‘Furious’ throws us straight into a world where no one has had super powers and now someone does. A young woman suddenly has super strength, speed, and can fly. She also has an agenda that becomes very clear as the book unfolds. Her reason to want to be a superhero? It’s full on atonement for the sins that she has committed in her life and now she just wants to do good. The problem is that she is so angry with the world and the wrongs that she is trying to stop that she’s almost doing more damage than good. The added twist? You find out who she is at the very end of the issue, even though it’s not too hard to see coming from near the introduction of the book.
Santos really brings forth the look of rage on the lead’s face as she constantly tries to do the right thing and goes a little overboard in the process. We don’t learn in the book how she got her powers but it’s quite clear in a few areas that she is still learning to use them.
I do have to say. though. that the focus on celebrities and the fact that “Furious” (as she is dubbed by the media) instantly becomes one is pretty entertaining. She keeps trying to insist that her name is “The Beacon”‘, but with how angry she was at the first person she helped catch and the fact that it the act was caught on video? Well, Furious is the name she gets stuck with.
In ‘the real world’, we have an almost unnaturally celebrity obsessed culture and if a real life super hero did come forth? A lot of that would instantly transfer onto them as well. As she’s flying after a woman whose kidnapped her own daughter to try and take her back after the daughter was taken from her for being a bad parent (which she’s just reinforcing running from the law and later turning a gun on the child), Furious is trying to fly after her and can’t turn as quickly as the car can because, well, physics. At least she acknowledges that she should have paid more attention in school. Oh yes, I mentioned the woman pointed a gun at her child? I’ll give you one guess how that made Beacon feel and how she reacted.
So the twist? I’d stop reading here if you don’t want to be surprised. She’s apparently a celebrity whose done quite a bit bad so the moment anyone knows the truth, the media will show who she really is to undo every bit of good she’s been able to do so far, unless she can keep her true identity a secret. It’s not to save her friends and family, but it’s to make her actions actually count for something.
While the art and story have both caught my interest, I’m not completely sold quite yet. It was a great introduction but I’m not sure how much I’ll care about the character as we learn more of her past and fear that might take away from my enjoyment of the book. We’ll see as time goes on!
FURIOUS #1
Writer: Bryan J. L. Glass
Artist: Victor Santos
