Fight Club 2 ‘The Tranquility Gambit’ Graphic Novel Review

Marla, Tyler and the previously unnamed narrator (now going by ‘Sebastian’) all return as well as a host of other familiar characters from the original novel and film adaptation.
The graphic novel has managed to stay true to the characters whilst also evolving them – they don’t feel stagnant. Sebastian has been keeping Tyler at bay with a mix of medication and psychiatric help. The story is complicated by the addition of Marla and Sebastian’s son as Sebastian finds he’s become the distant and disappointing father figure he himself despised. The first chapter opens on Marla reflecting on her miserable marriage at a support group she clearly doesn’t qualify for. Sebastian overhears her commiserating over his reliance on pills and their lacklustre sex life. Meanwhile, the unimaginatively named Junior is at home experimenting with chemicals.

The complete hardcover graphic novel features an introduction from the editor of the original ‘Fight Club’ novel as well as a 12 page ‘Fight Club Ending Redux’ which retells the finale of the novel, making a clearer link to the start of sequel. However, the variant cover art and ‘Chaos Reports’ from the original comic run are not in this collected edition so a true die hard fanatic may feel the need to hunt down all of the separate issues. Artist Cameron Stewart has previously worked with Dark Horse comics before on projects such as the ‘Hellboy’ spin off ‘B.P.R.D Hell on Earth: Exocism.’

Without giving away much in terms of spoilers, my favourite elements included:
• a shout out to fellow author and comic book collaborator, Neil Gaiman
• the playing with the visual comic book form – Trompe-l’œil pills and sound effects often disguise or cut off dialogue and faces to enhance the sense of confusion and paranoia in the plot itself
• The dark comedy supplied by Marla’s friends who use their status as dying children to convince the ‘Magic Wand Foundation’ to help them out

‘Fight Club 2’ features all the musing on the familiar themes of the meaning of life, critiques of capitalism, violence and sex with all the twists you’d hope for but couldn’t predict.

My only word of warning is that, as the ‘2’ in the title suggests, this is definitely a sequel and you would find it hard to access this graphic novel if you hadn’t already at least seen the movie or read the novel of the original ‘Fight Club’ – but there are a lot of rewarding injokes and references that really pay-off for big fans. The ending is shocking, confusing and open – fitting the trend set by the original. The finale reminded me of the ending to the novel of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ with Tyler’s new found motivation mirroring Alex’s.

Already read ‘Fight Club 2’? I’d highly recommend checking out Palahniuk’s other novels which question identity (particularly male identity) in an age of capitalism. ‘Choke’ tells the tale of a failed medical student and nymphomaniac who has become obsessed with purposely choking in public in order to be saved and feel loved. ‘Survivor’ follows the lone remainer of a religious cult who finds his rapid ascent into celebrity harder to cope with than his previously sheltered life.

If you enjoyed Fight Club 2’s heady metafiction, I’d recommend checking out ‘Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry,’ where the protagonist’s obsessive bookkeeping of the wrongdoings his employers inflict upon him results in his own twisted payback which dramatically escalates, all in a world where the characters know they are fictional and interact directly with the author.

And if that’s not enough, Palahniuk has already revealed that a ‘Fight Club 3’ is on the way with the subtitle: ‘The Cheater’s Gambit’ – read more here: http://www.comicsbeat.com/chuck-palahniuk-leaks-details-on-new-one-shot-comics-and-fight-club-3/

All Art-Dark Horse Comics