Like a thunder in a clear day, or the secret agents depicted within its pages, this new series appeared on the shelves. With a hail of bullets, ultra-violence and dark humor “Die!Die!Die!” tries to breath new lives into the overused idea of ultra-secret agency correcting all the problems of the world behind the scenery.
Written by Robert Kirkman and Scott M. GimpleCover by Burnham
Illustrated by Chris Burnham
Colored by Nathan Fairbairn
Lettering by Rus WootonSUPRISE RELEASE! Robert Kirkman’s latest release from Image Comics, Die!Die!Die!.
Blood will flow, Bullets will fly and the mayhem will never end, Die!Die!Die! brings all the action you could ever want.
It’s rare that one can ever be truly surprised in the world of serialized comics, this is not only the result of savvier (or more jaded) audiences who know all the tropes of storytelling from the front to the back but also a simple fact of life in the information age. By the time issue #1 of a comics’ series has been released the interested reader had already read the previews for the next couple of issues, possibly an interview with the creators explaining things and have been exposed to some critical analysis. “Die!Die!Die” #1 bypasses all of that by simply appearing on the shelves without even a whisper of its existence beforehand – despite the creators involved being some of the biggest names in the direct market. It is quite a shock, to say the least, but once it wears off the question remains – is this issue merely a gimmick or does it tranced the facts of its publication?
The most striking thing about this issue is the tone: Robert Kirkman is a writer I always considered more down to earth in his approach to storytelling than many of his colleagues. No matter how fantastic the subject matter is, from the zombies to superheroes to other dimensions, there is always an effort to make the characters’ response to them to appear logical. I suspected that what keeps me at arm’s length from most of his work, the refusal to go full-throttle with what the medium of comics allows, is exactly what makes others like him so much. Here, instead, we get a world that is closer to something Mark Millar would write – ultra-violent and amoral as a point of pride, intentionally aiming for shock value.
This issue starts with a gory action scene, wonderfully executed by Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairburn, before jumping to the office of a US senator indulging in drugs and casual sex. I don’t know if this is the result of co-writer Scott M. Gimple (previously a showrunner on The Walking Dead) or something that comes from the art-team. Certainly there is a certain attitude to Chris Burnham’s pencils that stands all of its own; his kinetic and heavily-detailed style, a mix of Frank Quietly and Geof Darrow, lends itself to a particular type of presentation. His older works tend to be over-the-top and his previous creative partners (Grant Morrison, Joe Casey) all tended towards more fantastic style than the grounded Kirkman. If anything my problem with this issue as that is not fantastic enough, starting the story with the pedal to metal before slowing down to scene after scene of conversation.
One thing that Kirkman does well is to make his first issues feel like they are worth the reader’s money: despite featuring only 24 pages of story this issue feels meaty in plot and execution – the smallest amount of panels per page is three and most of them feature six or more. I’ve lost count of the number of creator-owned series that I dropped after one issue because the creators never got any farther than explaining the high-concept. In “Die!Die!Die” #1 the creators give you all you need to know by the halfway point and then move on to complicate things.
The idea of secret agents solving all of the world’s (well, America’s) problem without being burdened with things like ‘regulations’ is not something the world is particularly clamoring for right now. Part of it is the result of the current political climate and some of it of simple over-usage, coming out right as Mission: Impossible – Downfall and Mile 22 appear on theatre screens. The creative team tries to solve this problem by charging headlong into it: as the Senator in charge of this secret cabal attempts to be a good person, wanting to minimize casualties and use her overreaching powers to do good in the world, but it is clear that she is not in control as she wants to be – not of her agents and not of herself. In many ways Senator Lipshitz is the most interesting character in the whole story – she is in the role of M but she has all the vices, and seeming damage, of a James Bond.
I’m not quite sure where they are going with this: the childish humor and action-movie aesthetic certainly fly against the notion that some serious point is being made (or, at least, made well). On the other hand, there is a moment in this issue that involves real life political figure which seem to signify that series is heading into something quite different than the usual Kirkman-written fare. Color me curious.
Final Verdict: 7.2 – despite my initial concerns this issue is more than a publication gimmick. The art is definitely the main attractor here, with writing that seems uncertain of its tone and point, but there’s enough interesting ideas here to make it worth a read.
