As last issue’s climax may have suggested, the lull of Fight Club 2 is over. Fresh from a recent, Marla-spurred beating, we are awarded both a literal and proverbial new face of Sebastian. Likewise, we’re thrown into the thick of one of the ironically most exhilarating environments, the infamous stoop. Ultimately, however, issue three doesn’t simply reintroduce us with the acolytes of Tyler, it completely reinvents them, yielding a movement far from the self-conscious, amateur militants the novel and film introduced to us.
Sebastian anxiously approaches the condemned boarding house where it all originally went down. A pile of social pariahs line the porch’s perimeter. One hopeful alludes to a gruesome endeavor, in which he sticks poisoned needles into abandoned couches and old mattresses in order to weed out the homeless population. While Sebastian quietly waits to be reintegrated, Marla begins enlisting the help of a strange, yet unassuming support group in order to rescue junior. Tyler, however, seems set on derailing any such progress.
Tyler abruptly comes to the forefront of this outing, and the tendrils of his operation are yet again revealed to fall deeply through every social layer. The radical will contractually enlist college freshmen at an extremely young age, hold them to an incredibly high standard, lest they suffer extermination. Brief snippets of Tyler’s guerilla philosophy, mostly filled with the encouragement of assassinating local and state officials, drives his flock into a mechanical compliance.
At this point, we get a legitimate sense of how powerful a decade can be. Time has paradoxically reset the narrator while simultaneously pushing Tyler into an unrecognizable machine. The latter is dauntless, with a misanthropic intent. Perhaps darkest of all, his intent seems so unclear. Yet still, there seems to be a glimmer of Sebastian embedded within the character, as each side of the coin displays a tenacity for getting what they want. Whereas Tyler wants to curate the next cultural step of humanity, Sebastian wants to desperately return to normality.
Fight Club 2 is definitely picking up its feet and was wise to do so during its third entry. With two installments left, this graphic sequel has little time to spare if it’s to solidify itself as an appropriate companion piece. Fortunately, it’s making damn good time.
