Kiss Me, Satan! #5

By Victor Gischler, Juan Ferreyra & Eduardo Ferreyra

Kiss Me, Satan! has been a terrific mini-series from start to finish. The series comes to an apparent close with issue #5 this month, although there are minor hints at the end that we could see more of these characters in the future.

Victor Gischler has done a tremendous job combining supernatural horror, thrilling action, and just the right amount of humor. Admittedly, this final issue feels quite a bit different from the previous installments, but it was an epic conclusion. The story has been dealt with in previous months and now it’s time for the final showdown. KMS #5 is entirely devoted to the final battle between Barnabus and Zell and…well, everybody else. There were some great lines of dialogue in this issue, but again, most pages focused on the action. The overall ending felt rushed and a bit too tidy, but it admittedly wrapped everything up and gave readers a solid conclusion. It just seemed like there should’ve been ‘more’ with such a build up to this moment.

Once again, Juan Ferreyra steals the show with his jaw-droppingly wild artwork. The visuals in KMS #5 were very sleek and incredibly well-detailed. The smaller zoom-in panels that appear throughout the action panels are quite effective and add a lot to the book. The battle itself remained dynamic and engaging with page after page of insane art. The environments and especially the characters look terrifically clean with a phenomenal degree of minor details that further enhance the realism of each image. In particular, all of the crazy magic employed throughout the battle looks wonderful, but Barnabus in his true form (finally!) completely overshadows everything else from this series. Following the absolutely phenomenal two-page spread of the first solid reveal of his true form, Barnabus continues to absolutely annihilate every enemy in sight. In all honesty, this was probably some of the best artwork around, particularly due to the amazing colors. Juan and Eduardo have brought tons of life to Kiss Me, Satan! and the colors in issue #5 are out of this world.

It would’ve been nice to have an ending with a bit more depth, but that’s not to say this story didn’t end in a satisfying manner. There was a ton of action, the bad guys were slain, and the good guys seem to have emerged relatively unscathed. The final issue was certainly an epic conclusion and it would be great to see another mini-series from this title.