Copra: Round Five

Copra #26-31

by Michel Fiffe

How do you measure loyalty in a treacherous world? In Copra Round Five, the latest collection of Michel Fiffe’s wildly popular self-published super-hero action masterpiece, the answer is found at the end of a fist, the blade of a sword, and the mouth of a gun. Crush or be crushed.

The place is anywhere. The time is now.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Superheroes

Paperback

First published April 1, 2018

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 4 out of 5]

Fiffe finally begins to pull the team back together as the members lost in the anti-zone make their way back to Earth. Then it's the original COPRA versus their replacements from Team X. If Frank Miller wrote and drew Suicide Squad in the 80's instead of Daredevil, this would be that comic.

[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.

[Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of early Frank Miller and Suicide Squad: This is the best comic you aren't reading.

[Alex E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man this series just gets better and better.

This volume is the culmination of every volume before it, to the point that it references pretty much every major plot that happened so far. We have the lost crew finding their way back to Earth and reuniting with the original Copra, we have Copra essentially reinstating Count Compota to power (who we find out is not as noble as we all thought), and we have Copra X trying to bring the original team in - with disastrous results.

Michael Fiffe has managed not only to create a fantastic fictional universe, but manages to make it damn entertaining as well. His art is a bit more reigned in, but still has that psychedelic flair to it that makes it super interesting to look at. I think Fiffe has a long career ahead of him and I look forward to seeing what else he brings to the table.

[Kyle Dinges · Rating 5 out of 5]

The gang's all here! Copra Round Five brings everyone back together (even some old villains) for the first time in a while with predictably explosive results. The setting up of the A team versus B team is good and there are some really stunning reveals in this volume.

Reading Fiffe continues to be a singularly unique experience in comics. Sometimes the story gets a bit muddled but the art work is so sensational it doesn't even matter. There's a series in issue #30 here where you get some truly incredible splash pages in a battle sequence between the two Copra teams.

The only thing bad I can say is Fiffe is so popular and has been doing Blood strike and GI Joe that the cliffhanger is going to make the wait for the next round killer.

[Jesús · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pace slows considerably in this volume of Michel Fiffe’s ordinarily fast-paced one-man show. The issues in this volume find the characters and Fiffe himself in a state of transition. Up to this point, Fiffe had been self-publishing his book with the assistance of Bergen Street Press, but Image began publishing the comic immediately following this volume (Fiffe has since returned to self-publishing the series). His characters too spend this issue reuniting, recharging, and slowly setting things up for a new run. Necessary, but not always great reading.

[Zack Quaintance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m just going to paste my review for Round 4 again because I finished them back to back and what I wrote about that volume is equally true. “It’s difficult to articulate what makes Copra such an excellent read. There’s an almost intangible quality to the way the material is approached — knowing right when to dole out a character moment, when to go wildly abstract, when to revisit a past conflict — that makes it such an immersive and rewarding read.”

[કૌસ્તુભ]

चित्रकथेतले चित्र इतके भंगार होते आणि टंक इतके छोटे कि वाचायचे मन झाले नाही. जेव्हा एखादा प्रतिभाहिन चित्रकार कला महाविद्यालयातून उत्तिर्ण केला जातो तेव्हां असे चित्रकथेंना आधुनिक कलेचा नावाखाली भांडवल दिली जाते. असल्या चित्रकथेला पांथिक निष्ठावंतच वाचू शकता.

आपल्या आयुष्यात वेळ कमी आहे; असले फालतू चित्रकथा वाचण्यात वेळ घालवू नका. माझा वेळ वाया गेला म्हणुन अगोदरच चेतावणी.

[Ben Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series has really impressed me. The characters are getting more fleshed out as it goes, and the art is absolutely stunning. My biggest criticism is that the plot is a little murky. Foreshadowing isn't Fiffe's strongest area. Well worth reading just for the art though.

[Justin Decloux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiffe gets back into a more linear storytelling mode after two 'rounds' of more abstract one-offs and he nails it.

Did I mention I friggin love this comic?

[ISMOTU · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing volume of crazy Copra tales. Several plot lines get moved along and Fiffe's unique art continues to be captivating.

[Rohith Chandramouli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another incredible entry in Michel Fiffe's superhero epic! The ladt volume was still better, but this is still a ton of fun!