Review: Kali
STORY
Kali is a blood soaked, riot shotgun kick in the nuts. Its full on Mad Max in the vein of the Road Warrior or Fury Road. It explodes with action and drama that runs at a breakneck pace to its ultimate conclusion. But its not all 80s revenge porn, post apocalyptic action, there’s a deeper story he if you wade through the blood and bodies to get there.
Freedman writes a protagonist into this gritty dystopia who undeniably suffers along the way and yet still has the superhuman resilience we’d find in a Rambo or John Wick. Biker gang leader of the Matrikas, Kail is fueled by pure hatred after being betrayed by her gang. Surging forward like a locomotive bound for destruction and self destruction. Her single minded focus on vengeance is not unlike the aforementioned Mr Wick but the reasons this event happened have to be unraveled along this tristingly violent path.
Kali has such tunnel vision for murder and revenge that I found I couldn’t empathize with her as a heroine. Instead I had to be satisfied with this journey of carnage until it became clear, in this wasteland of a world almost no one is a hero. The comic is full of flawed people either trying to dominate or survive. We aren’t really given anyone to truly root for in this setting doomed to struggle and strife. There is a sort of selfishness at play here amongst many of the characters involved which leads the reader into a deeper series of moral quandaries as they struggle to find someone to identify with in the story. Like life, this tale is a messy affair and extreme circumstances breed extreme people.
Much like with Fury Road, Freedman peppers this story with hallucinatory visions which in this case directly serve the plot and add more resonance to Kali’s plight as she soldiers on heedless of consequence. Its a stark story, as brutal as the landscape it exists in and just as unforgiving. The pacing it excellent, the characters quite believable from their extremes of hate to sadism and arrogance and even love by the end.
My only real isses were a few scenes where it is very apparently Kali should have died outright. I don’t mind a hero having a physicality or will that lets them surpass the expectations of human capability but when Kail somehow both survives and is freed from chains binding her due to a grenade exploding in close proximity…well that one in particular took me out of the story. Not an unforgivable sin, but when you are trying to ground your story in a realistic world moments like that are asking a bit much.
ART
Sammelin’s art for this is superb. His realistic style really contributes to the gritty realism of the story. The character designs all feel quite lived in and I can believe they exist in this place. His story telling an page layouts are so good that he is able to sort of skip over expected depictions in panels and jump ahead to the next moment without breaking your visual narrative expectations. The almost completely flt coloring style is surprisingly appealing, its a nice through back to past comics of this sort that one might find on the magazine stand instead of the spinner rack, marking it as more mature content. This approach also allows the linework to carry the heaviest load while nit being too distracting. Again, a stark approach for a stark story.
LETTERING
The lettering style is unusual as Thomas chooses to create word balloons that are perfectly circular with tails that are just a black line supported by a white stroke around them. It’s not an approach that I’ve ever seen before but somehow it works.
In this mostly action oriented tale these balloons seem to be less intrusive to my eyes than your typical ellipsis. His skill in utilizing sound fx as graphic elements can not be overstated. I never felt like the art suffered even when the effects where numerous on the page.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If pulse pounding, revenge driven action and drama with a tragic bent i your thing, you won’t be disappointed, and the art is glorious ta boot!
SCORE: 4.5 out of 5
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