Kiss Me Deadly Review
Following the murder of her sister, Dawn Keenan began a lifelong crusade against vampires. But now there’s a new power in town. This debut two issue comic series features a foul mouthed female vampire hunter from Dublin.
Dawn is essentially a modern, suitable for 18 and over Buffy with her fighting techniques and a more take no shit attitude. The main positive in this story is Dawn with her tough girl act but simple problems an intrusive flat mate and love life woes you can’t help but sympathise with her. Her dialogue while over reliant on swearing is realistic and occasionally humourful particular when she offers to use a severed vampire head to bite off someone’s sack. The dialogue in general is realistic particularly of the youth thugs.
On the flipside, the illustrations are in black and white which obviously limits enjoyment but there have been a few great b & w comics like The Crow but sadly the art and story aren’t up to the same standard. Included in the graphic novel are cover art and gallery in colour mostly illustrated by a different artist who I personally preferred. Story wise I feel the ending and big reveal were anti climaxes with Dawn effortlessly dispatching lots of vampire (albeit weakened ones). Perhaps the problem of the story stems from it only being a 2 issue series- first issue she learns about new threat and second issue she finds and kills it. Rather simplistic and a longer series could have developed the plot more, particularly making the head vampire seem more menacing.
In conclusion, the character Dawn was very interesting and if her future exploits are part of a longer series in colour or perhaps drew by someone else I would consider buying them.