Hello, my friends. The world is constantly full of chaos, ruthless leaders, gangs under their control who help impose their twisted rule and small factions of do-gooders looking to maintain order within the vast lands. While that fight threatens to send the planet into a war-torn wasteland, our main review subject not only finds ourselves within said landscape but also within a media franchise that has a particular entry that’s celebrating an anniversary. As such, follow me into the ravaged outback as we first delve into the brief history of director George Miller and the late producer Byron Kennedy’s signature series.
Initially released in Australia on April 12, 1979 before making its way to the U.S. the following year, “Mad Max” follows our main man who’s a police officer working within a department that’s trying to maintain order within an ever-crumbling society. However, a motorcycle gang led by Toecutter is causing loads of problems for them and will even make things personal when Max and his young family end up crossing their path during the cop’s break from regular duty. Made on a budget ranging from A$350,000 to A$400,000 (or just over $227,000 to over $259,000), it went on to rake in (at least) $8 million in America despite initially receiving polarizing review from critics. In terms of its distribution, Roadshow Film Distributors took care of those Australian duties while American International handled that responsibility in North America. For its follow-up, “Mad Max 2” debuted in Australia on Christmas Eve 1981 before reaching North America the very next year under the name “The Road Warrior”. With a global war resulting in the complete collapse of society, Max has become a loner throughout the vast wasteland. After crossing paths with a Gyro Captain, he learns about a group of settlers who’re defending a base that digs for gasoline from a marauding group led by Lord Humungus and his right-hand savage named Wez before getting himself involved within this conflict. Made on a budget of A$4.5 million (or just shy of $3 million), it ultimately made over $23 million in North America while receiving far-more positive critical claim. It would also mark the beginning of Warner Bros. Pictures’ distributional control over the franchise, yet this entry and the next one would see them do so through the aforementioned Roadshow Film. Speaking of which, we have the series’ lone PG-13 entry known as “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” which came out in the U.S. on July 10, 1985 before making its Australian debut on August 8. Not only that, but it’s also the only outing that George Miller didn’t direct by himself since he shared those duties with longtime theatre director George Ogilvie whom he had previously worked with on a TV mini-series called “The Dismissal”. This was largely because Miller’s longtime working partner Byron Kennedy lost his life in a 1983 helicopter crash and it made him initially hesitant to work on this project. This time around, our main man finds himself in a major trading post called Bartertown that’s run by Auntie Entity yet her power is being challenged by a diminutive figure known as Master and his titanic brute called Blaster since they actually power the entire area through methane via pig feces. Through a series of events, he also comes across a tribe who live in an oasis and are looking for “Captain Walker” since their prophesized messiah will lead them to “Tomorrow-Morrow Land”. Eventually, the tribe will find themselves within Auntie Entity’s looming grasp as the roving road warrior must help them escape. Made on a $10 million budget, it would ultimately rake in over $36 million while mainly receiving positive critical praise. As for the film that leads into our featured subject, it would go through a three-decade hiatus along with its own tumultuous development both prior to and during filming before resulting in the movie that would become what it is today.
Making its Hollywood debut on May 7, 2015 and its Sydney premiere on May 13 before getting its general Australian release the very next day and its widespread North American rollout on May 15, this fourth entry sees our main man helping a female commander liberate five captured brides via a fierce desert chase as a vicious ruler and his armada aims to get them back. Made on a $150 million budget, it would rake in over $380 million while also receiving critical acclaim. As for that specific kind of tie-in that it would receive, that’s where we finally get to our main subject.
For this four-issue mini-series, it was published by a particular DC Comics imprint that hasn’t quite been covered here. Founded in 1993 by eventual three-time Eisner Award winning writer/editor Karen Berger, Vertigo Comics focused more on adult content for its line of books. Over its existence (which actually saw the line discontinued in 2020 before being brought back in 2024), it’s seen several different books ranging from John Constantine‘s long-running “Hellblazer” series, “Animal Man”, “Doom Patrol” and even “Swamp Thing” to “Sandman”, “Y: The Last Man”, “100 Bullets”, “American Vampire”, “iZombie” & “Preacher” amongst its vast catalogue. As for these four comics, they were published from May to August 2015 and each sold really well. The first book managed to have 11,569 copies sold, while the second would get 20,733 books initially bought. The third entry would be the best-selling out of the whole set as it had 79,955 periodicals purchased, while the last entry wound up with 23,172 comics acquired. While George Miller himself came up with the stories, Nico Lathouris and Mark Sexton handled the script. In terms of the artwork, Sexton would join Riccardo Burchielli, Andrea Mutti, Leandro Fernandez for Part 1’s artwork. Part 2 would see Mark alongside Tristan Jones and Szymon Kudranski for those artistic duties, yet the third and fourth issues had Mark handle this job by himself. As for coloring, Michael Spicer solely handled that job across all of these books. As for how some key players came to be prior to the massive on-screen journey, let’s spray some chrome on our mouths, rev up our engines and ride on.
Our first issue has a two-for-one presentation as it starts off by presenting us with “Nux & Immortan Joe”. We open within the Citadel’s Biodome as a “History Man” tells a gathered group of civilians that following the world’s collapse, books were burned until they were reduced to “a random collection of wordburgers” and that it’s up to individuals like him to preserve these tales in order to guide people towards the future while making sure that they don’t repeat past mistakes. From there, he delves into his initial story about a courageous youth named Nux as it starts with him as a young child wandering the wasteland with his parents before they arrive at the Citadel where his folks scrounge for any kind of sustenance. After promising his boy that they’ll all exist up within the structure’s high-end towers, the father would head out to engage in some “hazardous activities”. Suddenly, a fierce storm approaches as the young lad and several people approach a descending platform as several people beg to be taken. As it starts to go up, the boy manages to hang onto the side for dear life. One of the guards manages to spot him and is about to force the kid off, yet a fellow sentry tells him that they should see how long he’ll last.
As they along with the pale-looking young men known as the War Boys watch him, the boy slowly starts to lose some of his grip via some black grease. To their surprise however, the kid is able to manage a strong grasp with his lone arm. With the nearby platform approaching and the young lad in danger, a guard manages to pull him up. From there, the boy is given his name of Nux (due to him being described as “a hard nut to crack”) before he ends up joining the War Boys as the History Man concludes this initial tale by adding that he exists forever within those that his heroism has inspired hope. The guy then mentions how death is “the natural end of life”, yet Immortan Joe is a particular person who has cheated it as he begins to share his tale about said man by mentioning how his mythical immortality began during “The Fall”.
From there, we shift into this narrative where the nuclear apocalypse had just occurred and the power had permanently gone off in the ruins of what used to be Sydney. With society having crumbled, anarchy and chaos would erupt as all remaining humans were forced into survival. Those who were able to do so would ultimately flee into the vast wasteland as we then focus upon a particular motorcycling group of armed “ex-jarheads” who sought out for their own world, with the group being led by a militant colonel named Joe Moore who was an oil wars veteran and a water wars hero. His two right-hand henchmen consisted of Major Kalashnikov and a “cool-headed strategist” named Deepdog as the troop got themselves into several skirmishes that terrorized the citizens while also recruiting several strong men into their own vast group. His own ravaging antics saw them killing off opposing leaders and their sons while also capturing and “despoiling” the women. On one fateful moment within the wasteland, the gang is able to send in a war party in order to ravage some helpless company. They then capture an obese man who tried to escape before the guy then mentions that he knows where they can find some water, to which he speaks of a vast subterranean aquifer that’s accessible at a fortress while also being held by some “roughnecks”. They then have the plump guy show them where it’s located before they arrive at the Citadel as he informs them that this formation is sitting upon “a lake of fresh artisan water underground” connected to pumps and storage. From there, Joe’s vision for a better future had become clear to him as he decides to take the Citadel for himself.
He calls out to the opposing troupe and asks for a trade where they would “share a biotic interaction” in exchange for giving some water to his group. However, they refuse as several opposing men end up peeing over the cliff as their only means of giving them any liquids. Joe then says that they can do this either the easy or hard way, yet they’re suddenly shot at by the roughnecks’ sniper which forced him and his group into hiding before they began with their oppositional confrontation. After his scouts’ attempts to find food & water came up short due to them only discovering a derelict oil refinery and an abandoned lead mine, Joe then sent some of his men to head up the most climbable part of the Citadel only for them to get shot. Their obese captor tells him that with their own water supply running low, they could just cut their losses and give up this fight. However, Joe then mentions “The Tale Of Tanaji Malusare” as the History Man mentions how it told the story of a titular Persian General who was sent by his king to capture the nigh-impenetrable fortress known as Sinhagad. Just like the Citadel, this fortress was built upon a high peak and was protected by “sheer cliffs and mighty walls” along with ramparts that were nigh-impossible to climb. While History Man mentions that Tanaji has a plan to help him overcome this grave challenge, it gets intercut with Joe sharing his own tactic to his group before they prep themselves for it.
It turns out that just like Malusare, they would use a moderately-sized lizard that was tied to a rope and have it scale the steep cliffside. However, it was reluctant to make the perilous climb. As such, one of the guys decides to cut off a piece of his finger and use it as dangling bait for the lizard which proceeds to motivate it into reaching the top. Once night falls, the group is then able to climb up and into the Citadel before some of their own members back on ground level are able to distract the roughnecks with a shootout. Joe and his small team are then able to ambush the opposing men and chase them across a pipe-filled bridge before it gets blown up.
With the plan seemingly foiled, the group proceed to take inventory of their lost comrades before they look up and notice “two men fighting” within a high-level entryway up on the Citadel. As the days wore on, several of their own men were being killed and strung out on ropes until there was nothing but tense silence as the remaining group was forced to wait for any outcome. By the time that “the morning of the third day” had arrived, they were taking their leave from the area. Just then, they hear some triumphant yelling as it’s revealed that Joe and Kalashnikov had emerged covered in blood yet having finally slayed the opposing roughnecks. With grim defeat having now turned into sweet victory, the group proceeds to cheer their leader on as they now called him Immortan Joe.
Through time, he had the Citadel rebuilt while scouring the land for anything that he and his group could use. Not only that, but he used the aquifers’ water to grow food for his army. He then expanded his territory by turning the defunct oil refinery into a “guzzoline” producing station called Gas Town and even had his plump captor, now known as “People Eater”, as it’s primary guardian. In terms of the abandoned lead mine, it was turned into the Bullet Farm in order for it to serve as his source of “small arms, gunpowder and ammunition” before he put Kalashnikov a.k.a. Bullet Farmer in charge of it. Over time, thousands of surviving people would reach the Citadel in the hope of seeking “shelter and succor”, yet would end up becoming his economic commodities. Blinded by Immortan Joe’s mythical status, their desire to be taken into the main compound would ultimately see them become either “treadmill rats” or “milkers”. As for the young men that were brought in, they became his War Boys as they built him an army of otherworldly vehicles while also serving him in the vein “promise of an afterlife”. With Immortan Joe’s power growing ever higher, his legend also matched suit. However, his god-like status wasn’t entirely pleasing since while he did have three sons in the psychopathic killer Scrotus, the “Herculean Man-Child” known as Rictus Erectus and the child-like bodied Corpus Callosum, they were all “true products of the wasteland” as well as “his twisted self”. As such, none of them were able to carry out Joe’s vision of his perfect future. With that in mind, he had “The Dome” built in order for it to contain a sealed oasis of pure water and clean air. Not only that, it’s where he would keep “the purest and healthiest women” as his “wives” for the sole purpose of breeding so that they can give birth to his “healthy male heir”. Despite their seemingly ideal conditions, none of them were able to produce a noteworthy offspring.
With Immortan Joe now ruling over the Citadel as a tyrant, the History Man concludes his story by mentioning that he’s become “a cruel oppressor of men” that’s been blinded by his own hubris and that a lack of vigilance allows for history’s unlearned lessons to repeatedly be told. From there, the comic ends with a familiar lightning storm looming large over the wasteland.
Next up, we focus on a certain Imperator nine years before she finally got her prequel spinoff film. As for how this comic explains her pre-film backstory, let us delve into “Furiosa”. We begin back within “The Dome” as a fierce thunderstorm called the “Fury Storm” rages outside before the History Man describes it as history which separates them from the future while reminding them to remember “the lessons of the past or be swept away”.
From his, he transitions into his featured tale where Immortan Joe kept five women imprisoned as his wives in order for one of them to breed his perfect male heirs in order for him to repopulate the world within his own image. Although they were kept within the Dome, they were provided with filtered air and water. In his desire to keep the young women under his control however, he helped combat their consuming depression and mental illnesses by giving them an education along with providing them with a teacher in the form of Miss Giddy. As such, this knowledge would plant the seeds for their eventual dissent and revolution. From there, we shift to a specific wife known as “The Splendid Angharad” getting his womb checked out before the examiner informs Joe that she’s ovulating. With Rictus Erectus and Corpus Callosum also by his side, Immortan Joe gets informed that with this situation shaping up, his window for having a “male progenitation” will come in two days. Just then, Rictus gets aggressively excited and confronts Angharad in order to acquire “healthy babies” from her. Joe orders him to back off from her before telling him to leave as both he and Corpus head out. Joe then tells his examiner that he needs someone to stand up to Erectus while also keeping a watchful eye on the ever-pregnant woman before he then starts to mention about a certain person that he has in mind.
From there, the hired individual makes their way to the Dome in order to look after the Wives as it’s revealed to be Furiosa herself. The ladies then wonder who she is before “Toast The Knowing” mentions that she’s heard of her being called a “bag of nails”. Miss Giddy then informs the wives of who the woman is and that they wonder if she’s here to look after them. From there, we shift to nighttime as the young ladies are bathed before Immortan Joe arrives to check up on them. He then calls for Angharad to be with him and dismisses the rest of the wives before they proceed to have sex.
Sometime afterwards, the rest of the wives talk with her about said encounter before a particular wife named Capable berates Furiosa for being their protector yet doing nothing to protect them from Joe. Toast tells her that the Imperator only does what she’s told to do since he owns her too before Capable says that she’s just like their male rulers. Later, Angharad is getting another check-up before the examiner confirms her pregnancy, to which Immortan Joe orders for her to be quarantined in order for nothing to be left to chance and that both the wives & Miss Giddy are to be kept under close observation. With all of this becoming an emotional strain onto Angharad, Capable tells Furiosa that they’ve been reduced to “wombs on legs” before asking her whose side she’s supposed to be on.
Later on, most of the wives are in the middle of singing practice. However, Angharad is still overcome by recent events as even Capable mentions that their unified singing voices aren’t as good without her while the Imperator continues to keep watch. Eventually, the young women (except for Angharad) are asleep before Miss Giddy tells Furiosa that she’s worried for them since she feels that they’ll lose any sense of strength or hope if they’re kept within the Dome and that they desperately need a leader.
Afterwards, the Imperator sees the young lady head upstairs before she then hears a noise and rushes up to investigate. It turns out that Angharad is trying to surgically mess up her womb in order to kill off her unholy baby as Furiosa manages to intervene before the rest of the wives rush in and assume that she’s trying to attack their imprisoned colleague. The Imperator manages to fend them off before telling them that there’s nothing but “squalor and disease” out in the world, yet they still have lots to give as well as to look forward to. She then calls them out for their lack of gratitude and that despite them not being free, they should at least be thankful for the resources they do have access to. “Cheedo The Fragile” then calls her out for knowing nothing other than “war and killing”, yet Furiosa chastises them for similarly engaging her.
Several silent weeks later, Angharad tries to talk with the Imperator about her being Joe’s prior wife to no avail. She then says that she’ll keep her baby, yet it won’t be for him since she wants to make sure that it doesn’t grow up to become a similar warlord. Angharad then mentions how there must be a better place for all of them somewhere before she then promises her unborn child that they’ll eventually find it. We then shift to the next day where the wives are able to finetune their song in practice before Capable approaches Furiosa and apologizes for her recent comment since she & the rest of the young ladies want to keep Angharad safe. Not only that, but she’s felt envious towards the Imperator for appearing like a tough & self-reliant warrior and that she wishes that she could be like her, to which Furiosa says that she can be better. From there, one of the brides named “The Dag” looks over a worn travel postcard showing a forest-filled landscape and tells Angharad that it’ll be where she can raise her child. Dag then asks Furiosa if such a place exists, to which the Imperator says that she doubts it. Angharad then tells her fellow lady that her baby will be happy wherever it grows up, as long as it’s not in their current location to which Furiosa mentions how “there’s always hope”. Later, Angharad asks the Imperator how she lost her left arm to which Furiosa simply mentions that “bad things happened” (see her solo film to learn this detail). Angharad then wonders where she came from & why she left it, to which the Imperator said that she used to live within a faraway land and that she was taken from it. Not only that, but her mother has died.
Later, Dag pretends to be Immortan Joe in order to provide her fellow brides with a little humorous moment. Just then, the mechanic arrives at their cell and orders them to get into position for their master. Later, Joe gets entertained by his brides’ song as Cheedo sings a verse called “To Telos O Chronos Apeti”, which Miss Giddy translates as “Time Exacts The Final Reckoning”. With Immortan Joe pleased from this performance, he then tells Cheedo to sit on his lap in order for her to be his “first”. Dag then pulls her away while mentioning that she’s the only one amongst them that he hasn’t “infected”, yet Joe responds by dragging her off by her hair and physically punishes her. He then addresses his remaining brides and says that he’s provided them with some shelter, a decent living, artistic education via their “History Woman” and his personal warrior to ensure their safety. As such, he tells them that they’ll do whatever he says.
We then shift to two days later where the Brides are stuck in their low point before Furiosa tells them that a “Green Place” exists as a land of “Many Mothers” filled with plants, trees and animals. While men did used to live there, the women ultimately ran it all while growing food and raising the young while hope for the future existed within. She has tried multiple times to return there to no avail to the point where she’s not even sure if it still exists, yet the young ladies are hopeful enough to ensure their trust in her to take them there. The Imperator then says that it won’t be easy before they’re all suddenly met upon by Immortan Joe, Scrotus and the mechanic as they give the Brides their own Chasity Belts to where. Joe tells the ladies that he won’t tolerate any kind of rebellion before informing Furiosa that he’s assigned her to operate his new War Rig.
Several dour days would then pass as Angharad becomes hateful towards her developing baby before Cheedo tells her not to say that since it’ll be beautiful, yet Angharad berates her for being “favorite” and that she wasn’t physically assaulted like the rest of them. Cheedo then says that they’ll lose themselves if they allow him to win, especially since the Imperator showed them how to be strong women and that they’re not “things”. She then tells Angharard that her child will be just like her since she’s beautiful, brave and capable of doing what the rest of them are worried of doing. From there, she unites her fellow Brides by mentioning that as long as they stand together, they’ll overcome their fear and escape as one as Miss Giddy appreciates this forged united front. We then shift to one fateful evening where Furiosa shows up and tells the Brides that they’re fleeing. As they prepare to sneak their way out of the Dome, she tells the young ladies that they’re not prepared for this expedition and that there’s no guarantees. Fortunately, she wants them to plant a Peach Stone over at the “other end” before asking them if they want to do this. The Brides assure her that they do before Miss Giddy says that she won’t be accompanying them since her frail figure wouldn’t last out in the wasteland. Despite Cheedo not wanting to leave since it means leaving their long-time teacher behind, Miss Giddy tells her to be brave in order to be free. She then assures the Imperator that she won’t tell anyone, especially since she has her own rifle to deal with whatever comes along.
From there, Furiosa proceeds to sneak the Brides onto the War Rig before the tale ends with Miss Giddy readying her weapon for the fateful day as the message “Out Babies Will Not Be Warlords” is written on the dome’s floor.
Back in the present time, the comic ends with the History Man says that it would all end out on Fury Road before noticing that the storm has passed. He then says that even though the world has quieted down, it’s merely a calm before the next storm comes along with this kind of history repeating itself.
For the entire second half, we now shift the focus onto our main protagonist. As for what he got himself into “Beyond Thunderdome” but before he began his fateful drive down “Fury Road”, let us venture towards a two-part tale that’s all about “Max”. We open upon one of the Citadel’s sky bridges as the History Man takes his group to a viewing of the calm landscape from their surrounding area. He then mentions that the facility has been a safe haven for those who’ve been wandering the wasteland, including the man who saved them from the absolute brink known as Max. With the guy still out in the wasteland dealing with his past demons, he then recounts the events of the initial trilogy which started with the world crumbling its way towards “The Fall”.
Greed and Commodity constantly grew with the continuous drilling of gasoline while the industry made progress at the cost of poisoning the waters & the skies. Despite the fuel running low, the land became spoiled, good water became scarce and wars erupted for full control. From there, the people realized the escalating perils and attempted to combat this only to be confronted by forces controlled by those in power. As such, society was pushed past the tipping point as anarchy emerged with gangs and militia taking control while only a few had the courage to stand up to this chaos which included Max Rockatansky. Sadly, his drive for peace as a police officer would be cut down by Toecutter and his motorcycle gang with them murdering his wife Jessie and their son Sprog. After he lost everything dear to him, Mad Max was born out of his vengeful hunt upon those thugs and he “became a shell of a man” who was lost within the wasteland while the world around him collapsed. From there, the nuclear apocalypse occurred as all major cities became empty husks with strong savages emerging to hunt each other down for any remaining form of gasoline which included Max. Through a chance encounter with a Gyro Captain, he would ultimately come across a gasoline-producing compound that’s under attack by Lord Humungus, Wez and their vast gang before making contact with the noble group and initially acquiring some gas for his own car. However, his attempt to go on alone saw him getting ambushed by the opposing gang and thus, he decides to help the settlers make their bold escape by driving a massive tanker. Following the climactic chase, it wound up driving off the road and crashing before Rockatansky discovered that he was used as a decoy since the tanker was actually filled with sand while the settlers were able to flee with several barrels of gasoline as he ultimately made his way back into the wasteland. Through a series of scavenging expeditions along with some occasional employment, he was able to rebuild his Interceptor car into a camel-drawn wagon. After the father-son flying jalopy duo of Jedediah and Jedediah, Jr. stole it from him, Max would find himself in Bartertown run by Auntie Entity where he would find himself in a Thunderdome clash against Blaster. From there, he would come across an oasis-based tribe that would come into Entity’s sights and he would find himself protecting them long enough for them to ultimately get saved by the Jedediahs. Afterwards, Rockatansky would wind up wandering the wastelands once again.
He would eventually make his way to the “guzzoline” producing facility known as Gastown as a “competitor” in order to take advantage of the offered “amnesty” in a physical fight to the finish. Once he parks his vehicle, a brute tells him to move it from his own before he tries to push it away. Max then tells him to not let up since his vehicle is rigged to blow as he walks away while leaving the man stuck in his place. He then arrives at the check-in station and is ordered to leave his weapons behind, which was a good amount just like in “Beyond Thunderdome”, before he makes his way in. Rockatansky then arrives among the group of combatants and fends off one of the goons that tried to attack him prior to the main event before they’re all guided into the main arena which is also called Thunderdome. For this last-man standing deathmatch, the participants will be playing for a V8 engine.
Just then, a particular group called the Wild Dogs show up much to the crowds’ dismay due to them wearing sharp armor. The group’s leader then declares amnesty since they want to participate, to which the ringmaster allows before asking Immortan Joe about the legality of their “sacred armor”. With Joe allowing the group to wear their weaponized armor, they allow their “brother” to take part as their representative before the ringmaster then explains the rules while Max looks around the arena in order to spot any useful weapons that he can use against the Wild Dogs.
From there, the brutal contest begins as he attempts to climb up the side in order to reach a chainsaw, yet the viewing populace is able to slow him down long enough for another combatant to acquire it. After being forced back onto the ground, Rockatansky is then able to disorient a different participant in order to take his knife before he’s confronted by the chainsaw-wielding goon. Fortunately, another fighter is able to intervene by stabbing the opposing fiend. Max then gets rid of the perp by forcing him onto the active chainsaw before he gets subdued by another fighter, only for said guy to get his throat slit by the lone Wild Dog’s gauntlet.
Max then tries to flee up the wall before he’s met by a woman who gives him a flare to use before the Wild Dog goon throws the chainsaw as our main man gets hit by its handle. Rockatansky is then held up by the armored brute, yet he’s able to take his newly-acquired flare and uses it to singe his foe’s left eye. Afterwards, he removes the disoriented fiend’s helmet in order to effectively take him down with a fierce punch. Ultimately, Max emerges as the victor and receives his new V8 engine despite the remaining Wild Dogs members calling him out for having outside help. The ringmaster still stands by the outcome as he orders the guards to escort them out before asking our main man if he would also like to have some women, food and water for his “services”, yet Rockatansky says that he’s fine with him just taking the engine before he heads out. He then returns to his initial vehicle and has his V8 engine loaded onto it before admitting to the goon that his car wasn’t rigged as he proceeds to drive off.
Underneath the nighttime sky, he returns to his makeshift base in the wasteland as it’s revealed that he plans on using his newly-earned engine for the rebuild of his Interceptor car. Suddenly, the Wild Boys show up and ambush him before knocking him out in order to tie him down to the ground. After Max wakes up and discovers his situation, the group’s leader tells him that this is in response to our main man “cheating” in the fight which resulted in their brother losing his life. As such, they intend to take his engine, supplies and his car before giving him a “fighting chance” by stabbing him in his femoral artery. The leader then tells him that he’ll quickly bleed if he pulls it out or else he can leave the blade in and end up dying of heat exhaustion from the desert sun. From there, the Wild Boys take our main man’s car and drive off.
Eventually, the day has arrived as Max manages to free one of his arms before pulling the knife out of his leg in order to cut himself free. He then tries to crawl his way to some shade, but his excessive blood loss causes him to start passing out as he notices a person on a motorcycle. Sometime later, he wakes up next to a campfire and notices that his wound has been bandaged before he spots his savior in the form of a young woman. After she puts the fire out in order for them to not attract any unwanted attention, she says that she had tracked him from Gastown and that she was able to find her way to his base. He then asks her why she helped him during the fight, to which she says that it’s about trade. From there, Part 1 ends with her saying that because she saved his life, he now owes her a favor.
Part 2 begins with Max riding across the wasteland as he talks to the woman that he’s now with. During their journey, she explains that she was traveling across the vast sandy landscape in a trading convoy towards Gastown with her daughter named Glory before it got attacked by a raiding party. The devious group managed to take advantage of this chaos by kidnapping the young girl and taking her to an underground base. Even though the woman was able to locate where her daughter was being held, there was too much inside opposition for her to deal with which is why she’s enlisted Rockatansky into helping her out as he was the only form of assistance that she could find. From there, they arrive at a largely abandoned and decimated city as the woman tells him that this will work out for both of them since she’ll get her girl back while he’s able to retrieve his stolen car. However, Max refuses her help and says that he prefers to go on this mission by himself before asking the woman how he’ll be able to recognize her daughter. She says that Glory will be wearing a winged horse charm around her neck before she once again demands to go with him, yet he doesn’t want her to risk her life for this as he promises to get her girl back before heading out. Deep within the ruined underground, Glory narrates about how she doesn’t know how long she’s been held down here while mentioning that a ray of sunshine is providing her with her lone reminder of the surface world. Shortly after she hears some noise, she manages to crawl into the air duct and see what’s going on while her narration mentions that her kidnappers have nicknamed her “Tunnel Monkey” since she was constantly sent into tiny places in order to retrieve them food, clothing and other things that were out of their reach. Unbeknownst to them however, she was able to fit into the unit in order to be momentarily free from their grasp and go around various obstacles that the opposing gang couldn’t. Despite the air duct providing her with said route, she was unable to find any way that it could be used to help her escape.
Shortly after she returns to her imprisoning room, she’s then met upon by Max who recognizes her via her charm and is initially startled by him. With her scream attracting some unwanted attention, he tells her that they must leave. She then says that she knows a way that the goons won’t be able to follow them as she proceeds to lead him to a small hole underneath some rubble. Shortly after she crawls through however, she then attacks him assuming that he’s with her captors. Fortunately, he takes out her teddy bear and assures her that he knows who she is along with the fact that her mother wanted her to have it thus allowing him to gain Glory’s trust.
She then suggests for them to escape through the air duct, but he says he won’t fit in there. As such, she leads him towards a door only for them to be met upon by a goon. Fortunately, Rockatansky is able to easily knock him out before Glory leads him to another escape route. They then manage to sneak past the opposing gang and escape into a darkened room right before they ultimately hear some ominous clicking. He then ignites a flare as they discover several baddies coming right towards them, yet Max is able to fight the fiends off before he and Glory keep moving.
With the rest of the gang slowing closing in on them, they manage to sneak their way back to her secret space in order for them to both climb their way out. However, he’s not yet ready to leave as they spot a door that leads into a parking garage. As the goons continue to bear down, Max is able to kick the jammed door open before he and Glory make their way towards the aforementioned space. Once they reach it however, they find several more people inside along with vehicles modified with spike-filled exteriors. He then manages to reach his car as he finds it already installed with the V8 engine along with it being partially modified with a few spikes on its frame before they get inside and start it up. With a goon approaching them, Rockatansky is able to shoot him before peeling out.
The remaining fiends manage to reach their automobiles and chase after them, yet he’s able to fend off an opposing driver right before another set of goons pull up alongside and try to yank Glory from the car. Fortunately, she’s able to pull the pin from one of the fiend’s grenades which manages to distract the perp long enough for him to smack into the low-hanging roof. From there, the grenade falls out of his grasp and into the van which causes it to blow up while our main duo manage to reach the surface in order to escape.
Eventually, Glory gets reunited with her mother before she tells her parent that she remembered her advise on hiding from her captors even though she wasn’t able to escape on her own. After Max is able to get the spikes off of his car, the woman praises him as a principled man before offering him to stay with them. Despite this opportunity to no longer be alone, he declines her proposal as the women proceed to ride off. He then tries to convince himself to not look back, yet he ultimately drives back towards them since he noticed a remaining spiked vehicle approaching where it proceeds to ram the ladies off of their motorcycle. Afterwards, the perp and Rockatansky proceed to drive straight towards each other resulting in a fierce crash.
A gravely injured Glory then wakes up and sees that Max is still alive before asking him if her mother is okay, to which he tells her that “she’s fine” before promising to look after her while revealing that the lone goon got impaled by his own vehicle’s spikes. Later, the two ladies had succumbed to their wounds as Rockatansky buries them before driving off. The History Man then concludes this tale by mentioning that vengeance will never be able to balance out the loss of life, nor can it bring the deceased back since it only contains “pain and madness”. As such, the road warrior is stuck within “a never-ending cycle of loss and revenge” and is once again “unable to escape the mistakes of his own history”. He then tells his fellow people that it remains true for all of them since they “blindly follow history” while continually making past mistakes that brings up problems they intended to avoid, for which nothing can be solved if they continue to enact the same kinds of behaviors that caused them to initially wind up within those issues. As such, it’s important for them to know history before they spot Corpus Colossus telling a woman that they can’t keep giving water to their “comers” since he sees it as a weakness that will invite someone to come along and take it from them. He then tells her to show her strength and “save” them all before the main series ends with the History Man telling his group that the cycle is beginning once again and that they must head inside. He then says that history is “but a record of such failures”, yet that idea can ultimately provide a solution and that they shouldn’t try “to be part of history” since understanding and changing their behaviors will allow them to “be the future”.
Before we close, let’s take a quick look at a bonus story that’s exclusive to the trade collection. Joining Miller and Sexton on this venture is Peter Pound who provides the artwork while Lovern Kindzierski contributes with the colors as this entire unit will provide the origin for a key vehicle within the main fiend’s armada in a narrative known as “The War Rig”. We open 43 days following “The Fall” with an initial focus upon the base vehicle itself known as the Tatra T815 as its driver named Aubrey Mace gets shot in the head due to him being caught by Colonel Joe Moore and his team. With the vehicle full of various military-grade weapons, Major Kalishnikov recognizes the guy as someone who managed to escape from the barracks before Joe tells him that they have his supplies and that they can take the truck as their own. From there, the narration mentions that the vehicle was too vulnerable to getting swiped by “stronger and more brutal” people since it was “a prize just begging for the taking” that Moore and his cronies were happy to do. Next up, we have the tanker where it’s been weeks since the power failed and people were attempting to reach the highway in order to flee from the falling metropolises. However, the roads were already crowded with the rising number of gangs. Fortunately, a certain driver named Brad Hopper was able to guide his tanker past that area. Because he had previously transported illegal goods within a secret compartment inside his vehicle before “The Fall” occurred, he hid his family inside of it in order to help them escape. However, he only had enough fuel for them to travel for a day. Once it ran out of gas, he went to go search for more while his family stayed hidden within the compartment. He knew that they would be safe since the only way that the secret door would open was by a well-hidden switch that only he knew about. Sadly, he got killed off by some random people while his family remained trapped inside the compartment and ultimately died. It wasn’t until several months after Brad’s murder that his tanker was discovered by Joe’s men and was brought into their control, to which it would be another two years before someone wound up making “the grisly discovery” inside of it due to the well-hidden switch on board. As for the twin engines, they initially belonged to a pair of twin boys named Jared & James Voten who both loved cars and even working on them to the point where they made their own twin engine called “Double Jeopardy”. On one fateful day, their father was gunned down by a refugee before stealing his car. This incident caused the boys to snap as they chased after and rammed the perp before making him pay. From there, they became very weary of any strangers that came near their countryside residence. Not only that, but they would drive around in order to make sure that no one tried to rip them from their own world. However and on one fateful day (which was 519 days or just under 1 1/2 years since “The Fall” occurred), they came across Joe’s gang who proceeded to lynch them before stealing their car. We now shift to the Chevy Fleetmaster where this particular car was owned by a wounded man known only as “The Donk” as he gets met upon by Cl. Moore and his team. With Joe enamored by this vehicle, he offers the guy the opportunity to join him. With Donk ultimately siding with them, his speedy car (which was dubbed as “Baby Donk”) helped them on several attacks against the opposing roughnecks that held control over the Citadel. However, it found itself damaged by a rocket-powered grenade during the final assault. Fortunately, the atttack was successful as Joe eventually recruited Donk into building him vehicles that “the world has never seen”. From there, Donk would proceed to do so which even included modifying Baby Donk into become the new chassis for the Tatra T815 due to that vehicle getting damaged by an Improvised Explosive Disorder before the twin engines were also included into this new vehicle. From there, we shift back into the past and see how a Volkswagon Beetle became a part of said rig. A pair of women named Annette Lehmann & Janine Kwong got “sick of it all” and decided to hop into said car in order to drive north and “find some serenity”. They ultimately reached a cliffside by the time they ran out of gas as they both decided that this spot would be where they would create their new life together. However, it was six months prior to “The Fall” and because they didn’t take any kind of communicative or informative electronic with them, they were unaware that they were fairly close to a secret military base that was hung over as a nuclear target as it suddenly flared up over the horizon. Even though some resulting “black snow” would fall onto the ladies, they still found it “beautiful” as they bask themselves underneath it. Some time would pass before it would then cause them to become progressively sick from it and because their car didn’t have any gas in it, their illnesses only got worse. It wouldn’t be until almost nine years after “The Fall” before the car and their rotted corpses were discovered by Joe’s men known as War Pups who all thought that the ladies were actually “the heroes of all time”. From there, the vehicle was towed back to the Citadel before the elder Donk installed it as a gun emplacement upon the tanker. As for the womens’ skulls, they were honored and placed upon the rig.
In terms of “the babies”, it focuses on a young girl named Leanne Bart whose deep love for her baby doll collection was in parallel to her mistrust towards other people which includes her father. She would ultimately move out and go far away in order to settle within an old bluestone home that she and her 532 dolls (all of which she had names for, by the way) can share within her basement. Even though she wasn’t concerned over the sudden loss of her electricity, she still found the stoppage of her gas along with her dwindling water supply as nothing more than minor nuisances since she still had her dolls. We then shift to more than 13 years after “The Fall” where Joe and his primary comrades were present at before Rictus Erectus decided to explore the ruined farmhouse due to him being bored by his dad looking over old maps. He would ultimately discover Leanne’s corpse within the hidden cellar and mistakenly thought that all of her baby dolls were her actual babies, to which he ultimately had to be persuaded and convinced that it wasn’t how babies were regularly made. Ultimately, Rictus added Bart’s head along with her dolls onto the tanker as a display with Immortan Joe liking it as a display of his seeming immortality. As for the “Skull Wheel”, the narration implores its reader to wonder about the various lowly items from “a world now gone and almost forgotten” before we focus on a small group of chained War Pups that sorts through the numerous objects within the dark chamber in order for them to create various things for them to appease Joe’s powerful might with. They wound up working around the clock as they proceeded to create new kinds of objects that will hopefully please their tyrannical overlord. If Immortan Joe likes it, he’ll give the person some sustenance to last on until his next visitation. If the item doesn’t please him however, they get tossed out of the Citadel and fall to their death. From there, the section ends upon the stack of Joe-approved steering wheels while the narration mentions how everyone falls in the end while some outgoing few can have the satisfaction of leaving something they created behind. We then shift to the fully-completed War Rig about to be driven by Imperator Furiosa for the eventual events of the film as the series ends with the narration mentioning that several lives were lost for the ultimate purpose of creating this mighty vehicle while several more will eventualy follow.
Overall, this line up of comics shared some peculiarly interesting stories throughout its run and ultimately provided some noteworthy background for the series’ fourth film. In terms of the first comic from this line, Nux’s tale was fairly short yet pretty sweet since this essentially began his rise towards becoming noteworthily special as an individual. With his child-based strength impressing the War Boys, it allows him to become part of something bigger even though it’s essentially as a member of Immortan Joe’s white-coated soldiers who also paint their teeth in chrome. His role as a mechanic allows him to contribute amongst his fellow comrades long before the events of the film ultimately sees him changing sides and even finding some form of companionship with one of Joe’s wives, particularly Capable. Either way, this was small in its narrative size yet still provided its own comforting notion on how anyone can rise up and become something better. As for Immortan Joe’s own rise to power, it turns out that a chance encounter with someone who would ultimately become part of his inner circle is the reason as to how he came across the Citadel in the first place. It does seem a bit random (and a little convenient) that a plump man would ultimately be the one who provided Colonel Moore with the path he needed to forge his empire before becoming a Gastown co-ruler himself known as People Eater, yet this point didn’t feel overly contrived and mostly played out pretty well for a particular plot point. As for the conflict between his group and the opposing roughnecks, it wonderfully showed the struggle and challenge that he & his comrades had to overcome with this small war of attrition. The way that our central figures would ultimately reach the top of the Citiadel was fittingly gruesome, yet particularly clever while the resulting final conflict was pretty decent given the ultimate result. Also, it was appropriately well-written for them to discover two other key areas that would eventually become Gastown and the Bullet Mines during their takeover attempt, thus allowing Immortan Joe to have the groundworks of his vast empire set in place before he accomplished his initial mission. Given the moderately-sized space for this setup, it made for a nice origin tale that mainly covered his rise while also planting the key factors for his eventual downfall. As a whole, this comic delivered a good start to this line as these two antagonistic figures (with one not staying bad by the end of the movie) are each presented with compelling backstories that nicely fits into their cinematic characterizations. Their respective preludes had their own unique energetic drives to properly pace their narratives while remaining engaging throughout to help these comics hit the road running on all cylinders. Moving on to Furiosa’s prequel comic, we have a somewhat-odd situation here as Joe’s Brides seem to be front and center a lot more that the Imperator herself. Furiosa herself does manage to show up fairly early on in this book, though only to serve as a protective guard of sorts. However, Joe’s sexist oppression is looming large over the proceedings as he continues to have his sexually oppressing ways with his young women. During this tale, Capable does mention how the Imperator isn’t willing to stand up to the corrupt leader in order to serve as their bodyguard. Of course, Furiosa’s own work-based relationship with Immortan Joe would get fleshed out in her own movie (and was initially intended to be shot back-to-back with “Fury Road”) so it’s hard to be overly-critical of the fact that she’s somewhat passive for a fair amount of time before Angharad’s attempted abortion ultimately allows our main lady to finally start showing some semblance of care towards the Brides. Through time, the young women are continually oppressed by their tyrannical overlord and are placed in emotionally hopeless low points, yet a key conversation with the Imperator about where she initially came from and how it can possibly serve as a prosperous safe haven for all of them to live in helps this comic maintain the film’s female empowerment over male domination theme that our main ladies would find themselves on. As such, this particular book can feel a little bit unfocused from its main character and sluggish at first. Fortunately, readers who stick with it will find the hopeful momentum needed to help its audience care about its primary women along with how the building blocks towards their eventual escape came about. While the artwork can be a little sketchy and rough, it still fits the dystopian world and allows the story’s events to be paced out pretty nicely. In the end, it may give slightly more attention towards the Brides, yet they’re still handled with developmental care while Furiosa ultimately becomes the hopeful figure that they desperately need. As such, this serves the story well and makes for an enjoyable read from start to finish. Next up, we have Max’s two-part tale. The first chapter mainly serves to recap its audience of the initial trilogy over the course of three two-page splash pages before setting up the main conflict that Max will have to go on in Part 2. For Part 1, the Wild Dogs are presented as a fairly formidable group by the end of this comic due to them feeling like they were screwed out of their ultimate victory. Their ability to stealthily follow Rockatansky back to his makeshift base presents its reader with the knowledge that this gang has some time-forged unity under their belts beyond their own unique armors, yet the full scope of their own organization is kept hidden for the time being. As for the woman that Max will ultimately guide him towards his main objective for this particular narrative, she must have seen enough of his skills within the Thunderdome in order for her to properly gage that he could potentially be the one that helps her out of his dilemma, thus leading her to provide him with the flare that ultimately becomes the key tool towards his turnaround. As for our main lady finding him in the nick of time in order to heal and recruit him, it does have a small hair of convenience that she manages to reach our main man just as he seems to lose enough blood to be on death’s door since she does essentially explain that it took her a while to find him while staying out of the Wild Dogs’ sights. Thankfully, that moment remains plausible enough to still make sense and allow the story to continually progress towards where it wants to go. As such, Part 1 nicely sets up its main plot and conflict for our familiar road warrior to deal with as he’s once again forced to become the reluctant hero that he’s turned into over his two prior mainline adventures (and soon-enough next cinematic entry). Moving on to Part 2, it mainly shows off the harrowing rescue mission. There are a fair number of obstacles standing between Max & Glory’s escape which makes the situation pretty tense due to the few slim pathways that only she can crawl through and the opposing Wild Boys that’re lurking around various corners. The entire escape plan itself is nicely paced as it gives our main characters as well as the reader a little time to catch their breath while still keeping things hectic enough to maintain the looming tension. Shortly after Glory gets reunited with her mother, the harsh reminder of how vicious this world is ultimately plays into the running theme that the History Man continually brings up on how history repeats itself, especially since the ladies get fatally hit by the Wild Boys’ lone remaining vehicle and it does dreg up the same parallel of how Rockatansky lost his family towards the end of his inaugural entry. This successfully brings up parallels to the real world in how it feels like we’re constantly going through the same tragedies over & over again due to certain steps constantly being ignored and not taken, while that feeling of hope seems to just drift out into the vast nothingness every single time. Despite the similar bittersweet ending that this book ultimately shares with the franchise’s first film, the History Man does allow the series to end on a little positive note especially given the vast adventure that awaits our familiar Raggedy Man. As such, this two-part tale allows our primary player to finally shine in his namesake series and allows him to be the reluctant hero that he’s regularly finding himself in within his cinematic sequels. The setting was small-scale enough to fit the media format, the situation was simple enough to follow yet brimming with good pacing and the action maintained a tasteful amount of vicious violence that the franchise’s fellow R-Rated entries have. Finally, we have the tale of War Rig which basically gives brief one-page backstories upon every notable feature and automobile that got combined together in order for the movie’s main vehicle to become what it is by the start of the famed fourth entry. All eight pages remain brief enough to not let itself fall under any kind of contrivance or convenience, the tragic outcomes of each element gets handled in the series’ unique way and the artwork maintains a vibrant-enough color palette while remaining comprehensive enough for its main tale to be told in order for the mini-series’ trade collection to close out on an extra neat note. Every comic’s artwork has a wide range that allowed each of them to provide a nice amount of professionalism, sketchy roughness and colors that can brightly scorch within either the wasteland or the various fires while also maintaining a moody coolness within the various dark areas that’re under the nighttime skies or even inside pitch black rooms. In conclusion, this franchise has maintained its high standard over the course of several decades and its dip into the comics realm allows it to share that similar quality standard within its various pages. From the expansion upon certain key characters to the harrowing ventures that each of them found themselves in within their own stories, they’re all worth checking out if you’re a fan of this unique media series. If you’ve made it through the initial movie trilogy and have either delved into or are about to watch Rockatansky’s fourth big-screen adventure, then gives this particular line a read since it’ll become a furious road that’s worth traveling on.
Mad Max (created by George Miller & Byron Kennedy) is owned by Miller while the movies are distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.