If I made absolutely nothing else clear in both my deep dive and subsequent review, The Voice Said Kill ain’t your daddy’s crime story. (Unless your daddy was, like, a version of Elmore Leonard who did a lot of DMT, then carry on.)
Co-creators Si Spurrier and Vanesa R. Del Rey married the metaphysical with the uber swampy to forge this potent story about a pregnant park ranger caught up in a case far beyond her pay grade. It wasn’t just the boundary-busting quality of the bayou, or that she came face-to-face with a psychedelic madman — The Voice Said Kill eschewed tropes to give us a noir that really did bite back.
But even inventive, bonkers crime stories have to maintain some groundedness, and The Voice Said Kill #2 furthers this caper with grit and bravado to spare.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
A quick recap: After accidentally dispatching Buck Watters in issue #1, Marie is more than nervous about what might happen to her (and her baby that’s coming sooner rather than later). Without spoiling too much of the setup in issue #2, though, all of that trouble seems like a veritable dream as Marie finds herself entangled with other criminal elements. That’s not only a new threat, but it leads her back to the swamp for more truly nerve-smashing adventures.
In my endless effort to spin The Voice Said Kill around in my head, I thought less and less of this as a “standardd” crime story. (More like a Coen Bros. psych-noir dramedy that was equal parts thrilling and intellectually confrontational.) But issue #2 really slows things down in the best way, and while I was waiting for some big reveal or twist to emerge, I instead got superkick-ed by more slow-burning tales of people on the edge violently forced together in glorious opposition.
Having us stay a little more grounded despite the promise surging across The Voice Said Kill feels massively exciting, and a gesture by the creators to continually engage us and play with our expectations. We really get to see the strength and smarts of Marie on display — she consistently says she’s no cop in this issue, but she manages a group of ruffians in a way that feels like that of a pro. Yet we also never forget her pregnancy — if anything, it’s positioned as something that forces folks to perceive her as this seemingly helpless woman — and that vulnerability only makes her struggles all the more compelling and impressive.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
And it’s not just Marie that stands out — the criminals that she’s found herself facing are realized and not merely more bad tropes, and their humanity makes for a tension that will practically gut you in real time. We fear for Marie, but not so much that we can’t still enjoy this game of cat-and-mouse. It’s a story that accepts its confines (a relatable crime thriller) and bucks against them with heart and wit to be so much more still. But that edge never makes the story less wondrously raw and accessible.
Even if there’s not that overt, supernatural charge to The Voice Said Kill — the biggest bit of magic seems to be a suddenly-appearing gators — our immersion into a more familiar world is rewarded with real stakes and character work. (Work, I’d add, that’s bolstered by Spurrier’s ear for dialogue — he nails both the local dialect and the smarmy “crime speak” without once feeling gimmicky or overbearing.)
But, of course, you can’t have a grand old adventure in the swamp without the visuals from Del Rey (as joined by colorist John Starr). With The Voice Said Kill #1, what lured me in the most was the magical charge of the art — there was this sense of unease to, say, the way the water moved, or an unknowable madness in the eyes of Buck. At the same time, the world itself was beautifully grounded; there was an organic heft to Marie’s tired pregnant body and even the way the heat seemed to whisper off the page to talk about the true shape of this world.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
The end result was something that brought us in — not just for a sense that it was all so consuming but they we were waiting for some other shoe to drop and the world to truly reveal itself. Again, that dynamic isn’t as present in The Voice Said Kill #2, and instead we seem to be locked into some tighter view of the world.
However, being locked in is a damn good thing. Just as Spurrier got to show off with more deliberate crime fare, so too does the art team get to show the magic of a “simpler” scope/approach. It’s in the trashy charm of some criminal couple sensuously clawing at each other; the unique angle and sense of scale (which makes us uneasy and forces us to question the way this scene may play out); the way people feel like these masks of the human experience without losing their actual humanity; and even the way light and shadow interact to play around with people’s intentions and relationship dynamics.
Being closer to the ground wasn’t any less magical — if anything, we were pulled from seeking some grander context or mystery and forced to engage directly with these people. Like this woman trying to do whatever she has to to survive, and this other group seeking a new way forward no matter the cost. Good crime stories should bring us in all the way, and The Voice Said Kill is unwavering in its methodical approach to these morality tales.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
It’s here I should note that, as much as issue #2 does away with some of the “magic” (even the mere implication of it), something metaphysical or perhaps “elevated” else does still exist. Perhaps it’s less overtly supernatural, but rather some other tinge of sharp, sudden weirdness or that of the mere unexpected. I won’t spoil that reveal specifically, but it is one that should make you go “Huh, cool.” It certainly fits with the book — in the sense that this book has the credibility to go in this direction or several others for the matter — but it also offers up just enough of that left-field insanity that I’ve felt since page one, realizing that in a way that feels exciting because now I have no idea what’s to come.
Because The Voice Said Kill isn’t afraid to be so many things at once, or to dip and weave with the intentions of the real world people in which it portrays. The third issue could take us to the moon for all I know, or transform into a post-apocalyptic rom-com. Either way, I’m certain of at least one thing: The Voice Said Kill is exactly the kind of crime story we need for the here and now.
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