Jesus Christ kicks little ass and takes very few names in this short graphic novel which might very well surprise you in its attempts at peaceful meditation on the nature of destiny and religion in a time of revolution.
Written by Joe CaseyCover by Benjamin Marra
illustrated by Benjamin Marra
Colored by Brad Simpson
Lettered by Rus WootonThe year is 26 C.E. A young Nazarean carpenter is having some trouble adjusting to the violent world around him—and finding his place within it. He knows he’s different, but he doesn’t know why. Not yet, anyway. A bloody, two-fisted tale of historical heroic fiction brought to you by JOE CASEY (SEX, BUTCHER BAKER, THE RIGHTEOUS MAKER, MCMLXXV) and BENJAMIN MARRA (Night Business, Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T.).
“Jesusfreak” is a clear case of publicity failing the product. Controversy-baiting interviews made outlets like Fox News and The Christian Post denounce this slim graphic novel before it was even published, though in honesty getting these sort of places to denounce something is exceedingly easy, also made it appear the sort of tired dudebro take that has nothing to offer but annoying the easily-annoyed. Writer Joe Casey certainly played this game before, getting close to line and playfully shoving his hand over it before pulling it back in the last second; meanwhile artist Benjamin Marra, who is certainly talented in his chosen field of drawing action and comedic-gore, has crossed that line several times before; his type of ironic tongue-in-cheek brutalist approach to depicting violence and social issues had become rather tiring.
But “Jesusfreak” turns out to be none of these things. Jesus here is not a superhero, and he is certainly not a bloodthirsty head-looping warrior. There is more violence than the typical Jesus retelling, more violence towards people other than Jesus himself that is, but most of the beatings are done in the manner of a non-bloody PG-13 Kung-Fu feature; the only bits that bring to mind Marra’s previous brutalist works involve metaphorical struggle with non-human beings.
Jesus, both as a story and as a character, had been adapted so many times that it is hard to find a particular new angle on him. I am sure someone more versed in the New Testament can find something interesting about the changes brought about be Casey and Marra’s story, but as a non-Christian who mostly experienced ‘Jesus’ as a pop-culture Icon, he doesn’t seem very different from a dozen other takes – and he’s not even close to being the bloodiest one.
The one big difference is the visual aesthetic which brings to mind 1970’s Marvel Comics, with the specific reference point being “Master of Kung Fu.” Marra works hard to copy the character designs (his Jesus has the slick musculature and moving grace of Bruce Lee) and the somewhat dazed color-palette of that period, washed-out on yellowing pages; Joe Casey, meanwhile, uses the over-the-top purple-prose-laden caption boxes to venture in and out of Jesus’ mind (“It was not simply the living waters of the Jordan in which he was being immersed… it was a higher level of self… a deeper dive into both consciousness and identity.”) as he struggles to find his destiny. The result is a work that is either remarkably honest or annoyingly winking, and I can’t really decide if it’s one or the other.
I suspect much of how you react to “Jesusfreak” depends in whether you believe it is the former or the latter: if you find it honest, if you believe Casey and Marra simply adopt the “Master of Kung-Fu” aesthetic in order to best serve the story of a man caught in troubled times and trying to come to terms with what is meant to be, you will probably be drawn to it; in that case – even if it is a failure it is a nobel one. On the other hand – if you end-up believing that it is merely another case of Joe Casey re-doing the comics he loved as a child (something he’s been doing for one degree or another since he went fully independent) “Jesusfreak” can quickly become tiring, a “Family Guy”-esque gag stretched over fifty odd story pages – ‘what if Jesus but also jump kicks?’
Continued belowI find myself closer to the former – to me this a noble failure. The book doesn’t really push forward the violence as one might expect, again the controversy is utterly inflated, and Jesus arc is about learning that he can’t simply punch his way out of the socio-political issues of him homeland. In that the choice of Jim Starlin-inspired verbosity is apt: Starlin did not wish for the character of Shang-Chi to become a shallow violence-dispensing machine (despite the wishes of the higher-ups) and wanted to use him to explore issues of philosophy and spirituality (whether he succeeded is another question entirely).
In “Jesusfreak” violence is the tool of the oppressors, something to grow out of and no into; not necessarily a massage I agree with wholeheartedly – but if you sought this graphic novel out hoping for Rambo-Jesus you’ll be disappointed; though some of the darker free-roaming illustrations Marra does when depicting nightmare scenes or divinely-inspired visions are rather creepy, there’s a nice sense of scene melting into one another which gives to comics a flowing forward momentum.
I, to, ended-up disappointed – not for the lack of gore but for the lack of content. The story seems to have ended just as it was picking up interest; this is not to say that “Jesusfreak” is too fast of a read, with all the words filling up the page it took me quite a while to read through, but that it feels more like a prologue to something bigger: what, exactly, is this version of Jesus meant to do when picking up his disciples and going about his future great acts? Did we spent all this time with him only to see him so easily slated into the familiar stories?
In that I guess “Jesusfreak” is a bit like a superhero story – in that it is another retread of an origin story told dozens of times before that only seems different until you reach the end; after all – you’ve heard it all before.
