This week Dark Horse Comics brings to their readers a super hero story unlike what they’re used to. Set in the social media and star watching world that we see everyday the first super hero ever will show herself and be judged by the people. From the same creative team behind The Mice Templar, Bryan J. L. Glass and Victor Santos, comes FURIOUS a new story where a heroine’s biggest villain may be her past, and Twitter.
The super group of Glass and Santos joined forces with Dark Horse Associate Editors Jim Gibbons and me to talk a little about FURIOUS, a story of retribution and the struggles of being in the cross-hairs of the public eye.
Bryan, every story has its own origin, so what was that first spark of inspiration that led to FURIOUS? And how has it evolved over time?
Bryan: Truly, the very first inspiration for the story that has now become FURIOUS was shortly after reading Frank Miller & David Mazzuchelli’s 1987 masterpiece Daredevil: Born Again—the desperate passion of that story’s harrowing nightmarish collapse of Matt Murdock before he bottoms out and discovers he’s not broken, but reborn! It simply blew me away. I knew I wanted to do a story that further explored that same theme only my twist was going to be to apply that approach to the least likely character to have a dark underbelly. I soon realized, however, one doesn’t just walk into a major publisher’s office and ask to dismantle their characters.
By the early 90s, I realized my story still had significant value outside of the franchise characters upon which it was originally hatched in my head. I could relocate all of the significant elements to their own universe. The problem then was my need to build a superhero universe that readers needed to understand first in order to tell of my superheroine’s downfall. The next thing I knew was that I’d built a tale of Watchmen proportions…and the sad reality is that no one would care.
A decade later saw me still struggling to create a world that would allow my heroine to fly, crash & burn. The trope of the established superhero universe tripped me up again and again.
Sadly, it was the passing of Whitney Houston two years ago that gave me the inspiration that finally transformed the last incarnation of this character into Furious. The tragic story of the pop singer everybody loved, who descends into slow motion suicide. I’d of course seen that tragedy play out every so many years. It’s become a terrible Hollywood cliché, these celebrities we put on pedestals only to laugh at them as a society when they self-destruct. That’s when it all clicked into place.
I didn’t need a world of superheroes when we already live in a world of superstars. My story would no longer chronicle her descent, as she’s already fallen from Grace in the public tabloids’ eye, but focus on her struggle to rise again. Yet she soon realizes that even super-powers aren’t enough to restore a broken human being.
That’s been my creative journey from inspiration to series debut!
Victor, when you came onto the project what was your first impression? And how do you feel your art has influenced the story?
Victor: I was excited because I was searching for a new project, something different to my previous works in the US market… and I realized I had never drawn superheroes, but when I read the purpose honestly I was scared. It was a very ambitious plot with an urban ambiance. I feel safe with the epic stories and the stylized look of the noir books and this was different. This project was more realistic, attached to the US reality. This is a great effort for somebody foreign.
What I am trying to contribute? I love to play with the storytelling, I have my own way to tell the story. Surely a lot of readers could think an urban story about superheroes in a real work would need an academic, darkly and cinematographic style, but I´m trying to do a realistic tale with all the things I love of the superheroes book.
Jim, what is it about FURIOUS that you and Dark Horse have come to enjoy?
Jim: I’ve enjoyed Bryan and Victor’s work on Mice Templar for years, but being behind the curtain and seeing the passion and commitment these two guys bring to their projects has been a pleasure to witness. The whole book has been a blast to work on. But, to get a bit more specific, I really love that Bryan’s crafted five very distinct chapters for this series, chapters which explore this character via the challenges of superheroics. And I’m super pleased and proud of the unique cover design and the fun back cover pieces Victor’s put together.
How would you explain the main story of the book? Is it more superhero fighting crimes and becoming famous, or is it more about how the media can skew the public’s perception?
Bryan: FURIOUS is ultimately about the internal struggle for redemption. Our media angle is merely a fascinating backdrop for making an introspective story resonate on a larger stage. Furious the character is under a microscope whose image is then blown-up and projected around the world. Hers is a private atonement made very public. Thus, every mistake is amplified, and when the character’s flaws require no amplification, her media image becomes the train wreck of all train wrecks!
FURIOUS is about a woman desperate to finally do the right thing for the first time in her life, against a world she fears will never forgive her. She just happens to be doing it with spandex and super-powers!
Jim: It’s where celebrity obsession and gossip culture meet with superheroes and the bloody results of that car crash from which you can’t look away!
The conflict of celebrity and anonymity in a social media driven world feel like something we rarely seen in comics. How is this going to make life hard for our heroine?
Bryan: Every superhero has a private life they’d prefer was kept hidden from the public, unless you’re Tony Stark. Imagine eating in your favorite restaurant and a bomb goes off…because everybody knows your private identity eats there, and as a superhero you’ve probably made a lot of enemies.
So just take the scrutiny you see on the Internet every hour concerning pop stars, movie & TV personalities, sports stars and politicians, and apply that intensity of personal invasion to a superhero. Furious is going to find it very hard indeed. But just like our contemporary stars, there will be those who abhor her actions, and those who applaud.
Jim: In a world where privacy is forsaken by average folks on social media, hiding behind a mask is an even more blatant attempt at secrecy in a world where few things can be kept hidden. But to flaunt that desire to hide in public? It’s a bit counterintuitive, and it’s gonna bite her in the butt.
Another theme in the book is redemption. The previews have teased that Furious’ past is dark and she has a long way to go to make up for it. What do you expect the reader’s reactions to be once they find out what she’s atoning for?
Bryan: Her “atonement” is genuinely complicated. From her previous life, pre-Beacon/Furious, she’s not actually guilty of anything she could ever stand trial or risk imprisonment for. But her situation is one of seeing herself as the cause of others’ woe. She’s guilty by proxy. Major portions of her past, as well as her own perception of guilt, will abound throughout issues 2, 3 & 5. By the end of this mini, fans should have a healthy understanding of who our heroine is, how she got that way, how she stayed that way for so long…and how it all came crashing down.
In a very male dominated genre the choice to make your hero a woman is usually a deliberate one. What aspects of the story do you think are improved by making Furious a female?
Bryan: This might very well be considered a sexist remark, but I believe there is a truth to it that plays out in the media and advertising every day of the year—just as the public is drawn to root for an underdog, a beleaguered female protagonist is more likely to draw sympathy than a male counterpart. One could create this story from a male perspective and be successful, but many of the dynamics would be different, because the experiences of growing up in our culture can be vastly different according to your sex. A male being idolized as beefcake carries a vastly different vibe than a woman objectified as a sex object. From a purely hetero perspective, a woman can publicly swoon after the likes of George Clooney, but for a man to express appreciation for the sexual attributes of a woman is considered crass and quite possibly grounds for a harassment suit, particularly if it occurs in the workplace. Then consider the ways sex is used in advertising: the sensual male versus the sexualized female. These are all elements that perpetuate gender distinctions.
Thus, I set out to tell a story I hope resonates with the audiences, engendering sympathy for a character struggling against their more unsympathetic tendencies. I believe that works best with a woman. And if she succeeds, then that victory will be all the more satisfying for her being a woman, as the cultural odds stacked against her were more difficult.
Victor: About this matter, in the graphic part, even with my cartoon style of angles and curves, I tried to draw a more athletic girl. Yeah, she´s cute and there´s a reason, but she´s not the classical 90s playmate. I think it´s important to talk about these female characters… Talking about these celebrities… a lot of them are watched and attached in their personal life with more virulence simply because they are women and a lot of people don´t tolerate specific behaviors from women. This point is very important in the acts of our character.
I can´t give any spoilers but we are going to confront these different notions of the stereotypes of a female superheroes.
Although Furious is a mini-series with its own full story, the word is you all would want to do more. Could you tease as to what you might want the focus of those stories to be?
Bryan: Furious has been touted in advertising as the “first superhero of her world.” Would that ever remain static? Where there is first one, there would soon be two. And so on. FURIOUS: Fallen Star is but the beginning of a larger super-powered universe. And it isn’t going to be pretty once we establish where super-powers in this universe derive from. Thus a future story arc is tentatively entitled “Pandora’s Rage.”
But long before we get there, Volume II will take more of a Godfather II approach: continuing Furious’ story, while simultaneously revealing how she got there.
What was it like to have the dynamic duo of Glass and Santos working together again?
Bryan: Working with my amigo Victor is always a pleasure. But we’re juggling issues of FURIOUS with issues of Mice Templar at the same time, so we never go too long without another new script from me overlapping the previous one Victor is still working on.
Victor: We never split because the Mice Templar work continues… so sadly we haven’t had time for nostalgia! But Bryan and me have worked together since 2009 without pause so we don´t need to talk too much about the big things. Bryan also explains really well the emotional status of the character in every moment of the story. That make things easy. Simply we adjust and fix details but I know the level of drama or what graphic approach he´s asking for.
What parts of the story has been your favorite part of this book?
Bryan: Finally getting to tell her story more than anything specific. Our heroine’s back-story is especially poignant as it starts rolling out in issue #2.
One unexpected pleasure was the creation of the issue #1 fan boys Furious meets in the convenience store. They never existed in any previous version of this story, and didn’t coalesce with me until I was refining plot on these first five issues. But once I’d created them, my mind has already leapt ahead as to what I want to do with them in the greater saga. And making them future superheroes isn’t part of the plan! They have personal story arcs now that I’m pretty pleased with, and I hope fans take a liking to them both!
Victor: There are a lot of challenges… How to show a character flying in a cool way when you have read millions of superheroes books before? It´s hard but I enjoy wearing out my brain with the storytelling problems. I´m very satisfied with the coloring process, too. I have cool colorists in other projects, like in The Mice Templar where all the team is awesome, but being the colorist I have taken risks with some graphic solutions.
Without giving too much of the story away, what would you do if someone on the news was reported to have super powers in our world?
Bryan: I’d be skeptical. The moment I saw one political party or both try to claim ideological ownership of their super-heroic mission, they’d lose all credibility in my eyes. They’d truly have to come swooping down out of the sky and stop me from getting hit by a bus before I’d believe they were real. But that’s assuming they were genuine superheroes “using their powers for good,” as the old saying goes.
In the case of Furious…the destruction she leaves behind makes her existence an unavoidable reality. And another reason to wear a disguise? Lawsuits.
Victor: I´m very skeptic, I would not believe… I love those mad TV programs like Ancient Aliens full of crazy theories… But I always watch this stuff from a fiction perspective. If finally I find out that superheroes are real I will consider my work in superheroes really a slice of life!
You can pick up a copy of FURIOUS #1 at your local comic shops or buy it online from Dark Horse Comics.