Publisher: Dynamite
Writer: Amy Chu
Artist: Kewber Baal
Colourist: Schimerys Baal
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

When is a KISS not a KISS? Well, according to the little technical paragraph thingy at the bottom of the credits page that no-one ever reads unless they are really bored, “All names, characters, events and locales in KISS #3 are entirely fictional” and “Any resemblance to actual persons(living or dead), events or places, without satiric intent, is coincidental.”

Kinda takes all the fun out of writing a comic book about one of the most popular and well-known rock bands of our time, don’t you think? Unless they mean the whole thing is a satire, which I guess makes it okay. Actually, if I were KISS I’d be pretty darn pleased to be featured in a comic book, even if, as in the opening pages of KISS #3, my likeness was used as the face of some lethal robots called Protectors,(Oh, yea, there’s that irony factor again!).

In KISS #3, nearly five hundred years after the Great War, four teens (Why is it always teens? When are we going to see some OAP’s kick some robot butt?) leave the comfort of their underground metropolis, Blackwell, to seek out the truth about their past.

Telepathic twins Eran and Noa plus their friends Alex and Adi, who conveniently pair up to provide some teen romance, spend much of KISS #3 wandering around, encountering one sort of robot after another, some with KISS faces, some not and some which may be the original Protectors which might make them the good KISS robots or might not. Thinking about it, nothing much here resembles the real KISS so anyone expecting good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll mayhem is likely to be disappointed.

Grafting KISS faces onto a standard dystopian sci-fi story feels like a bit of a cheat and KISS #3 pretty much treads water. The pace needs to step up and much more KISS involvement is needed if this series is to really take off. Underusing one of the world’s greatest rock bands in a comic book that has their name on the title is a shameful waste even if it is meant to be ironic.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker