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Kill or Be Killed begins its fourth story arc by kicking up the crazy a notch.
First Read Reactions
- To call Dylan nihilistic would be a gross understatement.
- No, you didn’t miss anything. We’re just flashing forward for the millionth time in this series.
- Remember how the demon sometimes looked kind of goofy? Well, that’s definitely changed a bit…
- Pretty sure I had a demon that whispered in my ear during college classes, too, but it was just telling me to put my head down and go to sleep.
- I know Dylan’s not the most reliable narrator, but I have a hard time believing Kira would be this oblivious to him having a mental breakdown.
- I mean, seriously, what’s it going to take–him completely snapping and doing something terrifying in front of her?
- Oh.
- Just when you think you have it figured out…
The Verdict
Curse you Brubaker! No fair flipping the narrative (and me) like that at the end.
In all seriousness, though, the issue’s conclusion is fantastic. It’s not only a great twist, but also keeps things from going along what could have been a very predictable (yet still highly entertaining) route. While most series these days tend to burn through their juice in the beginning, Kill or Be Killed just keeps getting better and more interesting with each issue.
The only major story complaint I have is how oblivious Kira is to what is happening with Dylan. Even when you take his skewed viewpoint into account, her actions don’t line up well at all with the savvy character we’ve seen previously.
On the art side of things, I FINALLY get to compliment Sean Phillips and Elizabeth Breitweiser for something new–the demon. He’s never looked bad, but never seemed as richly drawn as the characters and their surroundings (which was likely on purpose).
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With him regaining an even more prominent role than before, though, Phillips/Breitweiser have begun to subtly tweak his design in a way that makes him more menacing every time he appears. Whether the entity is real or all in Dylan’s head, he definitely makes his mark this issue as a character.
Speaking of that mystery, Brubaker deserves a lot of credit for setting up Kill or Be Killed‘s narrative so that no matter which way it goes, the story is still all types of interesting. Dylan may think everything in life is meaningless, but at least we’re all lucky enough to have such a great book on our pull lists.
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