Publisher: Red5
Writer: Christopher Leone
Artist: Brian Churilla
We Kill Monsters, by Christopher Leone and Laura Harkcom, stars the Basher brothers as hapless warriors against an inexplicable invasion of monsters. In the first few pages of Issue #1, the brothers go from humble auto mechanics into (mostly) fearless monster hunters in a matter of pages. This really sums up both the simplistic plot and action oriented nature of the whole series.
Despite it’s obvious pandering to the newbie comic reader, We Kill Monsters is still fun and worthy of note. If any lesson can be learned by the heroes’ rapid transformation, it’s that the human psyche has no problem with characters facing problems head-on.
We Kill Monsters is a fast read, to say the least. With big panels, and minimal dialog, you feel like you hit the end before you get going (I say that as a complement as much as a negative). It certainly doesn’t give you a chance to get bored. We Kill Monsters feels like it’s tapping into the part of my brain that liked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Saturday morning. It’s got heroes, mutants, and heroes who are mutants (well…mutating).
Looking back, I realize the characters had a rather unrealistic and overly bold reaction to their encounters with these monsters. More importantly, I realize I didn’t notice that until the end. When fear is removed from the equation, since I, the reader, have no fear, facing the monsters head on seems quite natural.
A natural human reaction would be to get away, run like hell, and expect someone bigger and better than you to fix it. The Basher brothers, however, take it upon themselves to hunt the monsters, find out where they came from, and try to stop it (whatever “it” is). It’s so fascinating that this behavior is so unnatural in real life, but so natural in our stories. I know, I know, no one wants to read about cowardly heroes. I’m just pointing out that we have ideals of bravery we expect to see in our stories, and maybe that’s because it is so rare elsewhere.
We Kill Monsters is a fun read, but it’s kinda like a burger at White Castle: you gotta have a least three sliders (or issues in this case) lined up to feel any satisfaction. A part of me senses the comic was designed to help get newcomers interested in comics. If that is a case, they did a great job.
