Golden Rage vol. 1

When women get old in this particular world, they don’t get to be taken care of by their families or sent to retirement homes.  No, they get sent to The Island where they have to fight all of the other old ladies just to survive the next day.  That’s what has happened to Jay, though her situation is unique for a couple of reasons.  The first is that she’s a lot younger than all of the other women on The Island.  The second is that, because of her age, she gets scouted by machete-wielding Russian badass Rosie and recruited to her small cell of allies.  Together with perky optimist Lottie and wry cynic Caroline they aim to find out why someone as young as Jay was sent here.  To do that, however, they’re going to need to see… The Witch.

“Golden Rage” was pitched as “The Golden Girls” meets “Battle Royale,” and while I’ve become more cynical of these kinds of high-concept match-ups in solicitations for Image comics, this one sounded intriguingly ridiculous.  Unfortunately the end product lacks the sparks that fueled its inspirations.  That’s to say it lacks the imaginative violence-fueled soap opera that drove “Battle Royale” or the laugh-out-loud comedy that endeared so many to “The Golden Girls.”  What we get is a half-baked dystopic setting seen through the eyes of the oppressed that doesn’t give a real sense of the world that brought it into being.

This may have been less of a problem if the characters were interesting, but outside of Rosie, and mystery-loving Emma, they don’t make much of an impression.  While a lot of what I’m talking about could be attributed to writer Chrissy Williams, artist Lauren Knight doesn’t really enliven things either.  It’s not bad work, just competent art that doesn’t do much else besides communicate the bare essentials of the story.  Though it’s not in my nature to give up on a series after one volume, I feel that my needs for seeing a story where “The Golden Girls” meets “Battle Royale” will be better met by re-watching the movie, watching a bunch of episodes of the series, falling asleep, and then seeing what my subconscious produces.