Rage Reads Maharlika Komiks and Wednesday Addams Fanfiction
Rage Reads #5
March 15, 2026Table of Contents
I’m taking a very short break from the Wheel of Time series, so I have something new to share this week! No spoilers for either of these so read on if you want to know more about what I’m reading this week.
Maharlika by Rexy Dorado and John Ray
Maharlika is a dystopian science fiction comic series about The Republic of Maharlika–a nation founded when the Philippines gained independence after a victory against Spain. The story revolves around old friends Yari—a mercenary—and Mal—an infamous detective—rekindling their friendship after a bounty mission puts them on the same team. There’s robots, mercenaries in flying vehicles, drones that deliver your food right at your balcony, and a lot of cool stuff.
Except for the dialogue, much of the text written in this comic makes use of Baybayin—an ancient Philippine writing system that was widely used in the Tagalog-speaking regions of the Philippines before colonization. I used to be able to write full diary entries with this script when I was in high school, and it is so cool to be able to see it in Filipino works today! It is not as sophisticated as the spoken Filipino language, since it did not evolve with the culture, so some words—especially borrowed English words—are harder to write than others.
I discovered this comic series via a YouTube livestream replay that was on my recommendations page on a random Tuesday. I had been meaning to read more from Filipino authors after my brief Lualhati Bautista phase last year, and this is a perfect start for this year.
If you’re interested in giving it a look, I have great news for you: the first full volume is available for free right here on Substack—they have it published at Maharlika. They also have the digital volumes available for purchase on Gumroad.
Chaos for the Fly by LaylaJeffany, A Wednesday (TV 2022) Fanfiction
Chaos for the Fly is a work of fanfiction published in AO3.
I have been reading this in bite-sized chunks the past two months after stumbling upon it on an X thread. It became viral-ish after one user tweeted about it (I no longer have the tweet link, sorry) having a word count of over one million. It has 32 chapters, so about 44K words per chapter. Yup.
I was intrigued, and because I actually really liked the show, I gave it a try. It picks up after the first season, so if you’re looking to read this fanfic I recommend watching at least the first season of the Netflix show. It follows Wednesday Addams and the gang in the new semester after Season 1. The main mystery of the story is one that is very much a spoiler for the first season, so I will avoid talking about that. But the fanfic is full of other mysteries and plot points as well, including Enid accidentally summoning an evil spirit.
The pacing is a bit slower than I’m used to, but each scene is packed full of details and dialogue that moves the story forward bit by bit so I never felt like any particular chunk is a filler scene. Apart from Wednesday solving mysteries, we also get to see Wednesday’s personal and emotional journey to opening herself up to people and new experiences.
I haven’t finished it yet, so this isn’t my opinion after the fact, but the time investment on this one is worth it so far. The pay-offs at 250K words in are already satisfying despite there being a bigger mystery yet to be solved. If you like your mystery sprinkled with a lot of interpersonal and intrapersonal rollercoaster, I definitely recommend.
Other works I enjoyed
Rage Reads Wheel of Time is back next week with the second half of The Great Hunt! More yapping soon.
Note: This was originally posted on Substack.