Kill or Be Killed Vol. 3

In the third volume of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ series Kill or Be Killed, we pick up with Dylan as he tries to sort through the origin of the demon forcing him to kill.  Having discovered images of the demon inside of his father’s artwork, he begins to struggle with whether or not this is all a figment of his imagination.  But, is it too late to stop the dominos from falling?

As I’ve mentioned over and over again in the past, I don’t believe there to be a better duo working in comics today than Brubaker and Phillips and the third volume of Kill or Be Killed does nothing to change my opinion.  Dylan isn’t this infallible, non-stop killing machine ala John Wick; he’s clumsy, inexperienced and dangerous.  The fact that anything seems to go right has more to do with dumb luck than his ability to execute plans successfully.

The tension is so tight in these books that it’s nearly impossible to put them down once things get moving.  I can’t imagine reading these month-to-month – they’re the comic book equivalent of bingeing full seasons on Netflix.  Where things end at the conclusion of this volume set things up for a hell of a finale in the fourth and final volume.