Mad Max: Fury Road (comic book)

Mad Max: Fury Road is a limited comic book series created by George Miller, Nico Lathouris, and Mark Sexton. Serving as a prequel to the 2015 film of the same name, the series focuses on several characters from the film at various points in their lives before it.

The series consists of four issues. Beginning in May 2015, Vertigo published one issue per month, ending in August. A single-volume collection of all of the issues was published on 26 August. Reception of the series has been mixed; some consider it unnecessary and poorly executed, and many harshly criticized the issue centred on Imperator Furiosa. However, the issue focused on Nux and Immortan Joe and the two issues focused on Max Rockatansky were received more positively.

Plot

All of the prequel comics begin with the introduction of the “Wordburger”, an oral storyteller and historian whose body is tattooed with names of important people, places and events. In each comic, the Wordburger is seen narrating the story of the protagonist of the respective comic to the people of the Citadel after it has been liberated from Immortan Joe's rule.

Nux and Immortan Joe

The first comic centres on the origins of Nux and Immortan Joe.

The first part of the comic focuses on the origins of Nux. A mother and father, with the infant Nux, travel to the Citadel where they live on the ground in poor conditions, without adequate supply of food and water. To support his family, Nux's father takes up a job at the top of the Citadel; however, unbeknownst to him, the job is very hazardous and he eventually dies due to the conditions. Nux never finds out what happened to his father, and his sick mother dies later. Believing his father is still alive, he tries to reach the top of the Citadel by grabbing onto the elevator used by the guards to transport to the top. One of the guard is about to push him off, but he is stopped by another guard who wants to see how long Nux can hold on. Nux desperately tries to hold onto the edge of the elevator, even as he starts to slip. The War Boys watching him start laughing, to which he laughs back in a mocking response and refuses to let go. Upon seeing this, the War Boys and guards are stunned by his grit. A guard who is impressed by his determination saves him from slipping and pulls him up to the platform. Impressed by his grit, the War Boys call him "a hard nut to crack", which leads to him being named "Nux". He eventually joins the War Boys when he grows up and Immortan Joe becomes like a father figure to him.

The second part focuses on the origins of Joe and how he acquired his godlike status. After the society started collapsing, war veteran Colonel Joe Moore formed a raider gang, along with other soldiers who served under his command such as Major Kalashnikov, and started raiding the communities in the wasteland. During one of his raids, a captured fat man who is about to be executed reveals the location of a fortress with huge natural stone pillars sitting atop a massive aquifer, in exchange for a deal for sparing his life. However, he warns that it is heavily defended and nearly impossible to enter without being granted access by those inside.

Joe first tries to convince the defenders of the aquifer to allow him to access the fortress, by offering them several women as sex slaves. However, when they refuse, he launches an all-out assault on the fortress, but the siege lasts for many days, killing many of his followers and rapidly depleting their supplies of food and water. He sends his scouts to search for more supplies, but they fail to find any; however, they report the discoveries of an abandoned oil refinery to the north, and a lead mine to the west of the fortress.

He then draws up a plan to climb to the top of the fortress by sending up a monitor lizard to the fortress with his men tied by the rope to the lizard which will allow them to scale the walls. The lizard at first keeps coming back down every time until one of Joe's henchmen cuts off his own finger and attaches it to a rope, using it as a treat to motivate the lizard to scale all the way to the top of fortress, thus allowing Joe and his henchmen to climb it. The plan initially backfires, as most of Joe's followers are killed, and one-by-one, the inhabitants of the fortress begin executing his surviving men and hanging the corpses of his dead followers from the cliff walls. Many of Joe's followers on the ground believing Joe to be dead, accept defeat and prepare to leave by the dawn of the third day.

However, Joe reemerges with his few remaining followers, having killed all of the defenders. His followers are stunned by this nearly impossible victory and call him "Immortal". This eventually leads him to acquiring the name of "Immortan Joe". The fortress comes to be known as Citadel and becomes the base for Joe and his army. His men eventually start operating the previously-discovered oil refinery and lead mine to generate oil and bullets. The oil refinery is later named "Gas Town" and the fat man who told Joe about the fortress, who later comes to be known as "The People Eater", is made its leader. The lead mine is named "The Bullet Farm," and Joe's second-in-command Kalashnikov, who later comes to be known as "The Bullet Farmer", is made its leader. The story also explains how Joe had three sons; Scrotus, Rictus Erectus and Corpus Callosum, all of whom were either deranged, mentally challenged or deformed, paving the way for Joe's plan to father healthy sons who could carry on his legacy by using various women as his wives who would be isolated from the harsh elements of the wasteland, thus increasing the chances of his sons being born healthy.

Furiosa

The second comic takes place right before the events of the film. It relates the story of how Imperator Furiosa meets with the Five Wives and helps them escape. The Five Wives were five young healthy women selected by Joe to provide him with a suitable male heir. He keeps them locked in a vault, providing them with food, water and a teacher, the Wordburger "Miss Giddy" who provides them education so they do not go insane due to their captivity. After conducting an examination on Angahard, Joe's resident physician, the Organic Mechanic, informs him that he has a window of two days to impregnate her if he wants a suitable and healthy male heir. Joe assigns a warrior, Imperator Furiosa, to protect the Wives who are at first hostile to her and constantly insult and taunt her.

The Wives are abused by Joe night-after-night with Angahard being the first. She is impregnated by him and later tries to kill the baby in the womb however she is stopped by Furiosa who rushes to her location after hearing her scream. The Wives who also heard Angahard's screams rush towards her and yell at Furiosa to leave them alone. Furiosa in anger hits all of them and chastises them for being ungrateful despite having privileges which no one else in the Citadel has. The Wives respond by saying that their lives have been made miserable by Joe and Angahard mocks Furisoa saying all she knows is killing to which she responds in a mocking reply saying Angahard was doing the same thing.

Gradually after this incident, a bond forms between the Wives and Furiosa. One night while hearing the musical performance of the Wives, Joe expresses interest in taking Fragile's virginity. The Dag upon hearing this berates Joe and tells him not to touch her since she is the only one who hasn't been abused by him. Joe in anger grabs The Dag who is then raped and impregnated by him. He later demands the Wives to be more appreciative for giving them the privileges no one else in the Citadel has. Their freedoms are limited by Joe and they are made to wear toothed chastity belts. Furiosa is removed from the position of their bodyguard who later hatches a plan along with the Wives to help them escape however their teacher Aunty Giddy being too old chooses not to go with them. Furiosa sneaks the Wives outside of the Vault to help them escape from Immortan Joe's captivity.

Mad Max

Part 1

The third comic takes place between the events of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and Mad Max: Fury Road.^[1] Max Rockatansky travels to Gas Town to battle in its gladiator arena "Thunderdome Plus" to win a V8 engine so he can build a new V8 Interceptor after the original was destroyed during the events of Mad Max 2. The "Thunderdome Plus" is based on the original "Thunderdome", however unlike the original, its battles involve many competitors instead of just two. Before the battle is about to begin, a Buzzard who is wearing body armor with sharp blades attached on it enters the battle. During the battle, most of the combatants are killed and Max gets grabbed by one of the final three combatants who is killed by the Buzzard.

The Buzzard tries to kill Max who however is able to dodge his blow and climbs on the pipes where he is given a flare by a woman. He is grabbed by the Buzzard, however he lights the flare and burns out his eye with it. He then rips off his head armour and uses it to kill him thus winning the battle. The other Buzzards accuse Max of cheating saying he had outside help but the organisers refuse to recognise this and the Buzzards warn Max that he will pay. After winning the tournament, he takes the V8 engine to where his Interceptor is.

The other Buzzards are able to follow him and suddenly attack him. He is knocked unconscious and his limbs are bound with rope tied to nails stuck in the ground by the Buzzards who take the Interceptor from him. When he wakes up, he is stabbed in the femoral artery by a Buzzard. Recognising him as a strong warrior, the Buzzard tells Max that instead of straight-away killing him he will give him a choice, either he could pull out the knife to cut the rope, however this will cause him to bleed to death or he could let it remain there and keep burning under the desert sun. Max is able to free one of his hands however it is too damaged to untie the other limbs which are also damaged. He pulls out the knife with his free hand and cuts the rope but starts bleeding heavily. While dragging himself, he becomes unconscious and has a hallucination of his dead family. He is rescued by the woman who earlier helped him at the Thunderdome. She tells him that she fixed his wound and that he owes her.

Part 2

The woman who saved Max escorts him to a sunken city where the Buzzards live underground. She asks Max to rescue her daughter, Glory, who was kidnapped by the Buzzards during a raid and offers to tag along with him to find both Glory and his Interceptor. Max refuses and goes alone promising that he will bring back Glory safe. The comic then shows Glory in the underground, hiding in a secluded location. The Buzzards used her to retrieve supplies from small places, however she was ultimately able to escape from them and managed to avoid being found by them since she could pass through small places where the Buzzards couldn't pass but was unable to find a way outside.

While passing through she encounters Max whom she thinks of as a hostile and, thinking he is trying to get her, screams. Max muffles her screams with his hand but the Buzzards, hearing her screams, discover them both and give chase. Max then directs her to a small opening where the Buzzards can't reach. As he tries to crawl through the opening, Glory hits him and tries to bash his head in with a rock. He is able to get her to trust him by informing her that he was sent by her mother to rescue her. She then guides him to a dark room where the Buzzards breed moths for food. Hearing voices of footsteps, he lights a flare and sees that a group of Buzzards has discovered them. He fights and defeats them all. He is then guided by Glory to the place where she was hiding since the Buzzards have never discovered it. She tells that they could climb out through a hole in the ceiling but Max refuses since he wants to take back the Interceptor. He notices that one of the doors in her hiding place leads to the car parking area and asks Glory about it. She informs him it is too dangerous to go there since the Buzzards live there. A group of Buzzards discover the hiding place and chases them both.

Max takes Glory to the car parking area and takes back the Interceptor, which has been restored to working condition by the Buzzards. They are then pursued in the Interceptor by Buzzard vehicles. However, they are able to escape and the Buzzard who had earlier stabbed Max is apparently killed during the pursuit. Max takes Glory back to her mother who invites Max to come with them. Max declines and drives off, but after seeing them in the side-mirror rushes back towards them. Glory thinks he has changed his mind but her mother senses something is wrong. The Buzzard who had stabbed Max is revealed to be alive and he hits Glory and her mother with his vehicle. Max upon seeing this rams his Interceptor into the Buzzard's vehicle in anger and he is impaled upon the spikes of his own vehicle. Both Glory and her mother die of their injuries and are buried by Max, who then leaves the city within his Interceptor.

After the Wordburger ends his story, he shows the people listening to him that Corpus Colossus is warning an unseen woman that they can't keep giving away water to everybody who comes to the Citadel as it will be seen as a sign of weakness and some people might try to capture the Citadel. He then tells her to take control. The Wordburger warns the Citadel's people listening to him that they are about to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Release

The comic book series was revealed in February 2015 by Vertigo and Miller was announced to helm the writing team. Beginning 20 May 2015, Vertigo started releasing four comic book prequels, one per month, that detail the backstory for a character in the film. The first comic titled Mad Max: Fury Road - Nux and Immortan Joe #1 was released on 20 May. The second one titled Mad Max: Fury Road - Furiosa #1 was released on 17 June. The third one titled Mad Max: Fury Road - Mad Max #1 was released on 8 July. The final prequel comic titled Mad Max: Fury Road - Mad Max #2 was released on 5 August.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} A single-volume collection of the series was released on 26 August.^[8]

Reception

The series has received mixed reviews. The issue centered on Imperator Furiosa has been harshly criticized for its depictions of rape and its characterization of female characters. Some critics opined that it negatively affects the film.^{[9][10][11][12]} However, the issue centering on Nux and Immortan Joe and the two issues centering on Max were received more positively.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

References