| Title: | Epic Kill |
| Contributors: | Raffaele Ienco |
| Publisher: | Image Comics |
| Issue #: | 1 |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Pages: | 31 Pages |
| Age Rating: | 18 (Language, Violence, Gore, Suggested Sexuality and Sexual Abuse, Adult Themes) |
| Story Grade: | F |
| Art Grade: | D |
There was some real potential with this story, but in the end is comes across as a poor man's version of an exploitative cross between Elektra (the Movie) and Kill Bill.
Raffaele's writing is spotty at best. There are parts of the book that are good to read, but they are far and few between and what remains isn't pleasant.
First, we are hit with an all too common writing style that uses narrative to describe the actions of the characters already shown in the art of the panel. "I walked down the hallway" as a narrative to the panel showing her walking down the hallway type of crap.This is frustrating have to read what I can already see and it does nothing to add to the story. In fact this writing style actually hinders the story by slowing down the pace to a painstakingly turtle's pace.
One plot point that didn't sit well with me was the suggestion of sexual abuse at an all girl private school operated by what appears to be a 100% male staff population. It comes across as exploitative and almost as a "male fantasy" of the writer. It felt like I was being led to read a really bad porn story, but stopped short of getting sexually graphic.
The reason this plot point didn't sit well with me is that it's such a minor element of the story and it wasn't needed to move the story along. It feels like it was added for mere shock and awe. But the fact is, the sexual abuse is so "softly" referenced, that it had little shock, and the only awe response was my, "Ah damn, was that really needed?" response. The sexual abuse is simply being used as a trigger for Song to start remembering she can kick ass and that particular character motivation could have been generated 1,000,000 other ways rather than resorting to a unhallowed use of sexual abuse of a minor girls at a private school which makes Raffaele look like a 70s Grindhouse Perv.
In addition to narrative and plot issues, the story includes several flashbacks to her training right in the middle of a fast paced action sequence. I understand that this was done to demonstrate her remembering her training, just in time to enable her to get out of the current conflict she is facing. In this case, the flashbacks were too plentiful, were poorly placed and it truly hurt the pacing of the story overall.
One of the horrible cliché themes that gets played out over and over again is the amnesia stricken secret agent who regains his or her memory to find out that they are ultra powerful super agents. It was done well with Bourne, but even then, it was a little stale for a story. The fact that this particular agent is a seventeen year old girl or that she is supposed to kill the president doesn't make the plot point any fresher.
The art is a big miss for me overall.
The onomatopoeias, the made up words that phonetically sounds like the action happening in a panel (swoosh, schnict, clink, bang, etc), are pretty damn intrusive when they are used in this book. For me, they are almost 1966 Batman T.V. series intrusive. They are large, consuming much of a panel. They are out-front screaming at the reader rather than being a subtle element to the book. This is ultimately disruptive to the story and the rest of the art.
Additionally, as you can tell by the photo above, as an artist, Raffaele has a ways to go. I mean come on... bullets do not fire from their weapons with the cases attached. But Raffaele must not have known that when a firearm is fired, the projectile of the bullet fires outward and the case is ejected, usually upward or to right side of the firearm. There are several instances where Raffaele's lack of artistic maturity comes through. In this particular case, a quick google search, or even a trip to a local gun range, would have given Raffaele a lesson in bullet anatomy.
Blood is used freely in the appropriate scenes, but it is applied heavy-handedly. As the blood was applied, it was apparent that Raffaele doesn't have a clue about depth, surface saturation or scene layers.
First the blood is all the same color, be it on clothes, skin, metal, etc. On clothes, blood will be darker as it gets absorbed into the fabric, than blood applied to skin or metal which has little to no absorbency.
Second, the blood splatter crosses boundaries. One splatter will cross the line of the arm, half of the splatter on the arm, the other half on the background wall, a sleeve, or other background/foreground element. It definitely looks like Raffaele has a few favorite splatter brushes in photoshop and used them without discretion. It really doesn't work.
Overall, I graded this book a solid F. I know, I graded the art a D and the story with an F up above. Shouldn't that be at least an F+, or be kind and give the book as a whole a D- grade? Each of those two elements on its own deserves the individual grade I gave it. But when these two elements come together, they form a book worthy of nothing more than a solid F. The book doesn't have a lot going for it. It is simply a regurgitated mosaic of stories that have been told too many times already with a sexually abused seventeen year old girl thrown in to freshen it up. It is told in poor form with problematic art.
Until next time... watch for sharks swimming the halls.
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