“CAN YOU COUNT SUCKERS?”

You know, it’s always amused me that Cyrus asks this of the delegates invited to the big get-together when he goes on to say, “You’re standing right now with nine delegates from a hundred gangs and there’s over a hundred more. That’s twenty-thousand hardcore members.” (?)

Let’s see, nine by one-hundred times two = 1800, give or take. It’s apparent that being the leader of the biggest gang in the city doesn’t require great math skill.

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My favorite kind of story is one set in a near future that we seemingly inhabit but is always just out of reach. So it’s funny when this story tags itself as “Sometime in the future”, but seems to be set sometime in late 70’s New York. Now by no means am I negating the story here, because it does have that seemingly out of reach aspect I mentioned. One in which grown men run the streets at night adorn with kabuki-style face-paint and pin-stripe Yankee’s baseball uniforms. 

Yet, Joe Walsh’s “In the City” still finds itself on the soudtrack? Go figure.

That’s neither here nor there really because the Warriors is a great story, similiar in vane to Tolkien’s LOTR in fact. Here we’ve got a fellowship of misfits that must traverse their way cross the vast lands of Middle-earth, whoops (!) New York, on their way to drop the ring into the fires of Mount Doom, eh.. Coney Island. With me still? Sure you are.

So the first thing you should know is that this book follows the movie verbatim,with the exception of the first page. And because of that, I can’t help but feel the lacking soundtrack in the opening panels. The film’s credits feature some of the best originally composed music I’ve ever heard in a film and it’s sorely missing here.

The pace of the panels does try to encourage the feeling gained from the movie, with each scene being drawn directly from the film. The art doesn’t do much for me as I feel it would be better suited to an animated film version shown on HBO sometime in the early 90’s. 

I guess as someone who’s seen the movie a hundred times it’s difficult for me to get much out of this. The book’s website implies that the movie arc will be followed by more original stories of the characters within, further fleshing out the ninety-eight minute film.

Several years ago a video-game adaptation made a good effort in providing a back story for the characters. I guess I’d enjoy seeing what becomes of the Warriors after their arduous journey. Like say when Swan wakes to find that skanky bitch in his bed the next morning.

There are some plot points left untold of the film as well. Such as, who’s Luther, leader of the Rogues (who I have always thought of as The Aerosmith gang) talking to on the phone and why the hell he killed Cyrus. He does mention that “just likes doing things like that.. no reason” in the film, but I could stand for more.

I’ll sum this one up by saying: try the book, but see the movie and play the game before you truly decide.

CAN YOU DIG IT!