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A review by lisa_setepenre
Mad Max: Fury Road: The Prelude to the Blockbuster Film! by George Miller
2.0
I should probably start with a disclaimer. Mad Max: Fury Road is the first proper comic book I've ever read. I'm not familiar with the genre, I don't know what's standard practice and what's not, and so my review and comments come from that place.
This is an anthology of four previously published instalments that act as prequels, providing back story for four of the most important characters in the 2015 film, Mad Max: Fury Road – Immortan Joe, Nux, Furiosa and Max himself. Along the way, we also get to find out new information about other characters, such as the Five Wives, Miss Giddy, Rictus and Glory the Child. A separate comic (perhaps unique to this anthology) also provides an origins story for the War Rig, explaining where various parts of the vehicle came from.
I would have preferred that these comics were longer, whether that involves expanding the 40 page limit or using a different format that allowed for more length and/or detail per page. Save the War Rig origins story, I felt that nearly all the stories begged for expansion. They felt rushed and sometimes confusing, with vital plot details obscured. I found myself with questions that the text couldn't answer or that I could only gleam from rereading.
As an example, the story of Nux is covered in less than 10 pages (the remaining 30 pages of that volume are dedicated to Immortan Joe's back-story) and, to be fair, it's not exactly complex. But there were a number of questions I had: what happened to Nux's mother, what work was his father doing, why did he think his father was "up there", why was he depicted as blond or ginger when the actor is dark-haired and was dark-haired as a child (he was the boy in About A Boy, how hard can it be research), why exactly did he start laughing at his impending death and why did that laughter earn him safety? Also, would it have killed the writers to give us something about Nux's lancer, Slit? He's not even amongst the random War Boys you see in the comics!
I had other questions, from plot-specific to character-specific, across all four comics. I'd start listing them, but there are simply too many to go into.
The artwork was unimpressive, often ugly and at times just plain confusing. In the Furiosa chapter, I had repeated difficulty telling the wives apart, which was not an issue I had in the films. There were also a number of panels that were undeniably gratuitous in their depictions of molestation and rape, which the films stayed well away from. I think it's worthwhile reading this review of the 'Furiosa' comic. I don't agree with all of it – I don't think it's anti-feminist for women to have disagreements, especially in the traumatic and difficult situations these women are trapped in – and some of it is, in my opinion, hyperbolic, but it is worth the read.
I was glad to find out more about a film I adored, allowing the comics to enhance my understanding of the world and characters. However, the execution of this expansion was not to my liking and proved a letdown.
This is an anthology of four previously published instalments that act as prequels, providing back story for four of the most important characters in the 2015 film, Mad Max: Fury Road – Immortan Joe, Nux, Furiosa and Max himself. Along the way, we also get to find out new information about other characters, such as the Five Wives, Miss Giddy, Rictus and Glory the Child. A separate comic (perhaps unique to this anthology) also provides an origins story for the War Rig, explaining where various parts of the vehicle came from.
I would have preferred that these comics were longer, whether that involves expanding the 40 page limit or using a different format that allowed for more length and/or detail per page. Save the War Rig origins story, I felt that nearly all the stories begged for expansion. They felt rushed and sometimes confusing, with vital plot details obscured. I found myself with questions that the text couldn't answer or that I could only gleam from rereading.
As an example, the story of Nux is covered in less than 10 pages (the remaining 30 pages of that volume are dedicated to Immortan Joe's back-story) and, to be fair, it's not exactly complex. But there were a number of questions I had: what happened to Nux's mother, what work was his father doing, why did he think his father was "up there", why was he depicted as blond or ginger when the actor is dark-haired and was dark-haired as a child (he was the boy in About A Boy, how hard can it be research), why exactly did he start laughing at his impending death and why did that laughter earn him safety? Also, would it have killed the writers to give us something about Nux's lancer, Slit? He's not even amongst the random War Boys you see in the comics!
I had other questions, from plot-specific to character-specific, across all four comics. I'd start listing them, but there are simply too many to go into.
The artwork was unimpressive, often ugly and at times just plain confusing. In the Furiosa chapter, I had repeated difficulty telling the wives apart, which was not an issue I had in the films. There were also a number of panels that were undeniably gratuitous in their depictions of molestation and rape, which the films stayed well away from. I think it's worthwhile reading this review of the 'Furiosa' comic. I don't agree with all of it – I don't think it's anti-feminist for women to have disagreements, especially in the traumatic and difficult situations these women are trapped in – and some of it is, in my opinion, hyperbolic, but it is worth the read.
I was glad to find out more about a film I adored, allowing the comics to enhance my understanding of the world and characters. However, the execution of this expansion was not to my liking and proved a letdown.