Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Review: Epic Kill #1

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I was really excited for “Epic Kill” even though I hadn’t really heard all that much in the way of promotion from Image. Needles to say without even knowing what to expect I was more than dissappointed with this issue. We are introduced to a character, Song, in a story that is a blatant cross between “Dark Angel,” “Kill Bill,” and “Sucker Punch.”

The writing in the issue isn’t horrible it serves its purpose and introduces us to the character, her world, and her place in said world.

Where the issue falls flat in the writing bar is the lac of originality. There is no connection to any of the characters and the little bit of interest brought from the obscurity of the characters origin is simply not enough to pull the reader through the lifeless panels.

I’ve seen a lot of bad comic book art, but this seems to take the cake. “Epic Kill” is obviously supposed to be a high action type of story. I feel like Ienco really attempted some “Matrix” like movement and expression in his panels but the attempt fell flat. The story and art come across as lifeless and stagnant. The saving grace is the colorization within the issue it really is what shines and I believe that the almost muted colors really added to the semi surreal story.

I believe “Epic Kill” may be an example of one person trying to do too much, Ienco fully created this book and maybe with another mind on the production the story or art could have garnered a better response. As is I believe “Epic Kill” is not a book for me, I’ve read far too many stories with this premise and they’ve had better writing and art, so I would suggest passing on this issue.

1 comment:

  1. I picked this up at my local comic book store and very much enjoyed it.

    I would focus more on Ienco’s storytelling than anything. It’s very fluid in the way he shows her flashbacks. As we learn about her, Ienco structures why she is at the school in a very unique fashion. Song’s hallucinations are another way of seeing how Song is processing everything just like we are. His pitch for Epic Kill is very spot on and obvious.

    The blood combined with Song's ninja-matrix-like moves make the book fun. Its definitely not a book to take TOO seriously. Ienco lives up his tagline making every kill indeed epic. I think we have to remember with this series that we arent reading a book where we can find so much depth and a lot of meaning in the narration. With a title "Epic Kill", we rooting for guts and gore which Ienco surely promises.

    In my opinion, I would at least try issue 2 to see if it picks up at all. There is still much to unfold with this mini series.

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