by Brandy Dykhuizen. Full of pleasing pop-punk sensibilities and upspeak-inflected potty mouths, Kim & Kim carries its teenage acts of rebellion into the strata of its protagonists’ bounty hunting adulthood. Flying through galaxies in a splatter-painted VW and armed with hot pink guns and bedazzled guitars, these women don’t let their various affectations get in the way of a job well done.
They aren’t so much witty as armed with an arsenal of curious comebacks and epithets (“douche canoe” does have a nice ring to it), which pepper their fight scenes and strain their interactions with higher-ups. However, not everyone is sympathetic to their struggles or as impressed with themselves as they are. After having a bounty rejected, Kim and Kim are forced into a highly awkward situation: accept a “charity bounty” from an ex-friend (and employee of Kim Q’s father), or straight-up steal Columbus and Red’s lead to strike out for the bounty on their own. What to do. What to do.
They approach this conundrum “Kim & Kim style” (involving a montage that includes a punk rock show, a game of chess with Death, a bar fight, high tea and a back alley drug deal), which basically means doing whatever they want, consequences be damned. Notwithstanding their decision to devote the last of their dwindling funds to booze rather than fuel, they manage to find and trap their notorious bounty for what may be the payout of a lifetime.
Despite a possible plot hole (I thought they were out of fuel – how are they taking Tom Quilt to Lady Babylon?), and momentum that occasionally sputters before taking off, Kim & Kim is a high-energy, exciting and fresh take on the intergalactic bounty hunter motif: here, our heroes take time to mull over their sex lives and gender transitions between chaotic interplanetary romps and fights with shape-shifting octopi.
Eva Cabrera’s clear, clean art, doled out lovingly in shades of Manic Panic, always keeps the reader in the middle of the action. And, in spite of themselves, the ladies end up displaying some real insight in terms of themselves and the wild world around them. There’s a beating heart in there, and writer Mags Visaggio is definitely its source. If you’re looking for interdimensional, guitar-wielding kick-ass summer fun, look no further.
Black Mask Studio / $3.99
Written by Mags Visaggio.
Art by Eva Cabrera.
Colors by Claudia Aguirre.
Letters by Zakk Saam.
7 out of 10
