Release Date: September 2013
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Written By: Christopher Golden
Art By: Damian Couceiro
Price: 3.99
Review:
The wildly popular FX show about the outlaw biker gang gets its own funny book from Boom! Studios. Ten years ago this would’ve been laughed out of the editor’s office before it got to script stage but in today’s gritty, ultra-real comic landscape, it fits perfect. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t expect to like Sons of Anarchy, the comic book adaptation. These projects usually aren’t that great and I close-mindedly avoid them like bill collectors. There is a stigma with these types of things and it’s usually well deserved. While I may have to give the show a rest after that first episode of Season 6 since, as a co-worker put it, “the shock value is gettin’ to you,” I was curious about this book. It’s a pleasant surprise with nice artwork and a solid story.
It looks like the story picks up after the end of last season but before the start of the current one and will focus on Tig and the aftermath of watching his daughter get burned alive. It isn’t newbie friendly and if you don’t know much about the show or the gang of gun-running psychos then it probably isn’t for you. Overall the story is solid and continues a dip into the psyche of one of the most volatile and twisted members of SAMCRO. He’s looking for a fight and he finds it in this issue. The boys get involved in a plot by some other criminal somehow worse than them and must protect the daughter of former member, and longtime frenemy of Tig, Kozik. We also get a handful of brand new characters and two new killers called the Ghost Brothers. This will book will likely continue my criticism about the show in the impossible situations and impending legal storm this group of bikers gets caught up in five times a day and escapes every time but I still want to read it.
The continued prejudice about these adaptation books is getting let down by the art. It’s never quite good enough and the characters never look like their live-action counterparts. This isn’t true with Sons of Anarchy #1. The only one that doesn’t look exactly like the actor that portrays them is, oddly enough the star, Jax. He looks very old. Other than him, everyone looks a lot like they’re supposed to look. The likeliness of Gemma and the chronic masturbator with no hands, Chuckie, are CRAZY accurate. I mean VERY accurate. The art gets sketchy at times and it’s difficult to keep that detail and likeliness with five characters per panel with perspective pulled back fifteen feet but it holds together and captures the grittiness of the Sons’ world. Action poses and facial expressions perfectly convey exactly what they should as well.
SoA #1 is a surprise that I liked more than I thought I would. With the stigma these types of projects have, be it movie, video game, or tv show adaptations, it’s hard to step outside of your own comfort zone and give one a try. This is one you definitely should try if you’re a fan of psychopathic badass bikers with a penchant for violence who dance around the law like Psy at a police convention. It should continue and expand the story while giving comic book fans their own little inside piece of the SoA world that the “norms” know nothing about. And that’s the one automatic good part about one of these adaptations.