Copra Round Three

Copra #13-18

by Michel Fiffe

Grandma's homemade recipes and a cartel slaughterhouse. This is what the men and women of Copra call downtime. Their habit is vengeance, and they couldn't stop if they wanted to.

It's the third volume of Michel Fiffe's overpowering super-hero sidewinder. Collecting issues 13-18--never before reprinted--Copra Round Three contains the best writing of Michel Fiffe's career. Get initiated in the fire.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Fiction, Superheroes

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2015

About the author

Michel Fiffe is the creator of the action series COPRA, published by Bergen Street Press, and the intimately surreal Zegas, collected by Fantagraphics. He's worked with Marvel, Valiant, and BOOM! and continues to serialize COPRA when he's not writing massive essays on comics of note. Fiffe has produced Bloodstrike: Brutalists (Image Comics) and G.I. Joe: Sierra Muerte (IDW) in their entirety and has recently launched a new title, Negativeland.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best volume of the series yet! Fiffe slows things down focusing each issue on a different member of the team in their downtime. There's been some bonker stories up to this point, but this time Fiffe gets more personal, showing us these characters are more than just bodies in a big fight. There's some real inventive artwork too. His colors really meld with the line work, sometimes he breaks into pencils without any alterations at all. It all works wonderfully together.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion this is the slowest of the volumes so far, but also the best, and that's saying a lot.

Up until now, we have had huge, psychedelic brawls, strange esoteric objects, and strange madmen from other dimensions. But for this volume Fiffe does something completely unexpected by dialing back the action to basically the most minimal of settings, and focusing instead on the characters.

Now these characters are all somewhat derivative in that they are obviously facsimiles or at least homages to both Marvel and DC characters that we all know and love. So to create entirely new backstories to compliment what we already know about them, and more importantly to make those backstories compelling and... well, good, is really a testament to the level of writing that Fiffe is putting out. We get six issues, each zeroing in on one of the members of Copra (with minimal interaction with the other members). This not only gives us a sense of history, but it of course lets us connect and care what happens to the Copra team.

The art is also dialed back, but is still great to look at. The inventiveness of some of the panels and layouts still make you take a beat to really LOOK at you're seeing. Its a great way to get fully enveloped in a comic.

I would definitely recommend this to superhero comic book readers, and cant wait to see what the next volume holds.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of six issues, each focused on a single member of the main cast, COPRA Round Three proves that Michel Fiffe has a talent for developing characters and telling small personal stories in addition to bloody revenge, over the top action, and cosmic visuals. As always Fiffe's art is consistently incredible, worth the price of admission all by itself, each page inviting you to pore it over and drink in all the details and texture to be found. Fiffe plays with lettering and sound effects in a way that is immensely appealing to me, with one double-page spread of the word BOOM in particular being an utter showstopper that made me actually gasp out loud. Never has rooting for dangerous, broken people been so much fun or looked so very good.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly strange series about a ragtag group of super-mercenaries sent on suicide missions. It is ambitious and original while also being derivative and amateurish. It had many strengths, each one countered by a serious flaw in the work. It is the kind of series you want to support because it is in its way, a triumph of self-publishing. And yet, there are so many times it pushes you away with its weirdness, or a serious lapse in its quality.

First, the good. Michel Fiffe brings a truly original energy to this story, and the way in which the narrative unspools can be pretty interesting. Visually, some amazing stuff is done with composition and layout. And there is a willingness to defy genre that is admirable,

Now, the bad. This book is basically a collection of Fiffe’s favorite characters from other published comics, with their serial numbers filed off. And in some cases, not even that - the Punisher guy still walks around with a skull on his chest, and the Deadshot guy looks very much like Deadshot. How Image got away with publishing this without a letter from both Marvel and DC’s legal departments will remains a great mystery.

Now, the ugly. The story often takes weird skips without transition, making it hard to follow. The lettering is often difficult to read because it just isn’t done well. The action gets psychedelic, which sometimes is perfect and sometimes just looks weird and off-putting.

All in all, COPRA is a series with a lot to recommend it, but with some serious caveats along the way. One imagines that if Fiffe simply wrote and penciled this, had an editor, and also had a different inker and lettered, this would have figured out its own problems and become something truly spectacular and meta. But it doesn’t do these things and never quite shakes the feeling that you’re not reading a published comic, but the pages of your friend’s high school drawing book.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This third volume of the first Copra run was really more supplementary material for the previous volumes with each issue exploring more of the back story of the different characters along with their individual struggles and troubled thoughts. They're all pretty damaged in their own way and this volume barely scratches the surface in terms of just how deep things can go.

On the one hand, this was a great effort to help us better appreciate each of the (surviving) Copra agents. On the other hand, the one-issue, one-story format naturally resulted in some uneven storytelling where some issues felt really solid while others ended up being rushed or not meaty enough to be truly enjoyable. There's still more bad than good in this set, but it makes for trickier reading, at least in my experience.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is so cool. The visually stunning revenge stories continue in volume three. This time characters get entire chapters to themselves, so you can see them in a little more depth. Fiffe has made so many cool structural choices in this series. The brilliance here isn't obvious, and it's often jarring, but the way this comic is crafted is really clever.

[Alex Memus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's still a very unique and interesting read. To arc structure changed a lot. It's almost 6 separate stories in one volume. The became more detailed and streamlined (awesome!). The 2 coolest issues send their regards to works of Ditko & Kirby.

[Zack Quaintance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was enjoying this story from the start, but it really clicked for me in this volume, specifically during the chapter in which Patrick goes home to somewhere in North Carolina and the main thing to do is sitting around talking about what’s to do (sort of).

[Don Massi · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Copra craziness! We get to see smaller, more personal stories in this volume and it really made me see how miserable some of these characters are. Very poignant. If you've enjoyed Copra so far, this is a change of pace. I really enjoyed it.

[jdotpitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic shifts the focus a bit to more personal stories. Some of the stories, and this is my fault because it's been maybe 2 years since I've last read this series, I forgot what was happening so I was lost. But for the vast majority I found incredible. One of the best series going today.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book's really clicking at this point.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The WIR issue is one of the greatest single comic issues of all time.

[Nicholas Ahlhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Single character stories that probably mark the highest point of an already amazing series.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume focuses on six of the main characters, each in their own issue. I especially enjoyed the "Wir" issue. Hopefully we get to see more of these characters in future issues, since each one of them have their own complexities.

[Derek Moreland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have yet to discover a reading experience more inspirationally thrilling than any given issue of Copra. One of the best comics available, hands down.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiffe's character studies deepen the Copra story. His passion for Copra is on every page.