Previously on Kill All Immortals: aliens! More specifically, we discovered that the Asvald clan gained their immortality (which they’ve since used to conquer and pillage) from a most extraterrestrial source. But what comes after the massive, jaw-dropping reveal is just as vital — does that choice mean Kill All Immortals is about to pivot hard, or does the story have other ideas in mind? And after Kill All Immortals #4, it’s safe to say that, bizarro origins aside, this book is perhaps more wonderfully, complexly human than ever before.
The reveal at the end of issue #3 isn’t inherently treated as being overly bonkers — in a story with an immortal viking business family, a little alien action isn’t ultimately that big of a deal. Rather, writer Zack Kaplan does what he has across this series: use the momentum and sense of energy to delve deeper into Frey and her family. And across Kill All Immortals #4, Frey has a chance to engage a few of her loved ones in some really meaningful ways.
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
She and Leif, for instance, perhaps get the most time together. As the second-in-charge, Leif seems to be a great target as Frey makes further inroads into talking her family down from their plans (killing Owen, continuing their ways as boardroom barbarians, etc.). Their convo fully gets at the heart of this family drama and the ideas of power and generational trauma. Because Leif has always been #2, that Frey points it out with such force but compassion proves that 1) she’s increasingly savvy in trying to reach her brothers and 2) the brothers may be ready to truly see the fates they’ve been assigned. Nobody exactly cracks just yet, but it’s a testament to the layers and themes this story is tackling and how it tries to do so with a focus on meaningful character development.
But complicating the whole process is Frey’s interactions with her father, Erik, who really gets time to shine for the first time in Kill All Immortals‘ run thus far. He’s about as intense and unwavering as you’d expect, but there’s this sense that maybe his whole spiel (come back to the family and get right) may have actually started to influence Frey. Sure, there’s a daring escape that complicates this whole dynamic, but it’s also clear that Frey loves her family deeply and that she’s grappling with big emotions to try and honor them and herself/her life path. It’s just another way that, even amid the endless fist fights and mid-ocean sea battles, Kill All Immortals gives time and space to all characters, and makes sure that they engage and affect one another. That makes for a more emotionally robust process (a family that’s real and raw) while also extending the core themes (which, on top of power and generational trauma, include individualism and utilitarianism).
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
But when it comes to even more themes Kill All Immortals is interested in, those surround the issue’s end between Frey and Owen. For someone who just discovered that aliens are real, Owen handles things pretty well, and he pivots pretty easily to try and finally expose the Asvald clan for their immortal, nefarious ways. However, and without spoiling too much, it brings him into direct conflict with Frey. Their convo, then, brings into question ideas of transparency and accountability (also core to this book) in a way that grounds and humanizes them accordingly.
They’re not just abstract ideas about how we disseminate information and/or how the elite need to be seen to be countered wherever possible; it adds some complex, often messy ideas of humanity without obfuscating these ideas. What we get, then, is the best realization of the deep emotionality at the core of Kill All Immortals: it connects with/engages these massive themes, and shows us the complex nature of existing in this world and trying to do right. In that way, it’s the book uniting its many interests into the kind of story that clicks on so many levels and challenges readers to think about and work through this stuff in a way that’s never easy but always rewarding.
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
And speaking of this idea/thread of alignment, Kill All Immortals #4 is where we truly see such efforts from the art team (artist Fico Ossio, colorist Thiago Rocha, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou). Across the first three issues, there’s been so much power in the art — whether it’s the furious fight scenes or the style and grit of the boardroom interactions, every scene has such energy and intent baked right in. And while that very much continues in issue #4, something feels different.
The best example of that may be the Frey-Owen convo — again, without spoiling too much, their back-and-forth ends with a simple but effective action that massively complicates their relationship (to say the very least). And it serves a few different purposes, emphatically and expertly demonstrating Frey’s uneven, utterly human development arc as well as how this issue is all about creating texture and consequences to these interactions. And while the Frey-Owen finale is the most robust and potent demonstration of that across issue #4, it’s elsewhere still.
The Frey-Leif convo, for instance, takes place amid the aforementioned boat battle — it’s a shining instance of layering the action with character development in a more sturdy and direct manner, as if the book’s telling us that we’ve reached a moment where fights and decisions have lasting impact (even for immortal vikings). Even the Frey-Erik convo has a sense of greater depth and stakes; big things are happening and the whole world will be affected by their decisions. It’s a way to bring us in even deeper as Kill All Immortals preps for the finale of this arc.
Courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.
But it’s not just about meaningless hyping — it’s to show that these people may have reached a new level, and their “fun and games” over the centuries is possibly nearly over. How they react, then, will make all the difference in how this story truly plays out. In that sense, Kill All Immortals is more real and vital than ever, and that’s already saying a lot.
Do I have some sense how things might play out for everyone? Sure. Does that likely include some new twists and turns? Definitely, this book clearly has the savvy and power to tell exactly the story it wants to tell. At the same time, though, it has what really matters: the honesty and sincerity to lay it all on the line, get a little dark and messy, and tell a story that’s unwaveringly human above all else. And that, my friends, is truly out of this world.
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