Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Epic Kill #1 of 5
Image Comics
Ienco
Raffaele Ienco creates, writes and draws this mini-series about a female assassin that is now the hunted one. Ienco delivers on the title of the book here in the first issue as there is a ton of death, several of which reach the epic level. However, the book doesn't really build up the character in this first issue. Instead the book focuses on setting up the overall story. It's a difficult balance, and while the book certainly is entertaining it felt slightly empty once completed. I felt the lead character wasn't separated from the countless other badass female killers seen in comics, TV shows and movies over the last ten or twenty years.
Song, is a girl locked away in some sort of reformatory school for girls. She has some memory problems, but she seems to remember little snippets of violence. We aren't given a lot of background information other than she was obviously trained to be a killer. Intercut with these early scenes are some men discussing finding her and killing her. Motivations aren't entirely clear.
The issue then breaks out into non-stop action as Song shows she is capable of recalling her training when needed, even if she can't remember everything. The book calls on scenes from Kill Bill and The Matrix with some of the action, which probably furthered my issue with not being able to get a clear definition on Song the character.
Ienco tells a fast paced comic and that is a good thing. This book moves through the beginning stages very well and doesn't dwell too long in any one particular place at a time. If you hate decompressed comics then fear not with this one.
Ienco draws a good book when it comes to the action scenes. There is a fluid nature to the book when the pressure is on and that also helps this book out a lot. The trouble with the art is that Song has this lost puppy dog face on all the time which isn't particularly helpful and only adds to the "who is this girl again?" kind of feeling I get while reading the book.
This comic has great potential and I liked what Ienco had to say at the end of the book. It seems like this series is going to be a lot about death which is nice to see a book live up to its name. If you like female assassins (with a cool twist at the end) then I definitely recommend picking up this book. I am interested to see where Ienco takes this story next and that is all you can ask for from a first issue.
2.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
