If there's a comic book out featuring KISS, you know I'm going to review it. Archie Meets KISS was a super-fun hit, and now, it's IDW's turn to take the Demon, Starchild, the Cat, and the Spaceman and put them into the world of 1920s Chicago.
The Good
Out of anything else I've ever reviewed for ComicVine, this one was the toughest for me.
Wonderful art by Jamal Igle. From page one, your sucked into this book from the great amount of detail that Jamal puts into each panel. He does a great job as keeping panel composition fresh on each page and taking different angles on each character. It flows very well from start to finish and meshes well with the writing and story.
The dialogue writing and pacing by Chris Rydall is top notch. Although I didn't like the overall story, the dialogue felt natural, quick witted, and straight to the point. He and Jamal do a wonderful job on this issue thus far and they're talent is wonderful on this book, even if I'm down the middle on it.
If this comic didn't feature the mythos of KISS, I may have liked it a lot more. It is an intriguing story, one I'll continue reading as the series progresses. There's some cool elements of science fiction and mysticism here. It can only get weirder/more awesome from here.
The Bad
First thing that caught my eye was the lyrics to the song "She" (by KISS, obviously) starting at the top of page two. This refers to the character "She," who has her accomplice Lester, which we meet right away. It seemed like a pointless endeavor to me.
This book takes tons of ideas I love, Chicago, the 1920s, KISS, science-fiction/fantasy in American history, and a wonderful creative team, and it puts it into a comic book that overall is "ok" at best. It's incredibly disappoint. I really want to like this book, but all-in-all, it just doesn't work for me on the page, and after yet another read through, I think it's because KISS is in it.
KISS is once again trying to legitimize their mythos into the comic book world. I feel like anytime we get a comic featuring KISS (minus the recent Archie run) their mythos is becomes a bit overwhelming and frankly, I don't think it works on the page, which is a huge bummer since I really enjoy the creative team. However, that being said, I will continue reading this.
The Verdict
Oh boy. This one was a tough one for me. I'm a KISS fan, but I just didn't like KISS in this comic. I like the concepts and ideas, but seeing the band didn't feel right. There's an incredible amount of creative talent on this book from Igle and Rydall.
Overall, I'm down the middle on this book.
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