A comiXologist recommends (a Dark Horse comic)
Fight Club 2
“I am Jack’s squealing inner fan-boy.”
For this week’s selection we are tackling the much discussed and debated title “Fight Club 2.” I hope you are as excited as I am.
Upon last year’s announcement at the Dark Horse Panel hosted by Aub Driver my mind was bursting with speculation. After the panel I kept trying to conceive of all the possibilities of an all-new story following the mad genius hero of the hopeless: Tyler Durden. Does “Project: Mayhem” cause the intended rebirth its mission of anarchy intended? Does our unnamed protagonist (played by Edward Norton in the film) find peace of mind after he blew out a piece of his brain?
With the new story being written by the original novel’s writer, Chuck Palahniuk, my hopes were very high. Not to mention with covers by David Mack (Kabuki) and interior art by Cameron Stewart (Batman and Robin) this was promising to be a must-see for the following year. Here we are a year later, and “Fight Club 2” has not disappointed!
Upon it’s opening we are met by our familiar unnamed protagonist, now referring to himself as Sebastian. It is just about 10 years after the events of the original story, and his life has settled back into mundane banality. That is meant to come off redundant because the sequence itself is. Palahniuk paints another dull, bland, and painfully boring existence his nameless hero subjects himself to. The difference is he has a wife, kid, and house.
The day-to-day of married life with Marla, his lady love-interest of the first story has gone quite stale. Marla has taken to going to support groups to listen to other people’s problems that may be worse than hers or take advantage of a few listening ears that are too polite to tell her to leave. This is by far my favorite part of the first issue because Marla goes to support group for children suffering from Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (look it up).
I’m going to wrap up my synopsis pretty succinctly here and now: Tyler Durden lives and his machinations never stopped moving. Issue #1 sets things up casually with the sense of humor a demolitions expert has getting the button ready to spark some C-4 explosive. Issue #2 sparks the C-4.
“I am Jack’s judgmental comic book guy.”
I started this one beyond skeptical. Opening a new book with a deep sigh of cynicism is just something I do, so in saying “beyond skeptical,” you can trust I mean it. I was ready with my spear out and poised for a fierce nerd-rage fueled tirade when it didn’t live up to my high expectations. All my expectations were met and surpassed by a witty new narrative, a new level of villainous genius, and one of the best creative teams I’ve seen since Snyder and Jock got back together.