In 2007, My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way took time off singing about how he's not ok. or that teenagers scare the living s**t out of him to give the comics world The Umbrella Academy, a pair of wonderfully written and fantastically realised mini series that showed he had real talent as a comics writer. With more than a whiff of Grant Morrison about them, Way showed he was a dab hand at world building, and delivered a fantastic stroy to boot. Now that the band has split up, Way, with co-writer Shaun Simon and artist Becky Cloonan, returns to comics, but not with the long awaited third installment of The Umbrella Academy, Hotel Oblivion, but instead a book based on My Chemical Romance's concept album, Danger Days. The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys has the odd honour of acting as a follow-up to a pair of music videos, Na Na Na and Sing, which told the story of The Killjoys, a group of heroes in an apocalyptic wasteland, fighting to protect a young girl, who they believe to be the Messiah (something I never got from the two 3 minute dialogue free narratives), from the evil Better Living Industries. Sing ended with the group being killed, and this first issue picks up 12 years later, with the girl, still on the run, falling in with a band of Killjoys fanboys, who have taken up their mantle. With only a small blurb on the inside cover to fill you in on what came before, you are thrown into this first installment head first, with little to no idea of what the hell is going on. Way has constructed a dense history for this world and these characters, but instead of being a jumping on point for reader not familiar with the concept, he and Simon barrell forward with their story, leading to a confusing, but sometimes fun, read. The generic big business ruled future aside, there are some very neat ideas on display, including sentient masks that brainwash ordinary people into serving BL/ind (see what they did there?)., and a sex robot who is caring for her addicted girlfriend (who is also a sex robot), but they are lost slightly in a story that relys far too heavily on exposition, by way of radio broadcasts from the mysterious Doctor Death-Defying. These bring the alreday slow story to a stand still, and lead to jumps in the plot that make no sense whatsoever. The book ends with excerpts from the BL/ind employment manual, which fills in a bit of backstory on this world, something I always appreciate. This type of world building is always enjoyable, letting you get more invested in the world.
Cloonan's art is the best thig about this book. Cartoony and colourful, it perfectly suits this strange world of Halloween masked goons and retro Seventies ray guns, and makes the dense story easier to swallow. We also get to see her rendition of Grant Morrison, who played exterminator Korse in the music videos, which is fun. This is no where near as accomplished as Way's work on The Umbrella Academy, let down by the decision to continue on a story not many people will know, but Cloonan's art, and the fun and out there ideas, helps get the reader through this. I will give issue two a chance, because with the exposition hopefully out of the way, this has the potential to be a great book.