Fu Jitsu #1 Review

Fu-Schnickens

Written by: Jai Nitz
Art by: Wesley St Claire
Release Date: September 27, 2017
Publisher: Aftershock
Review by: Andrew McAvoy

Fu Jitsu. Hot damn. This title hit me with a startling burst of originality that is increasingly rare among the mainstream publishers. If you like high levels of realism in your comics it's likely this isn't the title for you. If, however, you like storytelling that pushes the boundaries, is surreal, creative and surprises you at every turn then this book is a must. 


Firstly the art. Wesley St Clare depicts the story in wispy opium smoke curls that are so well suited to the story. Incidentally, my favorite panel was of the main character Fu eating a burger; I'm always a sucker for my characters promoting fast food. At the start of this issue, entitled "Curse of the Atomic Katana", we greet Fu as he emerges after three years from a deep sea meditation chamber, and are thrown further when the background boxes inform us that his date of birth is 1897. So he's old. Very old. Despite which he still looks very much a boy. This trend of highly suspended disbelief continues throughout the book as Fu acts to counteract his longtime nemesis Robert Wadlow, the world’s tallest man, and his dangerous magi-science. 

What's hilarious about the Wadlow character is that the world's tallest ever man in real life (at 8 foot 11.1 inches) was actually a Robert Pershing Wadlow (don't believe me? - google it). This comic extends his life beyond his death in 1940 (the book tells us that his death was faked) and pairs him with top assassin James Dean (yes that James Dean) who also seems to have counterfeited his death. The book then revolves around Wadlow's pursuit of the evolution of a collection of ultimate weapons throughout history. 

We are told the history of the "Jawbone of an ass" used to slay Cain, and the spear of destiny used to pierce the side of Christ. We are told that it was in pursuit of the latter that Wadlow faked his own death, thus allowing him to travel to wartime Berlin to steal the spear from Hitler. After the spear was sadly destroyed in the Dresden fire bombing, Wadlow decided to turn his attention to America for the next stage in the evolution of the super weapon; deploying the reanimated corpses of German occultists to forge the Atomic Katana in the atomic explosion at Nagasaki. All that plus we see Fu deploy a toaster and a set of kitchen knives as his own deadly weapon against James Dean. 

As we leave our protagonist he has met up with a new character called Rachel in Antarctica, as they acknowledge that they need to save the world from Wadlow. 

Bits and Pieces:

Okay, so it's like this. You'll know from the plot description above if this is the type of book that you'll like. If, like me, you are happy to embrace complete madness and go with it, you'll get a lot out of this book. Let me put it this way; I read a Weird Science DC review copy and went online straight away to buy a hard copy for my collection. It's that good. My book of the week. 

8.6/10