Comic Book Review: Kill All Monsters! Volume One: Ruins of Paris written by Michael May; illustrated by Jason Copland
The kaiju (giant monsters) subgenre is a pretty good fit for comic books. With an unlimited “special effects budget” they can pack monsters and mayhem into a story that would be prohibitively expensive to shoot on film.
This series takes advantage of that, but because printing costs are the limitation, the pages are in black and white. The story (no relation to the Toho movie of the same title) begins in media res, with three giant robots battling monsters in a ruined Paris. In short order we are introduced to the robot pilots, Dressen of England, Akemi of Japan, and Spencer of America (who is missing his legs.)
Our protagonists manage to defeat the monsters, but damage to one of the machines means they have to stay in Paris while a mechanic is airlifted in from their home base in Africa. We learn that the atomic tests of the 1950s apparently spawned these giant monsters, and mankind has been fighting a losing battle with them ever since. Only the protagonists’ mysterious benefactor Rashad has been able to come up with machines that can fight the monsters on their own terms.
While ruined, the city of Paris still has inhabitants of a sort, and mysteries begin to unfold. Meanwhile, a subplot advances concerning a self-aware robot named Archer, which is meant to assist…or replace? the human pilots.
There’s plenty of slam-bang action, a little hard to follow at first until we learn who the players are. The robots are all distinctive, and it’s fairly easy to tell the cast from one another.
The series is marketed for young adults, although none of the focus characters seem to be in that age group. If your kids enjoyed Pacific Rim or the latest Godzilla movie, this should be safe and enjoyable for them.
The second volume is not yet out; if you prefer closure, you may want to wait for that one to be published.
