Jesusfreak

by Joe Casey, Benjamin Marra (Artist)

The year is 26 C.E. A young Nazarean carpenter is having some trouble adjusting to the violent world around him -- and finding his place within it. He knows he's different... he just doesn't know why. Not yet, anyway. A bloody, two-fisted tale of historical heroic fiction brought to you by JOE CASEY (SEX, ANNUAL, MCMLXXV) and BENJAMIN MARRA (Night Business, Terror Assaulter O.M.W.A.T.).

JESUSFREAK is ™ and © 2018 JOE CASEY & BENJAMIN MARRA. All Rights Reserved.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Religion, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Historical Fiction, Fiction

64 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2019

About the author

Librarian note: there is more than one author with this name

Joe Casey is an American comic book writer. He has worked on titles such as Wildcats 3.0, Uncanny X-Men, The Intimates, Adventures of Superman, and G.I. Joe: America's Elite among others. As part of the comics creator group Man of Action Studios, Casey is one of the creators of the animated series Ben 10.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Casey

Reviews

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy]

A comic book retelling of Jesus finding himself and his powers. This was a bit odd, I don’t know if Jesus knew kung-fu and it trying to be serious but somewhat silly just wasn’t for me. It was certainly an interesting idea.

[Alex Sarll]

The early-ish life of Christ reworked as a seventies kung-fu comic. Despite both a foreword and afterword, I'm not really any the wiser as to why that was a thing Joe Casey decided to do, but it's considerably more successful than either his own recent work, or the last similar project I saw, his old mate Grant Morrison's Savage Sword of Jesus Christ. Contrast also Second Coming, the fairly affable-looking Jesus-starring series which was meant to be part of Vertigo's doomed revival, and which got cancelled before a single issue was released after corporate got cold feet and buckled before the belling of the usual suspects. I strongly suspect it was going to be better than this, and hopefully we'll yet have that confirmed at another, braver publisher (which is to say, literally any of them). But in the meantime, this exists and that doesn't, which is why Vertigo can never regain the territory Image have claimed.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[Jesús]

Reading Jesusfreak felt like going to what you thought would be a punk show, only to discover that it's actually a public reading of Middlemarch by the residents of a local retirement home.

[Rex Hurst]

As the writer Joe Casey points out, this is not a religious story, but it is the story of a religious figure. The freak in this case is Jesus himself. The book here attempts to tell an alternate story of Jesus, free of previous religious context and the tales spun in the Gospels or the Quran. The authors obviously put some research into the story, especially in terms of what else was occurring in the land at the same time and in terms of history - which is often left out of the stories presented in faith documents. Thus we have a much more historic looking and acting Jesus and Pontius Pilate.

Jesus is shown as a very tan, brown-haired Jew - as he would be. Though the only physical image we are given of him is in the Book or Mark where he is described as having curly hair - here he is shown with straight hair. He is a man wrestling with a burning desire though he doesn’t quite know what that is at first. Ultimately he finds it in religion when he hears the preaching of John the Baptist. Upon John’s execution, he takes up the mantle of preacher (or rabbi), but seeing as how John’s zealotry and calls for violence against the Herod kingship and the Empire of Rome, lead to his death and the destruction of his ministry, Jesus takes a more circumspect and peaceful attitude.

The character of Pontius Pilate is also more historically accurate. In the Biblical accounts, he seems hesitant to execute Jesus, but the historical Pilate had no such qualms. It had only been a handful of years since the Zealot uprisings and Rome was eager to squash all remnants of rebellion in Jewish territory. Thus the roman governor wasn’t hesitant to crucify anyone stirring up political trouble in the territory. He was so brutal in fact that many Romans wrote complaint letters to Emperor Tiberius - though historians have pointed out his caution may have been because his patron Sejeanus had recently been executed by Tiberius. It is interesting to note that in the Ethiopian Christian Church, Pontius Pilate became a Christian and they venerate him as a martyr and saint.


The point many readers get stuck on are the violent bits, especially where Jesus has a kung-fu battle with a reptilian demon in the courtyard of the fortress of Machaerus. If any scene were not meant to be taken literally it’s this one. It represents the protagonist’s internal struggle with doubt and fear, ultimately representing Jesus’s rejection of violence as an effective force for political or religious change - at least in his case.

[furious]

3.5 stars. This book answers the ages old question, "what if Jesus was the hero of a Shaw Bros movie?" It could easily have reached four full stars, but there was too much voiceover narration early on. Benjamin Marra's art is beautiful throughout, it really carries you through the wordy bits where not much is actually transpiring.

[Arya Oveissi]

This book comically missed the point. Using Biblical characters gives a writer so much room to work with and I feel like somehow the author still struck out entirely with this story. I really don’t know what to say. This story was rushed, unfocused, off center, choppy, and overall bad. It didn’t add anything to the story of Jesus at all. In fact, I was surprised at how big a waste Jesus was as a character. The idea of Jesus fist fighting a giant lizard demon sounds awesome, but the execution here just fell flat. The images are the only reason this is getting two stars and even those had some questionable aspects to them. If this review wasn’t enough to persuade you not to read this just know that even Jesus doing kung fu against a giant lizard demon wasn’t enough to make this story interesting.

[Robert Hudder]

This isn't an historical, biblical, literary or reimagining of the Jesus story. Says so right off the cuff. It is a story of the times with some liberties.

So, why bother with Jesus? Well, my guess is that it can throw into high relief the balance between myth making and the reverence of the story and highlight some interesting aspects of humanity.

Was he just one of many revolutionaries in a Jewish uprising? Was this a case of mental health or was there a different approach to being called to action? Was this only about peace and love and non violence?

Lots of paths that you can let yourself go down and find echoes of today in. How does one live in a society where there is a lot of cognitive dissonance?

Lots to chew on. Worth the read for the questions it brings.

[John]

I'm a big fan of this wave of Christploitation comics (Loaded Bible, Second Coming, Savage Sword of Jesus Christ, etc) but largely these kinds of comics are all about intent and attitude rather than their execution. Just like the real Jesus.

This is Casey and Marrara going for pure Moench and Gulacy. Real Slash Maraud stuff. Ultimately this comic is a bit too tame for my palette, and feels a bit akin to Frank Miller's Holy Terror (which was racist, but not as racist/absurd as I was expecting).

But I'm glad I showed up and paid for it; because I like interesting failures over the easy successes of Marvel's MCU.

[Ruz El]

A book about an ass kicking Jesus done in a 70's Kung-Fu comic style, it's weird that this one plays it pretty safe and comes off a little tame? Considering Marra is on this, you can't help but feel it's a little bit of a missed opportunity to go bananas. As it is, it's a respectful (for lack of a better term) telling of the Jesus story, featuring his early life searching for answers. It's good, a little short, art is great and they do a good job. I just can't help feeling like I wanted more from it.

[Art]

This was a strange take on the life of Jesus before the time of the Gospels. It starts with him being twenty-six and carries on, with major jumps in time, until he was about to start his ministry. Not entirely sure how I feel about the piece. I think I was expecting something more than what it was.

[James]

An imaginative retelling of the Jesus story by Joe Casey (of Image Comics). It sort of blends the gospels with a David Carradine-esque Kung Fu tale and Jim Morrison type visions of the Lizard King. I didn't like it.

[Brian]

Campy reimagining of the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry as a macho, supernatural Kung Fu master. Even though this is not for me, I might’ve given it the benefit of the doubt if it weren’t for the self-serious intro and epilogue.

[Sonic]

Kind of a cross between the Master of Kung Fu and The Gospel of Matthew.

WTF is this, and why did they do this? (I asked myself while reading this.)

In the after word they explain that they kinda did it just to do it.

Bravo!

[Devon Munn]

Ok here's one thing I'm wondering

The whole presence of the reptilian demon makes me question the implications because it is a long running antisemitic stereotype that Jewish people are lizard aliens wanting to rule the world so yeah...not great 😠

[Theediscerning]

Some wittering about Jesus, done up as a PG-friendly head shop publication. Not what I was in the market for.

[brian annan]

an Aramaic action adventure. swaggering semetic spiritualist wage the battle within and without for all our salvation.

[Chris]

A cool little story about Jesus discovering his purpose in life, with martial arts. An interesting concept though I wish it had been a bit longer, and had more fighting scenes.

[Bertazzo]

Freaking Jesus... this bored me to death!

[Alan]

I just can't help myself when it comes to Ben Marra. I love everything he draws.

[Komuniststar]

Karate Isus zvuci zabavno, ali ima previse unutarnjih monologa, dijaloga i naracije da bi bio stvarno zabavan.

[Josie Deryn]

Who doesn’t want to read a psychedelic graphic novel about a He-Man lookalike Kung-Fu-Jesus?

[Jon Hewelt]

Too preachy.

[Wes]

Definitely not what I expected.

[Jordan]

Weird kung fu man fights a reptile man

[Justin Decloux]

The promise of Benjamin Mara, the amazing creator behind the ONE MAN ARMY graphic novel, illustrating a comic book that puts Jesus in the mould of a 70s Kung-Fu film is too good to be true.

And then it is.

It's fine to look at, but Joe Casey's script is incredibly wordy and poorly paced, with a mere two action scenes breaking up the tedium of a story we all know. Where's the punchy exploitation fun? Why didn't Ben Maara write this himself!?