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Fight Club #5
Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: September 23rd, 2015.
Writer: Chuck Palahniuk
Artist: Cameron Stewart
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If you're not caught up at this point, get that taken care of because otherwise, five issues in to this series from Chuck Palahniuk and Cameron Stewart, you'll have no idea what is going on. Sebastian is doing his thing while Marla figures out that Project Mayhem is alive and well, and that it's not only for guys anymore. She gets a small army of terminally ill children to help her find what she's looking for while Sebastian heads into 'the ring' and gets the living shit knocked out of him. That all happened in the last issue.
PLEASE ASSUME CRASH POSITIONS.
Tyler is pissed. The guy he got into it with in his latest fight hit him in the face. You're not allowed to do that and Tyler makes an example of him, pronto. Meanwhile, Marla and the terminally ill child are stuck in a warzone. He confesses to her that he's not really a child, that he's old like she is, that he went to cancer support groups even though he didn't have cancer just to make himself feel better. It was the only place he felt love, the kind of love he shouldn't have been allowed to receive.
Tyler gets on a plane and flies to Europe. Sebastian wakes up inside a mansion filled with valuable art and antiques. Or does he? He wakes up, fills out a questionnaire and winds up talking to his shrink. What's real? What's not? What's in his head and what's happening outside where the rest of the world can see?
A handful of pills, some vandalism… if things weren't out of hand before they sure as Hell are now…
The weird gets weirder as the agents of chaos that are Project Mayhem launch one of the more interesting stunts seen thus far in the series. If Tyler and Sebastian are wrestling for control here as they seem to be, it's clear who is winning, at least on a surface level. Sebastian's life is a mess right now - will the subplot with Marla wind up turning the tables? Logic dictates that we'll find out soon enough but things are a mess right now, this really could go in all manner of directions. There's always a lot of self-awareness in Palahniuk's work, and this issue continues that trend, but it works. On the flip side, the very scale on which Tyler is now operating has grown to such insane proportions that Project Mayhem is less an underground organization than it is a full-fledged international organization capable of a whole lot more than just running some basement fight clubs. Tyler is a shark and a shark has got to do what its instincts tell it to do. There's a lot going on here, and it's interesting and wonderfully subversive stuff, the kind you don't typically get in these here funny books. Hey kids! Comics!
The art from Cameron Stewart and colors from Dave Stewart continue to impress. Again, we get some unorthodox panel design and we're often more impressed with what is hidden from us than with what is shown to us. It keeps us guessing as to what's really influencing Sebastian as he goes through what he goes through here. Is it drugs? Tyler's influence? His own willingness and wanting to push back? Some combination of all of that or something else entirely? The colors reflect all of this well, there's a lot of very effective grays used not just in this issue but the entire run so far that cast a gloomy shadow over certain locations over and over again. And there's definitely a reason for that, it's not just because it rains a lot in certain places. The more you think about this stuff and the more you go over it, the more rewarding and occasionally frightening this series becomes.
And if that's not anti-social enough for you, be sure to read the Chaos Report pages that are tucked away at the end of the book. There's some pretty great stuff there. And once again we get a gorgeous cover from David Mack, suitable for framing, art gallery style.