Marjorie Finnegan: Temporal Criminal #3

[history79]

AIPT: Marjorie’s another in a long line of lovable social deviants from Garth Ennis. What is it about a Frank Castle, Billy Butcher, and Marjorie Finnegan that’s so appealing to you as a creator and also us as fans/readers?

And a follow-up of sorts: how (if at all) does Marjorie fit in as it relates to some of those other beloved characters mentioned above?

GARTH ENNIS: Odd mentioning those three in the same breath, given that Frank and Billy are two of the biggest monsters in comics, and Marj is just out for some innocent-ish fun. She doesn’t fit in anywhere near them. I’m trying to think of a character like her I have written; she isn’t a monster, nor is she a victim of circumstances like Kev Hawkins or Code Pru. Maybe she belongs alongside some of the guys from Hitman, or someone more irresponsible like Cassidy from Preacher (although she isn’t the wretched s--t he turns out to be).

Source: https://aiptcomics.com/2021/03/16/garth-ennis-marjorie-interview/

Comments

[cyberghostface]

Kind of surprised Garth is acknowledging Frank at least is a monster in the lede given how often he depicts Frank as being in the right and superheroes being buffoons for trying to stop him.

[dan_ingram]

It's nothing more than lip service.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoNotDoThisCoolThing

[onsokumaru]

Ennis is pretty tame with the "sins" all those prophets and angels commited. It's not the terrible things they did in reality or in story, but just minor stuff they themselves deemed as sins.

[fra080389]

This... makes no sense.
Those pages were part of the "original text" or not? And if they were and if they were edited out, what make him believe they will not edited AGAIN if he goes back and put there? What it makes him believe that the result will be that he expects anyway? There were tons of religious material that it was considered apocryphal and not considered, why this would be different? And even if it was different, maybe the text will not have the same impact or maybe those things will be ignored or censored or nothing, really. Or it will bring to another "religion/belief", slighty different (or not, after all old gods were going around drinking and ****ing and nl one thought that made them less worthy of veneration in absence of others divinities to look up)... plus, whatever ideology comes with the same problems, and there is not even need those ideologies being religious to radicalize..
So... What's the point? Is it an experiment?
Why grown up men came up with such stupid ideas apparently feeling very clever about it? At least GOD IS DEAD was funny in its absurdity.

[thezmage]

It's like Garth Ennis, of all people, doesn't realize that religious people can be hypocrites, or that religious texts tend to have contradictions in there that are ignored or explained away.

[lego_joker]

It really makes me wonder... would the ultimate anti-religious story be one where someone - through time travel or whatever - erases the entire concept, comes back to the present, and finds out absolutely nothing has changed?

Turns out - people will love their neighbors, help the poor, abuse children, and start wars, sometimes in the same day, all by themselves. The God stuff is simply flavor text.

[laughing_tree]

No, because if nothing changed, that lets religion off the hook for all the bad it's done in the world.

[shakalooloo]

Yes, everyone fights over Jerusalem simply because it's really good quality soil there.

[velacron]

To be fair, the Romans, Babylonians, Persians and Alexander conquered Judaea before, so maybe monotheism wasn't the real culprit all along

[dan_ingram]

In fairness, people barely understand that other people themselves have contradictions.

[thezmage]

And, yeah, the examples are embarrassingly tame. "Moses ate bacon? Well clearly all religion is wrong!"

[cypherfdp]

I don't think self-immolation really qualifies here

[numeronone]

Well, this certainly doesn't seem like a predictably stupid Garth Ennis story.

Especially considering he also recently penned the tale "Anyone who isn't a Centrist is literally paving the way for Satan to take over the world".

[numeronone]

Also, how butthurt do you have to be over the phrase 'Politically Correct' when no-one's taken it seriously since at least 1994?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politically_Correct_Bedtime_Stories

Could it be, Garth, that your real issue is not being able to say and/or write uninspired edgelord rubbish without consequence?

[super_fly]

Oh I remember reading one of these as a kid
It's funny that the anti-pc brigade spend a lot more time coming up with pc terminology than the supposed pc police did
funnier than this anyway

[mazway_75]

Marj is just out for some innocent-ish fun

Yeah, trying to rape Henry VIII with a strap-on was clearly just a prank.

Someone has to write a story where an Ennis-like writer finds himself in the afterlife with a smirking figure going "I love the looks on the faces of you people when you realize all this 'bullshit' is actually real."

[blueprintstyles]

I can't believe Garth used the word innocent when she tries to sexually assault someone in a panel first issue. The base premise of a White person stealing artifacts from other culture's history and treating it like its NBD is kinda offensive to me as well.

[blueprintstyles]

I think that monk who immolated himself was protesting racial injustice or something, kinda poor taste to use him in this manner.

[shadur]

Poor taste has been Ennis' stock-in-trade for quite some time now.

[lego_joker]

For a self-proclaimed Champion of the Common Man, Ennis can be shockingly dismissive of their rebellions. I believe in one of his books (might've been The Boys, might've been Punisher MAX) he even says the Irish Revolution was started by ivory-tower types who only wanted to make A Statement and didn't understand the Horrors of Real War(tm), and succeeded purely on luck.

[repto]

Increasingly irrelevant edgelord tries to attract attention, news at 11.