Let’s kick off the weekend with the new book from the creators of Fatale, Criminal and The Fade Out. It’s the first two issues of Brubaker and Phillips’ Kill Or Be Killed.
Kill Or Be Killed 1-2
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips and Elizabeth Breitweiser
I’m not sure how I missed the first issue of a new Brubaker-Phillips collaboration, which debuted last month. I’ve been a big fan of the team ever since I picked up Scene of the Crime on a whim back when I was in college. Their team-ups have just gotten better and better, with The Fade-Out being one of my favorite books of the last couple of years.
The new book, Kill Or Be Killed, moves away from the historical noir and moves us into a modern setting, with a 28-year-old grad student frustrated with his life. After a failed suicide attempt, he gets visited by a demon who tells him what he must do to live. The first issue sets up the premise of the book, which adds a bit of the supernatural in the first issue, as protagonist Dylan gets visited by the demon and told the terms – for Dylan to live, he must kill one bad person per month or his life is forfeit. But mostly, the book is the kind of character piece that Brubaker and Phillips are known for.
The second issue, released this past Wednesday, gets into the psychology of Dylan accepting that he needs to kill someone every month as he figures out what he needs to do to pull it off.
We also have the subplot of Dylan’s best friend, Kira, who is dating Dylan’s roommate but still finds time to make out with Dylan every now and then. I’m sure that will end well for everyone… Either way, the story will be well-written and fun to read. Anyone who was a fan of any of Brubaker and Phillips previous collaborations should definitely pick up Kill Or Be Killed.