How can anyone not want to read this book based on the title alone: Mutafukaz. I mean seriously. Fucking Sam Jackson is probably going to read this book. Mutafukaz (so fun to say) is a reprinting of sorts. Titan Comics has gathered it up and released it in a hardcover with a ton of goodies. The story follows the character Angelino who one day spots a hot chick and crashes his scooter and fucks up his brain. There will be swearing in this review by the way… more than normal. Anyway, after this accident he has a They Live moment in which he can see a bunch of shady ass people’s shadows revealing their true form. After he reveals this inadvertently to one of the shadowy dudes, he finds himself under attack by genetically enhanced killers and on the run for his life.

Let’s talk about the story first. There’s not much going on here. It’s basically the classic, average guy in over his head being chased by unknown forces and still pulls off a victory story line. Which is fine. That works because it’s the journey that make stories like that interesting. This one is interesting enough.

There’s just not enough revealed in this issue. We hang out a lot in the story and what’s weird is that some of it is in an attempt to establish the world and the vibe of the city. To essentially make Gotham feel like Gotham, but not actually Gotham. I’m just using that so you’ll get what I’m talking about. The creator(s?) want you to feel as if the city is alive. You just don’t really need that for the story to work and so it feels wasted.

The book is very alternative. There’s fake ads. The page layout is crazy as shit sometimes and there’s a lot of black on the page. Also the main character is all black which just adds to the darkness. This is a dark fucking book to look at. The word bubbles are also black with colored font. I personally find this to be insanely annoying to look at for a long period of time and there’s a lot of dialogue to read.

There are some funny moments, but overall a lot of the humor falls completely flat. I could see the joke being built and read its delivery, but it was never that funny. A smirk is the most I mustered while reading it.

The pacing is all over the place. We hang out, we see action, we have a random conversation with a sub-character. It’s very jarring and gives the impression that this story was put together chapter by chapter over a great length of time. Which is fine. A lot of indie books are like that, but it sticks out here in its collected format.

The art is very good. I could have sworn that the creator of Norman was one of the creators on this book, but I can’t remember and the credits just list RUN. The art is good, but again, it’s too dark. Not much that can be done to change that, but keep it in mind. The action is okay. It’s not perfect and sometimes I would get lost in what I was looking at, but overall it was good. The art doesn’t exactly carry the story, but it’s so stylized that it makes Mutafukaz stand out.

Also there’s a lot of extras in the beginning and end of the book. Personally I skipped it all because I just wanted the story, but others might like seeing a big bunch of extras.

I would pick up the second volume. Sure there’s a lot of unanswered questions from this first volume, but I liked the world enough that I would return to discover them. If you’re looking for something very unique and extremely different, then check out Mutafukaz this week. It’s pretty good.

Score: 3/5

Mutafukaz Vol. 1 Creator: RUN Publisher: Titan Comics Price: $19.99 Release Date: 9/30/15 Format; Hardcover; Print/Digital