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Fight Club 2

(Fight Club 2 #1-10)

Chuck Palahniuk (Goodreads Author),

Cameron Stewart (Goodreads Author),

David W. Mack (Illustrations)

3.06 · Rating details · 7,436 ratings · 962 reviews

Some imaginary friends never go away . . .

Ten years after starting Project Mayhem, he lives a mundane life. A kid, a wife. Pills to keep his destiny at bay. But it won’t last long—the wife has seen to that. He’s back where he started, but this go-round he’s got more at stake than his own life. The time has arrived . . .

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Hardcover, Omnibus of the Fight Club 2 series, 256 pages

Published June 28th 2016 by Dark Horse Books (first published May 2nd 2015)

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Average rating 3.06 ·

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· 7,436 ratings · 962 reviews

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Apr 11, 2016 Jochem rated it it was ok

I am Jack's bitter disappointment ...more

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Apr 09, 2016 Sam Quixote rated it it was ok

10 years after Project Mayhem…

He’s called Sebastian these days. Married to Marla Singer, the two have a son, Junior. Released from the funny farm with a heavy-duty pill regimen, he works an office job, she plays the doting housewife, and both are crushingly bored. The pills keep… him… away. Except Marla’s been substituting Sebastian’s pills with sugar out of desperation for a good lay! The urge for a good fight is building again. Now “someone’s” kidnapped their son. He’s back. And this time Tyl ...more

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Jan 28, 2017 F rated it it was ok

Shelves: graphic-novel-comic, 2017, usa

Started off good then just got too weird.

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Nov 06, 2016 Kevin Kelsey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2016

So, here's what I think happened: Palahniuk knew that he could never write a sequel to Fight Club because it just wouldn't work. There's no way to do it where it would work. So he wrote this instead, wrote himself into it, as a writer trying to write a sequel to Fight Club and only coming up with terrible ideas and fans hating it, ending with his creation literally getting out of his hands and murdering him. It's symbolic as fuck, and very heavy handed.

I really can't decide if it's brilliant or ...more

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Jan 08, 2018 Dave Schaafsma rated it did not like it

Shelves: gn-lit-based

Okay, let me cut to the chase: I really hated this book, recommend you do NOT read it, and I wonder how a writer such as Brian Bendis could have written a blurb for it. I can imagine drinks were exchanged and/or there are close personal friendships involved. Sure he knows Dark Horse and the artists! You have an internationally famous writer, legendary author of the Fight Club—a book, to be clear, I only now just read, and loved, found edgy and sharp and darkly funny and socially insightful—with
Okay, let me cut to the chase: I really hated this book, recommend you do NOT read it, and I wonder how a writer such as Brian Bendis could have written a blurb for it. I can imagine drinks were exchanged and/or there are close personal friendships involved. Sure he knows Dark Horse and the artists! You have an internationally famous writer, legendary author of the Fight Club—a book, to be clear, I only now just read, and loved, found edgy and sharp and darkly funny and socially insightful—with art by Cameron Stewart, great experimental covers by David Mack, colors by the legendary Dave Stewart, Dark Horse in charge. A comic book makes sense for the nature of the Fight Club world, right? Theoretically it made sense to me, anyway, and the look of it is, if you squint a bit, all right, smart people helped shape its look.

But it’s—as Sam Quixote might say—I’ll see what he said—is unbelievable crap.

The unnamed narrator of Fight Club is now given a name, Sebastian, for some reason, and it is ten years after the events of the first book, and it’s not Ikea furniture, but he is now living with Marla, and their kid, in the suburbs, a mundane life. He needs Fight Club, and Chuck needs the cash.

The Tranquility Gambit: “I’m not me.” “I’m not a man.”

So, for nostalgia’s sake let’s make a Fight Club 2, and in the story let’s revisit everything we liked about the original, because we have zero new ideas to bring to this new project. We still have cancer support groups to go to (ha, that was a good one, let’s do it again!), and now a Progeria syndrome support group for children who prematurely age. Tyler still or again has insomnia. Let’s have Marla, who becomes unfaithful because Tyler is taking pills for his insomnia and can’t . . . achieve erection. . . smash Sebastian in the face many times.

“I want you to hit me as hard as you can.”

Remember that phrase? I do, since I just read the book, and I knew it without even reading he book or seeing the movie, because it became a cultural meme, but the point of this book is like a mixed tape, to resurrect for all the angry punks who initially found a reason to guffaw at this book every great line they used to love in that book. Let’s put on Clash or Dead Kennedys album and read Fight Club 2. Or no, let’s buy another copy of Fight Club. Because it’s not a sequel, it’s a Fight Club lovefest where the love is all about—wait for it-- Chuck Palahniuk himself, not you, the reader, who deserves real insight and great writing.

It’s post-9/11, it’s ISIS time, we need some insight into a randomly violent terrorist world now, yes, so let’s reveal the relevance of and resurrect the idea of Project Mayhem but say nothing new about it!

So Fight Club is now a staple of Gender and Women’s Studies courses. It helped form the area of Masculinist studies. So what new thing can we say about men in the new century? We get bland unoriginal drivel such as this: Men are now “A generation of apprentices without masters.” Men need men to guide them and don’t have that, wah! Tell us something new, Chuck!

Chuck is in a writing group, and a famous writer now, so let’s go all postmodern and put Chuck IN the book—he’s a famous writer now, so it will enhance the sales of the book to put yourself in it, Dark Horse urges him!—and what’s more, what the hell, let’s put the actual writing group IN the actual book! Clever, right? Literary! Or making fun of the literary, even better! Have—and this is the (supposedly) Really Edgy Hilarious part—have The Women in the writing group comment on the profane writing!? Amazing? Amazing crap, you mean! Stupid!!

It sort of looks like the point of the book visually is to approximate The Preacher series for insights into male outrageousness, but it pales in comparison, it’s just regurgitation. Nothing new, nothing going on here of any originality, move along, folks. I was so annoyed at it and have wasted too much time already on it. It has actually made me rethink whether the original was as good as I thought. It has actually made me like Fight Club less! Augh!!!
...more

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Jun 16, 2017 Carlos De Eguiluz rated it really liked it

4.75

Antes de decidirme a siquiera comprar esta novela gráfica, me cercioré de leer algunas de las opiniones de los usuarios de Goodreads. Muchos dijeron que era una porquería, que quisieran arrancarse el recuerdo de su mente y quedar con la idea de que tan sólo hubo una novela. Sin embargo, decidí que al demonio, que iba a leerla y a formarme mi propia opinión. Y justamente eso fue lo que ocurrió.
Muchos calificaron esta belleza con una estrella, y lo entiendo, les juro que lo entiendo. Comprend 4.75

Antes de decidirme a siquiera comprar esta novela gráfica, me cercioré de leer algunas de las opiniones de los usuarios de Goodreads. Muchos dijeron que era una porquería, que quisieran arrancarse el recuerdo de su mente y quedar con la idea de que tan sólo hubo una novela. Sin embargo, decidí que al demonio, que iba a leerla y a formarme mi propia opinión. Y justamente eso fue lo que ocurrió.
Muchos calificaron esta belleza con una estrella, y lo entiendo, les juro que lo entiendo. Comprendo que no se sigue exactamente la misma temática de "Fight Club", pero entiendan, esta historia es más que un intento de continuación, es una burla a la frustración ante el trabajo de Chuky-bebé hecha por el mismísimo Chucky-bebé. Y no pueden decir que no lo vieron venir desde el principio, porque vaya que era evidente.
Tocando otro tema, el arte es precioso. Estoy obsesionado con la calidad del trabajo de Cameron; y su recurrente discrepancia e intervención con Chuky convirtió su parte en algo hermoso.

Ahora, la reseña:

Tras diez años de matrimonio con quien ahora conocemos como Sebastian, Marla Singer se ha cansado de su vida y de su siempre medicado esposo. El sexo se ha vuelto aburrido y casi inexistente, ahora tienen un hijo y todo rastro del glorioso Tayler Durden ha desaparecido de la faz de la tierra. O bueno, al menos hasta que Marla decide jugar con las pastillas de su esposo para intentar tener un poco de acción con el viejo Sebastian, o más bien, con Tyler, el psicópata que gobernaba la mente de Sebastian durante la primera novela.

A mi parecer, creo que fue bastante buena, me reí, abracé mi copia cuando alguno de los antiguos personajes aparecía —Angel-face, Chloe y Robert Paulson—, aprendí cosas dadas mis investigaciones y la esencia de Chuck permaneció, lo cual, al final de cuentas, es lo importante —o al menos para mi—.

Lo mejor de la novela, acorde a mi perspectiva:

1.- THE WRITE KLUB
2.- Los niños con Progeria.
3.- La participación de Chuck en su propia novela.

"Trought childhood people tell you to be less sensitive. Adulthood begins the moment someone tells you, "you need to be more sensitive."

"With insomnia, everything feels like a copy of a copy of a copy."

"Studies conducted by the United States Militay prove that what women fear the most is physical pain, what men fear the most is being humiliated, losing social status, public ridicule."

"Why do we love the people the most the moment after we hurt them?"

"After decades in school... they have no teachers to please. No place to be. This is when you'd go buy a sofa. Or you start a cult."

"—My dad has money. I want something more valuable than money.
—After two decades in school, now I want to learn something about myself.
—I want to build up a treasure inside of myself. Nobody can steal it. No governament can ever tax it away."

"I've done the disability thing. I've done the medical marijuana thing. But I could never get high enough to forget that I'm alive and getting older."

"—In case we die, I have a confession.
—What is it, honey? Did you steal a candy bar?
—I'm not eleven years old.
—You're younger?
—I'm like you!
—How?
—OLD AND DECREPIT!"

"No one care about a dying adult. But a dying child..."

"The more I fool people into loving me... the more I hate myself."

"Support groups bring me love I'm not obliged to reciprocate."

"What did catholics in 1963 have instead of divorce...?
Martyrdom."

"Not all headshots are fatal. Some headshots aren't even headshots."

"I've been dying for so long that real death feels like a relief."

"We are, each of us, ideas that fight for our own surivival."

"Human beings don't cultivate ideas. On the contrary, ideas cultivate us."

"Fictional characters can survive their readers."

"It's time to die a hero's death."

"A sociopath will sleep with anyone to gain her allegiance... or his."

"I want you to hit me as hard as you can, daddy..."

"History is dead..."

"—The ending sucks.
—So does life."

"We make our lives into stories--and stories into our lives."

"Ideas ar real. We are not."

RIZE OR DIE. TYLER DURDEN LIVES! ...more

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Dec 23, 2015 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels, self-help, sci-fi, reality-bending

What was I thinking when I felt trepidation upon seeing this title creep into my life? That it would be nothing more than a cheap cash-in on Palahniuk's crop? That I'd be wasting my time?

Oh, silly me.

Sure, it picks up a decade later with our MC and Marla with a kid and a picket fence, but don't let that fool you. Tyler never died. Ideas always pick up followers. It's never the other way around.

Remember, the original Fight Club started under a veneer of normalcy, too, and it got really fucked-up. ...more

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Mar 15, 2019 Ashley Daviau rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is definitely nowhere NEAR the masterpiece Fight Club was and still is but I still thought it was pretty damn great! It was weird and wonderful and full of the ridiculousness we’ve all come to expect from Palahniuk now. I think the story lends itself really well to the graphic novel medium, it’s like the two were meant to be together! I loved being able to see everything drawn out as I was reading the story, it was such a unique and enjoyable experience, I felt like I was watching the movie ...more

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Aug 20, 2016 Benoit Lelièvre rated it it was amazing

Why, in the name of everything beautiful, would you even want to write a sequel to the most transcendent, zeigeist-defining novel of the last twenty years?

Why would you reopen something perfect? Something that DEFINED MY LIFE in and out of books, Mr. Palahniuk?

Turned out he had a pretty great reason: Tyler Durden's been casting a shadow on his entire career as a storyteller and no matter how productive and creative he could get, FIGHT CLUB was just something he couldn't get over creatively as l ...more

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Sep 05, 2015 Sarah rated it did not like it

Don't read it. Just don't read it. It's obviously Palahniuk's attempt to implode his biggest franchise because he's sick of the inane questions and overt devotion of it's fans.
Never mind that he writes himself heavily into the plot line, the writing is poor compared to his normal works, and the plot is more desperate than thought out.
The story is often challenging to follow at best and often literally unreadable as often the dialogue is covered by things. As if to say "here is some dark, omino ...more

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Jul 11, 2016 Chad rated it did not like it

This is bad. Actually bad is an understatement. It's a confusing piece of gutter trash. The plot is almost incomprehensible. It takes place 10 years after the end of the movie and now Sebastian and Marla are married with a son. Marla has been replacing his drugs with placebos and Tyler has reemerged. Tyler's kidnapped his son and Sebastian goes undercover with Project: Mayhem to find him. I'm not really sure how that works since Tyler knows exactly what he's doing. Cameron Stewart's art is terri ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Fabian rated it liked it

How does the nihilism of my favorite movie in high school translate to today? And yeah, this is actually an exercise in gauging personal growth. Like, the craziness that Palahniuk made famous, the meanness mixed with comedy, the violence creating a whole subculture--does it have a place in our world, &, more importantly, a place in MY own life?

Well, at least it wasn't a novel. (A sentence I've never ever uttered.)

But after reading several other novels, apart from "Fight Club," I know that Palahn ...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Cassie-la rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-reads

ORIGINALLY POSTED: http://bibliomantics.com/2016/03/31/m...

While it’s not quite the original Fight Club, this graphic novel sequel definitely takes advantage of the visual medium. Thought the book was weird? From overlying graphics that block out text bubbles to Chuck Palahniuk appearing as an actual character and the reveal that Tyler Durden is more than the Narrator’s alter ego, this may be Palahniuk’s weirdest work yet. ...more

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Jul 08, 2016 Ryan rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-comics, graphic-novels

That very strange time in the narrator's life? It never ended. Surprisingly - or, actually, UNSURPRISINGLY - Marla stuck around.

Clever self-aware narrative and killer artwork

No who wants to hit me? ...more

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Jun 28, 2016 Kim Oja rated it it was ok

I have no idea what just happened, but I don't think I liked it. ...more

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Jan 20, 2019 Brandon rated it did not like it

Shelves: comix, 2019, fiction

Fight Club 2 picks up ten years after the events of the original novel. Marla and the narrator - now going by Sebastian - have started a family. Nowadays, the aforementioned Sebastian is heavily medicated due to the events of the first book. However, in need of a “good lay”, Marla begins switching up her husband’s medication with sugar pills hoping that the man she first loved returns to form. As you can imagine, things go pear shaped pretty quickly.

I don’t even know where to begin with this ...more

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Aug 25, 2018 Sud666 rated it it was ok

Shelves: crime, comics, fiction-novel

Do you ever wonder how some people, usually possessing outsized hubris and lack of self-awareness in terms of general creativity of story-telling coupled with the underlying desire for more money/adulation/fame (take your pick), take a wonderfully fresh and unique idea and then beat it to death? (No pun intended). Take, for example, "The Pirates of the Caribbean" or the "Matrix" movies. Had they just been a one-shot-then IMHO they are both excellent. Their sequels are less so. Sadly "Fight Club" Do you ever wonder how some people, usually possessing outsized hubris and lack of self-awareness in terms of general creativity of story-telling coupled with the underlying desire for more money/adulation/fame (take your pick), take a wonderfully fresh and unique idea and then beat it to death? (No pun intended). Take, for example, "The Pirates of the Caribbean" or the "Matrix" movies. Had they just been a one-shot-then IMHO they are both excellent. Their sequels are less so. Sadly "Fight Club" has now joined that sad list.

The original "Fight Club" was a very unique and interesting movie. It is one of my favorite movies and actually did have an interesting deeper meaning to us in the Marines (How much do you TRULY know about yourself, till you FIGHT?). Now many years removed from the Corps and waddling about in civilian society I came across this book at the used bookstore (How apropos, right?) So Fight Club 2? Lacking in the originality of the original, it is merely a re-hash repackaged with new events and new characters being used to mislead the average reader with something truly fresh and new. It isn't.

Apparently the premise is that the protagonist of the original, he calls himself Sebastian, after the end of the first story banished Tyler Durden (suppresed his id, if you will) and married Marla Singer (why?!! For God's sake I understand the sex, but why, why, why would you MARRY this psycho-human cancer?!!). Ugh. So after this feat of brilliance and some pills and head-shrinkers-he has found normalcy. He even has a son. But..ummmm..he married Marla Singer. So, as with reality, if you marry poorly your life is likely to end up poorly. Sorry, it's true. Sebastien finds this out as well. Marla is unhappy. She loved the sex with Tyler Durden, not Sebastian's more beta-male, more "evolved" type of man. So she starts changing out his meds with placebos. Guess who is back?

Then it deloves into a mediocre story of the son being kidnapped by Tyler and an even more piss poor concept of Tyler not as a disassociative part of Sebastian's pysche (rather cool) to Tyler Durden becoming some Edgar-Allen-Poe-like "meme" that passes throughtout Sebastian's anscestral heritage as an entity that exists independant of the individual's psyche. Oh. My. God. That is fucking dumb and intellectually lazy. Seriously? You turned a brilliant self-aware alter-ego into a fucking horror movie trope? I am not buying it. But here is what I am buying. Chuck Palahniuk, the voice for the casting off of normal behavior and thought- a rejection of the capitalist/materialist/consumerist/commercialized "society" of the civilian world, is something of a hypocrite (but aren't most modern artists when you TRULY get down to it?). He cares about money and would like some more of yours. So here, buy Fight Club 2. He cares about what people think (adulation/fame/ comic-con kudos, etc) so he will bastardize the unique vision of the original to create a silly second-rate version of the original story with a token "new" addition of the son and turn Durden into a trope so that he may appear on a Goodreads or an Amazon review, thus causing people to buy more of this book (thus fulfilling his original premise of more money in the first place). Well done Chuck, Adam Smith would be proud. Now should you read this? Um sure..why not? Throw Chuck a few bucks. But I suggest we wait a few months or years and as soon as the brilliantly creative minds in Hollywood "discover" this story-it'll be a movie. Then you can watch Fight Club 2! Oh and Chuck will be happy because he will have made a few more bucks. Good Job. 2 Stars. It's an "meh" story at best. Read it if you want to or not. I care not. Only Chucks does. ...more

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Jun 29, 2016 Rustler O. Jimmies rated it did not like it

As a huge fan of the first Fight Club and a fan of graphic novels/comic books in general, I was incredibly excited to get my hands on a Fight Club comic book. I was even more excited to read the sequel to one of my favorite stories of all time. I'd heard nothing about it until a few weeks ago, which confused me a little bit. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why no one was talking about this book. Suffice it to say that when I got my copy I figured it out pretty quickly. Even as a fan of As a huge fan of the first Fight Club and a fan of graphic novels/comic books in general, I was incredibly excited to get my hands on a Fight Club comic book. I was even more excited to read the sequel to one of my favorite stories of all time. I'd heard nothing about it until a few weeks ago, which confused me a little bit. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why no one was talking about this book. Suffice it to say that when I got my copy I figured it out pretty quickly. Even as a fan of Fight Club, this was a painful story to read. I'm going to try to go as in-depth as I can, but first I need to get my emotional outburst out of the way:

This book is garbage. Complete unadulterated crap. Avoid it at all costs if you enjoy a well written story that stands up to even light scrutiny. Avoid it if you are looking for a narrative that is engaging and easy to follow. Avoid it if you enjoy a plot that does not feel completely contrived.

Avoid it if you were looking for a worthy sequel to Fight Club, and not an irreverent bastardization of its characters, plot, and ideas.

Alright, now I can get down to brass tacks. Word of warning - I am going to be venturing into what some might call spoiler-y territory in this review. If that is turning you off from reading the rest of it this, I implore you to reconsider. This is one of the few cases where I believe having something spoiled for you is a better alternative to experiencing it. Help me potentially save you $20 and a lot of buyer's remorse.

- The plot is almost impossible to follow. And it's not deep or thought provoking in a way that would excuse this, either - it's just poorly put together. Numerous times I would turn the page and have to check the page number to make sure it was correct, because I was always feeling like I was missing something. It's just not cohesive.

- Character dialogue frequently feels out of place. For example, when Marla is looking for her son, she asks Tracy (the babysitter, who she just happened to run into, I might add) where he might be. Tracy responds to this urgent question by saying "You broke a nail". How is that even relevant? And it's left at that. Marla - the woman frantically searching for her kidnapped child - did not follow up at all. And another time, closer to the beginning of the book, Sebastian (the main character) comes home to find Tracy wielding a knife and on the phone with 911 - apparently afraid that he was some sort of burglar. Sebastian responds to this situation by saying "I'm not a man" - a statement which is not only unhelpful, but also completely inaccurate. My favorite part about that interaction, though, is that it implies Sebastian had never met the babysitter he was presumably paying to look after his son.

- The art is beautiful, but it very frequently gets in the way of the already-struggling dialogue and plot. And I don't mean symbolically - the art literally gets in the way of the story. Every other page has some unnecessary overlay of pills, rose petals, or sperm that covers up parts of the dialogue or narration. And like I mentioned already - those are bad enough as it is. They don't need any help at being awful. There's one page that's entirely covered in blood. And it's not just a blank page covered in blood - you can clearly see at least three panels at the top with art in them. That's a part of the story that just can't be read. I mean, I get that it was probably an artistic choice that means something on a deeper level, but it just comes off as unnecessary and frankly a bit pretentious. At the very least it makes actually reading the book more difficult and in some cases impossible.

- There are moments when the book clearly attempts to ride on the coattails of the success of the first book and movie, and they are absolutely unbearable. The most egregious of these offenses, in my opinion, manifests through Robert Paulson. The beloved character (canonically dead) frequently returns as some sort of stupid half-folktale-half-zombie. Multiple times in the story he either appears or is summoned by a group of people screaming "HIS NAME IS ROBERT PAULSON". I kid you not, a group of men in Project Mayhem literally throw their heads back and shout this phrase with their mouths agape à la Charlie Brown. I don't think I've ever cringed so hard at a comic book. The book makes various appeals to the fact that the first one was a cult classic, and recycles its memorable moments and inside jokes in a way that is not endearing - it's embarrassing. It's like Palahniuk is acknowledging that the story can't stand on its own two feet, so he resorts to pandering to fill in the gaps.

- Palahniuk wrote himself into the book. I considered putting this point first, because I feel it's the most important, but I decided it would be better to build up to this, because it is by far the most awful of this book's many sins. It's one thing to start an irreverent series that raises a big fat middle finger to classic storytelling conventions. That's a perfectly fine thing to do, and while it can be difficult to do right, it can give rise to some truly enjoyable reading/watching experiences when executed well (see also: Deadpool). It is another thing entirely to adopt that attitude after the first novel which did not employ that writing style. Palahniuk was already treading on thin ice when he decided to add in this bullcrap plot device, and his implementation of it is the metaphorical equivalent of doing backflips on said ice wearing jousting armor. Every forty pages or so, he and a team of writers (known as the "Write Club" - more of the embarrassing pandering) are shown discussing the events of the book as they occur. But that's not where it ends. The characters call him for plot advice multiple times, adding to the already-forced feeling of the narrative. At one point, Marla even shows up in-person, demanding that she be told where her son is. One of the other members of "Write Club" remarks that the situation was "bordering on being too meta", to which I would reply that no, it's not bordering. It passed bordering on being "too meta" when Palahniuk mentioned himself in the book the first time. When Marla arrived to talk with Palahniuk, it ceased to be a successor to one of my favorite stories. It became a poorly written, ill-conceived, worthless excuse for a fanfiction.

All told, this is probably the worst officially published thing I've ever read. I wish I had done more research and not been swept up into the hype. I wish I hadn't let the rose colored glasses impair my judgment. I wish I had not purchased or even read this book. Please do not make the same mistake I did, because it's honestly affected the way I look at the original Fight Club, and not in a good way.

Stay away from this cash grab. ...more

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Mar 31, 2016 Artemy rated it really liked it

Shelves: comics, dark-horse

I read the original Fight Club book about seven or eight years ago, so I don't remember all of it that well. I remember liking it a lot though, it was a perfect book for my teenage rebellious brain. So I wanted to give this comic book sequel a read, especially as I heard a lot of good things about it. And I can confirm, it is an enjoyable book that is true to its predecessor. The story also takes full advantage of the medium, generally relying more on show rather than tell. It was surprising to I read the original Fight Club book about seven or eight years ago, so I don't remember all of it that well. I remember liking it a lot though, it was a perfect book for my teenage rebellious brain. So I wanted to give this comic book sequel a read, especially as I heard a lot of good things about it. And I can confirm, it is an enjoyable book that is true to its predecessor. The story also takes full advantage of the medium, generally relying more on show rather than tell. It was surprising to see that Palahniuk feels so confident and reads so fresh in a graphic novel format.

There is this thing in the book with various objects (mostly pills or rose petals) that are kind of lying upon the page, obstructing the view of speech bubbles, faces, objects and such. This is close to a Grant Morrison level of intrusion and breaking the fourth wall, in my opinion. And speaking of Morrison and his signature moves, Chuck Palahniuk is himself present in this story as a character, writing the story as it happens. Yep. It's better than you think, too. Honestly, I loved all of this, but many people probably might not.

And speaking of graphics, the artwork by Cameron Stewart looks great! It fits the tone of the book and communicates character emotions perfectly. He doesn't explicitly try to go for the movie look of the characters, but they are recognizable enough to not be confusing. And the gorgeous covers by David Mack, one of my favourite artists ever, is icing on the cake, making this book visually flawless.

I had a bit of a problem with storytelling, though. The events feel a bit too disjointed at times, leaving me confused about what actually happened. I realize that it is a deliberate choice to write the book that way, though. I also have to say, it's probably worth it to re-read the original novel before picking up the sequel. As I said, I read it a long time ago, so I had a hard time remembering some of the plot points that are used and built upon in this book.

Otherwise, it's a great comic and a great sequel to the legendary novel. A surprise, considering how many sequels to such big titles end up sucking balls. Recommended to anyone interested and familiar with the original. ...more

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Mar 26, 2017 Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 rated it liked it

This would be 2 stars were it not for the tremendous efforts of Cameron Stewart and David Mack. The work that went into this art was worthy of that extra star. It's not quite The Tragic Comedy of Mr. Punch level art but it is gorgeous and full of hidden gems. I appreciate how much work went into that aspect of this book.

That being said, I have no clue what happened in this book. I don't mean Clean Room levels of "what the fuck?" where you still have some idea of what's happening but you don't h This would be 2 stars were it not for the tremendous efforts of Cameron Stewart and David Mack. The work that went into this art was worthy of that extra star. It's not quite The Tragic Comedy of Mr. Punch level art but it is gorgeous and full of hidden gems. I appreciate how much work went into that aspect of this book.

That being said, I have no clue what happened in this book. I don't mean Clean Room levels of "what the fuck?" where you still have some idea of what's happening but you don't have all the answers. With this book, I basically have no answers. It's kind of confusing and I question the reason this book was created in the first place.

There's a panel where a character says "this isn't cute anymore" and it speaks volumes about this entire book. There was a Screen Junkies Movie Fight's question "What scene, if added to the end of a film, would ruin it's ending?" Or something like that. This is an example of too much of a good thing. Fight Club had a perfect ending. Or at least the film did. I read the book so long ago that I don't really remember how it ended. Fight Club is one of the few cases where the film was actually better than the book.

Anyway, the plot (if we can even call it that) is life (after the events of Fight Club) has not been kind to Marla and the Narrator. Marla misses the man she fell in love with, Tyler. The Narrator is back to the type of life he rebelled against in the first place. Palahniuck took the writers' most tired plot device and handed them a baby. This poor tyke is being raised by 2 of the most self centered, insane assholes in fiction history. The action (I guess) kicks off when Tyler returns.

The purpose of the jumbled story telling is to portray the Narrator's jumbled mindset. I think.

The purpose of the elderly support group members flying out to war torn countries was to show a different kind of violent catharsis. I think.

The fourth wall breaking was Chuck's way of saying that this story was made for him. I think.

It's all a little... pointless? It's an ending we didn't need and I'm not sure why he wrote this? Perhaps he was tired of pretentious douche bags trying to be Tyler Durden and missing the point of his book?

I really think Fight Club, the original work, would be a great graphic novel. Of course it would be redundant but it would be better than this.

I can't really recommend this. Sad, because the art is quite impressive. ...more

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Mar 11, 2020 Amanja rated it did not like it

This is the spoiler free review for Fight Club 2, a graphic novel sequel to Fight Club, the book AND the movie. If you would like to read the spoiler full review and really dive into my rant about this bizarre insult to readers everywhere please visit https://amanjareads.com/2020/04/03/fi...

Usually I keep things a little moderate, language wise, for my reviews. Well here's your warning, Ima be cursing in this one.

I'm going to assume that you're already familiar with Fight Club, either the book o ...more

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Jan 05, 2017 Rod Brown rated it did not like it

Oh, look, it's my first crap book of the new year.

You rarely see a creator so determined to crap all over his fans, his creation, himself and storytelling in general.

Wretched. ...more

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Feb 17, 2017 Jesse A rated it liked it

Shelves: library-it-up, graphic-novels

Interesting idea, going all meta with fight club. The execution was somewhat lacking. Had good parts and dull parts. Probably unnecessary.

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May 21, 2016 Meem rated it liked it

Well, this was cute. I think Chuck realised that a sequel couldn't measure up to the original (and he made cameos through out to make sure that we knew that he knew it) and chose to keep it simple and make this funny. Those expecting either a repeat or a reboot of the classic are going to be disappointed. The themes previously explored are here but that's it. Nothing new is highlighted, propounded or critiqued. There isn't any fresh subversive idea at the heart of Fight Club 2. I still liked it, ...more

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Jan 23, 2019 David rated it it was ok

I am Jack's disappointing sequel.

Chuck Palahniuk follows up his Fight Club novel (slightly different than the movie) with a comic series collected here. Our protagonist (here named Sebastian) is 10 years older, married to Marla Singer and father to a precocious little child. He's popping pills and living in a haze, doing whatever employed, middle aged white guys do in these sorts of stories.

It's Fight Club. But older! It's the movie except everyone knows the twist about Brad Pitt and Ed Norton ...more

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Jul 23, 2016 Andrew Edstrom rated it did not like it

I mean Chuck Palahniuk knew fans would hate this book. He drew himself as a character in the book with an angry mob of fans holding nooses standing at his door. That doesn't make what he did okay, of course. But maybe it's part of, I don't know, some art thing he's trying to do? I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt here.

I feel like at the point where it was so clear to him that fans were going to hate this book that he was actually going to draw it as a scene within the book itself, h ...more

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Nov 05, 2018 Chaunceton Bird rated it it was ok

Yeesh. Symbolic, sure. Meta, kind of. But I don't understand why Mr. Palahniuk did this. It's far from his heavy-hitting critical theory fiction, and deep into the written-because-it-will-sell category. I'd say don't read this and keep your memory of Fight Club pure. ...more

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Aug 14, 2018 Madara rated it liked it

Shelves: graphic-novels-comics

A wobbly 3.5
Just the way I like my Palahniuk - messed up and bloody.
The first book was better tho.

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Mar 01, 2020 Ill D rated it liked it

Shelves: comic-reviews, reviewed, comics

Oh boy.

I’m not really where to start with this one. But I definitely know to end this one.

While most of us, reviewer included, would have expected the afore-titled Fight-Club 2 to be a sequel, this comic is anything but. Far more adventurous and even more-so devious, Fight Club 2 is something of an experiment in post-modern revisionism with strong doses of both the meta and the post hoc. Yet the question remains, where does this leave us the readers? The answer is rugged, raw, and unflinchingly Oh boy.

I’m not really where to start with this one. But I definitely know to end this one.

While most of us, reviewer included, would have expected the afore-titled Fight-Club 2 to be a sequel, this comic is anything but. Far more adventurous and even more-so devious, Fight Club 2 is something of an experiment in post-modern revisionism with strong doses of both the meta and the post hoc. Yet the question remains, where does this leave us the readers? The answer is rugged, raw, and unflinchingly distorted.

In fact, I’ve never read a (comic) book so utterly intent on screwing with the reader. Chopped up and screwed beyond beyond belief, the only linear connections here lie between the turn of the page. Sequentially disordered, the Po-Mo style of story telling pioneered by Pulp Fiction and later well distilled by the film version of Fight Club a mere 5 years later, have been brutalized and caustically shredded here to terrifying effect. Bits and chunks of the initial Fight Club find themselves caustically shredded and then re-sown together with increasingly dizzying disruptive insertions of an already broken 4th wall which by the end of the work is utterly decimated.

Detonating the traditional enclosures between the reader and the text itself, no overall narrative is meant to be deciphered here. Truly, the writer as a stylized Po-Mo chef, Palahniuk serves us micro-dishes that are meant to be enjoyed as isolated sessions rather than as separate yet ultimately connected sequence of courses that flow naturally. Indeed, the connections and their corresponding levels of enjoyment here will be user generated based upon your experiences with the text alone.

With all said and done I have no idea what the point is beyond a spate of self-absorbed literary masturbation culminating in an orgasm of Palahniuk’s self-aggrandized splooge. Featuring a Peter North level of seminal fluid, this climax would seem to be destined for fans and fans alone. Yet with all the classic references that made the original Fight Club beloved and truly memorable torn and twisted beyond belief here, who would be willing to swallow this voluminous swill? I don’t know and I doubt neither will you.

Burroughs is rolling in his grave. And Palahniuk is surely enjoying his newly swelled bank account. But with the unpredictable roller coaster we readers have been strapped in where are we after it all? Because the text is internally and externally (with some very pretty illustrations via the highly talented Dave Mack) obscure at every level, meanings are not to be gleaned but to be purely user generated. Seemingly laughing at our expense the writer has one last and truly inhumane joke at the end.

Following the firmly torqued oroborous which ends the final 11th chapter, Mr. Palahniuk saw fit to insert a re-visitation (as it were) of the original Fight Club. This foully stenched joke is a true manifestation of literary BDSM. The very sequential add-on (numbering a mere 15 pages) we expected upon prima facie finds itself as a charming whip which only adds to the raw pain we have been beleaguered upon by the end of Fight Club 2. Like a gimp kept in the dark for weeks, the rays of something expected and welcome become a fierce shiv for sore eyes that have been robbed of the delights of kept promises and brighter days.

Before I close, with all the musty obfuscations and experimental masturbation there’s plenty instances of compartmentalized enjoyed within. Firstly, David Mack’s illustrations must receive high praise. These delightfully water-colored derived impressions are drenched in the dreamworld of yesteryear and are as fresh and relevant as they were decades ago in his stupendous Kabuki series (read my review!). Secondly, as tortuously twisted as most of the internalized references are to the Fight Club universe, the externalized ones to our world generally come across pleasant. Surgically inserted by delicate fingers, blatant reduplications of Picasso’s Guernica, among others, are generally tasteful and add a yet another level of depth to the meta-tastic stew. Finally, the level of creativity here, no matter how fundamentally warped is a welcome breath of fresh air in a medium that has been shackled by its own repetitive tediums. I would LOVE to see this type of experimental approach expanded up with a strong application of focus and internal cohesion in a new project by Palahniuk and Co.

Ultimately perforated with flaws, I do think this is a worthy read.

Overwhelmingly experimental: yes. Tragically flawed: yes. A devastating re-telling of a modern class: absolutely. But what has been achieved has set a remarkably high bar in regards to sheer creativity and expressive experimentalism. I just hope that this far-reaching approach can be operated upon, improved and applied to the next Watchmen of the 2020’s.

...more

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May 08, 2018 Michelle Curie rated it it was ok

Shelves: graphic-novels

"I refuse to give readers an uplifting faux experience engineered to comfort them and perpetuate the sociopolitical and economic status quo."

Many stories are granted the status of a classic after a certain amount of time has passed - often decades, sometimes even centuries. Chuck Palahniuk was one of the authors who got to experience how his work started something close to a cultural movement. And how do you cope with a situation that no one has ever prepared you for? In many ways, that's th ...more

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Play Book Tag: (Decathlon) Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palahniuk 5⭐️❤️	3	14	Apr 01, 2018 11:11PM
Play Book Tag: Fight Club 2 - Chuck Palahniuk, Cameron Stewart 4.5/5	3	19	May 30, 2016 10:18PM

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About Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk

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Written in stolen moments under truck chassis and on park benches to a soundtrack of The Downward Spiral and Pablo Honey, Fight Club came into existence. The adaptation of Fight Club was a flop at the box office, but achieved cult status on DVD. The film’s popularity drove sales of the novel. Chuck put out two novels in 1999, Survivor and Invisible Monsters. Choke, published in 2001, became Chuck’ ...more