The Vertigo mini spotlighting the stories before Mad Max: Fury Road continues with the focus this month on the incomparable Imperator Furiosa. She’s the breakout character of the year, but can the comic handle her character with the same respect and deft hand as the film?
Warning, this review contains SPOILERS for the film Mad Max: Fury Road, but the comic is a prequel, not a prelude, so familiarity with the source material is needed before continuing on.
Written by George Miller (story), Nico Lathouris & Mark Sexton
Illustrated by Mark Sexton, Tristan Jones, Szymon Kudranski, and Michael Spicer
High in the Citadel there exists a bio-dome of clean air and pure water, protected from the toxicity and anarchy of the Wasteland. Here the warlord Immortan Joe keeps his most prized possessions – his wives – imprisoned for his pleasure and his insistence that they bear him healthy male heirs.
Then, amid this cruel depravity, an unlikely rescuer emerges…the Immortan’s most lethal warrior: the Imperator Furiosa.
From the mind of George Miller, the creator of the Mad Max trilogy, the prelude miniseries to the upcoming film Mad Max: Fury Road continues!
Imeprator Furiosa may very well be the most interesting hero since John McClane. Hell, she might be the most interesting hero since Indiana Jones. From the moment she locks in the steering wheel of her War Rig and staters off conspiratorially into the distance, we’re already intrigued by her. As she plows her way through the first leg of the desert, battling War Boys and spikey cars exploding and flipping around her, we’ve started rooting for her. By the time she turns her War Rig into an oncoming sandstorm, we’re looking up at her with starry-eyed admiration. Her choices, struggles, and quest for redemption is the driving force behind Mad Mad: Fury Road and her presence is one of the many elements to make that movie memorable.
It’s a pity, then, that her comic doesn’t carry the same weight. I think, at best, this issue could be considered “disappointing.” Written by Nico Lathouris and Mark Sexton (working from a story by George Miller) and illustrated by Tristan Jones, Szymon Kudranksi, and Sexton, the book focuses on the months leading up to the legendary journey on the Fury Road and how Furiosa and the brides met and plotted their escape.
I do like how this massive creative team kept Furiosa’s background mysterious. The Nux and Immortan Joe stories in the previous prequel issue were more like a montage of how they came to their positions in the Citadel, and that book read like an illustrated Wikipedia article. Part of what makes Furiosa so interesting and effective in the film is that her past isn’t overwhelming her current state. She’s on on quest for redemption, sure, and Miller and Charlize Theron give us enough so we can understand she’s come from a painful place and she’s suffered and fought for every moment along the way, but they never dwell on it.
One of the stronger elements of the comic is that it doesn’t dwell on her past, either. Furiosa shows up about 8 pages into the story, positioned as the guard for the wives in their enclosure by Immortan Joe to keep them protected from some of the other men. She spends much of her time observing the wives and taking in their life.
The book, though, isn’t really about her: it’s focused far more on Splendid, Capable, Toast, The Dag, and Cheedo, and the life of domestic servitude they live through. Immortan Joe gives them comfort and history and seclusion, but he never treats them as anything more than pretty pets he occasionally forces himself on. One of the other strong points is the book’s message about education: the girls don’t realize how badly they’re treated or that there’s anything else to their lives until they meet the historian and are given books and books to read. Anyone can punch their way to the top, but cunning and intelligent choices with conquer force eventually.
As a comic, though, the whole thing is kind of a mess. This isn’t a story so much about Furiosa, but about how the wives convinced Furiosa to take them out on the Fury Road. Kudranksi and Jones create a finely gritty world, and their sketchy style is so similar I didn’t notice when they switched pages, but their sense of action composition left me confused at times, unsure of what was going on. It’s also difficult to tell the wives apart, especially during the super dark and muddy night scenes. And while Lathouris and Sexton’s script never really drags, though it chooses odd moments to illustrate. Elements in the movie subtly hinted at are fully dramatized here and it cheapens them. The book feels seedy and problematic, almost like it’s offering a cheap thrill rather than a horrifying moment.
Continued belowLike the first issue of the series, the comic doesn’t really turn in any of the other cool elements that make any of the Mad Max movies so engaging. There are no crazy stunts or awe-inspiring action sequences. There aren’t over-the-top costumes or oddly beautiful apocalyptic locations. There isn’t any of the assured compositions and framing. The characters are there, but the story comes off like a generic post-apocalyptic thriller.
This book is like watching a deleted scene on a DVD. Although it has some moments that help contribute to the larger understanding of the story, it’s ultimately unnecessary and awkward.
Final Verdict: 5.8 – Messy and problematic and disappointing, the comic doesn’t do Furiosa justice.
