The Kill or Be Killed comic is amazing. It was written by my favorite author Ed Brubaker and one of my favorite artists Sean Phillips, the series was colored by Elizabeth Breitweiser. The series consists of 20 comics, started in June 2016 and ended in August 2018. The comic is published by Image Comics
The Kill or Be Killed Synopsis
The Kill or be Killed comics focuses on Dylan, a 28 years old grad student who is mostly a loner. He envies his roommate Mason’s romance with a girl named Kira. One night when his roommate, is away, Dylan and Kira start a secret affair. They have a great time together but have trouble hiding the relationship although Mason never really notices anything until he does.
One night Dylan overhears a conversation between Kira and Mason on how pitiful Dylan is, he is hurt and decides to commit suicide. He jumps off the roof and miraculously survives. And then he gets visited by a demon. The demon tells him that he saved Dylan’s life and in return he has to take one life to prolong his with a month. He literally is on a timer.
Dylan neglects the demon, thinking it’s just a hallucination. However when the month is almost over Dylan starts becoming sick and then decides that it maybe wasn’t a hallucination. So he starts planning his first murder. His first pick is the man who molested his friend when he was little. He finds the old gun of his dad’s in the attic of the house he grew up, tracks down the molester and shoots him. Dylan’s illness fades and he comes to the conclusion that that deal with the devil maybe is for real.
Since Dylan is portrayed as a loner in the kill or be killed comic, he blends in easily.
The end of the month after that, Dylan has the same symptoms again and he realizes that he must kill someone in order to add an additional month to his life. This time the target is a Russian mob with a stable of whores. He carefully plans and upgrades his arsenal as well with a sawed off shotgun. He plans his hit and excecutes. He manages to kill one of the mobsters but while he tries to get away, he gets brutally attacked by one of the prostitutes. He gets severely beaten and barely makes it out alive.
At home Dylan has a hard time explaining his unexpected injuries to Kira and that ends the relationship between the two.
The coming months Dylan murders and murders, he takes boxing lessons and begins stalking a corrupt businessman and plans to kill him.
Meanwhile his work does not go unnoticed when a detective, Lily Sharpe, gets on the case. Will she uncover Dylan’s horrible secret? Read the comics for that! I don’t want to spoil the ending because the story is too riveting and exciting.
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Themes
There are several themes in the comics. Dylan for instance who is a loner with a cynical view of the world. But at the same time has a hard time fitting in. Because he is a loner he blends in easily into crowds without attracting attention. He manages to use that in order to tail people around.
Ed Brubaker has indicated in several interviews that he wanted to the reality of a vigilante. But especially on what the consequences are on family and relationships. So while Dylan goes out to plan and kills, the series mostly focusses on what happens to his loved ones.
Adultry, is another theme that is portrayed strongly in the comics. After all Dylan does start an adultrous affair with Kira who at the time is dating Mason.
What does it mean to kill or be killed? What does death mean to you and how valuable is your life that you are willing to take one in order to live yourself. That’s the question. Dylan, at some point gave up and wanted to die. He didn’t and killed yet another to add extra time to his own life.
Brubaker said he inspired the comics on Death Wish meets Breaking Bad and a little bit of Spiderman.
Publication & Production
The Kill or be Killed comic is a the sixth collaboration between Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker, previous works include but are not limited to Criminal, Fatale and The Fade Out. The series was announced in April, 2016. Robert Kirkman, of Walking Dead fame, advised the dynamic duo Brubaker & Phillips to go for at least 50 issues. It turned out to be only 20. Is that a bad thing? No, some comics just don’t need 50 issues to tell a story. Plus, the risk of a comic losing quality is always present. So I am very glad it was only 20 issues but each issue qualitatively strong.
The first print consisted of 30.000 sales and then 4 more prints followed. Overall through it’s entire run, the comic sold moderately well.
Kill or Be Killed, the Movie
I am happy to announce there will be a movie coming out of the Kill or Be Killed. The movie was announced in 2017 and a script is currently by Daniel Casey and directed by Chad Stahelski. I can’t wait to see it to be honest. I hope the devil in the movie will be portrayed a bit more on the foreground instead of the background.
Who would I want to play Dylan? Maybe Ben Barnes, loved his performance on The Punisher. Or maybe Jay Baruchel, less of a pretty boy and more of a person who you wouldn’t expect to be a killer.
As for Kira, who should play her? Holly Taylor from the Americans maybe.
The Devil should definitely be played by James Spader of The Blacklist Fame and ofcourse Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Who would you cast in the movie? Let me know by dropping a comment.
