Danger Days: A Rainbow of Black and White
My Chemical Romance has become one of the best-known bands, though their genre is hardly as clear. From their rock beginnings, flowing into punk rock, then a rock opera with a huge concept, the four men from Jersey have finally slammed back onto the scene with a mix of pop, punk, rock, and glam. The concept, too, blows everything else out of the water, surpassing the doomed, homicidal lovers and their journey through hell (I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge), and the arrival of death and beyond for a cancer patient (The Black Parade). Their new concept, riding in on Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, is beyond the death, hate, and rebellion of their previous adventures; My Chemical Romance has created a whole new Dangerverse.
Welcome to California, year 2019, years after the Helium Wars and ‘purging’ fires of 2012. In what we have been shown of the Dangerverse so far, it’s a desert wasteland of red dust and searing heat, split into Zones identified as numbers 1 through 6, with Zone 1 being closest to civilization and Zone 6 being the reputed home of rebellious outlaws. Colorful hellions known as the Fabulous Killjoys also frequent the Zones, wreaking havoc for the conformist, ‘bleached’ Better Living. These Killjoys, portrayed by the band members themselves, are wildly colorful outlaws sporting masks, codenames, and ray guns. The four men and a young girl (whose origins are unknown), exalt in their freedom from the confines of society as controlled by Better Living Industries (Better Living Ind., BL/Ind., BLI,).
Better Living, however, disapproves of the Killjoys and the threat they pose to their black and white society. Battery City is the center of civilized life, and is run by Better Living, which controls the population through a medley of medication, subliminal messaging, and ‘bleaching,’ which is the total absence of art, music, and color. Under the employ of Better Living are the Exterminators (highly skilled assassins), S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W special agents (also called ‘Crows, who work closely with Exterminators), and Draculoids (also known as Dracs, termed as such due to the white vampire masks they wear; they are the expendable grunts of Better Living). Exterminators, exemplified in the music videos for both Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) and SING, like Korse are out to “ghost” or “dust” the Killjoys, or, in today’s English, kill them.
This battle between good and evil is predominant throughout My Chemical Romance’s album as well. The lyrics reflect the battle with constant references to the “light” and “dark” or “black.” For example, in The Only Hope for Me is You, Gerard asks, “Where would you be when all the lights go out across these city streets?” Bulletproof Heart, too, implores, “Hold your heart into this darkness/ Will it ever be the light to shine you out/ or fail and leave you stranded?” Even the pirate radio DJ Dr. Death Defying starts running when the lights go out. Destroya, however, blurs the clear line between black and white, light and darkness; “Against the sun/ we’re the enemy!” Gerard declares war on the light and all who inhabit it, calling upon the MCRmy of Killjoys (special forces) to rise against the ‘good guys.’ “They only care if you can bleed,” Gerard cautions in The Kids from Yesterday. In Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back, there is clearly a war raging, one in which no one is sure if anyone “gives a damn if we win or lose,” and Gerard goes from warning “’cause they’re coming for you…” to threatening “’cause I’m coming for you,” then into a scream of “can’t hold them back!” My Chemical Romance has never hidden their grudges, whether against 1,000 evil men or the light and the darkness, though it is unclear who the good guys are in their post-apocalyptic world.
The Killjoys; the embodiment of art, color, and music, as well as a free world, are the very people killing Better Living’s supposedly joyous world. As they spread their free will, Party Poison (Gerard Way), the Kobra Kid (Mikey Way), Jet Star (Ray Toro), and Fun Ghoul (Frank Iero) ghost Dracs indiscriminately, taking out any and all enemies as they hack vending machines and steal from Better Living. The Killjoys follow no rules and live as heathen outlaws in the forsaken badlands of what used to be California. Better Living may brainwash the population and single-mindedly hunt the Killjoys with intent to kill, but they provide a safe, pleasant environment for their zombified citizens in Battery City.
My Chemical Romance has stumped us all, once again. In the Dangerverse, who is truly representing the “dark” side? Who is the “light”? Is there even a difference, this time around? Should something hailed as “perfect” be destroyed to be made “beautiful”? All we know is that our [favorite] band is against Better Living, and so we, the MCRmy soldiers, we the Killjoys, want to be, too. What we don’t know is ‘are they gonna be the ones to save us’?
