Mad Max: George Miller’s Backstory for Fury Road’s Nux Makes His Redemption Even Better

The prequel comic to Mad Max:Fury Road revealed the bleak origin story of the character Nux, making his arc in the film – from War Boy doing the bidding of infamous villain Immortan Joe, to a hero willing to sacrifice himself for a greater cause – even more impactful in the process.

Mad Max Fury Road: Nux & Immortan Joe was tie-in story published by DC Comics, coinciding with the release of the movie in theaters. The comic features many details which enrich the experience of watching the movie – perhaps most notably, Nux’s childhood.

The story revealed the sad fate of Nux’s parents, and how he came to be one of Immortan Joe’s War Boys. However, the true tragedy of the character comes from what his earliest days were like, and the life he should have led.

Before Becoming A War Boy, Nux Came From A Loving Family

A Tragic Childhood Led Him To Immortan Joe

Mad Max Fury Road: Nux & Immortan Joe uses a narrative device familiar to fans of the franchise, by framing its story as a tale told by a future historian, chronicling the most fraught post-apocalyptic conflicts so that future generations can reckon with civilization’s lowest point. This is crucial, because it makes the comic a matter of preserving Nux’s heroic legacy, in addition to adding a deeper layer of context to his relatively short life as a whole. As the opening pages of Nux & Immortan Joe make achingly clear, Nux was far from destined to become a War Boy.

In fact, the narration of the comic emphasizes how truly loved Nux was as an infant, entering the world under increasingly rare circumstances: with two parents who would do anything to protect him, and ensure a better life than the one he was born into. This family unit’s bond is described as unique – making it all the more gutwrenching when they are torn apart. The narrator describes Nux’s parents’ love for him as, “a revolution against the cruelty of the world,” before adding that, “but revolution, too, comes at a cost.”

Finding themselves at the base of Joe’s Citadel, what is left of society shows the same depraved indifference to their love as it displays a callous lack of appreciation for life. Nux’s father leaves home one day, and is set upon and killed by raiders. His mother dies soon after – precisely how is left unexplained – which in turn prompts Nux, still barely more than a baby, to go in search of his father. Rather than his biological parent, he finds an adoptive one: Immortan Joe.

Immortan Joe Was Nux’s Only Chance Of Survival

He Proved Himself Fit

Believing that his father has ascended to join Immortan Joe in his Citadel, the newly-orphaned child attempts to do the same, clinging to the elevator platform as the despot’s band of War Boys watch the spectacle. Though they expect him to plummet to his death, when he doesn’t, this feat proves suitably impressive that the boy is taken into their ranks. It is in this way that the unnamed child from the opening pages “dies,” and Nux is truly born, rechristened with a new name and recreated in Joe’s image.

As this origin story makes clear, Nux’s indoctrination as a War Boy started at a young age – but not before his biological parents’ comfort and nurturing left an imprint on his deeply impressionable infant brain. In other words, the foundation for Nux’s eventual redemption was laid in his earliest days, and it was only a matter of waiting for the right conditions to trigger it. Those conditions were few and far between in the dystopian world of Mad Max, making the fruition of Nux’s heroic journey in Fury Road that much more incredible.

Nux’s Heartbreaking Origin Makes His Redemption Arc Even More Meaningful

Heroes Get Remembered

George Miller is a stellar filmmaker, and while Mad Max: Fury Road might not tell audiences everything they want to know, the film delivers everything that is needed for each of its story beats to be impactful. That said, the joy of prequel tie-in media, like the Nux & Immortan Joe one-shot, is that it can build on an already-complete story in new, dynamic ways. That is the case with Nux’s backstory in the comic, which makes an already meaningful redemption arc and makes the reader appreciate it even more.

Having read the comic, Mad Max fans are likely to come to the conclusion that Nux’s death in Fury Road wasn’t the real tragedy of the character; instead, it was the fact that he became a War Boy in the first place, and why. In this context, his death still hurts, as it is intended to, but in fact becomes a joyous culmination of his entire life’s trajectory. As Fury Road viewers know, Nux wasn’t long for the world in any case, and his heroic death ensured that he would achieve exactly what Joe and all of the War Boys sought: a form of immortality.

The framing of Mad Max Fury Road: Nux & Immortan Joe as a tale of Nux’s courage showcases the idea that his sacrifice had a traceable impact on the future. Considering the famous “witness me,” cry of the War Boys, it is important to note that the rest of Immortan Joe’s footsoldiers die in obscurity, while Nux is “witnessed” by future generations, leaving a legacy as a hero that none of his peers could in their loyalty to a villain. This makes the comic’s plot crucial to Mad Max: Fury Road, a tie-in that is certain to enhance viewers’ experience of the movie.