Fight Club makes an epic return with Image Comics. Tyler Durden lives, but does this sequel live up to the original novel and movie?
In the reprisal of the cult classic, we join the infamous Tyler Durden in the current day. His life has become dull, filled with the boredom that can come with being married, suburban living. Going by the name Sebastian, Tyler lives with Marla, his wife, and their son. Sebastian combats his anxiety and various other maladies with subscription after subscription. The rebel that once resided deep within Sebastian seems to have died. An already strained marriage seems to only be getting worse as Sebastian tries to come to grips with reality and “normal” living. He can no longer please Marla, and thus she returns to her support group crashing lifestyle.
All the while, Sebastian and Marla’s neglected son seems to be running amok in their suburban home, as he fashions things like gunpowder from everyday objects found in the home (a real chip off the ol’ block). His relationship with his father is strenuous as readers of the novel, or those who have seen the film, will remember that Tyler did not have a relationship with his own father. All of this dysfunction in Sebastian’s life begins to mount, and leads to a psychotic break that will shock new readers and long time fans alike.
Chuck Palahniuk has returned to write this comic personally and his prose will be accompanied by visuals courtesy of Cameron Stewart. Stewart’s’ art style is somewhat realistic, but ere on a more cartoonish side. The color palette is sometimes a bit too bright for my liking, given the story, but at other times, it remains a bit muted. Throughout the issue, readers will also notice that objects from the narrative literally spill across the page, such as Sebastians pills. These visual elements sometimes block and obscure text, hiding key information from the reader.
The first fault I found in Fight Club 2, is just how much it insists upon itself. This comic quotes the film more than an annoying millennial who just watched it for the first time. At certain points, this choice serves the story. At one moment, readers see a frame containing Sebastian siting bored in a cubicle. The familiar line comes back again, this time framing his own life, “Under and behind and inside everything the man took for granted, something horrible had been growing.” In moments like this, the irony of seeing these lines once used by the narrator to describe others hits hard, but after the 10th quote, its really just annoying. After reading the first issue in it’s entirety I took the time to merely look at the illustration, and while beautiful, the art style is a bit bright and colorful for the dark and gritty narrative told in the original novel and film.
Faults aside, this is surely an exciting time for spacemonkeys everywhere. If you loved the book and or film, this is definitely a comic to pick up and follow. With a premiere issue so packed with twists and turns, we can only guess how exciting the rest of the series will be.