Anna Mercury: Mad and beautiful, same way it always does.
Trouble is brewing in New Ataraxia. An underground rebellion is striking back against the technocratic fascist government, helped by the mysterious figure of Anna Mercury. The government is getting ready to fire their newest weapon, the Cutter, at their neighbor Sheol City and Anna has only hours to stop it.
But there is something more about Anna. How does she seem to escape impossible situations so easily? How can she jump out of windows and land harmlessly on the ground or walk across telephone wires? How can she so unerringly fire her twin pistols? And she comes from someplace no one has ever heard, beyond New Ataraxia and Sheol City. Someplace called London.
A genre-bending series written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Facundo Percio, Anna Mercury is part sci-fi, part pulp fiction, and part spy thriller (with just a dash of superhero thrown in). Originally a 5-issue mini-series (March-December, 2008). A second mini-series appeared in 2009-2010.
Tropes:
- Applied Phlebotinum: Almost all the extraordinary things Anna can do are because of her "induction field," which can manipulate gravity in New Ataraxia. Also, the technology that allows Anna to go from London to New Ataraxia (which gives her, at best, 16 hours before returning).
- Death Ray: The Cutter is a huge electro-gravitic cannon installed on Ataraxia's Mandragon Moon. It's not quite on a Doomsday Device scale, but from its orbital position it can destroy an entire city.
- Masquerade: The nine imaginary worlds are known to each respective agency in the G-8 governments, but not to heads of state. "Launchpad" says he's had to explain the program to four Prime Ministers so far and each have had, well, unusual reactions. The most recent one seems to take it alright, though.
- Meaningful Name: Ataraxia
is a Greek word for a kind of blissful state, while Sheol is Hebrew for Hell. And Mercury is, of course, a Roman trickster god (even though that's her Code Name, not real name).
- Mistaken for Spies: Interesting in that Anna is a spy, but for the UK, not for Sheol.
- Nuke 'em: One of the options "Launchpad" tells the PM is just shoving a nuclear warhead into New Ataraxia.
- Outrun the Fireball: An interesting variation, Anna is boomeranged from New Ataraxia right before the fireball would hit her.
- The Reveal: At the end of the first issue, it's shown Anna is an agent of the British government and New Ataraxia is an "imaginary" world, one of nine that orbit Earth.
