Will ‘Furiosa’ Be Better Than The Comic?

Let’s first get this on the table. Your Editor LOVES George Miller’s Mad Max universe. From the film editing perfection of Fury Road, to the jazz saxophonist in Beyond Thunderdome, if something has the words “Mad” and “Max” slapped on it, we’re in. Heck, we even bought the not-very-exciting video game. This is all to say that your Editor is generally thankful for any new project that gets us back into the wasteland with these characters.

By now we’ve all seen the teaser trailers for the new movie, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. We know the movie will explore the origin story of this fan-favorite character. Directed by George Miller - and starring Anya Taylor-Joy - we know the story will take us back to the Green Place of Many Mothers. A moment in time when a young Furiosa falls into the hands of a biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe. As the two tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home. It goes without saying that we’re “in” on this movie opening day. This also feels like a good time to look back at a previous effort to further develop Furiosa’s back-story. We’re talking about the 2015 DC Comics / Vertigo one-shot titled, Mad Max Fury Road: Furiosa. This issue was part of a small series of three one-shots that gave additional color to the Fury Road story. With a plot by series creator, George Miller, this comic promised to further develop the story of Immortan Joe’s most lethal warrior: the Imperator Furiosa. With a solid creative team - and clocking in at a whopping 40-pages - fans were pumped up to learn more about this character and how she became an unexpected saviour of the Immortan Joe’s wives.

The only problem? When this issue came out, everyone seemed to hate it. The Vulture review probably best sums up fan reaction to this comic, “Let’s be clear: The first Mad Max: Fury Road tie-in comic, Furiosa, is not good. It is, in fact, very bad. If I had a physical copy instead of a digital one, I would take great joy in ripping it into small pieces and throwing it away. I’m not alone in this; it’s been fisked in great detail, blamed for ruining the movie, and eventually tossed out and rewritten wholesale. The problem, in brief: Furiosa takes the movie’s complex, human, vibrant female characters and flattens them down to a few drab, crummy tropes, notably by fixating on the wives’ (and, it is revealed, Furiosa’s) rape and mistreatment at the hands of Immortan Joe....The writers and artists aren’t seeking to degrade their characters; they simply don’t want to put forth the effort to give them dimension or nuanced motivations or realistic speech. I understand and respect the horror of commentators who found Furiosa revolting, but personally, I had a hard time getting riled up. It’s just so hackish. So trite. So lazy.”

Yowza. Oof. Ouch. And this is one of the kinder reviews we could find. You might be quick to point fingers at “medling executives” or or a creative team not “getting it” but here’s the thing. This is a solid creative team and the comics were approved by George Miller and Fury Road screenwriter, Nico Lathouris. The same duo writing the new Furiosa movie. Many of the complaints about the comic centered on having one dimensional female characters, which could also be a real risk with the upcoming movie. It’s been said that George Miller’s wife - Film Editor Margaret Sixel - was really the magic touch that made Fury Road so great. Maybe that’s the simple difference between the comic and the movie. Fury Road had Margaret Sixel - the comic did not - and she’s cutting Furiosa. We know many fans are nervous about Furiosa living up to Fury Road. Some have pointed to this Vertigo series to justify their nervousness. We totally get it, but we’re not worried. In Margaret Sixel we trust. Just no more jazz saxphone please.