Kill or Be Killed Discussion/Spoilers

[ed2962]

Not sure how I feel about the ending. It was really well done, and had us going from one end to the other
spoilers:

dead, not dead, dead...Demon, no Demon, Demon

end of spoilers Maybe I would have preferred the happier middle, even if in retrospect it was too perfect, to Marvel comics meta.
Guess I have to mull on it more.

So do we agree the last page means spoilers:

the Demon is real?

end of spoilers

This was some of Bru's bet writing and Phillips just keeps getting better.

I think Brubaker was leaving it open. You could take the last page as being literal or symbolic and the story works either way.

[Jinjonator]

Yeah, I think the question of whether or not the demon is "real" is beside the point. It's just symbolic of their desire to single-handedly fix the world.

Overall, good series. It's kinda seeped in that particular brand of "everything is awful, and trying to fix things is naive and bad" cynicism/strawmanning that I generally find boring (and a bit immature-masquerading-as-wise), but Brubaker is a fantastic writer, which helps to overlook the philosophical divide. Consequently though, because of how blatant he was about the protagonist's mission being stupid and misguided (and literally delusional, because subtlety!), the ending was predictable pretty much from the start, and the fake-out really didn't work at all (did nobody else find it immediately obvious?).

But yeah. I sound like I'm ragging on it hard, but I did really enjoy it, bleak and defeatist as it is.

[numberthirty]

I think Brubaker was leaving it open. You could take the last page as being literal or symbolic and the story works either way.

That was my take.

It was pretty intentionally framed so that the reader could draw their own conclusion.

spoilers:

It's not like it wasn't the exact demon she has already seen or there was someone else there to see it as well.

end of spoilers

[ed2962]

Yeah, I think the question of whether or not the demon is "real" is beside the point. It's just symbolic of their desire to single-handedly fix the world.

Overall, good series. It's kinda seeped in that particular brand of "everything is awful, and trying to fix things is naive and bad" cynicism/strawmanning that I generally find boring (and a bit immature-masquerading-as-wise), but Brubaker is a fantastic writer, which helps to overlook the philosophical divide. Consequently though, because of how blatant he was about the protagonist's mission being stupid and misguided (and literally delusional, because subtlety!), the ending was predictable pretty much from the start, and the fake-out really didn't work at all (did nobody else find it immediately obvious?).

But yeah. I sound like I'm ragging on it hard, but I did really enjoy it, bleak and defeatist as it is.

I interpeted it as less cynical about fixing the world and more cynical about the vigilante fantasy that one person can fix the world by shooting random "bad" people. That that idea itsself is kind of immature.