Fierce is the first of a handful of projects from Gettosake Studios, whose influences and interests seem to coincide with the important dual goals of bringing a little color to comics and telling good stories. Fierce achieves both of those goals, being essentially an action movie in paper form, reminiscent of Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer productions in ways both good and bad. There are a couple of groaner Hollywood moments that feel like cliche, but the central premise, about an elite FBI team that relies on a psychic to give them targets, is a great one, and I really enjoyed the way the Loves and Wasson kept the action moving and the characters interesting. If you're in the mood for a slick, fast-paced thriller with a couple of unusual twists, Fierce is the place to go.
The plot of Fierce could be described as cliched or familiar, depending on your love for action movies like Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys and Die Hard. The tormented hero with a secret, the jocular camaraderie of a team of soldiers, the sinister villain who turns his war against law enforcement into something personal, we've seen these types of things before in many movies. However, I'm quite sure that Love is aware of this, and is in fact setting up Fierce as an action story in that vein. For my part, while I've seen some of these stock tricks before, I always enjoy them when they're written well, and some of the moment-to-moment stuff, like the interaction between the members of the Razor, is very well-written.
In addition, for every moment that made me groan (the psychologist finding a personal involvement with her patient, a common cliche) there were several moments I just loved. The opening sequence, wherein Fierce uses his psychic gift to help the team make an intrusion into a hostile site, is a perfectly executed action sequence, with just the right amount of characterization and suspense to keep it interesting. It also serves as a quick introduction to the characters and the premise, and establishes the level of skill that our protagonists have. Later scenes establish the bad guy organization as something a little bit on the (forgive the use of the term) "comic-booky" side of things, with codenames and tattoos, which fits in nicely with the not-quite-real world vibe that Fierce gives off. This is action hero territory all the way, not a gritty look at FBI procedure with a psychic twist.
If you needed any clearer signal of that, it is to be found in the artwork by Love and Wasson. They've got one of their protagonists performing impossibly acrobatic (and impossibly cool) dodge moves, guys blasting away with two guns, guys crashing through windows, all the action shots you need. While it isn't in the realm of science-fiction or superheroes, there's definitely an intent to make this unrealistic in terms of heroic action, and it's a good choice for the book. Love and Wasson have a style I really like, reminiscent in some ways of the work of Steve Rolston on Queen & Country in that it's cartoony to some extent, but realistic in the range of expressions and movements for the characters. I also quite enjoyed the sort of blurred effect used for Fierce's visions.
Fierce is the comic-book for guys like me who grew up watching cool action heroes slide across the screen in the '80s and '90s. It's got a touch of cliche to it that is perhaps unavoidable in trying to emulate this genre, but the resulting payoff is that it recalls those really good action movies. Perhaps more importantly, while the action movies were beholden to the big stars, Love and the rest are free to "cast" their story a little more widely, with more interesting characters, all while maintaining the same sense of adrenaline-fueled action.
