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.
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