There is a long tradition of celebrities teaming up with comic book creators to bring their ideas to the comic book page, and MOM: Mother of Madness is only the last opus. MOM: Mother of Madness comes from the creative mind of Emilia Clarke, the star of Game of thrones, who teamed up with writer Marguerite Bennett for the upcoming three-issue series of Picture comics.

According to Clarke, MOM: Mother of Madness is the story of a single mother named Maya who discovers that she possesses chilling superpowers and decides to use them to take on a secret cabal of human traffickers. Along with her co-writer Bennett, whom Clarke considers her “comic book guru,” the two have assembled an all-female creative team for the series comprising illustrator Leila Leiz, collaborator Isobel Richardson and cover artist Jo Ratcliffe.

Although Bennett helps with the series, Clarke made most of the material herself, from Maya’s story to her costume design, like Maya’s mask as seen on the cover is reminiscent of the signature balaclavas. from the Russian punk protest group, Pussy Riot.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clarke described the series as a mix of dead Pool-esque silliness and ironic humor, which combines with a current feminist sensibility explored in an extreme gender atmosphere. Clarke also said of her new project:

“We always call mothers superheroes, and I’m like, what if they are? What if they were rightfully superheroes? Maya has had a very hard life, and she finds herself in a place where everything that makes her unique she hates and is ashamed of. It is only in discovering her powers that she finds her true acceptance of who she is.

Clarke also said about the protagonist of the series and her powers:

“There’s a lot, a lot of things that she can do that is pretty cool. She can do a lot of things at certain times of her month. She can do all of these bad things, but they all come from being a woman who has a menstrual cycle. I thought it would be cool to have all the things that women don’t like about them and turn them over and do the things that make her superhuman.

Clarke, a self-proclaimed “fangirl” of comics and superhero movies, says she often felt left out of this world because of her gender – in some cases, literally.

“My brother was a comedic nerd [growing up], and I was not allowed to enter the stores! I was not allowed to go in with him, because I was the losing little sister. And at times when I was cleared, there weren’t a lot of women on the covers, and there weren’t a lot of women in the stores. So I didn’t feel safe exploring it at that age.

Also saying that years later the landscape had not changed much.

“Cut to me at Comic-Con, and I’m there like, ‘I still don’t see a lot of women. I still can’t see the women who aren’t in Lycra reflecting on me. Are there women who are overpowered, but who don’t wear a tight suit? Not that I can see. This is what brought me to the “Wouldn’t it be funny if …” conversation.

“It was a very beautiful female experience in her creation, and an incredibly creative and enriching process. But the main reason I wanted to do this comic was that I wanted young girls to look at a fallible woman. Obviously you see this a lot in the industry; you have all these incredibly stimulating female shows. But I just felt like I hadn’t seen him in that genre.

“I think back to my young self and I think if I had been allowed to walk into this comic book store and could see a version that I thought I could relate to on some level, I would have absolutely been in it. It’s a very personal experience that everyone has with comics. They are characters that people find passionate about, care about and identify with. I wanted to add a new character to the mix and see if people identified with her in a way that impacted them.

Emilia Clarke also recalled how the idea for the series started as a joke:

“About three years ago I was in a car with a bunch of friends and I was like, ‘Hey guys, wouldn’t that be really funny if…’ And then I woke up the next day and I was like, “This is fun. That would be fucking cool. Why not?'”

MOM: Mother of Madness# 1 will hit Image Comics shelves on July 21, 2021.