Archaia
Studios Press
Writer:
Matz
Artist:
Luc Jacamon
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Last
issue, we got to “Say hello to the bad guy.” We watched the
banal, trite, often exploited assassin cliché rise from the
dead and spit in the face of what we expected from a story about a
hired gun. In issue two,
The Killer reminds us exactly why men
with guns are seldom welcome in our lives, reminds us why men with
guns, like downed power lines still arcing and roaring like dying
serpents, are something to keep a watchful eye on.
The Killer #2
picks up directly from issue one and finds our (still nameless)
antihero, after hours of waiting and watching and strolling down the
darkened, back alleys of psychosis and sociopathic logic reminiscent
of Brett Eaton Ellis’s
American Psycho, finally pulling the
trigger on his latest assigned mark. Combining eerie, unsettling
psychological complexity with the most high-tension, white-knuckled,
anonymous-blonde-haired-gunman action seen in Europe since Sergio
Leone imported Clint Eastwood,
The Killer could be up to
something big.
Written
by Matz, issue two of
The Killer is just as ordered, planned,
and seductively disarming as issue one. Where issue one began our
protagonist’s descent into madness, issue two gives us ringside
seats to the destruction of his inner psyche. Early on, we’re
presented with a violent dream sequence that is as telling and
baffling, attainable and impenetrable as anything Freud could have
imagined. We also receive a bit more of our assassin’s back story.
We watch as he remembers a former “hit” that began badly and
ended abysmally but, somewhere in between, there was blood and fear
and a glimpse into the reason why justice is so desperately desired,
yet so rarely found in society. If Matz loses any points in this
issue, it would have to be from excessive “seed planting.” More
than once Matz begins us on a road that promises to tell us something
deeper and more personal about our blonde-haired killer, only to shy
away at the last moment and leave us with the sense that, at some
point in the future, things will be explained. Here, Matz is playing
with a double-edged sword. While “seed planting” can mature
wonderfully and make for rich, satisfying storytelling, it can also
create expectations and promises that few writers can fulfill. Only
at the end of this journey will we know whether or not Matz can live
up to all of the potential and intrigue he’s promising early on.
Not
to be outdone by Matz, Luc Jacamon keeps his intensity and creativity
flowing with this second issue. Jacamon manages to balance the
reductive with the excessive. He will boil down the art of one page
to only a few lines and even fewer colors, only to use the very next
page to launch into an experiment in light, line weight, and
contrasting visual dynamics that seems to want to give the artwork of
Frank Miller’s
Sin City a nod of appreciation. Jacamon’s
best moment here comes in the middle of the book where he uses some
creative methods to “fracture” the panels to resemble sleeves of
glass that refract and distort the assassin’s world just as his
mental instability reaches a crescendo. However, like Matz, Jacamon
does get a slight reduction in praise due to some rather choppy and
disjointed paneling that occurs towards the very end of the book. But
this happens briefly and is quickly resolved.
At
the end of the day, slowly but surely, panel by panel, one issue at a
time,
The Killer is taking back the hired gun story and may,
just may, be stalking greatness.
Overall
score: 9 out of 10 for this one. Just shy of a full clip.