It’s been a while since we yelled goodbye to Sons of Anarchy over the roar of SAMCRO’s motorcycles, but the FX drama’s influence isn’t going away anytime soon. Beyond the potential TV projects that have already been announced, we’re also going to get a new Sons of Anarchy comic book series that will serve as a prequel to the flagship show. But it won’t be going that far back into the past, and it will focus on an 18-year-old Jax Teller as he begins prospecting with the M.C. that his late father cofounded.
Sons of Anarchy Redwood Original, as the series is called, will largely center around Jax having to step up after the relatively recent death of his father J.T. (or John, if you want to be formal) and prove himself capable of standing strong in this hyper-masculine world. Not just to his fellow club members, either, but to those that call SAMCRO friends and those that would destroy SAMCRO without a second thought. And he’ll have to do it while also confronting a future without a real father figure to follow.
I could seriously have a mini-geekout session at the thought of Jax as a SAMCRO prospect, considering all the awful duties tasked to prospects like Half-Sack and Ratboy on the show. Jax definitely didn’t start Sons of Anarchy in the same position of boundless bravado and absolute power that he’d achieved when Season 7 came to a close, and he lived a lot of that time in J.T.’s shadow, trying to turn the club into something suggesting the more honorable brotherhood of its early years. So we’ll possibly get to see a version of SAMCRO that isn’t quite so slapdash with the violence and murders. Although if Clay is around, murder can’t be far behind. Check out the cover of the first issue, which will be published by Boom! Studios.
The creative team behind Redwood Original is writer Ollie Masters and artist Luca Pizzari, with show creator Kurt Sutter serving as a hands-on consultant for the series. Masters said, according to THR, that Sutter is sent everything as far as story and art goes, and he gives his input where he deems it necessary. Sounds like a pretty sweet and potentially soul-crushing gig. But it will be even more soul-crushing if we don’t get to see Jax and Opie hanging out again. (R.I.P. Opie.)
This will be the second Sons of Anarchy comic series that Boom! will put out, with the self-titled telling a story from between Seasons 5 and 6 that spanned 25 issues. This will also be the first Sons of Anarchy prequel to get released, though Sutter has a TV series or miniseries plan to go further into the history to tell the story of the First 9 and the founding of SAMCRO. We’re also waiting to see what FX decides to do with the Mayans MC spinoff that is creeping forward through the development stages. And then who knows where else this franchise will go?
Kurt Sutter currently has another violent story coming to audiences in comic book form. Could he one day take on a Sons story for that medium by his lonesome? We’ll take whatever, and that also includes a live-action version of Redwood Original. The comic will be released in print and in digital form on Wednesday, August 3.
