In November 2011, My Chemical Romance released its fourth studio album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.”
The album depicts a fictional post-apocalyptic California,
particularly Battery City, in the year 2019 following a group of
renegades called The Killjoys. The small out-lying group, which was
comprised of the band’s four principle members: Party Poison (lead
singer Gerard Way), Jet Star (guitarist Ray Toro), Fun Ghoul (guitarist
Frank Iero) and Kobra Kid (bassist Mikey Way), fought against Better
Living Industries (BL/ind.), who had stripped the citizens of Battery
City of their individuality, and its team of Draculoids and Scarecrows.
My Chemical Romance released two music videos for the songs “Na Na Na” and “Sing,”
both of which showed The Killjoys fighting BL/ind.’s henchmen while
trying to protect and rescue the Girl who was deemed important, although
the reason why wasn’t explained in the videos. During the “Sing” music
video, The Killjoys rescue the Girl from BL/ind.’s headquarters, but the
four members die during the video’s gunfight.
The music video left a few questions unanswered, with the biggest
ones being who was the Girl, why was she important, and what happened to
her?
For the answers, My Chemical Romance front-man Gerard Way, who has
won an Eisner Award for his “The Umbrella Academy” comics, announced he
would be making a comic book series with Dark Horse Comics titled “The
True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” which was released Wednesday.
While the original Killjoys were killed, the comic book picks up 12
years later, presumably in 2031 if the timeline stayed true to the
album’s description, with the Girl living alone in the desert outskirts
of Battery City with her cat.
One morning, when trying to find food, she goes into a store and
finds Party Poison’s mask and takes it, which grabs Val Velocity’s
attention. Val and his group, known as the Ultra V’s, proclaim the
Girl’s importance as being seen by The Killjoys as the messiah for that
post-apocalyptic world.
The Girl then joins the Ultra V’s simply to get back her fallen
protector’s mask, and the continual battle between BL/ind. and the
out-skirted renegades, this time in the form of the Ultra V’s, picks
right back up where The Killjoys left it.
The first issue ends to lead into the second issue, but the little
action throughout the issue is only made up for the fact Way and
co-writer Shaun Simon are just laying the foundations for the rest of
the series.
“The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’” first installment to Way’s
new series, whose art is done by Becky Cloonan, is a hard one to get
into if the audience is not familiar with the “Danger Days” album and
its themes, backstory and characters. My Chemical Romance fans who liked
the polarizing album should be able to get into the comic book with
relative ease, but those who are just picking up the series with no
context may come away confused and unfulfilled.
While the art is good, the story itself is underwhelming, which can
be credited simply to the fact this first issue provided some context
and background, although to understand more, I would suggest at least
watching the two music videos and finding the free, short comic introducing BL/ind.
For My Chemical Romance fans, especially those still going through
some hard times since the band’s breakup earlier this year, I would
suggest reading “The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.” If you’re
just interested in Way’s latest comic series, I would suggest waiting a
bit until more issues are released to better understand the full story
at once.
Issue No. 2 will be available July 10.
source
