When we review comics here, we look at the finished product. A good comic should be evergreen, or if you prefer, timeless. The story should stand on its own regardless of when you read it, and most importantly, regardless of whatever socio-political climate you happen to occupy at the time of reading.

This comic not only doesn’t avoid the political climate of the last few years, but it leans into it… hard. The writer is very plain about the motivation to write this story when you read the Kickstarter campaign notes. That’s not the problem if it’s meant to reflect the current political scene. However, it is a problem when it takes the current political climate, tries to map the current environment onto a completely different historical context, and merges the two into a nonsensical story.

And there’s the rub, the story feels incomplete in parts and eye-rollingly ridiculous in others. We see this problem much too often where the creators get so hyper-focused on a particular topic (e.g dislike for a political figure) that the desire to make a point or convey a message neglects the fundamentals of storytelling.

This is just such an example where the creators are so determined to make a point, they forgot to tell a complete, engaging story.

“Wait,” you say. “Politics have always been in comics,” you wail. “Don’t be that guy,” you nag. Fair enough. Hop down to the next section for specifics.

To be fair to all participants in this comic, the art is fairly good. Dundee’s coloring work is the standout for vibrancy and visual appeal, especially when it comes to textures. The linework is excellent, although there’s some minor inconsistency in the structure of Marguerite’s face from page to page. It’s not enough of a down point to affect the overall story (such as it is), but it was a persistent distraction.

In all, this indie effort has good, appealing art, but the story is, frankly, a mess.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

Marguerite is on her way home on the eve of France’s occupation. When she arrives, she discovers her home (and its valuable vantage point over the valley) has been turned into a Nazi gun nest. Marguerite then joins forces with a Resistance fighter to clear the nest stopping American forces from freeing the valley and lending support to the Allies.

That’s the setup, but as we noted above, the execution falls short.

First, there’s a jarring mismatch in the dialog between then and now. Right from the first page, Marguerite’s inner narration speaks and “sounds” decidedly modern. For example, the phrasing “you don’t get to be mad” is not an authentic manner of speaking from that time period, and these little dialog contradictions pepper the entire story, consistently pulling you out of the immersion.

Next, where is Marguerite coming from? There’s no setup, there’s no explanation for where she’s been or what she intends to do once she gets back home. She’s simply there, running through the woods, with no rhyme or reason.

When Marguerite gets close enough to home to get the lay of the land, Resistance fighters charge the Nazi gun nest in a completely bizarre act of suicidal stupidity. The Nazis are entrenched in a perfect position, defensible from nearly every angle. What was the plan here? What kind of Resistance fighters are these to do something so inept? This isn’t Normandy beach where the plan was to overwhelm the Germans with pure numbers. The more you think about it, the worse it gets when you learn at least one Resistance member has grenades.

Fine, let’s put all that aside and get to Marguerite’s plan.

Her plan is to climb a church bell tower, use a grenade to blow up the joist holding the 5-foot-tall bell, while she’s inside of it, and send the bell hurtling across the ravine to knock down the support beams of the Nazis’ gun nest. The plan is the most problematic of everything going on in this comic because of how little sense it makes. It’s something out of a Road Runner/Coyote cartoon.

A bell of that size and weight would drop straight down if dislocated at the joint. It would take enough explosives to level half the valley to toss it as far as needed here.

Next, if Marguerite really had traveled inside the bell, flying as far as it did, she would be dead. Not injured or roughed up a little. She would be a red smear on the inside of that bell.

Finally, it’s not remotely possible that Marguerite could have angled a massive bell, weighing several tons, with enough pinpoint accuracy to land in just the right spot.

The more you examine the plan, the more improbable and ridiculous it sounds. But of course, everything works perfectly and Marguerite walks away completely victorious with nothing but a mild headache.

At this point, you’d be reasonable to think I’m just being picky. But consider this is positioned as historical fiction. Real-world situations with desperate people fighting with everything they’ve got to defeat evil. What you get is a silly, amateurish fantasy that lacks any authenticity or effort into researching the time and place of this era.

Final Thoughts

MARGUERITE VS THE OCCUPATION is an example of creators wanting so badly to make a political point, they forgot to tell a story that makes sense. The only redeeming quality of this book is the solid art execution. This is not a recommended buy.

Score: 5.5/10