Story By: Chuck Palahniuk
Art By: Cameron Stewart
Published By: Dark Horse
With the second issue of Fight Club 2, Chuck Palahniuk puts every single fear I had with this project at ease. Not only that, but this project shaping up to be an even more wild ride than the original Fight Club and I’m absolutely hungry for more.
This second issue of Fight Club 2 picks up right off where the first issue ended and even includes a nice little recap in the form of a hilarious infographic by Cameron Stewart that fans of Fight Club will certainly enjoy. The story also kicks in hard and heavy, wasting almost no time in continuing the story we were introduced to in the first issue. This makes for another quick read in which almost no panel is wasted in giving us something of importance to the story.
Chuck Palahniuk continues to be a fantastic writer and there’s some astounding depth given to characters here that wasn’t present in the action-packed, nihilistic, festival of anarchy the Fight Club was. Palahniuk was smart to do this as it makes his characters much more realistic and also makes their various pains and problems all that more difficult to read through.
Palahniuk also does a great deal of really digging into the history of Sebastian and there’s some telling panels here that let us in on his psychological state and why Tyler Durden exists. While Fight Club itself certainly could make some arguments as to why Tyler Durden manifests, the backstory we get in this issue does a way better job at making Sebastion a sympathetic and pained character as opposed to a man bored with the average routine. It makes for a much better read and there’s a tremendous amount of underlying pain to found throughout this issue.
Stewart’s art also once again manages to not only be a delight to look at but also something that compliments the very theme of the story. Every panel is painstakingly drawn and quite a few panels focus on nothing but small details that tell us more than any amount of writing could ever do. Scenes of violence and gore are drawn particularly well and the way Stewart invokes Tyler Durden at key moments make the story easy to read in order to follow who’s who.
In fact, I think that that may be why Fight Club 2 is shaping up to be a bit deeper than Fight Club was. While the big draw of the original was in finding that the narrator/Sebastian was Tyler Durden himself, Fight Club 2 turns the story into the struggle of a man who desperately wants to maintain his own identity while struggling to keep Tyler locked up. And once you add in Marla, a woman who’s own issues hinge on her unwillingness to accept that the man she loves isn’t actually Tyler, you get a story that’s about the way we perceive not only ourselves but our relationships with other people.
My only problem so far is that Marla is very unlikable. While we can wholeheartedly understand her source of pain and her fears of life becoming “normal/average”, the things she does go way beyond excusable and are definitely problematic. I’m interested to see if she shows the same depth that is being given to Sebastian because so far she comes across as remarkably selfish and extremely dangerous to the entire family she’s seemingly trying to “protect”.
Fight Club 2 is one of the most interesting titles out right now and it’s accessible even for those who’ve never experienced the original. Fans of the franchise will enjoy picking out the little details of which there are plenty, including pieces of dialogue that are exact replicas from the original film/book (I admit that seeing the words “I want you to hit me as hard as you can” put a gigantic smile on my face).
Fight Club 2 is still definitely a series that wants to sucker punch you into oblivion and leave you spitting up blood on the sidewalk, but it’s also interested in picking you up and patching up those wounds that never healed. Don’t miss it.
