The Kirkmeister deliberately launched his latest series without any advertising, no mention in the solicits, just letting it drop on the day of release last month and hoping word spread from there. Which is why I didn’t notice it until I saw the recent listing for issue #2 and had to do some googling to find out what the heck the title was! That and it’s not very good either so I’m not surprised people aren’t hubbubbing about it.
Master of subtlety that Robert Kirkman is, DIE!DIE!DIE! (aka THE!THE!THE! in German) is about killing stuff. It’s really not much more complicated than that. Hillary Clinton in all but name has some Bond-like assassin on her secret payroll, knocking off targets she wants dead - except he’s captured and she needs his Rambo-esque twin brother to come out of retirement to rescue him. So basically shadow wars crap with an ‘80s action movie twist.
It’s amusing to see Kirkman taking the piss out of Shillary as she mopes about in the wake of losing the election, doing blow and boytoys in her office, but overall I didn’t get much out of the trying-too-hard-to-shock script and was quite bored with the comic. It’s great to see Chris Burnham’s art again, I love that dude’s work. It’s super-graphic too, so don’t pick this one up if you’re squeamish about gore!
Still, DIE!DIE!DIE! #1 is an unremarkable beginning to what looks to be a clumsy attempt at replicating the fun of cheeseball action movies. Maybe it’ll read better in the trade but this noisy first issue is all flash and no bang.
