Furious #1

By Bryan J. L. Glass & Victor Santos

The creative team on the new Dark Horse title, Furious, is known for their amazing work on Mice Templar, which is an all-time personal favorite. This new book, however, was a letdown. Let’s be clear: Furious #1 wasn’t an awful book, it just wasn’t great.

The protagonist is the “world’s first superhero”, an idea that has been done to death. What is actually really refreshing about Bryan Glass’s take on this concept is the abandonment of the typically dark and grim context often employed in stories like this. Instead, the conflicts are more grounded and identifiable, as well as personal. Truthfully, the concept has potential. However, the execution in the first issue wasn’t what it could have been. The book itself, particularly the narration, felt overly disjointed and at times was somewhat confusing, which was very detrimental to the flow of the book. There also weren’t really any engaging characters or interesting dialogue. The actual background of the protagonist has some interesting potential though.

The artwork Victor Santos has done in the previously mentioned Mice Templar series is phenomenal, but his contribution to Furious shows his ability to adapt his style to the story. This first installment shows a very classic comic book aesthetic that is very well suited to the overall concept. While the visuals got the job done effectively, there wasn’t a whole lot of depth as a whole, particularly regarding the colors, and a number of panels just didn’t feel as interesting as they might have.

As an enormous fan of the creators’ previous work, it is disappointing to walk away from Furious #1 with such a sense of neutrality. The plot has the potential and the series will hopefully build in excitement and scope as the story progresses, but as an opening installment this book felt lacking.