by Steven T. Seagle (writer and letterer) and Marco Cinello (art)
The Story: Nasty twists and turns take place as Lili begins to lose her mind. She goes on a murderous “kissing binge” that leads to the most shocking moment of the series.
The Good: Thus far, this series has really been bumping along, nothing bad yet nothing tremendously good either. This issue really picked things up. Seagle’s jokes are funnier and more frequent, the Devil is as entertaining as ever, and the twist at the end of the issue was massive, opening up a LOT of very clever possibilities for next month’s issue. It left me, for the first time in this series, dying to know what happens next.
I also feel that now, with this second to last issue, Lili has truly found her voice. The internal textboxes and her dialogue are very on point this issue, and I found her to be a lot more lovable, distinct, and human. The series does revolve around her, so the more she is able to set herself apart and distinguish herself from the typical “sassy gal” figure, the better. For the first time, I feel Seagle succeeded with that here, with Lili feeling a lot more real and unique. Considering the series rides upon her voice, that’s a very good thing and also a key reason why I found this issue a lot less ho-hum than the previous three. Her moralizing and her breakdown were well-done; and as mentioned, her biting humour was a lot stronger in this issue, which leant well to my liking her a lot more as a real individual.
The Not-So-Good: I’m not really sure whether Cinello’s art deserves to be considered a “not-so-good,” but it’s certainly divisive enough that I wouldn’t consider putting it in the “good” category. His work is the definition of “love it or hate it.” If you’re one of those readers who admires technicality, detail, precision, realism, and anatomical exactitude in your artwork, you’ll hate anything and everything Cinello’s done in this series. I don’t mind stylistic work (Michael Avon Oeming is a favourite of mine), but at times, Cinello’s work does feel a little too sloppy and messy. That said, I will say that things do feel more controlled, particularly the colours, which were utterly insane in past issues.
The other difficulty I have with the book is that I feel Seagle is very constrained by the 5-issue limit. Characters appear that we are meant to be attached to, so that when Lili kisses them, we are meant to feel the tragedy of it. Unfortunately, it’s hard to connect with characters who we’ve only known for 2-3 pages. Regardless of how important they are to Lili, there’s a limit to how bad I can feel about a person’s dying if I’ve only known them for a couple of pages.
I also don’t like the little bit of Satanic deus ex machina here. Lili’s been leaving a trail of dead bodies and the cops are after her. What’s she going to do? Where can she hide? No problem – Satan just snaps his fingers and no one’s looking for Lili any longer. I mean, see what Seagle’s doing here, and the surrealism is cool, but it still seems pretty lazy. Again, I wonder about the 5-issue constraint.
The Bottom-line: The best issue of the miniseries and a great set-up for the conclusion. Soul Kiss still isn’t world-shattering stuff, but at the very least, I found it interesting, personable, and enjoyable this month.
Grade: B-
-Alex Evans
Filed under: Image Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Alex Evans, Comic Book Review, Comic Book Reviews, Image, Image Comics, Lili, Man of Action, Marco Cinello, Soul Kiss, Soul Kiss 4, Steve T. Seagle, WCBR
