The day England ever did cut itself off from the rest of the world- as it does in Warren Ellis’s FreakAngels– would be very sad. We’ve gotten too many great things from them ever since they gave us our independence- Benny Hill, The Rolling Stones, the Harry Potter and 007 franchises, and as of late a boy band where none of its members have had a public meltdown (yet). Then again, they did give us Piers Morgan, but we can move past that.
If post apocalyptic settings, world weary heroes, musings on good vs. evil and all of the usual Ellis trademarks appeal to you, you’ll be able to add this comic to the list. He promises something “very English” in one of his many notes between episodes, and if nothing else he’s no liar.
FreakAngels puts us in the middle of a London left ravaged by a cataclysmic flood, and our title band of oddly pale misfits left tending to a small community of ordinary humans in the Whitechapel district. The Angels were all born around the same period of time in a small village and stayed closed knit throughout their lives, at least until the government became afraid enough of their developing superpowers to eventually hunt them down. The resulting flood is the result of their (ex) leader’s insistence on making a “statement”, leaving the rest of the gang with a major mess on their hands- and a few years later, possibly the unwanted attention of a certain superpower.
Alice serves as the human deuteragonist to the FreakAngels when after attempting to hunt them down, she finds herself as an honorary member after they win her trust, and she quickly discovers just how much they vary in personality. From the very reserved Connor, Jack the quiet loner, friendly mechanic Caz, perpetual grouch Kirk and the spiritually minded Sirkka to the hotheaded KK, trigger happy Kait, kind hearted gardener Karl, sociopathic asshole Luke, practical doctor Miki and Arkady the space case, there’s a FreakAngel for just about everybody.
The FreakAngels’ powers are vaguely defined, various sorts of psychic and telekinesis skills that allow the story to get from point A to B. There’s only a bare bones look into their background and what they exactly might be- Ellis leaves that open to interpretation. The real draw is the relationships between the various members, so we get what backstory we need and little else. As is his calling card, there’s a general hopeful feeling throughout the book buried underneath a sea of bleakness and anger.
Paul Duffield does the illustrating, and his style is vaguely cartoonish at least in his faces but somewhat realistic as far as detailing, anatomy and everything else. There’s a heavy steampunk influence to his waterlogged London, and the cast makes good use of it with various odd gadgets at their disposal through the book.
It’s a pretty fun read IMO, so recommended (here) for any Ellis fans, disaster story fans, anglophiles, or anybody that doesn’t mind an excessive amount of swearing (in accents I find hilarious), gore and explicit content.
As fun as they are, the FreakAngels ain’t exactly what you’d call “marketable”, at least not to families. (If there’s any character that should NEVER have his own doll, it’s Luke.) There’s plenty of other kinds of merchandise available on the site, though.