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Just about everyone has a bad roommate story. Unfortunately for Dylan, his bad roommate (Mason) is still messing up his life even though they aren’t living together.
First Read Reactions
- “But we’re going to have to get back to that later…”
- Of course we are, Dylan. Of course we are.
- I can’t tell if this orderly Dylan wants to kill is actually a colossal douche or he just seems that way from Dylan’s point of view.
- Whether Perry is actually guilty or not, celebrating his ping pong victory over mentally infirm/heavily drugged opponents is at least worthy of a good beating.
- Dylan’s plans may be terrible, but his luck is pretty amazing sometimes.
- “Sorry. We’ll have to talk about that next time.”
The Verdict
Kill or Be Killed is a great book. Compared to most comics, Kill or Be Killed #17 is a solid individual issue. Compared to the rest of the series, however, this is arguably the weakest installment.
Let’s start with the second person narration. It’s manner of storytelling that can easily fly off the rails, but Brubaker has always done a great job keeping things on track. Here, however, things get a little too cute. We all want to know what happened after the end of last issue when Dylan’s roommate found his vigilante stash. No matter how much it serves the story having Dylan conveniently “forget” to tell us about it is frustrating.
Also, the stuff with the Orderly McRapey feels far too trope-laden and contrived for such a consistently smart series.
All that being said, Dylan’s narration is still great, the story is still interesting, and the artwork by Phillips and Breitweiser is all types of beautiful. Even on an off month, Kill or Be Killed is still worth a read…but let’s please get back to the brilliant stuff again month.
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