My opinions on the comic (Note: spoilers, but not of anything not in the movie)

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to be more participatory on here recently, seeing as how I'm the most active moderator but I rarely participate in discussions. Having read the comic, I decided that posting a little review of it might be a good way to start. This will probably make some people mad, but what the hell. Also, don't read this if you haven't read the comic, as there are some minor spoilers as to how things are positioned in the comic.

I'm going to have to be the wet blanket of the forum: I was unimpressed by the first issue. That doesn't mean all the rest will be bad (nor does it even mean the first one is bad either), but I have valid reasons for being unimpressed, so hear me out.

For one, I thought it moved waaaaaaaaaay too fast. Like, I honestly felt like someone opened the first twenty minutes of the movie in Windows Media Player and rapidly clicked through it, covering the whole time period in under five minutes and only allowing a few seconds of watching each time they stopped to examine a part. For example, take a look at the end of the comic. The Warriors go from talking about getting japped on an open platform to looking at the Turnbulls turning around to looking up at the train coming in to hauling ass from the aforementioned Turnbulls... all in four panels. It was like I was watching the movie on fast forward or something.

It's the same thing with the opening, which mimics the movie's. There's barely any explanation or anything, just two pages of rapid fire scenes of the Warriors talking to each other while waiting for the train. It works in the movie because it goes slower. You have to wait a few seconds for them to speak, and you get the emotions behind what they're saying. In comic form, it just reads like a slide show on crack. Then boom, you're at the conclave, we get one establishing shot, and suddenly Cyrus is talking. You see what I mean? I feel the progression through the story should have been slowed somewhat, because it just seems like they tried to cram in too much into one issue. I think they should have had the first issue begin before the movie, transitioning into it at the very end. That way they could end the issue on the eve of the conclave, as everyone is getting ready to go, and have this be the next issue.

That leads into my other problem: this comic was made exclusively for us fans. If someone who has never seen the movie picked this up in a comic store, they'd be pretty confused by what's going on. Things just go so quick, and there's barely any intro to who the characters are (you lose a lot of the voice and sense of emotion in the transition to page, so it's not like in the movie where you can look at Cochise and think "Strong silent type" right away), that I could see someone who has never seen the movie being left behind. I'm only concerned about this because, if only fans get the comic, it might cease production due to low sales.

I'll say that I really like the art style, even though it makes some of the characters look kinda weird. It's very dark and gritty, the exact kind of tone the movie had, but on paper instead. They're also following the movie's story faithfully, and I haven't seen any influence from the game yet, which is good. While I liked the game and some of the story, there were just too many contradictions with the movie for me to warrant thinking it should be part of the comic. Maybe some of the issues that take place outside the movie's story should draw from the game a little, but the storyline of the movie itself should stay intact. This doesn't preclude minor modifications or any kind of addition (Snow and Cowboy's journey to Union Square, anyone?), but I'm just saying that having the Warriors fighting through the Turnbulls' hangout is kinda stupid, or having Sully recognize Swan from "that raid a few months back".

That's about all I have to say. Feel free to agree or disagree with me. Special emphasis on disagree: I don't want anyone holding back at all because I'm a moderator. I'd never punish anyone for a personal opinion alone, and I hope I've made that clear to at least longtime members via my previous activities on here. I know a lot of mods on other sites who will ban you for simply disagreeing with them, and I try my hardest not to be like that. Now if anyone drifts into the realm of personal attacks or starts getting out of hand, that's when I'm going to start nailing people. I don't want any rabid fanboys coming in here with "OMG U SUCK TEH WARRORZ IZ AWSOM [bad word deleted] [bad word deleted] [bad word deleted] UR MOM FAT", cause that's just dumb. Anyway, I've said my piece, feel free to say yours.

[bassman]

I only got the comic yesterday and although I love it very much, I have to agree with you that the story was rushed. It would be interesting to see what non fans of the movie feelings are on  the comic. As a hugh fan I loved reading and checking the art work out, but because I know the story so well I could fill in the missing pieces.
in saying that I will do what ever I can to get all the comics that come out including the different covers. plus buy as many as I can to give to friends who I know love the movie.
Buy the way Im not just agreeing with just because your a moderator, I just think you made some great points Gramercy Riff99.

[BaseballFury100]

So is there anything that branches from the story? like more of Cleon getting beat down or like the Warriors encountering another gang or something?

[GramercyRiff99]

So is there anything that branches from the story? like more of Cleon getting beat down or like the Warriors encountering another gang or something?

Nothing yet. Then again, it's only the first issue.

[LIER ONE]

It is a MOVIE ADAPTATION so it will not stray from the story we saw in the movie. If it does good, they will branch out with things that are not "cannon" to the film.

[Storm86]

Hmm, this is kind of the same thing as books that are made into movies. Some people are always going to complain about a lot of stuff from the books being left out. But truthfully if the movie was exactly like the book, it wouldn't be as interesting to watch because you would already know everything that happens. I guess what I'm trying to say is, Comics are only what? around 30 pages or so? Of course they're not gonna have room to fit every last little detail in, as long as they get the gist of the story is all that really matters.

[Ninth Delegate]

Issue one took me approx 7 minutes to read.  To me, its main fault was that it lacked dynamics.  I was expecting with it being a comic book, to have the character movement more exagerated in the traditional comic book way.  Hardly any panels convey that they are running for their lives, more like a mild jog in the park.  Another example: where cleon beats down the rogues, it looks more like luthors being pushed over on a sheet of ice.  So far, its a faithful adaptation, but it doesnt feel like a comic book to me. Nothing jumps out of the panels at me and I dont feel like i'm submerged in the story as its over too quickly.

[Riff]

I got the comic yesterday and read it last night.

I liked the style of the comic, the dark colours and look of it, some of the Warriors did looka little strange, especially Vermin and Fox, but I have no problem with that it makes it kind of interesting.

I do agree that they seem to be going through the story too fast, I was a bit disspointed with  Cleons run in with the Rogues and Riffs and also the Turnball AC encounter, it seemed that it didnt really explain what was happening and all of a sudden they were being chased by a bus, fine for us fans that know what's hapeening but still I want to see the details on the page. Masai's speech to the Riffs also seemed a bit rushed.

I understand a comic book is only 20 or 30 pages long, but why don't they just have 10 issues instead of the 5, then they can spread it out and put more detail in.

Overall I have to say I enjoyed it and it looks good, so I wouldn't say I am dissapointed and I am definatley looking forward to the next issue.

The one thing I was really not happy about was all the adverts at the back of the comic. I counted the pages and there were 24 pages of story then 10 pages of adverts, that's not far from 30% of the comic!! I am not familiar with comics as this is the first comic I have read since I was a kid in the early 80's so you will have to excuse me if this is normal as I don't know?

[The Swan]

I read all your post guys, and all I can tell you is One Word: RUSH. As some of you already said.
I read and re-read the Comic these days, and it seems they "were in a hurry"... but... why?
Even that Story about Ragers and Rangers... not to talk about that sorta synthesis... anyway, let's wait.

Oh, that Game, "Street Brawl", for X-Box Live only... do you know anything more?

[Uriah]

Agree whole heartedly with your review - was completely underwhelmed.  The art is better than the first few pics we saw suggested but I think it is becuase of the excellent coloring. 

That said, even the coloring couldn't save the big splash page of the conclave.  What a huge missed opportunity.  The artist could have had a lot of fun drwaing all the diffrent faces and gang colors but instead takes the cheap and easy route, having the crowd mosty rendered with weak, abstract shapes that the colorist had no choice but to cast in shadow.  Really destroys the larger than life feel of the conclave that the movie had. 

Movie adaptation comics almost always suck so this is no surprise.  I'll pick the rest of this series up just to support the book but hope Dabel Bros doesn't let us down when they start expanding the Warriors universe with stories that are new.