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Is It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 Review

Comic Books

Is It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 Review

We have reached the end of the line. This is the final issue of The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. I’ve found many problems with the title since the beginning; problems that haven’t been rectified. This is the finale though. Will it all come together gloriously, fixing all of the problems it had and go above and beyond at the same time? Or will it sink lower than ever before, failing to deliver on the elements it built up? Is it good?


The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 (Dark Horse Comics)


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The time to fight is now! The girl leads all the desert punks towards Battery City to crush BLI. Blue awakens Destroya (who again, was introduced last issue) and heads him towards the city. Korse is on the loose and out for blood. The end is upon us now and how will it all close out for the characters?

Oh my… oh dear. I don’t… I just… I can’t believe it. I can’t believe after six issues that is how it all ends for this mini-series. That this, after all that buildup, this is how it ends. To put I simply, this was just underwhelming. All that buildup that was going on for entire series, just for a finale that is anti-climactic, weak, has too many questions left over, and rushed at parts. I mean, the art is as good as always (Becky Cloonan was way too good for this comic), but that is just not enough here. It’s truly hard to explain this issue without going into spoilers.

As such, let’s do it. The rest of the review will deal with big spoilers to explain why exactly this finale was just incredibly weak. You have been warned:

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Cue epic slow walk!

Let’s start from the top with our characters and break down the story around them. Our heroine finally does something in the story and that ultimately saves the day. She basically surrenders herself to the BLI (so no epic battle) and has one of those Draculoid masks put on her, which somehow unleashes a spirit bomb that destroys the city’s electrical grid and unleashes all the souls trapped within it (no, it’s never explained how exactly they got into it or what souls these are). So, hey, she finally did something (though she herself is still rather bland and forgettable), but the question is… how exactly did she know that would work? How did she know that putting on the mask would do all of this? How did she know the BLI wouldn’t just immediately kill her outside of the city where she surrendered? Also, after the fight was all over, why did she keep the cat? She knows that it is a spy for BLI and just because the main villain is down for now, what makes her think that any survivors still loyal to the group wouldn’t try to get revenge and track her down? After all, not every member of the BLI was under mind control (to be honest, I’m surprised that the regular Stormtroopers were even under some kind of control considering how much free will and individuality they had in some of the scenes — like one of them at the beginning ignoring orders so he could get some sex).

But then there are other characters as well to consider in all of this. Korse finally faces down the head of the BLI and tries to kill her. However, for some unexplained and unknown reason, the villainess turns out to have the ability to duplicate herself (again, NEVER seen or HINTED at throughout the comic that she can do that) and gets the jump on him. She manages to him get him all tied up and held down by at least seven of herself. After cutting away from a few pages, he is now shown to have killed/defeated them all! How did he do that?! Then it turns out that the copies were made from the original woman, who is very old and has tubes sticking out of her back. Again, where did that come from? There was no buildup or hint at her, making it seem like the writer was trying to present the villain in a more sympathetic light by showing how weak and broken she is at the end (which doesn’t work at all because the villain was a blank slate with no personality throughout the story other than be evil for evilz sake). It finally ends with her asking him to kill since she has nothing now, but he refuses since he says that he has had enough of killing. That ultimately contradicts a couple of pages before when he straight up kills one of the clones with a headshot, assuming that she was the original; plus, how many people did he have to kill to get to the floor in the skyscraper? Where did this sudden change of heart come from?!

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Then we have Val, who ends up apologizing to the girl for everything he had done this entire comic after seeing her powers in action. It doesn’t ring true at all, since there has been no hint of his character ever being sorry for anything or shown any form of regret up until now. He executed three people (including the DJ that was supposedly a friend of the girl) and seemed giddy about doing so. Even though he was wrong ultimately, why would he suddenly apologize? No part of his character would suggest that he would do such a thing. Happily, the main character ignores him and disappears after taking back the mask he stole in the first issue.

Finally, we have Blue, the sexbot and only likeable and well developed character in the entire story. She awakens Destroya and has it go to Battery City to free… her robot kind I assume. There, she ends up destroying the city’s electrical grid and setting the robots free, since they don’t have to live off of it anymore. Therein lies a question, how will they survive? If they have been living of the city’s electricity (the power is now destroyed), where will they get their power and energy now? The spirit bomb that the heroine releases also implies to help by releasing some sort of light, however, in what capacity does it help or what does it do? A character off panel mentions that they don’t have to live on the city’s power, but how does he/she/it know that? Honestly, this whole subplot’s resolution raises way more questions than answers. Also, Blue dies after exhausting all of her power and is implied to reunite with Red (who apparently as a soul has been guiding everything). Disappointing in the fact that the best character is dead, but at least it is much more powerful than anything we had up until now.

As you can tell, there are a lot of problems here with the story. Ultimately, the comic raises way more questions than answers and characterization is just all over the map. Plus, it also cops out on an epic finale by not having any action scenes (it sort of makes sense for the girl, since the Phoenix Witch gave her a tacked on lesson last issue about violence not being the answer). Sure, it shows two or three brief panels of Destroya wrecking the city (Yes! That will free the people! Destroying buildings that people might not be able to escape from), but it doesn’t make it any more exciting and with the whole Korse situation, everything just feels so dry.

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Of course, there are also some other minor irksome facets to bring up. The villains are idiots, since they pretty much allow all the heroes to get close to them and defeat (worse in the fact that they know the girl is a bomb and don’t know how she’ll detonate, but they decide to bring her into the city regardless). Characters are just dropped and forgotten, like the henchmen Sprawl and Flare who work for BLI. They are implied to not be under mind control or have gone under any conditioning, so where did they go after the spirit bomb went off (they were seen earlier in the comic in their uniforms)? Finally, there is the final page where the girl meets her mom. I do like a happy ending, but seriously? Where did this woman come from? They in the middle of the desert and a wide open plain, with no cover. How did she sneak up on the girl? Also, just what do think the odds were for the girl to meet her mom at that exact place, with her knowing who she was (the mom also hasn’t seemed to have age a day since being a Draculoid and the girl never meet her before), and the mom still being alive up until now? Just really! Think about it! That girl should play the damn lottery with that amount of luck behind her.

Is It Good?

Is It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 Review 3.5

Is It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 ReviewIs It Good? The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 Review
  • Blue’s ending is fitting.
  • The artwork by Becky Cloonan is good as always.
  • The finale falls flat emotionally and raises too many questions.
  • Characters are inconsistent or still flat
  • Too many issues with the writing.

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #6 is sadly not very good. It has a problematic ending that raised way too many questions, characterization as inconsistent, and other kinds of problems. I was more than willing to eat a big bowl of crow if the comic managed to turn everything around at the end, but sadly it didn’t. As such, I cannot recommend this mini-series at all, having now seen it in its entirety.

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