By Dustin Cabeal

“Kali” is a title I read and sat on for review because it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Revenge stories aren’t supposed to have a happy ending, which is true of “Kali’s” ending, but they typically have a main character that you care for. Kali the character is never likable. There’s no sympathy for her plight and frankly the story moves too fast for you to feel anything other than violence. While I liked the comic, I found myself drawn to the visuals more than I was the story.

The story beings with Kali on a chain gang, that is instantly cooler because of her. The rest of the soldiers looked worn out and shitty but not Kali. She has a fucking knife sticking out of her shoulder, black leather chaps on her tight ass jeans and a rib cage skeleton shirt. She’s cool as ice as none of the kids say. For some reason, these captured prisoners of war are being interviewed to join the army that captured them. This is where Kali becomes unlikable as she rattles off a slew of exposition that stops being relevant to the story. The second she sees her former gang members. The ones that betrayed and left her for dead. Cue the beautiful violence.

Before I jump back into the story, let me just dive into the beauty of the art. The visuals are captivating. Every panel and page could be framed and hung on a wall. The second time I read this comic, I only looked at the pictures. Much of the story is told just from the art. Aside from Kali’s amazing design that screams “Cosplay me!”, the rest of the gang all have designs that make them stand out and be memorable. Well, as memorable as they can be, Kali picks them off one by one getting her sweet, sweet revenge. There’s also a flair of neo-Nazi design for the bad guys. The general’s daughter borders on nazi-fetishism. I couldn’t get into the look or the character who was very underdeveloped. The worst thing she does is make the former gang members but on boring version of their outfits. I guess she electrocutes Kali some too, but at that point in the story she’s poisoned and gone through all kinds of hell, so it doesn’t really matter.

Speaking of the poison, I’m not really sure a story with so much violence needed a countdown finish. The saying about revenge is dig two graves, because every fucking story ends with the person seeking revenge dying as well. The second Kali mentions betrayal and revenge, I assumed, she would be dead at the end of the story. But there is always that hope that they’ll live, it’s what keeps you invested in the story. That chance of survival. That chance of them being better than everyone else. When you poison the character almost immediately in the story and give them a 24-hour death sentence, it kind of steals the story’s thunder. What’s worse, is that Kali starts tripping balls and killing real people while hallucinating and then the friend that poisoned her tells her what the poison, but she’s dead. Kali is tripping hard, talking to a dead person and figures out what she’s poison with. Dead friend slash dead betrayer informs Kali that she could spend her last 24 hours making her way to the antidote or go for broke and chase down her former friends and try and murder them.

Obviously, this is where the story takes a turn, and we just watch Kali driver her ass off for 24-hours and make an antidote. There she finds her calm having spent so much time on the verge of death and she lets go of her revenge. It’s all very boring to read. Which is why the author chose death. In actuality, Kali gets her stole bike and continues driving towards the base her former gang members are heading towards.

There’s a lot of attempts at making this Mad Max, World War II with flashes of Vietnam, interesting. This unstoppable army which seems to harken back to a time in which beating an army meant you absorbed that army into yours. There’s a subgroup of heavy metal fans within the army. They all look like they listen to the Misfits, and they don’t seem to care about living.  These attempts at making the world bigger than just a few battles ultimately fail as the world seems small. The subculture that’s presented is underdeveloped, which just fails to grab your attention.

Ultimately, “Kali” is a book I wanted to like more than I did like. I would still recommend it just for the art and violence. While the story isn’t bad, the parts that are important aren’t very good and the world around, which could be interesting enough to draw a reading in for more of this world, doesn’t quite hook you either. The main thing is you never really root for Kali. Even before all the twists in the plot are revealed, just her arrogance in how she introduces herself while at the same time asking for pity raised a big ass red flag. Other than killing everything in her way and her bad ass design, there’s not much else to like about her character. Sure, you’ll stick around to see how it ends, but that itself doesn’t make the ending rewarding. In fact, because I sat on this review for so long, I forgot the end and read the book for a third time. When I got to the end again, I was left with the same bittersweet sensation. That I really love the art but wish the story had made different choices.

It’s hard to tell you all this because most anyone reading this review is going to assume I didn’t like the book enough to recommend. But I did. I like it enough to encourage others to read it, just know that it’s not an instant classic. Instead, it’s the introduction of these two creators to new readers. I’m looking forward to seeing what else they have, be it together or apart, but they are strong collaborators.

Now, let’s all hope that someone cosplays as Kali, because that design is fucking awesome.

Score: 3/5

Kali
Written by Daniel Freedman
Illustrations by Robert Sammelin
Lettered by Michael David Thomas
Published by Dark Horse Comics